| “ | Henshin-A-Go-Go, Baby! | „ |
| ~ Viewtiful Joe's Transforming Catchphrase |
Viewtiful Joe is the red-costumed Superhero version of Joe, an average movie lover whose world was turned upside-down when he found himself brought into the World of Movies.
He is voiced in the Japanese version by Tomokazu Seki in most of his appearances and by Shinji Kawada in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, and in English, he is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker in the first three Viewtiful Joe games, Jason Palmer in the anime, Darrel Guilbeau in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Zach LeBlanc in Puzzle Fighter.
Biography
The story begins when film fan Joe and his girlfriend, "Sexy" Silvia, go to see an old tokusatsu movie called "Captain Blue". However, when the titular Captain Blue is defeated by the villain, said villain reaches out into the real world from the movie screen and kidnaps Silvia. Joe is also brought into the movie by Captain Blue's ship, the Six Machine. Now inside the world of "Movie Land", Joe meets his hero: Captain Blue, who has grown fat and old. Seeing immense potential in Joe, Captain Blue gifts Joe with the V-Watch, which with Joe, by saying the word "Henshin" (or, as he likes to say it, "Henshin-a-Go-Go, Baby!"), can turn into the superhero called Viewtiful Joe.
The first game saw Joe venturing through the various movie sets of Movie Land, fighting against the forces of Jadow, the evil syndicate that defeated Captain Blue and kidnapped Silvia. Joe fights and defeats the Mecha-Mooks that make up Jadow with his powers of VFX: VFX Slow, VFX Mach Speed, and VFX Zoom.
In the sequel, Joe and Silvia (who now has a V-Watch and can transform into a superhero, too), must stop another evil syndicate: Gedow. Led by the enigmatic Black Emperor, Gedow means to find the seven Rainbow Oscars, colorful statues that represent a force known as "the Power of the Happy Ending". Gedow captures and turns Captain Blue into one of these Rainbow Oscars, prompting Joe and Silvia to venture through new locales in Movie Land to find the remaining Rainbow Oscars and rescue Captain Blue, before the Black Emperor finds them and uses their power to escape Movie Land and take over the real world.
Abilities
Viewtiful Joe has the power to slow down the movie, speed it up, and to zoom into the picture, much like camera effects seen in movies. At first, he is only able to use his powers in movies; however in Viewtiful Joe 2 he demonstrated, when in the real world, that his V-Watch will respond when in front of an audience, enabling him to transform out of the movie. His problem are apparent again in Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble, when nothing happens after he attempts to transform with nobody watching. This problem is solved when Silvia points her special camcorder, The V-Cam, at Joe. Just knowing he is being filmed inflates his already over-inflated ego to the point where he overcomes this silly handicap. Joe's arsenal also includes Voomerangs, boomerang-like blade weapon thrown from Joe's helmet; and Shocking Pink, which is a short fused bomb. To turn into his Viewtiful form, he shouts the phrase: "Henshin a Go-Go Baby!"
Gallery
