Hello again. While I am still quite excited for Pokémon Sun and Moon (I just made another payment yesterday with about half the money I need down and 75 days to go till launch); I admit that not everything has been easy about what I've been doing.
It's been about a year since Yo-Kai Watch began making its entry into the US. While the results were below expectations; all the parties involved have pledged greater support across the board for Yo-Kai Watch 2: Bony Spirits and Fleshy Souls. I still have some targets that I'm working on to express my discontent with the whole thing; but despite what other parties have said, I'm still overall skeptical of how the sequels will do; given how I'm not a fan of the anime, which also soured my enjoyment of the game and guaranteed that I will not purchase any merchandise associated with the series, or accept any as a gift.
With that on the table; I am going to explain my stance further, and if your best argument is "if you don't like it, don't watch it," I can already tell you that you've come to the wrong place.
The article I linked to above contains some arguments in favor of Yo-Kai Watch. However, I feel that it's necessary if I address the setup in a similar manner to what was given to me. There will definitely be another time to go about things with my usual style.
While I agree that the game's roots in Japanese culture is not necessarily a deterrent; it's become increasingly clear to me that trying to pass off the setting as western (such as renaming the location of New Sakura Town to Springdale, Idaho) hasn't really worked in the game's favor. In fact; it's already proving unwieldy as the sequels still feature villainous yokai that are outright stated to come from ancient Japan. To quote one of my influences of SF Debris: "By calling attention to the elephant in the room, they've unwittingly drawn attention to the mammoth standing next to it."
By that same proxy; my associate Kohdok wondered how the english dub of the anime would skirt the challenges of obscure pop culture references and bizarre toilet humor, and was less than pleased by the bad lip-syncing and liberties taken with the original scripts and characterization.
Unfortunately, things have not really improved all that much since the second season started. In all fairness, I don't hate Johnny Yong Bosch as a voice actor and feel that he's serviceable as Nate (Keita in the original Japanese version); but everyone else comes off as rather stilted and wooden to me. On top of that, a lot of the surprisingly raunchy humor is left in; along with replacing the aforementioned pop culture references with dated Western ones. The most recent dub episode I've seen had Nate making references to 1970s sitcoms such as The Love Boat and Fantasy Island at a school field day. I may have understood those jokes; but I highly doubt that the target audience of Disney XD did. A shame, since the network is usually pretty good about targeting kids at their level and appealing to adults in the process. Even though the author of the article I linked claims otherwise; the shows that I find with appeal to both adults and children on the network include Gravity Falls (whose recent series finale drew record ratings across the board), Star VS The Forces of Evil (for all intents and purposes, a western magical girl series) and Star Wars Rebels (whose highly-anticipated third season will be including fan favorite character General Thrawn).
Also, the author claims that many detractors of Yo-Kai Watch use arguments based on things that Pokémon has but Yo-Kai Watch lacks. While in some ways, this is still true; they never seem to realize that some people are generally big Pokémon fans and are not guaranteed to enjoy Yo-Kai Watch on its own merit, much less as a competitor. I may have been a bit rash in my initial assessment of some episodes; but the whole notion of opinion myopia has been a recurring problem since Yo-Kai Watch was brought to the US. There have been quite a few very ugly takes on this whole conflict; with the main constant being that as a lifelong Pokémon fan, I have often been called "loony" and my disdain for Yo-Kai Watch an attempt to "tear it down" and "prevent its success" on the grounds that I won't accept it for being "unique and original." The reality is that even with all that's been said; I am genuinely interested in Pokémon and simply don't consider Yo-Kai Watch to be the successor everyone else has hyped it as. So, the time has come to counter some of the arguments that are being presented.
1. Relatable premise or gag-ridden mess?
The first thing that was raised to me was the premise, essentially "everyday life with yokai." While not a bad concept on paper; I've long felt the anime didn't really do anything all that interesting beyond that setup. Heck, it's taken a whopping 137 episodes before the writers got the idea to subject Keita to clothing damage. Even then, each of the misfortunes the yokai cause are treated more like mild inconveniences than any genuine comedic suffering. On top of that; when the gags aren't obscure, they're often downright patronizing to the target audience and annoying to everyone else. While the author cites Ghostbusters as a parallel, both the movies and cartoons of that series had a pretty healthy balance of both comedy and nightmare fuel. Call me crazy, but it's hard for me to blame yokai for traffic or bad weather when we're in the midst of a war; an economic/social transition and an election year I'm going to remember for a long time, no matter what happens in it. This brings me to my next point.
2. The anime.
Even though the anime was a large part of the series' success in Japan; it has had some trouble gaining traction in the West. While 500,000 viewers at the peak so far may be decent for a small fanbase; it's nowhere near as popular as it is in Japan, as these numbers are less than half of what a Japanese episode can pull. It remains to be seen what the recent timeslot change from daily airings to Saturday mornings can do; and even though the author may be onboard with the premise, I've seen scads of anime that have the elements that Yo-Kai Watch recycles. Azumanga Daioh and Ichigo Mashimaro are among my favorite slice of life series for providing an earnest look at life through the eyes of Japanese youths. The works of Hayao Miyazaki have showed how the spirits of Japanese mythology can blossom in many ways: from the grand take on the spirit world in Spirited Away to the dark fantasy of Princess Mononoke. The two genres have also managed to cross streams with the mindbending narratives of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, YuYu Hakusho and CLAMP's xxxHolic (pronounced "Holic"). What they had in common were truly unique stories and diverse characters to go with their distinct artwork and respective takes on their subject matter. While I do praise Yo-Kai Watch for having fluid animation and a colorful art style; I find the slice of life premise juxtaposed with yokai hard to swallow when the leads are portrayed as, not to put a fine point on it, total idiots. Say what you will about Ash, at least he can typically handle himself when things get tough. I don't mind that the more action-oriented nature of the games are taking a backseat to life lessons; I just feel it could have been handled better. Even though the experience is touted as "unique," most of the kids in the target audience for Yo-Kai Watch seem to be watching Ultimate Spider-Man or Avengers Assemble instead.
