How Monster Rancher Was Better (And Worse) Than Its Rivals | Anime Review 

What other lates 90s early 2000s show should I revisit? 👀 Buyee deal just for my viewers: Get a coupon for 10% off your first purchase when you sign up for Buyee with my link: bit.ly/buyee-thedigiknow10off

Totally agree about Monster Rancher not making it clear it was a multimedia property, I ONLY realised as an ADULT that the whole giant stone disc thing was because the PS1 games let you put your CDs in the disc reader for different monsters and stuff, I thought they just picked a random gimmick for the show lol Great vid bud!

Monster Rancher made your parents CD collection worthwhile as a kid 🤣

Monsters in Monster Ranchers are mostly crossbreeds. You have a few 'basic' breeds: Suezo, Hare, Tiger, Mochi, Golem, Pixie, etc, and you make new monsters by combining them together. Their stats and passive abilities combining in a complex way, making stronger and stronger monsters so you can go further in the various tournaments and expeditions you can engage in the game. Monster A provides the body type, and monster B provides the color scheme essentially. Mix a Suezo with a Mocchi and you get a Moch, flip the combination and you get a Warabi. Golem and Tiger? You get a Big Blue. Tiger and Golem? You get a Rock Hound. Monster Rancher the game is much closer to a simulation than an adventure. It can get very zen!

I remember really liking this show. It felt different from the other shows, probably because it had the monsters actually be characters

I was never really bothered by the fact that monsters didn't really change in Monster Rancher. Learning new attacks was the only change I needed, and of course the search for The Phoenix kept me interested as well. And don't forget the fights Tiger and Hare often got into. 😂

I loved how the show was willing to get sad and serious more often than all the other series. I also played MR2 as a kid and looked forward to when they would unlock a new move or gain a new ally.

So the whole point of the games was breeding monsters. You had so many base forms and then everything else was more or less an off branch of that form based on the two parents. That’s why there were so many “palette swaps” in the show. The pirate Swazo was a swazo and the giant whale monster combo. That’s why it had a horn and that color.

Monster Rancher as a franchise is kinda unfortunate but there were some awesome moments in the anime that made it worth it. Muu as a villain was handled pretty well. Muu’s connection to Holly was the stand out and seeing that part of the plot progress was always entertaining. I think it handled suspense well to, Digimon had its moments but I felt like MR had me watching many episodes just to see the next step in their journey to find the phoenix and defeat Muu. It had some really heartfelt episodes that also stood out. The end battle definitely dragged on but I remember really liking the very last episode.

1.The Monster Rancher/Farm franchise wasn't perfect but it's not terrible either. It has a unique take of the Monster Collecting trait. 2. As much as I enjoy the Monster Rancher anime, I wish it explained why Genki was the one who entered the Monster Rancher World and how one normal Mystery Disc was able to bring Genki into the Monster Rancher World.

The 400+ Monsters were simple fusions, using the one's body and the second's colors. 20+ "families", used at the time (20x20=400, plus extras like Moo...) Basically they're just "elemental" or in new Pokemon terms regional variants, but yeah most are almost just pallet swaps and have subtle changes... But they do hint at why it's like this, monster discs were created in a lab by the ancients, as their designer pets, personal helpers and war assets. Pretty sure it's stated Moo was the final one created before he destroyed the world and for the advance people to revert to what we see in the series... All though I guess, monsters could have existed before discs, and only disc monsters survived the war and the dark ages that followed... But as far as I know they don't talk much about the Ancient War and end of the "Advance Age" let alone what would have happened before that time. With Holly being the "big sister" who knows the world they miss out on Genki being the "lil bro" who knew the monsters, he was a champion right? Pretty sure he won the Advance/Early Access to the new game. So he should be more knowledgeable about the fighting skills at least if not even misc. facts. So thought out the series he should be like the Poke-Dex telling watchers about the monster, no type match-ups but could tell viewers about special moves Or other facts like Big Blue is Golem-Tiger hybrid or Horn was Suezo-Tiger, maybe extra info like the Tiger-Dino is a furless reptile more like the Dinos...

