I don’t really understand DC Entertainment or Warner Bros. I mean, the movies they should be putting in theaters and promoting to the high heavens are getting direct-to-DVD (or Blu-ray) releases, and the movies that should be ravaged in a back alley and shot in the back of the head are finding their ways into theaters. It’s such a backwards bit of logic, don’t you think? Anyway, Batman Ninja, the absolutely gorgeous looking animated film from esteemed director Jumpei Mizusaki, is set to land on store shelves and e-tailer outlets starting May 8th.

The reveal comes courtesy of publicist Gary Miereanu, who revealed the Blu-ray box art and the release date via a tweet.

The Dark Knight as you’ve never seen him!
“Batman Ninja” coming May 8 to Blu-ray/DVD.
English-language trailer features voices of @RogerCraigSmith as Batman & @MrTonyHale as Joker. #BatmanNinja https://t.co/gi3ByGndcW pic.twitter.com/7SaqbVBiwA

— Gary Miereanu (@SuperPRGuy) February 13, 2018

Miereanu also linked to the brand new story trailer for Batman Ninja, which explains that a time-manipulation occurrence took place, putting Batman, Alfred and the Joker back in time during Feudal Japan.

Batman only has some of his gadgets, but as explained in the trailer, he’s lost his Bat Computer, the Batmobile, the Batwing, and the Batcycle. He still has his wits and detective skills about him, but he’s mostly going to be relying on his wits and his martial arts wiles to stop the Joker and his henchmen.

Along the way it appears Batman is accompanied by some sidekicks representing Nightwing, Catwoman, and Robin.

There’s also a Japanese version of the trailer with English subtitles. Some might argue that it’s even better than the English version. You can view it for yourself below and take a gander.

The trailer looks fantastic, and despite having 3D animated characters, I really do love the use of character framing, the shading, and the stylized rendering to depict the film as a clean looking depiction of Japanese ink wash painting, or sumi-e artwork.

You can see in the backdrops that they used a stroke filter to give the imagery a slightly washed out look as if the tip of the brush made a final accented stroke on the edges.

It’s a subtle yet beautiful touch that really helps give the film a distinct, artistic depiction of classic Japanese paintings. This is thanks to Kamikaze Douga and Testuo Satomi being in charge of the art production, and really infusing the Batman universe with an obvious Japanese flair.

I really wish we saw more of this kind of creativity in the realm of video games when it comes to art direction and art-styles. Sadly, the only times we get any kind of creativity like this it usually comes at the hands of indie developers, like Studio MDHR’s Cuphead.

Anyway, Batman Ninja is set to land on disc and digital streaming starting May 8th, 2018 later this year during the spring.