Viewtiful Joe Volume 1

The comic book loving super hero moves into the anime arena thanks to Group TAC (Saiyuki) and Geneon. If you haven’t played any of the games don’t worry, the series starts back in the real world with Joe and his girlfriend Silvia. It’s an average day where Silvia thinks she’s going to be swept off her feet by Joe, instead they go to an abandoned theater to catch an old Captain Blue flick.

Joe might have seen every Captain Blue movie, but this one has a surprise. All of the sudden Silvia is drawn into the movie and gets kidnapped. When Joe enters movieland he ends up meeting his Captain Blue and he gives him a precious v-watch. This tool lets Joe transform into a superhero and with this new power he’s on a quest to save Silvia from the Jadow. As a comic-action anime Viewtiful Joe is a decent watch, but it’s unlikely that anyone will claim that it’s the best series ever. However, the slick mock cel shading makes Viewtiful Joe one of the better Saturday morning cartoons.

Unlike other anime UMDs Viewtiful Joe Volume 1 has three episodes instead of two. However, the series only has the English voice track and English subtitles. The video is encoded in standard TV resolution, which means it has black bars along the side. As for extras there aren’t many, just some TV trailers from the Kids WB broadcast.