Monster Farm: Enbanseki no himitsu

The "rip-off" trilogy, as I like to call it, consists of "Pokemon," "Digimon," and "Monster Rancher." I had seen the other two and decided, what the heck. This has turned out to be my favorite. I normally don't care for the way the dubbing is handled in shows like these, but here I think the voices work well. The animation in this show puts the other two to shame. There are some FANTASTIC monster creations here! My favorite character is probably Golem, the kind-hearted rock monster voiced by Richard Newman. He is peaceful, yet will fight if he has to. And I just love how he forgets to catch Suezo (the "eyeball monster") after he's been thrown up into the air. What really separates this one from the other series is the fact that our heroes cannot evolve. They are what they are, like it or not, and they must learn to accept each other as such. There are some nice stories in this series. Definitely worth watching.

Cartoon done well even if the idea is not very original.

Digimon and Pokemon have been taught too well which keys to tap to appeal to young audiences.

In the early 21st century there was a whole genre dedicated to kids who would catch monsters and then make them fight each other.

I think the best characters were Lilim and General Durahan, two villains who were the best episode of the series in their departure.

Was this show ever the black sheep. The third to what I like to call the "Monster Wars" Monster Rancher was a very underappreciated anime that either went unlooked as it was syndicated at the time or Fox Kids just wouldn't give it the time of day due to its Digimon hype.

Th story is pretty simple. Taking the basis from Captain N (another video game inspired/marketng show) Hyperactive Genki recevies a beta game he won from a video game tournament. But upon trying it out, he is literly sucked into it and finds there a real world inside. And its in danger thanks to a evil monster name (wait for it) Moo. The only hope being a young girl (Holly) and her childhood monster Suazo as they quest to find the Phiniox, the only monster who can stop him. Genki joins them ,of course, and along the way they run into other monsters they come across that join their cause.

The animation is pretty standard anime and nothing to write home about. But the storyline more then makes up for it. The one thing I loved about this show was it energy (which ironicly enough was what Genki's name stood for) and the fact that everything was straight forward and more over character driven rather then rely on too much on a gimmick. The battles this motly grew of rebels get into are very fun to watch and you really can't help but root for their uphill fight to overthrow Moo and his evil army.

I'll admit it stumbles in it second season (plus the ending was kinda lame) but it had a good run none the less. It just a shame we didn't get to see it's third season due to lack of intrest and it being taking off the U.S airwaves for good. But in my eyes, this is one of he best anime I've had the pleasure of viewing. Those who been on their Pokemon and Digimon high horses while this was in run and didn't know of its presence. Check it out on one of the few video or dvd out there and see what you've been missing. As the song goes "Monsters Rule!"

From what I remember I really enjoyed this show. I watched it on Fox Kids along with "Digimon" and I didn't really find any comparison between the two. My favorite monster characters were Mocchi and Suezo, they are sooo cutee! I also liked Genki and Holly.

My favorite episodes are "In the beginning" since its the episode that started it all. I also liked "Holly's Happy Birthday".

Overall I really liked this series. The action was good, the characters were good, and the anime was good. The only real problem was the dubbing was a little off. But that was O.K.

"Monster Rancher" deserves 10/10 stars and I recommend it to anyone who likes anime.

I remember this show. I liked it. Compared to other anime out there, it may not seem like much, but I find it to be an entertaining adventure story nevertheless. At the time, I also liked Pokemon and Digimon, but I remember thinking this show was better than both of them. True, the monster designs are a lot more plain than either show, but I still liked this show the best for some reason. When it aired on FOX Family, I was disappointed to see that only 26 episodes were dubbed, but later on in the year they ended up being there, which made me very happy. What surprised me was that the show started out kind of kiddy, but it actually gets darker and more emotional as it goes on. My only regret is that I never got to see the third season. But, anyway, I'd recommend it.

My favorite characters were Hare and Suezo, they were funny, haha!