Jill Valentine

Jill Valentine (ジル・バレンタイン) is a player character in the Resident Evil horror franchise by Capcom. The character, widely regarded as one of the most attractive women in video games, gained great popularity and was met with generally very favorable critical reception, also sparking some video game memes.

Jill made her debut appearance in 1996 as one of the protagonists of the original Resident Evil game, in which she is a member of the U.S. special police force STARS and trapped in a mysterious mansion. During the later events of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil: Revelations, Jill escapes from a city overrun by zombies and becomes a founding member and field operative of the fictional, UN-funded paramilitary group BSAA.

The film series' version of Jill, portrayed by Sienna Guillory, was introduced as a protagonist in Resident Evil: Apocalypse, made a brief appearance in Resident Evil: Afterlife and is the main antagonist in Resident Evil: Retribution.

Design and portrayal
During development of the original Resident Evil, Jill was conceived as physically weaker than the game's male protagonist Chris Redfield, but she was given more skills and weapons to compensate for this. The development team for Resident Evil 3: Nemesis commented that Jill was deliberately designed to make her "beautiful for everybody" and appeal to both male and female gamers, as males would find her physically attractive and females would see her as a tough role model.

In the Nintendo GameCube remake of Resident Evil, producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi said the team wanted Jill to be "a little cuter" so that "her action and atmosphere has charm". Her facial and physical appearance from the remake onwards is based on Canadian model and actress Julia Voth, and her body was scanned into computers to make her look as much like Voth as possible. Character designer Kenichiro Yoshimura said that he "made Jill's face as much similar as I could to the model actress face." However, so that she remains a tough character, her body is designed to be "not skinny, more like muscular". In 2011, Julia Voth recalled her audition in Tokyo: "there were tons of girls there. They told us it was for a video game, but nothing more. [...] I had no idea she would grow to the popularity that she did. I feel very blessed to be part of it. It really is such a great honor." Asked whether would she play Jill in a film, Vorth answered, "Where do I sign? I have always felt a connection to Jill, and more so always been very proud of the fact that people still love her and want to play her. It would truly be a full circle moment for me in my life and career." In 2012, she also portrayed a character "Jill" in zombie short film Project: S.E.R.A. by Ben Howdeshell, who has worked on Resident Evil films.

On the change of appearance for Jill (who was turned blonde) and Chris Redfield in Resident Evil 5, production director Yasuhiro Anpo said that he tried "to preserve their image and imagined how they would have changed over the passage of time" and so they "made a new design that retained their signature color—green for Chris, blue for Jill—to carry over the same look from the past. The facial structures are mainly based on the visuals of the Nintendo GameCube version, and we added various details to these in order to develop a realistic structure." Producer Jun Takeuchi said Jill's unlockable "classic look" STARS uniform from the first Resident Evil is his favorite extra costume in the game.

Jill was voiced by Catherine Disher in Resident Evil 3 and  Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Heidi Anderson voiced her in the 2002 GameCube remake of the first game, in which Julia Voth was Jill's motion capture actress. Patricia Ja Lee provided the voice and motion capture in The Umbrella Chronicles, Resident Evil 5 (including all of its later released downloadable content) and Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D. Kari Wahlgren assumes the role in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3; Michelle Ruff lends her voice to the character in Resident Evil: Revelations and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. In the Japanese versions of Apocalypse, she was dubbed by Okamoto Maya for the TV version and by Atsuko Yuya (who also returned as Jill's Japanese voice actress in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3) for the Blu-ray release.

Sienna Guillory portrays Jill in the live-action films, where she is one of protagonists turned an antagonist. Guillory said she was "incredibly proud to be a part of this" and felt "there is no greater motivator than knowing you’re going to be squaring off against Milla Jovovich in a cat-suit months after giving birth to twins;" she also talked about problems with Jill's "boob-ament" mind control device prop during the fifth film's production.

