is a Japanese

role-playing video game Role-playing video games, also known as CRPG (computer/console role-playing games), comprise a broad video game genre generally defined by a detailed story and character advancement (often through increasing characters' levels or other skills) ...

series and associated

media franchise A media franchise, also known as a multimedia franchise, is a collection of related media in which several derivative works have been produced from an original creative work of fiction, such as a film, a work of literature, a television program, o ...

created and developed by Level-5. The first game in the series was released for the

Nintendo 3DS The is a foldable dual-screen handheld game console produced by Nintendo. Announced in March 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS, the console was released originally on February 26, 2011 and went through various revisions in its lifetime, ...

in 2013. Three main sequels and several spinoffs, on both Nintendo and mobile platforms, have been released. In December 2019, the franchise expanded to

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

with the release of ''Yo-kai Watch 4++''. An associated toy line is produced by

Bandai is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered ...

for the Japanese market, while

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...

formerly sold the toys under license in the Americas and Europe. Six

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

adaptations have also been produced; one, a series that began serialization in

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction, home media, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but ...

's ''

CoroCoro Comic is a Japanese children's manga magazine published by Shogakukan. It was established in 1977 and several of its properties, like ''Doraemon'' and the ''Pokémon'' series of games, have gone on to be cultural phenomena in Japan. The name comes fr ...

'' from December 2012 to December 2022, was an award winner. An

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

television series produced by

OLM, Inc. , (formerly Oriental Light and Magic), is a Japanese animation studio, animation and film studio headquartered in Setagaya, Tokyo, Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan, founded on October 3, 1990, by former Gallop (studio), Studio Gallop and OB Planning employe ...

aired in Japan from January 8, 2014, to March 30, 2018, and was a ratings success, boosting the franchise in popularity, and began airing in North America from September 2015. An animated film, '' Yo-kai Watch: The Movie,'' was released on December 20, 2014, with seven more films being produced since then. As of 2022, the game series has sold over 17 million copies worldwide. While the franchise is popular in Japan and Europe, it failed to meet Level-5's expectations in North America. Nonetheless, the franchise's North American launch was successful, with the original 3DS game selling 400,000 units, backed by the toys and the broadcast of the English dub on

Disney XD Disney XD is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by the Disney Branded Television and Disney Entertainment units of The Walt Disney Company. The channel is aimed primarily at older children ages six to eleven years old ...

in the United States. However, interest in the ''Yo-kai Watch'' franchise has since steadily declined. The franchise generated $2 billion in retail sales.

Concept

The franchise was first conceived as a ''

Doraemon is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Fujiko F. Fujio. First serialized in 1969, the manga's chapters were collected in 45 volumes published by Shogakukan from 1974 to 1996. The story revolves around an earless robotic ...

'' IP, something that could last over a long period of time.

Akihiro Hino (born July 20, 1968) is a Japanese video game designer and businessman. Starting his career as a programmer in the 1990s, he later took on roles in writing, design, directing and producing. He founded Level-5 (company), Level-5 in 1998 and rema ...

, CEO of Level-5, researched extensively what makes a franchise long-lasting, and came up with ''Yo-kai Watch''. ''Yo-kai Watch'' revolves around befriending Yo-kai that are haunting the city, which are based on traditional ''

yōkai are a class of supernatural entities and Spirit (supernatural entity) , spirits in Japanese folklore. The kanji representation of the word comprises two characters that both mean "suspicious, doubtful", and while the Japanese name is simply ...

,'' but often with clever twists. If one befriends a Yo-kai, they get their Yo-kai Medal, an object that allows one to summon Yo-kai. With these, they can summon Yo-kai to either fight other Yo-kai, befriend others, or solve everyday tasks. The basic plot of most media is that the main character, either Nathan "Nate" Adams or Katie Forester, obtains a Yo-kai Watch through Whisper, a butler Yo-kai. They then befriend Jibanyan, a cat Yo-kai who haunts an intersection because he thinks his owner from when he was alive named Amy called him lame for getting hit by a truck. During the anime's run, other Yo-kai were introduced.

