Batman Ninja 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

Batman Ninja 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Randy Miller III July 6, 2025

First released in 2018, Batman Ninja was Warner Bros.' 20th animated Batman feature and the first to borrow from anime. Directed by Junpei Mizusaki with a screenplay by Kazuki Nakashima (for the Japanese audio version, at least) and animation by Kamikaze Douga and YamatoWorks, this time-travelling adventure also featured character designs by Takashi Okazaki, best known as the creator of Afro Samurai. It was a visually interesting production but sharply divided fans, with most unable to overcome obvious script shortcomings, but its 2025 sequel Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League was more warmly received (including by yours truly) despite it sharing much of the same creative team.

For a review of Batman Ninja that I wholeheartedly agree with, please see Dr. Stephen Larson's coverage of the Blu-ray. Hot on the heels of Yakuza League's recent 4K edition -- which was recalled for audio issues that were later fixed -- this 2018 film now also arrives on 4K, but unfortunately with a glaring technical oversight of its own.

Batman Ninja 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

NOTE: These screenshots are sourced directly from the 4K disc but have been downsampled to 1080p/SDR and thus should not be considered an accurate representation of quality in terms of brightness level, color, and detail.

Much like Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League, the original Batman Ninja is a native 2K production and has distinctive stylistic elements that perhaps don't make it the most ideal candidate for showing off 4K's true capabilities. While disc encoding and color representation are obviously tightened up here (the latter especially so thanks to the inclusion of Dolby Vision, which was quite honestly a surprise), specific baked-in anomalies are still present here and there such as aliasing, ringing, and gnarly edges, not to mention occasional blooming and black crush; some of these may very well be inherent to the character designs, animation style, or workflow process... but either way, UHD doesn't really cover them up. Nor should it. From a certain perspective, much like Yakuza League (which actually leans heavier on said anomalies, hence its slightly lower video score), this 2160p presentation may not yield "perfect" results -- whatever that means -- but it can still be considered a solid upgrade from the Blu-ray's 1080p/SDR transfer.

Batman Ninja 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Batman Ninja was released to Blu-ray in 2018 and came equipped with two audio tracks: a lossless English dub and lossy original Japanese audio (Dolby Digital 5.1), both paired with English and SDH subtitles as well as a plethora of foreign dubtitles. The film's sequel, Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League, was released on Blu-ray and 4K earlier this year but quietly recalled due to a lossy English Audio dub being included. Replacements were eventually announced, and with them came the hope that WB would upgrade the Japanese audio too. Thankfully that happened, so it was all but inevitable that the original Batman Ninja's belated 4K debut would also include lossless Japanese audio. The great news is that it sounds fantastic, with just as much presence, weight, and het as the lossless English audio, so all the praise I heaped upon Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League's lossless original track in my linked review certainly applies to this one. For my money, it's best way to watch this film and really adds to the enjoyment level and authenticity.

I'm sad to say, though, that WB totally dropped the ball on subtitles this time around: the secondary subs offered on the 2018 Blu-ray (which translated the original Japanese script) are nowhere to be found, leaving only one choice for both audio options: English SDH dubtitles that only match the English audio. The Japanese and English scripts differ by as much as 90% so most of these dubtitles run at a totally different cadence than the Japanese audio, including in the very first scene when no dialogue is spoken for several seconds but the text is already running full speed ahead. (That's to say nothing about the actual language differences, since the English script has a lot more jokes and dead weight.) Simply put: if you're planning to buy this release for the original Japanese audio track only, don't. It's unknown if or when a replacement program will be announced (and I'll certainly update the review accordingly)... but this 4K release was delayed by several months already, so such a problem should have been caught well in advance.

Batman Ninja 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with recycled cover artwork; no slipcover is included, and we get the same bonus features as found on the 2018 Blu-ray edition minus a few irrelevant and/or outdated items.

• East/West Batman (17:33)

• Batman: Made in Japan (14:03)

• New York Comic Con Presents Batman Ninja (49:02)

Batman Ninja 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Batman Ninja is an interesting but flawed animated film that left enough of an impression back in 2018 (when it first debuted on Blu-ray) that a sequel was released earlier this year on Blu-ray and 4K. WB has now given the original film a similar bump to UHD... and while the visuals get a small upgrade and lossless Japanese audio is much appreciated, the latter improvement is nullified by a serious problem with missing subtitles that's detailed above. Depending on your preferences, then, you may actually consider this 4K "upgrade" a small step backwards (or at least a sidestep), but those who plan to stick with English audio should consider it a safer bet than what my rating implies.