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Forum - View topicREVIEW: Yo-kai Watch GN 1 & 2
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CaRoss
 Posts: 457 |
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I'm not surprised about the lack of appeal to older readers, and not just because of the localization choices.
However, much like Digimon and Pokemon, I can see it becoming something of a nostalgic series for a lot of children as they grow up, and maybe even reach the same heights as the two aforementioned series. So, I'm quite glad, at the very least, that the manga are released here. Anything that can get more kids interested in the medium is fine by me, after all 
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jr240483
 Posts: 4446 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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not if the manga gets americanized towards the point that it turns them away. there is a reason why the older audience aint interested in it. cause they know it wouldnt be completely faithful towards the japaneese manga at the slightest and get ridiculous edits (changing character names,places,etc) towards the point that it feels like if its a US GN instead of a manga sure 5-9 yr old kids wont care, but those in the 10-12 demograph will. |
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CaRoss
Posts: 457 |
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Maybe they will care, and be turned off, or maybe they won't. Many of my friends, and myself, grew up with some of these Americanized manga and they were an entryway into the world of anime and manga. Franchise like Pokemon, Digimon, and Megaman all went through some heavy Americanization, yes, but they also managed to do a lot to get many people into this fandom. So, while there are undoubtedly children in the 10-12 age range who will care, I still think that this is a good entry point for many children into the realm of anime and manga. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 2648 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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That's really where the problem lies - there's a cross-over in the target audiences of both middle grade and YA stories, and another one in the upper elementary and middle grade audiences, so it's never as clear cut as we'd like. It all depends on reader maturity, availability of a parent/teacher/older sibling to talk about the reading with them, and personal comfort with foreign names. A six-year-old who has been read a lot of classic fantasy is more likely to balk at Americanized names than a ten-year-old who has reading difficulties: that second kid might not pick this up if it wasn't localized, and manga is a great learning tool for reluctant/challenged readers. So really, in terms of education and children's literature, there's no clear-cut answer. Those are much more available if we just look from a fan perspective. 
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CallumKeyblade
Posts: 536 |
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To be honest, I don't really mind western-ising series like this to an extent. When there are 100s of monsters, it's so much easier having names for them that make easy sense to your brain. To use the example of Pokémon, remembering Squirtle is a lot easier for a ten year old than remembering Zenigame because of the squirt & turtle connection. The names are for a species rather than an actual character name so I don't see the problem in adapting those.
I think it would be nice if they had kept the character names & such the same but unity with the anime & games probably meant some higher up wanted the franchise to be more western oriented. |
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Hagaren Viper
 Posts: 787 |
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I think you're really overestimating the situation here. A lot of kids at that age don't even know that Yokai Watch is an anime/manga, and some won't find out until much later while some will grow into other things and never find out at all. To them it's a cartoon, and as long as it entertains them they aren't going to be offended that a name was changed. There are some kids who will know, I was aware of the differences in Digimon at that age, but the way you go on about this in so many threads makes me think you haven't actually met a kid before. |
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Guile
Posts: 595 |
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I'm almost 30 and love Yokai Watch so I would say it has nice older appeal.
I haven't read the manga but the dub for the anime is what I would call decent. Most of the original music is kept including the opening and ending, and so far I've only noticed censoring on things I was 100% sure would be censored (alcohol changed to water, girls in swimsuits changed to be more conservative, homosexual scenes cut out, nudity, and so forth. But so far nothing pointless has been edited out like you would see in a 4Kids dub. I was surprised they kept Jibanyan being hit by a car and left to die in the street by his cruel owner and saying he was a stupid cat for getting hit by a car.
The name changes are disappointing, but expecting them to be left alone might have been asking too much. Some of the yokai names are quite long like Tsumamiguinosuke. I like they kept Kyubi, but disappointed they changed Orochi. Some of the more common ones seem like they would be okay to keep. |
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Mr. Oshawott
 Posts: 6773 |
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As a grown-up otter, I'm enjoying Yōkai Watch pretty well, both the game and the TV show. The name-changing of the Yōkai, I was okay with. However, I was disheartened about the human characters being Americanized, but I've gotten over that.
My views towards the English version of Yōkai Watch are...well, a mixed bag. It does have its issues (elderly-sounding main human cast, the censoring being a bit over the top, and [reportedly] audio-sync issues involving speech), but I did enjoy Whisper's spooky voice and Jibanyan, Komasan, and Komajiro's voices sounded pretty cute, particularly with Komasan's English catchphrase "Oh my swirls."  On top of that, the opening and ending songs and the background music were, for the most part, left intact, so that's another positive going for the American English version of the show.
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epicwizard
Posts: 420 Location: Ashburn, VA |
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I was also pretty upset with the name changes to the humans when I first discovered that, however, I've gotten used to them since the franchise's release here. I've always been fine with the names to the Yo-Kai being changed since their names are puns on Japanese words and would make no sense to an American kid. In case anyone didn't know, the alternative English version of the manga published in Singapore by Shogakukan Asia retains the names of every character (yes, even the Yo-Kai).
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ninjamitsuki
 Posts: 633 Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology) |
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I play the game despite being an adult, and I enjoy it. I'm perfectly fine with translating the names of the Yo-Kai, almost all of the names are Japanese puns, and I think the new English punny names are great.
However, I think changing the names of the characters is sort of a "missing the forest for a tree" edits. There's tatami mats, they eat rice balls (and no, they don't call them donuts.), a Shinto Shrine, a Buddhist temple, old creepy Japanese manors, Mr. and Mrs Stone wearing kimonos in a mansion with a rock garden and the thing that goes doink... Yet this is all in a town called Springdale about kids with whitebread names like Katie Forester and Nate Adams. The only thing they localize is the names, everything else that's Japanese is kept. It's like editing a tree out of a forest. It's very inconsistent. 
I mean, Digimon still took place in Japan and had (mostly) Japanese names but it was still popular with kids. |
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