How About That Thing?

Look, I’ve pretty much sucked this series’s dick for the better part of a year and a half on this blog. You already know how much I love it, how the C-list villains are made into compelling characters, etc.

That being said, even BTAS wasn’t immune to getting a little goofy. And no, I’m not digging up my old talking point about The Penguin. Necessarily. When I say goofy, I’m talking about some of the curveballs. IE, The Manbat, the super computer that was creating robot duplicates, Farmer Brown… I’m debating covering one or two of those episodes some day, but for now, we’re looking at one particular short-lived villain who was good enough to be the antagonist of TWO episodes. The man, the myth, the… Well, maybe LEGEND is a bit generous… We’re talking about Kyodai Ken.

Kyodai Ken appeared in two episodes of Batman: The Animated Series: Night of the Ninja, and Day of the Samurai. I’d thought about reviewing them both, either as a extra-long double header type article, or just reviewing Day of the Samurai. But really, the only thing that really stood out about either of these episodes is the fact Kyodai Ken and Batman’s final battle took place on AN ACTIVE VOLCANO!.

The episodes, while not terrible, or even bad, felt… Forgettable.

The first episode, Night of the Ninja, arrows the audience. Technically, Arrow wasn’t a thing back then, but I still refer to the trope of telling two stories, one in the past and one in the present day, as Arrowing. And it used to not bother me so much until I started watching Arrow back in the 2010s. But that’s a conversation for a different day.

The origin of how Kyodai was banished from the dojo Bruce Wayne was training in, and how he’d been an arrogant little shit while he was still there was really nothing to write home about. The present day story, where Batman encounters a ninja who’s been stealing all of Bruce Wayne’s shit, and Robin trying to figure out why Batman is especially pissed off about this was a little more interesting. Especially when you take into account Summer Gleason was also involved in solving the mystery. I don’t know, I just kind of roll my eyes at nonsequencial story telling anymore. .

Until I rewatched the episode recently, the only thing I remembered was Robin’s conversation with Batman after he bailed him out.

“I thought samurai were supposed to fight with honor,” Robin complains.

“He isn’t samurai,” says Batman. “He’s ninja.”

And it’s right about here I have to resist the urge to facepalm. Really, Robin? You REALLY don’t know what a fucking ninja is?

Look, I get Robin is the less experienced one of the duo. I understand he’s still working on being the badass Batman is. Frankly, I’m just glad the BTAS version of Robin has a costume that includes pants, and that Robin himself doesn’t look at a situation like this and say stupid shit like: “Holy shinobi, Batman! He’s a ninja!” But again, really?

Hell, I was seven or eight when this episode debuted, and even I knew what a ninja was. Not to mention the early 90s had a bit of a ninja boom, what with The Three Ninjas movies, Mortal Kombat having male, female, and even cybernetic ninjas; The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being at the height of their popularity… The list goes on. And Naruto would come out a whole decade later, so I guess there’s that.

Day of the Samurai, the second episode he appears in, is better by comparison. True, I find myself asking what the hell happened in Gotham while Batman took a trip to Japan to deal with all this bullshit… But maybe he just left it to Robin, and maybe even Batgirl if she was around at that point.

Unlike his first appearance, Kyodai is more interested in learning a newer, more deadly art. I can’t remember off-hand what it was called anymore, but it was something like The Black Claw, or the Dark Claw, or something. Apparently, the art was so deadly, you could literally kill a man by poking him with a finger. [INSERT HOLLYWOOD HOGAN VS KEVIN NASH JOKE HERE]

This too ultimately results in a showdown between Kyodai and Batman. Except this time, like I said before, they’re fighting on an active volcano!

“This was a poor choice for a battleground,” says Batman.

“Ninja do not fear death,” Kyodai counters, ripping off his shirt for seemingly no reason.

The technique Kyodai tries to memorize, known as “The touch of eternal sleep” in English (I can’t remember what it was in Japanese off-hand), is applied… Only for Kyodai to learn the hard way that the technique might actually be a dud.

Batman wins, but before The volcano becomes too unstable to continue the fight, and Batman tries to do the right thing and save Kyodai. Kyodai, in return, basically decides to go out like a boss, and get swept up in the various explosions all around them. And th episode ends with Batman revealing the truth. IE, the technique actually DOES work, but after locating Kyodai’s layer, he found where the touch was supposed to be applied via his training dummy, and slipped some extra padding into his suit to absorb the poke.

And that was the last anyone ever heard of Kyodai Ken. And to me, it’s kind of a mixed bag.

I feel like Kyodai had potential as a concept. IE, a villain who was trained by the same martial arts master Batman trained under, thus resulting in the two of them more or less having the same, or at least, extremely similar fighting styles. Not to mention ninja are taught to see through deception, and as Batman says in Day of the Samurai: “your fighting style is like a fingerprint. That’s how Kyodai knows Batman and Bruce Wayne are the same person.” There’s all kinds of potential there for a sort of evil Batman, or anti-Batman, or whatever you want to go with.

On the other hand… Well… He’s a fucking ninja. True, Batman is the guy whose rogues gallery includes a psychotic clown, a man made out of sentient clay, a man in a robot suit who carries a freeze ray, a woman who controls plants, and an alligator man, just to name a few… But a ninja? This seems like the kind of cartoony villain that’d probably fit in with a different gallery. Like… I don’t know, Arrow? Huntress? The Question? Maybe not so much Batman, is what I’m saying.

In the end, Kyodai was memorable enough to stick around a little longer than most. However, the idea of Batman fighting a ninja must have seemed too corny to most others, seeing as how he never really appeared anywhere else that I’m aware of. A female clown with a giant mallet somehow became a cultural icon, but a ninja? I mean what’s next, a werewolf?

…

What?

…

WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT?!

…

…

Oh lord, he fought a werewolf, didn’t he?