This is a Dynamike Network podcast.
Welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate
the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations.
I'm Johnny DC. And I'm his twin brother, Marvelous Joe. And welcome to episode 400. Normally,
we would be doing a team duel on an anniversary episode such as this, but Marvel
all at once at the end of summer. So we're getting caught up on some reviews, one of them being
Suicide Squad Isekai. Yeah, our next episode is gonna be the Outsiders versus X-Force. That'll
be our team duel. But first we get to talk anime with our good buddy Zach Hepburn from the Senjou
World Podcast, which is part of the Dynamite Podcast Network. We'll get him on the line
later on this episode. Right, he's gonna help us review Suicide Squad Isekai. It's a pretty
fun anime, and we're gonna talk all about it later on. There's no comic book movie news
to break down this week. As always, we list our segment times in our episode description,
so feel free to check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead to a particular topic.
Our artificially intelligent dual simulator AJ9K has a quick message for our listeners,
so listen up. Why hello there, do you want even more from this podcast? Then become a part
of the dynamic dual community on Patreon, where you can choose from three tiers. The dynamic
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at gmail.com. Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamicduel. Pip pip cheerio. Thanks AJ9K and
thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. Be sure to tune into the other shows in the
Dynamite Podcast Network this week, including Max Destruction, which pits your favorite action
heroes. from film and television against each other. This week, hosts Scotty and Gilly are
pitting Tallahassee from Zombieland against Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead. That is
going to be a great episode, I can't wait for that. On the Syndrome World podcast, host Zachary
Hepburn speculates on fights between fan favorite anime and manga characters. This Thursday,
Zach will be finding out who would win in a fight between Trunks Brief from Dragon Ball
Z and Sailor Uranus from Sailor Moon. Sailor you're what? Shut up. On the console combat
podcast hosts John and Dean find out who would win in fights between popular video game characters.
In yesterday's episode, Joseph guest hosted and he and John determined who would win between
James Bond 007 and Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell. And that I got to say was a blast. Definitely
check out that episode guys after you listen to this episode, especially if you like video
games. If you like James Bond, it's a whole lot of fun. Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click
the link in our show notes to listen to all of the shows in the Dynamike Podcast Network.
But with that out of the way, quick to the No Prize! A No Prize is an award Marvel used to
give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic Duel No Prize, is a digital award we post on Instagram
for the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week we asked,
who do you think was the best cast Marvel or DC villain of all time? And of course, this
was coming off the news that James Spader is returning to voice Ultron for the upcoming
Disney Plus Vision television series. We got a whole lot of answers this time, nine answers
total. So it's always heartbreaking when that happens because I feel like we let so many
people down by not choosing their answer for an honorable mention. But you guys all gave
great answers. Let's go ahead and break down this week's honorable mentions before revealing
the no prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to Scott Camacho. Who said? On the DC
side of things, it's easy. Heath Ledger's Joker cannot be beat. I mean, you, if you look at
every other Joker iteration, all of them are still trying to get a piece of Heath Ledger's
shadow, but for the Marvel side of things, nothing can be Tom Hiddleston's Loki. What RDJ was
for Iron Man, Tom Hiddleston was for Loki. Everyone else, every villain can be replaced, but Tom's
Loki remains the And he got caught off at the end right there. But yeah, Tom Hiddleston's
Loki, I think, is the best villain in terms of casting for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
He had such a good story leading from the first Thor film all the way through Loki season two.
And I hope it's not done. I hope Tom Hiddleston comes back to the role and we see him in future
Marvel stories. You better because he's a great actor and he's perfect in the role. As was
Heath Ledger as the Joker. It was a ground so much. I'm sorry. What? Not really. Shut the
hell up. His performance was groundbreaking. It was a tour de force, playing one of the
most iconic villains of all time. He won an Oscar for the role. And even with Joaquin Phoenix
also winning an Oscar for playing the Joker, Heath Ledger arguably is still the best actor
to do it. So great answer Scotty. Our next honorable mention goes to Kat Stevenson. Who said? Hi
guys, it's Kat again, and I think the most legendary casting for a villain in Marvel or DC is Josh
Brolin as Thanos. Nobody else would be able to bring the gravitas and might needed for
a character such as Thanos. His delivery of lines is so powerful and moving, there's nobody
else that could do it. Even if the character is entirely CGI, he is the character. Yeah,
Josh Brolin's performance as Thanos was exemplary, particularly in the world of motion capture
animation. Yes, the character of Thanos was an all CG character in the movies, but so much
of Brolin's performance showed through, which made Thanos feel so lifelike and real. And
the visual effects team did a great job. Obviously, so did Josh Brolin, and he will always be remembered
as that character of Thanos. Yeah, I'm still surprised by how he played the character. Like
I remember reading comics with Thanos in it and I always thought he was much more maniacal.
But Josh Brolin played a much more subdued version of the character to his benefit, I think, because
I think he made him sympathetic in a way that I never really found Thanos to be. And in that
sense, I think he kind of elevated the character with his performance. For sure. He made him
believable. He made him feel real. Great answer, Kat. Our next honorable mention goes to Caleb
Falk, who said, Hey guys, Caleb Volk here and I think the best casting for a Marvel or DC
villain has to be Willem Dafoe as Green Goblin, not only in the original Spider-Man trilogy,
but also coming back 20 years later and playing the same character just as well, if not better
in the Spider-Man No Way Home movie. I think I've said this a few times in our reviews of
the Spider-Man films, Willem Dafoe is perfect casting as the Green Goblin because he has
a natural goblin face. I mean, not only that, the guy is a fantastic actor, not the best
looking, but appropriately so for a character like the Green Goblin. I'm so glad that Kevin
Feige did not try and recast the character for the MCU because, yeah, you cannot do better
than Willem Dafoe for Norman Osborn. He's so unbelievably sinister and maniacal. He was
born to play the role. For sure, for sure. So good answer, Caleb. We want to give a huge
shout out to Cyrus Moore, Jacob Bell, John Storosky, Mickey Manteghian, and Waldo for taking the
time to visit our website and leave us an answer. But the winner of this week's snow prize is
Travis Bailey, who said, Travis Bailey here. What's going on, fella? Shout out to my good
twin. Man, it's been too long. All right, look. You're going to get like four or five different
jokers. You're going to get Kingpin. I hope you'll get a Scarlet Witch for sure. Let's
talk about it. But it's Ian McKellen. It's Magneto Ian McKellen. Iconic. I mean, unassailable
casting. Him and Professor X. Look, that whole franchise was just hot toilet water. But they
got those two right. For sure. For sure. I think Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. can largely
be credited with giving validity to the whole superhero genre, as they did back in the year
2000 with the movie X-Men. I think before their casting, superhero movies were largely seen
as juvenile stuff, kids' fair, blade notwithstanding, but when X-Men suddenly cast these two Shakespearean
actors who so perfectly embodied their roles and manifested them in such a way that elevated
it. from the page. I think a lot of people stood up and took notice and the genre owes a big
debt to Ian McKellen, I think, for helping get this whole thing started really. Yeah, I mean,
you could say that Jack Nicholson and Danny DeVito were amazing as, you know, Joker and
the Penguin and you would be right, but they also had a degree of comic book camp to their
performances. Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart played their roles, like you mentioned, as
if they were basically Shakespearean When they first made the movie, they were master thespians
at the top of their craft, and they'll always be remembered, at least to me, as those characters
in those iconic roles. So congrats to Travis Bailey for winning this week's No Prize. If
you the listener want a shot at winning your own No Prize, stay tuned to later on this episode
when we'll be asking another Question of the Week. And now that that's done, NOT ON TO THE
NEWS, because there's no news. So we're just gonna go on to the Question of the Week.
Out of the 400 episodes we've done on this podcast, what has been your favorite episode of Dynamic
Duel and why? Record your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking on the red microphone button in
the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail.
