Everything is going swimmingly for Harley Quinn. Work? It was a bore, so now she causes chaos in the streets! Hobbies? She’s got great haunts around town and besides, it’s so much fun to parade around in her own unique style! Love interest? Well, he may be totally psychotic and a killer, but she can’t help whom she loves! The problem is that Harley has been captured, and so have a number of other villains, including former military man Deadshot; the aptly named (but just a wee bit off-kilter) Peacemaker; an actor with an unusual power to match his over-the-top persona, Clayface; and King Shark, a “demi-human” who eats any being around him without prejudice. When the Machiavellian Amanda Waller sends the group to a fantasy-type world filled with magic, on a mission to establish a base from which to gather resources and research, it’s no surprise that things won’t go as planned with this unpredictable “suicide squad,” even if—and maybe precisely because—she has them set to become human explosives within 72 hours. They’ll endure prison, face a noble assembly including a hardened queen, inquisitive princess, and war-weary hero (whom Harley describes as looking like a “super-stressed insurance salesman”), and discover that those in the way of their freedom are former friends. Or are they?
Suicide Squad Isekai is here, and there is a lot to unpack in the first three episodes, which dropped all at once, primarily because they go big in scope; DC and Wit Studio want everyone to be happy across the spectrum of nerddom, from comic book fans to otaku and in-between, but also especially including more casual viewers. Did they hit on all cylinders? Well, not at first. The series begins very much like the original Suicide Squad, introducing Harley and the Joker, and it’s all kind of cringe. Anna Nagase (Harley) and Yichiro Umehara (the Joker) don’t have voices that mesh well with what we expect from these characters and certainly not with their great performances. Episode one, generally, is a mixed bag; there’s a lot of coolness and the gritty and great animation you expect out of Wit, but the parts don’t fit together really well. I kept thinking, “Oh, this is for the so-and-so audience,” like Katana’s very anime-ish design for Japanese viewers and the opening sequence for those familiar with the Suicide Squad films. Thankfully, all this, including the introductory, origin-story feel of the first episode, gives way for far more fun and creativity in episodes two and three.
Once the story starts moving along, with the team getting established in the isekai setting and doing crazy, random stuff that works (mostly—these are villains and anti-heroes, of course), the series is just simply enjoyable and sometimes awesome. I like the character designs, for instance. They are for anime fans, so I’m not sure how well they’ll be received by DC aficionados, but they absolutely work for me. This Harley looks like Margot Robbie’s, but with a few subtle changes; the rest look great and very fitting for an anime world too. The characters themselves are so much fun, particularly Clayface with his actor’s perspective (he serves as a narrator explaining what “isekai” is supposed to be to those unacquainted, even if at one point he explains that this genre is “commonly” known as isekai) and King Shark who serves mostly as comic relief. And there’s a lot of comedy in episodes two and three, including an extended scene where Rick Flag uses prison jargon he’s picked up to negotiate (poorly), Peacekeeper deadpanning “oh no” when Harley kills an enemy, and the hilarious backstory involving Ratcatcher’s relationship with Deadshot. You’ll note that every one of the Suicide Squad members gets to shine; there’s really a pretty even share of the spotlight among the characters so far, though fan favorite Harley Quinn gets perhaps a little more than the rest, particularly because we are introduced to the goings-on through her eyes.
The animation, as I mentioned, is terrific. Wit Studio was surely picked because of how it does grittiness, naturally being able to convey the meeting of East and West. It’s a tricky thing to do for the studio to reach all the audiences I mentioned above—and make no mistake, that is what they’re trying to do. Sometimes the series is straight-up comic book, such as during a fight scene animated with hypnotic flashes and music, and sometimes more fully anime, as in key isekai moments like the meeting of heroes and the royals, which, of course, doesn’t quite go as planned. But for the most part, there’s a nice blend that happens, perhaps best demonstrated through the terrific ED, “Go-Getters” by vtuber Mori Calliope, which sounds very western and looks very DC—except, that is, for the characters dancing in very uncharacteristic ways (with a focus on Amanda Waller—what a hoot!).
My experience with DC is mostly through movies old and new, TV shows, and animated series, so those who are deeper into the comics might think differently—they may even consider the show to be a travesty! But for someone like me who is a more moderate fan of the comic side and more heavily leaning into the anime side, I found the opening to be far better than I expected. This is a show on my radar because it is a huge, huge release, but it’s now on my watch list because it’s very, very good. This is an enthusiastic and promising start for Suicide Squad Isekai and, if it keeps it up, could perhaps be the start for even more and grander partnerships between major Western IPs (with Marvel’s earlier, less popular adaptations Star Wars’ one-season of shorts notwithstanding) and anime studios. We can only hope!
Suicide Squad Isekai can be streamed on MAX and Hulu.
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on first eps, I thought it was boring and feels like villains-doing-good things trope is the route they’re going with but I don’t know what magic they did that keeps me interested and hooked to watch the next eps, and next eps until I realized I need more of this, it’s cringe, but fun cringe, my only complain is probably ED, song is bop but the animation that accompanied it makes me wanna skip the whole sequence. also Peacemaker is the one that makes me checking this out, he just feels like nihilistic, narcistic Toji (thanks to his va who also voiced DIO) I loved it