Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League Review

This is a DynaMic Network Podcast. 

I'm Marvelous Joe and I'm his twin brother Johnny DC. And in this episode we are going to review the latest DC animated direct video release Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League. It is the sequel to the 2018 Batman Ninja film, which was phenomenal. Does the sequel hold up? We will let you know later on this episode. 

Yes it does. I said later on this episode. Come on man, now they have no reason to listen to the rest. They will. Especially since this is an all DC episode because before the review we're going to break down the latest comic book movie news that came out this past week, of which there was just one news item and that was the report on Colin Farrell being in talks to play Sergeant Rock in that movie. Yeah we're going to talk about that later. 

As always we list our segment times in our episode description so feel free to check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead to a particular topic. Guys our artificially intelligent dual simulator AJ9K has a quick message for our listeners, so listen up. 

Why hello there. Do you want even more from this podcast? Then become a part of the dynamic dual community on Patreon where you can choose from three tiers. The dynamic 2.0 tier gives you access to our discord chat server. 

The fantastic 4 tier gives you two bonus episodes each month and the X-Force tier makes you an executive producer of this show. Lastly the Dynomic podcast network tier lets you create your own podcast using this Monte Carlo simulator. Johnny and Joe will help you develop your show, provide graphic support and consultation and get you simulation results. Pitch the twins your ideas via email at dynamicdualpodcast at gmail.com. Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamicdual. Pip pip cheerio. 

Thanks AJ9K and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. Guys be sure to tune in to the other shows on the Dynomic podcast network this week including Max Destruction which pits your favorite action heroes from film and television against each other. This Wednesday hosts Scotty and Gilly are finding out who would win in a fight between Parzival from Ready Player One and Blue Shirt Guy from Free Guy. On the Cendro World podcast hosts Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between fan favorite anime and mage characters. In Zach's next episode he is going to discuss who would win between Vasto Lorde Ichigo from Bleach versus Six Tail QB Naruto. On the console combat podcast hosts John and Dean simulate battles between popular video game characters. In yesterday's episode they determined who would win between VV Ornis here, Final Fantasy 9, I don't know if I pronounced that correctly, and Gail Decarios from Baldur's Gate 3. 

Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our show notes to listen to all of the shows in the Dynomic podcast network. But with that out of the way. Quick to the No Prize! A No Prize is an award Marvel used to give out to fans. 

Our version, the Dynamic Dual No Prize, is a digital award that we post on Instagram for the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week we asked you guys, what character do you think Sadie Sink will be playing in the upcoming fourth Spider-Man film from Marvel Studios? That was coming off of the news that Sadie Sink has been cast in a role in the fourth Spider-Man movie though no one knows what that role is. So we asked you guys what your thoughts were. We got three honorable mentions to get through as well as one No Prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to Christopher Manati, who said, Hi guys, Christopher Manati. 

So I don't know that much about Sadie Sink, I haven't seen Stranger Things or anything so my answer is more based on a character I want to show up and that would be Black Cat. I really like Black Cat as a character and I've wanted her to show up in a Spider-Man movie for a little while and I think it could lead to some very funny scenes, especially with Tom Holland's Spider-Man and with how awkward he is. So yeah, that's my answer. 

Yeah, I think that thematically introducing Black Cat into Spider-Man 4 would make sense, considering, you know, at the end of Spider-Man 3, Peter Parker was resigned to kind of move on with his life with MJ and Ned for getting all about him. And so it would be interesting to see how he copes with moving on from that relationship with this new superhero chick who's really into him and maybe there's a romantic connection between them. 

Yeah, it would be a test of his love, whether he has moved on from MJ as she has or not. I agree, I think thematically it would work. Now, whether or not Sadie Sink could actually play the character of Black Cat in the way I would envision the character of Black Cat to appear on the silver screen, I don't know about that. 

But it's an interesting idea nonetheless. Well, who could play Black Cat in the way that you envision, do you think? I don't know, like Sidney Sweeney, I know that's a really kind of obvious answer and it can't really happen since she played Julia Carpenter in Madame Web, but that's kind of who I was thinking would make an ideal Black Cat. No, because I have dibs on her for Power Girl. 

I guess that would make more sense than showing up in Spider-Man 4 as a different character within the Spider-Man universe. That's right. Great answer, Christopher. Our next honorable mention goes to Travis Herndon, who said, What's up, dynamic dudes? 

Travis here. Shout out to my evil twin. So my answer has to be Gene Gray, since the MCU is following the ultimate Spider-Man interpretation of the character who was the first X-Man he met in the comics. Gene Gray. And if I could say that X-Man characters would be popping in and out of future MCU projects, so it would make sense to introduce Gene right now so we can get a look at her. 

Yeah, I can see this making sense too. In the initial Ultimate comics, which came out in the early aughts, Ultimate Spider-Man had a crossover with the Ultimate X-Man. And while I wouldn't say that the MCU is a direct adaptation of the Ultimate line of comics, it's really a mixture of both Ultimate Universe and the 616 Universe. I think it would be totally cool for the heroes to meet up with each other while they're still early in their respective careers. And actually have X-Man springboard as a wear off of the Spider-Man franchise. 

Yeah, I would not hate that. I think she would be a fantastic Gene Gray. And whether she makes her first appearance in the Spider-Man movie or any other Marvel movie, I don't think it matters, because I actually think she's perfect casting for a younger version of that character. Yeah, and then she grows with the role. Boom. Great answer, Travis. Our final honorable mention goes to by Dear Bangura, who said, Hello, dynamic duo. 

I think that Sadie Sink should play Kitty Pride. I think there in the Ultimate comics, she was a redhead that was dating Peter Parker. So I think that would be a great combination and it would be a great red herring. Thank you. 

