Welcome, ladies and gentleman, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, we're celebrating a milestone of reaching 300 episodes of Reaction & Review. And holy shit, what a milestone it is! I am shocked that I've made it this far with this series, but you know what? I'm damn proud of myself and to anyone who has kept up with these reviews all this time.
And since we've reached a milestone, I wanted to find a movie that would do two things for me. One, it would have to be something that I'm personally really interested in watching. And two, it would also have to fit into the current marathon I'm doing, which is "Tales of Longbox". I almost thought about putting "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" as my 300th episode, but ultimately, I chose something else. So with that mind, tonight's movie features my all time favorite DC superhero, and it also came out last year. That movie is "Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League".
Now for those of you who may not happen to remember, several years ago, I reviewed an animated film called "Batman Ninja". And I really enjoyed it for the most part. Some people, from what I've read, were put off by the animation and it's art-style, however, I was able to overlook that because I really enjoyed the story and seeing how Batman was able to adapt to the settings of Edo Japan.
So now, we have it's sequel, which I'm honestly surprised got a sequel at all. And I'm not saying that as a bad thing, because, like I said, I really enjoyed "Batman Ninja" and to see this thing get a sequel is actually really cool. Now from what little I remember about this movie, it features a group known as the Yakuza League, which I'm going to assume is suppose to be this movie's version of the Justice League.
Beyond that, though, I don't know about anything about the plot to this thing. I'm hoping for it to be really good. In fact, I kinda want it to be amazing, seeing as how it's the 300th episode and all. But I really won't know for sure if this movie will be good or not unless I do one thing. And that's for me to shut up so I can push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League".
4 minutes later
O...K, I was wondering why they were calling it a "Yakuza Hurricane". I thought that was just a fancy name for a typical hurricane. But no, there are actual Yakuza members coming out of the dark clouds of a hurricane. And they're all wearing jetpacks, too, from I'm seeing right now. I gotta say...that is certainly something you don't see every day.
8 minutes later
All right, this is starting to bother me slightly now. Why is every member of the Yakuza League I've seen up to this point look really pixelated when viewed up close? Either this is just an issue with my TV, or this is just a really odd design choice that I'm not totally sure I'll be able to get use to. Either way, it's really starting bug me a little bit.
6 minutes later
So, in this universe, Superman is the leader of his own syndicate family, which includes this version of the Justice League and it's Yakuza members. That is really fucking cool and it makes me all the more interested to see this version of Superman in action. I'm really looking forward to that.
14 minutes later
You know, guys, I'm really liking how this movie is introducing it's own world building through this sort of pop-up book style. I would try to explain it further about the nature of how this world was created, however, I would be delving into spoilers here and it's better that you just go watch it for yourself if you really want to know. But again, I do like how it's being presented. So there is that.
5 minutes later
So we're now getting an 80's style anime theme introduction featuring Batman, Robin, Nightwing, and Red Hood. Dude, this looks fucking awesome! Guys, this alone is worth the admission of seeing this movie and I'm really kinda loving it now because of that. Granted, the movie does have couple of issues but this sequence alone is making up for all of that, which is really fucking impressive in my eyes.
3 minutes later
Oh, and Diana apparently also has an anime intro of her own. Granted, the song here is more melodramatic in tone rather than the upbeat zaniness of the Batman introduction we got a few minutes ago. I will say that it is at least a decent song, if nothing else.
13 minutes later
So, guys, do you happen to remember earlier when I mentioned that "Yakuza Hurricane" near the beginning of the movie? Well, I actually get to see how it's done. They're being shot out of a huge minigun while the Flash is running around it causing a tornado in which they're flying out of it towards the Earth reality above the sky. Don't worry, I'll try to explain it later when I get to covering this movie as it kinda makes more sense there.
