7.4 /10 1 Votes
7.2/10 IMDb Directed by Hiroyuki Yano Original network TBS | 6.9/10 MyAnimeList 8.3/10 TV Studio TMS Entertainment Final episode date 25 March 2000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Genre Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Comedy Licensed by Discotek Media
BBC Worldwide English network Cartoon Network
Network Ten, Fox Kids
YTV
Cartoon Network
Jetix
CBBC
Fox Kids (first-run syndication) Network Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings Characters Suezo, General Durahan, Mum Mew, Holly, Mocchi Cast Mariko Kouda, Wataru Takagi, Yuri Shiratori, Chisa Yokoyama, Naoya Uchida | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Monster Rancher, known in Japan as Monster Farm (モンスターファーム, Monsutā Fāmu), is a 73-episode anime series based on Tecmo's Monster Rancher video game franchise.
Contents
It originally aired on Japanese television on TBS from April 17, 1999 to September 30, 2001. An English-language version by Bohbot Entertainment aired in North America on Fox Kids and YTV. In Japan, the program existed as two separate series; The Secret of the Stone Disk (円盤石の秘密, Enbanseki no Himitsu) for episodes 1-48 and The Legendary Path (伝説への道, Densetsu e no Michi) for episodes 49-73.
Story
The story follows a boy named Genki Sakura, who is a key player of the Monster Rancher video games. After winning a tournament hosted by the game's creators, Genki wins a special CD that he can use to unlock a special monster in his game at home. However, upon using this disk in his game console, he finds himself transported to a world of monsters that, much like Genki's game, are given life by scanning special stone disks within temples. There, he meets a girl named Holly, who is seeking a stone disk containing a legendary Phoenix that will save the land from the tyranny of an evil ruler named Moo. Upon attempting to use the disk Genki had won to try and release the monster, they bring forth a different sort of monster, which Genki names Mocchi. Wanting to free the land from Moo's rule, Genki, Holly, Mocchi and their other monster companions go on a quest to find the stone disk that contains the Phoenix.
Release
ADV Films licensed the home video rights to the first 12 episodes, which the company released on DVD. ADV also released the entire first season of Monster Rancher on VHS. The series was brought to the US by BKN and dubbed by Ocean Studios. After Monster Rancher went off the air in the US, ADV halted its release of the series on home video and DVD. In 2005, BKN International A.G. licensed the DVD rights for 73 episodes of the Monster Rancher anime series to Digiview Productions LLC for US and Canadian mass retail market distribution. Digiview only released one DVD containing episodes 1 through 5 at select Wal-Marts and other select places that sell $1 DVDs in February 2006. Eventually, this DVD was reissued to include up to episode 8. The Digiview releases were canceled after this release. The series was later made available to watch on Hulu. Discotek Media released the series in three English-dubbed DVD box sets in 2014, and a single box set with the original Japanese audio subtitled and uncut on July 10, 2015.