In video games
Jill Valentine first appears as one of two playable protagonists of the original Resident Evil game (1996), in which she is an explosives expert of Raccoon Police Department's Special Tactics And Rescue Service (STARS) Alpha team and a partner to Chris Redfield. Jill's family background is half-French, half-Japanese, and she is a former operative of the U.S. Army's secretive special unit known as Delta Force. Before the game begins, the Alpha team is deployed to investigate a series of bizarre murders in the Arklay Mountains, where they discover and enter the Umbrella Corporation's Arklay Research Facility. Inside, with Chris missing, Jill initially works with Barry Burton, another Alpha team member, as they inspect the mansion and battle its undead residents. Eventually, she and Chris discover that STARS leader Albert Wesker had betrayed them. After defeating the Tyrant monster released by Wesker, Jill escapes the self-destructing mansion in Brad Vickers' helicopter along with Chris, Barry and the Bravo team member Rebecca Chambers. She is also the sole protagonist in Resident Evil: Genesis (2008), an alternative-story version of this game.

Jill returns as the protagonist of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999), where she is forced to side with a double-crossed mercenary paramilitary for the Umbrella Corporation, Carlos Oliviera. Jill and Carlos cooperate to escape from the now-dead Raccoon City before it is destroyed with a nuclear strike by the U.S. government. Along the way, they fight Nemesis, a modified Tyrant super soldier sent by Umbrella to dispose of the remaining STARS members. After several encounters with the creature, Jill is infected by the T-virus, though Carlos is able to procure a vaccine from the nearby hospital. Finally, Jill defeats Nemesis and Barry Burton returns to Raccoon City to bring her and Carlos to safety moments before the city's destruction. Jill is also featured as a playable character in the "Heroes Mode" multiplayer section of the uncanonical spin-off game Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (2012).

Emerging alive from the Raccoon City outbreak, Jill becomes the founding member of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) under the United Nations. In Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), she works with Chris Redfield to expose and destroy the Umbrella Corporation by raiding their research facility in Russia. She and Chris defeat Umbrella's newest BOW (Bio-Organic Weapon), T-ALOS, and survive the ordeal. Before the events of Resident Evil 5 (2009), Jill apparently dies while saving Chris during a confrontation with Wesker. During the game, however, Chris finds information suggesting that she may still be alive, and discovers she is under Wesker's control, Wesker having used Jill's DNA and the remnants of the T-virus within her body to perfect his new Uroboros virus. Chris and his new partner Sheva Alomar manage to subdue Jill and free her from Wesker's influence. Jill then works with a fellow BSAA agent Josh Stone, Sheva's mentor, to assist Chris and Sheva in defeating Wesker. Demand from fans wishing to play as Jill led to two additional DLC scenarios (also included in the Gold Edition of Resident Evil 5): Lost in Nightmares, showing the events leading up to Jill's disappearance, and Desperate Escape, showing her fight to escape the facility she was being held in. She is also one of the playable characters in Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D (2011), an action game based on "The Mercenaries" minigame from Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5.

In Resident Evil: Revelations (2012), set in 2005, Jill goes on a rescue mission to save Chris from the grip of a terrorist group Il Veltro, following a transmission from a luxury cruise ship Queen Zenobia, which turns out to be a trap set for her. Jill and her new partner, Parker Luciani, now out of contact and uninformed of the dire situation they face, find the ship infested with a new breed of leech-like zombies, infected with a new, stronger strain of the T-virus: the T-Abyss virus. Meanwhile, Chris and his new partner Jessica make their way to the ship to find Jill and some answers. Together, they slowly unravel a global conspiracy involving an earlier outbreak of the original strain of the T-virus at the city of Terragrigia, and a botched investigation by a rival agency, the Federal Bioterrorism Commission (FBC). During this mission Jill is exposed to the T-Abyss and receives an experimental vaccine.

Outside of the Resident Evil series, Jill appears as a player character in the crossover fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000), wearing her STARS uniform. She returns as a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011), where her design is based on her appearance in Resident Evil 5, available as downloadable content. In addition, she also makes a guest appearance in Under the Skin (alongside Carlos and Nemesis) and has a character card in the SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash series. She also appears in the crossover tactical role-playing game Project X Zone (2012) in her costume from Revelations.

Gameplay
Jill was one of the first two player characters in the Resident Evil series. In the original game, Jill plays differently to Chris as she runs slower and can take less damage, but has access to stronger weapons as well as a lockpick; she also knows how to play piano. In the remake, she has a taser as her personal defensive weapon. In Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Jill will enter the "Live Selection Mode" during certain sections of the game, in which the player is prompted to quickly choose between one of two possible actions (the choice of action affects the direction of the game and story, including which ending the player receives). It was also during this game that Jill became the first character to be able to perform a quick 180-degree turn, which has since become a staple of the series. In Resident Evil 5, Jill runs faster than Chris. While the majority of her melee moves (kicks and acrobatic leg attacks) are the weakest of the four playable Mercenaries mode characters in RE5, they are also the fastest, and her exclusive Px4 handgun has the best chance of a critical hit (head shots resulting in an instant kill) of all the characters.

In Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Jill is able to summon monsters to attack her opponent and she can also heal the player's active character if she is summoned as a support character. In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, she was given a complete overhaul, her appearance and move-set being based on her Resident Evil 5 incarnation.

In other media


Jill first appears in Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), the second film in the live-action series. In this version of the series, Jill is a former STARS member (having been suspended for filing "false" reports about zombies ) and a foil to the main character, Alice. Jill tries to escape Raccoon City along with a group of survivors and is one of the few to make it out. She was set to appear in the sequel, Resident Evil: Extinction, but Sienna Guillory had commitments to other work. Later, producers Paul W. S. Anderson and Jeremy Bolt decided to have an "another game heroine", Claire Redfield, appear alongside the film's lead, Alice. Jill returns in a costume based on her Resident Evil 5 suit at the end of the film Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010), where she is under the control of Umbrella Corporation, leading an attack against Alice, Claire, and Chris and the remaining human survivors. Guillory returned to the role of Jill as the primary antagonist of the fifth film, Resident Evil: Retribution (2012).

Jill appears in several novels based on the Resident Evil series, particularly in those by S. D. Perry. In the 1998 novel Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy, Jill is said to be the daughter of professional thief Dick Valentine and to having been his accomplice prior to her career in law enforcement (in apparent conflict with her supposed Delta Force background), explaining her unrivaled infiltration skills and "mastery of unlocking". She also appears in Lee Chung Hing's manhua adaptation of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, titled Biohazard 3: Last Escape (1999), as well as in the Marvel's comic series Resident Evil (1996–1998) and the comic book Marvel Vs. Capcom: Fate of Two Worlds (2011).

In merchandise
Jill has been featured in various merchandise, including a range of RE3 Jill action figures released by Moby Dick Toys in 2001,  and the action figures made by Toy Biz and NECA. In 2010, Hot Toys have released two detailed 1/6 scale figures of Jill based on her appearance in Resident Evil 5 (one in her BSAA uniform and one in her RE5 "battlesuit" ) with over 30 points of articulation, commissioned by Capcom to commemorate the 15th anniversary of Resident Evil. In 2006, a Jill statuette was released by NECA in 2006 for the 10th anniversary of Resident Evil. Other Jill statuettes were also made by other manufacturers, such as KIP, Vanilla Chop and Gaya Entertainment. Also produced were replicas of her beret and STARS badge from the original Resident Evil game. In 2011, Jill was featured as a character in Bandai's Resident Evil Deck Building Game and included as one of two pre-order promotional cards.

Reception
Jill Valentine has been received very positively as the Resident Evil series' main female protagonist and remains one of its most recognisable characters. In 2002, Jill was described by Duluth News Tribune as the "best super heroine this side of Lara Croft". In 2003, GameSpy ranked her as the seventh top "babe in games", adding that "even those of us who weren't big fans of the games" will remember Jill. GameDaily ranked her as their tenth most favorite Capcom characters of all time and used her as an example for the archetype "smart and sexy heroine". In the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition of 2011, Jill was voted the 43rd most popular video game character of all time.

Jill has been often regarded as one of most attractive female characters in video games by various publications. As such, she was included on the lists of nine "sexiest babes of action games" by The Times of India and of gaming's finest brunettes by GameDaily. UGO included Jill on the lists of top 11 "videogame heroine hotties" in 2007 (at third place) and among top 50 "videogame hotties" in 2011, noting her to be a core character of the Resident Evil series and citing her high popularity. In 2008, News.com.au named her as the number one sexiest video game character of all time, noting her popularity with both male and female gamers for different reasons. That same year, she was also featured on the lists of top "video game game vixens" by Spike TV (ranked at number nine) and top "game babes" Virgin Media (ranked at number seven). In 2010, Videogamer.com included Jill on the list of top video game crushes, stating that "she sure as hell picked the lock to our heart." In the 2011 GameZone poll that asked "who would you rather?", Jill was pitted against Lara and won. To celebrate Valentine's Day 2011, Complex posted an article "Happy V-Day" with a gallery of her "hottest pics". That same year, K. Thor Jensen of UGO featured her on an all-media list of the 50 "imaginary women that really need to be brought to life by science somehow", also including her in their list of the 99 "hottest" fictional women of 2012. In 2012, Larry Hester of Complex ranked her as 43rd "hottest" woman in video games, adding that she "pulls it off with her badass army chick steez."

