In 2, Poritoka, a White Suezo who appears in the Legend Cup in odd-numbered years (Most, a White Mocchi, appears in even-numbered years). Downplayed in that Poritoka is still a rather challenging boss to fight against as appropriate for its rank, but its stats aren't as formidable as Most's; only two of its stats, Intelligence and Skill, are of heart-stoppingly high levels. The rest of its other stats have numbers that are in the 500s range, which means it is relatively easy for players to defeat it with a sufficiently trained monster of comparable stats at this stage and win the match in order to have your monster earn a place in the Monster Hall of Fame. The trick here is to avoid its intelligence-based techs and force it to use its physical power-based techs on your monster by way of watching your movement when you control your monster; just don't get too close or your opponent will forcefully push you back, which will give it time to select its more dangerous techs.
Leo, a purebred Durahan you get to face in the invitational tournament in A rank after obtaining a special item in the Parepare expedition. Unlike Loveless, who is That One Boss in one of the Major 4, it has stats that are lower than its intended rank as its numbers are more comparable to that of a B rank monster. This makes it a relatively easy boss to defeat as you will be able to win the prize without putting up a lot of effort to get it, which is a special combining item used to make a Durahan.
Breather Boss: Depending on which version of Monster Rancher you're playing, Pixies, Plants, Hoppers, Tigers, or Hares, who are fairly fragile, can be a chance to get an easy win before fighting Golems, Jokers, Dragons, Durahans (except for the particular one in the invitational tournament in 2), or Gaboos, who tend to have high LIF and hit extremely hard.
Broken Base: What is the best game in the series? It is overall a four way divide between 2, 3, 4, and Advance 2.
Complacent Gaming Syndrome: 4 has 22 different types of food for your monsters, but most players will only bother feeding their monsters watermelon as it's relatively affordable, recovers a lot of hunger and stress, and adds very little form. If a monster doesn't like watermelon melons are an alternative, they have the same cost, satiation, and stress relief but add a bit more weight. The only other food worth buying are vitamins for weight loss, and potatoes in the early game because they're cheap and filling.
Contested Sequel: 4 is possibly one of the most polarizing games in the series, with one half considering one of, if not, the best game in the series and the other considering it deeply flawed at best, though nowhere near as disliked as Evo. Fans of the game cite the ability to raise more than one monster, customizing your ranch, faster-paced gameplay, and a great roster. The detractors cite poor balance, especially when it comes to countering, overall low difficulty, monsters not showing much personality, too much focus on story instead of letting you be yourself like in previous games, and just being way too different from the previous games overall. The adventuring feature in itself is also very polarizing, with one side finding it to be a highlight of the game and far more engaging and less frustrating than the expeditions in previous games, while the other finds it to be repetitive and that it overtakes the rest of the game.
Many monsters that only appeared once or twice are popular, but Worms seem to have the biggest following among the fanbase, from their appealing design and nature to their ability to evolve into Beaklon if raised properly. A Worm being featured in an early anime episode likely helped its popularity.
Hares are also well liked and tend to top popularity polls in Japan.
Even Better Sequel: 2, Advance 2, and 4 are considered the best games by the fans.
Unlike every other game, 1 allows you to use multiple items on monsters per week, including the Golden and Silver Peaches. As long as you have enough cash and keep exploring, you can raise a monster that will never get tired, stressed, or old, letting you easily max out its stats.
While monsters in 1 are generally hideously overpowered, two particular monsters stand out as far and away the best monster in the game: Plant with Pixie sub-breed and Pixie with Tiger sub-breed. Guts rate for monsters in the first game are programmed individually, instead of being the average of sorts between the main and sub-breed of the monster. Plant/Pixie and Pixie/Tiger both shares the distinction of having the fastest guts rate in the game and extreme withering on Monster Rancher 1's version of Toxic Nectar, Toxic Pollen, Drain, and Kiss. Toxic Nectar is a 21 Guts B hit rate move with B withering, while Toxic Pollen is a 24 Guts A hit rate move with A withering. Drain is a 50 guts move with B hit rate, B damage rating, and S withering. Kiss is an S withering with D hit rate but between its 20 guts cost, and Pixie/Tiger's guts rate it was heavily spammable. All of these are made worse by the fact that in 1, guts correction as a mechanic haven't been implemented yet so there's no downside at all towards having faster guts rate. The result of this is massive nerfing towards Plant and Pixie in the second game, the most notable one being Kiss now didn't deal damage at all stopping Pixies from being able to use it exclusively for the entire match and the introduction of guts correction mechanic and the standardization of guts rate calculation are implemented to avoid the same mistake. Queen Plant's status as a massive Game-Breaker in 1 was then referenced in 2's card entry where it is said to be considered as the strongest monster in the FIMBA area.
