Anime: Monster Farm: Enbanseki no Himitsu

STORY SECTION: 5/10 [Is this the DigiWorld?]
This is in a nutshell a simpler Digimon variant. A boy and a girl are transported to a monster land, where they must find a way to return home. Along the way, they befriend and liberate monsters, learn and mature through their adventures and face the evil demon that tyranises this world. And that is pretty much all there is.

In case you have watched any Digimon seasons, you will know what to expect. Simple adventures, moral messages, coming-of-age talking and other silly themes. So, ok, at some times the series gets more violent or scary than Digimon. And there are some plot twists concerning the origin of the monsters and the identity of the arch-villain that do spice things up. But that happens only at a few points and it is not enough to improve the whole childish concept of the story.

ANIMATION SECTION: 6/10 [Hey, look! More species of Pokemon!]
Cute and clear but nothing great, appealing to the eye animation but without any artistic value. All character figures and objects don’t have much detail on them, the colors are vivid and generally bright, with too much lightning / shadowing antithesis. The monsters are as weird looking as most Digimons are. You know; an animal or object with a weird trinket to make it look bizarre. I must say, some of them look too spooky or ugly, even for kiddie standarts and thus I find them less appealing to the eye that their counterparts. Special effects such as energy beams and explosions are also too simple to the point they become boring to keep watching. The world is also rather empty and full of ruins so you are not made to think it is bursting with life or anything.

SOUND SECTION: 6/10 [Pokemon! Got to catch them all!]
Don’t expect any great voice acting or marvelous music themes. Kiddy voices, funny sounding monsters and cheery music themes are all you get. Enough to keep an 8 year-old focused but quite lame for teenagers and above.

CHARACTER SECTION: 5/10 [Is that Ash and Misty?]
We have your typical immature, hyped boy in red, acompanied by your typical gentle and serious girl, aided by some comic relief monsters. And a generic Big Bad chasing them. And some other one-episode monsters and characters teaching them or chalenging their moral beliefs. And… Well, that’s probably all. Not original, but colorful and kinda developed in the end.

VALUE & ENJOYMENT SECTION: 1/10 [When is the “list of monsters I have to catch” going to end?]
Not original or interesting in the long run. It won’t keep any seasoned viewer glued and newcomers in Anime will most likely turn to “that other show”.

VERDICT: 4/10
Better leave alone these critters in their Pokeballs… I mean, ancient tablets!