It's official, Yo-kai Watch is set for world domination much like Pokémon before it. In our Yo-kai Watch review we liked developer Level 5's take on doing a Pokémon style game and felt that, in some ways, it eclipses the effort GameFreak has put into Pokémon over the years, both in production and creativity.
Of course Yo-kai Watch is much more than a game. It's also a hit anime franchise too. Today Paris-based VIZ Media Europe, the leader in Japanese Entertainment content in Europe, has announced the upcoming launch of the Yo-kai Watch show in more than 100 territories, including The UK.
The first season of Yo-kai Watch, which consists of 26 episodes, is due to be broadcasted in Spring 2016. It will be available to view on popular kids' channels, which will be revealed soon.
The story of Yo-kai Watch centers around a young boy, Nate, who gets a special watch empowering him to discover mysterious beings called "Yo-kai" that are everywhere to cause us little nuisances in our daily life. Nate's role is to find out the reason for the Yo-kai's mischievous behaviors and to talk them out of it, using his own creative wit and helped by his fellow Yo-kai that he befriends each time he solves a problem
The animated TV series was successfully launched in the USA last year. If any of our readers from over the pond enjoyed the series, be sure to let us know if it's worth a watch with a comment below.
Comments (28)
Oh so this is still a thing set for Europe, it really looked like it was RIP like Federation Force.
America isn't getting this. Instead, Reggie, Bill, and the NoA staff are starring in Yokai-Watch, the live action series!
@Grumblevolcano my friend from Japan told me that Yo-kai are very popular in Japan, maybe even getting more popular than Pokemon for younger audience, so yeah I think they will go to monetize it here too
Nice this probably will lead to a renewal for anime/manga fanbase. That said, Yo Kai Watch is a great game, but for now they can't beat Pokémon, specially by the copy and paste design of more than half of the Yo Kais.
Cool, I think the anime looks fun so I'll probably watch it Looking forward to getting the game!
That's great and all, but I'd rather get a game release date.
My Pokémon addicted kid didn't know this was on in the US yet. He knows XYZ starts in Feb, I think it's the 20th, so I don't think Yoke Watch is set to overthrow Pokémon just yet. Certainly not this year w/ all of the 20th anniversary hype and my kids waiting impatiently every day for Pokémon Z (the game) news. I'm waiting for the Pokémon amiibo line myself after they finish with AC. Probably NFC cards too since Pokken Tournament comes with one. Surely they wouldn't ship the game with 1 and then call it a day?
I don't know what goes on in Japan or elsewhere but Pokémon is still king in the US.
@KomrathDE Well before today, there had been no EU Yokai Watch news since E3. The only other 2 games that has had no EU info since E3 are Federation Force and GIR#FE (if you count the very short snippet for Zelda U as info).
Yo-kia Watch commercials for the show airingin the US on Disney XD in the or whatever it is called is all over the place. I see 2 or 3 commercials for it everytime my kids watch something. At this point I can't get the song out of my head.
@Grumblevolcano I can't tell if you are serious or not. Do you expect to get news for games that are scheduled for "sometime in 2016" on a weekly basis in 2015? LOL. Here is a secret- Federation Force is just as dead as Yarn Yoshi was before E3 2014.
That aside, there have been news. For example about Hasbro and VIZ Media who have the merchandising and anime licenses and confirmed both will arrive in Europe in 2016.
awesome, i still have not check out this anime yet, (or get the game as well )
but glad that UK get s to see the show.
Awesome! It will properly do better in Europe (the game & anime) - reminds me of Inazuma Eleven which I wish Viz Media would release on as a collection on DVD already.
@scamander No but rather something for all of them to have appeared in the November Direct. I mean they had a decent section on FE Fates that also has a generic 2016 release in Europe.
nice! still hoping for the release date for yokai watch in europe
@rjejr I have a Japanese mother as an online pen pal and when I mentioned how Pokemon was more popular in the US she said how that "was quite an old anime" (it has been 20 years after all) and that Yo-kai Watch is what the kids are into there.
That doesn't mean Pokemon isn't doing well at all there, just that Yo-kai Watch is more popular currently. (Obviously I like both series going by my name and avatar lol)
I'm looking forward to when they bring over Yo-kai Watch 2 as it fixes a lot of the issues of the first game as well as adding a ton of new content. I think the reviews for that game will be better, and might get more people into the series.
@Grumblevolcano They only clarified, that both campaigns of Fire Emblem Fates won't be (other than reported previously) released on one cartridge, except for the Limited Edition, which was announced as well. Other than that we didn't get any useful information or a release date.
What were they supposed to tell regarding Youkai Watch? "Yeah, btw we know there is only one game, but to clarify it will be only one game in Europe as well. Also, there is no limited edition coming in case you wondered. You knew that before, but we will release the game sometime in 2016, as soon as we have coordinated the anime and merchandise campaigns in all the different European markets." That would have been non-news.
Hopefully it'll be better then ours. They butchered and mangled it to the point where it was barely watchable. I went to watch some Japanese sub versions and it was Much better.
@SteamedOddish I can only go by what my kids - boys 11 and 13 - and their friends play and know. Neither of them know anybody into Yokai-Watch but many of them play the Pokemon card game and videogames. Though the older one and his friends are moving on to Magic:TG. I suppose YW could be big w/ 5-8 year olds, that's about the age my kids were getting into all of this stuff. I still think it's too similar and will be less popular if not gone in 8-10 years. That "Meowth wannabe" cat is no Pikachu. Some things last - Pokemon, Transformers, TMNT - but I find their copycats burn bright for awhile and then go away.
Meh, somehow it just doesn't seem like Pokémon. But if we're lucky then perhaps this will prompt Game Freak to but a bit more work into the next Pokémon main series games.
I have yet to play the game; I picked it up, but it's currently part of my backlog. From what I've seen of YouTube playthroughs, it looks pretty fun, although the befriending system can be pretty finicky. Supposedly this is improved in Yo-Kai Watch 2.
As for the anime, I recommend that everyone at least give it a shot. It's pretty entertaining, and like the game touches on some real-life issues (parents arguing, disobedience, etc.). Obviously there's been some censorship in localization, so whether you prefer the sub or dub is up to you.
I'm mostly hoping this game goes well JUST so Yo-Kai Watch 2 gets localized.
Oh my swirls, I thought EU was airing Yo-kai Watch this whole time. I guess it because in most cases Level 5 release their stuff in EU before NA. I still thinking about the Inazuma Eleven series between the 2 regions. It got more attention than a porcupine in a sewing club in the UK.
The Japanese subbed version of this show is much better than the localised one if you ask me. A lot of the japanese references are dropped and the voice acting isn't very good. And I usually prefer dubbed to subbed, but this one is definitely better in original Japanese.
You know, I could demand a EU release date for the game - again - but I've lost patience by now so I've ordered an australian copy of the game. Both PAL regions, you know. It should be here any day now.
@allav866 It's been airing in the US since October
It's been airing in Australia. My 6 year old sons love it.
@Kingrat Dragon Ball in a nutshell for me.
Really looking forward to giving this one a go and discovering all those Yokai for the first time!
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