I used to freakin’ love Monster Rancher as a kid. Well, the games anyway. I’ve played hours upon hours of Monster Rancher 2 and 4 (I loved the original, too, but those two I played the most), and if I can ever figure out the best way to approach it I’d love to do a Let’s Play one of them at some point.

Being such a fan of the games, I of course watched the anime when it aired on Fox Kids (I was watching most of the Fox Kids lineup at that time, in fact). While I was never as big a fan of the anime, I still enjoyed it at the time and am nostalgic for it now. Like most shows I liked back then, though, I’ve come to discover that the main character is a pretty cute shota. =^_^=

Featured with him here is Tiger, a monster in the game who was represented as part of the main party in the anime. I always thought the name “Tiger” was weird for a monster clearly modeled after a wolf, but I think it comes from a mis-translation of “Liger” (the original Japanese name was “Rygar”). While these monster don’t really look like ligers, their design in the very first game was a bit more like a liger than a wolf. I’m no expert, though, and am only making guesses. All this talk of ligers is making me want to revisit Zoids, though, which is another show I’m nostalgic for.

I don’t know when, but I would love to do more Monster Rancher in the future. Both the anime and the games have a lot of potential. Back when the blog was starting I tried to do a pack of pics featuring every girl in MR4, but that fell through and now they’re too embarrassing a quality to even consider finishing. Still, though, there are some really cute characters in that game, including one femme-boy named Talt that is just adorable.