The show is set in a futuristic society where technology has advanced quite a bit and people have colonized other planets. The general rules of anime apply; if the writers can conceive it, it can happen with magic added to the mix for good measure. Most people live simple lives as if in the American Old West but the advanced pop up on a regular basis. The show started off in a scientific laboratory/prison where a scientist, Kiel Aronax is being interrogated. He breaks out of his captivity when a couple of thieves, Loretta Oratorio (a sorceress who uses magic playing cards and her feminine wiles to get what she wants) and Mirabelle Graceland (a youthful vampire with thievery on her mind), try to obtain a great treasure. As Kiel makes his way through the complex, he comes across a young boy in suspended animation, a boy later found out to be Sheyenne Rainstorm, a man trapped in a boy's body after he was captured by authorities who discovered his ability to wield a special type of weapon called Wild Arms that use a genetic code to allow some of a person's spirit to flow through the gun shaped weapon and destroy just about anything. The cast was later rounded out by Isaac, a small blue furry creature that speaks English and is among the oldest beings in the Universe, and his female counterpart, Jerusha, who is the partner of Loretta and Mirabelle.

The men travel searching for clues to the whereabouts of Sheyenne's real body while the women are always scheming to steal more riches. The two teams cross paths repeatedly, with the gals taking advantage of the men at any opportunity they get. The comic relief provided by Sheyenne's situation, apparently he was quite a ladies man and his gun slinging ability was second only to his ability to sling something else, was a common thread as was the observations provided by Isaac. The show follows their exploits as they travel the countryside investigating every lead, often landing them in harm's way. Sheyenne has the advantage of using his weapon but there's a reason the race that invented it is long dead; firing it sucks out a bit of your soul. The series was kind of repetitive at times but still a lot of fun to watch as the cast got into all sorts of trouble in what could be considered parodies of the various clichés used in Westerns all the time. Keeping in mind that the series was based on a Playstation game so the amount of depth to be found was minimal, here's the brief synopsis' from the original releases to offer you up some idea of what took place but be mindful that some spoilers exist in them:

"ARMS - mysterious, ultra-rare weapons of almost unbelievable power. So how did Sheyenne Rainstorm come into possession of one? More importantly, how did this twenty five-year-old gunslinger end up in the body of a five year-old boy? These are questions Dr. Kiel Aronnax would like to see answered. Sheyenne just wants to find his original body. On the other hand, fortune hunters Loretta Oratorio and Crimson Noble Mirabelle are only interested in treasure. So why, with the whole wide, Wild West to travel, do they keep bumping into each other? They'll dodge gunfighters, con-artists, dragons and crazed librarians in search of clues to solve the riddle of the ARMS. Don't miss the first action-packed volume of Wild Arms!

The course of true love seldom runs smooth, and in this case it's positively enough to derail a train. Sheyenne and Kiel are still searching for Sheyenne's body and they're still running into Loretta and Mirabelle every time they turn around. Now their search is further complicated by a host of love-struck characters. A train trip becomes a journey through the absurd with cheating lovers, a trio of little girls infatuated with Sheyenne, a conductor obsessed with arriving on time, criminals galore, an expectant mother in labor and a circus troupe alone for the ride. Add a convent with an elderly Mother Superior waiting for her lost love, a pair of feuding families that would shame the Montagues and Capulets, and round it all out with a visit to Las Gomoras, the sleaziest, shadiest den of iniquity in the West. There's love and something more in the air in the second volume of Wild Arms!

After Sheyenne and Kiel help an ace safecracker who wants to go straight get out of the business, a mysterious woman out of Sheyenne's past appears to trouble his dreams. Her name is Laila, but she doesn't stay in his dreams for long. Sheyenne finds she's alive and well and living in the next town they reach. But there are sinister forces in motion, their sights are set on Sheyenne and his Wild ARMS, and they aren't above using anything or anyone to get to him. Without his adult body, can Sheyenne protect his long lost love? Find out in the third exciting volume of Wild Arms!

