Monster Rancher

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.

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...?

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.

Most property based animated series basically just serve as half hour commercials for toys. "Monster Rancher," while it does serve that purpose, rises above what you'd expect given that. Unlike "Pokemon," which is insipid, and "Digimon," which is derivative of the latter, "Monster Rancher" rests its strengths in strong, character development scripts.

Except for a few stereotypes like "Star Wars" familial elements and the brooding, loner type with attitude, the majority of episodes have, thus far, been fine essays reaching into the minds of characters we would normally not care about. Whereas one would expect a character to be chosen from the video game to use as a plot device, the plot device is instead the motivation for the character, rather than motivation being revealed as an afterthought to spur on the plot.

So far, there's only one season of episodes. But, if there are more, and if the same attention to character detail is maintained, this series should prove to be quite enjoyable, despite a few minor stereotypes.