Wild Arms: Twilight Venom (abbreviated Wild Arms: TV) is a Japanese animated series produced in 1999. It is a standalone story based on the Wild Arms series of video games with cameo appearances of characters from the games. The series was distributed across eight DVDs containing 2 to 3 episodes each in Japan, and five DVDs containing 4 to 5 episodes each in America.
The soundtrack was recorded at Victor Aoyama Studio, Sound Inn and tries to emulate the game's style of western music to mixed success. The show's opening theme directly copies parts from "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" while the show's ending theme is Japanese hard rock. The song "UNIVERSE" was used as the ending theme for the first 10 episodes of the televised version of the show and "Starry Sky Jet" was played as the ending theme for episodes 11 to 21. The final episode features "CONTINUOUS" as its ending theme. In the VHS and DVD releases "Starry Sky Jet" is the only theme used for every episode.
Opening Song: Main Theme by Sho Wada
Credits Song:
- Episodes 1 to 10: UNIVERSE by TRICERATOPS
- Episodes 11 to 21: Starry Sky Jet by Guitar Wolf
- Episode 22: CONTINUOUS by Michiko Naruke
Apologies in advance for the poor image quality. A high quality version of the show has not been made available through streaming services. Physical copies have been out of print for years and now command prices of roughly $130 used and $250+ factory sealed.
Spoiler Warning: I am going to give a synopsis of each episode and my opinions at the very end.
Episode 1: Sleeping Dirty
Under the pretense of striking a deal, Dr. Kiel Arronox travels to Alcatraz - a high security prison held aloft over a canyon by "magnetic rocks". Kiel is taken captive when he refuses to cooperate with the warden, Kihano, on a project. Kiel manages to escape at the same time two female thieves, Loretta Oratorio and Mirabelle Graceland (a vampire), break into the prison to steal a "treasure". The three join forces and together escape through a tunnel with the "treasure" - a young boy named Sheyenne Rainstorm. Sheyenne has the ability to use special firearms (called Arms) and claims to be a 25 year old man who had his consciousness transferred into an artificial body against his will.
Episode 2: ARMS Crazy
Sheyenne wants to return to Paskiarka, the place where his original body was shot, but overhears rumors that the desert city sank beneath muddy waters. Instead Sheyenne and Kiel travel to the thieves' bazaar because it sometimes deals in human remains. Issac, a Popepi Pipepo (rodent capable of human speech), takes an interest in Sheyenne's Arm Batour. He explains how Arms can only be used by special individuals born every few hundred years and that to take a life the gunner has to give up some of theirs.
That night, Loretta and Mirabelle drug Sheyenne, Kiel, and Issac in order to steal Batour, which they sell to an Arms collector named Mr. Petroni. Unable to use the weapon, Petroni finds and pleads for Sheyenne to teach him how to use it or to shoot him with it so that he may "feel its power". Sheyenne clobbers him with it instead.
Episode 3: Desert Dragon Fantasy
In a place where the sand flows like water, Sheyenne and Kiel notice that a dam will break soon if the tide is not released. Normally the locals make a living by salvaging junk that floats down the sand river, but the mayor's daughter Machela won't let anyone near it because she believes her fiancé, Ravan, reincarnated as a sand dragon and now stands guard over a treasure. She also holds resentment against her father for forcing Ravan to prove himself, which led to his death in the sand flows.
The townspeople revolt against the mayor and forcibly expel Machela from the area so that they may open the floodgates. Swept up in the current, Machela and Sheyenne manage to board a ship holding the dragon's treasure - a humanoid form which Sheyenne mistakes for his original body but turns out to be a gold statue of Machela. The sand dragon dies while preventing the ship from capsizing.
Episode 4: The Faluna Bible
The famed library Libra was founded by an underground movement with the goal of preserving all books after past Fargaian dictators tried burning them as a way to control people and information. In the present, the elderly Chief Bado sets fire to the library, killing several people. Bado claims he had to set the library on fire to stop dangerous men and their monsters. Sheyenne is convinced one of the charred bodies may be his, and Loretta and Mirabelle believe the library holds the Faluna Bible - a book containing the location of the lost treasure of King Keanu of the Evil Race (a name for Arms users).
The new Chief Yusis, demands that Bado tell him where the Faluna Bible is located. When Bado refuses, Yusis uses a mysterious potion on a corpse to turn it into one of the monsters Bado had tried to burn. Bado retrieves the Faluna Bible from his person and uses it to lure the monster away from the library. The monster easily catches up to the old man and takes the book by force. Both the monster and Faluna Bible are then set on fire by Loretta.