Yeah, so similar to the Gene Gray answer, I think I actually like this idea more where she's potentially playing Kitty Pride, because in the Ultimate comic books, Kitty Pride and Peter Parker were an item in the same way like Black Cat and Peter Parker were an item. But Kitty Pride is a member of the X-Men as Shadow Cat. So you can still have that X-Men crossover there, but with also a potential love interest, as opposed to Gene Gray, who was not a love interest for Peter Parker. So I think Kitty Pride kind of serves the best of both worlds in terms of the X-Men with Gene Gray and in terms of a romantic interest angle with Black Cat, because she is both of those things. Oh, I had no idea that Kitty Pride dated Peter Parker in the Ultimate universe. 

Yeah, I still think Sadie would make a better Gene Gray, though I do like the idea of introducing Kitty Pride as a love interest in a Spider-Man movie. Now, is that just due to the red hair? Oh, 100% yes. Okay, okay. Great answer by dear. We want to give a quick shout out to Mason Thompson and Lee Tapscott for calling in with their answers. But the winner of this week's No Prize is Harrison 

Fox, who said, Hey guys, Harrison Fox. So initially I was thinking that Sadie would be playing Black Cat, but the more I think about it, the more I feel that maybe it's going to be Gwen Stacy. And this version of Gwen Stacy, instead of being killed off in a very dramatic way, will become our Spider-Gwen. And then we can have a Spider-Woman character do something, unlike the three that were introduced in Madam Web. I think that would be a great idea. 

I really like this idea. Now, we all know that Gwen Stacy's fate is to die at the hands of Green Goblin, but we've seen that done in the amazing Spider-Man films with Andrew Garfield. And I think that fans are clamoring for a live action version of Spider-Gwen. So it's entirely possible that Sadie Sink is playing Gwen Stacy, and they'll be riffing on the character's history by incorporating a little bit of Spider-Gwen story from her respective universe. 

You can totally see this happening, especially since Spider-Man 4 is supposed to take place between the two Avengers movies, and therefore you could introduce some multiversal elements into it. I don't know, Sadie Sink would look like Blonde? Well, I mean, Bryce Dallas Howard played Gwen Stacy in Spider-Man 3, and she was given a wig or dyed her hair blonde. 

So there's precedent there in terms of the hair color. What I like most about this answer, though, is that it didn't deal with the X-Men. It dealt more with the Spider-Verse, which is really where I think the franchise should be going. And also, you know, Spider-Gwen could be a potential love interest as well. Because I don't think we've seen that in the comics. 

I don't think we've seen Spider-Gwen be a love interest for 616 Spider-Man. So great answer, Harrison Fox. You win this week's No Prize. If you the listener want a shot at winning your own No Prize, stay tuned to later on this episode when we'll be asking another question of the week. 

And now that that's done, on to the news! Okay, so not too long ago, we learned that Luca Guadagnino, the director of films such as Challengers and Suspiria, pitched James Gunn and Peter Saffron, the heads of DC Studios, on a Sergeant Rock film written by his longtime writing collaborator, Justin Karitsky. Now, initially, the rumors were that Daniel Craig was interested in playing the title role of Sergeant Rock, considering he had just come off of working with Luca Guadagnino in the film Queer. But it looks like Daniel Craig has moved on from the Sergeant Rock role, and currently Colin Farrell is in talks to star as Sergeant Rock. 

Thank God, man. All right, I was getting really scared there that DC was going to nab up another James Bond actor, and just can't have that. Just cannot have that. Now Daniel Craig can come over to Marvel where he belongs. 

Yeah, it's never going to happen. Now, this is interesting because Colin Farrell is famously, and to much acclaim, already playing Oswald Cobb, the Penguin in Matt Reeves, The Batman Universe. Of course, he plays that role under heavy makeup, and he's basically unrecognizable in both voice and demeanor. So I could actually see this working. Oh, absolutely. Colin Farrell is one of the more dynamic actors of his generation. The guys at Chameleon, he could do anything, and you would never even know that the actors were the same. Yeah, I mean, an actor of his caliber can clearly pull off anything. I am concerned, though, about the physicality of the role. Like, Colin Farrell doesn't strike me as being, like, as physical as a soldier would need to be. 

What are you talking about? He was super physical in Daredevil as the character Bullseye. Ugh, don't remind me. But no, like, in the past, a Sergeant Rock film has been attempted by actors such as Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Like, they've tried to make this film before, but they just never came to pass. And what I think of Colin Farrell, I don't necessarily think action star in the same way that I do actors like Willis and Schwarzenegger. I think Colin Farrell could totally pull that off too, though, the 80s action era. The only way I see this working is if it's more like a saving private Ryan-type film, as opposed to something like, I don't know, Rambo. So you're thinking he's more Tom Hanks than Ben Affleck in Pearl Harbor? Yeah, which doesn't surprise me considering the director. He hasn't really done a big war movie like this, or like too much action in general, outside of a tennis match. 

So yeah, I can see this definitely being more cerebral than action, which is fine by me, honestly. I mean, if his pitch was good enough for James Gunn and Peter Saffron, it's good enough for me, and I can't wait to see if Colin Farrell's cast. Someone needs to be cast relatively soon because they want to start shooting this movie this summer. Who would be your ideal actor if it wasn't Colin Farrell? 

Oh, interesting question. Yeah, who's a big name action star right now? Uh, Chris Hemsworth? Thor, really? Yeah, he's done with Marvel. 

After Love and Thunder, just let him move on, poor guy. The hell is wrong with you? I regret asking this question because you just gave the absolutely worst answer of all time. Or, or the best answer. 