Media

Main series

The main video game series are

s where the player befriends Yo-kai and fights evil Yo-kai that seek to rule the world, with emphasis placed on fighting and befriending Yo-kai. ''

Yo-kai Watch is a Japanese role-playing video game series and associated media franchise created and developed by Level-5. The first game in the series was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013. Three main sequels and several spinoffs, on both Nintendo a ...

'' and '' Yo-kai Watch 2'' have a battle system revolving around using the 3DS's touchscreen to rotate amongst the player's Yo-kai. All Yo-kai have powerful moves called Soultimates, with some being offensive and some being supportive. In '' Yo-kai Watch 3'', the battle system was changed to a grid-based movement system, with the added ability to use the Dream Link and the Yo-kai Blaster against foes during battle.

''Yo-kai Watch''

The first game in the main series, ''Yo-kai Watch'', was announced at the 2011

Tokyo Game Show , commonly known as TGS, is a video game trade fair and convention held annually in September in the Makuhari Messe, in Chiba, Japan. It is presented by the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA) and Nikkei Business Publication ...

and first released in Japan on July 11, 2013. It sets the foundation for the rest of the video game franchise, introducing its main mechanics. The game was released in North America on November 6, 2015, and in Europe on April 29, 2016.

''Yo-kai Watch 2''

The second main game in the series, ''Yo-kai Watch 2'', was released in Japan on July 10, 2014, as two versions: ''Ganso'' and ''Honke.'' These versions are known in English as ''Bony Spirits'' and ''Fleshy Souls''. ''Yo-kai Watch 2'' adds several new areas, such as Kemamoto/Harrisville, and nearly 100 new Yo-kai to befriend, both in the present day and the past. The plot revolves around the protagonist going back in time 60 years to meet their grandfather, who made the predecessor to the Yo-kai Watch, and fighting against the Wicked Yo-kai. A third version, ''Shinuchi,'' known in English as ''Psychic Specters'', was released on December 12, 2014 to coincide with the first Yo-kai Watch film, ''Yo-kai Watch: Tanjō no Himitsu da Nyan!''. ''Psychic Specters'' features characters and scenarios not included in ''Bony Spirits'' and ''Fleshy Souls''. ''Bony Spirits'' and ''Fleshy Souls'' were localized in English and released on September 30, 2016, in the United States and on April 7, 2017, in Europe. They received the Oni Evolution update on September 14, 2017, and gained compatibility with save data from ''Psychic Specters'' on September 29, 2017.

''Yo-kai Watch 3''

In Japan, ''Yo-kai Watch 3'' was announced alongside ''Yo-kai Watch Busters'' in April 2015 and released on July 16, 2016, with two versions: ''Sushi'' and ''Tempura''. The game features two protagonists: Nate Adams and Hailey Anne Thomas, each with their own story. Nate's story focuses on him and his family moving from Springdale to the United States, which is called BBQ in the localized version, to the fictional town of St. Peanutsburg, where new American-themed Yo-kai are found. Hailey Anne's story focuses on her meeting her partner Yo-kai Usapyon and opening a detective agency with him. These two stories converge in the game's latter half as the two team up to face a greater threat called the Ghoulfather. A third version, ''Sukiyaki'', was released in Japan on December 16, 2016, combining ''Sushi'' and ''Tempura'' into one game and adding additional features. On September 27, 2018, Nintendo of America announced that Yo-kai Watch 3 was getting a localized release outside of Japan. It was released on December 16, 2018, in Europe and on February 8, 2019, in North America. The localized version was based on ''Sukiyaki'', and as such contains the features it added.

''Yo-kai Watch 4''

''Yo-kai Watch 4'' was released for the

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

in Japan on June 20, 2019, featuring a new artstyle and character designs from '' Yo-kai Watch Shadowside'', as well as the original designs. The game includes characters from previous games as well as the main characters from '' Yo-kai Watch Shadowside'' and '' Yo-kai Watch: Forever Friends''. An enhanced version, ''Yo-kai Watch 4++'', was later released as paid

downloadable content content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can be added for no extra cost or as a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain ad ...

and at retail for both the Switch and

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

on December 5, 2019. Level-5 confirmed during the

Anime Expo Anime Expo, abbreviated AX, is an American anime convention held in Los Angeles, California and organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). The convention is traditionally held annually on the first we ...