Your message could be up to 30 seconds long, and don't forget to leave your name in case
we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person a Dynamic
Duel No Prize that we'll post to Instagram. Be sure to answer before September 7th.
So with that out of the way, now let's move on to the main event of this episode and get
Senjoworld's Zachary Hepburn on the line to help us review the DC animated series, Suicide
Squad Isekai.
Alright, Suicide Squad Isekai is a 10 episode anime series produced by Wit Studio, the same
anime studio that produced the first three seasons of Attack on Titan, which I have not seen but
I hear is incredible. Joseph and I are definitely not as well versed in anime as we are in comics,
so to help us out in our spoiler review, we've enlisted our resident anime guru and the host
of the
Zachary Hepburn. How's it going, Zach? Good, good. It's it's good to be back. It's good
to be back and finally doing a review with you guys. Yeah, we haven't had you on the show
since you and John reviewed Spider-Man, the amazing Spider-Man with us. Yeah, that was
a couple of years ago. So, yeah, I'm excited to be back. I love being part of the group,
part of the family. Yeah, it's great to have you as a part of that family, especially for
this episode, because I know you love anime. You, like I said, are the expert in it in our
group. I have to ask, when you first learned that they were going to make a Suicide Squad
anime, what did you think? When they first announced it, I was like, really? Suicide Squad? Because
at that time, it was everything was Suicide Squad, right? So the video game? Yeah, I was
just like, the video game let us down. But this, I don't know, I found this redeemed it for
me, redeem the Suicide Squad. Really? That's pretty cool. So in regards to Wit Studio, the
producers of Suicide Squad, Isakai, they did the first three seasons of Attack on Titan.
Have you seen those seasons? Like, are you familiar with Wit Studio? And did their involvement
get you excited at all for Suicide Squad? To be honest, I'm not really a guy who pays attention
to what studio is doing what. I just enjoy anime, but I am familiar with Attack on Titan. I never
finished it, but I watched like the second last movie they put out. So I just have to go and
finish it. So I am pretty well-versed in the world of Attack on Titan. I'm not the biggest
fan, which hence why I haven't finished it. But it is good. It has a kind of a messed up
story. So I don't know. It's kind of dark. And if you're into that kind of thing, then...
There's a few animes that I've been meaning to check out, especially since you started
your show. Attack on Titan is one of those. Yeah, it's just so hard with having this podcast
and having to watch all the stuff that we're currently in the middle of having to watch.
including this one. Although I was looking forward to this one. Like when I first learned that
they were making a Suicide Squad anime series, I was pretty pumped because like the idea of
the Suicide Squad, these super powered prisoners forced to carry out these impossible missions
lends itself to a very like pulpy and formulaic format like anime where the goal isn't marketability
so much as cheaply giving the audiences what they want. The almost Tarantino-esque approach
that James Gunn took with 2021's The Suicide Squad film, after successful DC animes like
Batman Ninja and My Adventures with Superman, I was so ready for a hard-edged Suicide Squad
series that could up the maturity level to match some of my favorite anime series like Neon
Genesis Evangelion or Sword Art Online, which I believe fits within the Sword Art? Yes, technically,
but that one was all virtual and it was a video game. And Isekai's literally people are sucked
into another world. Yeah, if the listeners are not familiar with Isekai, the word literally
means another world in Japanese and refers to like the new, often fantastical world that
the story's main characters find themselves in and have to learn to navigate. The only
Isekai I think I've seen is Sword Art. but I've heard the most popular is Re Zero, which was
written by Tape Nagusuki, I'm mispronouncing that I'm sure, but he was the lead writer on
Suicide Squad, Isekai as well. Now, the premise of the Suicide Squad operating in a fantasy
Isekai land is pretty absurd, but that didn't really bother me because I feel like the concept
of the Suicide Squad thrives in absurdity. And it's not like we haven't seen other comic book
characters like Batman or Captain America in medieval fantasy settings before. The fantasy
world this series sets up is kind of confusing, I think, but it's essentially one where a kingdom
of humans is warring against an empire of orcs and human animal hybrids known as demi humans.
There are elves and dragons. It's basically World of Warcraft, I feel. Yes, it's definitely
fantasy magic and not just kind of like medieval. Yeah, this was definitely my thing. Like I
love swords. Give me swords magic all day. Yeah, like swords and sorcery adventures. Those are
awesome. I love those, too. And you put anime with it. It's just like the best thing ever
for me. So it's always cool to see like familiar characters in a new setting like that, like
Dark Knights of Steel, that comic series that's going on right now for D.C. seeing what Roman
and Batman in these magical swords and sorcery settings. I love that. There are certain things
that draw me in. And if the characters are badass, if the fights are badass, if the power sets
are badass, I'm all for it. Which they definitely had a lot of that here. I thought it was pretty
interesting what they did with a lot of the characters. But the story for this series is
essentially that Amanda Waller wants to plunder the Isekai's resources on behalf of the US
government. So she sends suicide squads in to establish a framework with which to do that.
The first squad she sent ended up defecting and helping the Empire. So she sent a second
one to do the first one's job. But they ended up siding with the kingdom against the Empire
and the other squad. It's actually a pretty cool Suicide Squad versus Suicide Squad premise
and one that allows us to see an expanded roster of DC supervillains that I didn't think we
were going to get to see in the show. Yes, I love the cast. Like I always want most of those
characters that were in this to be on one team with each other. So just to even just have
them face off, just be in the same series. I loved it. I loved it. Yeah. Like there's been
times in the comics where like the Suicide Squad goes up against the Justice League. But to
have a Suicide Squad go up against another one is just a really cool concept. I thought there
were going to be more deaths on one side, but it was pretty much all on the first squad.
But the characters were awesome. I think the coolest thing about the show was the designs
that came up with for the DC characters. And this was something like we noticed even from
the trailers. Like Harley Quinn was a character tailor made to be in anime. She looked fantastic
and very much like an amalgam of Margot Robbie's looks from the two Suicide Squad films. Yeah,
I have to say, Isakai Harley is probably my favorite version of Harley Quinn ever. I agree.
The way she talks like... Oh, here's the question for you guys. Did you watch it in English or
did you watch it in Japanese? I started to watch in English, but I had a hard time getting through
some of the line deliveries. For some reason, I just think sometimes things sound better
in Japanese. So I switched over to Japanese within the first few minutes, and I stayed
with that the rest of the way through. I thought the voice performances were great in Japanese.
No, they were amazing. Same, I started the first 10 minutes in English and some of the translations
from Japanese to English don't always work that well. I find that I can much easier accept
the dialogue when it's being read in the native language it was written because I think it
just carries a slightly different context language to language. And yeah, it's just more digestible
I think in Japanese. I agree, totally. There are some very good English voice actors, but...
When it comes down to it, I find they just can't beat the Japanese ones because there's so much
passion. They love what they do. Yeah, and it's not even just the acting. It's also the writing.
Like a voice actor can only do so much if the translator didn't do a good job of translating,
you know, and so then all of a sudden they're being fed corny lines. For sure. And so the
reason I was asking that, I was curious if there was swearing in the English version because
I didn't watch the English either. There was swearing, yeah. Sometimes, I don't know why,
I'd go to a next episode and HBO Max would default to English. So I'd hear part of the episode
before I managed to switch over, and yeah, there was cussing. Okay, okay. I just wanted to make
sure because I was like, this show, like, I love the way Harley Quinn talks, and if they
didn't kind of do it the same in English, it's just not justice. So if you watch it in English,
watch it again in Japanese. It's so much better. Absolutely. For sure, yeah. I have to say though,
the versions of these characters are definitely my favorite versions of them. I think it's
because they borrowed the best parts from the two Suicide Squad films. Even in the roster,
mixing them from both versions. You had Deadshot, Katana, Enchantress Killer Croc, and Joker
from the first film. And then you had King Shark, Peacemaker, Ratcatcher, and the Thinker from
the second. Clayface was really the only original one in this show, though you could say he was
borrowed from his supporting role in the Harley Quinn animated series. He's very much a thespian
with delusions of grandeur in that show. And in this series, they kind of ran with that
while adding a bit of otaku fanboy for expository purposes and a more hip aesthetic. Yeah, for
sure. I do want to talk about the animation quality. I thought it kept pace with the character
designs. I think this is... probably the best animated work DC has put out this year for
sure. And it may be the best animated project DC has ever put out in terms of animation quality.
