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Yokai Watch Film Sets Toho Record with 840,000 Advance Tickets Sold
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Film distributor TOHO announced on Thursday that the first anime film in LEVEL-5 Inc.'s Yo-kai Watch franchise, Yo-kai Watch: Tanjō no Himitsu da Nyan! (Yo-kai Watch: The Movie: It's the Secret of Birth, Meow!), has sold 840,000 advance tickets. This is the highest number of advance tickets sold in the entire 82-year history of the film's distributor TOHO.
As of November 2, the film had sold 721,422 advance tickets. The film at that point had already broken the TOHO all-time record for tickets sold in advance. TOHO said at the time that it aims to make Yo-kai Watch a long-running hit series in the vein of such beloved franchises as Doraemon, Crayon Shin-chan, Detective Conan, and Pokémon.
The first film, which will tell the origin story of the watch, will open on December 20.
The film will star Haruka Tomatsu as Keita Amano, Tomokazu Seki as Whisper, Etsuko Kozakura as Jibanyan, and Yūki Kaji as Fuyunyan. Other cast members include Tohru Nara as Kuma, Aya Endō as Fumika Kodama, and Chie Satou as Kanchi Imada. Guest stars include AKB48 member Haruka Shimazaki as Yukippe, kabuki actor Ainosuke Kataoka as Ubaune, and actor and comedian Ken Shimura as Master Nyaada. Yoichi Kato will provide the scripts for the film, while Ken'ichirō Saigō will compose the soundtrack. Oriental Light and Magic is animating the film.
Level-5 has already announced a second film for next winter.