2019 that an English localization was under consideration, but due to the shutdown of American branch Level-5 Abby, the status of the game's localization is currently unknown.

Manga and comics

Six

adaptations based on the series have been published by

. A series by Noriyuki Konishi began serialization in ''

'' from December 15, 2012. This series has been licensed by

Viz Media Viz Media, LLC is an American entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California, focused on publishing manga, and distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. The company was founded in 1986 as Viz, ...

under its Perfect Square imprint for its North American releases up to Volume 10, and is now directly from Viz Media as of Volume 11. The manga is licensed in French by

Kazé Kazé was a French publishing company that specializes in anime and manga. Its head office was in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Founded in 1994, the company debuted by publishing ''Record of Lodoss War'' on VHS. It was owned by Sony through t ...

. A

shōjo manga is an editorial category of Manga, Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent girls and young adult women. It is, along with Shōnen manga, manga (targeting adolescent boys), Seinen manga, manga (targeting young adult and adult men ...

series by Chikako Mori, titled , was serialized in ''

Ciao ( , ) is an informal salutation in the Italian language that is used for both " hello" and "goodbye". Originally from the Venetian language, it has entered the vocabulary of English and of many other languages around the world. Its dual mea ...

'' magazine from December 27, 2013 to 2017. In this series, it was based on the alternate timeline, in which Katie Forester would receive the Yo-kai Watch. This is in contrast to the main timeline, where Nate Adams is the primary. A

yonkoma is a comic strip format that generally consists of gag comic strips within four panels of equal size ordered from top to bottom. They also sometimes run right-to-left horizontally or use a hybrid 2×2 style, depending on the layout requiremen ...

series by Coconas Rumba, titled , has been serialized in '' CoroCoro Comic SPECIAL'' from August 30, 2014, to June 30, 2018. Another yonkoma series by Santa Harukaze, titled , began serialization in '' CoroCoro Ichiban!'' from April 2015. A series by Shō Shibamoto, titled , began serialization in the

seinen manga is an editorial category of Japanese comics marketed toward young adult men. In Japanese, the word means "youth", but the term " manga" is also used to describe the target audience of magazines like '' Weekly Manga Times'' and '' Weekly Man ...

magazine ''Hibana'' on April 10, 2015, and ended on September 10 of that year. A manga series based on ''Yo-kai Watch Blasters'' by Atsushi Ohba began serialization in ''CoroCoro Comic'' in June 2015 and ended in October of that year. A comic book series was announced in January 2017, courtesy of

IDW Publishing IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW) and is recognized as the fifth-largest comic ...

, and was released in May 2017.

Noriyuki Konishi version

Loosely based on the main Yo-kai Watch series, a manga series by Noriyuki Konishi started serialization before the release of Yo-kai Watch on the 3DS, and the debut of the original Yo-kai Watch anime. In the series, the art style was different from the current designs, like the early design of the Yo-kai Watch, and also has different character personalities. As the games and anime were released, the manga kept the art style, but the characters also slowly developed over time. Volume 16 transitioned the manga into the current " Yo-kai Watch!" anime timeline, while still keeping the art style of the previous edition.

''Yo-kai Watch: Exciting Nyanderful Days''

''Yo-kai Watch: 4-Panel Pun-Club''

''Yo-kai Watch Busters''

''4-Panel Yo-kai Watch: Geragera Manga Theater''

''Komasan: A Time for Fireworks and Miracles''

Anime

television series based on the game, produced by

OLM The olm () or proteus (''Proteus anguinus'') is an aquatic salamander which is the only species in the genus ''Proteus'' of the family Proteidae and the only exclusively cave-dwelling chordate species found in Europe; the family's other extant g ...

, aired from January 8, 2014, to March 30, 2018, in Japan and began airing on

on October 5, 2015. It is more comedic in tone, and has several segments per episode, with most focusing on Nathan "Nate" Adams solving problems caused by Yo-kai. Some episodes have a "Mini-Corner" featuring one of the main Yo-kai. The English theme song is sung by

Jeff "Swampy" Marsh Jeffrey Kent "Swampy" Marsh (; born December 9, 1960) is an American animator, voice actor, writer, director, and producer. With Dan Povenmire, Marsh is the co-creator and co-star of the Disney Channel animated series ''Phineas and Ferb'' and ...

