Batman Ninja VS Yakuza League review

BATMAN NINJA VS YAKUZA LEAGUE: 

DC YAKUZA VERSION OF WHAT IF… IS FREAKING AWESOME! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

WARNER BROS. ANIMATION

Batman and the Yakuza League in Batman Ninja VS Yakuza League

 

            Ninja Baseball Batman I mean, Batman Ninja “Returns” in Batman Ninja VS Yakuza League, the latest DCanimated feature and sequel to 2018’s Batman Ninja. I enjoyed the first Batman Ninja though I wouldn’t call it one of DC’s best animated superhero films, but I found it to be a refreshing and entertaining take on familiar characters with gorgeous animation that takes on different art styles (The CG animation when characters spoke was a bit awkward at times). 

            Now we have the sequel with Junpei Mizusaki returning to direct alongside Shinji Takagi and an entirely new English voice cast. This was kind of a last minute movie I decided to review in-between The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (Another WB Animation project that I thoroughly enjoyed) and Disney’s Snow White remake, but that doesn’t matter, how does the second Batman Ninja movie stack up compared to the first? Honestly, Yakuza Leagueis even better! 

            It’s no Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, but Batman Ninja VS Yakuza League is freaking awesome and like the first, adds a new take on characters we know and love with a very engrossing story to boot. When films like Joker: Folie à Deux drop the ball, leave it to DC and WB’s animation divisions to pick it up and stick the landing. 

            The film follows Bruce Wayne/Batman (voiced by Joe Daniels) who after only a day since returning from the past discovers that the world has been changed significantly. Japan is completely wiped off the planet and the Justice League no longer exists and has been replaced by evil, yakuza versions of Superman, The Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman. 

            When Ra’s al Ghul (voiced by John Swasey-Rebuild of Evangelion, One Piece, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) turns out to be the one pulling the strings, Batman, an alternate version of Harley Quinn known as Harin the Wild Jester (voiced by Karlii Hoch), and the four Robins consisting of Dick Grayson/Nightwing (voiced by Houston Hayes), Jason Todd/Red Hood (voiced by David Matranga-Halo: Legends, Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia), Tim Drake/Red Robin (voiced by Nathan Wilson), and Damian Wayne/Robin (voiced by Bryson Baugus-Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya, Attack on Titan, Blue Lock) must put an end to his diabolical plot and turn the Justice League and the Earth back to normal. 

            The film also features the voices of John Gremillion (My Hero Academia, Black Butler, Parasyte) as Commissioner James Gordon, Molly Searcy (Spy x Family, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, One Piece) as Daiana Amazone/Wonder Woman, and Aaron Campbell (Chainsaw Man, One Piece, My Hero Academia) as Kuraku, The Man of Steel/Superman. 

            Overall, Batman Ninja VS Yakuza League gives what it promises, another visually pleasing anime feature with Batman and different versions of beloved DC characters and an interesting “What If…” storyline. I liked the first Batman Ninja, but I thought the plot was a little too complicated to fully get into whereas this one pretty much had me glued to the screen from start to finish. 

            I enjoy stories about alternate versions of superheroes whether it’s variations from other dimensions or an Elseworld story that follows a version of a superhero where his/her moralities are different. They’re always fascinating to me so, a movie about Batman going up against evil versions of his Justice League friends is an instant selling point and it is glorious. 

            There is so much variety in the action scenes involving Batman and the multiple Robins taking on the Yakuza League and is each one is a visual marvel like a battle against Yakuza Aquaman atop giant fish and my favorite being a chase sequence with Yakuza Flash that gave me serious Akira vibes. This film also gave me a much better Batman VS Superman confrontation than the entirety of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (I’m talking both versions!). 

Despite not having a whole lot of screen-time together in the film, their rivalry felt very natural with Batman comparing Yakuza Superman to the actual Superman and how he has his powers but doesn’t have his heart thus making him only a fraction of what the real Man of Steel was. It’s a far more captivating rivalry than what Zack Snyder tried to do and you see Yakuza Superman go through an arc in the last act of the movie. 

Most of the animation is fantastic and highlights the anime and graphic novel look the film was going for especially in the action scenes, but at times it can feel inconsistent. The animation jumps back and forth between cel-shaded CG and animation that resembles a 2D, hand-drawn look, both look dazzling but sometimes it can feel stilted when they’re thrown together. 

The CG animation when there isn’t an action scene looks a bit rough around the edges which I also thought about the animation in the first movie. Sometimes, the characters’ mouth animations were awkward and didn’t always match up with what they were saying though it’s likely because I watched the English dub and might have seemed more natural in Japanese (Maybe!), but it wasn’t quite as distracting as it was the first film. 

Despite a few minor animation nitpicks, Batman Ninja VS Yakuza League is solid and one of the best animated DC films I’ve seen in a while. It’s got amazing action, stunning animation, and an engrossing plot about alternate versions of beloved DC characters, this is one DC Comics fans cannot afford to miss.