Despite being an anime aimed at children, Yo-kai Watch often shocks viewers, especially mothers and fathers. There's even an episode called "Komasan Taxi," in which the Yo-kai Watch characters are forced to reflect on their past reckless behavior while in a taxi, which is quite a challenging proposition from the production side. They've even received warnings from the BPO (Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization)... We've taken a look at some of the problematic episodes of Yo-kai Watch!
The Rampage of a Young Yo-kai
Komasan's series, "The Dog of the North Star," is a perfect homage to Fist of the North Star. While this series is already quite risky, the scene that was particularly problematic was when Komasan stimulated a key point on Nobosetongman, turning him into a young yo-kai. Simply turning him into a young yo-kai wouldn't have been a problem, but Nobosetongman ended up becoming a "yo-kai who loves bananas." While transformed into a gay man, he holds a banana in his mouth and makes comments that sound like nothing more than dirty jokes, like "it's long" and "it's curved." Honestly, kids who love Yo-kai Watch probably wouldn't understand this joke, but it must have instantly turned off families who watched it during mealtimes...
Suddenly Naked!
A yo-kai that can sweep the awards race with just one lick. Keita, eager to win the prize, strips naked and tries to get licked all over. But even Keita's naked appearance got caught by the BPO! To be honest, I'm sure many viewers thought, "Is it just a child naked?" However, overseas regulations are stricter, and even Goku from Dragon Ball, the epitome of a wild child who has spent much of his time naked, was apparently changed to show him wearing pants. Regardless of age, perhaps it's precisely because the main character is a young elementary school student that the act of undressing is strictly regulated.
Yokai that have become scum
"Black Yo-kai Watch: The Guided Scum" is a Yo-kai Watch series in which the characters turn scum. Their appearance and even their speech patterns change dramatically. In particular, the BPO apparently warned that delinquent-like words like "kuso" (shit) and "zeee" (annoying) are not educationally harmful. In today's anime, behavior that would be harmful to children is especially likely to be censored. Perhaps for this reason, Yo-kai Watch features characters who appear to be bullies, but they're not necessarily bad kids. Surprisingly, there are no bad kids around Keita, even though Namahage himself is one.
Sadly! Shelved Episode
Unfortunately, there is a phantom episode that never aired. These were episodes 39, "School Lunch Gourmet Episode 2: Pudding," "Yokai U.S.O," and "Yokai Spoilerina." All of the episodes contain parody material, making it a mystery as to what caused them to be banned from broadcast. It's thought that the problem was that "School Lunch Gourmet" even had the same art style as "Solitary Gourmet," that Fumi-chan imitated Pink Lady's UFO in U.S.O, and that a movie similar to Star Wars appeared in "Yokai Spoilerina." However, given that Yo-kai Watch is already full of parodies, it's puzzling why this particular one was so particularly problematic.
Summary
Because it's a children's anime watched with the whole family, it's been subject to strict regulation these days. While many anime are conservative, I feel that Yo-kai Watch is quite a challenging work. I'm excited to see what other wild adventures it will show us in the future!