Growing up this and Medabots, Digimon and DragonBall Z were my go to shows ...i never really cared much for Pokemon

When I was a kid I had a lot of “mon” toys, one time I got my hands on this wolf looking thing with horns. I knew it was no Pokémon or digimon I’d ever seen so I thought it was some cheap knockoff. Now I know that’s Tiger of the Wind. Thanks for solving a 20 year mystery for me

I remember playing one of the Monster Rancher games on PS1 and getting my mind blown when I put in Marilyn Manson’s Mechanical Animals in and the game created a unique black-and-white Slime; then I put in one of my sister’s Nirvana CDs and it gave me a Punk-rock-looking Pixie.

Imagine they named the Monsters "MóRans". Highest recommendations for Metal Walker and RoboPon, RPGs from the GameBoy era. 2 of the absolute best VideoGames that fit the genre. RoboPon is so fun, that one of the sequel games is the only Japanese only games I own on N64, and EnglishSpeaking FanGuides exist for it.

Monster Rancher had a ton a great life lessons of empathy, compassion, and courage. Definitely had a great world and stories!! I loved this show!!! It’s sad they didn’t have a solid gaming plan, that’s where they started to lose the battle imo.

Would advise everyone check it out for themselves and formulate your own opinion on the show. I personally would consider it a hidden gem.

Monster Rancher was definitely my #3 as far as 90s/2000s mon shows were concerned. Never bothered with the games, but the show was very engaging. My only issue was that here in the US it felt like it bounced around a lot from network to network, so it was hard to catch all the episodes. Never got to finish the story until it was uploaded online years later. We never even got the third season here. I certainly wouldn't call Monster Rancher forgotten, as it's had a pretty steady stream of games since the anime ended. I'd love for them to give a new anime a shot.

Back in the day when I watched this, I really liked the subplot between Tiger and his brother, Grey Wolf.

While Ash would do anything he could to help his friends and Pokémon, and Tai and the other Digi Destined would fight alongside their Digimon, Genki, with his yellow rollerblades, would be in the middle of the action in almost every fight scene. I absolutely loved it!

I remember loving this unique anime growing up as a kid. Loved the world-building and wished they could've kept going on longer to explore though on the exploring just a bit. I thought the uniqueness of the different CDs giving you a different monsters/powers concept was really unique though for a monster taming anime world. Wish they would've tried to expand it a bit more during its run or closed it off with a theatrical film back then for a proper send off. Kindof reminded me a bit of megaan with the different CDs giving you different moves for the monsters/creatures.

This video game, Monster Rancher 2, was famous here in my country back in the old days. I remember local cafes holding tournaments for this game. Then there's this one dude who got a Moo and always crushes the tournaments he participated in. then they found out the dude was using gameshark to have high stats and to get Moo he was never seen again after that lmao!

I really enjoyed monster rancher growing up. I thought the story was cool. I liked seeing the hero collect his team and watch them all inprove and get stronger. I really loved the ps1 game, you could use any music cd and get new monsters. I had a blast picking random music and seeing what i would get ! I wish that mechanic would return somehow!

I remember I had to wake up 2 hours before school just to secretly watch it from my parents, when I finished I was that happy that I still remember the series.

I agree strongly with your choice for favourite monster in the series. That being Tiger of the Wind. In my opinion, one of the most fleshed out characters of the show. Same actually goes for pixie.

I remember being a kid and thinking I just wanted them to evolve or something lol.

Monster Rancher is still one of my favorite game series. Hell i was playing Monster Rancher 4 just an hour ago lol. Also, for the whole "only feels like 20 monsters" thing, thats teeechinically true. One of the other main gimmicks of the monster rancher series is breeding (also known as combining.) Monsters are split into 2 breeds one main and one sub. The main breed deciding the overall shape and moves it learns and the sub breed deciding smaller details and stat changes. For example, the Captain Horn character in the anime is a Suezo thats sub Tiger hence its blue fur and horn. In the games Suezo would be sorta slow but accurate with high intelligence, and Tiger is and accurate with good power or intelligence depending on which game you play, and combining the two will result in the fusion having altered stats like having higher speed cuz of tiger and improved accuracy. In the first monster rancher game there were only around 20 or so Main Breeds, but through combining you get more variants and options. Like, you want a Tiger that can actually take a hit? Then combine it with Golem. A Pixie that can actually hit things physical moves? Maybe combine it with a Hare. Im rambling but i just love this series man.

