It goes like this. This is pretty much kids anime, heavily geared towards promoting youkai merchandise. it follows "3 stories per episode" format. Meaning one episode usually contains 3 short stories, usually padded by music. The anime also heavily reuses in many places, in the beginning it is very blatant.
The anime starts in a very uninspiring way - first 20 or so episodes are dedicated to itnroducing yokai, and are heavily padded by "summoning animation" scenes. Basically, when youkai is summoned, protagonist (keita) makes a flashy move/animation sequence ("ore no tomodachi - de te koi!" or osmething), which takes ... quite a bit of time. Then youkai upon appearing does a little dance.... and this is obviously used to pad animation and reduce budget. Those episodes in the beginning are also notable because of their use of "gerogero po" intro, which I found rather... uninspiring. Youkai are non-threatening, and episodes follow very cliched format -- people act strange, keita starts wondering what is going on, finds youkai, etc. It is very repetitive.
After episode 20, they start experimenting. Rather than keeping introducing youkai, they take existing youkai, and make short stories with them. Parody stories. For example, there's a cutesy looking youkai, and they make a story where he is a police officer. Basically... a lot of parodies. And those are more interesting.
This keeps going on for 20 more episodes.
At episodes 48+49 ther'es a massive commercial/promotion, and it proves that target audience is children. Because it is pretty much dedicated to showing japanese re-enacting portions of gero-gero-po opening.
After the commercial break, it keeps going on and on... till it ends the season at epsiode 76.
After episode 76 the next season start, they start introducing characters ,and things slowly pick up. Jokes become riskier and more interesting, the story becomes a bit more convoluted, and more importantly, they realize that voice actor that voices Kuma can actually sing (fairly well), and they use him along with voice actress for another actress for a recurring yokai in a better openings ... whose name I forgot (where they see "from east and west" or something).
Around episode 120 I ran out of english material, and started watching it in japanese. At this point the anime actually displayed several strokes of genius.
First, there were absolutely unrelated miniseries called "Android Yamada" within youkai watch, and those are very very very well done. They have gloomy dark humor atmospehre, and they were much more interesting for me than stock youkai watch. Around the same time, anime starts heavily parodying various western pop culture subjects including actors, etc. Then there's an art shift episode that is done in a completely different style.
Around episode ... hmm.... I'd say 180, they switch song once again, and it is absolutely amazing. Except... it goes on for at least 3 minutes, and is pretty much used to reduce animation time. Similar song is at the end of every episode.
The stories get better to episode 200 too, but they never reach "stellar level".
And now.... the original review:
----original 76 episode review---
4/5/5/5/5/5
I watched the first season - the whole 76 episodes.
I'm not sure why the heck did I watch 76 episodes of this when I have other anime on my backlog, but it happened. So here goes the review.
To summarize it: This is definitely an anime for children, most likely 12 y/o and younger. Promotional episodes 48+49 pretty much support this idea (they are massive sales pitch for figures + merchandise). As a result, it is pretty much simple story, with simple characters, mostly cutesy monster designs, and abilities of you-kai are usually harmless.
Meaning as an adult you probably won't find anything interesting here, unless you really need something simple to unwind. If you have children, they'll probably love it, though.
Detailed breakdown below:
Story: 4/10
It strictly follows monster of the week pattern, actually "several monsters of the week", because one episode usually contains 2 or 3 short stories. Meaning, every time people start acting strangely (typically doing something and then saying a phrase afterwards while making some gesture), protagonist says "This must be Youkai's trick!" (youkai no shiwaza), his companion says "there's no way !", The characters says "Oh! Here's the youkai!" (Yappari ita!), at which point his companion freaks out and starts trying to tell what kind of youkai that is. This pattern happens every single time.
Beginning episodes are heavily padded with summoning animations. When protagonist (Keita) calls a youkai, a short animation sequence is played (music + few words + youkai image that dances), the sequences is often the same for the same youkai, and if Keita summons several youkai's in turn, this can take quite a lot of animation time, making story siginificantly shorter.
Now... around episode 20 or so, the show starts improving and introduces "side stories" which can be telling something about a youkai, or could be a parody.
Around episode 50 it improves a bti more as well.
But otherwise it is, from beginning to the end (of the season one) is fairly childish show with not much interesting for an adult to watch.
Art: 5/10:
The art is quite simplified, most youkais are cutesy/simplistic. Some of the side characters looks good in this aesthetic (There was apparently a female bodyguard in one of the side stories). Now, now and then there are more impressive designs, for example Kyuubi (you'll know when you see him), but they're infrequent.
Some of the side characters are nice looking (for example, yuki-onna), but they barely get any screen time.
So, solidly done visuals, but nothing outstanding. Some characters are interesting, but there's VERY small number of them, and they don't appear often.
Sound: 5/10.:
I seriously don't get the original "GeraGerapo" opening. It doesn't sound good for me, although one of its variation was better (the one around episodes 20..40). I liked one of the ending themes (the one with NyanKB - I t hink it starts appearing after episode 40+ or 50+), but that it. Most of the music is not that great, although it isn't horrible.
Character: 5/10:
Well, it is a kids show, so they don't have much personality, and a lot of them, if not most of them, act in stereotypical and predictable manner. Reactions of Keita/Whisper are usually the same any time, and the show doesn't concentrate on anyone's personality. Every character has a role, and they act strictly according to it. So they are not exactly believable.
Enjoyment: 5/10:
Didn't like it much, but kept watching. Probably won't be watching the second season.
Minor detail about translation:
It looks like the primary way to see this show in the west is to watch Disney channel or something. Judging by online information, Disney attempted to americanize the show for unknown reason, and renamed a lot of characters. Keita becomes nate, Fumiko-chan becomes... well, I forgot what her name was. Keita's parents receive names, etc. Even monsterss get renamed, for example Jinmenken becomes Manjimutt, and Ikemenken gets simlar treatment. Of course, some of the jokes are hard to translate, but still, I probably wouldn't watch the show that got this kind of translation treatment. Disney apparently cut off some of the "potentialy objectionable material" (which was like... 3 minutes in the whole 1st season?). Just so you konw.
Anyway. Overall:
If you're an adult or older teen, there's very little reason to watch this show, unless you're absolutely bored out of your mind or maybe need to kill some time. Kids will probably like this show.
And that's the end of the review. Now perhaps, I can finally finish some of the longer animes that were sitting on my "need to finish watching" list for a very long time.
---end of original 76 episode review---
So... to summarize.
You get a show that is aimed at children and promoting merchandise. The stories are also children-compatible, and youkai are never exactly scary. Over time, it slowly improves, but VERY VERY slowly, at snails pace, but never become amazingly great. There are ton of pop culture references, it parodies huge number of subjects, and some of the references are obscure to the point that they WILL leave you scratching your head.
However, the anime is not great. It has its moments of genius (like those android yamada mini-series, which are absolutely amazing), but often falls back into mediocrity.
It also finally gets a nice intro song after episode 140 or so... I'm just not sure if watching 140 episodes before that is worth that song.
It may be worth watching if you have some time to kill, or a slot in your day and want something .... relaxing to watch there, but that's about it. Check it out - maybe - if you have the time, but it is by no means a "must watch" anime. It can be quite addictive though... despite not being very good.