No. Speaking of Colin Farrell playing both the penguin and potentially Sergeant Rock, that brings us to our question of the week. What Marvel or DC actor whose performance was hidden by practical or special effects would you like to see play another character? And which one? We've seen this before with actors like Gemma Chan, who played in Captain Marvel and The Eternals, and Jai Minhatsu, who played in Aquaman and the Shazam movies. 

But besides those two, what actor would you choose? Record your answer at dynamicdool.com by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long and don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person a dynamic duel no prize that we'll post to Instagram. 

Be sure to answer before March 29th. But that does it for all the news for this episode, so let's go ahead and move into our main event, where we review the latest DC animated film to hit home video, Batman Ninja vs Yakuza League. Batman Ninja vs Yakuza League Okay, Batman Ninja vs Yakuza League. It's the direct sequel to 2018's direct-to-video anime feature, Batman Ninja. Both films were written by Kazuki Nakashima and directed by Junpei Mizusaki, with Shinji Takaji co-directing the sequel. 

I loved the first film. I love most anime I see honestly, especially if it's DC related projects like my adventures with Superman or Suicide Squad Isakai. They're some of DC's greatest animated projects. But Batman Ninja is a project that I've rewatched numerous times since its release, and I love it every time I watch it. 

I've had nothing but high expectations for this sequel, which usually leads to some disappointment, but not here. Batman Ninja vs Yakuza League is a worthwhile successor to the first film that amps up the action, the stakes, the badass design, and the absurdism from the first film to a whole other level. And I recommend it to any Batman or anime fan out there. Yeah, I really enjoyed this film. It also surpassed my expectations. I was not expecting this to be as good as the original Ninja Batman, which was fantastic. You know, I had my criticisms of it, but it still kind of held up in my mind, and now so does the sequel. 

Absolutely. If you haven't seen this movie yet, please make sure you do so before listening to this spoiler review. The film is available now on digital platforms, though physical copies won't be available until mid-April. Now, while I recommend the film, just be aware that the original Japanese language version was not available upon the film's early digital release, but I'm hoping that it will be available by the time the physical version comes out. Yeah, that was fucking stupid. And really, that's the only way I watched the original Batman Ninja was the Japanese audio. 

That's right. And so I was like, I don't want to watch this now. I don't really prefer dubs over subs. 

No, I 100% prefer subs. I was pissed when I first realized the audio issue with the digital release because I vastly preferred the original Japanese language version to the English dubs in the first film. But to my surprise, you know, this English voice cast for the sequel did a pretty decent job with the film. 

I guess the dubbing was done by a company called Sentai Filmworks, who does a lot of English dubbing on anime projects, like My Hero Academia, Sword Art Online, Food Wars, just a ton of anime. I've seen some hate online saying Warner Brothers cheaped out on getting the original voice cast back. But honestly, good riddance, because in my opinion, the dubbing in this film is way better this go around. I mentioned earlier I didn't want to watch the movie because they didn't have the original Japanese audio. 

And I was kind of resigned to watching the film for this review with the English language dubs. But I also was surprised with the quality of the voice cast. It takes a certain kind of special voice acting to sell the kind of melodrama of a lot of anime reactions and things like that. And a lot of standard American voice actors just can't pull off that kind of drama in a believable way. So you can't just like hire a celebrity voice actor like Tony Hale or something like that. You got to have a qualified anime English voice actor to do this stuff right. 

Absolutely. Like, I think I could do some voice acting not well, but I could do it. I could absolutely not do anime voice acting because my voice would crack as soon as I try to get overly emotional. I'm telling you right now, you wouldn't be able to do any voice acting. Okay. Wow. I have a podcast, bro. 

That doesn't mean anything. Have you listened to this podcast? That's fair. My voice sucks. Why are you even listening right now? 

I wonder that every week. Anyway, moving on. In the first film, Batman, his allies and his villains were all transported back in time to feudal Japan where Batman, unable to rely on much of his high tech equipment, had to learn ancient techniques of the ninja to stop an all out war between his villains, while also finding a way to return everyone to the proper time. That film began fairly serious in tone, though by the end we were watching giant mechazoid fortresses battle monkeys stacked on top of each other in the shape of Batman. Shit got weird, but I still loved it so much so that I was convinced that it deserved a five star review in my initial reaction. 

You talked me down from that, Joseph. I think in part because of just how absurd it became. But in this film, the sequel, Yakuza League, they start with the absurdity already ratcheted to 10. So you don't have that jarring tonal shift to contend with like you did in the first film. When you have jetpack wearing katana wielding Yakuza gangsters raining down from the sky within the first 10 minutes of the movie, there's pretty much nothing you can't get away with in this film. And though the story gets pretty ambitious and the level of absurdity it can get away with, where like even several of the characters say that the story elements are dumb during the course of the movie, the film subverts expectations for Western audiences in particular in such a way that is not only funny, but just fun in general. And it captures your attention in the way good art tends to. Yeah, what I really appreciated about this movie was just how self aware it was. You know, the first film did go off the rails and I did take issue with that. But this movie, like you said, starts off the rails, and it comments on it like it knowingly does so. But also it you know, it takes its time to explain the absurdity behind everything going on for every weird thing you see. There is a rational explanation for it. And I do appreciate that, even though it does lead to the film being 90% exposition. 

