“Night of the Ninja” may not be the greatest episode or one of the most influential episodes that came out of the
BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES canon, but it sure is a solid piece to this great animated series. In reviewing “Night of the Ninja” I thoroughly enjoyed many things about this overlooked episode from Batman: The Animated Series.
“Night of the Ninja” was written by Steve Perry and directed by Kevin Altieri. The episode begins with a mysterious ninja breaking into “Wayne Cosmetics” stealing millions from Wayne’s fortune. Wayne does some investigating and comes across a chilling realization: the person who is ripping Wayne off is an old training partner from his days when he lived in Japan. Before Wayne can do anything to stop this menace Wayne and local television personality Summer Gleason are kidnapped by ninja mastermind Keyodi Ken. Keyodi Ken explains to Wayne why he had to become “A great thief, the best.” After Robin swoops in and conveniently covers Ms. Gleeson with a large carpet, Wayne finally faces his old sparring partner. After a few quick kicks and punches Keyodi flees, leaving Bruce’s secret intact.
What was really compelling for me about this episode, is this is really the first time that you get to see a young Bruce Wayne training overseas in Japan. Consumed by the murder of his parents you get a glimpse into the training that Bruce undertakes at all times during the day. In this episode “Night of the Ninja,” it’s almost as if Wayne never stops his training and is always hungry, always concentrating and always working on maturing his fighting abilities at a fast pace. Another aspect of this episode that was really enjoyable was the mentoring/apprentice dynamic that went on throughout this episode. You get a glimpse of this when the black belt Wayne is training the much younger, green belt Grayson. It’s in these scenes that you are able to take into account how much training these two do, to keep their fighting abilities sharp and at tip-top shape. You also get to see when young Bruce was the apprentice, being mentored by his sensei.
On first viewing this episode many, many years ago I took for granted how outstanding “Night of the Ninja” really was. In the context of the Nolan Batman films I am really happy to say that this episode, like many of the episodes from this excellently produced animated series was way ahead of its time. This episode dealt with the early days of a troubled Bruce Wayne. With the help of his sensei, a young Wayne was able to be molded into a weapon that was going to be used for the people of Gotham
The only thing about “Night of the Ninja” I disliked was the music from this episode. With that said this is a wonderful episode and one of the major reasons that B:TAS will always be the best animated Batman of all time.
