Following in the noble tradition of "Sharknado," "Snakes on a Plane" and "Sex and the City 2," this elaborately executed nonsense is the kind of project where you just know that the title came first. "Batman Ninja" (or "Ninja Batman" as it's being called here) answers the question nobody had thought to ask: What East-meets-West mash-up would make even less sense than "Afro Samurai"?
The result is a cross-cultural hybrid every bit as unlikely as Wes Anderson's "Isle of Dogs," though rather less memorable. Produced by a Japanese team for overseas paymasters, "Batman Ninja" certainly looks the part, but there's something strangely dutiful about its execution, like its creators were reluctant to stray from the most generic storytelling conventions.
During a mission at Arkham Asylum, Batman (voiced in the Japanese dub by Koichi Yamadera) is transported back to 16th century Japan, along with much of the regular cast of heroes and villains from the comics. Actually, it turns out he has arrived a couple of years behind his pals. The Sengoku (Warring States) period, already one of the most chaotic in Japanese history, is now being played out by rival clans led by the Joker (Wataru Takagi), Two-Face and other villains who get so little screen time it's a wonder they bothered to show up.