Oh, I know. So so much dialogue in this movie is them just explaining things, which surprisingly worked. I don't know how they pulled that off, but they did somehow. Maybe it had something to do with the visuals, because this film looks gorgeous. We've seen examples of computer generated anime before, like in the first Batman Ninja movie, or Batman and Superman Battle of the Supersons. But this is hands down the best example to date of that style, partly because I believe they didn't try to overdo the shading and lighting like the Japanese characters in this film are fairly flatly colored and you know, are identifiable by their sketchy contour lines, as if to imply they are a sketch or like experimental result of Russell Gould playing with reality. The designs like the first film are admirably complex, yet quintessentially Japanese like everything in the film. Yeah, computer animated anime is not my favorite thing. It's rarely done well in the anime that I've seen, and you know, myself not being an avid anime consumer. I didn't really like the computer animation that was in the first Batman Ninja movie. 

I thought everybody walked a little bit too stiff. They look like robots to me, you know, their faces were soulless abominations. But here, actually, the film completely reversed my opinion on computer generated anime animation, because I thought it was really well done. The movements looked believable. The expressions had more life to them. Everything just looked better, not counting, you know, the hand drawn interlude that was in the first Batman Ninja movie, because that was beautifully done. 

Oh yeah, absolutely. Besides that scene, I would definitely say though that this film looks better than the first and the story of this film is better than the first. You know, we described the first film as being narratively simple. And while this film still follows that style over substance narrative approach, this time the story has much more complexity and is actually quite successful in building an entirely new world with fascinating characters whose stories may be glossed over, but are brimming with possibility. Rather than seeing how familiar characters adapt to a strange new environment like the first film, here we see how familiar characters are affected by exposure to a strange new environment from the get go, from birth, which brings a sense of Eltsworld intrigue to the mix akin to something like Red Sun. 

Yeah, that was really cool. I mean, what I liked probably more about Batman's story in the first movie was that he was a fish out of water and he had to become something new. He had to become a ninja and study the ninja way in order to survive in feudal Japan. And feudal Japan as a setting was just phenomenal. I liked it more than the setting of modern day Japan being taken over by these Yakuza gangs. 

But I'll still say that there was a lot of interest there and that Batman was still a fish out of water with these other characters that had changed into these unique Japanese personas. Yeah, did you notice the Easter egg around the Yakuza League's names? It was their given names. Yeah, it was the Japanese pronunciation of their first name. So Arthur became Asa, Barry became Barry, Clark becomes Koraku, and Jessica becomes Zeshika, so on and so forth. I thought that was kind of cool. I didn't realize that until I was writing my review. 

But even beyond that, words like Hage-ne, the name of the Yakuza family that Clark was the leader of, means steel. Really? Yeah. Now, speaking of Superman, his Japanese counterpart, Koraku, is the only character in the film who actually gets a real character arc. Batman has a mission, Diana has a code, they grow to appreciate each other's ways, but beyond that, they're static. 

Superman, on the other hand, begins the film as an enforcer for Russell Gull and the leader of the Hagen-E crime family who views the world through the lens of power. There's those who wield it, and there's those who are subjugated by it. He compares Yakuza to demons and believes they, like all of humanity, are irredeemable without control from a stronger, more violent, more controlling force. But after battling Batman, who tells him his Superman wasn't powerful because he dominated others, but because he uplifted them and realizing Ross lied to him about the people of Batman's world, Koraku starts to question everything. His whole identity, which was built on strength, is fractured upon his defeat at the hands of Batman. And in the end, Koraku doesn't just fight for power, he fights to protect others. He becomes a true Superman, embracing the Ninkyo Code and helping save Gotham. Yeah, it was a great arc. Allegedly, the rest of the Justice League went through the same arc. It would have been nice to actually see that happen, as opposed to just being told that it happened. Yeah, that's fair. I do think Superman is an inspiring enough figure, though, whether he's good or evil, to have changed the minds of the other League members with an inspiring speech or something like that. 

Just something we didn't see. It was cool to see the way that this movie grafted your standard anime arc types onto these Justice League characters. You had Wonder Woman with her Lady Snowblood type arc type. Oh yeah, and Zesha Ko is kind of like a gothic Lolita type figure. 

Yeah, Lolita fashion. And Barry was this crazy loose cannon who had boundless energy, just that crazy anime archetype. Whereas Aquaman was more of your traditional gangster, but he was a badass. Yeah, their looks totally fit them as well. I really liked the look of Aquaman and Wonder Woman. The only character I really didn't like the look of was the Flash. I get that they were trying to go for this raiding, lightning style design, but I think they should have done more with what was under his coat, because essentially it was just the Flash suit. Yeah, they relied too much on his headgear selling his new design. Yeah, exactly. Although I did love the fact that his tornadoes were able to transport people across the dimensional space time rift, because not only does Flash do things like create whirlwind tornadoes, but he also travels through time. So for him to be that medium through which they traveled was genius, I thought. For sure. Although he was pretty slow in this movie, yeah. 

I don't think so. I thought he was pretty fast. He could barely keep up with the Batmobiles that Red Hood and Red Robin were driving. Well, that's fair. And actually, you know, they even said themselves, like if this was the real Flash, we would not have been able to defeat him. So yeah, these versions do seem a little bit depowered in general, I would say. Except for Aquaman. 

Holy shit. He was awesome in this movie. They always got to give Aquaman hydrokinesis when they can't figure out what to do with him, because otherwise he wouldn't have had much to do in this movie, I think. They just need to give him hydrokinesis in the comics. 

Like large scale hydrokinesis like that, not like Mera, but where he's like shifting tidal waves and stuff. So cool. I agree. What did you think of the look of Superman? It caught me off guard. I think I was expecting something a little bit more traditional. 

I guess he was wearing a robe, but the sunglasses were a little strange. That was a unique choice. I actually thought they were really cool. I'm glad that he kind of stuck with a traditional Japanese robe type look with like a coat over his shoulders that kind of acted like a cape. But the sunglasses for me just like tipped the whole thing over the edge into Yakuza badass territory. I thought it evoked Superboy a little bit. Well, I actually thought it evoked Eradicator, just like an evil version of Superman of sorts. 