15 minutes later
So let me if I understand this. The Superman that we know gave Batman a pair of, I guess, iron knuckles that are filled with kryptonite just in case the day came when Superman went nuts. And in this case, he used it to defeat the Superman of the alternate world of Japan. You know, as cool and as interesting as that sounds, it kinda makes me curious as to why he never used this sort of weapon against him in that "Injustice" movie I reviewed a few weeks back? I know I'm commenting on something very trivial, and the answer is because it's in a completely different universe, but I'm still not quite over how stupid that movie was, writing wise. It's just something I wanted to comment on is all.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Holy shit, where do I begin here...? I'm gonna tell you, guys, going into this movie, I kinda expected that I would like it. Because, as I mentioned before, I really liked "Batman Ninja" and I figured this movie would be more of the same kind of enjoyment that I got out of the first movie. Well, not only did I get that, I actually wound up really enjoying it even more than I was originally anticipating. This movie is damn near fantastic. And again, this movie came out in 2025, a year in which a lot of mainstream movies looked like shit, but this movie actually ends up diamond in the rough. That's how great this movie really is.
So with all that said, let's dive right into this movie here and talk more about it. I'm gonna start with writing, and the first thing I want to talk about is the movie's tone. Now, in the first "Batman Ninja" movie, the tone in that movie was mostly taken seriously. Now when I say that, I don't mean it was taken in the tone of something like Christopher Nolan's Batman films, I mean that it felt more grounded in it's setting. Yes, the movie's premise was still absolutely ridiculous, in which you have Batman and his allies fighting Joker and his crew in feudal Japan while adapting to the style of how it was like to fight back during that period of Japan, but it still took itself seriously despite all of that. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing, far from it, but in terms of it's tone, while it had some goofy ass moments, it still took itself seriously, despite the overall premise being rather ridiculous.
This movie, however, has a certain charm to it in which I haven't seen from a whole lot of movies, especially ones that came out in 2025. It's a similar kind of feeling back when I watched the 1960's Batman movie with Adam West. It knows when to have fun with itself. Now it's not a full blown comedy, unlike the 1960's Batman movie, but it still has a really good balance of when it wants to take itself seriously and when it wants to have fun. The filmmakers knew, going in, that this premise is ridiculous as all hell and they ran with it. There is no way in hell that they were going to keep it on the same grounded tone levels that the first movie went through, and I'm glad that they went the extra mile here with it's premise. Because had they actually attempted to keep it on the same serious tone that they did with the first movie throughout the whole thing here, it would've absolutely destroyed this movie. I mean, you have the Justice League in this movie acting like members of a Yakuza syndicate of their own families while you have Batman and his allies trying to stop them while also trying to restore the space time continuum. If that's not a premise that you can't have fun with, then you really shouldn't be writing superhero movies to begin with. Though that's just my own personal opinion on that bit.
But yeah, I should probably try to talk about the movie in a little bit more detail here. So, it actually takes place a day after the events from "Batman Ninja" where, apparently, the islands of Japan have vanished off the face of the Earth. Batman notices it because he realizes that he may have had altered the timeline after what happened in the previous movie. And as for the whole "Yakuza Hurricane" and why Yakuza members are just dropping out of the sky from a dark cloud, well, apparently, the islands of Japan, which is also the same parallel universe from the previous movie, are floating in the sky. And the weird thing is, only Batman, Robin, and Nightwing can see it because they were the only ones that went there during the time that they were in feudal Japan. Normal people like Commissioner Gordon or the Gotham police can't see it because they never experienced going into the past like the others did. Apparently, the parallel version of Japan is caught in the space time continuum which causes Batman and Robin to go there while Nightwing and Red Robin deal with the incoming Yakuza members coming out of the "Yakuza Hurricane".
Now I could go further along with this, but like I mentioned a little while ago, I would be delving into spoilers if I talked about how this parallel world of Japan was created. And believe me, I'd rather not spoil something that big. Like I said earlier, you can go watch the movie for yourself to know how it was done. That said, I really do like how the movie's world building is implemented here. It gives you the idea of how each member of the Yakuza League runs their family syndicates and how they got their powers in these universes. Essentially, guys, this movie is basically it's own version of an Elseworlds tale. I mentioned it in a previous review of mine a long time ago, but an Elseworlds story is where you can take established, well known characters from DC Comics and make up your own stories and settings where it wouldn't exactly work in the main canon timeline of the DC Universe. This story is just that and, like I said, it takes these well established characters, puts them in a new setting and goes all out with it's ridiculous premise.
