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General
- Acting for Two: In some French dubs, Bear and Eddie are both voiced by Nathalie Bienaimé.
- Adaptation First: On several levels.
- In Japan, the manga began publication in December of 2012, about six months before the first game came out, and just over a year before the anime began airing.
- In the US, the anime premiered in October of 2015, about a month before the first game came out, with the manga's first two volumes being published three days before said game.
- In Europe, the anime premiered on April 23rd, 2016, three days before the first game's release.
- Cash-Cow Franchise: Predominantly in Japan, where you can find a lot of merchandise featuring Jibanyan. The franchise has even gotten deals with Subway in Japan, with Pizza-La, and with McDonald's Japanese branch, decorating some establishments to look like Nom Burgers!
- Creator-Driven Successor: To Ni no Kuni, another Level-5 RPG that involved collecting monsters that had different preferences in foods.
- Creator's Favorite: Brent Pendergrass (voice actor/writer) is a huge fan of Roughraff.
- Demand Overload: For a year, the supply of The Merch (especially for the watch and medals) did not meet demand and many stores sold out of the toys as soon as stock arrived. It got to the point where some stores had to hold raffles whenever they got shipments of the toys to prevent this from happening.
- Fan Community Nicknames: Yo-Kai Watch fans are called "Yokites" by non-other than Whisper's voice actor himself!
- Incidental Multilingual Wordplay:
- Spoilerina is able to keep the "ballerina" wordplay in both the English and Japanese version (her Japanese name is Netaballerina," a portmanteau of "netabare (spoilers)" and "ballerina").
- Snailspace is able to preserve the pun of its Japanese name (Maimaipace, a play on the English loanword, "My-pace," which means to go at one’s own pace), thanks to "snail’s pace" being an actual English expression.
- No Export for You:
- Subverted surprisingly. 2015 marked the year Yo-Kai Watch went westward. Usually youkai heavy series are considered "too Japanese" to become popular outside of Japan.
- The Katie-centric shoujo manga Yo-Kai Watch: Wakuwaku Nyanderful Days was only released in Japan.
- A lot of merchandise, such as Katie's watch, hasn't been released outside of Japan.
- Due to difficulties in exporting the Yo-Tunes website and its accompanying "version update" gimmick outside of Japan, Bandai Asia's release of the Yo-Kai Watch U Prototype toynote comes with its software already updated to the final version, and also includes an "Asia-exclusive" Kungfunyan Medal, which ironically was never released in Japan itself. Sadly, due to poor sales, no further versions of the Yo-Kai Watch toy has been released by Bandai Asia since.
- Orphaned Reference: Two in Jibanyan's design; the orb on his collar is a remnant of an old ability of his from earlier in development, where it was a "transform orb" that he used to transform into humans. A second case is his inspiriting power, where it's described as Jibanyan using seals to paralyze foes, despite there not being any references to this power anywhere else. In developmental concepts, Jibanyan's haramaki was originally made of cursed seals that could be peeled off like sticky notes. The concept of Jibanyan using seals was scrapped, but his inspiriting power was not changed.
- Production Posse: A large number of Japanese voice actors involved with the game and anime previously worked on Level-5's other major franchise, Inazuma Eleven. This includes Haruka Tomatsu, Aya Endo, Aoi Yūki, Yuki Kaji, and Toru Nara, to name a few.
- Screwed by the Merchandise: Narrowly avoided between the second and third games in America. The original merchandisers stopped making medals (which could have led to trouble due to the third game's reliance on medals) and merchandise in general came to a standstill, but the series still survived.
- The Other Darrin: By 2019, USApyon's original VA, Kotori Shigemoto retired from the showbiz industry. All future appearances of USApyon (from Yo-kai Watch 4 onwards) have him voiced by Hana Satou instead.
- Unisex Series, Gendered Merchandise: In Japan, the series is unisex and that's a factor to its popularity. In America, near all instances of Katie and Hailey Anne are removed from marketing and the merchandise is marketed at boys. Even the clothing is made mainly with boys in mind.
- What Could Have Been:
- At one point, Inaho's English name was going to be Gracie. Some parts of Wibble Wobble still listed it as Gracie before they settled on Hailey Anne.
- Nate's friend from BBQ, Mac, was going to be called Wyatt in the English version according to Wibble Wobble, but in the final version of 3 he was named Buck. Wyatt was given to another kid in BBQ.
Video Games
- Follow the Leader: Yo-Kai Watch Blasters finally uses the real-time 3D "Musou" combat system from Dynasty Warriors and a dozen others.
