http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE35NightOfTheNinja
An old rival of Bruce Wayne's training in the martial arts comes back to seek revenge on him.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Kyodai's shuriken are sharp enough to cut through a flashlight and the D cell battery inside without the guard noticing until it falls apart a few seconds later.
- Accidental Hero: Robin's clumsiness in setting off Kyodai's alarm actually ends up saving Bruce and Summer, since he goes to investigate instead of killing them.
- Always Someone Better:
- After Kyodai taunts Bruce about being a pampered rich boy, the sensei tells Kyodai there is always someone better and proceeds to kick his ass.
- Notably, it's implied that Bruce initially feels this way about Kyodai, which is one of the reasons Kyodai kicks his ass in the first part of their fight. Robin's simply showing up to help arguably helped as much as covering up Summer Gleason with the carpet. Robin and Kyodai also briefly fight to a draw, even though Bruce easily defeated Dick in their sparring match earlier in the episode.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Kyodai has this in spades. After he beat young Bruce back in Japan and taunted him for it, the master of the dojo handed him his ass in punishment.
Yoru Sensei: There is always someone better.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: When Robin accidentally triggers Kyodai's security alarm just as he's about to kill Bruce and Summer, rather than merely stabbing both of them and then going after Robin, he instead sheathes his sword and says he'll be back.
- Boring Insult: Kyodai doesn't like it when Summer says he's "a common thief."
- Cover-Blowing Superpower: Bruce Wayne has to try and avoid this, holding back in a fight against the Ninja while in front of Summer Gleason. She knows that he has some fighting skill, but he doesn't want to give himself away by showing too much skill. Bruce believes that fighting at his best makes it likely that the Ninja will be able to figure out that Batman and Bruce are the same man, as he eventually explains in another episode featuring the Ninja, but at that point he could no longer afford to hold back and it was a risk he had to take.
- Disappointed by the Motive: Expecting Kyodai to be someone with a vendetta against Bruce Wayne over some dirty business, Summer is disappointed when Kyodai turns out to be "just a thief" whose reasons to hate Bruce are Bruce's wealth and the fact that Bruce caught him during a past theft years ago.
- The Dreaded: A conversation between Dick Grayson and Alfred implies that Bruce is afraid of fighting Kyodai, which is one of the reasons why Kyodai has the upper hand in their fight. Notably, when Dick and Bruce spar early in the episode, Bruce defeats Dick without too much trouble—but Robin has is able to keep up with Kyodai in their brief fight.
- Fighting Fingerprint:
- Kyodai is able to discover Batman's secret identity in this episode by fighting both Batman and Bruce Wayne, as revealed later.
- Bruce defies this by deliberately fighting Kyodai below his actual skills as long as Summer is watching, so she won't make any connections between Bruce and Batman.
- The Gloves Come Off: During their final confrontation, Bruce has to let Kyodai kick his ass for several minutes to hide his identity from Summer. Then Robin knocks out a pin and covers her with a carpet and Batman promptly starts kicking Kyodai's ass.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Kyodai's primary distaste for Bruce Wayne is the fact he grew up poor while Bruce Wayne grew up rich.
- Hand Seals: Kyodai Ken frequently uses this.
- Idiot Ball: Right as he's about to kill Bruce and Summer, Kyodai is distracted by the alarms going off and heads out to investigate, giving Bruce the opportunity to escape, rather than just killing them both and then going to investigate.
- Insult Backfire: When Summer calls Kyodai "a common thief" he corrects her by saying he's a great thief.
Kyodai: Not a common thief, woman! A great thief! The best!
- Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: Kyodai gets the drop on Wayne by impersonating a valet.
- Metaphorically True: Bruce explains to fellow prisoner Summer that they escaped because Batman arrived and took down the bad guy. Hey, his voice changed so it was mostly true...
- Never My Fault: Kyodai blames Bruce for getting him thrown out of the dojo all those years ago, even though it was his own choice to steal from the sensei, which would be a huge dick move to a westerner like Bruce but an unforgivable betrayal by Japanese standards. Kyodai just tries to Hand Wave it by saying that Bruce doesn't "get it" because he was born rich and has never had to worry about money. To no one’s surprise, he became a ninja and a thief as an adult.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Robin calls himself out on this after accidentally tripping an alarm. "Way to go, Dick. Master crime fighter."
- As Bruce reveals later on in "Day of the Samurai," because he was able to fight Kyodai Ken using the same style he fought him with as Batman earlier in the episode, Kyodai is now able to figure out Bruce's identity.
- Ninja: Kyodai Ken.
- Non-Answer: When Batman tells Robin that Kyodai is "good" at the martial arts, Robin asks how good he is. Batman reiterates, "Good." (Translation: "Better than me.")
- Offscreen Teleportation: After Robin intervenes as Kyodai is about to kill a drugged Batman, the ninja leaps from the roof. Robin follows him and looks down, but can't see any sign of him anywhere.
- Revenge: Summer gets enough facts to figure out someone is seeking revenge on Bruce for something that happened back when Bruce was in Japan and assumes it's about some wrongdoing done by Bruce. Kyodai wants revenge against Bruce for getting him expelled from Yoru's dojo for trying to steal an ancient sword, and Summer's disappointed Kyodai is "just a thief."
- Secret Chaser: Summer is determine to learn more about the mysterious Ninja who robbed Wayne Enterprises.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After finding himself outmatched, Kyodai destroys a window and flees rather than risk getting caught.
- Shout-Out: Summer being surprised that Kyodai is going to all these theatrics for mere thievery and his response that he's not a common thief but a great one is very reminiscent of the exchange between Holly and Hans Gruber in Die Hard.
- Tattooed Crook: The ninja thief Kyodai-Ken has a huge tattoo of a Japanese demon's head on his back. This is what lets Batman know his identity.
- This Is Reality: The title Ninja makes it clear to Dick Grayson that "This isn't the movies, boy!"
- Underestimating Badassery: Because Bruce is rich, Kyodai doesn't expect him to be much of a fighter.
- Water Tower Down: The Ninja chops down a water tower with his sword. The water sweeps Robin off the roof.
- We Will Meet Again: A young Kyodai swears this before fleeing into the night after Bruce stops his theft and gets him expelled from the dojo.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The plot is similar to Die Hard, in which terrorists seize a corporate building and mask their rationale out of disdain for the company's supposed greed and decadence, only to be later revealed the true purpose was to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from the high-tech safe.
