History Anime / MonsterRancher

* BreakTheHaughty: Tiger is humiliated by Captain Dino and Hare, the former in Tiger's debut episode and the latter in Hare's debut episode. He pays them both back for it. [[spoiler: Briefly happens in the third season again after losing to Night Niton]].

* DistressedDamsel: Holly and the Magic Stone are captured for two episodes.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The Pixie race is this. They are [[OneGenderRace all female]], wear {{Stripperific}} FurBikini, are often very flirtatious, and are also the most human looking of the monsters. Then you remember the history of monsters and that they were created as "Entertainment" for humans. With all that mentioned above, you start to wonder what kind of "[[SexSlave entertainment]]" the Pixies were created for. It also doesn't help they look a lot like a [[HornyDevil Succubus]].

* 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]].

* ContinuityCameo: Colt, the assistant from ''Monster Rancher 2'', appears as an explorer in one episode.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Even if it's bittersweet, the Searchers had to earn it.

Much like the games it was based off of, the show became a big CultClassic and today is often regarded as one of the best animated shows based off of 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 (''Pokémon'', ''Digimon'') in that the human protagonists were not afraid to battle alongside the monsters.

** Moo chopping off Pixie's wings was edited out, along with any onscreen instance of him shocking her.

* BreakTheHaughty: Tiger is humiliated by Captain Dino and Hare, the former in Tiger's debut episode and the latter in Hare's debut episode. He pays them both back for it.

* EverybodyLives: Season 3 doesn't have anyone die, unlike seasons 1 and 2.

* LighterAndSofter: The third season comes off as this with the quick reunion of the Searchers and focus shifting to the TournamentArc, the fact that neither goodies nor baddies die, and Durahan's VillainDecay. Perhaps {{Lampshaded}} with the heroes' confidence, as it's outright stated several times that they ''think'' [[spoiler: they can just summon the Phoenix at a moment's notice]] if things get out of control.

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 (''Pokémon'', ''Digimon'') in that the human protagonists were not afraid to battle alongside the monsters.

* SchizoTech: The ancient ruins' technology is a lot more advanced than in the present day. [[spoiler: This is justified by Monol's story]]. And even then for a civilization that could [[spoiler: create monsters and explore space]], they choose to store [[spoiler: said monsters]] on CD-Roms.

The {{anime|OfTheGame}} of the [[VideoGame/MonsterRancher game of the same name]]. The plot of the series followed the adventures of Genki Sakura, a very hyperactive boy who wins a beta disk of "Monster 200X" (which has the same properties of the real MR game) in a video game tournament. No sooner does Genki start it, than he is transported inside the game, finding a real world of monsters inside. It is currently in turmoil due to an evil monster named Moo, who turns monsters evil and rules the land with an iron fist.

Genki joins up with a girl named Holly and her monster Suezo, who are on a quest to find and unlock the monster, Phoenix, which is the only known creature that can stop Moo. Genki gains his own monster, Mocchi, at the start of the series. Soon, the group are joined by Golem, Tiger, and Hare, in their uphill battle against Moo and his forces.

* MoodWhiplash: "Tiger Meets His Match": after a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming, Tiger abruptly shrugs off Mocchi's hug and reveals why he was being so nice and cooperative earlier: [[spoiler: he thought he was getting out of shape and wanted to slim down, hence letting Mocchi ride on his back and volunteering to help]]. [[JawDrop The others are less than pleased]].

* TryingToCatchMeFightingDirty: Gray Wolf doesn't care if he does this as long as he wins.

* EstablishingSeriesMoment: In episode 1, Genki has just met Mocchi when the latter is threatened by the Black Dino Squad. What's Genki do when their leader threatens to make the young monster a slave? Kick the Black Dino in the face.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: The Seed Sisters care for each other, at least.

* BittersweetEnding: The third season was a PostScriptSeason, so if one goes on just by the originally planned second season finale, then this show's ending is even more bittersweet than that of Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann.
** To elaborate: [[spoiler: Mocchi, Suezo, Golem, Tiger and Hare all sacrifice themselves to become the Phoenix and fight Moo. Moo, though insane at this point, retains enough intelligence to remember the Phoenix and realizes they're destined to battle eternally, so he decides to destroy the Phoenix as well as himself-effectively killing Holly's father and the Monsters that make up the Phoenix. The resulting explosion knocks Genki off a Dragon's back and he seemingly falls to his death right in front of Holly... but is actually transported back to his world, with no way of letting Holly know that he's alright or finding out how the battle ended. However, he's comforted by a vision of all of his friends, who encourage him to move on with his normal life]].
** Averted, though, with the the third season.
* BlandNameProduct: [[{{Irony}} Mecto]]?

* CainAndAbel: Tiger and Gray Wolf.

* NobodyDies: Season 3 doesn't have anyone die, unlike seasons 1 and 2.

* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: After the Gells that attempted to get Tiger's Disk failed due to losing the tournament, one wonders why they didn't just steal the disk instead of participating in the tournament. The leader yells at him for not coming up with that sooner.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: Several things were edited out of the dub; for instance, Hare defeating Tiger of the Wind using {{Fartillery}} was removed, and the fact he bought the others ''drinks'' along with dinner was left out (along with a drunk Tiger getting very ''buddy-buddy'' with Hare).
** Blood was edited out, along with moments deemed 'too violent'.

** The second season was a bit better about this, letting Tiger bodyslam Lilim, for instance.
** For all the editing the dub did, it kept much of the DarkerAndEdgier stuff in, such as [[spoiler: Gray Wolf's death and Naga's suicide]].

* DarkerAndEdgier: The first and second seasons were more serious than the third.
* DeathIsCheap: All the monsters that were killed throughout the first and second seasons [[spoiler:including Mocchi, Suezo, Golem, Tiger, and Hare]] are revived in the third season. Justified as Holly said the Phoenix's magic could restore all the Lost Disks.

* DistressedDamsel: Holly for two episodes. It's played very well, though.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Homo sapiens not only being around when Pangaea was still connected, but being around so long they can develop a [[AdvancedAncientHumans high-tech civilization]]. Justified that the events are happening in a video game or alternative universe.

** After all of that, the third season's quick StatusQuoIsGod followed by a TournamentArc left those who actually got to see it... underwhelmed.

* ActionGirl: Holly is a downplayed version. Most of the time, she hangs back and lets the others fight... but if she has reason to, she ''will'' fight. Pixie is a straighter example after her HeelFaceTurn.

* AfterTheEnd [=/=] AndManGrewProud: Turns out to be 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''.

* RealityEnsues: Genki's excitement at being pulled into the monster world doesn't go over well with Holly and Suezo when he acts dismissive of the very real threat Moo poses. He gets a further wake-up call upon seeing the effects of Moo's actions firsthand.

The show managed to run for three seasons, two of which aired stateside on syndication, Fox Kids and 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 (''Pokémon'', ''Digimon'') in that the human protagonists were not afraid to battle alongside the monsters.

* 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 DangerouslyGenreSavvy enough to see through it.