Blue Kato is the go-to mon for speedrunners in 2 thanks to its long lifespan, the Twister Claw tech, and good stat gains in INT, SPD, and SKI.
While the battles in the Monster Rancher games are percentage-based, at their maximum potential, Metalner, Golem, and Naga are considered some of the most standout breeds in 2:
Metalner has the fastest guts rate in the game at a staggering 5 guts per second. Unlike most breeds with similarly fast guts rate, Metalner's techniques are extremely good and most of them have above average withering regardless of type. The most notable being Straight, a short-to-middle range Power technique with 18 guts cost that is fairly accurate and always withers for at least 10 guts. Straight also has a surprisingly high critical hit rate to compensate for its low damage rating of D. Its animation time is extremely fast and when combined with Metalner's ridiculously quick guts regeneration, several breeds with slower guts rate can get completely locked out from attacking if they are unable to dodge the Straight spam. Metalner backs this up with several powerful techniques in its arsenal, such as UFO attack, an inaccurate Power tech with S force rating and 30 guts cost which Metalner can use every 6 seconds to suddenly finish off their opponent when it hits, Back Charge, a close range tech costing 28 guts that does a little bit of everything a little too well with its obscene critical hit chance, Burning Palm, a good disposition Power Tech costing 50 guts that deals very heavy general damage with a decent critical hit chance and withering rate that is only balanced out by requiring 350 Power points to unlock, and for evil/bad disposition Metalners, Metalner Ray, a long range Intelligence tech that not only is the coolest looking technique in its arsenal, but deals obscene withering damage with above average critical hit chance even against opposing monsters with good guts regeneration rate, more so if you manage to get your Metalner's Intelligence points up to par, though it is balanced out by costing 50 guts points to use and requiring 350 Intelligence points to unlock. The only downsides with Metalners are their horrible starting stats once you begin training one of them, fairly mediocre stats growth outside of their obscenely high Skill and Defense gains, and their relatively average lifespans which is irrelevant if they are trained well. This breed is so good when raised to its best potential that it's telling that there are no computer-controlled Metalner opponents in the game to encounter in battle because otherwise they can very easily be That One Boss if they were ever featured.
Golems are designed under the idea that their techniques are mostly inaccurate, including their Hit techniques, they move slowly, and their Guts Rate are very slow, but to compensate for it, Golem's techniques are by far the most obscene in the game. The smaller moves of Golem have obscene guts-to-force ratio which means while it's not too much of a big deal if it missed, it's absolutely devastating to get hit by them; even their most basic moves such as Punch and Kick deal heavy general damage. The more expensive moves in Golem's arsenal offers so much force that getting hit by them can result in a One-Hit Kill even with max defense and power, which allows them to steal a match out of nowhere; notably Cyclone is one of the most powerful techniques in the game and Roll Assault, while noticeably more inaccurate than Cyclone, had a noticeable boost towards withering while still being obscenely strong. In particular, Brow Hit is an absolutely ridiculous move, despite being an 18 guts cost Sharp technique, its guts-to-force ratio is on par with the highest caliber of heavy class techniques in the game, it has high critical hit rate, acceptable withering, and is much more accurate for a move with that much power behind it. As with most breeds in the game, Golem's obscene techniques are meant to be balanced by its natural parameter as well as its natural aversion to battles (which gives it lower stats growth rate after entering a tournament), but several sub-breed choices for Golem offers it much higher guts rate, and accuracy which heavily undermines the intended weakness of the breed.