- God Never Said That: Despite what video game news media may be telling you, Nintendo and Level-5 were not trying to set up the franchise to be "the next Pokémon," but they were trying to bring similar success as it had in Japan. However, the franchise didn't catch on, and was quickly eclipsed by the one-two punch of Pokémon GO and Pokémon Sun and Moon.
- Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.":
- Many Yo-Kai from the sequels were first introduced to the U.S. in the mobile app Yo-kai Watch: Wibble Wobble before the video game or the anime.
- USApyon was first officially introduced to the U.S. in the Final Fantasy XIV collaboration event. A few others that also appeared in the crossover promotion are Hovernyan and Robonyan F.
- USApyon himself plays it straight, having appeared in Yo-kai Watch Blasters first. His inclusion was meant to be an Early-Bird Cameo, but Yo-Kai Watch 3 got delayed, turning it into this trope.
- Some Yo-kai Watch 2 Yo-Kai have showed up in the localized manga before the actual game or an anime appearance.
- Tsubaki-hime (a Brave tribe recolor of Blizzaria with flower motifs) plays it straighter, having appeared in Wibble Wobble first before appearing in Yo-Kai Watch 3, and so far is the only Wibble Wobble-originating Yo-Kainote to do so. She also appeared in the states as part of a special event with the California-based sushi chain Kula as part of a Wibble Wobble magnet promotion that ran through September 2016, where her English name is revealed to be "Camellia"note .
- Like Camellia, the Yo-Kai Cornfused first appeared in an event for Kula. Long before his debut in Yo-Kai Watch 3 and the anime.
- Before the International version's shut down, a multitude of Yo-Kai introduced after the second game were brought into Wibble Wobble. Including Koalanyan and Whaleman from the third movie (before we even got Enma and Zazel from the second movie)
- As Yo-Kai Sangokushi was never released westward, Yo-kai Watch 3 marks the first appearance of several "Commander" Yo-Kai from the game. Specifically Jibanyan Liu Bei, Komasan Sun Ce, Usapyon Zhongda, Hovernyan Cao Cao, Orcanos Lu Bu, and Whisper Kongming.
- The 15th volume of the manga saw the official American debut of Blasters 2 boss Boogiemum (Miiraball in Japanese) and special legendary Crystal Shogunyan.
- No Export for You:
- Several games have only stayed in Japan: the arcade game Yo-kai Watch Busters: Iron Oni Army, the Wii U game Just Dance: Yo-kai Watch Edition, the 3DS game Yo-kai Sangokushi, and the mobile game Yo-kai Watch World.
- Yo-kai Watch 3 narrowly avoided this fate. Due to middling sales and the 3DS being all-but dead, there were issues with localizing the game. The localizers instead opted to release one version of the game instead of three like the previous titles (and the Japanese version).
- This was also the case with Yo-kai Watch Blasters 2, as the 3DS is long dead in 2019/2020 and Level-5 has noted they're working on bringing over Yo-kai Watch 4 instead. It doesn't help that Blasters 2 was notoriously buggy and broken in several aspects.
- If the aforementioned examples weren't bad enough, Level-5 all but shutting down its American branch has basically sealed the franchise's fate in the West. No new Yo-Kai Watch games have been released outside of Japan since 3, including Yo-Kai Watch 4, Yo-kai Watch 1 for Nintendo Switchnote , and Yo-Kai Watch Jam - Yo-Kai Gakuen Y: Wai Wai Gakuen Seikatsunote .
- Reality Subtext: Yo-kai Watch 3 is set in the USA, with the news being released in Japan the same year the series finally gets exported to North America.
- What Could Have Been:
- This trailer shows how the first game would've originally turned out to be.
- The first trailer for the game shown in 2011 was originally run on the PlayStation 3 and not the 3DS.
- Unused stuff from the first game included Food items like coffee and rice bowls.
- A few games, like the fourth game, had schedule slips and their releases were pushed back a few months.
- An early Jibanyan design, as seen in the 2011 trailer and later shown off more in-depth prior to 4's release, was less cute and more chubby; he looked more like Doraemon. Jibanyan originally had the ability to transform into people using a Transform Orb, which explains why his collar has an orb on it. Both of Jibanyan's ears had notches and they wre originally from mouse bites (referencing Doraemon), instead of getting hit by a car. His haramaki was originally made of cursed seals that could be peeled off like sticky notes. Jibayan using seals was scrapped, but his Japanese inspirit still mentions him using paralyzing seals.
- Jibanyan's oldest known design resembles his 2011 one except that he didn't have a yellow haramaki. It was originally a rope with seals on it.
- Jibanyan's owner was originally named "Sae", not "Emi".
- Walkappa originally had a larger bag.