, best known as one of the creators of the fellow Disney show

Phineas and Ferb ''Phineas and Ferb'' is an American animated series, animated Musical film, musical-television comedy, comedy television series created by Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh for Disney Channel and Disney XD. The series originally aired on t ...

. On April 7, 2015, Level-5 unveiled a promotional video for the series' third season, which premiered in July 2015. The third season features a new protagonist named Hailey Anne Thomas and her Yo-kai companion Usapyon, as well as new models of the Yo-kai Watch called the "Yo-kai Watch Model U" and the "Yo-kai Watch Dream". The season premiered on January 6, 2017, and entered a Busters Arc in July. In February 2018, a sequel series called '' Yo-kai Watch Shadowside'' started airing after the original series ended on March 30, 2018, with its first two episodes broadcast as an hour-long special on April 13, 2018. The series lasted for 49 episodes, ending on March 29, 2019. A revival series known as '' Yo-kai Watch!'' ran from April 5, 2019, to December 20, 2019, in Japan. It is a continuation of the original series that introduces new Yo-kai while serving as a sort of prologue to the fourth movie, as Nate receives the Yo-kai Watch Arcane Version K, which resembles the Yo-kai Watch Arcane used in '' Yo-kai Watch Shadowside''. While mostly based on the original series, it features elements from Shadowside, such as the Yo-kai Arks and the Shadowside Tribes. ''Yo-kai Watch Jam: Yo-kai Academy Y: Close Encounters of the N Kind'' ran from December 27, 2019, to April 2, 2021, as a sequel and continuation of the sixth movie. Another revival series, ''Yo-kai Watch ♪'' started airing on April 9, 2021, in which Nate now uses a "enhanced" version of the original Yo-kai Watch which can recognize all types of medals. In the course of the franchise's history, eight ''Yo-kai Watch'' movies have been made. The first, '' Yo-kai Watch: The Movie'', was released in Japan on December 20, 2014, The second film, '' Yo-kai Watch: Enma Daiō to Itsutsu no Monogatari da Nyan!'', was released in Japan on December 19, 2015, and the third film, '' Yo-kai Watch: Soratobu Kujira to Double no Sekai no Daibōken da Nyan!'', a

live-action animated film Live-action animation is a film genre that combines live-action filmmaking with animation. Projects that are both live-action and computer animation tend to have fictional characters or figures represented and characterized by cast members throu ...

, was released in Japan on December 17, 2016 The fourth film, '' Yo-kai Watch Shadowside: Oni-ō no Fukkatsu'', released in Japanese theatres on December 16, 2017. A fifth movie, '' Yo-kai Watch: Forever Friends'', released in Japanese theatres on December 14, 2018. A sixth movie, ''Yo-kai Watch Jam the Movie: Yo-Kai Academy Y - Can a Cat be a Hero?'', was released in Japanese theatres on December 13, 2019. A seventh movie, ''Yo-kai Watch♪ the Movie: How Nate and I Met Nyan!♪ M-Me Too~♪♪,'' was released in Japanese theatres on November 12, 2021. It is based on the ''Yo-kai Watch ♪'' series and features re-edited versions of segments from the anime, as well as some original content. An eighth movie, ''Yo-kai Watch♪: Jibanyan vs. Komasan - The Big Amazing Battle, Nyan'', was released in Japan on January 13, 2023, based on the ''Yo-kai Watch♪'' series and used as its two-part finale''.'' The series is being released on DVD box sets, along with rental DVDs, in Japan by Kadokawa Media Factory. Every episode to date is available for streaming on multiple

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

services in Japan, such as

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

and Rakuten Video Showtime.

