anime
is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
series based on the
video game
A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
series of the same name. The series loosely adapts the first two titles in the series, '' Viewtiful Joe'' and '' Viewtiful Joe 2'', while introducing several original characters and scenarios. The series, comprising fifty-one episodes, was shown every Saturday on the Japanese
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...
TV Tokyo
JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as is a Japanese television station that serves as the flagship of the TX Network.Geneon Entertainment, with its first twenty-six episodes airing in the United States on
Kids' WB
Kids' WB (stylized as Kids' WB!) was an American children's programming block that originally aired on The WB from September 9, 1995, to September 16, 2006, and later on The CW from September 23, 2006, to May 17, 2008. Initially launched as a co ...
. It was taken off the air when the block was moved to
The CW
The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...
.
''Viewtiful Joe'' was later licensed for distribution in other parts of the world by
MGM Television
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television, formerly known as MGM/UA Television, is the television studio arm of the American film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), specializing in broadcast syndication and the production and distribution of television sh ...
. The anime debuted in the United Kingdom on
Jetix
Jetix (stylized in all caps) was a children's entertainment brand owned by The Walt Disney Company. The brand was for a slate of action and adventure-related programming blocks and television channels. Jetix programming mainly originated fr ...
on July 2, 2007. ''Viewtiful Joe'' premiered on Cartoon Network Brazil on July 3, 2006, and ran again in the country's RedeTV! in HD on November 27, 2006. It aired in Mexico starting on July 4, 2006. On June 23, 2008, the show began airing on Cartoon Network in other parts of Latin America. In 2009, ''Viewtiful Joe'' became available on
Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation. The service primarily distributes fi ...
's streaming service for its users outside Asia.
Plot
Following the games' storyline, movie lover Joe and his girlfriend Silvia enjoy a seemingly normal trip to the movies to see an action flick starring Joe's idol, Captain Blue, when suddenly the leader of the evil Jadow force reaches out of the screen and takes Silvia into the movie. Joe is forced to follow her by Captain Blue's
mecha
In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines, typically depicted as piloted, humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese (language), Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japan ...
, Six Machine (renamed "Machine Six" in the English anime dub), and meets Captain Blue in the flesh who grants Joe the power to become an action movie hero in his own right called Viewtiful Joe.
Characters
* Joe: He is a fanboy of movies who gets to live his dream as Viewtiful Joe while he saves Silvia from Jadow. He assumes his superhero outfit via the catchphrase "Henshin-a-Go-Go, Baby!!" He is often distracted by double cheeseburgers and doesn't take a lot of things seriously.
* Silvia: Joe's love interest and partner. In the beginning of the series, she is abducted by Jadow for their evil plan to succeed. After Jadow's defeat, Silvia obtains a V-Watch from Captain Blue so she can team up with Joe as Sexy Silvia (in the English anime dub Go-Go Silvia) instead of being the "damsel-in-distress".
* Junior: Another self-proclaimed hero worshipper like Joe, only younger. He lives in Blue Town, which was named after Captain Blue, serving as its protector Captain Blue Jr. Despite his jealousy for Joe being Blue's successor, Junior decides to become Joe's sidekick and offers his knowledge of Movieland as a helping hand. As the series progresses into the Gedow arc, Junior receives the V-Yoyos from Captain Blue, assuming his new superhero outfit via the phrase "Henshin-a-Yo-Yo, Baby!!"
* Captain Blue: Joe's idol and mentor. He gives Joe the V-Watch which enables him to use his VFX powers. In season two, he is transformed into the "Captain Blue Device" by the Black Emperor, which Gedow uses to create monsters. The Black Emperor gave him the scar on his face.
* Alastor: An agent of Jadow that uses the nicknames "The Midnight Thunder Boy" and "Blade Master." Though he is helping Jadow, Alastor doesn't care about their goals, but instead seeks out the ultimate battle, and can be considered an antihero to an extent. He considers himself Joe's rival, despite questioning Joe's methods. Alastor has the habit of watching over Joe during his adventures through Movieland and the two tend to act more like friends rather than enemies, becoming a perfect example of text-book frenemies. He is also the one who gives Joe the inspiration for his hero name. During Fire Leo's fight with Joe, Alastor restrains Fire Leo as they both fall into the void that surrounds Jadow headquarters, but Alastor promises to survive so he and Joe can finally settle their rivalry. Following the event, Alastor loses his powers and can only restore them by a solar eclipse. During this time, he appears in his normal form giving the heroes advice and sometimes help in fights. His power is restored to him during a solar eclipse.