That makes sense. I also really liked the look of Batman in this movie. We didn't really get the Ninja Batman or Samurai Batman looks that we got in the first movie. But here we did get to see the full-on advanced tech version of Batman with the holographic displays and transforming vehicles and armored suits. It's awesome. 

I think this is my favorite version of Batman, the high-tech version, I should say, because we saw in the first movie, you know, he had the Batplane that transformed into the Batmobile, which transformed into the Batbike, which transformed into a battle suit. Right? That all makes sense to me. I think the most fascinating version of Batman is not like the Gothic Neo-Norah version, but the one that's most like Iron Man, the one with the vast amount of resources. Because it makes more sense to me that he would operate in that sort of sci-fi almost capacity as a billionaire crime fighter who can stand toe-to-toe with the rest of the Justice League. This is, I think, the most capable version of Batman that we've probably ever seen. 

Yeah, you might be right. I definitely think this version makes sense in the context of the other Justice League characters, because otherwise, you know, he can't really contribute as much as the others. It's cool to see things like the Batmobile and the Batplane operating as this sort of Voltron type character. You know, they went with like Giant Mechaz in the first movie. I'm glad they avoided that here and decided to go for more of like a separating battle station type approach for the Bat family. That was great. Yeah, Alfred's animated video that he made of the Bat Phoenix was one of my favorite things about the movie. 

Not gonna lie. It just evoked old classic anime cartoons like Gundam or Voltron. It was awesome. 

And there were neat little touches to like the 60s television show too. Like in the beginning when Batman and Robin slid down their pole into the Batplane. I loved that. They need to bring things like that back into, you know, the modern mythos. I want to see like an adaptation of the Bat pole in James Gunn's DCU and maybe even introduce it in like the Batman. Just as an homage, just because it's like an iconic part of the character that people know and love so much. Absolutely. 

And it doesn't even need to be cheesy. Right. Like it wasn't here. 

Yeah, exactly. Another thing I really liked about this version of the Justice League were the names and origins of each of them. So you have Zeshaqa the Emerald Ray. She was this gambler who found herself in trouble and while on the run she stumbled upon the Power Ring. It was reminiscent almost of like Alan Scott's origin, which I think worked well for this version of the character. Yeah, I like how a lot of her energy constructs were like gambling themed. Yeah, it was either like gambling themed or like teddy bears. It was cute. Now Aquaman was Asa the awkward dragon, which is super cool because dragons of course are aquatic creatures in eastern folklore. Now he came from a species of aquatic people living at the bottom of Lake Inokashira, which is a real lake in Tokyo. 

And his mother, the queen, fell in love with a yuck as a gangster. I thought that was awesome. Yeah, that was a great play on his standard origin. My favorite use of Aquaman's powers in this movie was when he sent the sea turtle out to send a message to Wonder Woman. And then like she responded and like the sea turtle literally like spun away back to the lake. I thought that was great. It almost reminded me of something like out of a Miyazaki film, just how surreal it was. 

Yeah, exactly. Of course, Wonder Woman in this film was Diana the Eagle Goddess. She was raised in Yoga Gashima, an island of women in Lake Inokashira. And she was a descendant of the gods apparently, bestowed with a portion of Benzaiten's power in order to protect Japan and the Ninkyo spirit. And Benzaiten is like an eastern goddess. Oh, you know the seven drunk gods like that Kung Fu martial art style? Yeah. Benzaiten is the Japanese name of the girl god. 

Okay. She's like a warrior. Bodhi, the fleet of foot was a low level Yakuza thug that was struck by lightning. 

Well, in a hot spring. That's kind of funny. So good. And the coolest one I thought, Kuraku, the man of steel, who instead of landing in America, landed in Japan and was raised by a Yakuza family. Very reminiscent of Red Sun. To touch on the final character, Russell Ghoul, I am glad that he was the primary antagonist in this film. I forgot that he was going to be because I forgot that he was in the trailers for this movie. With his resources and his League of Assassins, he's always kind of been Batman's most formidable foe, in my opinion, and even more so in this film. And that he has a Yakuza League of Assassins. And I kind of like the play upon the different League versions. 

And he's one of Batman's only rogues, I would say, that like wants to destroy all of humanity as opposed to just causing chaos in Gotham City. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. He's an eco terrorist, right? So he's always trying to end the human race. And this was a pretty wild plan to do just that, even though I'm left wondering, like, why he couldn't simply just use the engine that he rebuilt to create a world he had always wanted to see. 

Like, why not create that instead of create a Yakuza world to conquer his native world? That seems like an extra step that's unnecessary. Well, well, you know, you can only fold a piece of paper in half seven times. So maybe a world without humans was just too far removed from standard reality. Interesting. OK. Not sure if I buy it, but it is in fact an explanation. I also liked how they made it so that like Batman's past time adventure didn't have cascading ripples through time, like what I thought was going to be the case. But, you know, instead, Ross simply improved upon Gorilla God's Quake engine to create a machine capable of warping space time and therefore reality. That's an awesome, dangerous power for Ross to have. 

To all the movies and anime, the Dynamite Podcast Network presents Console Combat, where video game legends brawl every Monday, Dynamic Duel, where comic book titans smash every Tuesday, Max Destruction, where TV and action heroes battle every Wednesday, and Sendro World, where anime champions clash every Thursday. Join us as we speculate on the matches and armed with the power of mathematical simulations to discover who will emerge victorious. Visit dynamicpodcast.com where we settle the debate and settle the score. 

