The first three episodes of Suicide Squad Isekai are now streaming on Hulu and Max. If there’s a uniting factor behind the two live-action Suicide Squad movies released as part of the now-defunct DCEU (besides the ebullient presence of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn; good luck topping that, Gaga!), it’s the idea of outré DC bad guys as a Hot Topic-friendly fashion statement. That’s not a knock; even for a bunch of superhero-type characters, the best-known Suicide Squad characters cut memorable, iconic figures.
Their bad-guys-gone-good-ish storyline rides the line between scary contemporary Batman-villain menace and goofy Silver Age dress-up, so it makes sense to port their bold, graphic, darkly whimsical sensibilities into anime. The first three episodes of Suicide Squad Isekai, a new Japanese-made animated series streaming on Hulu and Max this summer, land somewhere between the dopiness of 2016’s Suicide Squad and the weirdly heartfelt gonzo action-comedy of its 2021 follow-up . But it understands that a Suicide Squad project should always be visually engaging.
The show doesn’t have any formal connection to those movies – in this telling, the main characters are all being conscripted for the first time – but its lineup seems influenced by them: Harley Quinn (Anna Nagase), Deadshot (Reigo Yamaguchi), Peacemaker (Takehito Koyasu), King Shark (Subaru Kimura), and Clayface (Jun Fukuyama) are the initial fivesome that form Isekai’s all-star antihero team. (Clayf.
