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Kouichi Yamadera Gets 57th Birthday Cake at Batman Ninja Stage Event

posted on by Jennifer Sherman

The Batman Ninja anime film opened in Japan last week, and the stars of its Japanese voice cast appeared at a stage greeting event on Saturday. One cast member was in for a special surprise at the event. Kouichi Yamadera, voice of Batman himself, was turning 57 years old on Sunday. As such, staff decided to surprise him with a birthday cake shaped like the Batman symbol that features on promo materials for the film.

In the video, the cast sings to Yamadera, and Yūki Kaji (voice of Robin) feeds Yamadera a piece of cake. Yamadera said the cake was "Batman-flavor." When asked about his thoughts in light of his birthday, Yamadera replied, "I'm glad to have a stage greeting for an amazing work on the day before my birthday. Thank you!" When asked about his thoughts in appearing in the film, he said, "I'm really happy to be able to participate in this very high-quality work made in Japan."

Warner Bros. released the film on Digital on April 24, and on Blu-ray Disc Steelbook, DVD, and Blu-ray/DVD combo pack on May 8. The release included the Japanese audio track as well as the English dub.

Warner Bros. describes the story:

Batman Ninja takes a journey across the ages as Gorilla Grodd's time displacement machine transports many of Batman's worst enemies to feudal Japan - along with the Dark Knight and a few of his allies. The villains take over the forms of the feudal lords that rule the divided land, with the Joker taking the lead among the warring factions. As his traditional high-tech weaponry is exhausted almost immediately, Batman must rely on his intellect and his allies - including Catwoman and the extended Bat-family - to restore order to the land, and return to present-day Gotham City.

Junpei Mizusaki, the producer of the opening animation sequences for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders and Kamikaze Douga CEO/founder, was the film's director. Kazuki Nakashima, who was in charge of the series scripts for Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill, was the screenwriter. Takashi Okazaki, the creator of the Afro Samurai manga, was the character designer for the film. The project also involved English-language screenwriters Leo Chu and Eric Garcia, the executive producers for the Afro Samurai series and Afro Samurai: Resurrection film.

Kamikaze Douga worked on the project, and Yūgo Kanno (Psycho-Pass, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable, Ajin) composed the music. The anime's website stated the project was three years in the making.

Masato Hisa (Nobunagun, Area 51) is drawing a manga adaptation of the film.

Sources: Oricon's YouTube channel, Anime! Anime! (Kōtarō Nakase)


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