Episode 5: Portrait of Lana
Aboard a cruise ship, a number of supposed relatives of the wealthy painter Rotes compete for his inheritance. Loretta and Mirabelle pose as 'love children' of Mr. Rotes in an attempt to steal the painting of his wife, Lana. A passenger named Michelle claims that Lana was her grandmother and becomes upset when Mr. Rotes leaves his entire fortune to his former lover, Kojima Strauss - the "Lana" in the painting. Kojima was engaged to Lana, but broke off the engagement to be with Rotes, unaware that Lana was pregnant. This makes Michelle Kojima's granddaughter. Kojima tries blowing up the ship in an attempted suicide and goes down with the ship while everyone else escapes to lifeboats.
Episode 6: Affair of the Fargaia Express
A train is stuck running two minutes behind schedule after having to wait for a passenger named Sylvie and her lover Danny. On board the train Danny's other girlfriend Lami catches him cheating on her and tries shooting him but is stopped by Kiel. Danny claims to not have been serious about Sylvie and makes up with Lami.
Meanwhile, the train conductor Alan recognizes a group of scruffy men from their wanted posters and warns the sheriff. The sheriff mistakenly tries to arrest Kiel, but realizes his mistake and arrests the scruffy men. Mr. Ballade, a treasure collector, accuses Loretta and Mirabelle of stealing his suitcase, but they deny having done so and present the real culprit. The sheriff recognizes the man the girls captured as Thief 129, although the thief claims to have committed no crime yet. The scruffy men are then revealed to be misidentified street performers and the real wanted criminal has taken Sylvie hostage.
Sylvie encourages the criminal to shoot her since life without Danny "isn't worth living". The criminal takes the conductor hostage instead and demands to be taken back to the previous station. Both the conductor and the driver refuse to delay the train any further, so the criminal takes control of the train himself, accidentally sending it out of control. Kiel manages to apprehend the criminal and the runaway train is halted. Using two live dinosaurs in the train's cargo they are able to tow the damaged train into the station five minutes behind schedule.
Episode 7: Someday My Robber Will Come
Sheyenne and Kiel get caught in a sandstorm but receive shelter at a remote convent. The leader, Ms. Elizabeth, becomes infatuated with Kiel, much to the other nuns chagrin. After a few days of one-sided affection, Elizabeth reveals that she knows Sheyenne and Kiel are really only interested in the treasure possessed by the convent. In exchange for removing her from the convent, Elizabeth takes the duo down a mine shaft into an underground cavern. There they find the treasure - De Pearl, a Guardian Deity whom the maiden's feed locally grown blue pearls. The guardian fish however, died a long time ago and petrified. Sheyenne is initially angry that people would go through so much in service to a "dead fish", but Elizabeth is delighted to no longer be bound to her duties and runs off into the night to "find a man better than Kiel".
Episode 8: Mouth Wide Shut
A hysterical woman collapses on Sheyenne and Kiel's table at a saloon. She hands them a silver key before passing out and mumbles about a treasure hidden in the Valley of the Midnight Sun. At the same saloon, Loretta and Mirabelle purchase a golden key to the same treasure from a man. Both parties set out to find the treasure but are knocked out by a shadowy figure. Sheyenne and Kiel are rescued by a woman named Rosa and taken to Honest Town. Loretta and Mirabelle are similarly saved by a Mr. Leereum and taken to the town. The town has two rows of buildings parallel to each other, one half painted red (Rodon's Family) and the other white (Ascensa Family). The two families are at war with each other. Rosa of the Rodon Family and Mr. Leereum of the Ascensa Family challenge each other to a duel.
A date is set for another day in which Sheyenne, Kiel, Loretta and Mirabelle will serve as proxy's for the family's duel. They use the duel to expose Rosa and Mr. Leereum as frauds and the same man and woman from the saloon. The couple had been luring people to the town and pitting people against each other in order to loot the bodies. The entire town was built on a rotating wheel, so whenever someone found them out, they would direct that person to go south to find the treasure in the Valley of the Midnight Sun. However, the town would be rotated to face north.
Sheyenne, Kiel, Loretta and Mirabelle find the real treasure using their keys, but are disappointed when it ends up being a stuffed teddy bear. Sheyenne gifts the bear to a little girl, unaware that the eyes of the bear are valuable Gelumatron Precious Stones.
Episode 9: The Slave of the Game
Sheyenne and Kiel arrive in Las Gomoras, a gambling hub. As thanks for saving the poker Queen, Estelle, from a knife wielding man named Dennis, they are invited to dinner at her mansion. She reveals herself to be a crest sorceress (magic user) and bemoans the loss of King Keanu. Mirabelle meets with Sheyenne to explain how Loretta lost her money and body to Estelle through a game of cards.
