Review by TheChoujinVirus
Note: This is part 2 of a review on the Monster Rancher anime, to see part 1, please click here. As before, there are spoilers, so you’ve been warned
Hello, it’s ya boy Choujin
Welcome to part two of my review of the Monster Rancher anime. This time we’ll be focusing on episodes 16-30. If you want a recap of the last events and a brief explanation of the Monster Rancher series, I would suggest you click on the link here to catch up. Other than that, let’s continue our adventure.
To recap from the last episode, our heroes have enlisted the help of Captain Horn and his crew of Rockies to help them cross the sea in order to find the Phoenix before Moo can find his body. Suezo complains about why the group has to do work as passengers on Horn’s ship. Horn reassures them that he’s an honorable pirate (despite Suezo’s hatred for the pirate captain.) Meanwhile, below the sea, Gali orders his troop of whale monsters called Zillas and their leader Gooji. The blue whale monster is ecstatic to fight his old foe, Captain Horn, again.Back on Horn’s ship, Horn finds that Golem is shirking his work, despite Golem’s pleas that he hates the water. The pirate crew decides that in order to “face his fears,” they throw him overboard. However, they realize that Golem is afraid of water not because he’s afraid of water, but because he’s a giant rock monster and thus cannot swim. With Genki’s help, they get Golem back aboard Horn’s ship. During Dinner, Holly visits Golem and discusses how much has changed since they all started their adventure. Holly doubts herself in thinking they may never be able to find the Phoenix as the land they’re visiting is entirely new to her and that there are rumors that Moo’s influence is greater there. Golem reassures Holly that as long as they work as a team, they’ll be able to find the Phoenix. However, just as the peaceful night was going so smoothly, the group is ambushed by Gooji and his Zilla troops. The group managed to repel Gooji’s Zillas, which angers the monstrous Gooji as he decides to take care of our heroes himself. Gooji captures Holly and threatens the rest of them, which causes Golem to snap out of his fear of water in order to repel the giant whale. Horn orders his Rockies to tie up Gooji and dispose of him in a giant whirlpool for good. Gooji tries to take our heroes down with him, but again, Golem intervenes and knocks the whale into the depths once and for all (Though not without Golem returning back to his post upon realizing he’s still near open water). Horn delivers our group of heroes to the new land. The Group thanks Horn for helping, and Horn returns the thanks by giving them a map of the new land.
Though their new journey is not without new perils besides Gooji and his Zilla troops, Gali dispatches his deadly illusionist Joker to ambush the heroes. Our heroes now have to find a way to get over a massive cliff, which leads to Tiger and Hare arguing. Moochi discovers a cave buried behind rubble, and our group now has a practical way through the cave. However, the darkness also hides Gali’s Joker. A cave in and some bats later cause them to return back to their new area. However, they discover some new paths that the cave in created. Tiger takes this chance to accuse Hare of trying to find a quick lazy fix that hurts everyone and outright accuses him of caring more about money than friendships. Hare snaps and accuses Tiger of being a hypocrite (as he brings up Tiger’s past about being a Bandit). The group then falls into Joker’s trap as they’re now searching for Hare, who promptly ran into the caves after his fight. Joker makes his move and gives Genki and his friends a run for their money with his ability to create illusions. This causes them to succumb to illusions like fighting Moo, peaceful fields, open water, falling daggers, and chains. Though just before Joker can deliver the killing blow, Hare returns and saves the group from Joker. During the fight, Hare learns a new move known as Dragon Kick. With that, he dispatches Joker, and the group escapes the cave.
Along the journey, they managed to run into a new face as they explore the ruins of an abandoned city. This guy’s name is Hengar and was one of the monsters referenced in Monol’s story. He aids them from other Hengars that viewed the heroes as a threat to the ancient city that they maintained for so long. It’s humorous as the group (save for Genki and Hare) is puzzled over some of the technology used (such as a vending machine). Though with Hengar’s help, they managed to not only survive the ordeal but managed to reacquire the Magic Stone that was dropped when they fled the other Hengar. It’s a pretty sad ordeal as Hengar learned that the Ancient’s war was over, and as he tried to explain to his other brethren, they replied by blasting him to pieces. They also learn of the Hengar’s boss known as Techno Dragon and how he controls all the Hengars (save for our companion’s Hengar).
After leaving the city and saying good-bye to Hengar, the group finds themselves pursued by Gali’s Dokoos. Throughout this battle, Hare calls out that Suezo has no actual talents of combat (despite Suezo’s protest that he can fight.) The group has to deal with not just the rubbery monsters, but Suezo’s existential crisis on how he couldn’t defeat them. Genki tries to help Suezo discover this journey, but it takes one major crisis for Suezo to discover his Teleport ability.
Along their journey, Genki and company run into Pixie and Big Blue again, this time now an enemy of Moo and fighting on the side of good. When she and Genki are separated from the group, they are able to work together and defeat the Scaled Jells attacking them, all while learning that Moo has started an excavation in the north of the continent, hinting that he found his old body.
With Gali defeated, Moo’s Big Bad Four is now down to only two: Grey Wolf and Naga. Grey Wolf gets news of Gali’s defeat from a Cabalos. Grey Wolf views this as a worthy hunt, as he gives orders to his Black Worm troops to attack the group. The group gets ambushed by one of them, and by capturing one of them, they learn that Grey Wolf is one of the remaining Big Bad Four (which shocks Tiger). Though in the ambush, Holly is poisoned by one of the Black Worms. Tiger goes and finds the antidote while defeating the Black Worm’s Captain. They are able to save Holly and continue on.
