| Viewtiful Joe | |
 Viewtiful Joe Volume 1 DVD cover | |
| ビューティフル ジョー (Byūtifuru Jō) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Action,comedy,superhero[1][2] |
| Created by | Capcom Clover Studio Hideki Kamiya |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Takaaki Ishiyama |
| Written by | GGB |
| Music by |
|
| Studio | Group TAC |
| Licensed by | |
| Original network | TV Tokyo |
| English network | |
| Original run | October 2, 2004 – September 24, 2005 |
| Episodes | 51 (Japanese) 26 (English) (List of episodes) |
Viewtiful Joe[a] is ananime series based on thevideo game series of thesame name. The series loosely adapts the first two titles in the series,Viewtiful Joe andViewtiful Joe 2, while introducing several original characters and scenarios. The series, comprising fifty-one episodes, was shown every Saturday on the Japanesetelevision stationTV Tokyo from October 2, 2004, until September 24, 2005. The show was licensed by anime distributorGeneon Entertainment, with its first twenty-six episodes airing in the United States onKids' WB.[3][4] It was taken off the air when the block was moved toThe CW.[5]
Viewtiful Joe was later licensed for distribution in other parts of the world byMGM Television. The anime debuted in the United Kingdom onJetix on July 2, 2007.[6]Viewtiful Joe premiered onCartoon Network Brazil on July 3, 2006, and ran again in the country'sRedeTV! in HD on November 27, 2006.[7][8] It aired in Mexico starting on July 4, 2006.[9] On June 23, 2008, the show began airing on Cartoon Network in other parts of Latin America.[10] In 2009,Viewtiful Joe became available onCrunchyroll's streaming service for its users outside Asia.[11]
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'smecha, 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.[12]
Viewtiful Joe was produced by animation companyGroup TAC. The producer for the video game franchise,Atsushi Inaba, and his team gave Group TAC its character designs for the video games, as well as original character designs for the animated series.[13] The main cast includesTomokazu Seki,Natsuko Kuwatani,Makoto Tsumura,Mayumi Asano,Shin-ichiro Miki andBanjō Ginga.[14]
The English version of the anime features voice acting by Jason Palmer,Philece Sampler,Mona Marshall, andWendee Lee, 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, makingViewtiful Joe his final piece of work.[15] He was replaced byPaul 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.[16][17] The show'spilot was localized in the United States byphuuz entertainment.[18] A fewcensoring edits were made to the English dubbed version ofViewtiful 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'smiddle finger 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 bothDVD andUMD.[19] In North America, Geneon partnered withKids Foot Locker to promote the show by including DVDs with purchases at the shoe retailer.[20]
The Japanese version ofViewtiful 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.[21] 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 firstViewtiful Joe game.[22]
SaGa released twoCD singles of their vocal songs inViewtiful 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 endingViewtiful Joe cinematics with the respective songs.[23] 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.[24] In North America, a CD soundtrack was packaged with the first DVD volume.[25]
Five film books for the anime were released byCapcom in early 2005.[26][27] The books consist ofmanga-style panels of the show's storyline shown with screenshots.
Geneon's press release of the third North American DVD and UMD release ofViewtiful Joe in early 2006 showed that the anime was the top-ranked show in its timeslot for the ages 2–11Nielsen ratings demographic.[28][19]
Reviews ofViewtiful 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 ofIGN praised theViewtiful 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.[12] This was concurred upon by Zac Bertschy of theAnime News Network (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 behip with a nearly constant use of slang in order to cater to younger audiences resulted in a "insultingly bad dub".[21] 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 isall, 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.[29] Buzz McClain ofVideo Business asserted that the show is "clearly influenced by the animation style ofHayao Miyazaki", and that its use of narrative is much more linear and easy to follow than other anime.[30]
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