Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

89 minutes of WTF.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III June 1, 2025

This review arrives in the wake of Warner Bros.' recently finalized disc replacement program that corrects the original pressing's lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 audio to DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio in both languages. In the event you received a faulty first-run copy, please see my forum post for replacement information.

The rare sequel that fully surpasses its predecessor, WB Animation's Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League follows 2018's Batman Ninja, directed by Junpei Mizusaki, a film that introduced anime to the Batman franchise and (eventually) sent the Caped Crusader and company back to feudal Japan. As indicated by that linked review's 3/5 rating, Batman Ninja sharply divided critics and audiences despite more or less fulfilling its odd promises, so this follow-up -- which brings in co-director Shinji Takagi alongside the returning Mizusaki and writer Kazuki Nakashima -- leans into Batman Ninja's sporadically ludicrous tone to deliver 89 minutes of pure, unadulterated WTF. In a mostly good way, of course.

So yep, Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League is a marathon of absurdity, sharply unfolding as one long and strange "What if?" scenario in which viewers are thrown in the backseat of a careening car no matter if they're in the mood for a ride. (This could also describe the first film, except now we already know what we're in for.) Yakuza League directly follows the events of the first film, opening soon after Batman (Koichi Yamadera in the original Japanese, Joe Daniels on the English dub) and Damien (Yuki Kaji, Bryson Baugus) have returned to the present but immediately notice that things are... different. The biggest change is that both The Justice League and the entire island of Japan have disappeared, but the latter is instead now floating in the ripped sky like a massive crack in the space-time continuum.

Soon enough, an army of jet-packed yakuza gangsters -- soon discovered to be the new Japan's main inhabitants, ruled by the dastardly Hagane Family -- descends from the heavens like a literal hurricane, ready to fight. Also ready to fight are various Hagane bosses which turn out to be criminal versions of Justice League members including "Zeshika the Emerald Ray" (Green Lantern Jessica Cruz, played by Ayane Sakura and Annie Wild), "Bari, the Fleet of Foot" (The Flash - Nobuyuki Hiyama and Benjamin McLaughlin), "Ahsa, the Aqua Dragon" (Aquaman - Akio Otsuka and Cyrus Rodas), and others including the requisite final boss, a certain superpowered individual wearing red and blue (Takaya Kamikawa and Aaron Campbell). Luckily, Batman and Robin get help from a few friends, form unaffected Earth-dwellers like three more Robins including Nightwing (Daisuke Ono and Houston Hayes), Alfred (Hōchū Ōtsuka and David Harbold), and Commissioner Gordon (Masaki Terasoma and John Gremillion), as well as rival family members including "Daiana Amazone, the Eagle Goddess" (Wonder Woman - Romi Park and Molly Searcy), just to name a few.

It's the kind of movie where you're better going in mostly blind, so the synopsis ends there. What I can share -- if it wasn't immediately obvious by the screenshots -- is that Yakuza League's eye-catching character designs and visual aesthetic really drive the ship here, tightly married to the film's sharp left narrative turns and frequent detours that ensure this won't be a boring or predictable ride. While these fundamental strengths don't translate to a five-star visual presentation no matter the format, it's at least one of the more visually unique DCAU films in recent memory.

Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Please see my review of the Blu-ray edition for an overview of Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League's unique visual aesthetic, which obviously applies quite strongly to this upscaled presentation. As always, such upscales typically only yield improvements in disc encoding and sometimes color representation and contrast levels (at least those equipped with HDR10/Dolby Vision), and that's the case here on all three counts. However, the film's distinct visual style doesn't make it the most obvious candidate for these benefits on a larger scale: while the Blu-ray's trace compression issues have indeed been rectified here thanks to its much higher bit rate, Yakuza League's palette and occasionally sketchy linework run neck- and-neck with their 1080p counterparts despite sporadically tangible improvements in saturation and color depth. I'll obviously award this UHD version the win overall (especially if you're watching it on a larger display), but this is one of the closer contests between both formats in recent memory.

Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League has a default English dub as its primary audio option, which is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio (see above for replacement info if your disc has a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track) and features all the wide separation, front-field activity, channel panning, and ample surround support you'd expect from a modern mix of material with this kind of anything-goes approach. It's a very wild ride indeed and the English dubbing ain't bad, but if you're like me you'll head straight for the original Japanese track and, unlike the Blu-ray, this recently-corrected disc features lossless DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio in Japanese as well. This was a complaint of mine in that previous review so I'm glad to see it's been addressed here, as there's a lot of character to the mix and it sounds much better in direct comparison to the Blu-ray's lossy track. Whether that means the forthcoming 4K release of the original Batman Ninja will earn a matching lossless Japanese mix remains to be seen, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

English (SDH) subtitles are included during the film, which again seem to cater to the English dub, although I can't speak to script similarities between the two so they may not be all that far off. As an aside, the colorful introduction screens of certain characters (including the Hagane bosses like Zeshika, seen below), which all feature Japanese text bearing their names, are translated whether or not the optional SDH subtitles are enabled.

Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with stylish cover artwork and a Digital Copy redemption slip is tucked inside. Two Japanese-language bonus featurettes with forced English subtitles are also included; collectively, these short pieces feature interview clips with co-directors Junpei Mizusaki and Shinji Takagi, among others.

• Bringing the League to Japan (7:27) - A basic look at Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League's fusion of two separate worlds, as well as the unique challenges and opportunities faces by the creative team.

• Anime Action: Choreographing the Fights (9:08) - As its title implies, this piece examines a few of the film's many action scenes as well as character designs, which were inspired by Japanese culture and history.

Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

WB Animation's Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League is similar to its 2018 predecessor, and yet something else entirely. This anything-goes adventure has a ton of fun with the franchise and its characters, so anyone who even half-enjoyed the original should find Yakuza League to be time well spent. WB's 4K edition has very slim extras and the visual style doesn't make it the strongest candidate for supremacy (in a few respects, it's actually tied with the Blu-ray), but it's still the best-looking option overall and both audio options are phenomenal. Recommended.