Creators Discuss Reinventing the Dark Knight for Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League and Aztec Batman
by MrAJCosplay,
Batman is one of the most influential superheroes of all time. He's a malleable character, capable of fitting into different stories, and he has been adapted into many different mediums, from cartoons, comics, live-action, and, of course, anime. Batman Ninja was an interesting take on the character, as the CG animated film teleported him to Feudal Japan with his friends and rogues' gallery. The popularity and success of the first film led to the development of a sequel called Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League, slated to release sometime in 2025 with the same creative team. Another project slated for a 2025 release is Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires, a film that follows the origins of a new Batman who starts as a young Aztec boy whose father is killed by Spanish conquistadors.
At New York Comic Con 2025, Anime News Network had the opportunity to speak with the creators of these amazing properties. We spoke with the two directors of the Batman Ninja films, Jumpei Mizusaki and Shinji Takagi, alongside the head writer for both films, Kazuki Nakashima. For Aztec Batman, we also spoke with José C. García de Letona, the film's producer, and Juan Meza-León, the film's head writer and director. This large assortment of Batman creators offered insight into the inception of these films and what the creative teams hope to accomplish with them.
I quite enjoyed Batman Ninja as a film. It didn't just feel like a celebration of Batman, but also a celebration of anime in general with different stylistic changes and I believe a few references to other media. Was there any difficulty in directing or managing such an ambitious animated project?
Jumpei Mizusaki: Batman had always been a character I wanted to film, and I was able to fulfill that dream with Batman Ninja, which also marked my first experience working on a feature-length production. You could almost call it my debut feature-length anime! So when I got the brilliant script from Nakashima, I couldn't incorporate everything from it into the film. I bowed my head, and I apologized to him! I said, for the second one, I will make sure to incorporate every single thing you put in that script.
Kazuki Nakashima: So, of course, American comics have a very long history. There are lots of different series within Batman and The Justice League, both together and separately. There are so many different series and incarnations, but the same is true for Yakuza movies. There's almost an infinite number of Yakuza movies! So, being able to take what we wanted to use out of each and condense it down was probably the most challenging yet rewarding part of it.
I'm sorry, that implies that a lot was cut from the original? Batman Ninja already feels like it literally has everything from time travel to sword fighting to giant feudal Japanese Megazords! For Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League, how do you follow up on all of that?
Mizusaki: For Batman Ninja, I had to cut about forty percent of Nakashima's script! You only see sixty percent of his ideas in the final film! That's less of an issue with DC and more that it was what Kamikaze Douga was capable of with the amount of time and the density that this script had. But with Yakuza League, there will be much more! I'm actually impressed with how much we managed to squeeze in.
When it came to writing the characters, were there any specific pieces of Batman media or any specific versions of Batman that you used as a jumping-off point for who the Batman is in Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but unlike Batman Ninja, Aztec Batman doesn't look like it's about taking a modern-day incarnation of Batman and bringing him to a different location or time. Rather, it seems like a story about a young Aztec boy fighting against the conquistadors. Throughout the many different incarnations of Batman, his origin and Gotham have mostly been left untouched, as they are considered some of the main driving forces for him, turning him into who he is. How much does this movie deviate from that origin, and how does that end up shaping this version of Batman?
José C. García de Letona: Well, it's detached geographically, but not in essence. By that, I mean, it's still very much Batman that we're going to see. We cannot just put the cape and cowl on anyone! They have to go through the Batman process, and I think that the character we created is amazing.
Juan Meza-León: Well, it was basically like you said, starting from scratch. It's just taking the idea of the spirit of vengeance, which is Batman, and turning that tragedy into something constructive or something positive. That's essentially the spirit, the answer, the essence of the Batman character. So it was interesting trying to do our own version because, well, we don't have one. We don't have the Bruce Wayne mythos. We don't have the Harvey Dent mythos. We had to create our own. All of that is based on how Aztec culture was for a young boy growing up. There was a class system back in the day in Aztec culture, and just like the original Batman, this one also came from a wealthy family.
He goes through tragedy at the hands of the conquistadors. So that's where you get the loss of the parents and also the loss of his village. That motivates him and pushes him into a journey that, unbeknownst to him, is being led by the deities that guide him into becoming the bat warrior. We try to be as faithful as we can to the essence of the characters, whether it's Batman, Joker, or Two Face. They're completely new characters with different origins, but you can still see the spirit of their comic counterparts.
There are so many different incarnations of Batman, and it sounds like you guys are creating your own. Despite that, are there any inspirations from other established Batman versions across comics, television, movies, et cetera?
