Viewtiful Joe – Volume
Two (Animé TV)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C Episodes: B
After an impressive debut on DVD for a show that deserves
more success, Viewtiful Joe just gets better and better as it goes
along. To recap, Viewtiful Joe
is about a young semi-slacker who has a girlfriend he is not paying enough
attention to, but because of big screen superhero he loves. Things go bad when the franchise decides the
hero should loose!
Then, in a strange twist of fate, Joe finds himself being
able to enter into that film world, hastened by the fact that his girlfriend is
kidnapped, which suddenly increases his consideration of her. He gets to become a superhero with powers of
his own too. The result is a spoof of
the superhero genre, giant monster movies, Japanese action shows and even
videogames that has a consistent sense of humor and is not bad. After all, he is pretty fly for a white guy,
with his retro Rock attitude and all.
Too bad his attention span and slight ego is to his disadvantage, but he
is a good guy at heart and when that comes through, things have the ability to
work out.
The next set of episodes here are:
4) Tutus To You, Too
5) Howdy Partner
6) Junior Sucks It Up
Captain Blue, the superhero they are watching in the first
episode that Joe is a huge fan of, is now a friend when he shows up. Silvia is continually a kidnap victim and a
new Junior superhero makes his debut as the villains and alien-like creatures
and robots that make up the villainous Jadow organization. Yes, the show actually picked up, which is a
nice change of pace as most of these Animé shows usually follow a formula that
gets thin quickly. The titles again
give one an idea of the humor.
The 1.33 X 1 image is not bad, with its simple, but
colorful and solidly drawn images. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has no major surrounds, but is a recent recording that
does sound good. Extras include
character profiles and conceptual images.
Amusing all around.
- Nicholas Sheffo