I thought it was better than Batman Ninja. I agree. Yeah, because Batman Ninja was computer
animated. It wasn't hand drawn. And I believe the show was hand drawn. It looked great, I
thought. This show had amazing choreography when it came to the fights. Like some of the
fights, I was just like, holy crap, DC, like You can do this? Like, what? Like, oh my God.
Did you have a favorite fight? It was definitely Harley Quinn when she was going to fight the
Thinker. Yes, that was mine too. That was cool. And against Katana too, right after that. That
was pretty good. Oh my God, that's what I mean. She is my favorite version. Like, she can like
fight. Like, that's the crazy thing, yeah. I gotta say, Zach, hearing from you that you
thought the choreography in this show was good, knowing how big of a fan of anime you are and
how much you watch and also having a martial arts background yourself. That is high, high
praise, I gotta say. It does its thing. Like, it is so good. I was just blown away by it.
I was just like, I can't believe DC's putting out this kind of quality martial arts. And
I was just like, yes, finally, we have DC anime that clearly surpasses the Marvel anime. Let's
do this, DC. We got this. Even better than the animation and the show itself, I thought the
animation for the opening sequence was insanely good. Like I rarely skipped it. There were
a few times I did, but I just enjoyed watching it, paired with the music that they chose and
everything like that. It really got me pumped for every episode, for sure. Yeah, the music
was, oh my God, like I don't know what it is, but when I'm watching something, I always kind
of zone out and I just don't hear the music, right? As I stated in, you know, my Sailor
Moon review, if it's not good, I just don't notice it. And every time the songs were on,
I was just like, yes, this is perfect. And I'm like bopping out and everything about it. I
am actually blown away by how good DC did with this project. Yeah, I didn't skip any of the
intros either when I was watching it, partly because of the music. But I would say I stayed
for the end credits even more so for the end music, because that's Maury Kaliope song is
not bad. I'm not really familiar with her work. I know she's like a YouTube thing, whatever.
But. Yeah, I thought it was pretty good. Now, Mendo Waller gave me creepy vibes in the end
music video every time. No, I loved it. When she's grabbing her crotch and she's like, yeah,
loosen my lips, loosen my lips. And we're like, whoa, that's obscene. But I was like, that's
perfect for a Suicide Squad. It's perfect. It is. Right? But it's also perfect anime. I loved
it. Yeah, it was absurd in the best way possible. Like meme worthy. Now, I do have to say. despite
the show's top-notch animation and character designs and intriguing premise. The show itself,
to me, was kind of lackluster and boring story-wise. Like, I thought that's partly probably to do
with the lack of stakes. Like, Suicide Squad as a premise is supposed to contain a degree
of, like, macabre interest in finding out, you know, who's going to die and how. But that
was completely stripped from this series. The 72 hour time limit never really felt like a
real threat because time itself was kind of all over the place in this show. And when Amanda
Waller did trigger one of the neck bombs to go off, of course, it was going to be Clayface,
a character that wouldn't be affected, which I saw coming a mile away. And that wasn't the
only obvious thing that I noticed. Princess Fiona being confused for Harley Quinn was something
I figured would happen as early as the trailers for this series. I do think that this season
probably didn't need to be 10 episodes. But you know, as I've heard you mentioned before,
Zach, anime is kind of known for drawn out seasons and filler episodes. So I guess the show is
par for the course in that regard. Most anime actually now are doing just 12 episodes and
the season. So I'm not gonna lie, I was a little upset. I didn't have a little bit more, but
I don't know. I think that's the thing with us anime fans is we just, we want to see the
sick animation. Like we love all the like. Like we watch anime and like we'll go on YouTube
and watch it slow down. That's like how like kind of invested we are and that's how much
we enjoy these fights that we see in anime. It's cool that the passionate fan base exists
out there. Cause the animators do put a lot of like thoughts into this. You could tell
when they do. It just looks so much better and it's so much more fluid. Well, what it is too
is item placement or like hand placement, right? They do such a good job of conveying actual
martial arts and actual strikes. And, you know, when Harley Quinn hits with the baseball bat,
it's very realistic. It's not cartoony. It looks like, you know what I mean? Somebody's actually
hitting somebody. Yeah. They do a very good job of that in this for sure. Now, I'm not
sure if Warner Brothers is planning on doing more seasons of the show, but it definitely
feels like WIT Studio is in it for the long call, which I also feel is like a risky move
because, you know, we as comic book movie fans. are well aware of how often superhero projects
get cancelled or just scrapped altogether. Like, I'll be pissed if this gets cancelled because
the number of unanswered questions in this season is kind of ridiculous. Like, we don't know
how Amanda Waller learned about the isekai or who she used to open the portal to it. I mean,
my guess was Enchantress, but they never followed up on that later. We don't know exactly what
resources Amanda Waller is after. or why she would send the Joker in her first squad if
she knew how chaotic he was. There's just a ton of stuff that I want answers to that I
thought we were gonna get more insights on before the season wrapped up, but that just wasn't
the case. I think they're just trying to draw it out. Like, come back. If you want the answers,
come back. Watch season two. Yeah. Right? I mean, the Joker did say in episode one, like
this was prelude to a very long story. So maybe it is a really long story. I might be talking
out of my ass here because I haven't watched a whole lot of anime, but in the anime that
I have seen, usually I found that the end of it is a little bit anticlimactic actually and
it almost appears as if Japanese storytelling is more about the journey than the destination,
I would say. So even if this is the only season we got, I think it's really less about the
end and more about everything that happened along the way. You're absolutely right. I was
watching a YouTube video recently that was sort of explaining how Eastern storytelling differs
from Western in that it doesn't have a three act structure. It actually has a four act structure.
Their fourth act kind of is an extension of the denouement after the climax, where it kind
of tells a little bit more about the life of these characters. And it does feel anticlimactic
because it doesn't end with a climax, which, you know, Western stories typically do. or
shortly after it. So I can see how that would be the case for a lot of anime. Yes, no, that's
exactly what they do. Whenever they end a series, it's always, boom, you have this big fight,
and then there's one final episode that will wrap it up and even jump into the future and
show you, no, hey, this is what they're up to now that evil has been defeated, right? That
is always how it ends. But they space it out, right? So throughout their journey, it's multiple
kind of climaxes, I guess you can say. Yeah, for sure. Now, I feel like all of the intriguing
story stuff came sort of in the last seconds of the show with the reveal that the Joker
had just killed the emperor and taken his place for a majority of the show. The audience is
pretty much just as lost as the squad itself, trying to figure out what to do and what's
going on. But that kind of makes sense, I guess. But maybe not for five hours. I felt like.
for a majority of the show, the characters are sort of just quipping, not stop. And I mean,
I think that's kind of just Suicide Squad in a nutshell. I guess you could say that they
did the same thing in the movies. It is a very comedic concept. So I could see where they
would want to run with that for this anime series. Did you guys have a favorite like joke throughout
the show? I wouldn't have one per se, but I love the character of Clayface, how he was
just like, We're in an isekai and he would just point out everything. And so to me, that was
kind of like my favorite joke, like him. Yeah. Clayface. Yeah. I really liked the bar fight
scene that they did, I think, in the eighth episode or something like that. Really? It
wasn't just one joke per se, but just them starting a fight while this jester is trying to sing
their praises about being a hero was pretty hilarious, I thought. Then all of a sudden,
peacemakers gets his pants off. It's like, what? Yeah, I have no idea what was going on there.