- Noko's proportions were different, its tail was thicker, it had green Blush Stickers instead of red, and it had a leaf marking on its head.
- Usapyon wore a yellow suit and a yellow hat with rabbit ears.
- Spewart was originally humanoid.
- Han Sode is a scrapped yokai that was a boy who wore short sleeves even in winter.
- Dekin-chan is a scrapped yokai who would get people banned from places.
- Tatoe-chan is a scrapped yokai who caused parables to go on infinitely.
- Shigakunyan was originally Jibanyan with different clothes.
- This trailer
Anime
- Acting for Two:
- With the relatively small voice cast, this is bound to happen with the large number of characters. It's especially noticeable in the Insomni episode, where Alicyn Packard winds up voicing Jibanyan, Baku, and Insomni at the same time.
- Kyubi and Katie are voiced by Melissa Hutchison.
- Alicyn Packard voices both Rudy and his owner Amy.
- Aya Endo voices both Komasan and Komajiro in the original Japanese version.
- Actor Allusion:
- Whisper, voiced by Tomokazu Seki, is revealed to be the secret adviser of both Ishida Mitsunari in Sengoku Basara and Keisuke Takahashi in Initial D and a revived spirit of deceased Devil Z driver in Wangan Midnight, all voiced by Seki!
- Nate says It's recap time! Not to mention that Adam was the Ranger's first name, and Adams is Nate's last name!
- This isn't the first time Erika Harlacher voiced someone with Anne in their name.
- Whisper's replacement voice is Michael Sorich, and it wouldn't be the first time he played a ghost-like being that followed a young boy around.
- Adored by the Network:
- Disney XD loved showing marathons of the show every week, and they would play promos for the show on every show that's not Yo-Kai Watch. It was also the only third party series that aired on the now-defunct "Disney XD on Disney Channel" animation block. All seemed to do well for the series in the US... but not for long. Pokemon debuted on the same channel in 2017, and immediately became more popular among viewers of the network, which was helped by the fact that Pokémon was already an established franchise with universal appeal compared to Yo-Kai Watch, which had Japanese references that many people outside of otaku and hardcore video game fans wouldn't be able to understand. As of that year, this status has been averted dramatically.
- On Japan's Kids Station channel, the show accounts for 50% of the daily programming.
- Banned in China:
- The British version of Cartoon Network has only shown "The Sleepover" and "Yo-Kai Fidgephant" once due to their subject matter note and the amount of censorship needed to make the episodes acceptable.
- For whatever reason, episode 12 had never aired in Poland. It's never exactly explained why it never aired, though it's mostly due to Cheeksqueek. This can be jarring for fans in that country, as the first episode of "The Great (Dog) Escape" is included.
- The Swosh segment from Episode 79 was skipped over in the English dub. Unsurprising given the segment's lewd nature. Strangely enough, the episode's recap got posted on YouTube despite Swosh not appearing.
- The Dog of the North Star segments are skipped in the English dub, possibly due to copyright issues (or kids being unfamiliar with the source material, or not wanting kids to learn about it).
- The Song Medal episode is skipped in the English dub, likely so they didn't have to dub the songs and advertise a product that isn't being sold (though the Song Medals show up in later episodes like the Lil Kappa one and the House Partay one)
- The dub also skipped "Fidgephant Panic!" from episode 84, due to it being about Fidgephants making people need to pee, possibly because the censors were worried that it would encourage children to urinate in a pool, despite the fact that several other Western children's shows have dealt with the topic before.
- In Romania, while the second and third seasons weren't dubbed at all, the first also has three banned episodes refused broadcast by Cartoon Network due to (allegedly) inappropriate content. Episode 12 centers around Cheeksqueek, a Yo-kai with a butt-shaped face who makes the others fart. Episode 71 introduces Snottle, a Yo-kai who makes people stick their fingers in their nose. Episode 27 also didn't air.
- Cancellation:
- The English dub only made it three seasons in before being cancelled due to low ratings.
- The Italian dub did even worse. After many episode skips, frequent hiatuses and awful timeslots, the series was finally put out of its misery halfway through the second season.
- Children Voicing Children:
- In the Filipino dub, child actors Miggs Cuaderno and Jillian Ward (ages 11 and 10 at the time the series premiered) voiced Nate and Katie, respectively.
- In the Polish dub, while not as young as his character, Olaf Marchwicki (who was 12 years old when the series premiered) voiced Nate.
- Cross-Dressing Voices:
- Some male Yo-Kai such as Jibanyan, Usapyon, Komasan and Komajiro are voiced by females. The most jarring example is the tall ladykiller Kyubi who is referred to as a male but is voiced by a female (possibly because his human form is a child).
