English Dub Review: Suicide Squad Isekai Episodes 1-3

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The DC Universe’s worst criminals, including Harley Quinn, Deadshot, and Peacemaker are forced through a magical portal to investigate a fantasy world, but have to get back before bombs in their heads explode.

OUR TAKE

DC Comics and Isekai anime, two things that have been adapted in a lot of different ways and that lots of people have lots of preconceived notions about. But what happens when you put them together for a ten episode show? Well, we’re here to find out. I’ve watched and read a lot of DC stuff and I’ve watched way more Isekai than I care to admit, so it probably says something that watching this makes me think more about those two elements than the show itself. But for whatever reason, apparently to make DC more appealing to people over in Japan, Task Force X has been dropped in a typical fantasy world. If you’ve been keeping up with DC related media in the past ten years, you’ve probably heard of the titular Suicide Squad, possibly from their horrible first movie that made some money and their second, much better movie, that didn’t. Either way, it’s clear that this anime is taking a lot of influence from those movies, at least in terms of characters involved, as the line up is a mix of characters from both the 2016 and 2021 films. The premise on its own is pretty simple to get across: high threat supervillains are employed by the government from jail and given a chance to take time off their sentences, but with a bomb placed in their heads as insurance if they step out of line.

Even without any familiarity with the Suicide Squad itself, it’s already got a novel enough shake up. I honestly can’t think of too many Isekai shows where the characters are deliberately sent to the next world by a government project, in fact it’s surprising it hasn’t happened more. But if you ARE read up on the better uses of the Squad, that also sets up some possible excitement of where things may go. Will the team be used to destabilize and bring down the other world’s government so that Amanda Waller can invade them? Are they there for a specific resource that they need to capture? Will the bombs in their heads illustrate some tension by killing off some of the characters? Well, we’re already basically a third of the way through now and it’s got a solid start so far, but perhaps we’ll see that change over time once we get further into this. Until then, I’ll start brushing up on my Suicide Squad movie quotes for next time.