Moving on to the story highlights, Bruce Wayne and his son Damien and Alfred notice something is amiss with the world when they realize, among other things, that the islands of Japan and the Justice League are missing after their time traveling adventure to feudal Japan. When they receive a warning of a Yakuza hurricane approaching Gotham City, they suit up as Batman and Robin to take on the mysterious Japanese mobsters who've fallen from the sky. An occurrence they learn has been going on for some time. 

Surmising that he and his allies must be time displaced with counterparts from a different timeline, Batman spots an inverted version of Japan peeking through a fissure in space-time in the sky above Gotham and travels with Robin in the Batplane to investigate, leaving Nightwing and Red Robin to handle the remaining Yakuza. Now, I absolutely loved the James Bond-esque opening credits scene that also served as a recap to the first film in this movie. It was great. Yeah, they were kind of going for a Adele kind of vibe with the song. I think didn't quite pull it off. I didn't love the song, but I do appreciate the effort they put into the opening credits for sure. I figured you would like that as a James Bond fan. 

Yeah, I totally did. Now, recognizing that the fissure has an energy signature similar to that of the Quake engine that sent them through time in the first film, Batman flies through it to an inverted Tokyo where they're immediately attacked by Zesuka, the Emerald Ray. That world's version of the Green Lantern Jessica Cruz and, as of the Aqua Dragon, a version of Aquaman, both of who work as enforcers for the Hagenet crime family. With their plane damaged, Batman and Robin are rescued by Diana, the Eagle Goddess, a version of Wonder Woman who leads the Amazonia Yakuza family and claims Batman and Robin are under her protection while in Kichijoji, Tokyo. Harley Quinn, as Harren the Wild Jester, aids Diana and Asa and Zesuka leave. Meanwhile, Nightwing, Red Robin, and Red Hood manage to defeat Barry, the fleet of foot, a version of Flash, who generated a tornado that allowed him to travel to Gotham. Now, the way they defeated Flash was kind of bizarre and that Red Hood was able to fire off these smelly canisters that reminded him of smells of like meat and beer and stuff like that and rice. 

So he just got like really hungry because apparently, body is hungry all the time. Yeah, I didn't love that. It was funny. Did you find it kind of convenient that Batman and Robin had an ally on the Yakuza side of things? Like if Wonder Woman wasn't this like honorable character, would they have even stood a chance, I wonder, in defeating the Yakuza League? Oh, interesting. 

Probably, probably. Because Batman still had the contingency plans to defeat each member of the Justice League, so why not use Diana's against her? Although that would have eventually required him getting back to his reality, but I still think he could have done that without Diana. If anything, all he needed was Joker's help. 

Which was bullshit. We will get to that. Now Diana informs Batman of the Yakuza War, known as Yakuza Geden, that has overtaken Japan, forcing its citizens to pick family allegiances. With the death of Dayo, the leader of the Dumuzu family, a version of Doomsday, at the hands of the Hagenae family leader, Kuraku, the Man of Steel, the Hagenae family is currently the dominant mob, and one that does not subscribe to the honor system among Yakuza known as the Ninkyo Way, as Diana and her Amazonae family does. 

The real world, or Amatsukuni as Japan knows it, appeared in their sky a month ago, and the Hagenae family wants to rule it. While beginning repairs on the Bat Plane, Batman learns that Harin is his world's Harley Quinn, who came to the inverted Japan just before he did along with the Joker. Thanks to Harley, Diana believes Batman is an Oya-Boon, or leader of a Bat Cartel. Now I thought it was totally baller that this version of Superman killed his Doomsday and not the other way around. 

Yeah, I thought that was a little bullshit. Like, why is Doomsday leading a family? I feel like the character is not smart enough to do that, so I thought it was an interesting choice of character, for sure. Yeah, a badass choice, like I said. Okay. 

Hardcore. Now as Batman attempts to fly back to Gotham, Kuraku appears and captures the Bat Plane, as the Hagenae Oya-Boon, Ras Al Ghul, ordered him to bring Damien to him. After flinging Robin toward Ras' Yakuza Tower, Kuraku nearly kills Batman until Joker and Harley Quinn interfere on a makeshift plane. While Harley distracts Kuraku, Joker straps his high-powered ejector seat to the Bat Plane and shoots him into Gotham, claiming he doesn't want Kuraku to kill Batman. 

While Diana rescues Harley from Kuraku, Batman reunites with Nightwing, Red Hood, and Red Robin. And you're right, the Joker moment was bullshit. It was dumb, and even Batman admitted it. I was also really glad though that Joker didn't reappear back in the story, because I guess I was anticipating that, and I thought it would have been unnecessary. So while I appreciate that they didn't bring the Joker back, it did leave a bit of a plot hole. Yeah, honestly, I thought the Joker was going to return, and I thought that Batman is going to use the villains from the first movie to help defeat the Yakuza League. I don't know why I got that impression initially. That would have been cool. 

Yeah, it didn't end up happening. It turns out all he needed was his own Bat Family to take him on. Now Robin is taken before his grandfather, Ras Al Ghul, who explains that he's improved upon Gorilla Grodd's time-traveling Quake engine, creating what he calls a four-dimensional origami system capable of reshaping space-time itself. Ras reveals that he used it to create new realities by folding space-time like origami to create a new world of Yakuza assassins under his control, capable of wiping out humanity on a Metsukuni and allowing Robin, his desired successor, to rebuild it to his liking. Robin refuses and becomes trapped in a sushi claw machine. So random. 

Pretty random. I thought it was funny how he just ordered California rolls because that was the sushi he was most familiar with, and Ras Al Ghul called him out for that. I thought that was almost kind of an insult to Damien. 