Yeah, I rewound it because I was like, when did he lose his pants? They were never on.
Of course, they have to show some ass in a DC. Of course, it's the requisite DC nudity and
animation. Now, to say my favorite part, I think, was the relationship between Deadshot and Ratcatcher,
how Deadshot thought they were like the best of friends, homies. And then it turns out that
he just really made Ratcatcher's life a living hell. I thought that was hilarious. That was
good.
Our fantasies collide and heroes clash. One podcast network rises above the rest. Prepare
yourself for the ultimate showdowns in comic books, video games, movies, and anime. The
Dynamike Podcast Network presents Console Combat, where video game legends brawl every Monday.
Smash every Tuesday, Max Destruction, where TV and action heroes battle every Wednesday,
and Sendro World, where anime champions clash every Thursday. Join us as we speculate on
the matches and, armed with the power of mathematical simulations, discover who will emerge victorious.
Visit dynamicpodcast.com where we settle the debate and settle the score.
Let's talk about the characters more in our character breakdown, starting with Harley Quinn.
She was the protagonist of the show and really both the hearts and brains of the team, I would
say. You know, she often gained inspiration for how to solve certain problems that the
team encountered through her past misadventures with the Joker. Now, even though she pines
for him throughout the series, you know, unaware that he's disguised as Katana in the Isekai,
She proves herself to be an accomplished tactician without him, even concocting the plan that
defeated the Skeleton Queen in the climax of the show. Like I said, man, favorite version
of Harley Quinn. She's something else. I love this version. I love her. Did you have a favorite
moment from the series with her? I think when she kind of put the princess in her place,
I was like, yeah, you tell her, you tell her. Yeah, I liked her cute. attitude. Like she
always called King Shark Nana-chan. Nana-chan, yeah. I love that too. Yeah, and she had the
pet dragon that she adopted taking it on as its surrogate mother. She kind of became like
the queen of dragons from Game of Thrones in that way. That's true. That's an interesting
aspect. That's so Isekai though too, because the protagonist always gets a little pet. It's
rare that you see like the motherly nurturing side of Harley Quinn, but it was an interesting
facet to the character displayed in this show. Yeah, absolutely. Like I mentioned, she was
definitely the heart of the team. If I had to pick my favorite moment from her in the series,
I'd have to say it was probably her sword fight against Katana. Like after they defeated the
Thinker, I loved how Clayface all of a sudden became a sword. And then she just battled against
Katana. That was so cool. Such a great fight scene. Probably one of my favorites in the
entire series. Oh, for sure. Especially how you would see the sword get destroyed. And
because it's Clayface, he would just re like, he would, you would see them pick up dirt.
to reform the sword. And so I thought it was so good. That was really cool. Moving on to
Deadshot, you know, the other members of the squad, they don't really have arcs. They're
pretty static and they're simply there to, I would say, fill out the five man band trope
common to anime. As I mentioned, Harley was the heart of the team. Deadshot was probably
the leader. He filled that kind of archetype since he often directed the team on. where
they would go, such as leaving to collect ammo or instructing the team to put on magic armor.
My favorite moment with him in the series was how he ended the battle against Rattcatcher
and his army with one bullet. I didn't see that coming. I thought we were gonna have like an
all out army brawl, but for it just to end in that manner, I thought it was great. That was
a quintessential Deadshot moment. Yeah, no, I totally agree. For me, it was just, yeah,
just how he got on. throughout the series, I was like, yeah, you're cool. I'd hang out with
you, Deadshot. He was the coolest one. Yeah. Alongside Peacemaker, I would say, Peacemaker,
he's the team lancer or like the skilled rebel of the group. Someone who often clashes with
the leader. And you definitely saw that in this series with him clashing with Deadshot. Now,
I didn't love Peacemaker in this series. I thought he was kind of weird, like too stoic and very
different from John Cena's take, but I guess. They needed him to be a foil to the short fused
dead shot. I loved Peacemaker in this season. Yeah, he was my favorite character, actually.
I remember I was watching the show with my wife and she was like, I thought the Peacemaker
is supposed to be like funny. I'm like, maybe John Cena, you know, as written by James Gunn.
But from what I know of him in the comics, you know, he's not that funny. He's actually a
lot more stoic and serious of a character. So I like how they went that route with him and
just how like dedicated to his cause he was. He was funny in that sense. Yeah, I think that
worked for him. I have to say I prefer this one over the John Cena one. Really? I would
agree. Yeah. Really? Yeah, I'm sorry, John Cena. That's fair. Moving on to King Shark. He was
the big guy or the muscle of the group. If I had to pick a favorite moment with him, it
was probably his battles with Killer Croc, only because I was surprised to see Killer Croc.
I always figured that King Shark would have been like more than a match against Killer
Kroc, especially with the healing factor that they gave King Shark in the show. But the show
definitely upped Killer Kroc's fighting skill, I would say. He was like a boxer, so it kind
of worked. Let's talk about that healing factor though, because some of the characters seems
to get power upgrades while some of the characters did not. Now, King Shark, he got a healing
factor. Clayface, he got geokinesis. And I guess Harley Quinn, I don't know. Sometimes she was
able to. someone's super strength or something like that. But what did the other guys get?
It was not quite clear what happened to the other characters and like why their abilities
were enhanced. Yeah, I don't think they unlocked any special abilities. I don't think so. It's
just those three. Like even the guys on the other side, the other suicide squad members,
they didn't really have powers either. Well, Ratcatcher was upgraded. Yeah, he was able
to control wolves. But that was because of the crystal, right? Like it wasn't his power. I
wasn't sure about that. I thought that was unclear. In the comics, you know, he has a device that
controls rats as well. So I wasn't sure if he just got an upgraded device in this world or
what happened. But I also thought Killer Croc got an upgrade because he was able to control
that underwater leviathan. Yeah. Who was that guy? Where did he come from? The Isekai. That
thing pissed me off when he first showed up, because I was like, oh, sweet. We get Croc
versus shark. And then all of a sudden, two seconds later, stupid. octopus fish thing,
grab shark and there's no fight. I was like, man, fuck that fish. It didn't make sense.
Maybe it was kind of like a dragon type situation where one of the bad Suicide Squad members
had adopted a small fish as a pet or something like that and then it grew. I don't know. That
makes sense. But I guess if the good guys got the dragon, then yeah. They did call it a Leviathan,
right? So. I believe so, yeah. And Kroc called it his little bro. Yeah. So you could be onto
something there. But I think the other characters would develop powers and everything. I think
if they do bring it back, then I think some of those characters will start developing powers,
which I think would be pretty cool. Although now that they have the armor that they got
at the end, the magic armor, maybe some of them don't even need those just innate upgrades,
magic upgrades, and they could just use the armor. Man, I know we'll get there, but that
armor was incredible. I loved it. how it turned the entire show into like a Dynasty Warriors
video game. I was pumped. I watched that scene twice. That whole thing. It was great. It was
good. That is your typical like going super say in moment. Yeah. Oh, for sure. We would
call it. Yeah. No, it was so good. They even had like the transformation scenes. I thought
those were good. Those are funny. Power Rangers, sailor moon type transformations. Love it.
Love it. Moving on to Clayface. He was. the absolute standout character of the show for
me, probably because I've never seen the character done this way before. His alter ego, Basil
Carlo, was an actor, and he's a diva on the Harley Quinn show, but he's never been like
cool before, like he was in this show, or maybe like ironically so. He also provided exposition
for the team, as well as the audience who may not have been familiar with the tropes from
anime and Hollywood cinema. And that strangely made him the team's quote unquote smart guy
while also being the comedic relief. Every time you spoke, I was like, this guy's a dumb ass.
