Marvel isn’t the only studio going experimental with their animated projects. They may have X-Men ’97, but DC is pushing forward with an officially released anime in the form of Suicide Squad ISEKAI.
As it turns out, we could be seeing more of these DC anime projects moving forward. Talking to Variety, WB Discovery president of Asia-Pacific James Gibbons explained:
“We have a Japanese anime studio, which has been producing five or ten anime series per year, over the last few years… We’ve approved expansion to take that to more than ten series per year.”
For the record, the studio doesn’t only handle DC-anime properties. WB has also handled huge IPs like Record of Ragnarok and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. When it comes specifically to more DC-based anime, Gibbons did say:
“There is Japanese anime that comes from original IP. But there’s also anime that comes from elsewhere. And we’ve looked at our DC universe and said, ‘Can we take these characters and reinvent them in world of world of anime,’ which is not straightforward because you have to do it the right way. You have to work with the right studios to make it happen and to build your fan base.”
For now, it’s too early to tell if anime based on Western IP is going to be a hit, but admittedly Suicide Squad ISEKAI does look like it has a unique take on established characters—just looking at Joker and Harley Quinn alone. They even managed to bring Clayface into the team, albeit he’s just Michael Jackson with shapeshifting powers.
Suicide Squad ISEKAI is set to release in Japan around July, but it’s expected to hit international audiences sometime later in the year.
