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Two new trailers for Warner Bros. Japan’s upcoming anime movie Batman Ninja transport The Dark Knight’s fight with The Joker to feudal Japan. Batman fans have had the pleasure of seeing The Caped Crusader engage in many great onscreen adventures, both in the live-action and animated realms. Yet, with all that Batman has done in Hollywood, leave it up to Japan to bring audiences something truly original, and escape from the gloomy confines of Gotham City.
As usual, Batman Ninja sees Batman going head to head with his eternal nemesis The Joker. Only this time, their fight is transported to feudal Japan, through some type of time travel that isn’t entirely clear yet. One presumes it’ll be explained in the movie, but as long as it leads to awesome sword fights between the two characters, many fans probably won’t care either way.
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Warner Bros. Japan has released two new trailers for Batman Ninja, and both are equally striking. The first – seen above – has English subtitles included, and was first screened for fans at New York Comic-Con. This is the first time it’s been released online. The second – seen directly below – is WB Japan’s newly made theatrical trailer for the anime, which doesn’t include English subs, but features lot of different footage. Batman Ninja arrives in 2018, and from the looks of it, fans on both sides of the pond will be interested in checking it out.
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As can be gleaned from both trailers, The Clown Prince of Crime has his ever-faithful main squeeze Harley Quinn by his side for his time-displaced fight with Batman, but Batman is also not alone. Also somehow transported to long-ago Japan are Bat-friends Catwoman, Robin, Nightwing, and Alfred. On the side of evil are Two-Face, The Penguin, and Poison Ivy. Wow, that must have been a really big time incident. Also, Gorilla Grodd is a feudal lord now, and wears badass yet classy new attire. It’s hard to imagine that not exciting DC fans.
When Batman Ninja is released to home video next year, Warner Bros. will include both the original Japanese version of the film, and a version with English dubbing. While placing Batman in such an odd new setting could be seen as a creative risk, it’s hard to imagine that the anime previewed in the trailers above won’t draw in viewers. If successful, one wonders if it’ll lead to further DC anime projects from WB Japan.
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Batman Ninja hits DVD and Blu-Ray in 2018.
