Since Anime Expo is now happening, Warner Bros gifted the crowd with the first publicly released peek at Batman Ninja Vs Yakuza League, the sequel to the 2018 anime film. The teaser is rather short, but it does reveal a piece of key information: what exactly the Yakuza League is.
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We feel dumb for not guessing this, but it’s the Justice League as the Yakuza. After Batman returns from fighting his rogues gallery in feudal Japan, he winds up passing through another temporal portal (it’s unclear how) and appears in an alternate Tokyo of the present, where a Justice Lords version of the Justice League dominates society mob-style.
Batman, with Robin, must figure out a way to stop them — which’ll be harder, as Flash and Wonder Woman are much more powerful than Joker and Riddler. But Batman comes prepared for every situation, no matter how far out there. He’s got this.
At the same time WB released the teaser, they also tweeted out a poster for the movie, along with a description in Japanese. Google translates this as “Batman making hand signs, Wonder Woman holding a Japanese sword, Flash as a courier, Aquaman as a fisherman, and Green Lantern as a courtesan!? What is the ‘Yakuza League’?”
In the original Batman Ninja, Gorilla Grodd constructed a time machine that went haywire, sending Batman, his friends and his foes into feudal Japan. Months later, Batmanβs enemies each controlled one of the warring factions across the region. Since Bruce didn’t have access to his high-tech gizmos, he had to find other ways to defeat Joker and the others, restore ancient Japan, and send everyone home. The film is available on Blu-Ray and streamable on Max.
Junpei Mizusaki, the man behind the stylish 3-D animated look of the first Batman Ninja, as well as the main titles of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, has returned to head production of Batman Ninja Vs Yakuza League. Mizusaki will serve as director alongside Shinji Takagi, from a screenplay by Kazuki Nakashima. Kamikaze Douga is directing the animation, using character designs from Takashi Okazaki.
The music will be written by by Yugo Kanno. Koichi Yamadera, who voiced Batman in the original (and is best known as the Japanese voice of Spike Speigel), will reprise the lead role. Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League still does not have a release date in any region.