Now like I mentioned earlier, not everything here is exactly perfect. For starters, I want to mention the Joker for a moment. Because he appears in this movie after he saves Batman from an attack by Kuraku, who is the Yakuza League's version of Superman. And after a brief chat between Batman and Joker when they get back to Gotham City, Joker leaves and is never seen again in this movie. Which leaves me a little confused because I thought Joker was gonna come back near the end of the movie to be the main villain, along with the rest of Batman's gallery of villains from the previous movie. I say this, because during the opening credits, we get to see all of the villains like Gorilla Grodd, Joker, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Penguin, Two Face, and Deathstroke. And my original thought was that they were going to be fighting against the Yakuza League in this movie at some point. Well, a little bit of a spoiler here, aside from Joker and Harley Quinn, they're not in this movie at *all*. Which kinda makes me wonder why you would have these villains in the intro to begin with, unless you wanted to remind the viewer that they were in the first movie. Which, if that was the case, then they didn't exactly do a great job there. But even with that, I'm kinda happy to see Joker not take the spotlight *again* as the main villain because, like with many other people's issue with Joker, I'm really kinda tired of Joker taking the spotlight in which he doesn't always need to.
But as for other characters, I probably should mention the other Yakuza League members. You have Green Lantern, who's also gender-swapped in this movie. There's not much else to her than that, other than being accompanied by kinda shitty music almost every time she's in action. Though I'll get that later when I cover music. The Flash is basically kind of a cocky asshole. So essentially, he's Sonic the Hedgehog if he amped up the cockiness by 10. Aquaman in this movie is somewhat full of himself when he shows off his strength and abilities, especially when he's fighting Batman underwater. Superman is probably my favorite of the group as he showcases more personality here than how he's usually shown as a typical boy scout that comic writers sometimes usually go with. Though it really just depends on the writer. But yeah, I love this version of Superman and he's damn impressive here.
The only one that is sorta unique is Wonder Woman. Well...not really. See, in this movie Diana isn't called Wonder Woman here. She's just called by her first name and she's the only one of the Yakuza League who doesn't follow the methods of how the other Yakuza League members operate. She's more on the neutral ground who wants to do what's right and help out Batman to stop the other League members. There is also Harley Quinn who, like I mentioned earlier, is one of the only villains, along with Joker, who's also in this movie. And she somehow has more screen time than Joker. And she also develops some kind friendship with Diana in this movie after Diana saves her from Kuraku. It's decent for what it is. And I will say that, much like with Joker, she's not in this movie for too long and she's actually kinda funny in a couple of moments here, too. So, I'm willing to give Harley a bit of a pass here since she's more tolerable than some previous incarnations of her that I've seen.
Overall, guys, the writing here is absolutely solid. While it does have a couple of minor flaws, most of those can be overlooked as the movie itself is incredibly entertaining, both in it's story and action. And as someone who usually prefers having substance added to their action movies, this one definitely nails it. And adding onto all that, the acting here is really solid, too. Just about everyone here puts in a 110% percent. The only one that's gonna be seen as rather polarizing is Batman's voice. The actor who voices him in this English dub goes by the name of Joe Daniels. And I would love to tell you about his acting filmography, but I can't. Because any information that I tried looking up about him almost seems nonexistent. The first thing that came up was a drummer for some band that I've never heard of with the same name. Which I don't think is the same guy. So I can't tell you anything about him unfortunately. What I can say about his performance in this thing, though, is that it sounds very flat and wooden. At least, in the beginning anyway. I could tell that this guy was trying to sort of match the voice of Roger Craig Smith, since he was the one who voiced Batman in "Batman Ninja", but it doesn't exactly work here. I will say, though, later on he does try to mellow out his performance a little bit. But the first time you hear it, you're gonna be totally thrown off by how he tries to make Batman sound here. Just letting you guys know ahead of time of what to expect from him.
Now let's talk about the animation. And, oh boy, this one is gonna be a bit of a challenge here. So, first of all, I should let you guys know that this movie was made by the same studios that made "Batman Ninja". So most of the character designs and 3D models that were from that movie are carried over into this one. At least for characters such as Batman, Robin, Nightwing, Alfred, and Joker. Their models are the exact same as they were there. But now we have the Justice League here, and in different roles too. So how do they look? Well, in terms of designs, they look really fucking cool. Granted, I'm not sure why they made Green Lantern a female here, but I can forgive it because there have been different times where Green Lantern was female. An example would be Tangent Comics, where back in the late 90's, DC kinda re-envisioned some of their more iconic characters with completely new backstories. And one of them was a female version of Green Lantern. So I'm totally fine with it here, even if it does sound kinda odd.
