{"id":2518,"date":"2020-06-08T22:00:39","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/biggestinjapan.com\/?p=2518"},"modified":"2020-06-08T14:49:11","modified_gmt":"2020-06-08T05:49:11","slug":"dc-super-heroes-vs-eagle-talon-is-the-greatest-superhero-movie-youve-never-heard-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biggestinjapan.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/08\/dc-super-heroes-vs-eagle-talon-is-the-greatest-superhero-movie-youve-never-heard-of\/","title":{"rendered":"DC Super Heroes vs. Eagle Talon<\/i> is the Greatest Superhero Movie You\u2019ve Never Heard Of"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever wonder what would happen if the Joker, Harley Quinn, and Penguin were on Terrace House<\/em>?<\/p>\n

DC Super Heroes vs. Eagle Talon<\/em> is a 2017 theatrically-released feature film crossover between the Justice League and Japanese anime supervillains Eagle Talon. And you\u2019ve likely never heard of it because, despite being an official DC Entertainment product produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, it\u2019s never been released in the West. This is, to put it bluntly, a tragedy.<\/p>\n

\"\"Image source: \u300c\u79d8\u5bc6\u7d50\u793e \u9df9\u306e\u722a\u300d\u516c\u5f0f<\/a> on Twitter<\/em><\/p>\n

But before we go any deeper into the film itself, you first need to know a bit about Eagle Talon<\/em>. It\u2019s a long-running flash-animated anime almost entirely produced by a single man: FROGMAN. (Seriously, he is the writer, director, character designer, sound recording engineer, flash animator, editor, and main voice actor.)<\/p>\n

The various TV series follows a group of inept supervillains trying to take over the world. It\u2019s members include an M. Bison knockoff, a mad scientist\/talking teddy bear, and a strikingly immature masked man known only as \u201cYamada.\u201d They, along with a creepy kid and a former heavy metal vocalist, find themselves constantly bullied by the corrupt hero Deluxe Fighter in their bid for world domination.<\/p>\n

\"\"Image source: \u300c\u79d8\u5bc6\u7d50\u793e \u9df9\u306e\u722a\u300d\u516c\u5f0f<\/a> on Twitter<\/em><\/p>\n

DC Super Heroes vs. Eagle Talon<\/em> follows them as they decide to have a yard sale to sell off their old take-over-the-world inventions–which are subsequently all bought by the recently arrived trio of the Joker, Harley Quinn, and Penguin. Of course, three big-name villains suddenly turning up in Tokyo catches the eye of the Justice League who promptly follow.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s just one problem. Batman is suffering from an existential crisis and has decided to retire from being a superhero–leaving the League without his experience on the Clown Prince of Crime. Still, with the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Cyborg, and Aquaman on board, the team decides to face Joker head-on.<\/p>\n

\"\"Image source: DLE Channel<\/a> on YouTube<\/em><\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the trick. While the Justice League may be present, this is an Eagle Talon<\/em> movie–a movie with a budget to cover cheap, flash-animation–not high budget dynamic action scenes. So before they are even able to fight through all the Joker\u2019s thugs, the team burns through the entire film\u2019s budget–leaving the justice league as nothing more than semi-intelligent crayon scribbles.<\/p>\n

Joker, on the other hand, doesn\u2019t need to rely on the film\u2019s budget (thanks to him living with Japanese roommates and having Penguin\u2019s large amount of stolen money to fund him) and is free to put his plans into action. So the Justice League is forced to turn to Eagle Talon and rely on their experience working under a meager budget to try and win. But with Joker having Eagle Talon\u2019s inventions and Penguin having a near-infinite amount of money, how can the heroes win–you know, without Batman and his bat credit card.<\/p>\n

As you have likely guessed from the paragraph above, fourth-wall-breaking humor is the film\u2019s bread and butter. In fact, there is literally a gauge on the right side of the screen–constantly decreasing as they spend more and more of the film\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

\"\"Image source: \u300c\u79d8\u5bc6\u7d50\u793e \u9df9\u306e\u722a\u300d\u516c\u5f0f<\/a> on Twitter<\/em><\/p>\n

More than once, Eagle Talon has to stop the film mid-movie and do full-on product advertisements to refill the budget. Moreover, to combat the Joker\u2019s thugs, Eagle Talon creates hybrids of the Justice League members and Yamada–creating low budget superheroes with awesome powers and odd quirks.<\/p>\n

Of course, Eagle Talon aren’t the only ones capable of messing with the fourth wall. In the climax of the film, Joker decides to use an idiot ray on FROGMAN himself–making him think it’s a good idea to use the film budget to buy himself things like a new car and an apartment.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not all the film has to offer in terms of humor. There\u2019s a ton of Japanese wordplay and an overt mockery of the life of a recent graduate\/newbie office worker in Japan. But the best joke in the film?<\/p>\n