I just wanted to do one of these that would have a shorter list of entries than the last two posts like this I made(Gali & Pixie) but honestly it still turned out kind of obnoxiously long...
HENGER[ヘンガー] from henge[変化] lit. "Change+" and the held A~syllable is the english -ER, so the name means "Changer" or maybe with a little liberty, "Transformer."
DARK-HENGER[ダークヘンガー] exactly what it looks like. (I like how it repalces the camera eye with a little face)
OMEGA-REX[オメガレックス] Obviously meant to be synonymous with something like "Last Dinosaur" with the Rex referring to the T-Rex, but obviously Rex also just means "king."
GAIER/GAEER[ガイアー] So the English made the fairly reasonable mistake of calling this GAIA but that's actually not how Japanese writes the name of the Greek titan Gaia/Gaea. (they'd write that as just [ガイア]) It's actually how Japanese would approximate the German Geyer(a town in saxony?) or Geier("vuture"). But I'm sure Gaia was meant to be the root word here, so it's probably meant to be more like GAIER as in GAIA-ER, as in "one who Gaias," as a play on the -er suffix of the Henger breed.
PROTO-MESSIER[プロトメサイアー] Another funky localization. The PROTO[プロト] bit seems self evident, which leaves MESAIA~[メサイアー] which, like the Gaia thing, seems to read like Messiah-er. (I'll be honest though, my first instinct was that it was some kind of portmanteau of "Proto(type)" and "Prometheus" as something like Protomethea; but once i looked closer at the phonetics they were clearly all wrong for that.)
MAGNETICS[マグネティックス] straight forward
GALLANT[ガーラント] seems pretty straight forward, "gallant" like a knight because he's sub-type dragon? Although it seems [ギャラント] is a more common way to write that.
HUEY[ヒューイ] I think meant to be a reference to the UH-1 Iroquois helicopter that's got some associations with NASA as a play on this being a sub-type Metalner, although again it's a helicopter and not a spacecraft which feels like maybe a missed opportunity.
END-BRINGER[エンドブリンガー] just what it says
KARAKURI[カラクリ] from karakuri[絡繰り] a kind of traditional Japanese style of mechanical doll/puppet made as curiosities and puppet theatre. Same word can also refer to the kind of mechanical workings used in said dolls, generally. They are of course traditionally made of wood.
SKELETON[スケルトン] Skeleton
Funny enough most of the MR3 Hengar got translated correctly, but I don't quite get what a lot of them are referencing...
METANIX-ROLLER[メタニクス] ???
SKULL-WAVE[スカルウェーブ] Sure pirate, skull, ocean, waves. whatever...
DARK-BRINGER[ダークブリンガー] This one comes back in Monster Farm Online as a non-playble enemy monster, along with a few others, but also shares a model with one called CORNELIA[コーネリア], Dark-Bringer's straight forward, but I've no idea what "Cornelia" is a reference to if anything...
KYUUZA[キューザ] I can't find a coherent meaning in this. All together, it's how the Japanese write out CHIUSA:"Closed/lock" in Italian? It's the name of a few places? It shows up on wine?? But obviously none of those really make sense for a forest robot. The KYUU part could be a kyu[九]: 9? or the kyu[弓]"bow" in kyuudo[弓道]: "(traditional japanese)archery"?? or the English word "Cue," "Queue," "Q"...???? But none of those add up.
As for some of the specials...
AVIONEAA[アヴィオネアー] I dont know what this is... I assume that's another -er as per the henger trend, so if you take it off to try and isolate a root wood... AVIGNONET? So AVIGNONETER, like a person from the Avignonet region of France??? Doesn't add up now matter how I look at it. It does have big wings and what appears to be something like a radar dish in the style of a halo though? But like... that doesn't make any more sense of the name? A weird corruption of Avian+...something? AVIANEER??
VULCAN[ヴァルカン] straight forward enough, refers to the greek god of forge. But oddly a red colored henger with the same name appears in Monster Farm Online and that one is clearly a reference to Char Aznable's Zaku-II custom from the original Mobile Suit Gundam, complete with the commander horn.
BURST-LINER[バーストライナー] I think named after the big mobile cannon platform thing from the Gundam franchise??
ONENGER[オネンガー] a play on onenga[お年賀] a new year's gift. It's made to look like a stack of rice mocchi with a mikan orange on top. Funny enough they have a Jell the new LINE Monster Fram mobilegame with the same name.
(ONENGER was apparently replaced in the English version with an original monster called LOCOMOTIVE which was a henger with an old steam engine motif. As an English language original it has no Japanese name.)
Adding to the mention of VULCAN up above, the matching set of enemy models in the MMORPG
AMBUSH[アンブッシュ] is actually from Monster Rancher 4 originally, where it's the only Henger type apart from the purebred. But when it reappears in Monster Rancher DS it's recast as Henger/Plant
SKY-WIDOW[スカイウィドウ] is similarly from Monster Rancher Evo, and like Ambush is the only henger type other than purebred. But it goes on to appear in the DS games, once as a Henger/??? but later as a Henger/Tiger.
the second GBA game(Henger weren't in the first one) added a whole bunch of unique fusions, In fact I'm not sure any of these were previously used. A real shame there's no actual design work to go with these.
PEACH-STYLE[ピーチスタイル] subtype Pixie. Straightforward, although you'd almost expect this to be a Mochi subtype.
FACTORINGER[ファクトリンガー] An Arrowhead subtype... "Factory" I assume is the root, as opposed to "Fact" or "Factor/Factoring" and obviously back to the classic Henger -er name scheme, but I don't know how to parse the rest if that's the case. "Factory-ing-er"?? "Fact-Ringer"? "Factoring-er"??
PROTO-C3[プロトシースリー] Subtype Suezo. "Proto(type) C3"... as in C3-P0? Being a Suezo mix it is a gold colored robot man like c3-p0 is.
TOYNGER[トインガー] subtype Ducken. As in "Toy+Henger"
SOUL-SEAL[ソウルシール] Subtype Naga.
TENDER[テンダー] Subtype Momo. I don't know if that's supposed to be an adjective like "gentle" or a role/title like a "(bar)tender"
SUBMARINEGER[サブマリンガー] subtype Lesione. A weird mouthful. Not sure if it should maybe be read more like SUBMARINGER, but you get the idea, it's a marine robot so it's a "submarine+henger"
PRIUS[プリウス] subtype Raiden. It's the Latin word for "First" or "Original." A synonym with the Greek "Proto."
(SKULL WAVE and DARK BRINGER both appear in the GBA2 game as well, but as a subtype Antan and subtype Zan, respectively. Otherwise there are a few other returning mixbreeds with the same types and names as before)
Shoot I forgot about new Henger/??? types, but they're also all really straightforward names.
WARRIOR[ウォーリアー]
SEARCHER[サーチャー]
FRANKEN[フランケン]
And finally, Monster Rancher DS added
PROTO-ZERO[プロト・ゼロ] just a straightforward concept, "Prototype ver.0"
LYCANTHROID[ライカンスロイド] oh, I don't know if i missed it or if it wasn't released when i first made this post, but the LINE Monster Farm app also added a new unique combo, a Henger/Tiger
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