19th century cowboy culture is combined with futuristic weapons technology in the appealing Wild Arms. © 1999 Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.

Wild Arms. V.1, The Good, the Bad & the Greedy. V.2, Western Romance. V.3, The Return of Laila. V.4, Lie, Cheat & Steal. V.5, Sheyenne's Last Stand.
TV series (22 episodes), 1999-2000. Director: Itsuru Kawasaki. V.1 & v.5, 5 episodes/125 minutes; v.2-4, 4 episodes/100 minutes. Price & format: DVD bilingual $29.98. Distributor: A.D.V. Films.

Wild Arms (age-rated 12+) looks like an anime parody of spaghetti Westerns for the Pokémon set, but it has enough adolescent humor to make it enjoyable for teens. Wild Arms is a popular Japanese video game series; this 22-episode TV serialization (October 18, 1999 through March 27, 2000, animated by the Bee Train studio) was called Wild Arms: Twilight Venom, with the subtitle deliberately chosen to be abbreviated Wild Arms TV.

The story begins in mid-action on a fantasy world mixing a 19th century cowboy culture with futuristic weapons technology, where humans and Pokémon-type cute small "monsters" are social equals. A sadistic warden at an escape-proof prison is torturing a brawny adventurer-type addressed as Dr. Kiel Aronnax. Three female thieves (human adult femme fatale Loretta Oratorio, "human" (actually a vampire) juvenile tomboy Mirabelle Graceland, and tiny furry harridan Jerusha) break in to steal an unknown "top secret treasure." Kiel, freed in the confusion, helps the women unlock the treasure, which turns out to be an apparent 10-year-old boy in suspended animation. The boy, when revived, claims to be legendary adult gunslinger Sheyenne Rainstorm, believed to have been killed years earlier. Apparently the government (an oppressive tyranny, which justifies rebelling against it) has faked Sheyenne's death and transferred his mind to a juvenile android body.

This sets up the individual picaresque adventures from episodes #2 on. The main P.O.V. is Sheyenne (the Japanese misspelling of Cheyenne is fixed through numerous wanted posters in the background art), an impulsive adult ego frustratingly trapped in a preadolescent's body. Beautiful women who used to lust after him now treat him like a cute kid brother. He has psychic control over special ARMS weapons which only he can shoot, but his body is now too small to handle the recoil. Sheyenne, accompanied by Kiel and Isaac (a male counterpart of Jerusha), wanders from Western town to town following up on rumors of "hidden treasures" which may be his real body. The women follow, hoping the treasures are of the more negotiable kind. As usual with anime TV serials, the story slowly grows more dramatic. It is not until episode #11 that the viewer is prompted to wonder about Kiel (why is he sticking with Sheyenne, why was he in prison, what kind of "Doctor" is he); about the government's motive for getting rid of Sheyenne without killing him; and other questions which establish that Wild Arms does have an ongoing plot, after all.

Many episodes are parodies of Western movie stereotypes, mildly risqué enough to belie the Pokémon art style. Two legendary lovers turn out to have been homosexuals. Loretta loses all her money gambling and announces that she is forced to "sell her body;" after milking this for lewd innuendo, it turns out that she has entered a women's mud-wrestling bout. The music (by Kow Otani) is a great pastiche of spaghetti Western composer Ennio Morricone's style. Wild Arms is light, tongue-in-cheek fun.