There are so many comics around the world, each sticking to the style of the country that produced it. There are local comics, French-language bande dessinée, American comics and then, what is certainly the best known at the moment, manga. But there are also certain crossovers, like cartoon characters ending up somewhere else, such as Batman.
Even the Bat Man, one of America’s most beloved heroes, has made his way into the world of Japanese comics. While Batman continues the continuation of his title in various ways under the DC Comics label, over the years the original publisher has come to terms with the Japanese various manga and anime dedicated to Batman. Here are five.
Batman: The Batmanga is one of the earliest examples of this mixture. 53 chapters created following the popularity in Japan of the TV series about the Batman that aired in the 1960s. The work was written and drawn by Jiro Kuwata, featuring a dark knight very different from what we see today.
We then move on to younger times. There are Batman and the Justice League, manga that not only presents the Dark Knight but also his companions such as Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman and all the most well-known of the DC Comics group. Once again Gotham City faces a problem that requires the help of the entire group.
Batman of Shanghai is a 2012 anime miniseries produced by Wolf Smoke Animation Studio that reimagines the Batman as a warrior who lived in 1930s Shanghai and fought against Chinese crime and therefore had a slightly different background and uniform than the general public it is used to.
Batman Gotham Knight is an anthology film released in 2008 and involving several animation studios: 4C, Bee Train Production, Production IG and Studio Madhouse, just to name the most famous ones. Borrowing from Christopher Nolan’s Batman, he brought the likes of Scarecrow, Deadshot and Killer Croc to the screen with a Japanese style of animation.
The best known is undoubtedly Batman Ninja, the most recent takeover that led Batman and the Joker to fight each other in feudal Japan. Everything changes in their approach to the situation, their armor, but it doesn’t change the way they do it and the enmity that sets them apart. Both anime and manga, the Batman Ninja Review confirms the success of the work.
We conclude the list with a little extra, a bizarre comic book spin-off dedicated to the Joker. The white-faced clown with a mischievous smile has a child to take care of, which we won’t tell to avoid spoilers and special surprises. It’s not Batman-centric in any strict sense, but it’s still very much connected to its main character. An operations joker it remains the most recent work in Japan dedicated to the Bat Man.
