Suicide Squad Isekai Episode 7 Review 

Harley Quinn and co. again battle The Thinker in Suicide Squad Isekai episode 7, in an effort to save themselves from exploding. 

And then there’s another Harley Quinn (Anna Nagase) flashback, starring Joker (Yuuichirou Umehara), too. Like back in episode 4. Imagine my immediate joy. Are we getting back on track? Are we to continue exploring that Harley Quinn and Princess Fione (Reina Ueda) dichotomy? Is some of that mysterious atmosphere, that unknowing, curious feeling going to make a comeback? Will there be some jokes that once more force a snort, a huff, or a muted laugh from my cold, expressionless face? 

Before I find out for sure, we’re back in a magical land, and The Thinker (Houchuu Ootsuka) has grown a concrete fortress with his mind (no, I don’t know how that works) underneath our green, floating portal. He’s done this in an effort to deny the latest Suicide Squad access to said portal, which means their neck bomb countdowns won’t be reset, which further means – so The Thinker hopes – that they’ll soon explode into tiny little pieces. 

What ensues is… well, a fair bit of talking, actually. Strategising, even, from the members of the Suicide Squad. Don’t forget, these are characters that are impulsive, emotional, criminal types. These characters found themselves unexpectedly imprisoned, suddenly recruited for a suicide mission they could know nothing of, then unpredictably transported to a land of magic. And now, yes, it is those same characters, they’re being quite sensible, allotting some time to discuss their options. Like proper adults. 

Of course, that Harley Quinn flashback, which involved herself and Joker planning to rob a bank, bears a direct relevance to the group’s current brain-storming session on how to take that aforementioned fortress. You didn’t make the mistake of thinking the flashback served only to provide some character development, or to establish the tone early in the episode, did you? No, no, no. It is but a plot convenience, to help these villains overcome their most recent ‘impossible’ setback. 

So, here’s the squad’s plan: they’ll kidnap an elf, and, because all the elves minds are currently connected, Peacemaker’s (Takehito Koyasu) torture of the one will inflicit pain on the lot of them. Which is pretty dark stuff, especially when you consider that the elves were already being controlled against their will. Then, whilst the elves guarding the fortress are debilitated by telepathic torture, Harley will sneak inside and face off against The Thinker. And so here’s another boss fight then, much like the two episodes previous, and it’s against The Thinker again too, much like the one episode previous. To try and win said battle, The Thinker enters Harley’s mind (I’m not sure how that works either), but she’s like, totally messed-up or whatever, so it doesn’t work out for him. 

The crew manage to topple the fortress, and get back close to the floating gate thing after all of that of course, and then Katana (Chika Anzai) finishes off a weakened The Thinker by cutting off his head and putting out his eyeballs (his “thinking cap” apparently being the thing of real value, rather than the bloke himself). 

So there’s a lot of the now-usual fight sequences again in Suicide Squad Isekai episode 7, but with a touch more brutality than we’ve seen so far. There’s a bit of the squaddies rolling their eyes at each other, and that’s about it for the humour too. The metric I set back during episode 4, that one good giggle every 23 minutes or so would be plenty enough for me, is not fulfilled here then, and perhaps hasn’t been since I first mentioned it – have I really become such a Scrooge in only three weeks? And then there’s not the usual ending titles or music either, so perhaps the return of the regular intro was a red herring and things are, actually, to remain serious. 

And in writing all of this, I’m certain I now come across a right a***hole in my last few reviews of Suicide Squad Isekai. Maybe I am more of a typically irritated anime fan than I had realised, but I could swear to you that the show has changed since the first few episodes. If you’re more into flashy fight animation, the sight of tortured elves, and supervillain beheadings than I am though, I’m happy to think that you’re getting more mileage out of Suicide Squad Isekai than I currently do. 

I think I just preferred the original mystery, the sh*t-throwing at other adaptations, and the casual self-deprecation. It seems as though Suicide Squad Isekai was depressed, burdened by its own self-awareness, and has now replaced all that with violence, and showing off how good it is at animation. It’s a bit like how some preferred Eminem when he was an alcoholic – I preferred Suicide Squad Isekai when it was laughing at itself. 

Still, I’ll keep watching to see if the show ever does regain its apathy, and also to chase the dragon of those few laughs that it once got out of me. If things don’t skew that way, I’ll likely go on to compare the next three episodes to the first four, as I have done here, whilst getting increasingly embarrassed by my own negativity. And then, having compromised any ideologies I had about writing media criticism in the doing so, once the show is over, I’ll gratefully forget that it ever happened. You know, like the true, responsible, never contradictory, always morally vindicated TV critic that I am. I mean, how else could you possibly describe me? 

Episode 7 of Suicide Squad Isekai is now available to watch on Max and Hulu.