Yo Kai Watch Vol 1 Review
When was the last time you read something that made you feel like a kid all over again?
As many of you that keep up with the manga reviews that I cover for the site may know, I’ve been covering quite a few ecchi titles recently, which is to say I have not had much exposure to such childish series as Yo-Kai Watch in a while. That being said, please don’t take my calling it “childish” to be something negative, because that is far from the truth. My reason for using the word is because Yo Kai Watch is infact a manga that is tailored towards a younger demographic of reader, with a healthy sense of innocence that it oozes from each and every page, from cover to cover.
Yo-kai Watch’s story is based on a Level 5 video game by the same name, which is about about a young boy named Nate (Keira in Japan) who comes across a capsule machine next to a tree. Nate uses the device and sets free a Yo-kai by the name Whisper who pledges to be his butler against his wishes, and gives him a watch called the Yo-kai Watch which grants Nate the ability to see, communicate with and befriend Yo-kai. Yo-kai or (Yōkai ) according to Wikipedia are a class of supernatural monsters and spirits in Japanese folklore.
Each chapter of the first volume has Nate and Whisper seek out new Yo-Kai to befriend by looking for strange occurrences that happen in Nate’s town, because Yo-Kai affect the environment and people around them in different ways.
What’s not to like?
This is the section where I would usually state what “I” don’t quite fancy about the manga I’m reviewing, but no matter how hard I think about it I can’t find anything about this volume that stroke me the wrong way. I will however state that I can see how some readers may not like the lack of complexity that this first volume offers due It’s a very straight to the point story, and lack of any real kind of plot twist, and I’m counting that second to last chapter because it ultimately turned out to be the same as the others.
This is Whispers manga!
I think we have established that I like this first volume so lets talk about what I liked the most about this volume. That being how easy it was to follow due to it’s light hearted nature. The cast of human and Yo kai characters are also well drawn with enough detail to convey every emotion possible while remaining super cute and interesting enough to keep you entertained, especially Whisper who stole my heart almost immediately. His character design is so simple yet effective at relaying the character’s charm. While reading the volume I kept looking forward to what weird, stupid thing he would do next and he didn’t disappoint at all.
For me the manga was more about Whisper, and how he would interact with whatever new Yo-kai they encountered rather than anything Nate had to do. Nate who you can considered your generic do good by all means character, is all good and all, but he doesn’t stand out in any way when compared to the Whisper and the other Yo-kai, but that’s not a bad thing because every story needs supporting roles so that the true stars “Whisper” can shine.
Final Verdict
Though Yo-Kai Watch is clearly aimed primarily towards younger readers I did find its innocence to be an adorable addition to my regular mix of ecchi and action based reading catalog. If you’re interested in something that is both easy, and fun to read then you might want to consider getting this one.
Yo-Kai Watch Volume One: Link
if you’d like to hear more of my thoughts on this topic, then I suggest you listen to the Buttonsmashers podcast.
Hey Looking good, fresh site an ting!
Nice Review, makes me want to jump back into the Anime, i managed about 2-3 episodes when the anime came out, prolly a good time to check back crunchy roll 🙂
I’ll prolly add it to my regular anime roster,
Cheers m8!
thanks for the comment. Oh and I know what it’s like to only be able to manage 2-3 episodes. As for me I tend to stick to Netflix and Hulu for my anime, but I know of folks who use CR.