Catalyst Castle

Batman: Gotham Knight is the second Batman film in my DVD collection. It is an anime follow-up to Batman Begins, taking place before the events of The Dark Knight. The film runs a little over an hour and consists of six different animated shorts. Each short was written, produced, and animated by different people, but there are a considerable number of connections between them. In fact, having seen it a second time, I was actually surprised just how connected the six segments are. It could almost be one continuous story. Overall I liked the anime pretty well, but I’ll review each segment separately below.

“Have I Got a Story for You”
This segment has three kids telling about their encounters with the Batman in reverse-chronological order. Each story presents a different idea of what exactly Batman is in the eyes of those who witness him. This was an interesting idea, but I think it was an oversight to have the story take place in the daylight. It makes it harder to believe that the kids would mistake him for anything but what he is – a man in a suit – and besides, we know Bruce doesn’t operate as Batman during the day. The animation in this one wasn’t necessarily bad, but it was my least favorite. I just don’t care for the style.

“Crossfire”
This segment focuses on two detectives who are working closely under Gordon in Gotham PD’s new Major Crimes Unit. It connects with the previous segment by having these two cops take the bad guy that the kids witnessed Batman fight down to Arkham. It introduces Sal Maroni and The Russian, two rival mob bosses who will appear again in later segments. While dropping off the captured villain, the two cops argue about whether Batman is good for the city. One of them doesn’t trust Batman, the other does. On their way back from Arkham, they get caught in the crossfire of a street fight between the rival crime gangs and are rescued by Batman.

“Field Test”
Lucius Fox invents a new device for Batman’s arsenal. It generates an electro-magnetic pulse at the sound of a gunshot that will deflect bullets. Armed with this new tool, Batman forces Sal Maroni and The Russian together and then takes on both of them at once. This segment featured some of my favorite animation, including my favorite version of the bat-suit presented in this film. It was a unique and original design, without radically altering the basic concept. The story was also pretty interesting. It’s neat how Batman deals with the rival crime bosses, and the story also gives a good reason why Batman doesn’t have his “invincibility device” in future stories. Early in the segment, Bruce Wayne steals a PDA that will come into play in the last segment. Near the end of this segment a thug tosses his pistol into a gutter, which will come up again in the segment “Working Through Pain”.


“In Darkness Dwells”
The police respond to a riot in a cathedral where a cardinal was kidnapped by the villain Killer Croc. Batman meets with Gordon and the two cops from “Crossfire” before heading into the sewers in pursuit of the kidnapper. After a brief fight with Croc, he stumbles upon a cult of drugged lunatics following Scarecrow. Batman must prevent them from killing the cardinal. Nothing about this segment really stands out to me as note-worthy, though it wasn’t bad. It seemed a bit like a filler episode.

“Working Through Pain”
Picking up right after the last segment, Batman is still in the sewers trying to round up a few members of the Scarecrows cult. One of these shoots him in the stomach. As batman struggles against the pain of the injury, trying to get out of the sewers, he experiences flashbacks to previous experiences. Most of these revolve around his training under a woman named Cassanda, who taught Bruce a meditative technique for mastering pain. This segment has my favorite anime depiction of Bruce from this film. At the end, Batman discovers a cache of weapons in the sewers, a link to the earlier “Field Test” segment. Warning: This anime has some amount of blood throughout, but this particular segment has the goriest visuals, including an animated depiction of surgery being performed on a man without anesthesia. It’s probably not appropriate for children or those with weak stomachs.


“Deadshot”
A skilled assassin called Deadshot scores a contract to take out Gordon. Batman follows Gordon’s motorcade trying to intercept the killer. Early on, we see the cache of weapons Batman pulled out of the sewers in the last segment, and there are also several connections to the earlier “Field Test” segment. This story provides an interesting twist: Deadshot is really out to kill Batman and the threats against Gordon are just a means to flush him out. In my opinion, though, it fails to really address the significance of this. It’s the criminal underworld’s first direct counterstrike against the Batman, acknowledging him as their chief persecutor.

All together, I think Batman: Gotham Knight is a pretty entertaining watch. As an aspiring artist, and someone who watches a lot of animation, I enjoyed seeing the variety in the artwork. Most of it was very high-quality, even if all of it wasn’t to my taste. If you're interested, you can find a very good sampling of the artwork in this film here.

Roleplaying
Because of my obsession with roleplaying games, I tend to watch most movies and shows with an eye for what I could take from it and apply to gaming. Here are some ideas from Batman: Gotham Knight.

Making Connections: I liked how each segment of this film told its own story. But, they also made connections between the segments that an observant viewer could follow. This reminded me a lot of how RPG sessions can tend to be episodic sometimes, but even in that case a GM should try to make little connections here and there.

Eyewitnesses: In the first segment it was interesting how three different people give very different accounts of the same person. I think I ought to use that in a game sometime where the PCs are investigating an NPC that none of them have encountered yet.

Flashbacks: The segment “Working Through Pain” makes good use of flashbacks. In fact, most of the story in that segment takes place in the flashbacks. I’ve never tried incorporating flashbacks into an RPG, but I think it could be cool if it were done well.