More Yo-kai, more blandness
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Noriyuki Konishi
Translation: Tetsuichiro Miyaki
What They Say
Nathan Adams is just an average kid until the mysterious Whisper gives him a device that allows him to see what others cannot, Yo-kai of all shapes and forms! Now, armed with the Yo-kai Watch, Nathan, Whisper and their new invisible friends embark on an all-new supernatural adventure! 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!
The adventure continues in volume 4 of Yo-kai Watch!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
We start off yet another collection of assorted one-shots with one focused on a cupid Yo-kai. And the gimmick honestly feels especially poorly utilized, as pretty much the only thing that really happens is that the Yo-kai forces Jibanyan and Whisper to love him, which makes them stop attacking. Just a really bland chapter overall. Next up, though, is a somewhat different sort of chapter, in which Jibanyan encounters the flaming Yo-kai known as Blazion on his own. It’s fairly simple and short, but it’s got some nice little gags and doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Following this is the Skeptical Yo-kai, Suspicioni, which once more just feels a tad under-baked. It seems like you could get some decent mileage out of a super skeptical character, but it doesn’t really feel like the book is interested in doing much with the idea, and instead just runs through its paces. We get another big battle after this with a giant Yo-kai known as Gargaros, which essentially ends up relying on Dianyan’s toughness. It’s not a great fight by any means, but it’s at least a slight change of pace to see an actual brawl for once, which is something.
After this comes another Jibanyan short, this time with a dance loving Yo-kai, and… it’s pretty much just visual gags this time. The next chapter is about a lazy Yo-kai, and I could swear that we had a very similar plot already… But yeah, it’s a pretty bland one, focused largely around lazy fighting. Then we get a Jibanyan short that ends up focusing on the visual gimmick of Jibanyan having a hole through his head, which is… kind of creepy. Closing things up, we get a somewhat decent chapter about a robot Jibanyan, another Jibanyan short, and an okay chapter with the theme of illusions.
In Summary
With this volume, the series seems like it may have pretty much just run out of halfway decent gimmicks, as it’s almost all visual gags this time around. And while that may have been cute enough the first dozen times, it’s wearing more than a little thin to see Jibanyan stretched out of shape in increasingly odder fashion, to the point that some instances are getting straight up disturbing. We do start to get some shorter chapters focused on Jibanyan interacting with other Yo-kai solo, which is at least a slight change of pace, and the first instance of that here is at least worth a laugh or two. But all in all, though, this really feels like a book that’s run out of ideas, and the few usable ones it dredges up still manage to feel half-baked. And much as I’d like to hope that’s something that’ll change in the future, I’m sure it’ll instead only keep getting worse. For now, though, this is an incredibly bland entry in a fairly uninteresting series, so I’d have a hard time recommending it to anyone but the most diehard of fans.
Content Grade: C
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B-
Age Rating: All ages
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: March 1st, 2016
MSRP: $9.99
