DC animation goes big in Japan with the announcement of the anime project Suicide Squad ISEKAI, featuring Harley Quinn, the Joker, and Amanda Waller. Warner Bros. Japan is teaming up with WIT Studio for this surprise anime presentation.
WIT Studio is best known for the anime series Attack on Titan and Spy x Family. The Isekai genre should be familiar to anime and manga fans, as well as video games, as it is a popular trope within these mediums. The idea of dropping the main characters in an unfamiliar and potentially dangerous world seems to have a universal appeal to otakus.
DC and Warner Bros. Japan shared the announcement and first trailer on their official social media, such as Twitter and YouTube.
💗#SuicideSquadISEKAI💙
Harley Quinn, The Joker, and the Suicide Squad cause havoc in ISEKAI*, an all-new original anime series from Warner Bros. Japan and WIT Studio!*ISEKAI(異世界): Term for “another world” in Japanese! ⚔️ 🐲 pic.twitter.com/s2s1xWvfy7
— DC (@DCOfficial) July 3, 2023
The brief trailer gives off the familiar anime trappings of previous WIT Studio productions, though closer to the modern urban setting of Spy x Family than Attack on Titan. What little of the scenes shown in the 48-second teaser reveals the Joker and Harley will be involved in the story, as well as Amanda Waller.
There are also a couple of bits shown of locations in a fantasy setting, with flying dragons and floating islands in the clouds. Could this be the world the Suicide Squad will be traveling to? What mission objective could the team be undertaking?
Interestingly, the character designs of Harley Quinn and Amanda Waller are similar to their appearance in the David Ayer-directed Suicide Squad film (2016) as portrayed by Margot Robbie and Viola Davis, respectively. However, the Joker in Suicide Squad ISEKAI has a new design and have very little similarities to Jared Leto’s own version of the Clown Prince of Crime (save for having a tattoo on his arm).
But will Suicide Squad ISEKAI be part of the DC Universe that DC Studios Co-CEO James Gunn and Peter Safran are building? It does not appear to be the case. The official DC Studios logo does not appear in the trailer.
It is likely Suicide Squad ISEKAI will be under the Elseworlds umbrella, which covers the projects that are based on DC Comics characters but are not part of the DC Universe. Other projects already confirmed as part of the Elseworlds are Matt Reeves’s The Batman film (including sequels and spinoffs) and Joker: Folie à Deux, as well as the upcoming (but delayed) Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League game from Rocksteady Studios.
The term Isekai (Japanese: 異世界) literally means “a different world”. In manga and anime fiction, Isekai is used to refer to stories where the protagonists are transported to another reality or universe. Often, the main plot thread centers on these characters trying to go home and/or finding a way to save the world they now inhabit.
Some examples of the Isekai sub-genre are Aura Battler Dunbine, Fushigi Yugi, Inuyasha, Sword Art Online, and Spirited Away. Many video games also often play with Isekai tropes, such as Ultima, Secret of Evermore (SNES), Comix Zone (Sega Genesis), a number of entries in The Legend of Zelda (Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, Majora’s Mask, and arguably the entire Super Mario Bros. series.
According to the synopsis of Suicide Squad ISEKAI via the official website:
DC’s Harley Quinn and The Joker have been ISEKAI!? Suicide Squad rampages onto the stage of ISEKAI!
A new original animation from Japan! The most maddening worlds collide in an epic and violent fantasy with the strongest line-up of creators!
Suicide Squad ISEKAI is directed by Eri Osada, from a screenplay by Tappei Nagatsuki and Eiji Umehara. Character Designs by Akira Amano and Naoto Hosoda, with music by Kenichiro Suehiro. There is currently no official release date for Suicide Squad ISEKAI, as of the time of the announcement.
