DC’s animation department has often collaborated with Japanese anime studios, producing some of the best comic-book-oriented animation media in recent years like Batman: Gotham Knight, Batman Ninja, and more. Which is why cashing on the newfound success of Harley Quinn and Suicide Squad narratives with an anime adaptation like Suicide Squad Isekai was the best idea the franchise’s media think tank could have come up with. The first season of Suicide Squad Isekai, consisting of ten episodes, is a fun romp that blends the gore and humor typical of the titular series with the spirit of adventure and high fantasy, staples of the Isekai genre. The anime-styled character remodels of major DC characters, all the while keeping the core essence of their lore intact, speak much about the care and ingenuity of the creators, and the fluid animation helps viewers to get some compensation for the janky slog of recently ended Tomorrowverse and all other recent sloppy animations put forward by DC.
Spoilers Ahead
Episode 1: Suicide Squad Goes to Fantasy Land
The first episode of Suicide Squad Isekai begins with the maniac couple, Joker and Harley Quinn, going on a high-speed chase through the streets of Gotham with cops on their trail when Harley decides to swing by a bar—and an ensuing battle with a local gang separates the couple. Katana apprehends Harley and manages to put her in Arkham Asylum, while Amanda Waller, chief of A.R.G.U.S. and all major covert government programs, manages to open a portal to another dimension by forcing a captive metahuman into unleashing the full extent of her power. Six months later, Waller creates an expendable team of supervillains, the Suicide Squad, consisting of Harley, King Shark, Peacemaker, Clayface, and Deadshot, who are forced to undertake a recon mission by venturing into the dimension in exchange for a reduced sentence. However, any attempt to flee or disobey the directive will result in the nanite bombs grafted into the necks of the prisoners exploding, and they need to reset the timer of the bombs every three days by reaching near the portal gate. The journey begins with a rocky start as the carrier chopper gets into an accident as soon as they enter the dimension, with the squad members remaining as the only survivors. The members discover that they have arrived in a high fantasy land filled with magical beasts—elves, goblins, orcs, beastmen, etc.—and soon a horde of pig beastmen attack them. Even though the squad manages to beat them into submission, a group of majestic magic-wielding knights of the Kingdom led by their chief commander, Cecil, arrive at the scene and throw the squad in prison after capturing them. Katana is revealed to have arrived in the fantasy world as well, assisting a bunch of villains while taking directives from an evil mastermind.
Episode 2: Squad Gets A New Member
The second episode of the series introduces Rick Flag, former Special Operations soldier and Waller’s accomplice, who had led another task force to this fantasy dimension months ago, only to have their chopper to face a similar accident, resulting in the villains escaping, while he was captured by the soldiers of the Kingdom and was imprisoned. As the Squad get into a prison fight with orcs and are thrown into a new cell, they find Rick Flag there, who shares the details of his arrival with them. Flag proposes taking the team to the nearest location to get them to Waller’s signal and reset the bomb in exchange for the squad’s compliance, and they manage to orchestrate a prison break, freeing all the captive orcs and beastmen in the process. Meanwhile, the queen of the Kingdom, Aldora, is introduced to the viewers as a harsh, cold-hearted ruler—as opposed to her kind, reserved daughter, Princess Fione—who believes the squad could be of major help in their Kingdom’s ongoing battle against Imperial forces. Fione shares her idea with Cecil, who has been a protective guardian figure throughout her life. Meanwhile, the squad takes over the prison, much to Cecil’s surprise and anger, who arrives to restore normalcy.
Episode 3: To Catch A Rat
The squad gets into a heated argument with Cecil, their former captor, while Flag decides to form a truce by proposing an alliance with the forces of the Kingdom. Cecil begrudgingly accepts this proposal just for the sake of princess Fione’s opinion and brings the squad to the royal palace. Flag confesses to Queen Aldora that his companions, the former task force, became chief leaders in the rival imperial army, and he wants to make amends by using the squad to help the Kingdom get rid of their enemies. Aldora agrees and allows the squad to take the battle to the enemy front and holds Flag captive as a failsafe. Harley notices Fiona, who somewhat resembles her, but shows her displeasure at the princess due to the fact that she gets bossed around by her mother and other members of the royal court. The squad reaches the battlefront, where they find the supervillain Ratcatcher from their own reality to be commanding an army of wolf beastmen. The squad manages to free the occupied Kingdom fortress and free the beastmen from his control. Katana saves Ratcatcher just in time and leaves with him, much to Harley’s displeasure, who gets infuriated seeing her former captor in this dimension as well.
Episode 4: A Major Victory
Despite fulfilling their deal, the squad is not allowed freedom, as the destruction of the fortress was allegedly a loss to the Kingdom as well. In a flashback sequence, a glimpse of Fiona’s past is shared, and it is revealed that outside her cloistered existence as a princess, she had had a life amidst the commoners, during a better time when beastmen and elves lived together with the humans. However, during the prolonged war between the Kingdom and imperial forces, the two races betrayed humans and joined the opposition side. Meanwhile, Ratcatcher returns with a stronger beastmen army to reclaim the lost fortress, and the squad prepares for an encore—this time Harley brings the prisoners with whom the members of the squad have formed a strong bond ever since the prison break. Through proper strategizing, Ratcatcher gets vanquished easily as Deadshot snipes out his scepter and frees all the beastmen in his control, thereby turning the tide of the battle with a single measured shot. This time, Cecil honors his word to the Squad by freeing Flag and the rest of the members, who decide to rush to the portal to receive Waller’s signal before the bomb’s timer runs out. Despite making a great comeback, Queen Aldora seems more pissed than ever. Flag realizes that escaped members from the previous team led by him have somehow gotten rid of the bombs in their necks, allowing them to roam freely.
