Dentsu Entertainment USA, Inc. and TV TOKYO Corporation have announced they have teamed up with leading global play company Hasbro, Inc to bring the hugely popular multimedia franchise YO-KAI WATCH to new markets. In 2016, Hasbro will introduce an innovative toy line for the franchise. The YO-KAI WATCH cross-platform experience will also include additional broadcasting, video game and merchandising relationships to be announced later this year.
“The YO-KAI WATCH franchise has been hugely successful and we are ready to bring the brand to new markets across multiple platforms”
YO-KAI WATCH is an original concept created by renowned Japanese game company LEVEL-5, Inc. and the Nintendo 3DS video games have sold 6.5 million units in Japan. With an imaginative plot, great characters, comedy and adventure, YO-KAI WATCH has become one of the most popular franchises of all time in Japan. The story centers around a young boy who gets a special watch empowering him to discover and summon mysterious Yo-kai that help him solve problems in his daily life usually caused by other trouble-making Yo-kai. The YO-KAI WATCH animated series, a joint production effort of LEVEL-5, Inc., Dentsu Inc., and TV TOKYO Corporation, is the top-rated show for kids 4-12 across all genres on TV TOKYO and has the highest average household ratings among all regularly scheduled animated programs on the network.
In addition to the TV series, the YO-KAI WATCH franchise has enjoyed tremendous success across several product categories since it began in Japan including selling millions of copies of YO-KAI WATCH manga and related books and generating hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars in retail sales of toys and other merchandise, not including games, music CDs, and publishing.
“The YO-KAI WATCH franchise has been hugely successful and we are ready to bring the brand to new markets across multiple platforms,” said Mr. Akihiro Hino, President of LEVEL-5, Inc.
“We have seen the massive success of the YO-KAI WATCH franchise in Japan and are thrilled to be chosen to help expand the property to new markets,” said President of Hasbro Brands John Frascotti. “We look forward to creating exciting and innovative play experiences with this amazing property for kids to enjoy around the world.”
Mr. Kiyofumi Kajiwara of Dentsu, Inc. and producer of the YO-KAI WATCH animated series added, “As leaders in the toy industry, Hasbro is the perfect choice to introduce innovative toys to new markets and we look forward to securing other broadcasting, video game and merchandise relationships as we expand the property globally.”
YES! :D
no
Yuh huh.
i have to wait for majora mask q_q
I know your pain. I wasn’t prepared when I was told I could preorder the bundle with skull kid and I had to pay full price. $11 shipping wasn’t in my list so I gotta wait till next week sigh
Oh youre having it shipped to home address as well then? I wanna know when people start getting therez so ill know to hunt down my postal workers….
yes!, to your no XD
Awesome! Been waiting for this announcement.
I want to try out this series so badly, and see what all the rage is about. I’m getting kind of sick of Pokemon too, so it would be nice to spice it up a little. People say they’re similar.
0_o!?!? “sick of pokemon”? can those words be used together in a sentence like that?
Yeah man, I lost my appeal to Pokemon. I used to love it to pieces with Pearl, Heart Gold, and Black. Then I forcefully got Black 2 cuz of limited legendaries, and while it was a nice memory trip from the first one, it was sort of a chore. The the later 3D Pokemon games didn’t move me a bit. I was also really bored with the ORAS demo.
I used to be sick of Pokemon too but now I play it every single day. So much that I barely even play my other games. I’m always constantly checking for Pokemon news just in case there’s an event so I won’t miss it. I didn’t really start caring about the games until X and Y. I wish I would’ve started playing them earlier because of the awesome events I missed for legendaries. Anyways, I know how you feel. I would suggest that you wait a couple of years to get into another game when there’s enough changes.
I agree, waiting a couple years probably helps. I beat OoT3D back in 2011, and jsut recently I made a new file. I appreciate the 3D more than ever, which is a big reason why I’m planning to get MM3D, but I just wanna know the the level of 3D is as good as OoT3D.
I understand that.
but this yokai watch series will follow the same road as pokemon, people say it’s more creative and imaginative than pokemon, but it’s easy to be creative within your series when its only been going on for a few years. pokemon has been going on for I believe almost 2 decades, so it’s understandable that they’re not as appealing to people anymore.
2016?
2018, at least. We all know how these things take time, especially localizations.
Not sure if they meant the game or just the toys in 2016. Hasbro is pretty huge, they’re worth 7.2 billion. So they could definitely speed things up with that kind of bank. Nice they are working with Hasbro on this, it should really push it out to the masses this way.
I really hope it all comes next year.
hasbro can’t even sell star wars right, what hope does this have.
They are bringing everything but the game… I wish they’d announce it already as coming 2015… By 2016, Japan could already be playing Youkai Watch 3.
Has anyone checked out the Eshop on 3ds there’s something neat on there
like what
It’s a good game, seriously.
Ironfall?
I’ve seen so many rave reviews, and really want to try this series out.
http://www.triskelereviews.com/
I hope they keep the Japanese names for the Yokai.
By saying “across multiple platforms”, does that mean the game will be released to other consoles?
Glad that the game is coming to the west, however I have my doubts if the toys will sell well. At least with Nintendo, amiibo were bound to be a hit because of many well known nintendo characters but Yokai watch is new to the west, at least that’s what I know, and unlike Japan it may not catch on right away.
If the show does well then the toys will be a hit as well. Put this show on in the evenings on Cartoon Network in between the other popular shows like “The Amazing World of Gumball” and “Adventure Time” and kids (and probably teenagers) will get into it. All Level 5 needs to do is market everything really well.
So is this some kind of sick and backwards digimon/ pokemon thing. Cuase that’s the vibe im getting.
It’s not.
Why do I smell another Pokémon ripoff, like Digimon?
I’ve been watching the Yo-kai watch cartoon (in Japanese), and it’s awesome and funny! I don’t think Yo-Kai watch should be compared to Pokemon or Digimon, since it’s pretty different (you get medals, but you don’t actually own the Yokai).