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User:Hijiri88/sandbox

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Reception

The original Yo-kai Watch game received a score of 36/40 from Famitsu,[1] with its sequel Yo-kai Watch 2 also scoring 36/40.[2] Yo-kai Watch 2 won the Grand Prize in the Japan Game Awards. It also won 3 other awards: The Best Sales Award, and two Excellence Awards (for the 2nd game and its third version).[3] In 2014, Yo-kai Watch's manga in CoroCoro Comic won the 38th Kodansha Manga Award in the Best Children's Manga category.[4] In the following year, it also was awarded the Best Children's manga at the 60th Shogakukan Manga Awards.[5]

Series mascot Jibanyan was at the center of artwork for the 2014 holding of the World Hobby Fair,[6] was chosen as the kids goodwill ambassador of the Hawaii Tourism Board in Japan in 2015,[7] and was one of the 8 "Olympics Ambassadors" for the 2020 Summer Olympics.[8]

When the anime first aired, in 2014, the franchise became popular in Japan. By February, the first game, which originally sold only 53,654 copies, was at over 500,000 shipped[2] and the anime was surpassing Pokémon in the TV rankings; being compared to it[9] and being dubbed the "Pokémon Killer".[4] By the second game's release, the first game had sold 1,195,287 copies and the second game surpassed that at release at 1,316,707 copies. The third version also impressed, at 1,244,171 units.[5]

Even the president of Level-5, Akihiro Hino, was surprised by Yo-kai Watch's popularity. "While I did believe that it would get its break, honestly, to have it come this far, where the children of Japan would get so hopped-up on Yo-kai, to the point where all the goods would sell out, is something I didn't expect."[10][11] They were the second most popular characters in Japan, in a survey by Video Research Ltd.[12] Explanations for its popularity ranged from catchy songs and dances,[13] to being something parents and kids could enjoy together,[4] to "weird adults" not being interested in it.[14] Hino himself said that it was the relatable characters and situations relatable to modern kids that made it popular.[15]

This also translated into toy sales, racking in 55.2 billion yen for Namco Bandai.[16] Yo-kai Watch toys were frequently out of stock; people having to wait in lotteries to get a Yo-kai Watch and search hard for medals.[17] Other merchandise had to wait longer because of the long licensing wait times.[14] This demand made it the second highest product in Nikkei Trendy that year.[18]

It was a top seller in many other areas as well: The Yo-kai Watch Guide was the number one book in 2014,[19] its first theme song, Geragerapo no Uta, was the number 50 song on the Oricon Singles Chart,[20] and the movie had the highest opening of any Japanese film since 2000.[21] Yo-kai Watch even had a special segment on Kohaku Uta Gassen,[22] Japan's most viewed music program.[23]

By 2015, sales had started to fall to numbers ranging from around a quarter to 1/8 of what they were the previous year. Prices were cut[14] and there was less visible excitement among children.[24] By the time the third games were released, in 2016, it was on a downward slope with the game launching with about half of what the second games did, with 632,135 units[25] and the third version of the game launched with half of what the first versions sold with 337,979 units.[26] The toy sales were 10.4 billion yen in toy sales and estimated to be at 6.3 billion yen in 2017.[4] This was largely due to hype building for two games that were coming from Nintendo's Pokémon franchise, the Pokémon Go smartphone app and Pokémon Sun and Moon for the 3DS.[27]

In addition to the wake of Pokémon's renewed popularity, analysts had a few other theories on why Yo-kai Watch was falling. Ken Hōri of The Business Journal and Ollie Barder of Forbes thought it was mainly distribution issues; products that were ordered from the summer vacation were over stocked, because of the six-month waiting period for copyright approvals. Another reason he had was that the toys had incompatible medals with later watches, leading to a loss of interest.[24][14] Barder and Sato of Siliconera also mentioned oversaturation, with it being Sato's main focus.[4]

Unlike in its native Japan where it experienced a short period of great popularity, Yo-kai Watch had an overall underwhelming performance in the United States. Although it got off to a promising start in that region, with the original game selling at least 400,000 units there as of 2016,[28] the sequel, Yo-kai Watch 2, sold less than 200,000 copies in comparison. Meanwhile, Disney XD's English broadcast of the anime series has estimated only 100,000-300,000 viewers per episode, and was removed from the network's schedule in 2017. Despite the franchise's unsatisfactory western response, it maintains a cult following with attempts to revive the franchise such as #SaveYoKaiWatch which trended on Twitter.[29] The franchise is also popular in Europe, with the original game's sales out pacing the Japanese release as of October 2016.[30]