I would love to see if you remember a show called “Flint the Time Detective” which aired on Fox Kids in the late 90s. In general though would love to hear your thoughts on all the shows in that block in addition to Angela Anaconda, Monster Rancher, Medabots, and Digimon there was Power Rangers and Transformers: Robots in Disguise.

In a toy box somewhere, I still have figures of the wolf and the duck. And now that I see the disc, I'm realising I also have the lid to the box they originally came in, too!

I was watching this on I think ABCFamily before school every day and they would ALWAYS skip showing the boss fights. I was amazed when they actually aired the finale because it felt like they were constantly boss-teasing me and leaving me unsatisfied every time.

I only guessed that it was trying to promot a game after the first season, because Genki went back to his own world and returned to the Monster Rancher world in season two. So yes it failed miserably at promoting the game but it had a REALLY good written story and is one of the better animes out there

So fun fact I remember playing some of the GBA games a few years after watching the anime and learning they actually had games since, despite effectively being a toy/video game ad, it wasn't super clear it HAD video games, and the reason why there's so many monster recolors that pop up in the anime is because of the games fusion system (the closest thing the games have to evolution basically). Basically how it works is 2 monsters fuse and basically one gets one of the monsters body type and the others "element" Big Blue who works as the "side kick" to Pixie is a fusion in the games, he's a fusion of Golem and Tiger, hence why he's a big giant rock guy covered in ice.

I'm glad you brought up Dragon Quest because the monster designs of Monster Rancher feel VERY derivative of 80's/90's Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest RPGs. Right down to the endless palette swaps of the same monsters over and over. And just the overall feel of Good vs. Evil in a fantasy world. Mu is your classic Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest villain. I'd even thrown in Shining Force too. Not so much Fire Emblem where the villains are mostly humans with the occasional fantasy monster thrown in for flavour.

6:00 Maybe I misunderstood this part, but Digimon Advenutre's humans did fight (but not often). Like how Tai tried to attack the Shellmon on episode 2 or when the human parents fought back against the Bakimon when they where trying to take them as hostages.

Ngl I also didn't know monster rancher was a game series until years upon years later when I was almost out of high-school. In 2020 when I caught covid though And was out of work I bought monster rancher 1+2 DX for the switch and just did nothing but lie around sick and play it. Turns out it was a raising sim and not a pokeclone and also NGL I LOVE RAISING SIMS LIKE PRINCESS MAKER SO FRICK MAN I LOVED THIS GAME

The Monster Rancher games have actually made a little comeback by collaborating with the Ultraman franchise for a game called Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher.

4:35 Funny, I was just thinking how much Monster Hunter's Pixie looks like Pixie from Persona/Shin Megami Tensei. Like Monster Hunter was like "Can I borrow your homework?" and SMT was like "Sure, but make sure to change it so it isn't obvious you copied."

I literally binge watched the monster rancher series yesterday you’re reading my mind dude

I’m rewatching the anime as an adult. It’s not bad, but in the second season Mocchi is super annoying since he always says chi after every sentence.

I hear Monster Rancher, and I appear. That said, you are not wrong when it comes to the "recolor" bit. In the games, they way it works, is that monsters have two genes: a Main and a Sub. So the monster's body type is determined by the first and the color and secondary traits by the sub. So, that blue Suezo, Horn, is a Suezo/Tiger hybrid. That's how they could get away with saying they (technically) had over 400 monsters. So your assessment that there was really more like 20 is more accurate than you know. And, yeah, the anime focused a lot more on its story than advertisement, which is odd when you consider that of all of the mons games, Monster Rancher needed advertisement the most. And in terms of how much like the games the anime gets? That'd be season 3, which actually uses a tournament format more akin to the games. There were also some episodes that allowed themselves to be much darker (comparatively) than a lot of mons shows at the time got - Undine and Baku's episodes spring to mind - which made some bits compelling. It's overall weakness was an over-reliance on a 'monster of the week' format, which made watch order irrelevant for the better part of the series and there's some pacing issues in the later half of season 2. Thanks for reading this wall of text. I just really, really love monster games.

