Review: Yo-Kai Watch, Volume 14 (by Noriyuki Konishi)

My Rating: 4 stars

Continuing on with our tradition of reading the Yo-Kai Watch manga series together, my nephew and I just finished volume 14, which is the latest version released in English and I was able to get an ARC for.  Just like the previous volumes before it, this one continues the adventures of Nate and his various Yo-Kai friends.  Once again, our favorite feline friend, the mischievous Jibanyan, is the focus of majority of the stories and as usual, he gets himself into a pickle each time he is either summoned to help Nate or encounters a fellow Yo-Kai that he of course never wants to fight.  My nephew and I love Jibanyan, so of course having him in every story works for us — with that said though, we also love Jibanyan's camaraderie with Nate and his Yo-Kai butler Whisper as well as the special, irreplaceable chemistry that the 3 of them always have together (the way that Jibanyan constantly annoys Whisper on purpose never fails to make us laugh, lol).  So of course, we were quite disappointed that Nate and Whisper only featured in less than half the stories this time around.  While it's fun to meet new Yo-Kai characters in each volume, it's equally a joy to be able to read about old Yo-kai friends and see what type of new adventures they get to go on — the earlier volumes had a better balance of both, in my opinion.

Regardless of how the book was structured and the lack of usual favorites in terms of characters, getting to spend quality time reading with my nephew is an experience I always cherish.  This is one of those times where the book's content matters much less than the shared experience of being able to read the book with a loved one. These are always a joy to read and definitely, both my nephew and I continue to look forward to reading the next volumes in this much beloved series!

Received ARC from VIZ Media via Edelweiss.