García de Letona: Ernie Altbacker is the writer, and he's a big Batman DC guy, so he knows the Batman mythos up and down. I'm also a big Batman fan. So, we tried to incorporate mythos into these new characters so that we could keep the essence of the characters in the DC universe. But with that pre-Hispanic twist to it, you know? For example, how does that Two Face character apply to a man such as Hernán Cortés and the duality that he has within him? We see how he presents himself as a charming man, but then you see the evil that lies inside and how that manifests later, physically creating that duality as well.
So, as far as inspiration, we have Batman The Animated Series, we have the Dark Knight trilogy, and we have a whole bunch of comic books. If you have a keen eye, you're gonna see little Easter eggs pop here and there where you're like, “Oh, I see where they got that from!”
Let's move on to some questions for all of you. How does it feel to work on projects celebrating the character and legacy of one of the most influential superheroes ever? Does it ever feel like the pressure gets to you?
Mizusaki: You know, I'm sure that to a lot of fans here in the U.S., Batman is this image or entity that one cannot tarnish and one cannot destroy. But the fact that they came to us to make this makes me feel like we're the Suicide Squad of the anime or something. So the fact that they actually asked us to work on it meant that I was like, maybe they did want us to kind of break down that image a little bit.
Meza-León: Oh yeah, we also feel the pressure. We have people asking us if it feels like the sky is falling, and…yeah, it feels like that every single day! But it's great. It's a life-changing experience that every single member of the team feels. Like, we are responsible for delivering more than expected, if possible, and that's what we're in for.
I'm noticing a theme here with challenging Batman by putting him in different settings and rather unconventional situations. As creators working on these projects, how did the setups for these movies come about? Were these ideas that you were asked to work with, or did they conceptually start with all of you?
Nakashima: So, in terms of the first movie, we were asked to make it with the ninja theme. But regarding Yakuza League, they gave us the green light when we said we wanted to do a follow-up. I was the one who came up with the Yakuza League idea. But let me tell you, that was not our first idea, as a lot of other ideas were passed on first. They were all like, “No, you can't do that.” But when we finally pitched Yakuza League, that got the green light.
I wish I knew what all those ideas were.
Nakashima: Unfortunately, we'd have to kill you!
Meza-León: Well, we came to Warner Brothers Animation with the idea, but we were aiming for the sky when we said we wanted to use Batman. We wondered what we would do if we ever did something with Batman? We wanted to do something that was unique to us or something that no one else could come up with besides us. Well, we thought that a great period in time to set up a story like this would have been during the era of the Aztecs. People know about them but, at the same time, know very little about their culture and their vision of life. So we said, that's it. If we ever want to make a Batman story, it should be set in the Aztec Empire! And what better period within the Aztec empire than when you have this whole other empire coming and trying to conquer you?
García de Letona: Yeah, as the subtitle says, it's a clash of empires, and we showcase that a lot with how two different perspectives, two different points of view, can have this friction. Then, we try to show one perspective from the conquistadors as well as the perspective of the native people. We want it to show that the conquest of the American continent is a big point in human history where a lot of things changed and where the beginning of the loss of a culture was set. So what better place to put our Batman than in this momentous moment in history? We also tried not just to put the Aztec culture as just some fancy backdrop. Like Gotham, it's part of the story.
It's not just some fancy jungle with temples. We get to see how the people live. We get to see what the traditions are. We get to see what their beliefs are and all the supernatural religious aspects that actually freaked out a lot of the invaders because they have their own superstitious way of thinking. It's a clash of faiths as well, and fear is a tool. You can achieve something by projecting that fear onto somebody to immediately disarm them so you can attack. You have these invaders that have science that the Aztecs have never seen before and originally mistake for magic. They brought creatures like horses, which they never saw and thought were monsters. But at the same time, the Aztecs were fascinated by what these people would bring because the mythology told the Aztecs that, at some point, the gods would return. So, they thought that the Spaniards were the gods returning to America. But no, it became something else. It wasn't a godsend.
There are so many different interpretations of Batman out there, from the Silver Age to the Golden Age to the modern Age. Do any of you have a particular favorite incarnation of Batman? It could be a comic book, animated, or live-action.
Meza-León: Saying live-action will show my age, but I grew up with the Batman live-action series with Adam West. It was very campy, but I watched it every night when I was growing up. I loved it. I love it even now, given how iconic the take on the character was. Again, not serious at all. We aim to leave a very different impact.
García de Letona: Mine was the Frank Miller version of Batman. I love the Adam West version too, and it will always have a special place in my heart. But as far as really diving into what a superhero could be, like a crime investigator, that's the version that I like.
Nakashima: I like the original comic version of The Dark Knight.
Shinji Takagi: I like the version from the Nolan Dark Knight films.
Mizusaki: For me, it's gotta be the Tim Burton version of Batman. So, the initial high-quality Batman movies. The reason why is that you saw a comedic or humorous side to Batman back then.
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