Monster Rancher (TV series)

Monster Rancher
モンスターファーム (Monster Farm)
Genre	Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Comedy
Anime television series
Directed by	Hiroyuki Yano
Studio	TMS Entertainment
Original network	TBS
English network	YTV Jetix first-run syndication, Fox Kids,
Original run	17 April 1999 – 30 September 2000
Episodes	73

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 the Monster Rancher series of video games made by Tecmo.[1] It originally aired on Japanese television on TBS from April 17, 1999 to September 30, 2000. In Japan, the program existed as two separate series -- モンスターファーム~円盤石の秘密~ - Monster Farm Enbanseki no Himitsu for episodes 1-48 and モンスターファーム~伝説への道~ Monster Farm Densetsu e no Michi for episodes 49-73.

Characters

Main article: List of Monster Rancher characters

Changes made in the English language version

The U.S. version, localized and originally syndicated by Bohbot Entertainment (later BKN), had several parts modified to make it suitable for viewing on American television. The character Hare had his "Gas" attack removed. "Gas" is an attack where Hare turns around and flatulates on his enemy. The flatulence stinks so badly, it stuns enemies, knocks them out, as seen in Hare's Trick; he also used Gas to keep the Iron Bird afloat in the Iron Bird episode.

A couple of scenes were also removed from the episode "My Name is Pixie". At one point during the episode, Genki rescues Pixie from quicksand. After he hauls her out, the mud on her face makes her look as if she has a beard (why that was cut out is not known). There is also a later scene in the same episode where Genki lifts Pixie "bride over the threshold" style in his arms and skates away with her while she kicks and yells in protest. For reasons unknown, a few frames were cut from that scene as well.

Several key episodes of Season 2 were skipped by some networks that aired Monster Rancher in the U.S. "Battle with the Big Bad Four" and "Tiger's Battle with Destiny" only aired once when the series was rerun on Fox Kids. These episode were pivotal battles for Holly and Tiger respectively.

By contrast, some of the darker scenes of the anime were not removed nor edited in the dub, such as the villain Naga's suicide, and Tiger being forced to kill his own brother Gray Wolf.

In the Spanish version as well as the English version, an original opening song was recorded, produced, and vocalized by Anthony Lopez.

While unrelated to the English language version, in the Japanese version's opening for Episode 1, there is a different opening animation from other episodes. The changes include:

• A fade in shot into the title logo rather than a camera scroll through some building to the logo.

• The first two close up shots of Mocchi and Holly spinning around are not present.

• After the pan up the group that are sitting on a pile of misc. objects, there is a shot of Genki's face, with the wind blowing.

• The shot of Tiger latched onto the Monster's neck and ripping part of the skin off, as well as being thrown off of him, is instead a shot of Genki jumping over some of the Dinos from episode 1.

• The shot of Genki being chased by the Dinos and one of them falls on a rock, is instead a shot from episode 1 where Genki is roller blading on the ground towards Holly.

• The shot of Holly, Hare, and Golem on a dragon, in which the shot pans out to Mocchi and Genki is instead a shot from episode 1, which shows the scene where Genki decides on Mocchi's name.

• Hare has a mistake on this version. Originally, his eyes had black pupils with a white background for the rest of his eyes. (Although the scene where punching some plant monsters has his normal eyes.)

• The dragons flying into the sunset are removed from the end shot.

There are also many other additional details added onto the animation.

Monster Rancher on DVD and VHS

ADV Films owned the 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 and dubbed by Ocean. 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 website currently doesn't offer the DVDs up for sale indicating that it may be cancelled.

Voice roles

Character	Japanese VA	English VA
Genki Sakura	Chisa Yokoyama	Andrew Francis
Holly	Mariko Kōda	Maggie Blue O'Hara
Mocchi	Yuri Shiratori	Janyse Jaud
Suezō	Wataru Takagi	Scott McNeil
Gōlem	Naoya Uchida	Richard Newman (1999–2000) Doc Harris (2000–2001)
Tiger	Kazuki Yao	Brian Drummond
Hare	Nozomu Sasaki	Samuel Vincent
Moo	Jūrōta Kosugi	Paul Dobson
Pixie	Kotono Mitsuishi	Janyse Jaud
Gali	Kaneto Shiozawa (Season 1-2) Tsutomu Kashiwakura (Season 3)	Scott McNeil
Gray Wolf	Daiki Nakamura	Scott McNeil
Undine	Hiromi Tsuru	Kelly Sheridan
Naga	Kazuya Kobayashi	Scott McNeil
Big Blue	Hiroyuki Yokō	Ward Perry
General Durahan	Kenyū Horiuchi	Lee Tockar
Lilim	Haruko Takahagi	Janyse Jaud
Poison	Miki Nagasawa	Janyse Jaud
Mum Mew	Keiko Han	Pauline Newstone
Gobi	Jūrōta Kosugi	Paul Dobson
Michael	Miho Yoshida
Ash	Kōichi Kitamura
Arira	Yoshiko Asai
Allan	Ryō Naitō	Matt Smith
Detonarex	Ryō Naitō
Denatocris	Kazuya Kobayashi
Pinky	Nao Nagasawa
Eddy	Issei Futamata	Terry Klassen
Tsunomaru	Norio Tsuboi
Captain Jim	Akio Ōtsuka	Michael Dobson
Miminyā	Mika Kanai
Colt	Fumiko Orikasa	Kelly Sheridan
Yakuto Hound	Hiroaki Hirata

Japanese openings and endings

Openings

1. Kaze ga Soyogu Basho (Miho Komatsu)
2. Picnic (Rumania Montevideo)
3. Close to Your Heart (Rina Aiuchi)
4. FLUSH (Takashi Utsunomiya)

Endings

1. Flame of Love (Sweet Velvet)
2. Digital Music Power (Rumania Montevideo)
3. Wonderin Hands (4D JAM)
4. Be Truth (Takashi Utsunomiya)

See also

• Monster Rancher
• Monster Rancher monsters
• List of Monster Rancher episodes

References

• BKN International A.G. (September 1, 2005). "BKN News". September 5 Newsletter.
• CNN Matthews News Distribution Network (July 21, 2005). "BKN Announces New USA Deal". Press Release.

• Monster Rancher at IMDb