Batman Ninja (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Junpei Mizusaki
	Actors (voices): Kôichi Yamadera, Wataru Takagi, Ai Kakuma
	Country: J, USA
	Genre: Animation, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 29.06.2020, VOD, Japanese version with English sub-titles, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: Batman, along with a number of his allies and adversaries, finds himself transplanted from modern Gotham City to feudal Japan.
Review: Not satisfying by the offer in Action movies at the Far East Film Festival, I interrupted it to search something different on Netflix, and my choice quickly turned to Batman Ninja even though I am not in best terms with DC comics (I haven't gathered the courage to watch Joker yet although I heard it is good), and I know that full-length animated features are usually aimed at a younger audience and of poor quality but released just to surf on the success of their life-action counterparts, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse being an exception. Batman Ninja stands apart, first of all because it was produced by a pure Japanese team and that the Americans had little control over it. To the point that they couldn't translate its dialogs and they had to make up 90% of them, leading to in fact two completely different movies (read that article to know more). It usually matters little in which language you watch animation, I personally prefer to watch American movie in English because the track was supervised by the movie makers and they took good care of it, while I avoid watching anything dubbed in English because they do it so badly (compared for example to European countries which are much more used to it). So in the case of Batman Ninja I watched of course the original Japanese version, but after reading the story I mention above, I am tempted to watch the dubbed version as well for a different perspective. Irrespective of the language, the movie turned out to be much more Japanese and complex than I expected. Where I thought Batman would be alone doing some ninja stuff (as Logan is alone in Japan in The Wolverine), he ends up with many classic Gotham characters of which I knew not all. Where I thought the characters would try not to alter the timeline in what is after all a time travel story, they try to take over Japan. Where I thought they would stay low-profile in some kind of realistic Universe, they end up turning on each other with the help of (spoilers, highlight to read) giant walking castles turning into assembling robots!!! I was not disappointed by this movies that goes over and beyond my expectations, even though it is filled with nonsense and exaggeration of the villain's characteristic traits.
Rating: 6 /10