A mediocre intro into a world of monsters
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Noriyuki Konishi
Translation: Tetsuichiro Miyaki
What They Say
Yo-kai, inspired by the yokai of Japanese folklore, are not ghosts or monsters or creatures. They can’t be seen by the human eye, but they’re everywhere, and whether they’re phantoms or everyday objects discovering their higher purpose, Yo-kai personalities are distinctly humanlike! While playing deep in the mountains, a yokai butler named Whisper gives Nathan the Yokai Watch, which Nathan uses to help his spooky new friends with their problems!
Technical:
The front cover here is a nice enough image that manages to show off the core elements of the series, with the main character holding up the titular watch along with a yo-kai medal in his other hand, and Whisper standing off behind him. It does look a bit bland, especially with the plain white background, but it’s certainly not an especially bad cover either. The back cover goes with the usual synopsis, while also showing off the various yo-kai from throughout the volume. A few bonus comics are included as extras, paper quality feels solid, sound effects are translated in stylized text, and honorifics are not used. The text reads smoothly enough, though it’s worth noting that characters are indeed given “localized” names here (though obviously this manga is tied to the translations for the game and anime, and those are more the point where decisions like that would’ve been made, so it’s hard to fault the book itself for such concerns).
As for the artwork of the book, it’s what I’d call more serviceable than exceptional. It does a solid job of capturing the look of the game, but the overall feel of the art is a tad on the simplistic side. On the other hand, though, the characters are actually quite expressive, and there certainly are some nicely done visual gags. In the end, it’s not a book that really possesses much style or anything too exciting visually, but it’s also fortunately never especially ugly, either.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Nate Adams is just your average elementary school student, until one day while walking along, he finds a weird capsule machine next to a tree. It’s all rather abrupt and doesn’t feel like a very properly put together setup, but whatever. Anyway, he gives it a try, and a rock pops out, with the “Yo-kai butler” Whisper popping out of that in turn. And unfortunately for the children who are the target audience, the book never actually explains properly what a “Yo-kai” is, not even by shoving in a little extra bit at the beginning or end(for those not in the know, yokai is a term for creatures from Japanese folklore). Still, I suppose the book bombards you with the term enough that you can probably manage to deal with that awkward cultural divide.
Anyway, Whisper furthermore just kind of nonchalantly gives Nate a “Yo-kai Watch,” and also explains that yo-kai are all around, just usually invisible to humans. However, with the light from the Yo-kai Watch, Nate is able to see them. And for his first proper run-in with one, Nate is introduced to the cat mascot of the series, Jibanyan. He has a bit of an odd habit of trying to fight cars, apparently trying to strengthen himself due to what his owner said when he died after being hit by one. Regardless, Nate sympathizes with the catty fellow, and they become friends. And as a result of this friendship a medal is created, allowing Nate to summon Jibanyan with the watch whenever he needs help.
The rest of the volume then goes super heavy on the whole “monster of the week” format, with each chapter focusing on a new yo-kai. There are some solid gags included through this, so it’s not all bad, and Jibanyan’s recurring gag is actually pretty fun. Interestingly enough, though the original games are monster battlers, everything here is more about using the Yo-kai’s abilities and just generally being nice in order to solve problems, rather than fighting anything. Will Nate be able to round up all the rowdy Yo-kai with the power of friendship, or will they prove too much for our generic protagonist?
In Summary
With this kick off volume, it seems very clear that this is absolutely more a series for fans than anything else. It’s definitely accessible enough that you can use it as an entry point to the franchise, but ultimately I can’t imagine people who aren’t already sucked into the Yo-kai craze getting too excited about it. Ultimately, what you get here is a rather generic “monster of the week” series built around some silly gags and simple problems. It certainly does its job well enough, but ultimately it doesn’t have much of a hook to it. There’s pretty much no overarching plot to speak of, as it’s just a collection of brief little snippets about each Yo-kai that appears, and little else to keep interest up. That’s certainly not to say it’s bad, as everything about the book feels decently put together, but it just doesn’t really ever amount to much beyond that. Ultimately, if you’re really craving some Yo-kai Watch in manga form then this may well do the trick for you. Otherwise, I’d say this just isn’t the sort of book that’s worth most reader’s time, even if it’s not a terrible little volume in and of itself.
Content Grade: B-
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: All ages
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: November 3rd, 2015
MSRP: $9.99
