EDITOR's NOTE: Batman: Gotham Night is available on DVD Tuesday, July 8.

Fans of Batman Begins, superhero comics, and anime in general will want to see this movie at least once. For the comic fans, it’s got references to Manbat, Shade, No Man’s Land, Killer Croc and the Jeph Loeb / Tim Sale Batman books.

While the first story didn’t have the best art or plot, the concept was great. It’s entitled "Have I Got a Story for You" and written by Josh Olsen, a director and writer who wrote the A History of Violence screenplay. It’s about a group of skaters who are each telling stories about seeing Batman. What’s great about the concept is that they’re unreliable narrators, so the Batman being shown takes on super-human aspects. In one story, he takes on Shade’s ability, in another he’s Manbat. It wasn’t a compelling story, but it looked cool and was fun to watch.

Though the first story uses a very cartoony style, the rest use a modern anime based style that reminds me of Cowboy Bebop. Each are a little bit different, but can still be likened to modern anime.

Greg Rucka wrote the second story titled "Crossfire". Of course, this is where the No Man’s Land aspect comes into play as Detective Anna Ramirez (based on Renee Montoya) and Detective Crispus Allen transport a prisoner to Arkham in the Narrows neighborhood. What’s interesting is that it appears that since the end of Batman Begins the bridges that were raised to seal off the island were never lowered and the island continues to be controlled by escaped inmates -- so the Narrows are a no man’s land. There is even a guard post at the draw-bridge they use in this story.

The crossfire comes into play as the two detectives park in the wrong spot and find themselves between a street gang and a group of mobsters affiliated with a man called “The Russian” who appears in several of these stories. The bad guys are killing each other and Batman swoops in to save the detectives.

Through the characters in this story Rucka debates the pros and cons of having someone like Batman fighting crime. During the gang fight and their trip to Arkham, some cool images are shown.

Next is a high-tech sci-fi story called "Field Test" written by Jordan Goldberg who was an associate producer for The Prestige and Dark Knight. It starts out with Bruce Wayne looking at a gadget that Lucius Fox came up with to deflect bullets. It then has a scene between Wayne and a shady real estate developer golfing together, talking about urban renewal. Afterward, Batman goes out and ambushes some mobsters including “The Russian” and tests out his new bullet deflector. The plot is almost as choppy as this paragraph is.

"In Darkness Dwells" is a story that features Killer Croc and Scarecrow. This is David Goyer’s story, the writer of many comic book film adaptations. Batman has to hunt Killer Croc in the sewer system and they reference Brian Azzarello’s version of Croc (a man with a skin condition and filed teeth rather then a half-man half-alligator) but it turns out to be one of the mutant versions of the character. While down there, he stumbles upon Scarecrow who now is much more like the comic book character then the film character. He’s leading ugly sewer people which reminds me of the Morlocks in X-Men. It’s not one of the more interesting stories in the movie, but it’s still entertaining.

Azzarello is the writer of the next piece titled "Walking Through Pain" which is based on one of the Batman Halloween Special books by Sale and Loeb. In the movie, Batman has been gut-shot and is stumbling around waiting for Alfred to pick him up. As he waits, he remembers times when he travelled to third world countries. It shows Wayne in a hospital in Darfur in one scene. Later he’s either in or near India where he studies Buddhist/Hindu meditation techniques from a woman named Cassandra (no last name is given).

This one has heavy themes of hate and fear as Cassandra talks about her experiences becoming an outsider in the community. Wayne learns to overcome pain, both physical and mental. In terms of action, there isn’t as much as the other stories, but I enjoyed the theme, character development, and plot in this more then the others.

Last is the "Deadshot" story written by Alan Burnett who has written for most of the DC animated shows and movies the past fifteen years. “The Russian” is again a character as he hires Deadshot to kill someone that Batman tries to protect. There is no character development and little plot, but it more then makes up for it with the action of the scenes as Deadshot sets up for sniping people and Batman attempts to stop him.

The animation is similar to series like Cowboy Bebop and Helsing, but the character development, stories, and action in Gotham Knight are better than either of those (yes, I’m saying that some of these less-then-twenty minute pieces have more character development then an entire series of anime) so I think that anime fans will like this a great deal. Comic book fans will like seeing the different references to favorite characters. Even people who just liked Batman Begins should enjoy this since it gives updates on characters like Jim Gordon. Watch it at least once.

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