  1. ^ "Yo-kai Watch Anime Gets English Exercise Video". Anime News Network. June 23, 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Yo-kai Watch Ships Over 500,000 Copies In Japan - Siliconera". Siliconera. 2014-02-19. Retrieved 2022-10-09.
  3. ^ "Yo-Kai Watch And Super Smash Bros Win Big At Japan Game Awards 2015 - Siliconera". September 18, 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d e "The Rise And Fall Of The Yo-kai Watch Boom That Took Japan By Storm - Siliconera". May 11, 2017.
  5. ^ a b "This Week In Sales: Yo-kai Watch 2 Invades Japan (Again) - Siliconera". December 17, 2014.
  6. ^ Dong, Bamboo (November 18, 2014). "Yōkai Watch's Jibanyan Ousts Pikachu From the World Hobby Fair Spotlight". Anime News Network. Retrieved September 7, 2020.
  7. ^ "ジバニャンがハワイ州観光局キッズ親善大使に就任！ 『妖怪ウォッチ』×ハワイ州観光局のコラボが実現". Famitsu (in Japanese). March 2, 2015. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  8. ^ Anderson, Jenna (September 5, 2017). "The Tokyo 2020 Olympics May Have A Full-On Anime Parade". ComicBook. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
  9. ^ "Yo-kai Watch Is Popular Enough In Japan To Be Compared To Pokémon - Siliconera". April 11, 2014.
  10. ^ "Even Level-5's President Was Surprised About Yo-kai Watch's Booming Popularity - Siliconera". Siliconera. 2014-05-05. Retrieved 2022-10-09.
  11. ^ "Even Level-5's President Was Surprised About Yo-kai Watch's Booming Popularity - Siliconera". May 5, 2014.
  12. ^ "McDonald's Now Fully On Board the Yo-kai Watch Bandwagon". Animenewsnetwork.com. June 23, 2023.
  13. ^ "Yo-kai Watch Displaces Long-Time Favorite Anpanman in Children's Poll". June 23, 2023.
  14. ^ a b c d Barder, Ollie. "'Yo-Kai Watch' Is Losing Steam In Japan". Forbes.com.
  15. ^ Nakamura, Toshi (July 10, 2014). "How Yokai Watch Was Engineered To Be A Massive Hit". Kotaku.com.
  16. ^ "BANDAI NAMCO Holdings Inc.: Consolidated Financial Results". Bandainamco/co/jp. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  17. ^ Ashcraft, Brian (August 8, 2014). "Buying Japan's Most Popular Toy Was Crazy Hard". Kotaku.com.
  18. ^ "Frozen, Yo-kai Watch Are Japan's Top Products". Animenewsnetwork.com. June 23, 2023.
  19. ^ "Yo-kai Watch Guide Is Japan's #1 Book in 2014, While Disney's Frozen Sells 2.1 Million Books". Animenewsnetwork.com. June 23, 2023.
  20. ^ "Oricon Top 100 2014: Singles".
  21. ^ ""Yo-Kai Watch" Film Breaks Opening Weekend Record of "Howl's Moving Castle"".
  22. ^ "Yo-kai Watch will Hit the Stage in New Year's Eve Song Contest". Animenewsnetwork.com. June 23, 2023.
  23. ^ "Nana Mizuki to Sing in New Year's Kōhaku Uta Gassen (Updated)". Animenewsnetwork.com. June 23, 2023.
  24. ^ a b "Is Japan's Fascination with Yo-Kai Watch Watch Over?". Animenewsnetwork.com. June 23, 2023.
  25. ^ "This Week In Sales: Yo-kai Watch 3, Trails in the Sky the 3rd Evolution, And Uppers Make Debuts - Siliconera". July 23, 2016.
  26. ^ "This Week In Sales: Yo-kai Watch 3 Cooks Up Its Sukiyaki Version - Siliconera". December 23, 2016.
  27. ^ Sato (11 May 2017). "The Rise And Fall Of The Yo-kai Watch Boom That Took Japan By Storm". Silconera. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  28. ^ "Yo-kai Watch Sold Less Than Half a Million Units in North America". Nintendo Life. 2016-06-12. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  29. ^ Morrissy, Kim (2023-12-04). "Yo-kai Watch Screenwriter Reacts to Series Trending in America". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  30. ^ "Financial Results Briefing" (PDF). Nintendo.co.jp. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
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