I promised a review of the animated DVD release of “Batman: Gotham Knight” and here it is: Excellent.

I’m not a huge anime fan, mostly because so many of them are a weird combination of sci-fi and magic. To me, that’s an odd mix. Plus, I’ve never invested time in any of their characters the way I have a lot of other animation I watch. To me, it’s analogous to the reasons I like the NFL more than college football: I just don’t have time or brain space to relearn dozens of players on dozens of teams.

That said, it’s really too bad I don’t watch more anime, because the six interrelated stories on this release were visually stunning. The landscapes alone would have been worth the price. Each story, crafted by masterful American writer (Greg Rucka, Brian Azzarello, David Goyer, Alan Burnett, Josh Olson and Jordan Goldberg) and highly regarded Japanese directors (nobody whose name I recognized much less could pronounce), explores an aspect of Batman’s character and career.

Each speaks in a unique visual language, and best of all, longtime animated Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy is back as Bruce Wayne/Batman!

For me, the last two stories are the best with regard to the animation. The one which focuses a lot of attention on Bruce was the toughest for me to get into just because the faces are so very anime-stylized. But it wasn’t a big problem for me.

I can’t say a lot about each story line because I don’t want to give away too much, and I’d have to give synopses of six different stories, but each would make a great issue of a comic book.

The last thing I’ll say about the gorgeous animation is that I’m glad we got a different look out of DC’s animation line. I like the Bruce Timm style that originated with “Batman: The Animated Series,” continued through the Superman series, “Justice League” and “Justice League Unlimited” then carried through to the first DC Universe direct-to-DVD feature, “Superman: Doomsday” and “New Frontier” (yes, I know that movie technically followed Darwin Cooke’s comic-book style, but they’re quite similar). But after that many shows and movies, it’s nice to have a change of pace. Alas, it won’t last long, though. “Gotham Knight” includes a preview of the next release, “Wonder Woman,” which returns to the familiar style.

I’d give “Batman: Gotham Knight” 4.5 stars out of 5.