Day of the Samurai

It's so good to get back to good Batman episodes. Serving as the sequel to "Night of the Ninja," "Day of the Samurai" was the 44th produced episode and 55th aired on Feb. 23, 1993.

I'm going to add a point for the reappearance of Kyodai. He is such a great Batman villain because he's actually not a Batman villain at all — he's a Bruce Wayne villain. I can't think of any other villain on this show who matches that description, and in the comics, I can only think of Hush. So Kyodai is a one-of-a-kind in this respect. He also knows Bruce is Batman, and he's a great fighter, stretching Batman's abilities. I kind of wish we had more of Kyodai, but what we got of him was great, so I shouldn't complain.

I'll raise the score to a 7 for Bruce's sensei, who obviously knows Bruce is Batman but is too respectful to say it. Not only do I like the idea of Batman having a bunch of different masters who trained him, but I love having him remain friends and allies with these masters. I think this is a great angle of Batman that no one's explored yet.

I'll add another point for the fun Japanese story here. Secret techniques, 500-year-old scrolls, the touch of death, the high priority of honor — great stuff! I just was really digging it. Of course, you can't have too many episodes in Japan, or you would start to lose who Batman is. But this one trip to Japan was a welcome breath of fresh air (especially coming right after the werewolf episode).

I feel like I'm not saying that much about this episode, but that's because everything was so good. This was always one of my favorites as a kid, and it still holds up 20 years later. The last point I'll add is for the final battle at a volcano. I mean, Batman fights a ninja at a volcano! It doesn't get much better than that!

Final score: 9