Does anyone remember Monster Rancher? It used to air on Foxkids (in the UK anyway). In a nutshell, a boy is transported into his video game where he teams up with a girl and a group of 'monsters' on a quest to find the legendary Phoenix and rid the world of Muu (the bad guy).

I thought it was highly successful for a game-based anime directed at children, and criminally underrated. Unfortunately, the show was overshadowed by Digimon, Pokemon and YuGiOh, and was often slandered for being a cheap rip-off thrown together in order to cash in on the "monster anime fad" thriving at the time. This was not the case at all. For one the series had a solid plot.

The creators were bold in that they didn't take the usual route with a game-based anime i.e. tournament after mind-numbingly boring tournament. They opted for a good old quest with the typical seven heroes battling against evil. The characters are strong and grow on you as the series progresses, especially Genki, the main protatonist, who was initially quite obnoxious and hyper-active. Although it was a gen anime directed at kids, it was never patronising or too childish and it certainly had its darker moments.

The english edit was terrible - the slightest drop of blood was airbrushed out - but the voice acting more than made up for it with Brian Drummond (Vegeta, DBZ), Scott McNeil (Piccolo, DBZ) and Andrew Francis (Dilandau, Escaflowne) lending their VA talents to the cast.

I suppose I'm a bit bias. If it weren't for this show I'd never have gotten into anime (not even DBZ!) But it does get to me that such a well-rounded anime didn't enjoy the same popularity in the US as it did in Europe (UK included - it had a big fandom here).

Meh it was ok. Better then Pokemon i suppose. Of the monster based shows i always preferred Digimon more, there was some great character development in that, even if its over moralistic attitude sometimes got preachy

Yeah, Digimon was pretty good. The transformation scenes were dead cheesy but the characters drew me in. And it had a good plot to boot. But I preferred MR because the monsters were their own separate 'person' with fully fleshed out personalities i.e they were more than just a sidekick to their master/trainer, which really set it apart from the other mon shows.

I still get sucked into it today if I watch an episode or two and it first aired, what, five/six years ago? Like I said it also kick-started my interest in anime. After MR came Sailormoon then DBZ ^^;

So what kick-started your anime craze? =)

Id say Digimon. Yes i watched Pokemon before it but never with any great revel. Once better shows entered my life i realised how bad Pokemon could be. Although having said that i didnt know what anime was at the time, so my first *anime* that i knew was an anime was DBZ

I used to watch it sometimes. The only monster I can really remember liking was that one wolf guy with horns. I also remember that one one-eyed yellow monster would almost always yell "GENKI!!" to the main character.

What kicked my interest in anime? Hmm, well, i rememember watching anime as early as Sailor Moon (Sailor Jupiter being my favorite because she wore green.) What ever happened to Sailor Moon???

Then I began watching Pokemon(I still love it today and watch the cartoons^^)

Shortly after Pokemon I got interested into Digimon. About the same time I began to watch Monster Rancher sometimes and then there was this really interesting show called Ronin Warriors.

Now I humbly watch DBZ. But I need to get into more anime......

Okay, right now I'm listening to Celine Dion music and looking at a bunch of pics of Jeice. I'm cucko. <_<

That's Tiger you're thinking about ;) Brian Drummond voiced him. He had a huge fangirl following oddly enough (what is it with characters voiced by Drummond??)

Yes! Another Sailor Moon fan :D That show's so wonderfully cringe-worthy. Actually I just bought the first season. I'm suprised that it's not airing any more, considering it was almost as popular as DBZ. But then, DBZ is off-air too. I can't believe One Piece - the worst dubbed anime in the long sad history of badly dubbed anime - took it's slot on CN/Toonami.

To be honest I really enjoyed the first season of Pokemon, but I stopped watching after they entered the Orange League. It's great for some light watching, but I prefer anime with a real plot and solid characters.

I forgot about Escaflowne. It was on Foxkids too and is another show responsible for my turning into an otaku.

Actually, DBZ is airing here in the USA 11:30 PM Fridays. :D And there is a little stroy behind that.

Somewhere in August before school, i went to the Cartoon Network website and decided to contact their staff. So I wrote a firm letter (but not too firm!) saying that they had better get DBZ back on the air again before they lose precious DBZ fans. Low and behold, not very long after i sent the letter, DBZ was on Fridays at 11:30 PM!

Yeh One Piece dub is terrible, shame as that puts alot of people off, me included at first, and yet its a truly great anime in its true format. They need to put DBZ back on tho, and better still Dragonball which i missed half of. Hell i'll even take GT

Yeah, if I had seen the One Piece dub first I never would have watched it. Is Cartoon Network/Toonami playing a lot of anime at the moment? I haven't had a look in a while. I've heard that CN has bought the rights to air shows from FoxKids (I think Sailor Moon is one of them).

I'm sure DBZ will come back on eventually. We could try giving the UK site an email at least. Btw, how many times did they air the DBZ movies? I missed all of them >:(

They have One Piece, Beyblade and about 20 versions of Pokemon lol. They showed 8 DBZ movies, aswell as the Bardock special, all of them were Bridge dub tho. That was the last sign of any DBZ and that was months back. Think they did some Dragonball movies too.

Goodness, I haven't seen Monster Rancer in ages!

I pretty much forgotten how the main characters looked like there (I only remember how Tiger and Hare looks like there.)

I know, I found some old tapes the other week and was hit by a massive wave of nostalgia. Hehe, Tiger and Hare were my favourite characters ;)

Oh, hold on a sec I did see some of those movies. But I found the dub was so awful I couldn't watch it. I really prefer the original english dub.