Nagas are what happened when you take the idea of Boring, but Practical too far. Excluding their basic moves they have from the get go, Nagas only have 4 moves of each side of the offensive stats with only 2 of even having cost higher than 30, and none of its moves have a force rating higher than B. On the flipside, Naga's heavy hitting moves have a guts-to-force ratio that rivals Golem, their more accurate moves come out really fast and ridiculously cheap, which made it possible for them to take advantage of the secondary attributes of those moves. Even Roll Assault, Naga's biggest power technique only costs 45 guts, but it's fairly strong, accurate, and hard to retaliate on hit since it also carried a decently high withering rate. Similar to Golems, Nagas can use their heavy moves and Roll Assault to secure an early lead, but thanks to moves such as Stab, Nagas can finish off the opponent fairly reliably. What make this particularly ridiculous is the fact that unlike most other heavy hitters with similar power level, Naga has a rather fast guts regeneration rate for its size. Some of Naga's sub-breeds have an even faster guts rate than any possible sub-breed, and the unique Naga sub-breed Time Noise has an insanely fast guts rate that is comparable to Hopper (another monster breed with a guts rate that only loses out to Metalner and, barely, Pixie). Nagas also excels in terms of ease of raising, as they have a straightforward stats growth pattern, with high power, skill, and average life and defense which compensates for their terrible attitude and low lifespan. Their natural affinity for battles also gives them a higher stats growth rate compared to other monsters after entering a tournament.
In 2, once Troron is unlocked in the shop, the process of raising power-type monsters up went way faster. Troron allows you to trade off 6 weeks of potential lifespan for +10 Power and +5 Skill after every successful drill for a month giving it a net gain of 40 Power and 20 Skill for every usage. Lifespan increase and lifespan reduction works by moving the monster forwards and backwards on their full lifespan duration, and the monster lifestage is decided based on their remaining lifespan relative to their base lifespan duration. In essence, using Troron during early stages of a monster life allows you to skip the weaker baby stages to quickly reach the first growth point while gaining a lot of extra stats in the process, potentially saving up a lot of money that would probably be spent feeding the monsters had they were raised normally which is especially notable on monster with VERY long baby stages. The expedition-only Paradoxine is even more obscene, offering +30 Power, +30 Skill, -10 Defense, and -10 Speed for every successful drill for 18 weeks of lifespan giving a massive 120 Power and Skill boost per every usage.
Combining. With the right combination formula, and proper knowledge you can produce a ridiculously powerful newborn monster and combining the training aptitude of 2 different monsters can produce a pretty satisfying result, not to mention it also alters lifespan, lifetype, and guts regeneration rate giving a lot of customization possibility.
Speed and Accuracy were condensed into a single stat in 3. Monsters with high gains in Speed suddenly became nigh-on invincible beasts who can constantly assault the opponent with attacks that nearly always hit, resulting in fast and one-sided matches that usually result in KOs. And monsters who otherwise have high-risk, high-reward attacks that rarely hit could become One-Hit KOmachines simply by training them in Speed. Speed and Accuracy were returned to their normal, separate stats in all later games, presumably because of how broken this was.
Counters in 4, which give Mighty Glacier monsters an unfair advantage since the damage received when failing a counter with those kinds of monsters is negligible but can finish a battle when successful, but has high risk and does little damage when successfully used by Fragile Speedsters.
In the DS game, drills are ludicrously broken, with every map having a Super Drill layout depending on the season that has copious amounts of Roll 2 squares. With a big of luck, you could give your monster over 300 points in a stat, or even max out, in a single month of drills.
A double whammy of a bug in Monster Rancher Advance 2. If you save, turn off the game, and turn it back on quickly, your monster will recover some Fatigue and Stress—meaning that doing this repeatedly means your monster will never get tired! The only problem? In a cosmic No Fair Cheating moment, this is due to a memory-clearing glitch that, if repeatedly exploited, results in your actual physical game cartridge breaking so that it no longer saves games properly. Ouch!
In Monster Rancher DS, combining a monster's main type with the ??? subtype of an -Ish monster will get you a unique sub-breed of whatever the main monster was. This actually isn't meant to happen, as it was intended that -Ish monsters could only be combined using their main types. But as you can guess, it's a pretty awesome exploit.