I love it. Right. So yeah, no, Clayface is cool. I really liked Clayface in this. He was definitely
that kind of vain pretty boy type character, but it did make me wonder why the Clayface
from the comics is such a tragic figure. If he can shape shift into a beautiful form, whatever
he wants to, he just like chooses not to. I don't understand why he doesn't do that because
this version of Clayface had no problem altering his appearance in that way and he wasn't nearly
the tragic character that he is in the comics. You know, he had trouble maintaining his prior
form. This show kind of did away with that. They made it so that he was a pretty seamless
shapeshifter, but he's not always like that in the comics. He can't maintain it for very
long. Okay, that makes sense. Now, I totally thought Clayface was El Diablo from the trailers.
I was way wrong. It turned out Clayface just had expanded control over Clay in the isekai
and that was visualized in this like glowy fiery kind of way. But I was happily surprised to
find out it was Clayface. I was like, what? OK. I didn't fully know it was him until the
end of the first episode when they did those character roll call title cards, kind of. Oh,
yeah. Where each character got to showcase their ability in the fight when they first got into
the isekai. That was pretty dope. My favorite moment from Clayface was probably when he brought
down the fortress. Like not only was it a great feat for the character, but I also thought
it was just hilarious that the fortress ended up belonging to the kingdom. Oh, you're talking
about in the fight against Ratcatcher? Yeah. Yeah, that was a great showcase of his kind
of intellect, how he was kind of the smart guy of the group because in this weird meta way,
he had an understanding of the situation that they were in being an Isekai fan himself. But
yeah, it was his idea to bring down the water towers and to make the stone that they were
standing on a little bit more malleable. Yeah, no, he was definitely a lot more intelligent
than he's ever really been portrayed. But it totally made sense the way they did it though,
too, because, you know, being a fan of movies and just like culture and stuff like that,
he was the geek of the group. Moving on to Princess Fiona or Fiona? Fiona. She was the literal...
damsel in distress, this demure royal with a traumatic childhood in which her friend as
a kid was killed after she told him how much food soldiers in the war had. She made it her
life's purpose to end the war, partly out of guilt, but she was too timid to confront her
mother, Queen Aldora, even when the Queen's behavior became more and more erratic and harsh.
Eventually, she was inspired by Harley Quinn, her doppelganger, and to becoming more independent
and confrontational. for the sake of her kingdom. Yeah, I guess I don't have too much to say
about her. I think her twist at the end was something that we all kind of saw coming. And
they set it up pretty well, I thought. I wouldn't say I seen it coming. Like I had an inkling
of it. I was like, why does she look so much like Harley Quinn? I was like, there must be
something going on there. And I thought like, oh, maybe we're gonna find, you know, this
medieval version of Deadshot and the rest of the characters. So that kind of threw me a
little bit for a loop. But like, I have to say my favorite moment with the princess was when
She turns around and she's wearing the makeup. Yes. And she's like, I am sick and tired of
this fucking shit. And just the guy with the baseball bat. I was like, yes. I was like,
do your thing, girl. That was great. The last character I do want to talk about is the Joker.
He's a pretty mysterious character throughout the show, which kind of works for the character
in that he should always be unpredictable. And while I do feel like he was shoehorned into
the show's final minutes. and that the reveal wasn't as shocking or as satisfying as it should
have been, the more I've dwelt on it, the more I'm glad that he's being positioned as the
series' main antagonist. I like the concept of the Suicide Squad versus the Joker, especially
when Harley Quinn is positioned as one of the team leads. Yeah, I definitely think that sets
up something pretty cool down the line, because you know, once Harley Quinn finds out, she's
going to obviously switch sides, and that's going to cause a whole bunch of drama. but
then something's gonna lead to her rejoining the Suicide Squad, so I'm very interested in
how that whole thing would play out. Oh yeah, it's gonna bring great conflict to season two
if there is a season two. I really liked this version of the Joker. I liked how philosophical
he was. He was like this wise, chaotic, anarchist. And really his whole motivation for doing everything
that he did was to provide a more interesting life, I guess, for Harley Quinn and everybody
else in the squad. Yeah, which is fascinating. Like he's such a wild card in that sense. And
yeah, because it's hard to empathize with that type of thinking, it does make him very mysterious.
And I thought it was actually a really damn good twist. My jaw dropped in the final minutes
of the last episode. Yeah, I did not see that coming at all. Like I was like, oh shit, okay.
The Joker can scrap too. I was like, I love it. Right, yeah. Yeah, I mean, at the beginning
of the series, Joker theorizes that everyone longs to be part of a new world where things
are more fantastical and free. You know, part of his motivation for causing havoc is to make
the world a more fantastical place. And when he enters a literal fantasy world, he takes
on the role of the mysterious wild card, like you mentioned, Joseph, you know, seemingly
neither friend nor foe. Up until the final moments when he decides to take charge of things and
kill the emperor. because the Skeleton Queen's plan to unleash death on the entire world would
have led to peace and quiet, and the Joker doesn't want that. He wants to see everyone live on
the edge, as he says in his own words. It's a fantastic setup for season two. It was a
fantastic take on the Joker, I agree. So much so that I can't think of a recent version of
the Joker that I think is as well done as this. As little as screen time as he had, I still
think that he was done remarkably well. I like how this version of the Joker took heavily
from the characterization of Heath Ledger's Joker even though they kind of made him look
a little bit more like Jared Leto's. Jared Leto could only wish that they would have had like
the design insight they had for this Joker with like the tattoo of the smile. That was sick.
I like that. That was awesome. Yeah, no, I was just going to ask you guys what did you think
of the Joker's design? And yeah, probably one of my favorites. I wonder why they didn't go
this route in the 2016 Suicide Squad movie with Jared Leto. They had did the thing where he
tattooed a smile on his hand, but he had tattoos on his face already, so you would think that
he would just put a smile on his face like they did in this anime. You'd think. I feel like
if they did that, it would have been some big goofy red smile and it would have looked even
worse. But what if it had sharp teeth and everything? I don't know. I would have to see it in action,
I think. before I totally sign off on it. But conceptually, I feel like it's there. I feel
like it makes sense.
Moving on to the story highlights, in episode one, as the Joker and Harley Quinn wreak havoc
in Gotham City, they are attacked by Argus agents. The Joker escapes, but Harley is defeated and
captured by Katana. Meanwhile, Argus's director Amanda Waller oversees the opening of a portal
to another world. Six months later, she tasks Belriiv and mates Harley, Deadshot Clayface
Peacemaker, and King Shark with entering the Isekai to collect resources. and implants time
bombs on their necks that will explode in 72 hours unless they receive a radio signal from
her regularly to discourage any escape attempts. Additionally, she blackmails Deadshot by threatening
his daughter. As the squad enters the portal, their helicopter crashes in a world that Clayfist
calls an isekai before they are ambushed by orcs and an army of knights, neither of whom
they are able to understand. despite repelling the orcs that are captured by the knights and
taken to a prison fortress. Elsewhere, Kitana and several supervillains speak to a mysterious
figure. Now the beginning of the series, after the Joker blows up those businessmen, him and
Harley escape in this car that's controlled by a piano. Which I thought was awesome. Yeah,
that's something you definitely don't see every day, but I mean it kind of makes sense for
the characters. I dug it. Who do you guys think was the girl that Waller used to open the portal?
Do you think it was Enchantress? It seems like it was Enchantress because the way the portal
manifested with that kind of emerald looking visual was the same kind of visual that they
used to portray her magic powers later on in the series. No, I agree with that totally,
because, yeah, portal was green. So who else? That's what I think. I do wonder who took out
the helicopter pilots. That was never addressed. Because like the agent, I think his name was
Adam, goes to the front and the helicopter pilots look like they've been sniped. I don't know
if that was the Joker or what happened there, but it was never addressed. Yeah, you're right.
