Hey there! This is 7Mononoke (Mono), welcoming you back to Anime Rants. Thanks for stopping by. Summer 2024 anime has officially begun, and with it comes the highly anticipated anime, Suicide Squad Isekai. Although it was scheduled to begin on July 6th, the first three episodes were apparently released early on certain platforms. That’s why I’m here to bring you my initial thoughts on this anime.

Please note that I am not a major fan of the DC universe. I am not very familiar with the characters, and only saw a few clips of the Suicide Squad movie. I haven’t been interested in DC since 10-15 years ago, during the era of Dark Knight. (I consider that a great movie despite my usual indifference to Batman and Joker.) Anyway, try to bear with me and my ignorance.

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First Impressions of Episode 1

Episode Rating: 9/10

The first episode of Suicide Squad Isekai was highly impressive. I shouldn’t be surprised, since it was animated by Wit studio – but I’m still in awe of the art and animation. The first few action sequences were amazing. I especially loved the fight between Harley Quinn and Katana on the rooftop. The depiction of Joker, though brief, was honestly much cooler than I was expecting. They really brought him to life as an unhinged but poetically inclined villain who hates society.

Okay, quick tangent about Amanda Waller. I don’t think she’s a character I can really get behind. I do like that there’s a strong female character on the “good side” – and a person of color, moreover. But just because someone isn’t a supervillain doesn’t mean they are a good person. Amanda is clearly willing to take drastic measures to ensure her goals, which may or may not be for the good of society as whole. I don’t know enough about this character to say if I can support her morally, but she seems pretty heartless to me.

As I mentioned, I know very little about the characters from Suicide Squad. Thus, this anime was my first main introduction to Peacemaker, Clayface, and Deadshot. Of the three, my favorite so far is Clayface. He is voiced by Jun Fukuyama, one of my all-time favorite male voice actors. I immediately gravitate toward characters with voices I know well, so I was also pleased to hear Takehito Koyasu playing Peacemaker. His voice is iconic.

Speaking of characters, I’m also greatly enjoying the portrayal of Harley Quinn. She is voiced by Anna Nagase, a seiyuu I am not familiar with, but who clearly has talent. Harley is a good example of an insane anime girl. She is weirdly relatable at some moments – just enough to make her cute and charming. But mostly, she comes across as completely psycho. I am eager to learn more about her character psychology.

On a final note, the quality of the art and animation for the isekai fantasy world is stunning. The budget of this production and talent of the animators are both massive forces to be reckoned with. I loved the floating islands, pig-like orcs, and the dragon we saw briefly. The instrumental music for this episode was also on-point and exciting at all the right times.

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Episode 2 Notes

Episode Rating: 8/10

The second episode was impressive, but not as stunning as the first, in my opinion. (That’s normal, though – it’s a good strategy to put amazing action sequences in the pilot episode.) I liked the design and voice for the Empress, though she seems like a possible antagonist. Her daughter, Princess Fione, looks incredibly similar to Harley. I wonder if that will become a plot point in the future … like The Prince and the Pauper, but with anime girls.

My favorite character in this episode was Clayface. He is highly amusing to me with his flamboyant actor nonsense. That includes his comments on the story progression and his insistence on being the protagonist. Jun Fukuyama is the perfect voice actor to bring this character to life – a vain, artistic actor who thinks he’s a lot more charming and talented than he is in reality. I do wonder if he ever feels less than human; so far, he seems nothing but proud of his bizarre demi-human abilities.

When the Suicide Squad finally broke out of their cell, they also released the other prisoners and started the riot. It was an exciting battle, but I found it weird and off-putting that the dungeon guards all looked the same. I’m not a big fan of the flashing colored lights, either. I feel that the unusual visual effects were largely used to mask the fact that all the guards are the same character model. The art and animation have been amazing so far, but it seems that this anime didn’t always know how to use its budget evenly.

It’s interesting that the show has audiences rooting for supervillains on some level. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have felt like a victory to see them conquer the prison and celebrate with drinks. In my notes for episode one, I mentioned that Amanda was morally grey – but compared to murderous supervillains, I suppose she’s actually an upstanding person. I wonder if Rick Flag will be similar. It would be nice to have a “good-guy” character on board to balance things out.

Now that it’s the second episode, we saw and heard the opening and ending songs. To be honest, they did not impress me much. The goofy animations for the ending visuals were entertaining but strange – I’m not exactly sure what vibe they were going for. The intro song is instrumental, but not super epic, in my humble opinion.

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Thoughts on Episode 3

Episode Rating: 8/10

First, let’s talk visuals. The fight scenes in this episode looked decent, but they didn’t impress me as much as I was anticipating. I have very high expectations of Wit studio. Regardless, it was adequate animation. The wolf monsters were pretty cool, and there were several character models so they didn’t all look identical. The castle had an interesting, dry appearance that I liked. Some of the shots in the prison flashback scenes looked a little odd, but not necessarily bad.

I was keenly interested in Harley’s familiarity with the concept of brainwashing. I assume she learned about brutal psychological techniques in her schooling to become a psychiatrist. It’s also extremely interesting that a psychiatrist would suddenly embrace a psychopathic lifestyle after being socially acceptable for many years prior to meeting Joker. It makes me wonder if the implication is that Harley was “brainwashed” into being a socially acceptable sociopath. Because of Joker, she’s back to her natural state of insanity. That’s fascinating.

Harley might take the cake for my favorite character in this particular episode, but Clayface continues to entertain me as well. His powers have proved incredibly useful, and he’s the first one to catch on to the fact that this world will allow them to use some form of magic. But it definitely wasn’t only Clayface who shined in the battle at the castle. Everyone had some awesome moments of kicking enemy ass.

Ratcatcher, AKA Rat, is an underwhelming antagonist thus far. He fought poorly and had to be rescued. His motivation to fight Deadshot seems petty. However, I do like his ability to control beasts. That will surely become a destructive force in the future. Also, speaking of Deadshot and Rat, their backstory from prison was surprisingly funny. I was especially amused when certain words were bleeped out. I don’t know if that was genuine censoring for Japanese audiences, or if was purely for humorous effect. Either way, it was amusing.

On a final note, the jazzy instrumental music in this series is starting to grow on me. I’m also beginning to enjoy the ending song more after the second or third time hearing it. Anyway, that wraps up my thoughts on the first three episodes of Suicide Squad Isekai. I look forward to covering more episodes in the near future.

~Thanks for reading~

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