The group later runs into Mocks and their leader Ebony as they are captured. Though Mocchi escapes and runs into a strange monster named Ducken, who guides Mocchi out of his home as he’s afraid they’ll find him. Mocchi, with some pressuring on Ducken, heads to the Mock’s camp to rescue his friends as he disguises himself as a Mock. Though the operation is a bust, Mocchi runs back to Ducken and finds a bright idea of using Ducken’s tunnels to fight. It’s in this argument that Ducken was too scared to fight against the Mocks and Ebony. Mocchi reassures him, and Ducken agrees to let Mocchi use the tunnels, and with his help, Mocchi is able to defeat the Mocks and rescue his friends. Also, Ducken learns the importance of friendship.
Later on, they learn that some monsters aren’t naturally evil and either learned the error of their ways. Such monsters such as Undine, a mermaid monster Golem, falls in love and, in her chaos, kills herself when she realized that Golem believes that she’s still good regardless of her affinity. The others happen to be three monsters Centaur, Celios, and Dragoon. Three Monsters who work for Grey Wolf but have a code of honor who at first want to capture the group and later aid them when a group of Salamanders tries to steal their thunder. Lastly, they run into an abandoned factory where they must deal with a robotic insect called Melcarba, who, just like Hengar was created long ago and created with a purpose that was wasted.
Throughout the ordeal, they eventually take the fight to Grey Wolf. For Tiger, this makes it extremely hard as this Baddie is his own brother. Before the battle, Tiger has a dream when he taught his brother how to be strong. By the next morning, after the Pendant is found, they are greeted by one of Grey Wolf’s Cabalos, declaring that his boss demands Tiger to fight him in a one and one fight. Tiger departs to fight his brother while Genki and the rest follow behind him, fearing that their friend may be walking into a trap. Tiger gets flashbacks of the event that led to Grey Wolf being captured by Moo until he arrives at the dueling ground. The two of them exchange quips as Grey Wolf calls Tiger a coward while Tiger tells his brother that he’s been lied to. They both fight as Grey Wolf gives Tiger an ultimatum: Join Moo’s forces. Tiger turns it down, which led Grey Wolf to cheat with his Cabalos soldiers. Genki and his friends intervene, leaving Tiger and Grey Wolf in a one and one battle. The two wolves equally matched until Grey Wolf uses his tail to blind Tiger (a trick Tiger taught his brother). However, Tiger managed to pull one last trick against Grey Wolf. He used his horns to gore his brother though his Crest. Grey Wolf learns that his brother Tiger still loved him. His last words were that he wished they could go back when they were little. Unfortunately, Grey Wolf dies of his injuries as Tiger howls in mourning. Though they defeated the third of Moo’s Big Bad Four, Tiger lost a brother.
While back at the excavation site, Moo’s forces have discovered their master’s original body.
With news of Grey Wolf’s demise, Naga of the Big Bad Four remains, and our group must continue their travel to find the Phoenix. Throughout their journey they must deal with Naga’s forces. The first one being Stone Dragon. However, they managed to get help from the odd caterpillar named Color Pandora. It’s revealed that Stone Dragon’s been kidnapping the Color Pandora’s children, hence why they resorted to using traps. Another ally they meet is a Ferry Captain named Jim and his companion Eared Mew. They help him deal with Naga’s dangerous Arrowheads. Both of these allies help Genki and company defeat Naga’s threats.
Interestingly, they had one incident where they had to lend aid to two warring monsters. Two tribes of Ape and Rock Ape both started waging war when our heroes awaken a baby monster named Bossy. The group managed to find a solution to where both tribes work together and end their squabbling. Though, as the group is unaware, Moo is marveling over his newly discovered ancient body. Pixie finds this news and heads out to warn Genki and his friends.
The series is impressive and gets a bit dark, especially with the battle between Tiger and Grey Wolf. What I also like about it is that the series does reference past episodes and not forget certain things (Golem’s Aquaphobia and how some episodes have Suezo referencing his attempt at trying to master Teleport). Another thing that I like is how some episodes do hit hard in certain parts. Undine’s Lake actually made you feel sorry for the villainous Undine and how she commits suicide upon realizing Golem’s kindness regardless of if she was on the villain’s side. Another good episode was Tiger’s Battle with Destiny as we get to see a fight between brothers. Some characters also have unusual quirks that make them cute or interesting. Some of them being Hengar, Eared Mew, Captain Jim, and Ducken have some important reasons for their goals (good or bad).
As mentioned in my last review, the Japanese version has some alterations and changes. Though some are an exciting twist (Ducken in the Japanese version is actually female while the dub made him a male.) while others are typical (Changing Gali’s attacks that reference God to his name such as Gali Finale) and some changes are just really odd (Removing a scene that had mud on Pixie’s face). One that gets me scratching my head is how the “Unlock Your Disk” segment refers to Gooji as Zilla Kong.
Another thing that changed was the aforementioned Tiger’s Battle With Destiny. The episode was not aired when the show was on FOX due to a scene involving Tiger impaling Grey Wolf. It’s odd as Undine’s Lake is broadcast as it involves the monster committing suicide. Then again, the episode is still aired, so at least it’s not like Pokemon where some episodes are outright ignored.
With that, that’s part two of my review of Monster Rancher. Wow, already 30 episodes, and we still got plenty of other episodes soon. So see you next time for the next installment.
References
- The playlist of all Episodes of the Monster Rancher anime, hosted by TMS (the distributors of the series) I suggest starting on Episode 16
- IMBD of Monster Rancher
- A description of Episode 27 on the Monster Hunter wiki
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