So yeah, the designs of the characters, conceptually speaking, look great. However, there are a couple of things that I need to touch upon. First of all, most of these new designs look rather pixelated. And at first, I thought it might've been an issue with my TV, considering that I've talked about odd pixellation before when covering certain animated movies. However, after getting a closer look, I realize that most of these designs were intentional. It's especially noticeable up close because you'll notice the lines on the side of their faces looking really rough. And it's something that you're either gonna get use to, or it's gonna throw you off completely. And it's a similar situation when I talked about the animation in the first movie because some people weren't really fans of how it looked, animation wise, and I totally get why they would say that. Personally speaking, I thought the animation was fine there, though some of the criticisms were totally valid. This movie's no different. The animation is roughly more of the same, though I feel like they definitely improved on the animation looking a little bit less stiff than how it did in the first movie.
Getting back to the character designs, there are two characters in particular who are gonna stand out at you in a rather negative way. The first one is the Flash. For the most part, the Flash looks perfectly fine...until you see his wooden hat. The wooden hat looks wildly pixelated on the sides of it. Now it's not as noticeable later on, but the first time you see, it will most certainly throw you off. The other character who stands out negatively is Aquaman. Mainly, his facial hair. The problem with it is that looks overly detailed to a point it looks like ugly pixelated shit. And it's a similar problem to when I talked about how Gorilla Grodd looked in the first movie. But after I watched it again some time ago, I noticed that his design wasn't really that much of an issue because it wasn't as overly detailed as I remembered it from watching it the first time. This movie, though, Aquaman's facial hair looks *awful* when rendered in CG. It looks so jumbled together that it makes it look overly detailed and ugly as shit. And as far as I can think of, I didn't recall seeing any facial hair in the first "Batman Ninja" movie. And if I did, it didn't look nearly as bad as it did when they decided to add facial hair to Aquaman.
But overall, minus those two quirks, the animation is really good, and the character designs are, like I said, really fucking cool. The color palettes are also really good, too. In fact, it's just as good, if not better done here than in the first movie. Which is great to see. Sound-mixing here is also really good. The music, for the most part, is really good...except for anytime that Green Lantern is in action. I don't know what kind of music she's accompanied with while she's in action, but it sounds like utter dogshit. I don't know if it's suppose to be something like Japanese dubstep or some really shitty sounding techno music, but either way, it sounds awful. And I don't know why they felt compelled to give her such awful music, especially when she's not the most important aspect of the movie. But overall, the music here is still great. Especially that 80's sounding anime theme song that plays during one of the part of the movie. And the joke that follows after it is hilarious as hell. So yeah, music here is mostly a positive.
So, guys, when everything is said and done, can I recommend "Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League"? Oh, hell yes, guys. This movie is awesome. Now mind you, it's not exactly something that's gonna stand up to par with other Batman movies such as the 1960's Batman movie or "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm", but it's still a really solid movie on it's own standards. Now being that this is a sequel, I would recommend that you check out it's predecessor first before you watch this movie, just so you'll have a better idea of what's going on. But still, if you can find a copy of this movie anywhere on a physical format, or if it's running on some streaming service, go ahead and check it out. Assuming, of course, you've already seen "Batman Ninja". If not, do that first before watching it's sequel. I was a little skeptical of buying a physical copy, because it was going for about $20 at Walmart. And I know some people aren't exactly chomping at the bit to pay that much for a brand new movie. So if you want to wait for a price drop or, again, find it on some streaming service first, then that's totally cool. As for myself, I'm totally happy with my purchase because I would not have known how awesome this movie was if I didn't pick it up to begin with. So yeah, this movie will definitely have the prestige and honor to be added to my DVD collection. And now that I've mentioned other great Batman movies, I'm gonna go watch one of them right now. I think I'm gonna watch..."Batman: Under The Red Hood" next. I haven't seen that one in a while and I feel that it deserves another viewing for me. So that's what I'm gonna do next once I get done with this review.
And with that, guys, that concludes the 300th episode of Reaction & Review. I'm hoping, maybe, I'll get to reach 400, but we'll just have to wait and see for now. Until then, guys, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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