Written by Kazuki Nakashima
Directed by Junpei Mizusaki And Shinji Takagi
Batman: "Don't forget. It is most dangerous when a friend turns into an enemy."
The day before I had rewatched Batman Ninja in preparation for this sequel and it's a good job I had. It might be seven years between movie releases but almost no time passed here. Well, maybe a day.
The consequences of Grodd's Quake Engine meant that Feudal Japan was now floating over Gotham City and it didn't take long for Batman (Koichi Yadamera) and Robin (Yuki Kaji) to go up and investigate what was going on. Last time, it was Batman's rogue, this time it's a League.
The League being the Yakuza League and their members involved alternative versions of Superman (Takaya Kamikawa), Wonder Woman (Romi Park), Jessica Cruz (Ayane Sakura), The Flash (Nobuyuki Hiyama) and Aquaman (Akio Otsuka). As a League, they're somewhat of a splintered bunch.
First of all, Wonder Woman's not even taking part in the big fights, proving to be more of an ally to Batman and Robin as well as a protector to Harley Quinn (Rie Kugimiya) while Superman's a rather brutish enforcer to the real villain of the piece, Ra's al Ghul (Kazuhiro Yamiji). The rest of them are muscle that eventually come good by the third act.
Ra's al Ghul as the main villain with a plot very much in line with him did work for the film. He did try to sway Damian to his side but the latter refused and ended up encased with a lot of sushi (no, really). The Joker (Wataru Takagi) also factored into things with his notable contribution being to save Batman's life for his own selfish reasons.
As for the rest of Batman's support team - there was the returns of Nightwing (Daisuke Ono), Red Hood (Akira Ishida), Red Robin (Kengo Kawanishi) and Alfred Pennyworth (Hocho Otsuka) all returned and we had Commissioner Gordon (Masaki Tersoma) also in the mix. Throw in some good fight scenes, redemption plots and time being restored properly and you had the making of a great sequel.
- The English dub actors are Joe Daniels, Nathan Wilson, Bryson Baugus, David Harbold, Karlii Hoch, Molly Searcy, Cyrus Rodas, Annie Wild, John Swasey and Aaron Campbell.
- Harley's new look was more purple and black and Red Hood's seemed in line with his recent comic look.
- Most of the League's back stories in Feudal Japan were similar but Barry was a low level gang member and Jessica a gambling addict.
- Chronology: A day since the events of Batman Ninja.
Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League turned out to be a rather enjoyable sequel. Granted, I'm over the Evil Superman story in any continuity but it was handled recently here and fortunately, Ra's was the main villain. If there's scope to do a third one, I hope they do.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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