Overseas

At the premiere of the ''Yo-kai Watch'' film, Level-5's president Akihiro Hino officially announced that the ''Yo-kai Watch'' anime would begin broadcast internationally in 2015. He also jokingly requested

Etsuko Kozakura , better known by her stage name , is a Japanese voice actress from Mizuho. She was formerly with Ohsawa Jimusho, but now heads her own agency called Little Portal with husband Jin Domon. Some of her major roles are Daizu Noyama in Azuki-chan, ...

and

Tomokazu Seki is a Japanese voice actor and singer. He has previously worked with Haikyō. He is honorary president of and affiliated with Atomic Monkey and the chairman of theater company HeroHero Q. He is a special lecturer at Japan Newart College. Caree ...

, who voice Jibanyan and Whisper respectively, to "study English".

In North America

Dentsu Entertainment USA announced in April 2014 that they were seeking broadcast and merchandising partners in North America for the anime. The anime began broadcast as a 26-episode season on Disney XD on October 5, 2015, with the official Yo-kai Watch YouTube channel posting episodes a month later. Since the show had performed well, a second season (no relation to the Japanese second season) with an additional 50 episodes was broadcast on August 1, 2016. The third season premiered on July 2, 2018, on Disney XD in the United States, and ended on December 29, 2018. In 2019, Disney XD removed the ''Yo-kai Watch'' anime from its lineup due to declining ratings; but eventually returned to the network in a weekend-only timeslot in January 2020, re-taking the place of a previous replacement, '' Inazuma Eleven: Ares''. The first season's first volume was released on DVD by NCircle Entertainment on February 26, 2019, and one version of that set comes with a free comic book. The first season's second volume was released on September 3, 2019. The first movie was also brought over, as a special screening one day screening, on October 15, 2016. This was only in the US, via

Fathom Events Fathom Events is an entertainment content provider that broadcasts entertainment events in movie theaters throughout the United States, including Metropolitan Opera Live in HD, the performing arts, major sporting events, and music concerts. The ...

. Those who attended got a Hovernyan medal. Outside of the US, the first season and the movie used to be available to stream on Netflix, but as of now, it is no longer available to stream. The English version of the anime dub used a cast from

Sprite Animation Studios Sprite Animation Studios is an American computer animation studio founded in 2002 by former members of Square USA led by Motonori "Moto" Sakakibara, co-director of Square Pictures and Columbia Pictures’ feature film '' Final Fantasy: The Spiri ...

for the first two seasons, but they were replaced in the third season with actors from

SDI Media Iyuno, Inc. is a major provider of subtitling, translation, and language dubbing services to the entertainment industry. The headquarters are located in Burbank, California with other offices and facilities located in 35 countries around the wo ...

due to budget costs and low ratings on Disney XD.

MarVista Entertainment MarVista Entertainment, LLC is an American production company, based in Westwood, Los Angeles, California. The company mainly provides financing and some original content, mainly made-for-TV films and direct-to-SVOD titles, many of which are ca ...

has licensed the series in Latin America, and it also localized the second movie despite never airing in the U.S., so the movie was dubbed based on the Japanese version (which also kept the promotional ending of the third Yo-kai watch movie despite never being dubbed afterwards).

In Europe and Africa

Viz Media Europe Crunchyroll EMEA, formerly known as Viz Media Europe, is a European anime distributor. Established as Viz Media Europe, it was Viz Media's European sister company until 2019. It holds partnerships with TV channels, DVD distributors, and manga pu ...

has licensed the series in Europe, Russia, and Africa. They premiered the anime in the UK and Ireland on

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

on April 23, 2016. In France it showed on three different stations: Boing in April, 2016, Gulli in September, 2016, and Cartoon Network France in March, 2017. Other countries it aired in are Germany and Austria (Nickelodeon), Spain and Africa on Boing, Belgium and the Netherlands on Nickelodeon, and Israel on Noga. Cartoon Network also has it airing on their Portugal, Turkey, Poland and the Nordic, Central and Eastern Europe feeds, starting in Spring 2016. Viz has also hired Bulldog Licensing and German brand-management company m4e to represent the brand in the UK and German-speaking territories, respectively.

Asia

An alternative English dub began airing on Cartoon Network Asia and Toonami Asia in Asian countries from June 27, 2015. The alternative English dub uses the original Japanese names.