I liked monster rancher. I felt like monster rancher did better with monster character development. also the way Mu was developed with the father's personality, then eventually got taken over by the destructive force.

I remember seeing the final-ever episode of _Monster Rancher_ and I thought there was going to be an epic final battle. I was so disappointed. What a cop-out. That was _my_ reason for suppressing memories of this show. 😢

Loved Monster Rancher, it actually had a good story with developed characters

whether the monster rancher tv series was a good story and great marketing campaign just depends on the fandom it has and the sales it gained. I enjoyed the tv show of monster rancher but what i didnt like about monster rancher the video game, was that it seemed more focus on treating the monsters as digital pets unlike pokemon that focused more on fighting mechanics.

6:15 At the time of this anime's release, there were 39 unique species of monster in Monster Rancher 2 (not counting three species from Monster Rancher 1, Dinos, Disks and Doodles that didn't return in 2). Where Monster Rancher differs from Pokémon and Digimon however, is that most of these 39 species can fuse or hybridize with each other to take on appearance traits from another monster for a total of 408 monsters total.

When I watched this back in the late 90's, I remember the vhs direct to video anime movies I rented in the early 90's for how dark and tragic the backstories of the monsters are. Like a few episodes in, they throw in Golem's backstory like he is Robo in Chrono Trigger

Honestly, while it's true that it wasn't good at marketing, I don't feel that was why the show wasn't memorable. See, I WANTED to go to the Pokemon world, I wanted to go to the Digiworld... And I honestly loved the characters. I wanted to be friends with Brock and kid me had a crush on Misty and I looked up to Ash. In the same way, for Digimon, I loved Tai, and thought Matt was cool. I had crushes on Mimi and Sora while TK & Kairi were my first ship. In fact, as a child, I didn't know that Pokemon and Digimon were a media franchise. Yes, they had cards and games.... but almost EVERY show had cards and games.... that was nothing unique to Pokemon and Digimon.... even Spongebob and DBZ and Toy Story had cards and games... The characters didn't inspire the same heart Ash did, nor inspire the leadership and bravery of Tai. And let's not forget the monsters. None of them in Monster Rancher actually felt that special or had a great design. On the other hand, Digimon and Pokemon not only had great designs... but I would have loved a loyal friend like Pikachu, I laughed at Meowth and Psyduck, I cried for Mewtwo... and we knew the Pokemon did have personalities and understood humans even if they couldn't speak... While the Digimon were loyal and lovable friends. And sure, they didn't have the deepest characterizations... but what character they did have worked for them.... And both had the heroes have strong bonds with their monsters that we kids were able to connect too.... Also, they had a fire breathing dragon for Pokemon and a T-Rex for digimon.... what's cooler than that as a kid???

Ok, if we're looking at weird shows from this time period, my old 90s kid/00s millennial teen self remembers watching this alongside Escaflowne and Flint the Time Detective. FTTD has some of that monster-collecting motif going on, which might be worth looking at. Escaflowne, while good, was something I revisited as a young adult and could not figure out how it got on ANY Saturday Morning show block. Maybe watching it on Saturday morning was some sort of fever dream haha. Regarding Monster Rancher, I remember the episodes being overall fairly tightly written. Character arcs were well resolved and honestly, I bought the game because of the show! I was highly disappointed that the game didn't have more to it.

Monsters with different colors weren't just different skins but had different stats and moves . Those were different monsters. And they were often fusions of different monsters. Edit i see lots of people said the same thing. Well keep the comment for rhe algorithm.

This was definitely a show based on a franchise/merchandise that I didn’t make the connection. Also so true about the nostalgia of the Canadian dubs of anime, there’s just something about them that I prefer to other dubs new or old.

Monster Rancher 2 is one of my top 10 favorite PSX games. What a classic.

