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I just finished watching all of Monster Rancher. I will have to treat eps 1-48 as "season 1" and 49-73 as "season 2." This review I will break down into two parts, the scores you see above is overall scores for both seasons.

Season 1
The story was awesome. It was filled with characters that were fleshed out nicely, the overall plot was great with bits of light comedy and dark/tragic moments. The sound and art were pretty decent but nothing too much to shout about. It left me felling pretty good about the whole show.

So for the scores I'd give it: 8, 6, 6, 8, 7, ... 7

Season 2
This season was a let down. They changed the story from having an epic adventure to battling in Monster Rancher tournaments. One can understand the need for the battling but it sucks compared to the first 48 episodes. The story was pretty weak, art and sound didn't change much, the characters were weakened in my opinion, it wasn't as enjoyable and at times I struggled to finish watching episodes in the middle. The ending was also rushed and felt cheap. Not to mention that they left a huge plot hole open.

Scores: 5/6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5/6

I'd recommend episodes 1-48 highly. There characters were great and even though it seems kiddy-ish it really wasn't. There were plenty of dark and depressing moments as well as ones that touched the heart. 49-73 only watch if you have to in order to complete the series. It gives a happier ending but it cheapens the show a lot.

Slayers Next was good in this installment of the Slayers series, OVAs, and movies. I found myself being wrapped up in the story more as it became reviled. While at first it seems like a light comedy it gets darker and darker towards the end satisfying my needs for fun, excitement, action, and drama.

The art was okay for it being from the 90's era. However, I noticed a lot of noise and possibly dust that got stuck when they were taking the frames for the animation so it's not a clean picture. I can't knock on that too much because it's a totally different ... way of animating a show compared to today's standards and computer graphics.

The same can be said for the sound. The dub audio sounded better than what I listened to for the sub. Once again, there is an age and technology factor so I can't complain too much.

The characters were good. Ones that came in for their second roles still kept the same flare that they did last time. The new comers added an interesting twist. Of course there are always the ones that you can't stand but I guess they did their job.

The show kept me going. I wanted to marathon it straight but I didn't have a chance. Still, I enjoyed it a lot and had fun on the ride. I can't wait to see the next installment of the series.

I'd highly recommend the series. It is one of those good classics that every fan should check out.

I bought Nuku Nuku Dash on impulse since the dvds were on sale. This was an okay anime but it was not the best.

One can tell that even though this is set in the future that many of it's influences comes from the 90's era of anime. As expected with that era the animation wasn't always the best. Some source material was reused over and over and it got a little old after the first 3 times.

I spent most of the time watching the dubbed version so the sound wasn't too bad. This is likely since the dub is more recent and technology to ... enhance sound recordings improved since it was first made in Japan. Some of the audio tracks for the opening and ending was a bit fuzzy. The sound effects are dated as well. I can remember some of them used in the old Tenchi OVAs and other shows from the 90s.

The characters were also pretty repetitive. The mom is almost always pissed. The dad is almost always slacking. The son...well he's probably the most dynamic character in the show. The lead, Nuku Nuku, was quite passive. In retrospect I can see why but it was a little let down. Interactions between Nuku Nuku and the son were some of the highlights of the show.

While I may seem a little disappointed, I'm actually not. By the last episode, I got wrapped up in the conflict. The show got darker in content towards the end so it got me into it more. (Well that is until cheesy sound effects killed the mood.) Luckily I've seen enough shows from this production time frame to take it with a grain of salt. It's not the best but it was good for what it was.

If you got some time to kill and don't mind mediocre shows then give it a shot. However, I must warn you that it will take until the halfway mark for the show to pick up. If you are willing to stick with it then you should be able to pass the time and be slightly entertained until something else better comes along.