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.

Review: Yo-Kai Watch, Volume 11 (by Noriyuki Konishi)

My Rating: 4 stars

It is starting to become a tradition of sorts for my nephew and I to read the latest installment of this Yo-kai Watch manga series together each time a new volume is released.   This volume continues to be focused on the adventures of Nate, Whisper, and our favorite cat Yo-kai Jibanyan – while Nate continues to befriend more Yo-kai and add more medals to his collection (with his trusty butler Whisper by his side of course), Jibanyan  continues to get himself in all sorts of lovely trouble, lol.  Just like with the previous volumes we've read together, my nephew loves to insert his own commentary when we get to a newer Yo-kai that I might not be familiar with – he'll usually tell me which season (of the TV series) the Yo-kai is from as well as what its abilities are, which of course I'm appreciative of since I don't keep up-to-date with this stuff like he does.  We had a lot of fun reading this volume and to us, this one seemed to be so much funnier than the previous few volumes we had read.  I continue to recommend this series for Yo-kai Watch fans of all ages, as it's fun and yes, sometimes a little irreverent but there's usually a lesson to be learned in each book, so reading it together with a child is most ideal.

Speaking of children's books -- someone asked me once what my rating system is for books like this geared toward children and how do I determine whether a book is "good" or not.  To be honest, I couldn't really answer the question because in general, I don't like to rate or review children's books if I can help it (this Yo-kai Watch series is an exception due to them being ARCs so I feel obligated to review).  I've always been of the mindset that children's books should be true "leisure" reading and having to go through the process of critiquing the book and breaking down various aspects of it in a review makes it feel too much like work, which, to me, takes all the fun out of reading it.   I'm not an educator so I haven't the slightest clue what types of books are considered "educational" for children or whether they meet certain criteria or whatnot.  For me, the most important thing is that the child in my household (my nephew) has cultivated a love of reading due to being exposed to all sorts of books from a young age and now at 8 years old, he is already reading above his grade level.  In terms of whether a children's book is "good" or not – for me, I'm concerned less with the content of the book and more with the experience of reading it.   As long as the book doesn't contain anything blatantly inappropriate or offensive, we pretty much let my nephew read whatever types of books he prefers and if the subject matter is difficult or controversial, we make sure we read with him so we can help clarify and/or answer any questions he may have.  Every household is different but for ours, this is what works best.

Received ARC from Viz Media / Simon & Schuster via Edelweiss.

Review: Yo-kai Watch 10 (by Noriyuki Konishi)

 My Rating: 4 stars

 

As I mentioned during my review of Book 9 back in April, my nephew is a huge Yo-kai Watch fan and over the years, he has amassed quite a large collection of Yo-kai Watch memorabilia.  It just so happens that my nephew also loves to read and of course, being the bookworm that I am, my job is to read him a bedtime story every night.  One of the book series that we’ve been working through is the Yo-kai Watch manga series written and illustrated by Noriyuki Konishi.  Upon finding out that Book 10 is scheduled to come out early next year (in January 2019) and knowing that my nephew can’t wait to read the latest in the series, I’ve been checking Edelweiss religiously in the hopes that I would be able to obtain an advance copy.  Fortunately, Book 10 was indeed available and I was able to get approval pretty quickly (thank you Viz Media)!

Similar to the previous books in the series, each chapter features a different Yo-kai character and a backstory of sorts explaining how they come to meet Nate Adams and his trusty Yo-kai sidekick Whisper.  Our beloved cat Yo-kai Jibanyan is of course featured in every chapter (there is a segment in this book that pokes fun at the fact that Nate always summons Jibanyan, as though he is the only Yo-kai he knows, lol!) – which of course is perfectly fine for us (my nephew and myself), since Jibanyan is our favorite character.  One thing that stood out to us with this book is that it had a slightly different format than the ones before it in that this one has alternating chapters where only Jibanyan has an encounter with a new Yo-kai on his own and then when he is summoned by Nate in the next chapter, whatever state Jibanyan happened to be in from his previous encounter is carried into that chapter (for example, if Jibanyan had gotten into a fight with another Yo-kai in the “him only” chapter, he would appear in the next chapter with his face swollen from the fight) – so in a way, the chapters were linked up, with some chapters being continuations of the ones before it.  Both of us actually like this format, as it changes things up a bit, plus the “Jibanyan only” chapters are shorter and less wordy so are much funnier.

Of course, as usual whenever we read these Yo-kai comics, my nephew and I loved being able to spend some time with our favorite Yo-kai characters and laughing uncontrollably at their hilarious antics!  This entire comic series is a “must-read” for all Yo-kai watch fans!  Even if we don’t necessarily learn anything new or particularly profound when reading these (though some of the stories do have specific lessons and messages they try to get across), the pure fun and entertainment value – not to mention being able to spend quality time reading with my nephew – make this an absolutely worthwhile read.  As with the other books, we can’t wait to add the physical copy of Book 10 to our collection once it releases in January!

Received ARC from Viz Media and Level-5 via Edelweiss.

Review: Yo-Kai Watch 9 (by Noriyuki Konishi)

My Rating: 4 stars

My nephew is a huge Yo-kai Watch fan.  He started liking the franchise after playing the game on his Nintendo 3DS and from there, he started watching the anime series and of course collecting all manner of Yo-kai memorabilia, including the different generations of the watch itself as well as the medals, plushies, figurines, posters, toys, etc.  He even has special Nano blocks sets of his favorite Yo-kai characters, Jibanyan and Komasan (both of which took me hours to build, lol)!  As my nephew's gaming buddy, I was automatically given the "privilege" of sharing in his Yo-kai Watch obsession, and of course, being the bookworm in the family as well as already holding the honored position of "Designated Reading Buddy" with my nephew, I naturally seized the opportunity to cultivate the bookish side of his obsession.  To supplement his many toys and video games, I'm constantly on the lookout for Yo-kai Watch related books for him to read, though unfortunately, there aren't too many options out there in English.  A few years ago, I stumbled upon a Yo-kai Watch manga series by Noriyuki Konishi (which was translated and released in the U.S. starting in 2015) and when I showed it to my nephew, he instantly fell in love with the series – it is currently one of his all-time favorites and he re-reads various books from the series practically every month.  When I was browsing on Edelweiss a few days ago, I saw that the latest offering, Book 9 in the series, was available already so I jumped on requesting an advance copy and much to my delight, was approved fairly quickly.  My nephew of course wanted to read the book right away when I told him about it so that's exactly what we did last night for our nightly story session.  Both of us had a lot of fun reading this one and overall we loved it, though we did feel that some of the segments were a bit "wordier" than the ones from previous books so it did break the flow a little bit.  Also, my nephew wasn't as familiar with some of the newer Yo-kai characters, so we got a little sidetracked looking up some of those characters.  Aside from that though, this was all-in-all a delightful read and needless to say, my nephew can't wait to add the physical copy of the book to his collection once it releases in July!

Received ARC from Viz Media and Simon & Schuster via Edelweiss