I'm back peeps, wishing I had more time to do reviews, hoping this one can jump start another run as I review Yo-Kai Watch.

Nate is a young boy who stumbles on a capsule machine which in turn frees the Yokai spirit Whisper, in return for helping him out and the fact that Nate can see these creatures called Yokai, sees Nate get rewarded the Yokai Watch, a device that can help find and see other Yokai, together Nate and Whisper capture different Yokai who cause problems in their town.
I'm not going to pull punches, this is simply a very, very Japanese Pokemon only without the epic journey and the dramatic battles; saying that, Yo-Kai Watch is very clever with it's plot. Essentially it takes the entirety of Japanese Folklore and applies it to a setting that essentially says that all lifes little niggling issues are caused by a Yokai, which actually clicked with Western Audiences particularly the already well versed anime crowd in the 20-35 age category, this is despite the fact that it's essentially the most Japanese of Anime to hit a mainstream cartoon channel.
It's not without problems, side characters are really, really bland, certain design choices can go from creative to surreal to run-out-of-ideas in a full season, there's more to Japanese spirits than just cats you know and Nate himself is not really that interesting. Dub is passable, only because Whisper has this bizarre accent that you cannot unhear.
Despite that, the anime is actually very good and as an ambassador and representitive for what is classed as mainstream anime in Japan, it's better than Sazae San, it's better than Doraemon, it's better than Crayon Shin Chan but nowhere near as good as Kochikame.
Final Verdict: It's doing a better job of advertising Japan than it's contemporaries, and while I wouldn't rate it the best anime to ever come out of Japan I certainly rate it high enough to warrant a watch.