Mirabelle has a suitor! After a chance encounter with a picture of Mirabelle, Count Ampire has his heart set on having her for his wife. Unfortunately for everyone concerned, Mirabelle has some strenuous objections. Then Sheyenne and the guys become bodyguards for a beautiful girl named Sybil who promises to tell them where Sheyenne's true body is if they'll take her to Port Crackpot. It's the one thing Sheyenne's been searching for, but is the price too high? Danger lies around every corner as a routine train trip becomes a deadly game of hide-and-seek. Don't miss the action in the penultimate volume of Wild Arms!

Sheyenne hasn't found his body yet, but he has found Laila. The trouble is she's in the hands of an evil cult who thinks she's the reincarnation of a goddess. To make matters worse, someone's posted a huge reward for Sheyenne, Kiel and Issac. Is five million gala enough to make the girls turn on them? Plots are unraveled, justice is paid and everyone gets their just rewards in the final action-packed volume of Wild Arms!"

1) Sleeping Dirty
2) ARMS Crazy
3) Desert Dragon Fantasy
4) The Faluna Bible
5) Portrait of Lana
6) Affair of the Fargaia Express
7) Someday My Robber Will Come
8) Mouth Wide Shut
9) The Slave of the Game
10) Guilty or…
11) No Home, No Body
12) Lie Laila, Lie
13) Lullaby of the Noble-Red
14) Interview With the Ampire
15) Natural Born Angel
16) Fatal Goddess
17) Child ay Heart
18) The Days of the Bacchus
19) Gone with the Smoke
20) Faluna Struck
21) Once Upon a Time in Fargaia
22) The Last of Sheyenne

Okay, so you get the whole series in a single boxed set (in those cool little thin paks) for a bit more than a single volume used to cost. There were almost no extras, just some trailers, but there was never anything interesting on the discs to begin with. The show did seem to cover a lot of familiar territory too with the episode titles giving you some idea of where the themes were derived. Still, I found a lot of enjoy on the 22 episodes so if a couple of episodes were particularly weak, at least there were others right around the corner. The series also ended in such a way that there was closure and not the popular open ended form so many series offer up (usually in hopes they get picked up for a following season). With this kind of value, I think a rating of Recommended is in order although there were times when the parody was too off beat and the childish themes were over played. Picture: Wild Arms: Complete Collection was presented in the same 1.33:1 ratio full frame color it was shot in by director Koichi Mashimo for release in Japan. This is the director best known for helming the wonderful Noir series as well as the not so wonderful Hack//Sign series and the quality of this one was somewhere in between those two popular shows. The colors were bright, the animation style limited (probably by budget) and the best way I can describe it would be to say it's something akin to Saturday morning quality much of the time. There were no visible compression artifacts that I could see but the show was no remastered so don't expect a big leap forward from the original releases on DVD.

Sound: The audio was presented with the usual choices of the original Japanese language track (with English subtitles) or the English language dub; both in 2.0 Dolby Digital. The vocals were equally decent so there wasn't much of an issue there to fuss about. The music and special effects sounded pumped up on the dub though so some of you will enjoy that track better. There was some minor separation and dynamic range offered up but nothing exception, especially compared to newer series on the market.

Extras: The only extras were some trailers to newer shows. This allowed the series to be placed on four DVDs without a corresponding loss of picture and audio quality.

Final Thoughts: Wild Arms: Complete Collection was a fun little ride worth checking out if you like Western themes and cutesy shows where the larger arc isn't truly addressed until well into the series. The mulligan of the lost body and technologically advanced weapon were not satisfactorily explained until well into the show and that weakened the overall series for me but the cute factors didn't typically get in the way too much to enjoy the average episode. The English language voice actors were almost always decent at their roles but I think most fans will prefer the original track for the flow of the words that somehow seemed slightly more natural, yet listen to them both for comparison purposes. For the audience it was addressing, Wild Arms was worthy of respect but that was a younger audience than most people reading this review.

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVDTalk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003 and Best Of Anime 2004 article or regular column Anime Talk