Monster Rancher 2 has the Swim Bug in the NTSC version of the game. The Swim drill calculates the stats gains from Life instead of the actual defense stats. Thanks to this, Fragile Speedsters like Centaurs and Jokers become FAR more durable, while the high Life-point ones such as Gaboo become Lightning Bruisers. Sadly, this ruins the defensive capability of the Stone Wall Arrowheads and the Mighty Glacier Golems.
The Japanese version of 2 has the Fairy Hare glitch. The Fairy Hare's Guts regeneration rate was actually twelve times greater than intended, allowing it to reach maximum Guts in a few seconds.
"Durahan" is an example of Japanese Ranguage, but calling the monster "Dullahan" (after the actual mythological creature it's based on) would just feel... wrong. Similarly, the Hare/Pancho cross has been called "Jackoranta" since its first appearance, even if that has the same problem.
The word "Errantry" does not mean what it's supposed to mean in-series—it means "acting like a knight-errant," not "going on an adventure"—but like other things, it's stuck.
The description for the Radial Niton, a special Niton that looks like a red racecar, states, "It is said there was a play called "Cars" in the ancient era." That was from Monster Rancher 2, released in 1999.
Ultrarl in 2 was at first a normal case of Ultraman Copy. And years later... the game collaborates with the whole Ultraman series into Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher, where you raise Kaijus that was usually fought by Ultramen.
Just Here for Godzilla: Some people only played this game to see what kind of monsters their CD or DVD collection would generate.
Memetic Badass: Sumopion, a ??? Arrowhead in 2 that resembles a sumo wrestler, has been revered as a deity on the Monster Rancher Discord primarily for its odd appearance and constant smile.
Gaboos as a species built up a reputation as the face of That One Boss trope throughout the ranks of 2. In particular Oakleyman from Rank E are the infamous noobslayer
Narm: Depressing as it can be, the death animations of some monsters are just a bit over the top, particularly in the first game. Doodle crumples into a floating, squiggly dish, Kato jumps into the air and melts into a puddle of oil, Ghost pops like a balloon, and Gaboo strikes a pose in its last breath, for example. Metalner, although it doesn't exactly die, does a silly dance before zipping off at the speed of light into the horizon.
Quicksand Box: Part of what makes the first two games Nintendo Hard. There is a lot that can be done even early on and it can be really overwhelming to know what to do, from how to properly train your monster to how to get resources, and the game offers very little in advice. The stronger focus on story starting in 3 did help alleviate this with more linearity and better explaining how things work.
1 has a mechanic where no unlockable breeds except ??? monsters are available from CD, meaning you'll have to recollect the combination items or get those specific CDs if you want to breed that monster beyond the first type you get. This mechanic was thankfully changed in subsequent games.
Foolery and its equivalents are periods where, if your monster's loyalty is low, your monster cannot attack or gain Guts while your opponent's hit percentages skyrocket. On the plus side, this can also happen to your opponents, but this usually only happens in the lower ranks.
4's counter system greatly reduces the potential of Fragile Speedster monsters, as one countered player move can end the entire match, while a missed counter guarantees a hit even if the move would have missed. And it never seems to work when you use it.
4's tournaments will almost always have a monster that sweeps the entire tourney, meaning if you lose more than once or to this monster, you'll lose the entire match. You also cannot enter rank-raising cups right away and have to win filler matches in order to qualify, potentially wasting a lot of time.
MR DS changed the save system; no longer can you save and immediately continue, or load your previous save while playing. Now saving means you automatically quit the game. And quitting without saving lowers combining potential drastically.
The expeditions in MR1 are a chance to snag some rare and unique items, but the probability of your monster getting lost while they search ruins is far too high to make it worth the while, and the odds of it happening are the same regardless of their level of training and loyalty. Between this and the fact that opportunities always seem to come up right before official tournaments are held, it's usually best to just keep to your schedule and tell Karn to piss off.
That One Attack: Every attack from a Mighty Glacier or a monster that hits hard (even if it's inaccurate) and bulky enough to take punishment or is fast enough to consistently evade it. The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard seems to run rampant in the series.
