By: Nathan Tse

The Yokai Watch series is a Manga graphic novel series by Noriyuki Konishi based on the video game Yokai Watch. It takes characters from the video game but instead of using the game’s plot, the author invents a new comedic plot that revitalizes elements from the video game.

The main characters are Nate Adams, a normal kid whose life changed when he discovered yokai.Whisper, a Yokai butler who was freed by Nate from a curse and guides Nate around Yokai and acts like Nate. Jibanyan, a cat yokai and the first Yokai Nate befriends. He’s carefree, and seems to be Nate’s most reliable Yokai for most situations.

A summary of the book Yokai Watch would be that a boy named Nate Adams was an ordinary kid at first, but one day, while walking home from school, he noticed an unfamiliar tree with a stone capsule machine next to it. Curious, he uses it, and when he opens the capsule, Whisper pops out. Whisper explains the yokai, and that he is a yokai butler who was stuck in the cursed stone capsule. He gives Nate the Yokai Watch, a device that lets the user see Yokai. When Nate got the Yokai watch, his regular life ended, and whenever something seems strange, he finds the yokai behind it, and gives them a way to use their powers for good.

The jokes in the book are funny, and there are a lot of jokes. A problem would be it’s a little bit gross sometimes, so if you get easily grossed out, skip over the chapters that start with Jibanyan as the first appearing character. (Except the one that starts with Jibanyan complaining about the cold.)