The use of moon imagery (aka Batwing flying towards the moon in the 1980's movie) and Danny Elfman-type Batman theme, Karas standing on a gargoyle-like statue on a gothic tower with black feathery wings for a cape in the first episode got me pretty suspicious. You also notice Karas is a mostly black character with glowing eyes, just like Batman.
Then, I saw what appeared to be Karas transformed into a Batmobile, Micheal Keaton style in the second episode (and even shot out a grappling hook to turn a sharp corner in the third episode chasing after the mechanical spider woman), and that got me even more suspicious (the only vehicle I've ever known to need a grappling hook to turn at high speed was Tim Burton's Batmobile). Yeah, I know it was Karas' "Batwing" that did the grappling hook thing, but it had the same effect on me...
Then, there were cats that encircled Otoha in the last episode to revive him, and that nailed it for me. That scene got me thinking Catwoman! Needless to say, I highly enjoyed the anime, though the second half was kind of weak especially with the climatic battle.
Now, someone's bound to say that other prior animes influenced this work. I highly doubt it. You have traces of Spider-man (boxing ring) and Lord of the Rings in it too (Shelob). There's also a bit of Cowboy Bebop thrown in there what with the mafia and sword play, and getting fatally injured/being comatose. But, it's mostly Batman. The Gothic theme and Danny Elfman imitation music gave it away. Plus, the retractable winged cape that are actually wings is something akin to Batman Begin's cape that can stiffen to form gliders, only the creator of Karas made it more kick-ass! Even more is that most of the action sequences as Karas (except for the fight with Eko) occurred in very dark environments just like how Batman would prowl the night...
Besides Otoha/Karas and Yurine, the next character I like best was the female Karas fully suited. Never thought a female samurai would look so good and sexy, even for a CGI character!
All in all, though I throughly enjoyed the OVA, I think it was mostly an experiment where someone asked the question, "what if we made a Japanese Batman-type anime"?
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