In 2005, Bonnie Ruberg of The Escapist called her "a classic example" of horror game female characters who fill the role of the heroine, as "she's tightly clothed, but not outrageously so, and she can shoot herself a mean zombie." In 2007, Jill was listed by Tom's Hardware among the 50 greatest female characters in video game history, describing her as "a true survivor and an elite fighting machine, not to mention a drop-dead gorgeous brunette." GameDaily listed Jill among the ten "babes who should meet your mom", where she was described as both noble and confident even as having a questionable fashion sense, as well as the "chicks who will kick your ass" (along with Ada, Claire and Sheva). According to GamesRadar's Brett Elston, Jill has "emerged as perhaps the most sensible design of the period [of mid-to-late 1990s], being both tough and sexy without shedding her clothes at the first sign of trouble." In 2009, Elston listed her among the 11 heroines that "embody the best of videogame girls", also confessing that Jill was his first game crush for "her normal name, normal build and normal demeanor, trapped in the most abnormal of situations." In the 2011 "battle of the beauties" feature, Complex pitted Jill against Claire Redfield in the category "zombie killer", choosing her over Claire. In 2012, Nathan Misa of MMGN ranked her as the fifth top "hottest and modest" female protagonists in gaming, adding, "a hot zombie-killing machine, Jill was destined to be every male fanboy's dream. Except she accomplished her attractiveness and appeal in a very different way to typical female protagonists at the time," as in the original game she was "portrayed realistically and appropriately" by being "dressed like an actual police officer," and "the choice of playing as her isn't mired in stereotypes, and she has several logical advantages and disadvantages to Chris, none of which were based on her gender." That same year, Adam Dodd of Cheat Code Central chose this "sultry S.T.A.R.S. member" among "many capable women in the Resident Evil series" for the list of top ten "badass" women of video games, commentting: "Jill is a fan favorite for a reason, as she's an intimidating mix of brains and beauty, and it certainly helps that she knows her way around a gun."

On the other hand, GamesRadar in 2008 placed her among the top 20 supposedly overlooked "game babes", stating that "her affinity for adolescent head gear gives her a Blossom vibe that the world has long since rejected for its lack of sex appeal," with Stephen Pierce calling her "like a big dirty solider [sic] but with slightly longer hair, no dick and a set of tits." GamesRadar also featured Jill from the 2002 remake game in the series about "powers that game characters forgot they had" for not being to able to shoot while moving in-game. Regarding her controversial Resident Evil 3 outfit, Jill was included among five worst-dressed video game characters for this "'slutty cop' Halloween costume" by 1UP.com in 2008, while GamesRadar in 2010 ridiculed it as "douche bag's girlfriend" but has also called it "simple yet iconic look" with "nothing wrong here" in another article which was making fun of the original PlayStation graphics by showing the differences between her character render and the in-game model. In 2009, IGN's Jesse Schedeen named her as one of the characters in all media "who deserve better" due to her treatment in the films and lack of appearances since Resident Evil 3 until a small role in Resident Evil 5, her roles being "stolen" by Alice and Sheva.

Memes
A cheesy "Jill sandwich" scene in the first RE game sparked a popular Internet meme of the same name. Another Jill and Barry-related meme is "master of unlocking". In 2011, UGO featured both of these "hilariously dumb" scenes on their list of the 25 worst cutscenes in gaming history. These memes were referenced by Capcom in the video game Dead Rising, which features a location called "Jill Sandwiches", and in Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, where there is an achievement "Master of Unlocking". A "Jill Sandwich" T-shirt was also made available by Capcom Store, released because "fans were screaming for" it, while Bandai included the "Master of Unlocking" (AC-011) card in its Resident Evil card game. In 2012, Dead Risings "Jill's Sandwiches" itself was included in Complexs list of the best Easter eggs in video games at number 35.