Suicide Squad Isekai Anime Review

Suicide Squad Isekai takes the West’s superhero trends most irrelevant blockbuster franchise, the East’s artistically degrading isekai obsession and blends it together to create an unholy matrimony of epic proportions. This show is an exceptional failure by virtue of pure awesomeness, everything it does is simultaneously the worst idea possible but maybe the best too, you’ll get what I mean but I do mean that wholeheartedly. Bafflingly it misunderstands not just isekai storytelling(which given its writer is headscratching) but even the suicide squad itself which makes it a failure by any conceivable metric. Both its script and visuals show some of the clearest examples of a rushed production I’ve seen on anything high profile but at the same time I enjoyed both aspects significantly, they make it fun and crazy in their own quirky way. Ok lets stop beating around the bush I like this show, alot actually, as it has been an absolute blast to watch but I definitely feel like some part of that is ironic because this is trash by any critical perspective.

The suicide squad are actually a natural choice to get isekaied en mass because their whole schtick is that they get brutally murdered so that’s what happens, right? No actually, instead they are sent through a portal to colonize this other world so the isekai aspect is already being mishandled but eh that’s fine, at least now they can still kill them off, right?? No actually, not a single member dies in the whole show and not once did I think otherwise, they’re not “The Suicide Squad” but just a squad. So let’s get this straight, the gang are not only not reborn in another world like isekai are supposed to do but they don’t even have fun killing off the squad’s members, what hack wrote this! Tappei Nagatsuki and Eiji Umehara are their name’s and if that doesn’t mean anything to you here’s their credentials, Tappei only wrote Re:Zero which uh means he can allegedly(I haven’t seen it meself) do an isekai story better than basically anyone and he has even collabed with Umehara on a previous anime, none other than Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song. So uh they are not hacks actually but I guess this paycheck wasn’t good enough for them to crack out a plot better than your average hentai(allegedly, haven’t seen any meself) or more likely they wrote this in 5 minutes flat because the schedule was screwed to hell and back. I don’t even know where to begin, this plot is just plain ass. No sense of purpose or pace, no tension when you’re supposed to be working with explicitly killable characters, lackluster portrayals of said unoriginal characters and even worse characterization of the anime original ones, and finally just giving up in the end, even implementing a brainless sequalbait twist to boot.

It’s all bad, all half assed, this is an anime devoid of artistic merit on a story front… but also the dialogue was mad funny, like some of the best banter of last year. For all the effort they didn’t put on the plot they cooked when it came to making this cast of unruly dorks lovable and charismatic, their irreverent personalities coming through in every discussion. It might just be the localization but the dialogue was very natural and lets their unique dumbass’s shine through. This is enhanced by the one bona fide no strings great part of this anime, the voice cast. Anna Nagase as Harley, Reigo Yamaguichi in his first leading role as Deadshot, and Jun Fukuyama as Clayface absolutely eat the scenery with every line they give and make these characters entirely their own. The only disappointment was Takehito Koyasu’s Peacemaker who was given absolutely nothing to do and fails to bring any level of depth or comedic flair like John Cena’s own iteration, instead just being stoic to a boring degree. The characters may not have a hint of depth or any arcs whatsoever but with their great dialogue and even greater actors they do make this show work even in its lowest moments.

Those moments come from the production quality which is uh eclectic to say the least, it’s simultaneously the best and ugliest show you could choose to watch right now. Now I will be harsh but I don’t blame any staff because there was no way this had a healthy production and what they accomplished under duress is genuinely awe inspiring, like just look at some of the many gorgeous animations. The first stroke of genius apparent to this anime was when they got these iconic characters redesigned by none other than Akira Amano of Psycho Pass fame(she might also possibly be a famous mangaka too, who knows) and man her designs are sexy as all hell. Anime Harley Quinn is basically the best thing ever and her design was even better than expected to the point where the others look almost sauceless in comparison to her glory except maybe the wackass Joker design, why is his mouth inside a mouth. The problem is Amano isn’t a actual animation director and so her designs got adapted themselves and… oh, oh god noooooo! I’m not gonna name any name’s because this is not anyone’s best work through no fault of their own  but the character art in animation is atrocious, like Hell’s Paradise flashbacks bad. The consistency is nonexistent and even still shots have deformed hideous faces representing our antihero’s and aside from some super crazy corrected cuts the characters generally look bad which is a great shame.

One thing that is perpetually bad is the art direction and colour design which together create not just a generic world but an outright hideous one, it’s so flat and empty and unworthy of being the setting and palette of what should be a wild crazy adventure, people who dissed CSM’S color palette for being bland and inauthentic need to check this out to teach themselves what their words are actually applicable to. Ok I will actually shout out the art director Masakazu Miyake for doing god’s work on Mushoku Tensai, dunno what he was doing here but he definitely knows how to make a good looking isekai. The compositing is also generally terrible, even the best sakuga shots have this issue and because I know nothing about anime I have no more notes, it’s just obviously that bad that even I had to notice. Anyway the animation eh, well at least there we can start talking about the good stuff. So yes there is some unfinished or plain bad animations all over this but on the whole the animation work is absolutely stellar, these people are punching with all their weight and on a visual level outright save this show. The action choreography falls apart on most fights that require multiple cuts and some are just weirdly bad for no apparent reason like Harley’s first fight against Katana which was like watching two old ladies duke it out but their rematch, straight fire and one of the most exciting action sequences of 2024. This is a Studio Wit show which feels wrong to me because most of their shows I’ve seen are very stylistically consistent, instead this reminded me of a freelancer heavy, energetically punchy Mappa production with the scheduled meltdown to boot. This is a show whose visuals are a highlight with the animation frequently popping off but every other aspect to them looks outright ugly so it is also a lowlight, definitely an anime of all time. Oh yah music… nah they didn’t try so I won’t, shame.

I don’t really know why despite it all I was having a ball with this show but it’s probably because I would call myself a suicide squad enjoyer already. Not the Ayer one though, definitely not the Rocksteady one either, I am just the biggest fan of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and given this team makeup I think it was a big inspiration. Sure this version of Peacemaker is even more of a joke and half as funny but seeing King Shark adorbly named Nana again(not that he did anything) or Harley whose always great no matter where you put her, or Rick Flag being the perfect straight man and even Deadshot whose cool more like Bloodsport from TSS instead of Will Smith‘s actual portrayal of him in SS, these characters are so much fun and they naturally shine in their anime appearances.