#durahan

DULLAHAN[デュラハン] mis romanized as "DURAHAN" in the games' English canon, from the headless rider of Irish folklore.

REGINA[レジーナ] as in the Latin for "Queen"

HERAKLES[ヘラクレス] after the Greek demigod Herakles[Ἡρακλῆς] prototype of the Roman Hercules. Also the design itself is almost certainly a reference to the Zaku-II from Mobile Suit Gundam.

KERMADECS[ケルマディクス] seemingly a reference to the Kermadec region of the south pacific?? It's the namesake of a string of small islands near New Zealand, as well as the underwater trench, and underlying tectonic plate causing both.

LOB-RITTER[ロブリッター] I was a little skeptical of the suggestion that this is LOB from LOBSTER and RITTER as in the German for "Knight" if only because it seems like a weird mix and match of loan words for a single name given some of the rest of the franchise's general sensibilities... But I can't seem to find any other way to parse this

NOMAD[ノーマッド]

GARUDA[ガルーダ] named after the Hindu GARUDA[गरुड] a god who can take the form of a massive eagle, brilliant like the sun, the king of birds, and mount of the greater god Vishnu. It's also important to Buddhist and Jain faiths

METAL-GLORY[メタルグローリー]

SHOGUN[ショーグン]

BLOODY-J[ブラッディJ] I can't help but feel like this must have been a reference to something more specific, but I can't figure out what

VESUVIUS[ベスビオス] named after Mt.Vesuvius the volcano on the coast of the gulf of naples that famously buried Pompeii.

GLACIER[グレシア]

GENOCIDE[ジェノサイド]

KOKUSHI-MUSO[コクシムソウ] as in, KOKUSHI-MUSOU[国士無双]: "Unmatched Nation Samurai." Eventually it came back as KOKUSHI-MUSO-Z[コクシムソウZ]

HIGHLANDER[ハイランダー] as in a warrior from the Scottish Highlands. Does not appear to reference the cult classic fantasy action movie Highlander starring Christopher Lambert.

DRYDON[ドライドン] I think this is supposed to be a reference to the Drydon Knights in the Guin Saga novels? I have not read the like 100+ books in the series so I have no idea who they are or when they appear or if they've ever been officially romanized and if mine here matches.

RUINSECTOR[ルインセクター] seemingly mashing up RUIN and INSECTOR, possible a reference to the videogame INSECTOR X? Unclear...

GARUDA[キャバリー] it's GARUDA[गरुड] again but a new design.

MASALA[マサラ] named after the spice common to a lot of cuisine in the region of the indian subcontinent

FORESTORER[フォレストラ] as in FOREST RESTORER?

ENKI[エンキ] I think from ENKI[厭忌]: "hatred"

GOLDY[ゴールディー] or alternatively GOLDIE.

BERSERKERS[ベルサリース] oddly plural but otherwise self explanatory

KÜRBIS[キュルビス] looks like it's supposed to be KÜRBIS German for "Pumpkin"

VERSAILLINE[ベルサリーヌ] definitely odd but mostly matches the phonetics on the French VERSAILLES but I don't know how declensions or other suffixes work in French to know what changing the end there is supposed to mean...

HERMES[ヘルメス] from the Greek HERMES[Ἑρμῆς] messenger god and patron of travelers .

RHINOCEROS[リノセロス] self explanitory

KAGEMUSHA[カゲムシャ] from KAGEMUSHA[影武者] lit. "Shadow+Warrior" but it's a term used to describe either a person who controls things from the shadows, or alternatively a bodydouble who provides the front for said shadowy ruler.

CHAOS-DULLAHAN[カオスデュラハン]

OMORO-KNIGHT[オモロナイト] from OMOROI[おもろい]: "amusing/funny/comical." Alternatively named ANDREA[アンドレア] in the GBA games?

AQUA-KNIGHT[アクアナイト]

SUPARA-KNIGHT[ツッパラナイト]from SUPARI[つっぱり] a sumo term for a kind of push that was used as slang in the 80s-90s for delinquents. A "PUSHY KNIGHT" in a sense.

These are all pretty straight forward...

HALBERD[ハルバート]

BLOSSOM[ブロッサム]

OCTO-KNIGHT[オクトナイト]

ANGUS[アンガス]

JEWEL[ジュエル]

CROCODILE[クロコダイル]

VENOM-RAIDER[ベノムレイダー]

CERVANTES[セルバンテス] probably from Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

HOLY-KNIGHT[ホーリーナイト]

KRESNIK[クルースニック] from the slavic folk deity and mythic national hero

TUNE-KNIGHT[チューンナイト]although I think the intention was for it to be TUNER-KNIGHT with the shared NA syllable in a way that doesn't romanize coherently.

HEIMDALL[ヘイムダル] watchman of the Norse gods and the rainbow bridge between midgard(realm of men) and asgard(realm of the gods)

CÚ-CHULAINN[クーフーリン] from Cú Chulainn, legendary Irish hero of the Ulster cycle

BEOWOLF[ベイオウルフ] hero of the epic poem that's famously supposed to be the oldest surviving works of English literature

REFLECTOR[リフレクター]

BUSHIDO[ブシドー] BUSHIDO[武士道] lit. "Way (of the) warrior" the now classically romanticized samurai code of conduct and general value system

Headless Hobby-Horseman

Villain couples are best couples. ;)

I’m still waiting for a Transformers show where Megatron and Starscream are officially together! No “could be”, “maybe”, “if you interpret it that way”. No! Officially, canonically! Wonder, if anyone ever has the balls to do that.

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Remember this show? Monster Rancher was more than “a Pokémon clone”. The games have a unique concept and the show was super emotional and had beautiful music (not the English dub, though).

Monster Rancher 2 - Durahan Cards, Part 1

Part 2