Many players cried over Oakleyman's Straight and Ordorf's Acid Spit and deadly Ninja Kick.
That One Boss: More like "that one monster". Especially in the earlier games, certain computer-controlled opponent monsters were noticeably harder than others.
In 2, essentially every Rank had one of these. In S Rank, every single monster is "That One Boss"; even the rank's two statistically weakest monsters, Mahoroty, a Niton/Golem crossbreed, and Aqualine, a Colorpandora/Jell crossbreed, are still challenging enough for players to face. And the Major 4, the Final Bosses of the game, are worse. Take Loveless for example: a purebred Durahan in one of the Major 4 with extremely high stats in every area except speed, making it a ridiculously formidable Mighty Glacier; combined with its extremely damaging techs, pray that it misses once if it ever takes the initiative to attack your monster first and/or hope your own monster has at least some form of withering in its techs to whittle down your opponent's guts to prevent it from retaliating. If not, well, there's always the reset button...
In E rank, where you usually start out, the most dangerous opponent is Oakleyman, a purebred Gaboo. Most Gaboos you fight throughout the game have high Life, Speed, and POW, and Oakleyman is no exception. Oakleyman has Straight, which is a very hard-hitting move at this point, a high Dodge rate, and high HP. And worst of all, his Straight always seems to hit right when it would screw you over the most, making this a really good example of The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard. This makes its a perfect example of a Wake-Up Call Boss.
In D rank, the toughest contender you face is Sleetbomb, a purebred Baku with rather high Life and Power stats. If you're in the same rank, your attacks may hardly affect him if he doesn't Dodge (the rate of which is pretty low). However, if he attacks you just once with his Charge and connects, you will take so much damage that you will be left in no position to catch up. Like the aforementioned Oakleyman, Sleetbomb is the Wake-Up Call Boss of his respective rank but his big size and low speed stats make him more of a Mighty Glacier.
Superboss White Mocchi, Most, has all around high stats and a good move pool. Spamming your strongest low-cost moves is the best strategy for dealing with Most, but those can get neutralized by its high speed stats (unless your own monster has really high skill stats to counter it, which is easier said than done), as well as its unusually high defense numbers.
Wild Monsters like Bighand and the Zilla King, and the invitational tournament opponent to unlock Dragon, have stats far above their rank, with Bighand being on par with the Major Four. The exception is the Durahan in the invitational tournament in A rank, as its stats are more comparable to that of a B rank monster, making it more of an Anti-Climax Boss.
The higher tiers of the IMA vs FIMBA battle in 2. Given to how rare they are and how hard to find the battle itself is, they're not as well known as Oakleyman or Most, but they are possibly one of the most frustrating monsters to fight. All of them have 700-750+ stats, effectively making them Lightning Bruisers. However, one of the more absurdly powerful ones is a Hare/Plant hybrid named Hammed, fought in the S-Rank. Unlike other Hares, it's custom-designed to be a defensive beast, with 800 Defense (second highest stats for this monster, which is remarkably ironic given that its breed has terrible Defense gains) and 991 Intelligence— 8 less from the Cap— effectively making Int-based moves, usually effective against Hares, ineffective thanks to how damage calculation works in this game. Against Hammed, Power-based moves are the way to go, forcing you to fight the exact opposite of the way you would fight a Hare.
The other S-Rank FIMBA monster that is That One Boss is Akirel, statistically the most powerful monster in the game (800+ in all stats save Skill). Unlike Hammed or Most, Akirel has no special tricks: it will simply smash your monster into the ground using its most powerful moves while dodging your counterattacks. Surprisingly, compared to the other IMA vs FIMBA high to top-tier monsters, it's the ONLY one who has a Weaksauce Weakness; it only has its base attack as its range 4 move.
Saza A., the Rank D boss monster in Monster Rancher DS is notoriously difficult. Statistically compared to how your monster is at that time, he's even harder than the rank A boss monsters.