* Sprocket: Coordinator of Jadow and second in command of the organization. She is one of the few characters who is actually from the real world, being a member of Blue's film crew who was pulled into Movieland. She is annoyed with the antics and incompetence of Jadow's henchmen Charles III, Hulk Davidson, and Gran Bruce. When Jadow is brought down, she joins up with Gedow alongside Charles, Hulk, and Bruce.
* Almighty Leader: The leader of Jadow, the antagonistic organization of the anime's first season. When Joe manages to infiltrate Jadow headquarters, he finds Silvia, only to see her abducted by the evil leader. Once Joe reaches the stadium, "Almighty Leader" is revealed to be none other than Captain Blue, who attempts to break Joe's spirit and thus devastate Joe mentally before destroying him physically. But the words of those Joe had befriended in his adventures enables Joe's confidence to return and fight back against Blue. Piloting the King Blue giant robot, Blue is defeated by Joe in Six Majin.
* The Black Emperor: Leader of Gedow, the invading alien organization of the anime's second season whose goal is to use their various monsters and foot soldiers to corrupt a movie and alter the ending, causing the film to radiate with darkness. The Black Emperor is a superhero named Jet Black, Joe's father, owner of the theater and Captain Blue's best friend, who was turned evil by the Black V-Watch and the Black Film. He is freed from the Black Film's corruption by Joe and Silvia. In episode 50, it is confirmed he gave Captain Blue his scar with a swipe of his blade.
Media
Anime
''Viewtiful Joe'' was produced by animation company Group TAC. The producer for the video game franchise,
Atsushi Inaba
is a Japanese video game producer and businessman. He was the former Chief executive officer, CEO and producer of the Capcom subsidiary Clover Studio, who developed the games ''Viewtiful Joe (video game), Viewtiful Joe'', ''Ōkami'', and ''God Ha ...
, and his team gave Group TAC its character designs for the video games, as well as original character designs for the animated series. The main cast includes
Tomokazu Seki
is a Japanese voice actor and singer. He has previously worked with Haikyō. He is honorary president of and affiliated with Atomic Monkey and the chairman of theater company HeroHero Q. He is a special lecturer at Japan Newart College.
Caree ...
Shin-ichiro Miki
is a Japanese voice actor from Tokyo.Doi, Hitoshi.Miki Shinichirou. ''Seiyuu Database''. July 13, 2010. He is a member of 81 Produce.
Miki is known for his distinctively smooth voice and often calm delivery in the roles he has landed. He ofte ...
and Banjō Ginga.
The English version of the anime features voice acting by Jason Palmer, Philece Sampler,
Mona Marshall
Mona Marshall is an American television and voice actress, known for her work in a number of cartoons, anime shows, films and video games. Her major credits include ''South Park'', where she voices many of the female characters on the show, '' .h ...
, and
Wendee Lee
Wendee Lee (born February 20) is an American voice actress, writer, and director.
Early life
Lee studied dance and theater and later became a full-time dancer in her teens. According to her interview on the '' Magic Knight Rayearth'' DVDs, she ...
, among others. Bob Papenbrook, under the name John Smallberries, voiced Captain Blue for the show's first twenty-one English dubbed episodes. Papenbrook died on March 17, 2006, due to complications from a chronic lung condition, making ''Viewtiful Joe'' his final piece of work. He was replaced by Paul St. Peter for the remainder of the dub.
