The 1990s were formative years for monster-collecting anime, especially for popular games and toys like Pokémon and Digimon adaptations, but also for more obscure stories like Monster Rancher. However, while other niche series have come and gone, like Yokai Watch with its share of multimedia franchises, Monster Rancher trod similar ground to some of the decade's most beloved kid-friendly anime. Monster Rancher is occasionally forgotten, but for kids growing up watching Fox Kids and YTV, it was a Saturday morning fixture and a monster-collecting isekai anime way before the trend overtook the medium.

Monster Rancher is the adaptation of the Tecmo video game series. It first launched in 1997, featuring many popular creature designs, but felt like a favorable cross between the Pokémon and Digimon anime, the latter being released one month prior. It follows Genki, a ionate Monster Rancher video game fan who wishes to live in the game world. Thanks to a test copy of the latest release, Monster 200X, Genki is sent to Pangaea, effectively a world where monsters from the game roam freely, thus emerging as an early isekai anime.

Monster Rancher Was the Monster Collecting Isekai Anime You Didn’t Know You Needed

Years Before the Isekai Anime Trend Swept the Medium

While isekai anime is more popular than ever in the present, with Sword Art Online often credited as the main anime to trigger the sensation, both Digimon and Monster Rancher embodied the trend before it was coined. With Genki being sent to another world with seemingly no way out, inspired by his favorite game series, he begins a fantasy adventure far removed from his mundane childhood in the real world until his inevitable return. With the source material being a PlayStation 1 monster breeding game that was not only well-received but a nostalgic favorite, 90s kids resonated with Genki's adventures.

The term isekai is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the following:

"A Japanese science or fantasy fiction genre featuring a protagonist who is transported to or reincarnated in a different, strange, or unfamiliar world."

Genki quickly makes friends in this world, including Holly, a human character from the games, Monster Rancher mascot Suezo, and other monsters like Mocchi, Golem, Tiger, and Hare. Each character bonds separately with Genki while he familiarizes himself with the world, endears himself to his new monster friends, and embarks on a quest to save this other world. Unlike in Digimon, whose main characters are evenly split between residents of Earth and the Digital World, Monster Rancher's isekai premise has Genki as the lone human visitor to this world as he slowly embraces his place there.

Monster Rancher is, by and large, a wholesome isekai anime, with Genki becoming increasingly inseparable from the characters he once only saw in video game form. In the other world, he occasionally becomes vexed or intimidated by them but bonds beautifully and makes friends with these characters individually, such as deciding against leaving the adorable Mocchi behind in episode #2 or witnessing the gentle Golem's heart of gold in episode #3. It's not until a momentary return to Earth that Genki realizes that life in the real world isn't the same.

Monster Rancher Offered A Different Take On The 1990s Monster Anime Boom Pokémon & Digimon Popularized

Cut from the Same Digital Cloth

Monster Rancher may not nearly be as popular as Pokémon or Digimon, having neither the game sales of Pokémon nor the continuous stream of spinoff anime like Digimon; it was a self-contained monster anime in its own right. The original Monster Rancher video games arguably have aged better, with the beloved original two games getting an HD remaster in 2021 as a testament to the critical reception and fan adoration for its addictive monster-breeding gameplay. As an adaptation of a video game, Monster Rancher is inherently similar to Pokémon's Game Boy titles or Digimon's virtual pet toys.

However, Monster Rancher was also a unique blend of the appeals of each adaptation. This includes the central protagonist, Genki, mirroring Ash Ketchum (or Satoshi), bonding with his expanding team of monster companions, or his sudden isekai adventure resembling the DigiDestined landing in the Digital World. Despite similarities like these, which indicate that the series could be considered a derivative of either, Monster Rancher has different appeals that help it stand out.

While simplistic, Monster Rancher's plot largely stays focused on stopping Moo's tyranny over the world, embarking on a quest to revive the Phoenix while unearthing mysteries, including Moo's connection to a certain key character. Unlike Digimon, which escalates to newer, stronger threats, Moo stays the main antagonist, awakening the darkness in other monsters not unlike Myotismon or Devimon. Unlike Pokémon, Moo is easier to take more seriously (other than his name) than, say, Team Rocket. It was not until the excellent Digimon Tamers that other monster anime plots began to resemble Monster Rancher's.

How Well Has Monster Rancher Aged Compared To Pokémon & Digimon?

How Does the Tecmo x TMS Entertainment Collaboration Stack Up?

Monster Rancher's 1999 anime has surprisingly strong animation and action, which, upon review, feels like it often has greater fluidity than the early Pokemon and Digimon anime. None of the three are particularly exemplary anime in of visual fidelity, and they all have awkward English dubs, but Monster Rancher is surprisingly entertaining to revisit decades later as a kid-friendly anime.

However, with an entire run of 73 episodes of Monster Rancher stacked against hundreds of episodes of Digimon with heated debates about which series is best, and over a thousand episodes of Pokemon, Monster Rancher retains a smaller presence.

One fascinating note about the Monster Rancher games is that players could generate monsters in the game using metadata from readable CDs, including music CDs. This added a surprising fun factor for players of the original games depending on their music and game libraries.

Interestingly, Monster Rancher's video game franchise is favorably looked upon, attaining a better critical appraisal for its earliest work than Digimon games while still falling short of Pokémon. Monster Rancher is thus fairly established as a cult classic video game franchise with a well-liked anime adaptation that often feels better to watch than competing series while airing simultaneously.