This is a list of characters featured in the Capcom video game series Viewtiful Joe and its respective anime series. The series centers around its namesake protagonist Joe, an action cinema fan who is pulled into the world of films, Movieland, where he gains a special V-Watch and the power to transform into the superhero identity dubbed Viewtiful Joe. The plot of the franchise and anime series canon mostly consists of the first two releases. The first game, Viewtiful Joe, is about Joe's attempt to rescue his girlfriend Silvia from the hands of an evil syndicate known as Jadow, while Viewtiful Joe 2 is about Joe and Silvia's mission to save Movieland from the equally threatening organization called Gedow. The remaining titles Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble and Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble! act as side stories.
Characters in the series were designed and illustrated by Kumiko Suekane. The concept for the character Viewtiful Joe was given to Suekane by series producer Atsushi Inaba, who denotes himself as fan of American comic books. After giving Suekane a "rough mental image" of Joe, Inaba was relayed with concepts for the rest of the cast. The designs are inspired by Japanese tokusatsu television programs about costumed superheroes, which were popularized in 1960s and 1970s. Despite a somewhat negative reception from child focus groups regarding the characters' appearances and personalities, Hideki Kamiya, the director of the first game, chose to keep the ideas.
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, joe and/or characters:
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I made a list of things I have
to remember and a list
of things I want to forget,
but I see they are the same list.”
—Linda Pastan (b. 1932)
“This might be the end of the world. If Joe lost we were back in slavery and beyond help. It would all be true, the accusations that we were lower types of human beings. Only a little higher than apes. True that we were stupid and ugly and lazy and dirty and, unlucky and worst of all, that God Himself hated us and ordained us to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, forever and ever, world without end.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“Waxed-fleshed out-patients
Still vague from accidents,
And characters in long coats
Deep in the litter-baskets
All dodging the toad work
By being stupid or weak.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)