Good question, yeah, pothole. Cause yeah, like I don't, like nobody else in that world would
really know how to use a gun or have that kind of precision, right? It would have had to have
been the Joker, you would think. I hope it was. Yeah, especially if you could throw hands like
that, he probably could shoot very well as well. Just a... Jack of all trades. I think he's
like a super joker almost. Like he's not like actually super, but like he's very talented,
you know what I mean? Yeah. Any guy who could like play a piano like that, for sure talented.
Moving on to episode two, a royal court discusses the current war and their prisoners. Queen
Eldora dismisses both the starving peasants and the squad's presence, but Princess Fiona
believes the latter may be of use and orders her elite knight, Cecile, to bring them to
her. Meanwhile, following the squad's imprisonment, Clayface tries to escape, but the guards put
magical handcuffs on him that negate his powers. They later meet an elite Argus soldier named
Rick Flag, who reveals he knows them, that they are meant to serve as Waller's suicide squad,
and their predecessors went missing six months ago. He knows of an area where they can receive
Waller's signal, and under the threat of their bombs, Clayface releases the other inmates
while the squad start a riot and successfully take over the prison. However, they are reconfronted
by the Knights who arrested them. My favorite scene in this episode is probably in the prison
cafeteria where they're having trouble communicating with the Orc and it just leads to this all
out brawl. I love just how savvy the Suicide Squad was when it came to like prison politics.
Clayface thought he knew what was going on, but he was really just a distraction for the
others to up the ante. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. I liked the orc prisoners and how through
brawling with them and alongside them, they kind of became their allies. Moving on to episode
three, before the squad can fight, the Knights flag stops them and attempts to reason with
Cecile using words he learned from orc prisoners. Despite being insulted by this, Cecile follows
through on Fiona's orders. They soon meet Eldora and Fiona, the latter of whom resembles Harley.
After Eldora casts a translation spell to facilitate contact. Flag confesses that his previous squad
escaped and became generals in the enemy forces. She demands the squad be executed until a peacemaker
convinces her to let them take on a mission from her instead. She accepts under the condition
that Flag remains imprisoned until the mission succeeds. After the squad regain their equipment,
they take advantage of Cecile's fight with an army of werewolves to sneak into the werewolves
fortress where they encounter Ratcatcher, who holds a grudge against Deadshot for slandering
and humiliating Kim while they were incarcerated together. Using a magic scepter, he takes control
of a pack of werewolves to seek revenge. Though the squad defeats the werewolves, Katana rescues
Ratcatcher, who intends to control a different army to kill the squad. I loved how Rick Flag
was talking to Cecile at the beginning of this episode. I was cracking up. What did he call
him again? He kept calling him like a... stank ass or something like that. Yeah. Something.
It was hilarious. Moving on to episode 4, in a flashback, a young Fiona snuck out of the
castle to befriend peasants, only for them to be killed in the war. In the present, Eldora
refuses to release the squad despite their victory because they destroyed the kingdom's fortress.
Harley berates Fiona for reminding the former of her old self, as Cecil explains how the
war that Eldora's kingdom is involved in has lasted decades. especially after the elves
and beastmen betrayed them. Ratcatcher takes command of a beast army and approaches the
castle and Harley recruits Eldora's prisoners to aid the squad, but Deadshot destroys Ratcatcher's
scepter, causing his army to betray him and then surrender. As a reward, Cecile frees the
squad, who leave to receive Waller's signal, with 12 hours left on their bombs. The kingdom
celebrates, though Eldora is displeased. This episode was pretty dope. And that's what I
was saying, too. Like the whole thing of like the scepter is his main source of power. Yeah.
Like I don't think they explained where he got the scepter from. I thought it was just made
with like magical artifacts that he probably got through the empire. Kind of the same way
that Harley Quinn stuck that magic gem on top of her gun. And then all of a sudden, they
shot like magic bullets. Yeah. I think is what I'm guessing. OK. I mean, fair enough. Fair
enough. I wasn't the biggest fan of Rack Hatcher. I don't know why, I didn't like his design
in this one. I think they included him probably because Ritecatcher was in the Suicide Squad.
I didn't mind it, I thought it was cool again to see like new faces, new comic villains and
see how they were interpreted. The purple mohawk was pretty wild I thought. In episode five,
the squad reaches the portal which is in the sky in time to reset their bombs, giving them
72 more hours. They continue helping Eldora's kingdom. but Deadshot runs out of bullets.
Flag says his helicopter, which was left on a mountain, has more weapons. In routes, they
stop and party with the former prisoners who were left in charge of the fortress, and Harley
acquires a magical size-shifting frying pan. Upon reaching the helicopter, they find a dragon
made a nest with it before it attacks them. While Harley uses the frying pan to deflect
its fire breath, Peacemaker distracts it by stealing its egg, and Deadshot knocks it off
the mountain with a rocket launcher. The egg hatches and the baby dragon imprints on Harley,
who names it Arthur. Flag secretly contacts Waller and informs her of the situation. She
tells him to kill the traitors in the previous squad. After acquiring the weapons, the squad
returns with Arthur, but finds the fortress on fire and the Enchantress and the Thinker
looming in the sky. If any episode I thought kind of dragged on was kind of boring, I thought
it was this one. It was like a transitionary episode, like the first half of the episode.
Their whole motivation is just to get more ammo to resupply, right? There's not a whole lot
of plot going on here, except for the dragon fight, which is pretty good. And then the whole
imprinting thing. Episode six, after finding their friends from the prison have been executed
by brainwashed elves. The squad fights them, Enchantress and the Thinker. King Shark is
knocked into a lake where he is beaten and captured by Killer Croc and a sea monster. Thinker makes
Deadshot Clayface and Peacemaker experience nightmares. then shoots them with a gun after
Enchantress disapproves of making them suffer. Enchantress asks Harley to join them, but Harley
refuses. Flag claims he can make the rogue's bombs explode, but the trio calls his bluff
and leave. After Harley reunites with Deadshot, Clayface, and Peacemaker, the squad is re-imprisoned,
and Eldora declares they will be executed to deter incompetence. Finding this unfair, Fionne
and Cecile release them and provide a carriage. As the squad decides to take the fight to the
villains, Tinker finds the portal and erects a tower around it. I was confused at the end
of this episode when Rick Flagg was bluffing that he could blow up their heads because he
had that controller device with their faces on it and everything like that. In the next
episode, I was like, why doesn't he just use that? Because it wasn't entirely clear to me
that he actually was bluffing. I thought he actually had their controls on him, because
it would make sense that he would, considering he was their handler. So. I'm not sure why
he didn't have the ability to blow up their heads. Well, I don't think it was clear that
he was bluffing until he let them go, because I think he would have blown them up if he was
able to, because he was under orders from Amanda Waller to do so, to kill the old squad. And
he didn't do that. Well, did he not have the controller when they got split up originally?
So don't you think he would have just killed them? Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. Yeah.
Yeah, I don't think Amanda Waller gave him the control to do that. I think she was the only
one who had the controls to blow up the suicide squad bombs. That's stupid. Yeah, that's weird
because like even in the live action movies, Flagg had the ability to blow people's heads
up. Yeah, I don't know. It was kind of weird in the way that they kind of teased that he
might have that ability. But then I was like, oh, psych, who knows? It's a plot hole. I think
it just went on to show that. He never had the ability to blow up their bombs to begin with.