Episode 5: How to Train Harley’s Dragon
The team reaches the portal just in time, which resets the bombs’ timer, and as a part of their original recon mission, Flag convinces the team to assist the Kingdom against the imperial forces. Their continued assistance pushes the imperial forces back, leading to several victories, and eventually the squad runs out of ammo, which prompts Flag to suggest a journey to his crashed chopper, which had sufficient ammo stashed. En route, the group spends some quality time with the prisoners who previously assisted in defending the fortress. The squad later reaches Flag’s chopper, where they take on a dragon who was roosting there and, with great difficulty, manage to beat it. Harley finds a dragon egg, from which a baby dragon emerges, whom she names Arthur. The team stocks up on ammo while Flag receives Waller’s directive to kill his former team of villains, who have become generals for the imperial force. While returning to the Kingdom, the squad finds the fortress to be in ruins, and their prisoner friends to be butchered—and the perpetrators are Thinker and Enchantress, two supervillains from Flag’s team who are now the strongest allies of the imperial force.
Episode 6: Mind Games
The squad engages in battle with Enchantress, Thinker, and a bunch of mind-controlled elves, but get badly beaten as Thinker uses his psychic powers to mentally weaken them (except Harley) by evoking their pasts. King Shark enters a brawl with Killer Croc and his ally, a sea creature, and gets miserably beaten as well. Flag manages to save the squad by threatening his former team he’ll detonate their neck bombs, as it is revealed that they haven’t gotten rid of those yet. As the beaten squad returns to the royal palace, Aldora promptly imprisons them for incompetence. Princess Fione takes pity on them as she releases the bunch, who plan to beat Thinker this time by opting for a covert operation. Meanwhile, Thinker creates a fortress to reach the portal to return to their original reality and makes preparations to pass over.
Episode 7: Decisive Victory and Terrible Repercussions
The Squad manages to weaken the Thinker this time, as the brainlinked and mindwashed elves are freed from mind control through the application of Peacemaker’s torturous methods to one. As the rest of the team battles the remaining forces outside, Harley enters the fortress to capture the Thinker, who makes a vain attempt to use his mind tricks on a mind that has been deranged for far too long. Harley defeats Thinker, but Katana appears all of a sudden to kill Thinker and take his mind-controlling helm with her. Eventually, Katana enters into a fierce battle with Harley and Clayface, and despite being defeated, manages to flee with the sea creature. The squad celebrates their victory as the fortress collapses, but the news of their victory inexplicably infuriates Aldora beyond measure, which comes off as shock to Fione and Cecil.
Episode 8: The Truth
By getting them involved in the murder of one of the royal advisors, Aldora tricks the squad into committing treason in the royal palace and takes King Shark captive to be executed, while sending the rest of the team into exile. Fione is devastated and tries to apologize to them for her mother’s irrational behavior, only for Harley to chastise her for having no control over her own life. The possibility of losing a dear friend makes the squad act up in strange ways as coping mechanisms, as they enter into a bar brawl with each other. Harley leaves Arthur to let him have a good life in this dimension. Later, as they go to reset their bombs and Flag reports to Waller through the portal, the cruel director decides to kill Clayface by detonating his bomb, deeming their mission to be terminated and asking them to return to their reality. Unwilling to give up on King Shark, Flag manages to bargain for one more day from Waller as he notices the Kingdom to be under attack and promises to salvage the situation within the given time. Clayface is revealed to be unharmed due to the nature of his powers, and the team makes way for the Kingdom once again. A terrified Fione sees her mother’s mask slipping, and a nefarious presence has been pretending to be her all along.
Episode 9: The Machinations of the Undead King
It is revealed that the Undead King had taken the appearance of Aldora after killing her, and to sustain her life through the deaths of others, she instigated clashes against imperial forces time and again. In fact, she was using all the villains like Enchantress, Thinker, and Ratcatcher to make the war situation fiercer, until the squad dropped by and nearly ruined her plans. Cecil arrives and takes Fione to safety, as the Undead King starts wreaking havoc on the Kingdom. Harley’s advice that she take control of her life resonates strongly with Fione, who decides to stand up for her own after taking a makeover like Harley’s and challenging the Undead King in order to defend the Kingdom. Using her exceptional magical powers, Undead King nearly floods the royal palace, and Killer Croc arrives at the scene to attack the princess, only for King Shark, who has managed to break free, to valiantly defend her. The team arrives in time to battle the Undead King, his undead forces, and the Enchantress, and Arthur, who has suddenly grown big in a short time, joins the squad as well. Harley and Arthur defeat Enchantress, who Harley realizes is being blackmailed into acting as a pawn of the Undead King. Clayface and Deadshot find Enchantress’ real body to be stuck in a skeletal dragon, thanks to Katana leading them to the location, and as per Harley’s directive, decide to bring it closer to the Kingdom.
Episode 10: Final Showdown
Peacemaker and King Shark, who were battling Croc and the sea creature, emerge victorious at the end. Enchantress regains her body, which prompts her to turn against the Undead King, while Deadshot assists Cecil in battle to gain a mystical upgrade in his gear and appearance. Deadshot shares this new power up with his squad members (except Flag), and along with Enchantress, they take on the Undead King for a final time. Harley and Fione work together to finally neutralize the Undead King using a mystical sword that King Shark had consumed earlier, and peace is restored in the Kingdom. Flag secretly reports to Waller, only to know that Katana had never left the director’s side, and instead, Joker had entered the dimension and been pretending to be Katana all along. In the final moments of the first season, Joker is seen sitting at the throne of the dead emperor, as he reveals that he wanted to amuse himself by unleashing chaos by reveling in the spoils of war, something that the Undead King and her merry band of villains failed to provide to him. He decides to take matters in his own hands this time, as he wonders whether Harley will remember her past life if they clash once again.
