Why i am reviewing this, you may be asking yourself.
Just for the trash factor? Just because its seems like “easy prey”?
Not quite, it’s more due to how since its debut (and even then, i learn this was gonna be through the collaboration with V-tuber and singer Mori Calliope, as she composed the ending theme) i never heard a single peep online about it, not even to shit on it, which worried me even more.
Also i learned after searching that it was being streamed in my region via a sub-channel on Amazon Prime Video, absolutely zero marketing had been spent to even make people know it was legally available on a commonly used streaming platform (FIY, there’s no HBO Max or Hulu here).
But still, this looked and sounded like like the kind of trash Twitter (not calling it X) loves to shit on weekly, just for the hell of it, but the only thing i saw on there was someone else befuddled by how the internet decided to skip having any discourse on it all together, that it was likely not even worth that kind of engagement, as nobody bothered, not even for the finale…..if anyone knew this series was a thing to begin with, that is. No one using the new Joker and Harley designs for their profile pictures, it was THAT much ignored or just never actually marketed properly after its announcement.
Though, it’s hard to blame anyone for not caring, i mean, jesus christ, Suicide Squad Isekai, it really says it all in the title, and the concept it’s the most boiler plate, senseless, obvious, uninspired, committee driven decision one could ever make when tasked to make a Suicide Squad anime.
Always the recipe for a great series when even the director is telling you he didn’t wanna do it, as he clearly stated he actually wanted to make a series about The Flash.
Gotta say though, i’m kinda intrigued exactly by how shameless and to the point it is, it’s exactly what it says on the tin, and how it feeds this strange push for Suicide Squad related works WB has had over the years, as this was planned pretty much alongside the Rocksteady videogame about killing the Justice League, i guess because the second try at a Suicide Squad movie turned out quite good, it sparked some fire in their ass, or something.
Still odd for what’s comparatively considered a low tier IP/franchise from the DC arsenal, at least this is my understanding, i do like the idea as a whole, and the James Gunn’s version was pretty fun.
And no, i wasn’t against in principle, there had been lots of precedents of “anime studios handling western superhero/comics material”, i mean, Batman Ninja was lots of fun… but i’m deflecting, it’s quite obvious that in the current climate, you’re gonna have a recipe for instinctual repulsion or rejection when you take an established or known franchise and make it an isekai.
You’re just telling everyone you’re pushing garbage of the kind that still saturate (and will keep saturating for a while, still, i believe) the industry, that you don’t care, that you had the idea vomited up by a dumb ass IA chat program, so bereft of any ideas you were.
It just immediatly and rightfully singles out your “product” (because this is pure product on a conceptual level), like a skunk releasing his smells in an enclosed train, just immediatly letting the world known you’re the corporate whore of babylon riding the seven headed dragon of CEOs.
And it looks even worse when it’s actually very short, like the episoded are the usual 24 minutes affair, but there are just 10 for this first (and most likely only) season, i’m not joking.
I’d discuss the premise first, you know, it would make sense on paper, but you can already and easily guess the gist just by reading the title, because it is Harley Quinn getting arrested by a government agency called ARGUS, and accepting to avoid jail by joining one of Amanda Waller’ suicide squads, in this case one sent to search for the previous – and first – squad sent into a medieval fantasy world via a portal that opened in Gotham.
As expected, Harley is joined by other DC villain in her suicide quest, including King Shark, Deadshot, Peacemaker, and this time also Clayface, dressed here as Michael Jackson.
As to why Waller tasked a research unit to open a magical portal to another work…. capitalism.
I’m not even joking, that’s really the long and short of it, just searching for a new land to exploit and strip of resources., which actually makes sense, it’s a Waller project, so it fits the kind of plot a Suicide Squad story would have, included the focus on Harley Queen, which here has the healtiest relationship with “MISTA JEEY” in a while..ain’t much but i guess i’ll take it, could be worse.
Humour and writing you can tell are skewed to be a bit more like the films and i guess the comics, so it also means a lot of references and swears that get censored as expected, the fantasy elements are about what you’d expect, with two kingdom locked in a war, interference from the DC world into this fantasy realm, with knights, pigmen, orcs, ogres, beastmen and magic stuff, kingdom politics and some conspiracy going about in the background.
Nothing special, but gets the job done, my biggest gripe in this regard is that the fantasy world itself feels incredibly small, like the diorama we see as a “world map” indicating its extension… feels like a videogame, but it’s not that kind of isekai, so it just feel videogamey by accident since it feel so very small, made of instances than actual living, breathing world, maybe for the episode’s total or to eventually explore it more if a second season ever arrives.
Kinda like if Waller got access to a 4th grade Greed Island isekai bootleg, in terms of scope at least.
I would assume there were once supposed to be at least a couple more episodes, especially due to a montage early in episode 5 of the squad and the allied kingdom securing post and fighting goblins and beast men over jungles and a volcano, all in a quickie montage, it just reeks of that.
Animation it’s quite good, mostly good, what you’d expect from WIT Studio, but at times it can be quite inconsistent, especially the Harley VS Katana in Episode and then in the middle episodes, where sometimes you can tell they “cheaped out” in by using come CG models in some but NOT all shots of the same scenes, while they almost went all out for a quick sequence of Harley fighting elves. But overall these “quality swings” aren’t as big as i was led to believe.
The finale is pretty fun too (and has a little twist to it), and overall you can tell the staff was having fun with the characters and the setting, which is always a plus and kinda needed when the concept doomed the series to be almost completely, instinctively shunned by the internet on sight.
In terms of music and stuff, the opening is a fairly ok one with an instrumental jazz, kinda tame theme, while the ending (with an original song, GO-GETTERS, by Mori Calliope, Giga and Teddyloid) has Amanda Waller and the squad (but mostly Waller) striking suave dance poses, mostly Amanda Waller doing a dance, bustin it down, indeed, didn’t expect that.
Honestly, overall i’m kind of befuddled because Suicide Squad Isekai it’s decent fun, for what it is, it’s surprisingly quite alright, kinda defying the reasonable expectations (and hermit crab style reactions when the “isekai” term is used nowadays) one would have upon the very idea and title, as it letting you know WB opted for the most creatively bankrupt, more “safe” idea possibile.
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