Youkai Watch, the video game anime that's taking Japan by storm [Kotaku, Level-5]
Look at this graph, its not stopping at all. 652k currently doing 40k+ a week
The anime is Yokai Watch, which is based on the 3DS game. Developed by Level-5 of Professor Layton fame and released last year, the game made the top ten sales chart. But it wasn't until the anime was released earlier this year that its popularity took off.
Yokai Watch follows the adventures of Keita, who can see yokai (or monsters) by using a special watch.
Keita befriends the yokai, who give him medals (or coins), which he can put in his watch and use to fight other yokai. Keita's partner, or version of Pikachu, is called "Whisper" (above). My oldest son described Yokai Watch as being kind of like Pokemon, but without leagues. Oh, and the other children in the show apparently cannot see the yokai. Only Keita can.
The show is popular with kids, because, well, kids like monsters. Pokémon has proved that. Centuries of Japanese yokai tradition have proved that.
And last month, the day when the second set of medals was released, Twitter user Kaztsu reports that there were over 120 people in line.
There is also a kiddy Yokai Watch arcade game, which is often surrounded by children waiting to get their chance to play.
Searching "Yokai Watch" and "popular" in Japanese on Twitter brings up a slew of results and comments like: "Yokai Watch sure is popular," wrote @mizu5501; "I just realized that Yokai Watch is popular," wrote @tarano_me; "Don't you think Yokai Watch is too popular? ahahahahahahahahaha," wrote @ZG_YN.
Recently, website Inside Games tried to pinpoint why Yokai Watch was so popular, especially because the game wasn't really a huge hit when it was originally released. It seems like the anime gave it a huge boost in popularity, and it's been instrumental for it becoming a hit. No wonder now Level-5 boss Akihiro Hino is being called a "genius."
The anime brought Yokai Watch to a wide audience. My kids had no idea about the 3DS game—which they now want after the fact. It's like Level-5 studied everything that makes Japanese kids' shows popular and then distilled that into a new game and anime