But it does beg the question, why didn't Amanda Waller just blow them up from the other side
of the portal? Even when they were close to it, yeah. I did like this episode a lot. In
fact, I really liked the second half of the season a lot more than the first. I feel like
once they started getting involved with more of the other squad members like Enchantress,
the Thinker, then it really started to become more interesting. Moving on to episode seven,
with a few hours left on their bombs, the squad discovers Thinker built a tower and fortress
around the portal and is guarded by Katana and brainwashed elves. Clayface infiltrates the
fortress and imitates Thinker to distract Katana while the others distract the elves. Amidst
this, Peacemaker captures one and tortures him to death, hurting the other elves due to the
Thinker's linking of their minds. As Harley engages the Thinker, he enters her mind. and
sees a memory of the Joker seducing her. However, she commands the memory Joker to help her defeat
Thinker, freeing the elves. As the fortress and tower collapse, Kitana, who had defeated
Clayface, kills Thinker and takes his thinking cap. Harley and Clayface join forces to defeat
Kitana, breaking her naginata and knocking her mask off, though she escapes. With their bombs
reset once more, The squad celebrate by having Arthur burn down the enemy flag. When the kingdom
receives word of the squad's victory, a furious Eldora orders them to be brought in dead or
alive. Horrifying and confusing, Fiona and Cecile. Absolute badassery when she's just standing
there, just like holding the head. Yeah. Oh, damn. Oh, that was so cool. I was like, what
the hell's going on here? Because that's not Katana, but I didn't know who it was. I thought
she was like possessed or something like that. But yeah, this was my second favorite episode.
My favorite being the last episode, but this was a pretty good one. I guess my one question
is if all the elves minds were linked, then that means if any of them like got, say, punched
in the face in the course of battle, wouldn't they all feel like they just got punched in
the face? That's exactly what happened. Yeah. Yeah, but like they went against the elves
in the previous episode and that did not happen. That's a good question. I don't know. That's
probably a plot hole. You're just overthinking it. Yeah. Stop. What are you doing? Anime logic,
that's what it is. I think maybe the thinker didn't link up all their minds until they were
all trying to find the squad. I don't know. Sure. OK. It's as good a rationale as any,
I suppose. I have to say, I did get a little bit upset that Harley Quinn was holding her
own against Katana, because in my mind, Katana is a much better fighter than Harley Quinn.
Harley Quinn being more of a brawler, I guess, in my mind. But knowing that was in fact the
Joker in the sword fight against Harley Quinn, The fact that it was a more even match sat
a little bit better with me after that reveal. I agree, because in the opening episode, Katana
essentially wiped the floor with Harley Quinn. She was playing with her like a cat plays with
a mouse. So when all of a sudden Harley was able to hold her own, I agree. I was like,
what is this? But in hindsight, it worked. Well, the thing too in anime is a lot of the power
of friendship. And that's what I felt like she was using when fighting Katana in that. moment.
Oh, with Clayface? Yeah, so she kind of got like that ability buff and she was able to
like throw hands. In episode 8, the squad is invited back to the castle, but Aldora and
her court refused to thank them for their victories. One noble, ordered by Aldora before the squad's
arrival, talks against them and slaps Harley, resulting in an enraged King Shark killing
him. Aldora arrests King Shark and says he will be executed, then exiles the rest of the squad.
P&A tries to apologize but Harley tells her off for not standing up for them and leaves
her baseball bat behind. The depressed squad gets drunk at a bar but tempers flair and they
start a bar brawl. The next day, Flag contacts Waller about resetting the bombs but when he
tells her what happened, she declares them failures and detonates Clayface's bomb. An enraged Flag
tells her off but they spot that the castle is on fire. Waller says they have 24 hours
to salvage the situation or she will detonate the others. After the call ends, Clayface regenerates.
Flag leaves the squad in rescuing King Shark and the castle. Two hours prior, Fiona visits
Eldora's room to plead for King Shark life, but was horrified to see Eldora's reflection
in her mirror is that of a skeletal monster. Great episode, I thought. When that nobleman
slapped Harley, I was like, oh shit, it's about to go down. And I was so happy to see King
Shark just eat the guy right away. Yeah, I was wondering which of the Suicide Squad members
or maybe even Harley herself was going to kick some ass at that point. But it makes sense
that it was King Shark. Yeah, I guess I didn't say this earlier, but my favorite thing about
King Shark, just in general, is how he's just constantly eating people. You know, he's just
standing in the background and all of a sudden he's just got a foot hanging out of his mouth
after he fought those elves. Right. I'm like, huh, when did he eat that person? So yeah,
that was probably my favorite thing about Shark. And I was just like... Get his ass, shark.
Like, you knew that was coming. So I do have one thing to say about Queen Eldora secretly
being the Skeleton Queen. They refer to this character as two different names in the romantic
episodes. Initially, they refer to her as the Undead King, which I was like, what? Like,
it's a woman character. Joker calls her Skeleton Queen in the final episode. It was just confusing
as to what was going on with this character. I'm referring to her as the Skeleton Queen
in my notes. But yeah, she was also referred to the undead king. Did you guys notice that?
Yeah. And I was waiting for some kind of explanation. Like, are they talking about the same person?
Like, what the hell's going on here? But they normally do that a lot in anime is a lot of
people will have like code names that only certain people know of and like who they are. So. I
guess I wasn't too surprised by it. Okay. So like say you're like an assassin and you know
they call this assassin the silent one, but you're still you know Jonathan Garcia. I feel
like I was just honored with a nickname. I've always wanted that before. The silent assassin,
I'll take it. I've always called you silent but deadly. It still works. I'll take either.
I'll take either. Moving on to episode 9, a minister uses the thinking cap to brainwash
several knights and turn them against the others. Fiona discovers the real Eldora was killed
and replaced by the Skeleton Queen who aims to spread death before Cecile rescues her.
Tired of cowering, Fiona assumes Harley's makeup and baseball bat before knocking out the minister
and in his control. As the Skeleton Queen summons skeletons to attack Eldora's subjects and floods
the castle, Kroc attacks Fiona, but King Shark escapes from his cell and intercepts him. The
rest of the squad soon arrive to help fight the Skeleton Queen and the Rogue Squad. The
Skeleton Queen calls on the Enchantress for help, but Arthur has a growth spurt and joins
the seal in aiding Harley and Deadshot in fighting her. Using a magic gem to enhance her gun,
Harley defeats the Enchantress before interrogating her, deducing that she stopped the Thinker
from killing the others and is serving the because so much she cares about is being held hostage.
Meanwhile, Kitana lures Clayface and Flag to a giant skeleton where a woman resembling the
Enchantress is being held in a magical bubble. I love that scene with Clayface kind of explaining
like, oh, a damsel in distress and a dragon is always guarding something super, super valuable.
And I was like, oh my God, this guy's hilarious. Like. Just the way he describes the whole scene
and he's like, it's my time to shine. And she's like, relax, bro. The fact that he always thought
he was the protagonist of the story, just so endearing for the character. He's got that
main character energy going. Yeah. Did they show how King Shark escaped from the prison?
Because the whole goal of the squad was to get back to the castle so they could rescue King
Shark from being executed. But we never got to see King Shark in danger of being executed
because all of a sudden he was just in the battle. Well, the castle was being destroyed and flooded.
I imagine he escaped during that point because he emerged coming from the water. That makes
sense. We didn't get to see it happened off screen, but I imagine that's what happened.
What about that water with Killer Croc surfing? That was cool. On that water. I was like, that's
so Ninja Turtles. I was like, I love it. I think Killer Croc was better portrayed here in this
series than he ever has been. I agree. That includes like the movies he's been in, the
old Batman television series and everything like that. I thought he was, I thought he was
pretty dope here. He was cool. He was very cool. Like in other media, he's kind of depicted
somewhat like King Shark is here, just eating people and just like really strong. But in
the show, he was like I mentioned earlier, much more of a brawler, like a boxer. He was talented
in fighting, which I think is a cool angle. Moving on to the final episode, episode 10.