Dennis approaches the duo and helps them break into Estelle's vault using knowledge from his time as her former husband. Mirabelle then bets the stolen money plus her body in a poker game with Estelle and loses. However, Kiel calls out Estelle as a cheater using cards hidden up her sleeve. Estelle tries fleeing but falls into an arena where Loretta is wrestling. After a sound beating, the two sisters part on amicable terms.
Episode 10: Guilty or...
A band of men in chariots pulled by camel/ostrich hybrid animals pass by Sheyenne and Kiel's camp. When Sheyenne asks too many questions about their human hostages, the band restrains the duo and leaves them to die in the desert. One of the kidnapped people, a girl called Nieza, manages to escape the next day and free Sheyenne and Kiel. She requests that they help her parents who are being forced to solve a multi-door puzzle in some old ruins. Under cover of night, Sheyenne and Kiel sneak into the ruins and use Batour to cause a cave-in to prevent the alerted bandits from following. Nieza's father solves the final door allowing everyone to escape.
Episode 11: No Home, No Body
Sheyenne and Kiel arrive in Paskiarka which has been under water since a calamity know as "Twilight Venom" occurred. Sheyenne is delighted to find a survivor named Sergio running a bar, although the man doesn't recognize him. A regular that does her grocery shopping at the bar, Laila Lai, resembles Sheyenne's former lover Gina Angel. She invites Sheyenne over to her home to read her poetry after he expresses interest. Identically-dressed men then barge in to kidnap Laila and escape to an underwater base.
Episode 12: Lie, Laila, Lie
Sheyenne and Kiel discover an underwater base operated by R.O.O.F - an organization dedicated to the creation of Arms. The head scientist, Dr. Sabrisky and Kiel used to work together, and is the one who arranged Kiel's meeting at Alcatraz. Using a prototype Arm from the facility, Sheyenne is able to rescue Laila. However a soldier shoots her, causing her to fall into the water. Sheyenne dives in after her but is thwarted by a sea monster, called an aspic, and has to be rescued himself.
Episode 13: Lullaby of the Noble-Red
Sheyenne, Kiel, and Loretta assist Mirabelle in rescuing a relative's kidnapped baby, Faluna. A group of Chinese assassins known as the Vain-Glory intend to eat the vampires while in their bat forms and to sell their parts on the black-market. One member of the group defects, taking Faluna back to her family but is followed. The Vain-Glory assassins scatter after their leader is slain.
Episode 14: Interview With The Ampire
Mirabelle's family has nearly fallen into bankruptcy so they accept a payment from the vampire Count Ampire in exchange for Mirabelle's hand in marriage. Mirabelle does not want to marry an "old man" so she lies about sleeping with Sheyenne. Sheyenne denies the claims and Mirabelle's parents reprimand her for lying to them. At night the parents secretly feed on everyone's blood and take a liking to the taste of Sheyenne. Wishing to continue feeding on him, they cancel the marriage plans with Ampire and encourage Mirabelle to marry Sheyenne. Mirabelle calls out her parent's for their selfishness, but holds a fake wedding with Sheyenne to appease them.
Episode 15: Natural Born Angel
A young woman and former R.O.O.F member named Sybil claims to know where Sheyenne's original body is, but requests that he act as her body guard in exchange for the information. After almost getting run over by a steam locomotive, Sybil claims to see angels and then that she is one. Two assassins able to use Arms, Zed and Pedro (from Wild Arms 1 and 4), try assassinating Sybil but can't handle the weapon's life drain. After burying the two men, Kiel theorizes that they came from R.O.O.F based on their weapon's branding and that the organization is trying to artificially create Arms and Arms users.
Loretta suddenly swoops in to apprehend Sybil for stealing crests (cards) from the crest collector Judecca Dantes (J. Ducet from Wild Arms 2). Sybil argues that Loretta has been deceived just as Judecca arrives to challenge Sheyenne to a duel. Both are wounded, with Sheyenne experiencing what it is like to get shot by an Arms weapon for the first time. Sybil fires her Arm to finish Judecca off and gives Sheyenne the location of his body - Filgaia - before perishing.
Episode 16: Fatal Goddess
In the capital of Filgaia where R.O.O.F's base is located, the commander of Filgaia, Irving Vold Valeria (from Wild Arms 2), discuses a "goddess" protecting the capital. This goddess is Laila, who now recalls her time as Gina Angel and arms herself with the Guardian Lucied (a wolf). R.O.O.F meanwhile tries and fails to revive King Keanu Fallwind.