What I liked the most about this anime is that Genki wasn't a kid shouting orders for some monster warrior to follow them, like in Pokémon, Digimon, heck, even yugioh and medabots could fit here. He would put his roller blades on and beat the absolute living shit of the enemies with them. The monsters fought on their own, and the main protagonist actually engaged in battle too.That was fun, and genuinely different. Digimon Tamers had something similar with the final Matrix evolutions, but not quite there. It wouldn't be until Digimon Savers/Data Squad where the main protagonist would engage in battle for himself (alongside his monster partner) again. Another cool thing is that this was an anime that wasn't afraid of being dark and portraying death, Digimon Adventure was close, but Monster Rancher took it two steps further. Sure monsters would become discs after they died, but unlike Digimon, they couldn't be brought back. They were dead for good. (the only hope to bring them back was Phoenix) About the PSX games, I never played them because I had a Nintendo64 growing up, but I'd probably like them if I had.

If you want obscure monsters catcher shows to cover: - Moncole Knights - Fighting Foodons - Monsuno - Magi-nation - Huntik - Chaotix (more Yugioh than Pokemon knock off) - Dinosaur King - Spectrobes (there are 14 webpisodes about the games to promote them)

I remember as a kid that i was really frightened by moo true form and really reassured by the phoenix's. I've even associated the image of apocalypse beast to Moo true form even now in my head.

Never in my day’s did I expect anyone to reference Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue. What a trip.

Pokemon are also fleshed out characters with their own personalities in their show

I remember having to get up at 6 am to watch this. I even entered the contest where they would “mosterfy” you if you won. Also played monster rancher 2 and used my sister’s cd collection to unlock monsters.

you know, it would be amazing if the monster rancher anime was actually about the monster ranch, with him raising monsters, caring for them, and sometimes losing them. being both a slice of life AND a monster raiser story. all about him growing and becoming the best rancher.

As a Kid i used to think this show was a season of Digimon, due to the Digimon show being called " Abtal al Digital" (meaning Digital Heroes) in my country and monster ranchers being called "Digital Jungles".

Monster Rancher died on multiple levels, when the PS2 was released and reset the system to change disc I kind of shrugged and gave Monster Rancher up without much thought. I never even knew the anime existed until some five years or so after it had ended. The joys of living in Australia.

My parents bought me "Monster Rancher Battle Card GB,"way back in the day. honestly thought it was fun AF when I was a kid. Might try it as an adult to see how it holds up.

I still play the monster rancher card games on GB and Ps1, they hold up

I gravitated toward this show when I was a kid. So many distinct memories! My mom freaking out at Pixie's design but laughing at Mochi's antics. My introduction to Mochi (the food). All in all, though, I think I loved this show because I was always a sucker for a good adventure. Some of my favorite cartoons were about some sort of quest and this was unlike anything I had ever seen up to that point. It would come on UPN on weekday mornings and on Saturdays and I'd almost always miss the weekday showings. I need to revisit this

all I remember -and still love- about this show was the beautiful opening song (in arabic) I still listen to it and love it

In my place, they had a phone voting contest decades ago where Pokemon, Digimon and Monster Rancher compete with each other. Pokemon was #1 and surprisingly Monster Rancher is #2 while Digimon is #3.

I’m sure someone here said it but I don’t want to read through them all. The reason for the “alt colors” or design change on the same monster was because in the game they were fused with another monster so like tiger and worm created a brown bug like wolf which was shown in the show. If the show showed up that they were fused then it might have been a bit cooler, but it’s an implied game mechanic

What also made the show standout was that genki, despite being human actively fought alongside the monsters in his group against enemys and never just watched from the sidelines. As a kid I really loved how he used his rollerskates as a weapon and used them to tackle or kick his opponents. Or to speed them out. Also the designs of the monsters were really unique. It never bothered me that they couldnt evolv to other forms, instead they learned new attacks and techniks to get stronger. I think monster ranger was always more plot driven then pokemon or digimon. I was so invested in their journey to find the phoenix and still remember how shocked I was when I realized that moe the main villain was hollys missing father. That was literally the "I AM your father" shock reveal of my childhood! 😂

I remember watching this show as a kid, I kinda miss it. I would be nice to have a new game, but I don't know how it would work when no one uses CDs anymore...