I feel like Damien has better taste than that. I could be wrong. Well, he's young. Who knows? 

That's fair. Now in the Batcave, Batman explains that bringing down the Yakuza League should be simple as they know their weaknesses, and thanks to being exposed to a space-time pulse from the Quake engine in their prior adventure into the past, they can see and travel to the inverted Japan through the fissure and space-time with whatever tech they possess. Before Batman and his allies prepare for their trip back to Japan, Alfred shows them a video he made for them using a new batship known as the Bat Phoenix that can separate into smaller ships that each of them can control individually. Meanwhile in Japan, Ras and Kuraku discuss bringing down Diana and the Amazon family before conquering a Metsukuni, which Ras has led Kuraku to believe is full of Yakuza. While Diana nurses Harley back to health, she is visited by a giant turtle messenger from Asa, challenging her to a duel. After accepting the challenge, Diana begins to sing about her feelings, karaoke style, awakening Harley, who is invited to sing but is quickly stopped when she sings horribly. Again, another random absurdist moment, but honestly, I was laughing. 

I laughed too. It was strange in that a lot of the story elements to this movie seem to try to cram as many Japanese customs as possible, kind of randomly, like the sushi thing, like the claw game, like this karaoke part. Yeah, I always wonder if the Japanese creators of these films is just trying to expose Western audiences to as many Japanese things as possible. Yeah, that's what it felt like. One thing I didn't like about this movie was how easy it was for Batman to defeat the Justice League. 

Yeah. Saying to the others that, oh, it's going to be easy to bring these guys down, and then as you watch the film progress, yeah, he was right. It kind of ruins the whole versus aspect of this movie to me. Now, granted, the stakes are still huge because of what happens later on with the potential destruction of Gotham, but that threat wasn't because of the Justice League, and I thought it would be. Yeah, Batman should never say that it's going to be easy to take down the Justice League. 

It should always be difficult. We've seen him do it before in stories like Tower of Babel, which was adapted into Justice League Doom, but that felt earned. It's never fun to see Batman go into, like, God Bode, you know, where he could just defeat all these other characters. Actually, I mean, it probably is fun to see that. It actually is really cool. But yeah, it just, it was different from what I thought it was going to be. 

That doesn't mean it was bad, but the title of the film sets up a premise that wasn't as satisfying as maybe it could have been. Now, Asa and Diana meet on Lake Inokishira, where it's revealed that they used to play together as children. As the two battle, Zeshika intervenes, holding members of the Amazon family hostage. Harley joins the fight, battling Zeshika, who is suddenly rammed by the Bat Phoenix. The ship separates with Nightwing taking on Zeshika, Batman helping Diana against Asa, and Red Robin and Red Hood assigned to Rasa's Yakuza Tower, where Kuraku rallies Yakuza troops to conquer a Masukuni. 

Nightwing brings down Zeshika with the science ninja technique, Decoy Body, tricking her into thinking he was inside a Sentai-esque suit of armor before shooting her with a sleeping dirt. Which was bizarre. Like, I don't know when he switched out of the suit. It might have been when, like, she caused a whole bunch of smoke to come up. 

I've seen this film twice, and that has to be the moment, but still, it was unexpected. I mean, that Decoy Body was pretty down powerful to be just a technological creation of Batman. You know, if he can create drones as smart and powerful as this, Batman should be creating these guys all the time. Maybe it's a resources issue. 

We'll go with that. Now, as Baty generates a storm to shoot Yakuza into Gotham, Diana helps Batman bring down Asa with the science ninja technique, Electrolisis, in which Batman trapped him in an electric current underwater, then uses that electricity to create a chemical reaction that exploded the water around Asa. After Batman and Nightwing explain to Diana their plan to blow up Rasa's quake engine to dissolve the dimensional fissure joining their worlds, Robin and Red Hood use the science ninja technique, Tornado Canceller, using their ship to reverse the direction of Flash's tornado, then blowing up the giant Yakuza Gatling cannon. Red Robin activates the Bat Phoenix's cloaking mode before he and Red Hood detach from it and take to the Tokyo streets, where they're chased by body. 

They eventually lure him into a trap they set up in an underground parking garage involving a treadmill and a holographic projector before Red Hood takes body down using science ninja technique, Vending Machine, which he hides in a holographic vending machine and shoots body in the head with a sleeping dart when he tries to buy a drink. Again, they played on his desire for food in order to defeat him. I know it's really hard to take down a character like the Flash, but I feel like they didn't have to go quite so ridiculous with it. 

Well, I think other Flash projects like the Flash movie established that Barry is always hungry, so maybe they were just borrowing from that. Who knows? This was the most bizarre take down, I feel like. Because as Flash was having trouble catching up with these Bat Phoenix cars, I was like, what is going on? 

And then for it to be a hologram, I was like, okay, well, when did that happen? Kuraku destroys the parking garage, and though Red Hood and Red Robin try to blow him up, Kuraku nearly kills them before he's plowed into by Batman's tank car. And Diana saves the boys, all of whom go with Nightwing to Yakuza Tower to find the Quake engine and Robin, while Batman takes on Kuraku and robotic armor transformed from his tank. As the two fight within a crater in the street, Kuraku dismantles Batman's armor, though Batman uses science ninja technique spectral conversion to depower Superman by using crystals within his dismantled armor to filter the sunlight above them into red solar rays. While suffering a beatdown from Batman, Kuraku learns that Ross has been lying to him about Amatsukuni being full of Yakuza and that he's a weak version of the Superman that Batman is familiar with. Though Kuraku manages to disrupt the spectral conversion filter, Batman knocks him out with a Kryptonite knuckle duster before leaving to Yakuza Tower to go after Ross. This did serve to highlight how lame Superman's weaknesses are. What? 

