A Look At Stuff You Probably Never Heard Of: Viewtiful Joe
Did you know? It’s National Movie Theater Day, April 23rd. So today, we’ll be talking about a show all about movies! Today, we’re looking at… Viewtiful Joe! And I’m not talking about the games.
Viewtiful Joe was an action/adventure comedy anime that was licensed by Geneon Entertainment, now NBCUnivervsal Entertainment Japan, and initially aired in Japan on TV Tokyo, airing from October 2nd, 2004 to September 24th, 2005 with a total of two seasons. It eventually got an English dub and aired in the United States on Kids WB while the UK had it air on Jetix. However, only the first season was dubbed in English.
The plot starts off by following the first game. While Joe and his girlfriend, Sylvia, are watching a movie starring Joe’s favorite superhero, Captain Blue. However, Sylvia gets kidnapped by the movie’s villain and brought into the movie world, know as Movieland. Joe, is then brought into Movieland with the help of Captain Blue’s giant mech, Machine Six. Not long after setting foot into Movieland, Joe has a run-in with Biankies and has a spiritual encounter with Captain Blue, who gives Joe his own V-Watch, thus allowing Joe to transform into his superhero persona, later dubbed “Viewtiful Joe”. With his costume and the discovery of Captain Blue’s Slow, Mach Speed, and Zoom abilities, Joe embarks to save Silvia.
Some time later, he meets with a young boy named Captain Blue Jr. Just like Joe, he idolizes Captain Blue, even being a self-proclaimed hero with his own self-made V-Watch. However, his V-Watch doesn’t allow him to transform, meaning Jr. has to “transform” on his own. While upset and confused as to why Joe became Captain Blue’s successor, he decides to accompany Joe as his sidekick and help him out whenever possible. But still makes snide remarks and insults Joe when given the chance.
The anime adapts the same humor and style of the games, with characters (especially Joe) making mention or poking fun at various common movie archetypes and tropes, such as the Heroic Second Wind. And,of course, Joe makes use of the powers he has in the games, making use of Slow, Mach Speed, and Zoom.
And now, it’s time for my Final Recommendation:
Never Let Go Of It||Get It||Hold Onto It||Try It||Consider It||Stay Away From It
The anime does a fairly good job adapting the video game, much like Kirby: Right Back At Ya while still being it’s own thing. For example, a woman named Sprocket is introduced in the anime, where she serves as a second-in-command to the Jadow, directing Charles the Third, Hulk Davison, and Gran Bruce. And as you can tell from the images, it keeps the shading style from the game, giving it it’s own special look.
One thing I do want to mention is that the anime actually adapts both games, Viewtiful Joe 1 and 2. However, as I mentioned before, only the first season, the Viewtiful Joe 1 adaption, was dubbed in English, leaving season 2, which adapts Viewtiful Joe 2, in Japanese only.
Speaking of English, the English voice actors all do a pretty good job voicing the characters, many of them sounding just like they do from the games, despite being completely different voice actors. But one problem with the voice actors is Jason Palmer, the voice of Joe. While he’s able to do a decent job mimicking Dee Bradley Baker, he tends to make Joe sound like a stoner, at least in the early episodes. But you either get used to it or he gets better as the series goes on.
Before I finish this, I also want to mention that it also got a video game… somewhat. Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble, a fighting game spin-off which includes the likes of Sprocket and Captain Blue Jr. in their only video game appearance thus far.
So now, I’ll leave you guys with a special AMV that was a part of Red Hot Rumble, advertising the Viewtiful Joe anime. I’ll see you guys next month where I’ll take a look at a kid’s show from the UK that’s often compared to Game of Thrones.