The U.S. broadcast began with the fifth episode, with the first three episodes not being shown until a month later. The show's
pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...
was localized in the United States by phuuz entertainment. A few censoring edits were made to the English dubbed version of ''Viewtiful Joe''. In Brazil and Spain, the show was aired completely uncut. In the English version, the name of Joe's flying machine, Six Machine, was renamed in the English dub to Machine Six. There is speculation that it was renamed because its original name sounded close to the phrase "sex machine". Also, Six Majin was renamed to Robo-Six. Joe's
middle finger
The middle finger, long finger, second finger, third finger, toll finger or tall man is the third digit of the human hand, typically located between the index finger and the ring finger. It is typically the longest digit. In anatomy, it is al ...
was edited out in his henshin transformation sequence. Silvia's super hero alter ego is renamed from "Sexy Silvia" (which was also used in the games) to "Go-Go Silvia". Sprocket's jumpsuit is always zipped up completely, though it was originally unzipped (showing large amounts of cleavage) and one of her signature moves was to zip it up. This move was eliminated in the dub by cutting out the scenes, resulting in Sprocket having much less screen time than in the original.
Episodes of the series have been released on both
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
and UMD. In North America, Geneon partnered with Kids Foot Locker to promote the show by including DVDs with purchases at the shoe retailer.
CDs
The Japanese version of ''Viewtiful Joe'' features music composed by Takehiko Gokita and Yuusuke Hayashi. The show features two opening themes by the band SaGa. The song "Brighter Side" is used for the first thirty-eight episodes and the song "Spirit Awake" is used for the remaining episodes. "Brighter Side" is also used in the English version of the show. The Japanese version also features the ending theme "And You" by SaGa for the first thirty-eight episodes, and "Tougenkyou" (also known as Shangri-La Village) by Amasia Landscape for the remainder. A 36-track CD was released by Geneon on February 7, 2006, and contains the anime's music, as well as the bonus track "Viewtiful World" from the first ''Viewtiful Joe'' game.
SaGa released two
CD single
A CD single is a single (music), music single in the form of a compact disc (CD). Originally the ''CD single'' standard (as defined in the Rainbow Books, Red Book) was an 8 cm (3-inch) "mini CD" (''CD3''); later on the term referred to any si ...
s of their vocal songs in ''Viewtiful Joe''. The first one was released on March 30, 2005, and features both the Japanese and English versions of "Brighter Side" and "And You", as well as a DVD containing one music clip and the opening and ending ''Viewtiful Joe'' cinematics with the respective songs. The second single was released on August 31, 2005, and features both language versions of the songs "Spirit Awake" and "Wonder", as well as a DVD music clip of the former. In North America, a CD soundtrack was packaged with the first DVD volume.
Film books
Five film books for the anime were released by
Capcom
is a Japanese video game company. It has created a number of critically acclaimed and List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil'', ''Monster ...
in early 2005. The books consist of
manga
are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
-style panels of the show's storyline shown with screenshots.
Reception
Geneon's press release of the third North American DVD and UMD release of ''Viewtiful Joe'' in early 2006 showed that the anime was the top-ranked show in its timeslot for the ages 2–11
Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
demographic.
Reviews of ''Viewtiful Joe'' by various media outlets mostly agreed that the show is faithful to the video games on which it is based, but complained of its animation framerates and English localization. Matt Casamassina of
IGN
''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
praised the ''Viewtiful Joe'' for staying true to its source material. He states, " .. the episodes never stray too far from the original subject matter. As a result, anybody who played the Joe titles will have a sense of dējā vu as they watch these toons. Viewers who know the franchise's history will find no contradictions in these episodes - merely more back story, most of it entertaining." Despite his appreciation for its artwork, Casamassina was displeased with the show's lack of animation. This was concurred upon by Zac Bertschy of the
Anime News Network
Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ot ...
(ANN), who was also very critical of the show's English dub, giving the first DVD volume an overall "F". Specifically, he found that the localization's attempt to be hip with a nearly constant use of slang in order to cater to younger audiences resulted in a "insultingly bad dub". Carlo Santos, also of ANN, had a similar opinion, and gave the second DVD volume an overall "D". He found fault not only in the voice acting, but the script writing as well. "Joe's vocabulary is ''all, like, totally, DUDE'' every time he opens his mouth, and when he's not hamming it up with unconvincing slang, he's spouting lines that are supposed to sound witty but aren't." Santos also noted the series as being too repetitive, but enjoyed the anime's character design, coloring, and visual style taken from the games. Buzz McClain of ''Video Business'' asserted that the show is "clearly influenced by the animation style of
Hayao Miyazaki
is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as honorary chairman. Throughout his career, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Anime, Japanese ani ...
", and that its use of narrative is much more linear and easy to follow than other anime.