Product Details

• Actors: Katie Leigh, Tomokazu Seki, Makoto Tsumura, Natsuko Kuwatani, Banjô Ginga
• Directors: Takaaki Ishiyama
• Producers: Eugene Ishikawa, Hideki Goto, Shinsaku Hatta
• Format: Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English (Unknown)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Geneon [Pioneer]
• DVD Release Date: February 7, 2006
• Run Time: 25 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000BSO70K
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #206,765 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Viewtiful Joe, Vol. 1" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The broadcast series Viewtiful Joe (2004) follows the popular videogame from Capcom (2003). Joe is a slacker-dude, totally hooked on the anime hero Captain Blue. He drags his long-suffering girlfriend Sylvia to a "Captain Blue" feature, but they find the ending has changed. A new gang of villains, the Jadow, cleans the Captain's clock and grabs Sylvia into the film. When Joe follows, Captain Blue gives him a V-watch that enables him to transform into a super-hero version of himself. He's off to rescue Sylvia! Filmmakers have been dumping heroes into onscreen worlds since Buster Keaton's brilliant Sherlock, Jr. (1924); Viewtiful Joe may not add much to the premise, but it's a lot of fun. With his spiky hair, backwards baseball cap, cargo shorts, large head, and small body, Joe looks like a cross between an anime hero and a character from American underground comix. Viewtiful Joe pokes fun at the clichés of superhero series, although at times it sounds like a Gekigangar III story read by Bill and Ted. (Unrated, suitable for ages 10 and older: cartoon violence) --Charles Solomon

Product Description

Studio: Geneon Entertainment Release Date: 02/07/2006

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great anime, too bad they didn't get someone else to localize it, April 17, 2006

By 

Dark Helmet (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Viewtiful Joe, Vol. 1 (DVD)

Picked up the first Viewtiful Joe DVD recently, so here's my review.

The show: I've only seen the episodes that are on the DVD, so I'm not sure how this shapes up later, but... As you may or may not know, there's a VJ anime which has been dubbed for the US market. It follows the plot of the game more or less, with some changes that you may or may not like due to the fact that Capcom for some reason let 4Kids and Geneon do the localization. First of all, the voices have all changed, and Joe's at least not for the better IMHO. He sounds like a permeanently congested surfer dude. Most of the rest of the characters sound at least reasonably like their game counterparts, save Gran Bruce who now has the stereotypical Aussie accent instead of sounding like a pirate. Some of the names have been changed around, such as the Six Machine becoming Machine Six, and Six Maijin becoming Robo-Six. Sprocket also gained a tie to cover her, her... uhh... chest, and the scenes where she pulls at the zipper on her shirt were all cut, along with VJ's middle finger being edited out in the transformation scenes. Now, if he were flipping the bird I could understand, but the pose has him with his thumb, middle, and pinkie finger raised. Not the same thing, IMHO. I think that the anime itself is rather good, so I give that an A-, but the localization gets a D. Capcom should have had someone else do it, and had them keep the voice actors from the game.

The DVD: Man they're not giving it away. The first DVD only has three episodes on it, and set me back $17.99 + tax. That means to buy all the discs for the first season alone (24 episodes) would set you back $144. Ouch. The on disc extras are limited to the FOX Kids commercial for the cartoon, and a still picture character guide that mostly tells you the same stuff that the game does. It's rather lame IMHO. It does come with a mini poster with an ad for the next volume on the back, a lenticular card (the ones that shift back and forth between two different images depending on the angle), and some stickers that are probably not outdoor safe.

In closing, I love VJ, and the original anime is great, but I can't really recommend this DVD. The localization isn't that great, and it's too expensive for what you get. It should either be cheaper or have more episodes on it. Neat pack ins don't make up for it.