Pokémon came out in 1996 in Japan with their videogames (Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green versions) was a smash hit success, and the following year in spring of 1997, Pokémon anime came out on Japanese television. Became an all time juggernaut of massive popularity around the world in the late 1990s and onwards. Then Digimon followed in 1997 with based on Tamagotchi V-pet devices, the Digimon manga comics in 1997, the Digimon Sega Saturn from 1998, and the Digimon anime came out in spring and summer of 1999. It became popular as well, but not as hugely popular like Pokémon. On the same time frame, Monster Rancher came out in 1999 (the exact same year when Digimon anime came out), and it was cool. But sadly it didn't last that long until it was stopped running in 2001. Then after that, Yu-Gi-Oh! came by in late 2001, and it became massively popular throughout the entire 2000 decade and onwards. Beyblade came out around 2001 and onwards. That became popular as well. So Pokémon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Beyblade are still around until this very day. But has anyone else seen or heard Monster Rancher today since we last saw the franchise in the late 1990s and early 2000s back then in our childhood years?

Kinda weird that the anime ended with him in the other world that's how I remembered

Monster Rancher focused more of storytelling and character development and growth, and less on gimmicks and cool designs. And sadly that is one of the reasons it isn't as popular as Digimon and Pokemon. In the 90s, kids liked pokemon and digimon because of the cool monster designs and evolutions and cared less about good storytelling.

Monster Rancher was my favorite out of the three anime, I think it’s because the story was more engaging and the episodes not as formulaic

I cried when Genki was sent back to his world.

One thing I can say as an adult who had recently rewatched monster rancher, digimon, and Pokemon's Kanto series (I could not torture myself and make it further) Monster ranchers story holds up the best in my opinion.

The protag of this show had the most blatant 90s boy design. 🤣🤣

I used to watch this when I was a kid, and did cryy to this one episode when (If I’m not wrong) Mocchi dies but then ressurected again. I think the show was amazing. In term of plot, Digimon win over this. But in term of the mons, Pokemon wins. But this Monster Rancher series iconic to me because how they all really tried to beat the one finall boss with all the source they had (and yes, also, tears from me in that final battle). Fast forward to much years later when visual boy advance became a norm of game boy emoulator, I revisited this anime through the game and man, it felt so amazing because all the memories when I watched the series gushed in. 9/10 would watch it again❤

Loved this series to death. I remember downloading it and marathoning it in middle school to make up for missing a lot of episodes on Fox Kids. Its a fun show, except that ending haha

Mat and tai was actually throwing hands and so was there digimon at the same time

This is off topic, but I hope the digimon franchise introduce a new digimon anime where the actual digimon are the primary cast while the human partners are merely secondary.

Amazing video. Please do another anime review that talks about Pluster World. It's also an old monster-tamer anime but what made it unique it allows the protagonists to do a fusion evolution with their partners.

Yeah the 400 monsters thing was a little misleading. Because there were like... Base design monsters.. Like the main monsters in the series. And then the pallette swaps which were mostly taking two of the basic monsters and crossbreeding them each one was technically its own species with different stats and stuff but yeah...

Pretty much the only thing I remember about this show is the Eyeball monster. He's cool.

The German opening of this show went so hard. Probably based on the Japanese one, it was legit great. Like Butter-Fly levels of great.

I used to rent the game from blockbuster to play it and I remember being very attached to my lil yellow dino only to have it die of old age eventually 😢 I never saw the series though so i mind give it a go!

I actually still have a vhs and dvd of the show. It's like a "hidden gem" of my childhood if that makes sense. Even used to have a game of it back then but yeah the show couldve at least done a little more to market the brand. Interesting framchise to think back on

I just wish digimon could learn from this show and make the digimon actual characters instead of just tools. And, I only have this gripe with dgimon, since pokemon are actual pets, they are not meant to be seen as sentient and such. Digimon are sentient and can talk, so it is quite jarring that they are basically tools for the humans in shows where the point is to say "they are real and have feelings."

6:15, not to put any counterclaims, but it is worth knowing that Digimon also does that same repetitive design with their Digimon variations such as Gabumon with BlackGabumon and Psychemon.

The show is pretty good, and kinda doesnt feel like an isekai at all, but in a good way the world really works. Ok its not the best ever, but its charming and earnest. And characters too, and the actual power of friendship needed to power the fusion is neat. And it has some great moments, like the golem sacrificing himself to save ex subvillain turn enemy lady. Ok i think that the series is somewhat grounded does make it stand out, because it works with , monsters as characters well? I guess they went full jrpg tropes done well, but yeah done well. Also yeah holly is the real maincharacter.

