History Anime / MonsterRancher

* AnAesop:
** The anime's main take-away is that WarIsHell. The backstory has humans who grew proud and destructive, creating Monsters for anything that would suit their wants. Eventually they created Moo in an attempt to end the last war, which ended up nearly destroying the entire planet until they created the Phoenix to stop him—and what it took to defeat Moo involved destroying virtually everything. When Moo returns to finish what he started, great sacrifice is required yet again--this time on a personal level, with [[spoiler:the Searchers fusing together to become the Phoenix, and their consciousnesses ceasing to exist]].
** Episode 73 has Mum Mew screaming that she likes herself just as she is when Moo's soul starts to consume her and the others. After an entire season of buying exercise gadgets and hating being called old, when her life is on the line Mum Mew accepts herself and her body image.

* BlandNameProduct: The English dub had to change the names of real-life products as they were not allowed to advertise directly in children's programs, so Monster Rancher became Monster Battle [=200X=], Tecmo became Mecto. Averted in the subtitled versions, where everything is as it is in real life.

* DisguisedInDrag: In "Magic Stone Mayhem", Hare devises a plan to sneak Holly and the Stone safely away from their enemies, by having Genki and Holly swap outfits and then have Genki run interference while Holly slips quietly away with Tiger. Unfortunately, Lillim was smart enough to see through it.
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Pixie. Genki claims this in episode 2, but it was more due having a little disagreement with Holly. He ends up getting some later.

* ExpositoryThemeTune: The English dub. "Monsters rule!"

* OffModel: Episode 10 has this, particularly involving Pixie.

->♫(M-M-Monsters! ''Monsters rule!'')

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* TheCon: In episode 60, Golem meets an IllGirl called Michelle who is in dire need of money for an operation to save her life. Golem swears to get the money she needs by winning the local fight tournament, and delivers it to her father after winning. As it turns out, Michelle and her father were con artists who run away with the money, although Michelle was so touched by Golem's earnestness that she left half the money behind.

* BaitAndSwitchOpening: The first opening shows Tiger attacking Naga, but he never confronts him directly like that once they reach him. The last opening similarly shows Suezo fighting Naga at a tournament, but in the episode where Naga reappears, he has pulled a HeelFaceTurn and fights on the heroes' side.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:The second season ends with the five main Monsters fusing together to become the Phoenix and sacrificing themselves to destroy Moo, killing Mocchi, Suezo, Golem, Tiger, Hare, Moo, Holly's father, and the Phoenix. The third season undoes most of this because hey, ''Phoenix'']].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Throughout the first two seasons, it's heavily implied that [[spoiler:Genki is part of the Phoenix]] -- and Holly comes to the same conclusion during the penultimate episode "Tears". [[spoiler:Turned out to be {{Fauxshadow}}ing -- while Genki plays a key role in the Phoenix's revival, he's actually one of the '''only''' members who '''doesn't''' carry part of the Phoenix's soul.]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The third season starts with Genki finding a lived-in house containing a console and a version of the ''Monster Rancher'' game he has never seen before (the disk's face is styled like Mocchi's face), which allows him to get back into the game world. Said house and game are never explained. In the series epilogue, [[spoiler:Genki has not only inexplicably returned to his world but now also has ownership of the disk so that he can go back to Holly and co. whenever he wants]].
** Because the English version omitted that epilogue, the final scene is the Searchers admiring the sunrise after [[spoiler:Moo's soul is destroyed for good and Holly's father regains his memories... but '''''what happens to Genki?''''']]

* EveryEpisodeEnding: Monst episodes end with Genki saying his catchprase "Let's go with hearts pounding and spirits high!", usually accompanied with a PastelChalkedFreezeFrame

* MotiveDecay: Moo suffers from this ''big time''. He starts off desiring [[EvilPlan to rule over the entire world]]. He even [[DaddysLittleVillain wanted his daughter Holly at his side]]. He sought to liberate Monsters [[SlaveRace while enslaving Humans]]. And then... he goes ''[[MoralEventHorizon completely insane]]''. He's become an OmnicidalManiac, who now desires to wipe out all life. Justified as he absorbed so much hatred that it caused his original destructive nature to resurface.

* WalkingDownTheEarth: The heroes spend the entire series travelling from place to place in search of the Phoenix (and challenging tournaments in the last season)

* AfterTheEnd: In the backstory of the Moster Rancher world, the Pangaeaian civilization was incredibly advanced to the point that they thought they "were like gods". Then disaster struck, chaos and war broke out, and Moo nearly destroyed ''everything'', leading to the less-advanced civilization seen in the present day.

* TheAmazon: Our heroes have trouble traveling such a land for several episodes.

* PlatonicLifePartners: Throughout the 73 episodes, Genki and Holly are just best friends, without any hint of a love interest. Although some fans disagree...

* DarkerAndEdgier: The first and second seasons are more serious than the third.

* DeathIsCheap: All the monsters that are killed throughout the first and second seasons [[spoiler:including Mocchi, Suezo, Golem, Tiger, and Hare]] are revived in the third, as the Phoenix's magic restores all the Lost Disks. Not all of them reappear, however.

* ThouShaltNotKill: The Searchers prefer to defeat them and believe that everyone deserve another chance. There are even times where they try to save the villains no matter how evil they are. The only exception was Moo, who they believe was beyond any sort of redemption.

* ThouShaltNotKill: The Searchers make a big deal of doing this as much as possible. There are even times where they try to save the villains no matter how evil they are. The only exception was Moo, who they believe was beyond any sort of redemption.

* {{Mons}}: Along with ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' and ''[[Anime/DigimonAdventure Digimon]]'', it was one of the first shows in the genre to be imported to the US.

Much like the games it was based off, the show became a big CultClassic and today is often regarded as one of the best animated shows based off a video game. The show managed to run for three seasons, two of which aired stateside on Creator/FoxKids and [[Creator/{{Freeform}} ABC Family]], respectively. The third never aired on TV in the U.S., but was dubbed, and is available [[http://www.hulu.com/monster-rancher online]] to watch. The show was also quite different from the other {{Mon}} shows at the time (''[[Anime/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]]'', ''[[Anime/DigimonAdventure Digimon]]'') in that the human protagonists were not afraid to battle alongside the monsters.

* NotSoDifferent: Tiger of the Wind and Hare started off as a thief/con artist respectfully, and both were very {{Pride}}ful and stubborn, resulting in their constantly butting heads and arguing.