Monster Farm: Enbanseki no himitsu

When people review Monster Rancher, Digimon, and Pokemon, they nearly always compare the three. It's kind of hard not to, so I will too.

But first, just about MR. This is the opposite of a normal cartoon. Instead of a bunch of action and whatnot, most of each episode centers on the characters and their feelings, emotions, motivations and interactions. No character is what he seems, and the creators do an incredible job of making the characters seem not just _deep_ but like bottomless wells of personality and history.

Now the comparisons: except for the inclusion of monsters, Monster Rancher is not like Digimon or Pokemon in any way. The animation is better than both other 'mons (in my order, Pokemon's animation is horrible, Digimon's is pretty good, and Monster Rancher's is great). As for story, I don't watch Pokemon enough to know completely, but I've seen a few episodes and it seems like a run-of-the-mill children's cartoon. Digimon is great because it actually has a continuous story and characters that I give a c**p about. Monster Rancher, though, goes beyond even Digimon in regards to characterization, which makes the show such a joy to watch.

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!"

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.

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.

Genki is the Champ of Playstation's 'Monster Rancher' but finds the game more challanging when he's sucked inside of it. It seems the world within his game is in some serious trouble. The evil Moo has been unlocked from his disk and is slowly taking over their world. The only monster with the power to turn the bad monsters ("Baddies") back to "Goodies" is the legendary Phoenix, and Holly, with her power to control the magic stone points the way for Genki and their monster friends Tiger (a wolf out to save his brother), Moochi (a brave little guy), Golem (the giant rock monster afraid of water), Suezo (the eyeball who goes where Holly goes) and Hare (a tricky rabbit out to steal their golds.) But in order to unlock the Phoenix, Genki and his team will have to battle against Moo's Big Bad Four, black dino squads, the jells, and harsh land. Can they do it, and restore peace to the land...?