Episode 17: Child at Heart
Sheyenne falls from a cliff and loses his memory. He is taken to Dr. Clark's orphanage where he develops a friendship with the other kids. Kiel manages to locate Sheyenne, but doesn't feel right removing him from the orphanage while he still thinks he is a child.
That night Kiel returns to the orphanage after hearing that an all-female band of thieves led by Kanon (real name Aisha Bernadette from Wild Arms 2) has attacked the orphanage. Kanon wishes to marry Dr. Clark, but views the children in his care as an obstacle that must be removed. Sheyenne uses his Arm to protect his friends, reviving memories of who he really is.
Episode 18: The Days of the Bacchus
Sheyenne and Kiel plan to take public transit to the capitol when they spot Laila being pursued by armed men in a wagon. They stop the men by shooting the bridge down and later find Laila passed out by a statue of the goddess Laila Margaret shooting Keanu Fallwind. They are taken in for the night by the assassin Golgol Thirty and his partner Olivia. In the morning Laila will only answer to the name Gina and claims to have no idea who "Laila" is. The next day Sheyenne finds Laila back at the statue, where she reveals herself to be the leader of R.O.O.F. This triggers a memory in Sheyenne from when he had his old body: after killing a man in a duel, Sheyenne was fatally shot by Laila/Gina.
Dr. Sabrisky orders his men to destroy everyone at Golgol's house for knowing too much. Despite surrendering, the soldiers kill Golgol in front of Olivia. The rest are fended off by Kiel and a burial is arranged for Golgol.
Episode 19: Gone with the Smoke
Irving is furious with Dr. Sabrisky for killing Golgol, who he had hired to assassinate Laila in front of a crowd of people. Irving would have then killed Golgol as a way to "avenge the goddess" which would have ingratiated himself with the masses in time for the elections. Instead Irving puts out a massive bounty on Sheyenne and Kiel, framing them as assassins. Kiel then sells out Sheyenne to R.O.O.F.
Episode 20: Faluna Struck
Kiel is appointed Dr. Sabrisky's successor and reveals that as a former member of R.O.O.F he was the one responsible for putting Sheyenne's consciousness into a child's body. An imitation of King Keanu Fallwind is also revived using Sheyenne's original body, which vows to kill Sheyenne in order to prevent him from reclaiming the body. In a fit of anger Dr. Sabrisky rants about how R.O.O.F has been manipulating Filgaia's history for the last ten thousand years and that the goddess Laila causing the Twilight Venom incident in Paskiarka three years ago was an accident they hadn't accounted for.
On election day Laila uses a device on her wrist to cause a lunar eclipse, convincing the people that she is the goddess reincarnated. Irving tries carrying out his assassination attempt on the goddess using a new sniper, but the Guardian Lucied shields her. Irving then blames Sheyenne for the assassination attempt and Keanu challenges Sheyenne to a battle.
Episode 21: Once Upon a Time in Fargaia
Keanu (aka Sheyenne) was originally part of an Earthling immigrant colony settling other planets. He fell in love with the planet Filgaia (the true goddess), causing his fiancée Laila Margaret to become jealous. In an attempt to "destroy the other woman" Laila used space weaponry to reduce the planet to its current arid condition. Laila, as commander of the Earth armies, then fought against the Filgaian rebels led by Keanu. Over time the story evolved into one of the goddess Laila striking down the evil King Keanu.
Using technology to move a persons consciousness into a new body, R.O.O.F managed to keep several individuals around for a very long time, but not without some degradation. Laila is unsatisfied with the Keanu copy that currently exists and demands that Kiel merge its body back with Sheyenne's mind. The imitation Keanu does not take this well and shoots himself in the head with an Arms weapon.
Episode 22: The Last of Sheyenne
In a fit of grief, Laila tries destroying the entire planet using Twilight Venom weaponry located on a moon base, and Irving dies trying to stop it. Kiel provides Sheyenne with larger Arms designed specifically to stop the Twilight Venom but its use could completely drain Sheyenne of his life. Sheyenne takes the risk and uses the Arms to successfully save the planet. Years later a much older Sheyenne reunites with Laila/Gina.
Thoughts:
Based on my past experiences with video game movie tie-ins from the 90s to early 2000s I was expecting something low budget and low effort, but Twilight Venom was surprisingly watchable. It isn't great by any stretch - average at best, and has the usual filler episodes near the beginning, but was interesting enough to keep me invested in the character's journey. Many of the filler episodes arguably contribute to fleshing out the unusual wild west fantasy setting and establishing how its world operates.
Fans of the Wild Arms games starving for more content from a series that has gone dormant might enjoy this. It also gives a good idea of what the Wild Arms setting is like for anyone unfamiliar with the games and is easy to follow and understand.
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