Shogakukan Asia is a Japanese publisher based in Singapore, specialising in English-translated manga and edutainment content that promotes and nurtures interest in Japanese arts and culture. The company, a subsidiary of Japanese publisher Shogakukan, opened in ...

also licensed the series in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. Similarly, for a few years,

GMA Network GMA Network (an acronym of its legal name, Global Media Arts and commonly known as GMA) is a Television in the Philippines, Philippine commercial broadcast network, serving as the flagship property of publicly traded GMA Network (company), ...

also made a Tagalog dub of the original anime. For Yo-kai Watch Shadowside, a subbed version aired in the Southeast Asia area, in 2019 via

Animax Asia Animax is an Asian pay television channel owned by KC Global Media Asia. The channel was originally owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, and took its name from the Japanese satellite TV network; which was then-majority owned by subsidiary Sony ...

In Australia and New Zealand

The Fusion Agency acquired the licensing and merchandising rights for the series in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. It aired in Australia on

9Go! 9Go! is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Nine Network on 9 August 2009, replacing Nine Guide. It is a youthful channel that offers a mix of comedy, reality, general entertainment, movies, anima ...

on December 14, 2015.

Music

The music for the games and anime series is composed by Level-5 employee Kenichiro Saigo. The following themes are used in both the video games and anime series. In the original anime, all opening themes are performed by King Cream Soda, with lyrics by

m.o.v.e Move (styled as M.O.V.E or m.o.v.e, and previously as move) was a Japanese band. The band consisted of producer t-kimura (), rapper motsu () and singer Yuri (Japanese singer), yuri (). t-kimura left the band in 2009. History t-kimura formed the ...

vocalist Motsu. The anime themes are also dubbed into English for its North American broadcast. Recent seasons of the anime have had opening and ending themes performed by Japanese

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

s such as Soraru, Rinu, and

Strawberry Prince is a Japanese boy band formed in June 2016. The group consists of six members: Nanamori, Jel, Satomi, Colon, Rinu, and Root. Each member is represented by an illustrated character when appearing in media. History Strawberry Prince was foun ...

Merchandise

Various toys, such as the eponymous Yo-kai Watch and Yo-kai Medals, have been produced based on the series, receiving high commercial success.

released a toy line based on the series worldwide in December 2015. In July 2016,

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing video game, role-playing game franchises, such as ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', and '' ...

MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

'' Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn'' held a special crossover event lasting until October which allowed players to gather Medals from existing in-game battles and exchange them for minions modeled after the franchise's titular Yo-kai as well as weapons inspired by them. In January 2018, McDonald's began offering Yo-kai Watch toys in US Happy Meals, alongside the much more popular

Shopkins Shopkins are a range of tiny, collectable toys manufactured by Moose Toys. Based on grocery store items, each plastic Shopkin figure has a recognizable face and unique name. They also have special finishes like translucent, glitter, or squishy ...

Reception

The original ''Yo-kai Watch'' game received a score of 36/40 from Famitsu, with its sequel ''Yo-kai Watch 2'' also scoring 36/40. ''Yo-kai Watch 2'' won the Grand Prize in the Japan Game Awards. It also won 3 other awards: The Best Sales Award, and two Excellence Awards (for the 2nd game and its third version). In 2014, ''Yo-kai Watchs manga in CoroCoro Comic won the 38th Kodansha Manga Award in the Best Children's Manga category. In the following year, it also was awarded the Best Children's manga at the 60th Shogakukan Manga Awards. Series mascot Jibanyan was at the center of artwork for the 2014 holding of the World Hobby Fair, was chosen as the kids goodwill ambassador of the Hawaii Tourism Board in Japan in 2015, and was one of the 8 "Olympics Ambassadors" for the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

When the anime first aired, in 2014, the franchise became popular in Japan. By February, the first game, which originally sold only 53,654 copies, was at over 500,000 shipped and the anime was surpassing Pokémon in the TV rankings; being compared to it and being dubbed the "Pokémon Killer". By the second game's release, the first game had sold 1,195,287 copies and the second game surpassed that at release at 1,316,707 copies. The third version also impressed, at 1,244,171 units. Even the president of Level-5, Akihiro Hino, was surprised by Yo-kai Watch's popularity. "While I did believe that it would get its break, honestly, to have it come this far, where the children of Japan would get so hopped-up on Yo-kai, to the point where all the goods would sell out, is something I didn't expect." They were the second most popular characters in Japan, in a survey by Video Research Ltd. Explanations for its popularity ranged from catchy songs and dances, to being something parents and kids could enjoy together, to " weird adults" not being interested in it. Hino himself said that it was the relatable characters and situations relatable to modern kids that made it popular. This also translated into toy sales, racking in 55.2 billion yen for