Tough Act to Follow: The second game in the series introduced several new breeds, graphical improvement, a way to export a monster from the first game, and is generally where most of the series Early-Installment Weirdness is ironed out. To date, 2 had the biggest following of every game in the series, and just about every game after it is compared to the standard set by them. It says a lot that one of the most voiced criticism about the newer games is the absence of Ensemble Dark Horse species that either debuts, or made their last significant appearance on 2.
Viewer Pronunciation Confusion: According to their katakana spelling, Gitan is actually pronounced "Ghee-tan", and Lesione is actually pronounced "Less-e-oh-neh". Oakleyman is also meant to be pronounced like "oh clay man", a play on Gaboos being made out of clay.
Vindicated by History: 3 was heavily derided by the fanbase for it's overly cutesy "kiddie" graphics, as well as removing combining and simplifying the mechanics. However, the general opinion on 3 in recent years is much more positive, and is praised for the unique features it introduced that didn't appear in later games, such as rivals that grow with you, accessories, and having more than one area to train in. The game is also fondly remembered by people who were kids when it came out and played it as their first Monster Rancher game.
Adaptation Displacement: The anime is probably better known than the video games. Doesn't help the game is hard or that there hasn't been a console release in years, at least until the first two games got rereleased on Switch in 2019 in Japan and everywhere else two years later on both Switch and PC.
Moo—"Muu" is Japanese for darkness or emptiness—was a Super-Soldier created by an ancient civilization to win a war. However, Moo realized how powerful he was and viewed himself as too good to be a living weapon, destroying all who wouldn't serve him. Feeding off anger and hatred, Moo turned many monsters into his servants before his battle with the Phoenix ended with his soul sealed into a Mystery Disk. Ages later, Holly's father finds the disk in his search to prove the Phoenix's existence, unintentionally freeing Moo, who possesses the man and feeds off his deep rage at being banished. Seeking his real body to resume his conquest, Moo recruits many monsters with anti-human beliefs to aid him, giving them crests that, if removed or destroyed, will kill the wearer. All humans and monster who do not conform to his views are either killed or enslaved. Realizing the Magic Stone can help him find his body, Moo kidnaps Holly, revealing his identity to her to bring her to his side. Along the way, his crimes include corrupting Tiger's brother Gray Wolf; killing his minions for any reason; and the attempted murder of a little girl after reclaiming his true body. When he is seemingly destroyed, Moo's soul was found by General Durahan in a bid to grow more powerful, only for Durahan to become Moo's new unwilling host, already driven insane from all the hatred he absorbed and aiming to destroy the world. Feared and hated by human and monster alike, Moo stood out in this otherwise fun adventure series as a creature of pure evil.
Lilim is General Durahan's right-hand woman and convinces him to betray their master, Moo, and take power for themselves. When first attempting to stop the Searchers and take the Magic Stone, she holds a human baby hostage to force Jagged Hound and Tiger into a fight to the death, then orders it killed once the fight is over. When Jagged Hound seems to emerge victorious, she presents Tiger's Lost Disk to the Searchers and laughs at their despair, then orders them killed, quickly fleeing once it turns out the death was faked and the baby saved. On a later assignment with a Weed to get the Stone, she cruelly wounds him once it's retrieved, then has him gunned down in a display that horrifies the Searchers, who she orders killed in the same way. Lilim soon realizes that Moo is much stronger than Durahan and betrays the General in a bid for more power, killing his frozen soldiers and setting his ship to self-destruct with the Searchers and everyone else onboard.
Cult Classic: While Pokemon and Digimon's anime series continue to this day, Monster Rancher got only three seasons, but is remembered fondly.
Growing the Beard: While season one is still a very enjoyable watch, season two is where a lot of fans noted the writing getting better with the stakes gradually rising, more backstory and character development for the leads, where the majority of the story beats start taking hold and the battles becoming much more life or death for the heroes.
Brian Drummond, who voiced Tiger of the Wind, would latter go on to voice Andrew Waltfeld in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. Waltfeld's nickname? The "Desert Tiger". What do his troops pilot? Four-legged mecha that roughly look like blue tigers.
Moo may seem like an odd name for anyone. However in 2012, one of the strangest names given to newborns was "Moo". In May 2014, "Moo" was listed as the top five oddest baby names in USA Today.