3. The music.
Even though the music is a large part of the experience in Japan; outside of the western versions of the "Laugh Out Loud" theme and "Yokai Exercise #1", it has largely been ignored in the west; to the point where the dub even switched to a less memorable flavor of generic techno-pop. While both songs have admittedly been among the more popular uploads to the official YouTube channel for the series; as a man who's grown increasingly tired of the modern pop landscape save for a few exceptions, they haven't really won me over. Almost every time I end up recapping an episode, I end up skipping the intro and omitting the ending in favor of listening to Crazy Train for the umpteenth time.
4. The merchandise.
Now here's where things can get VERY polarizing. While Hasbro has reported an increase in revenue over the last fiscal year since the series came stateside, the report is juxtaposed with their old standbys of Nerf and Star Wars; so it's debatable if the series is really having the impact the company is expecting it to. In the latter case, the author compares the eponymous Yo-Kai Watch to a lightsaber. However, I'm going to have to play Vader's advocate and disagree. While both Luke and Rey's journeys are helped along by finding Anakin's lightsaber in an old chest; in both their cases, it's treated like a genuinely important moment that leads to growth for both their characters and the audience. The watch, however, is treated like a sales pitch to practice to people; least of all the parents that ultimately make the buying decisions. Sure enough, I have only seen one child wearing a Yo-Kai Watch on their wrist when I went on an errand to Salem a few months back; while the lion's share of the merchandise has been major shelfwarmers in my area's shops despite several markdowns. Once again, Pokémon merchandise continues to sell to multiple demographics as a result of the 20th anniversary's marketing push; as well as other big series such as Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers and DC/Marvel comic merchandise (there's a reason why I linked to a Transformers wiki for those unfamiliar with the term).
5. The video games.
Now comes the part where it all started. In Japan, the games came first, while the popularity of the series grew after the anime and toys were released. In essence, it fit the mold that was cast for the series. It had been developed by Level-5; who is admittedly a talented developer who had a long history of making quality games in Japan (with other notable works being the Professor Layton and Ni No Kuni series). Unfortunately, rather than try to adopt a business model that would be better suited to the United States; the company is trying even further to shotgun the series into "the next Pokémon" when it would be better suited to be marketed as an alternative. Granted, Hino did seem pleased to say that the game has sold 400,000 units at E3 when the sequels' localization was unveiled; but among other sources, concrete numbers on the series performance seem highly conspicuous by their absence. Meanwhile, Pokémon Sun and Moon pre-orders are still trending with each piece of new information revealed (and I will address what I haven't soon); and previous entries getting a bump due to the success of the Pokémon Go mobile game. Even though I may not hate the game like I do the anime; I still find it a bit of a letdown in spite of the praise others have given it. I believe someone on YouTube put it best in a now-gone video about the subject: "some of the yokai designs are interesting, but the battling is very lame. Pokémon has such a complex battling system, and Yo-Kai Watch is so easy that a toddler could win." That about summed up the main issue I had with the game, and the one of the main reasons I decided to write this post. Let me make perfectly clear that my issues are not with things that aren't in Yo-Kai Watch, and even when they are; they actually seem like somewhat reasonable requests (the author doesn't seem to understand the difference between someone like me saying "Yo-Kai Watch is a lousy Pokémon clone" and saying "if I can't get invested as a customer; why should I care about this universe and its people?"). My issues are with things that are.
Despite the author's request for me to unite the fandoms, I am forced to decline even with what they've said. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't be addressing the subject at length. These are not normal circumstances. Given how they asked me what I would do; that is the primary catalyst for me writing this blog post. So, I present a counter-offer: vote with your wallet. I do not know whether or not the sequels to Yo-Kai Watch will give the series the same level of success it has in Japan; though I admit it's some consolation that Europe (who is often more receptive to Level-5) has been taking to the game quicker than the United States. As for me: I personally found Ni No Kuni more interesting in how it handled a similar premise, and the planned sequel to that still has me seriously considering getting a PS4 soon (along with The Last Guardian, Kingdom Hearts III, Batman Arkham Knight and transferring my data from my PS3 for Grand Theft Auto V). I intend to finish paying off Pokémon Sun and Moon before they launch in November; so I can pick up some other goods (such as the Z-ring and Pokémon Go Plus accessory). I do give Level-5 credit for releasing the games on the 30th of this month to allow breathing room; but I will not address the matter further until I do my remaining targets of the anime. After that; I will be going on one last vacation with my family before I go back to school, and the playing field will change again. I can at least say that it's the first time I've had a competitor I can talk at length about in some time; and it has generated a lot of material. I will have more to say when I get back to work on my plans for the series. So, that will be all for now.
See you space cowboy.
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