I visited Monster Rancher a few years after getting into Digimon. I was mostly a Pokemon fan in the 90s and I didn't really explore the other Mon series so I was late to getting into Digimon and very late in watching Monster Rancher. Going through it I do agree that its shortcoming of not making use of its multimedia presence was probably its biggest downfall in the long run, however I do think that for what it wanted to do, it did it well. After finishing my watch, I did find myself leaving with a good impression on the cast as it's pretty well rounded with not a real weak link. All of them have their characters and stories to tell and the show makes an effort to give all of them focus, especially the monsters who as you said generally didn't get that type of focus. It's one of the stronger core casts I can remember out of a Mon show, and one of the reasons it still stays in my memory despite watching other Monster series around the same time and my stronger love for Pokemon and Digimon.

monster rancher may be the very first anime i ever watched in mylife. i first watched at age 4 when i t aired on ytv. i hold this anime a special place in my heart. i actaulyl like it more than pokemon, and this is coming from a long time pokemon fan lol

Subbed I always felt like a take on journey to the west or the story’s of the hero landing in a foreign land and saving its ppl like heavy metal

Monster Rancher never really made a full international effort. That was the real reason why. It was stuck in the Medabot territory (As well as Dinosaur King) in that investors saw this was a semi-popular franchise in Japan and wanted to create a repeat of Pokemon, or at least was hopeful about it. However, they did it half way with the games not timed well with the release of the show, and releasing the show which expected you to know the context and legacy of a series, but bringing it out as a brand new thing. (I guess to their defence, it worked with Power Rangers, bringing that series over without any attention to the legacy, but the show was also even more heavily redone than something like this)

Now, to be fair, the Monster *Rancher* had you breed your monsters, which is why the recolors. Also, your monsters can die from age, like Digimon.

About the show I loved it when I was younger the reason why it's because unlike Pokemon make these monsters normal since the beginning of the show unlike Digimon the protagonist is in some chosen hero when I was a kid how I felt about this that show it could be me so the monsters are their own unique characters I think Pikachu is cute like everyone else but hearing him say don't Pikachu pika pika it's kind of annoying all so unlike those other two shows it doesn't get infinite reboots that changed the story over and over he talked about the show barely changing the monster looks but Pokemon the main character changes his look every new show at least monster ranchers has a reason that time barely changes unlike Pokemon

The only thing I remember was Mochi and the stone discs.

I remember trying to get into this show as a kid because I thought it looked cool. Every time I caught it on tv though they were just talking and there were no fights and I had no india what the plot was and I didn’t have internet back then to find out more about this show.

If I’m being honest, Monster Rancher not treating itself like a multimedia thing after episode 1 was one of its STRENGTHS. Treating video game characters as of they’re flesh and blood characters of value always felt silly to me, and so getting past episode 1 allowed me to think of this story as a more Narnia type adventure where the creatures are real and not just 1’s and 0’s on a disc, because why would I care about those? Once you turn the console off they’re dead anyway.

I really enjoyed and loved this series as a kid. My brother and I would watch episodes on Cartoon Network in the morning before school. We also were big into the games. Funny that you mention it failing to sell, because for us it had the opposite effect. We were always excites for the new games and to MASH EVERY CD our parents owned into the console to get new monsters. The series def had a different feel compares to Poke/Digi, esp if you played the games. You were a Monster Rancher, raising a few mons and training them for expeditions, battles/tournaments, and adventures later on. As they got old you would freeze them b4 death and cross their DNA with other mons to get unique skins (combinations) and save some of their stat gains across generations. It was a great time.

I was the inverse on this one. I knew about the games before the show, I loved the games. 4 In particular was my favorite (though that was far after the show). The Anime was weird for sure, but I enjoyed it as well. I remember going through my parents music CDs in the game, and still get a chuckle when my aunt was watching and used one of the CDs and got a Suezo and she merely said "Oh, It's a Pez Dispenser!"

Tiger of the wind was a weird crush I had in highschool, xD, he is a legend. I did play some of the games after watching the anime.