Youkai Watch Episode 1 Discussion

sentience said:
OLM, the studio that made this, is the same studio making Pokemon anyway.
(However from what I see I'm pretty certain it's not the same studio number making it, so quality of both cannot be compared. This is definitely on the lower end of animation quality from OLM.)

The OP and ED had parts of songs and dances that sounded/looked pretty childish (kindergarden school age type). I wonder if that was really the target audience for a title that sold over 200,000 3DS game copies in Japan. I refer to the second part of the OP which contributed to the disjoint (the first OP half was good) and the entire ED.

I expect this anime to be between 5~7ish score.

It was pretty entertaining otherwise for a typical cartoon that targets a younger age group.

DATS24 said:


and I still wonder why pokemon can get a 7.8 score..
Is childish and more to younger ages means a negative point to the anime?

Even pokemon is just repeating its basic anime formula with hundreds od episodes

KiraSeika said:


Pokemon XY deserves a 8 or 9.... It's really that good this time around btw with all the director/ writer changes unlike Best Wishes which is like 3/10.

Back on topic, This anime seems childish but pretty entertaining so i might keep watching since i like anything from Level 5

DATS24 said:
and I still wonder why pokemon can get a 7.8 score..
Is childish and more to younger ages means a negative point to the anime?

Even pokemon is just repeating its basic anime formula with hundreds od episodes

OmniKaiser said:
And the Danball Senki Series (Level 5 franchise), with good battle choregraphy and glorious Rei Kondoh Soundtrack, stopped because of this (Other Level 5 franchise).
I'm devastated...

sentience said:

No need to hate this series just because it "stole" timeslot of the other series, if that show is that good and can gain enough support, it will come back.

sentience said:

Good that you asked. The OP/ED for Youkai Watch being childish isn't fine as it limits the show to only the target demographic of kindegarden or elementary school children, when there are clearly a lot of people of other age ranges who are into the collecting aspects. The Pokemon or Digimon fandom is very much the proof of this. This is a big shame as the animation seems pretty accessible to people of any age group, not just their target demographics of only children.

Also, I did not mean to say that animation targetting the younger ages is a bad thing. I'm also not afraid to say that I enjoy such cartoons even when I am out of that age group. I mainly had problems with the kiddy dance moves/song in the ED and parts of the OP. (See reason on first paragraph for why this is a problem.)

Pokemon is probably not for everyone and may not for you, but there are plenty of people who appreciate the game (it was the best selling 3DS game for months so far, and was top of the chart in Japan recently). It's not your job to kill that joy for the others who enjoy the anime and rate it highly. The games have always followed that standard formula of collecting and exploring while bringing in novelties, that worked for many years and the anime is doing the same right now. The anime was boring before XY, but now I honestly enjoy the change in artstyle and also the finer details of the battles in the anime (that wouldn't be technically possible within the game). (Also, Team Rocket doesn't always appear in every episode. The previous one had a different type of baddie.)

Yes Pokemon has one-time characters but that doesn't mean that they are useless. They are there to teach a story or serve an important plot device. I enjoy the many finer details of the story that I wouldn't enjoy in the game. Citron as the mad inventor is pretty entertaining. Also, they are now more free to express various ideas with the anime. It doesn't strictly follow the game storyline progression, instead it adds on to the understanding of certain parts of the game.

Pokemon XY deserves its 7~8 score. Other than the improved story, which sometimes bring important life lessons with them if you look deep enough, there are animated details in the background, such that hardly any part of it looks static or boring. I could find plenty of these static screens in Youkai Watch's animation however, which is why I said it was the lower end of animation from OLM.

The lower animation quality for Youkai Watch is understandable however since it is a new series with promise, but not a lot of support for now. Pokemon started out this way too, and now Pokemon XY sold 4 million worldwide compared to Youkai Watch's meagre 200k. Also, Youkai are very specific to Japan, so there is another problem with localising it elsewhere. It will become a niche series but not the same level of success as Pokemon. Time will tell however.


No need to hate this series just because it "stole" timeslot of the other series, if that show is that good and can gain enough support, it will come back.

Besides, Youkai Watch taking this slot for now also gives them enough time to think up of new ideas for future Danball series and properly work on them. I have seen consecutive series that did not take breaks and the following series suffered highly because of it and viewer fatigue.

DATS24 said:
but hey, I enjoyed the game too, also the movies. And I watched some hundreds episodes before I got really bored. Maybe you're right, some of the minor characters aren't that wasted, but mostly are, and very unmemorable, just a plot device to stalling its episodes until they make a new series of the game. Life lesson? hmm the only I got is battling ppl with no apparent reason and catching pokemon without being like team rocket (team rocket's pokemon were willingly accepted to join their parties instead of being forcely caught like most of Satoshit's)

Nah, main character is the only thing I hate the most, never mature generally, still being silly, also still 10 yrs old.. Pikachu.. oh man... pikachu..

Srsly you'd better give a try for another mon (even the niche one) series that are much more awesome than pokemon like Legendz: Tale of Dragon King or Gekifu Bakegyamon.. They deserve as high as some of digimon series' scores (8-9 points)

Pokemon just don't know when to end

sentience said:

I took a look at the art style and synopsis of those recommendations and to be honest I didn't really like them. Like I said, it's a matter of personal taste of whatever you like.

I know you dropped Pokemon XY, but if you have the time, just watch a single episode 9 of Pokemon XY and tell me what you see.

Your main complaint of Satoshi always being the main character is something a lot of people have been saying, but for some reason it would be hard to get rid of him. Also, Pikachu is very popular, it's not going to be easy to replace it. My only explanation will be the voice actors tied to the anime, nothing else.

Granted, if they ever changed the artstyle and story to something like the BW2 trailers or Pokemon Origins, I'm sure the quality would go right up. The only problem is that they will not be able to sustain as many episodes as they can right now. It's pretty obvious that they are trying to hold people's attention through anime before the next Pokemon game.

DATS24 said:
Oh, so the main thing for you is the art style. Yes, the one I recommend, the arts aren't promising, though (especially that Legendz). But you just haven't fallen to the episodes. Those are not your average kids show, and the synopsis there aren't helping..

Yeah, even digimon can change its very popular mascot, agumon.. Pokemon just isn't brave to do.. you dropped digimon adventure, is there a problem with it?

sentience said:

I don't read synopsis here, I read the ones on Wikipedia.
I surveyed a few people about Pokemon and the first thing they say about it is Pikachu. So for them to change mascot is not advisable and I personally wouldn't support it. It will be a disaster if they change it like what so many of these other niche series do.

Digimon is fine but beyond the first series I cannot find any interest in it. The monster designs are a bit rough somehow and not as cute as what you find in Pokemon. I also didn't enjoy the changes in Digimon at all. I'm not a fan of part of the industry's practice to regularly change all the leads each season.

Also, don't take it personally but there are different things needed for a monster collect series to appeal to females.