Namco Bandai (commonly known as and formerly Namco Bandai until 2015, also known as Bandai Namco Group,) is a Japanese mass media and entertainment conglomerate founded in 2005 by the merger of Namco and Bandai. The company specializes in toys, video ...

. Yo-kai Watch toys were frequently out of stock; people having to wait in lotteries to get a Yo-kai Watch and search hard for medals. Other merchandise had to wait longer because of the long licensing wait times. This demand made it the second highest product in Nikkei Trendy that year. It was a top seller in many other areas as well: The Yo-kai Watch Guide was the number one book in 2014, its first theme song, Geragerapo no Uta, was the number 50 song on the

Oricon Singles Chart The Oricon Singles Chart is the Japanese music industry-standard Single (music), singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Chart rankings are based on physical singles' sales. Until 2017, Oricon did not track down ...

, and the movie had the highest opening of any Japanese film since 2000. Yo-kai Watch even had a special segment on

Kohaku Uta Gassen is the Japanese word for amber. Kohaku (琥珀) may refer to: Music * Kohaku, a song by Mikuni Shimokawa Characters * Kohaku (''Dr. Stone''), a character in the manga series ''Dr. Stone'' * Kohaku (''InuYasha''), a character in ''InuYash ...

, Japan's most viewed music program. By 2015, sales had started to fall to numbers ranging from around a quarter to 1/8 of what they were the previous year. Prices were cut and there was less visible excitement among children. By the time the third games were released, in 2016, it was on a downward slope with the game launching with about half of what the second games did, with 632,135 units and the third version of the game launched with half of what the first versions sold with 337,979 units. The toy sales were 10.4 billion yen in 2016 and estimated to be at 6.3 billion yen in 2017. This was largely due to hype building for two games that were coming from Nintendo's ''

Pokémon is a Japanese media franchise consisting of List of Pokémon video games, video games, Pokémon (TV series), animated series and List of Pokémon films, films, Pokémon Trading Card Game, a trading card game, and other related media. The fran ...

'' franchise, the ''

'' smartphone app and '' Pokémon Sun'' and ''Moon'' for the 3DS. In addition to the wake of ''Pokémons renewed popularity, analysts had a few other theories on why ''Yo-kai Watch'' was falling. Ken Hōri of The Business Journal and Ollie Barder of

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

thought it was mainly distribution issues; products that were ordered from the summer vacation were over stocked, because of the six-month waiting period for copyright approvals. Another reason he had was that the toys had incompatible medals with later watches, leading to a loss of interest. Barder and Sato of

Siliconera The GAMURS Group, simply known as Gamurs, is an esports media and entertainment publisher. Established in 2014, the group operates multiple brands focusing on the esports and entertainment news markets, including the websites: ''Dot Esports'', '' ...

also mentioned oversaturation, with it being Sato's main focus. Unlike in its native Japan where it experienced a short period of great popularity, ''Yo-kai Watch'' had an overall underwhelming performance in the United States. Although it got off to a promising start in that region, with the original game selling at least 400,000 units there as of 2016, the sequel, '' Yo-kai Watch 2'', sold less than 200,000 copies in comparison. Meanwhile,

's English broadcast of the anime series has estimated only 100,000-300,000 viewers per episode, and was removed from the network's schedule in 2017. Despite the franchise's unsatisfactory western response, it maintains a

cult following A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, boo ...

with attempts to revive the franchise such as #SaveYoKaiWatch which trended on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

. The franchise is also popular in Europe, with the original game's sales out pacing the Japanese release as of October 2016.

Notes

References

External links

* *
Watch Yo-kai Watch TV Show , Disney XD on DisneyNOW
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