Ho Yay: Tiger and Hare with their constant bickering and tendency to get close when they are pissed off at each other.
Most Wonderful Sound: The little tune that plays every time the Gaia Stone reacts to something and guides Holly.
Must we refer to villainous Mooks as "baddies" in every single context, guys? For the kid protagonists, sure, maybe, but the king of evil probably shouldn't call his own minions "baddies".
In an odd case of Bowdlerization helping, the uncut version of Genki hitting Pixie in the face. The animation for it is unintentionally hilarious.
The theme song refers to "the evil Moo." The Big Bad ends up a lot less intimidating when most American kids associate his name with Old McDonald.
The Brazilian dubbing of the opening song of the anime is bizarre, with the singer singing in the most discouraged way possible.
Shipping: Despite being portrayed only as best friends and never showing any love interest for each other, Genki and Holly are shipped by many fans. Obviously, it helps that they are the only human characters among the main cast and also because they are the same age. In addition, some fans find it revealing that the last scene of the series finale shows precisely Genki in the company of Holly and her father...
So Okay, It's Average: Season three to a few. While nowhere near the quality of the first two seasons, it still does a good job of carrying the tone of the series and the threat of Muu returning actually does present a nice backdrop danger and urgency to the Searchers to get their gear back before the villains get the Black Mystery Disk from them, even if the villains aren't as efficient and big as before. Plus some did like that the less serious tone, the slower pacing allowing for some good character development episodes of the heroes and that the show was going for closure on a few of the characters who did deserve a happier ending than season two's more abrupt bittersweet one.
Unintentional Period Piece: Genki is playing his game on a PlayStation 1 expy. In the dub, Genki taunts a robot by claiming "I heard your mother was the Y2K Bug!"
Viewer Gender Confusion: Mocchi. Let's face it, being cute, pink, and voiced by a voice actress confuses the issue.
Woolseyism: Sometimes the dub's edits worked in its favor.
In Tiger's battle with Grey Wolf, for example, the English dub added effectiveness by cutting out some of the battle with the Cabalos, devoting time to a flashback of the brothers' time as pups.
Pixie's torturing of Mickey in the uncut episode 10 clashed with the Searchers forgiving her so quickly and with her later characterization. While the uncut version gave Genki a more justified reason to punch her, punching her just for breaking a promise was believable given his childish nature, as well as his later statement that it was wrong to hit her over it.
"Eternal Worm", in the Japanese version, had Allan watch the heroes attack the Seed Sisters for about a minute after they killed his Worm before joining the fray. The English version had him jump in more quickly, which makes more logical sense.
Moo's tormenting of the heroes in "Tears". The uncut version has him shocking Pixie many, many times, with the final time being enough to get them all to hate him. While the dub cuts out him hacking off her wings beforehand, him taunting the heroes to get a rise out of them explains why Tiger was able to snap Big Blue out of it at first—and shocking Pixie afterwards was enough to push them over the edge.
In another case of Bowdlerization making things more intense, Moo's beam attacks against the Dragon army. They're clearly hit, and in the uncut version they spiral to the ground like airplanes. By removing that, the dub implies they were vaporized on contact. Given Moo's an Expy of Godzilla, including the nuclear weapons metaphor, it works quite well.
Outside the anime, there's a franchise-wide example in the name of the monster Colorpandora (or ColorPandora or Color Pandora), originally known in Japan as Koropendora. The Japanese name is thought to be a truncation of "Sukoropendora", aka Scolopendra, the real-life giant centipede, reflecting the centipede-like shape of the monster's original body configuration in 2. But if you're used to English phonology instead of Japanese, the meaning of "Koropendora" is hard to recover from what looks like an inscrutable series of syllables, so it's unsurprising that 2's localization team took a wild guess and ended up at "ColorPandora" instead. The name kind of works, though, especially for the monster in its later, non-centipede-like incarnations: "Color" suits its colorful appearance, with each bug's nose having a different vivid hue, and "Pandora" calls to mind Pandora's box, which works with the boxy shape of the bugs. So this mistranslation has become a fixture in most English localizations.
on larger monsters.