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Review: Wild Arms Volume 1 & 2

Review by FENNECFOX | 03/19/2003 | 14:51:52 PM PST

The latest in the burgeoning sub-genre of "PlayStation-inspired anime" is a merry journey across a kinda-sorta Western landscape. Bring your chaps and cell phones.

After years of bad cartoons based on today's hottest video games, it may finally be time to put a moratorium on dissing anime just because it's licensed from a software company. Arc the Lad really wasn't that bad, after all, and the upcoming Sonic X may succeed in atoning for the Urkel-voiced atrocity aired on U.S. TV a decade ago. So, as anime fans are faced with the first two volumes of Wild Arms, let's try to approach what's ahead with optimism, tenacity, and something of an open mind. Yes, we know how uneven the original PlayStation games were. This isn't like that.

Unlike the anime Arc the Lad, Wild Arms doesn't bother trying to follow the games' plotline?while it takes place in the same pseudo-Western world, the characters and story couldn't be more different. Most of the nine episodes in these DVDs revolve around Sheyenne Rainstorm, a 25-year-old world-renowned gunslinger in a 5-year-old's body (long story), and Dr. Kiel Aronnax, a towering lummox of a man who's helping Sheyenne find his original flesh. Mr. Rainstorm is one of the only men left who can use ARMS, ancient weapons that hold the power of the "evil race" within them. This naturally makes him the target of renegade ruffians, government agents, and (as we find) the occasional crazed gun collector.

The first nine episodes of Wild Arms are entirely episodic?Sheyenne and Kiel come to a new location in their search, run into some local color, deal with a pressing issue or two (usually with some prudent ass-kicking), and move on. They're often joined by Loretta and Mirabelle, two treasure hunters who're ostensibly traveling by themselves but somehow end up getting in Sheyenne's business at least twice per episode. With this main cast in place, the four have (for lack of a better term) wacky adventures?busting out of a floating prison, fishing a dragon out of a river of sand, and falling into tempestuous love in a thinly-disguised Las Vegas.

As you may have noticed by now, Wild Arms isn't the most original (or most eye-pleasing) of anime. Although the Western theme admittedly isn't oft explored, many of the comedy situations here have been played through time and time again in old fantasy chestnuts like Slayers and Sorcerer Hunters. The funny thing is, the director of Wild Arms realized this early and apparently decided the best solution was to speed everything up. The average episode, minus opening and end credits, is just a little over twenty minutes, the anime equivalent to a 72-minute movie. As a result, most episodes do away with extraneous details like character development or plot twists and instead devote themselves entirely to fast action and quick laughs.

It's hard to pull that sort of thing off, but Wild Arms does a surprisingly admirable job, especially considering the video-game roots. While the animation quality is nothing exceptional, every episode contains several drop-dead funny moments, and the amount of "filler" plot is nearly impossible to see with the naked eye. ADV's treatment is fairly exemplary, too: the English dub cast work very well with each other, although the extras unfortunately concentrate more on quantity than quality.

Considering the low standards most viewers likely have, Wild Arms is a surprisingly good piece of comedic adventure anime. In fact?and I know I'll probably anger one or two RPG nuts when I say this?the show's more entertaining than the first two Wild Arms could ever hope to be. Unlike the Arc anime, Wild Arms never makes the mistake of treating itself too seriously?resulting in a final product that does more to transcend the "all video-game anime sucks" stereotype than all other productions combined.