Flagging Clayface rescue, the woman Wallakatana destroys the skeleton, but the Enchantress
feels whatever she feels and goes berserk from pain. Peacemaker convinces the sea monster
to turn on Krokk and eat him. Cecilia is wounded and gives his enchanted armor to Deadshot,
granting him enhanced abilities. The Enchantress merges with June Moon. Now that she is free,
she pays back the squad by fighting the skeletons. Deadshot equips the rest of the squad except
Flag with pieces of the armor, enhancing their powers so they can fight the Skeleton Queen.
Harley and Fiona distract the Skeleton Queen by disguising as each other before killing
her. Fiona takes the throne and rewards the squad with a feast. Flag calls Waller to report
what happened and that Katana disappeared. Confused Waller says Katana was with her the whole time
and it's revealed that the Joker entered the Otherworld. and gained the power to shapeshift,
masquerading as Katana among others to manipulate the war for his own amusement. So out of all
of the Super Saiyan powers that the squad got when they donned the magic armor, who had the
best? Clayface. Clayface is pretty dope with the clay duplicates that he could create. Yeah,
that and just how he just I don't know. I just I like the fit. I love the fit. Yeah, that
was good. Yeah. His cape and everything. Yeah. That drip. Good. Exactly. Peacemaker was probably
my favorite. That like sword gun thing was hella cool. Yeah, it's very Final Fantasy. I really
liked Harley Quinn's with the top hat and the chains with the hyenas at the end that she
could control and everything like that. I thought that was pretty cool. Although the hyenas came
out of nowhere. They were like magic manifestations, I think. They were pretty cool. Yeah. That
end battle was so cool. Like I just had the biggest smile on my face when they were all
amped up with the armor. It was awesome. I was like, man, this show is cool. When she started
just literally piecing apart the Suicide Squad and just taking them out one by one, sending
them all flying, I was glued. I'm just like, I can't look away. Like, I need to see every
single one of them get their ass kicked. And when the dragon and Harley flew up towards
her, I was like, wait a second, that's not Harley. Like, in that moment is when I realized that
they did the switch. And then all of a sudden you see King Shark's belly get ripped open.
and the sword fly out of it. I was like, oh, I've totally forgot about that. Yeah, it was
cool because Fionne was saying earlier, oh, you know, she can only be defeated with the
magic sword and it's lost. I totally forgot that I was still in King Shark's stomach. So
right when, you know, she was summoning the sword to her and it came out of her. I was
like, oh snap. It just all came together. It was pretty awesome. I totally remembered that
it was still in his stomach, and I was just waiting for the moment that they pulled out
of him again. I was surprised they didn't do it sooner, but I guess they didn't really have
a good opportunity to get up to the Skeleton Queen prior to that point. So they needed that
kind of deception where she wouldn't expect Harley Quinn to wield the sword. So it made
sense. It was a good moment though, for sure. The end battle was just so well plotted and
mapped out. Even with like the finishing blow with Harley Quinn batting the Skeleton Queen's
head off into the horizon and then, you know, the sky turning from red to blue. It was majestic.
I loved the way they did it. Yeah, no, that was great. But that does it for the whole series.
I had a lot of fun with it. It was not perfect. There were some parts that didn't quite make
sense, but overall I would say I definitely recommend it. It's low stakes and somewhat
confusing narrative. Don't really drag down an otherwise fun and absurd anime actioner
with a strong squad of characters and kinetic visuals. I'm giving this three and a half out
of five stars a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Yeah, no, I totally agree with that. I mean,
personally, I would probably give it a little bit of a higher rating, but I came for the
fights and the straight up animation and I thought they hit the nail on the head with everything
they did. But when you do break it down a little bit more and you get into the actual story
and the tropes and everything, it has been played out quite often in many different stories that
have been told. So, yeah, I could agree with that. It's definitely fresh. I would agree
with a 3.5 star rating. I enjoyed it. I think it was definitely a successful anime adaptation
of these American comic book characters. I commend them for what they did with the action and
the animation and everything. I just wish that maybe the story was a little bit tighter or
coherent, I guess, fewer plot holes and stuff like that, but there's still a lot to like
within the show. Yeah, I mean, if you're showing up for the action, you are going to leave pleased.
If you're showing up for a coherent story, I mean, maybe anime is not always best suited
for that. Well, anime is very long form, right? So they always do drop like little things here.
And then, you know, maybe four seasons from now, we'll get an answer on what the hell they
were talking about in the first season. That's right. That usually happens a lot in long running
animes. So. I wouldn't really hold it against it because again, most animes do that. So we'll
probably get our answers very soon. I guess my assumption while watching it was that this
wasn't being set up for additional seasons. I thought it was going to be kind of a contained
story. I actually thought they were going to get out of the Isekai by the final episode.
That was kind of my assumption. Just watching it offhand. But you're right. They're definitely
playing the long game with this story. I hope they are. I hope we get more seasons out of
it. I hope a lot of people watch it and it becomes successful. Because I do think, as we mentioned
earlier, that this is probably the coolest version of the Suicide Squad that has been translated
onto the screen. As good as James Gunn's film was, as cool as the characters looked in David
Ayer's version, they don't top this. I would agree. No, I agree. I totally agree. Yeah.
But thanks for coming on board to review this series with us, Zach. I can't imagine having
done this review without your insight. I'll tell you right now, you actually changed Jonathan's
rating from three stars to three and a half stars. Oh, wow. With your enthusiasm. And I
think you just made both of us realize that yeah, this is actually a solid show for sure.
Awesome. Well, I appreciate you guys for having me on. And yeah, that makes me happy that,
you know, I just kind of got more people excited for anime. Like that's my job. You know what
I mean? That's what I got to do. So. It worked. It worked for sure. Don't forget, guys, to
check out Zach's show, Sinjo World, part of the Dynamite Network. And also stay tuned for
a new show that Zach is developing. And we'll be announcing that later on our show. Senjoworld,
it's great. I love being part of the Dynamite Network. And this week, the battle that we
have set up was actually pretty fun. Me and my buddy DJ Tom had a pretty good time going
back and forth with this battle. And in lieu of last week's review, I'm doing a Sailor Moon
versus Dragon Ball Z fight. Oh shit, nice. That's pretty exciting. Super glad to have you as
part of the network. We'll have to have you on again at some point in the future. Always
great talking to you. And we'll talk to you later. Sayonara. Well, that does it for the
review. AJ9K, help close this out. Thanks for listening to Dynamic Dual. Visit the show's
website at dynamicdual.com and follow us on Instagram at dynamicdualpodcast. You can support
the show on Patreon at patreon.com slash dynamicdual and joining a tier that works for you, or by
rating and reviewing Dynamic Dual on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser or on our website. Don't
forget to listen to the other shows in the Dynamite Podcast Network, including Max Destruction,
Senjow World and Console Combat. In our next episode, as we mentioned earlier, we will be
doing a team duel between DC's The Outsiders team and Marvel's X-Force. That's going to
be a lot of fun. X-Force is going to have characters like Cable and Deadpool on it. And I think
you guys are in for quite a treat, as all of our team duel episodes are. And this is kind
of a tie in duel to this review, because my Outsiders team is going to have Katana on it,
along with, you know, like Black Lightning and Geo Force, it's going to be an awesome episode.
Look forward to that next week! That does it for this episode, we want to give a big thanks
to our executive producers Ken Johnson, John Strosky, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Balcom, Miggy
Methan-Geehan, Brandon Estregard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yaiten, Austin Wazolowski, AJ
Dunkerley, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spies, Andrew Shunk, Dean Maleski, Devin Davis,
Joseph Kersting, and Josh Leiner for helping make this podcast possible. And we'll talk
to you guys next week. Up up and away, true believers. My anime kink is future dystopian
cyberpunk mecha mommy milkers.