- Bear's mother (female) is voiced by Brent Pendergrass (male).
- Dueling Dubs: There are actually three English dubs of the anime. The Toonami Asia dub existed a few months prior to the Disney XD dub which also came out in 2015 when the series was brought to the US that same year. This went unnoticed until the anime was released on Netflix with complaints that it wasn't the dub most viewers were familiar with. The Toonami Asia dub is notable for keeping the original Japanese character names. Komasan's verbal tics "Zura" and "Monge" are also kept and neither have Southern accents in that version. The third dub is used for Cartoon Network Africa and keeps the localized names but uses entirely different voice actors and scripts.
- Descended Creator: One of the English dub's writers, David H. Steinberg, voice acts on the show itself.
- Early-Bird Cameo: A voice actor example. Katie Leigh appeared at Yo-kai Watch events long before appearing in Season 3 as Usapyon.
- Executive Meddling:
- Due to complaints, later episodes of the anime tend to be more family-friendly, toning down most of the violence and sexual jokes. Though they still managed to keep the crude nature in many episodes.
- Fidgephant got hit with this hard. Because his debut episode was deemed controversial and inappropriate, he never made another appearance in the anime (outside of minor appearances and cameos) until episode 84 (and even then, the American version on Disney XD didn't air it because the Toilet Humour was too much).
- Foreign Dub as Basis: Most foreign dubs of the anime are based on the English dub produced by Disney XD (with the exception of the English dub made by Toonami Asia, which is more faithful to the Japanese script and keeps most of the imagery that was cut from the Disney XD dub).
- Man of a Thousand Voices: All of the voice actors are this to some degree, but especially Brent Pendergrass, whose vocal range varies from the tiny high-pitched Ake to the deep, gruff-voiced Sgt. Burly.
- No Export for You:
- Only the first movie has been dubbed and released internationally, while the second and third were released, it wasn't everywhere so there's countries where it wasn't the case.
- The anime didn't get a physical release in the UK due to licensing issues between Dentsu USA, Manga Entertainment and Level-5.
- Only So Many Canadian Actors: The English dub is a strange example of this trope. While most of the actors are American, a few are Canadian, most notably Paul Greenberg, the voice of Bear.
- The Other Darrin:
- In the English versions of the series, some of the characters (usually most of the Yo-Kai) have different voices (or in minor cases, different inflections) between the games and the anime. Since Yo-Kai Watch 2's international release, it's a lot more noticeable: the yo-kai's Voice Grunting during battle, which was mostly kept Japanese in the first game, was dubbed in English in the sequel, mostly using the anime's version of the voices. Since they didn't re-dub the Befriended/Medallium quotes from the first game, this results in almost all of the previous yo-kai from the first game having two different (and often, easily distinguishable) voices in Yo-Kai Watch 2.
- From Season 3 onwards, all of the voice actors have been replaced with cheaper ones due to cutting costs. To clarify:
- Whisper's voice changed from Joey D'Auria to Michael Sorich.
- Nate's voice changed from Johnny Yong Bosch to Griffin Burns.
- Jibanyan's voice changed from Alicyn Packard to Kira Buckland.
- Katie's voice changed from Melissa Hutchison to Reba Buhr.
- Komasan's voice changed from Melissa Hutchison to Erika Harlacher.
- Komajiro's voice changed from Alicyn Packard to Christine Marie Cabanos.
- Release Date Change: Snartle's debut story in the English dub was skipped over a few episodes due to being based around April Fools. This is jarring for the recaps, as his medal was shown before.
- Screwed by the Network: In America, the anime was Adored by the Network for a few months and even got its first movie aired on TV quickly. However, the anime never picked up much steam and the most viewed episode had only 500k viewers (less than half of what an average episode got in Japan). Things got worse when the more popular Pokemon was given a Channel Hop to Disney XD. A combination of Invisible Advertising, competition with other shows on the network, and long periods of no new episodes led to the anime being dropped midway through season 3 and replaced with Inazuma Eleven: Ares in April 2019.
- Short Run in Peru:
- Episode 13 was first aired in Canada, 3 weeks before its US airdate.
- From Jan 6-18, Episodes 18-26 were released early in Australia.
- Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy: The English dub actually edits the show to ensure that its accurate to the American toys. Such as adding three dots to the new medals and putting old medals into the Model Zero would only play the summoning song (as opposed to the Japanese version where you'd be told that the medal will not work with it).
- Un-Cancelled: The after ending in favor of Shadowside, the original series will be brought back in April. note
- What Could Have Been: The English version of "Yo-Kai Exercise No. 1" originally had much different lyrics from the version it uses now.
