For years, Digimon and Pokémon have been battling for the title of the most popular monster anime. An alternative has long been forgotten: Monster Rancher. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus believes it surpasses both competitors, if only it hadn’t come to such an early end.
Alongside Flint Hammerhead, Monster Rancher is one of my absolute favorite anime from my childhood and youth. While other kids were excited about Digimon or Dragon Ball, I always wanted to know what happened next in Monster Rancher. And somehow, the series seems to have faded into obscurity. Unjustly, in my opinion.
How did I come to this? We asked our new editor Alexander Schürlein what his favorite anime are, and he mentioned Monster Rancher in his response. I didn’t expect to hear that name again from anyone else.
When it comes to anime, manga, and games featuring monsters and battles, most people immediately respond with Pokémon or Digimon, which have been fighting for the top spot in the genre for 27 years. There are hardly any other answers. That’s a shame because Monster Rancher surpasses both despite its brevity.
Similar to Digimon, but much more mature
Monster Rancher strikes a similar chord to Pokémon and Digimon. Just like Pokémon, it first appeared as a game and later as an anime adaptation – by the way, also just a year after the game about pocket monsters.
However, in terms of tone, Monster Rancher is much closer to Digimon. The fact that the monsters don’t just mindlessly babble their names, but can actually speak, brings the two series closer together.
The plot is also similar: teenagers are pulled into another world to fight against evil. What has always bothered me about Digimon is that all monsters end with -mon and that every term is slapped with “Digi-” somewhere. That makes the whole thing a bit childish.
A series about loss and responsibility
What makes Monster Rancher special is how the series handles the monsters themselves. They are not just “data” that somehow reappear when a companion dies. No, the monsters are real beings that have been altered through highly advanced genetic engineering and truly die when they are killed, turning into strange stone slabs.
These slabs can be transformed back into monsters at shrines, but the loss is felt immediately – especially since reviving them is not so easy. The intro alone shows a scene with a whole field of these stones in the rain, strongly reminiscent of a somber graveyard.
The entire plot of Monster Rancher is more serious than that of Digimon (and Pokémon, by the way – at least as far as the anime is concerned). This applies to the entire world of Monster Rancher. In Digimon, it’s “only” about a digital world. Monster Rancher, on the other hand, takes place in a “real” world that exists parallel to ours. All people and monsters there are real.
In Germany, KSM Anime distributes the anime on DVD and BluRay and has even made the entire first episode available on YouTube. Of all the mentioned anime, Monster Rancher has by far the best intro:
Mochi is the better Pikachu
For me, Monster Rancher has another significant advantage over the competition: the protagonists are better. A comparison with Pokémon can be drawn more easily here. Especially Genki and his companion Mochi surpass their counterparts Ash and Pikachu by far.
Unlike Pikachu, Mochi – like every monster in Monster Rancher – can speak. This makes it easier to follow the development of the companion and build a bond with him. The little electric mouse, who is too stubborn to evolve, has always felt somewhat suspicious to me for this reason alone.
The same goes for all characters in Monster Rancher. Because it is truly about their existence, they interact with their world in a much more serious and understandable way. I have always found that impressive, both as a teenager back then and now as an adult.
Monster Rancher is unfortunately far too short
If Monster Rancher doesn’t say anything to you, that’s no surprise. The series consists of only two seasons with a total of 73 episodes and aired completely in Germany in 2001 on free TV. Since then, it has occasionally aired somewhere, but not consistently most of the time.
Since 2022, there has been a DVD and BluRay box with all episodes. Additionally, you can watch Monster Rancher entirely on Amazon Prime, if you subscribe to the additional service Aniverse. However, Amazon stated three seasons instead of two for some reason.
Like many of you, anime has shaped my childhood and youth. But especially what we have in the “mainstream” doesn’t suit me. Many anime simply feel too exaggerated to me (like Dragon Ball or Naruto), or are just too long to enjoy with their hundreds of episodes (hello, One Piece).
Monster Rancher was a wonderful break in the forest of shounen anime with power fantasy. To this day, I still prefer series that take everything a bit more seriously. MyMMO demon Cortyn always has quite good recommendations: The best horror anime if you want to properly scare yourself