They're always exploited. It's so easy to defeat Superman if you have the right tool, otherwise it's impossible. But we've seen this time and time again where he's either taken out by Red Sun radiation or Kryptonite and I'm just over it. I was hoping that they would go a different route for this film. 

It did not bother me at all, I'm going to be honest. Everything from the battle between Diana and Asa leading up to this battle between Kuraku and Batman was just balls to the wall action. I loved these fights. 

I thought they were really hyperkinetic and really cool. I thought it was pretty absurd that Batman's dismantled armor just managed to create this net filter of light because it had crystals in it. But it was also very satisfying to see Batman just beat the shit out of this evil version of Superman. The dialogue was satisfying and the action was cool, but it was so obvious and therefore there was no tension because you knew that of course Batman was going to pull out Kryptonite. 

Well, not initially. I didn't think he was going to at first, but then once he did, the fireball that was around his hand, I've never seen it depicted that way. The design again just kind of I feel like saved it. 

Yeah, Kryptonite radiation as green flame is pretty badass. At Yakuza Tower, Robin breaks free from his claw machine. Easily, I add, and joins Diana and Batman in confronting Ross. Ross removes a space-time converter from his quake engine, sending its four-dimensional origami system out of control and causing the inverted Tokyo to breach the dimensional fissure and fall into a collision course with Gotham. Unable to return the converter back to the engine as it phases into other dimensions, Batman deduces that the energy from the space-time pulse their bodies were exposed to can anchor the engine back in Tokyo, and his crew works to focus their energy on the machine while Diana prevents Ross from interfering. Meanwhile, as Tokyo emerges with Amatsukuni, the Yakuza League members become disoriented by the awareness of their alternate heroic selves across other realities, and Ross knocks Diana from the tower. 

There's a little bit of like flux capacitor mumbo jumbo going on here, but I didn't mind it as much because conceptually it made sense, which I thought was the most important thing. Yeah, I can't tell you how long it took me to sort of write out this plot structure and just make sense of everything everyone was saying. It was not easy. 

But as I was watching the film for the first time, I wouldn't say that bothered me because yeah, they do eventually get around to explaining everything that's going on. Now, as gravity inverts itself around them, Batman chases Ross to get the converter. Ross blows up the base of Yakuza Tower, detaching it from Tokyo so it alone can still fall onto Gotham as a contingency for Batman successfully closing the fissure. As Ross escapes via airplane and as Tokyo debris plummets toward Gotham, Kuraku, Diana, and the rest of the Yakuza League appear, holding up the tower and protecting Gotham in an adoption of the Ninkyo spirit, freeing up Batman to go after Ross upon the cloaked Bat Phoenix. After defeating Ross and recapturing the converter, Batman races back to the tower and with help from Harley, restores the converter to the engine. As Tokyo begins returning to its own reality, Batman tells the Yakuza League to return the tower to their world and destroy the engine there to close the fissure and sever the link between their worlds. Using the Hagoni technique, rising dragon of valor, the Yakuza raise the tower and depart Gotham. With the Justice League and Robin's Japanese hairstyle back, Batman and his allies confirm that their timeline has been restored. 

In a mid-credits scene, Robin rejects the Alfred suggestion of wearing a wig. My favorite part about this end scene is that when the Justice League characters became their composite selves, their reformed versions, and they got their new updated costumes, the tattoos that were underneath the costumes glowed. They're Yakuza tattoos. 

And they all had this really awesome look because of that. Yeah, tattoos are synonymous with Yakuza and crime in East Asian culture. I remember when I went to Korea, they had to check my entire body for tattoos when I lived there for a time. So yeah, it's kind of a big deal, maybe not so much anymore, but I loved that the Justice League had those tattoos. They were pretty sick tattoos too. They were. 

Yeah, they were really cool. Now, the end credits for this film, they showcased these real like paper dioramas of like the different origins of the Yakuza League. I didn't realize those were real when they were showing them throughout the movie. Really? But yeah, someone actually made those and they're awesome to see on display. Holy shit. You didn't see that in the end credits? 

The camera moves around them. Yeah, I thought it was still animated. No, it's real. Okay. 

All right, I'll take your word for it. I want them. I would buy those out of my so much merch from this movie. 

Oh my gosh. But that brings us to the end of the film. I really liked it. 

I know it's not perfect. I know it's probably too absurd for a lot of viewers, but because it's loaded with absurdist anime fun and hyperkinetic action. And with the sequel showcasing gorgeous Japanese inspired designs and new takes on fan favorite characters. I think this is an improvement upon the first film, which we gave three and a half stars. So I'm bumping this one up to four out of five stars, a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 

I think that's a solid rating. I think the key thing that you mentioned here is that it's fun. It's a fun movie just like the first film. And I don't think you even need to really see the first film in order to appreciate the sequel. Though I do think the first film is worth watching too, because it has a lot more traditional, you know, feudal Japanese elements. But this one is worth watching for the cool twist on the Justice League characters. Yeah, that's a great description of this whole movie, I think it's just cool. Like a lot of Japanese things are. But that does it for this review. AJ9K help close this out. 

That does it for this episode, guys. We want to give a big thanks to our executive producers, John Strausky, Zachary Hepburn, Mickey Bathegan, Brandon Essargard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yatyn, Austin Wosalowski, AJ Dunkerly, Nick Obonto, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spees, Dean Molesky, Devin Davis, Joseph Kirsting, Josh Leiner, Mike Williams, and Oscar Galvez for helping make this podcast possible. We'll talk to you guys next week. Up up and away, true believers.