- Americans Hate Tingle: The western side of the fanbase are a lot less positive towards Micchy, finding his desire to serve Natsume as her knight and his constant obsessing over her to be rather cringey, if not outright creepy, almost as if he's crushing on her, despite being a grown man (Yo-kai?) while she's a teenage girl. The fact he's a Butt-Monkey who rarely contributes anything outside of these gags doesn't help him in their eyes. Japanese fans don't seem to mind as much, even if artwork does tend to downplay his Butt-Monkey tendencies and make him a more serious character.
- Complete Monster: Jorogumo is a vicious predator who targets both men and Yo-kai she finds attractive, eating them alive and devouring their souls. Sealed away by a Shaman, Jorogumo latches onto his descendant Ayame and uses her as a vessel to continue killing. When Haruya Sakami mistakes her for the prophesised Oni Princess, Jorogumo deceives and manipulates him, having him murder Dr. Chameleon for once targeting attractive men, despite now being reformed, and has Haruya risk his life finding an item to release her. Upon being freed, Jorogumo inflicts an uncurable spider bite on Ayame's soul, and traps hundreds of people, Haruya included, within a popular attraction to drain their energy and souls. When the Detective Agency confront her, Jorogumo uses her victims as People Puppets and takes Keisuke hostage, threatening to kill him if they hurt her.
- Catharsis Factor: After all that Jorogumo does, alongside her Smug Snake attitude, it's really nice to see her get utterly annihilated by Shutendoji, who she spent most of her time humiliating, in his grand return, and then finally get killed off. The fact MICCHY of all characters manages to land the final blow in a triumphant moment only makes it all the cooler.
- Contested Sequel: While Shadowside is not completely hated, quite a few fans of the original series aren't very fond of it. The darker tone and humor being toned down in favor for battles and plot aren't universally loved changes, not helped by the fact some sea the battles and plot as rather weak aspects. Though another part of the fanbase loves that they changed the formula and feel it has an interesting premise and are willing to give the sequel a chance, especially those who felt the anime should have had more story and action in it in the first place. Ironically, the reboot did worse than Shadowside.
- Demographically Inappropriate Humor: Zundoumaru, just Zundoumaru. He's a hot pot Yo-kai whose Lightside form is a muscular man wearing only a speedo, and said speedo has a very phallic spout, and he likes to gyrate his hips. The first time he gets summoned he URINATES ON HIS OPPONENT!!! Just to make it obvious, Natsume covers her eyes in horror and Micchy says he won't allow such lewd gestures in front of her.
- Designated Monkey: Keisuke's initial refusal to accept the concept of Yo-kai and terror at every Yo-kai-related situation is a Running Gag, with his cowardice becoming his defining trait. However, a lot of people sympathize with him, as he's a child considerably younger than the main cast who has no way for him to fight back. The Yo-kai here are considerably more homicidal than they were before, with a quite a few threatening his life specifically, so it's really hard to view his fear as anything but natural.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: Fukurou became very popular after his death due to a combination of his loyalty to Shutendoji, his One-Winged Angel form, the tragic nature of his death, and his unusually dark Sanity Slippage.
- Diagnosed by the Audience: In the manga adaptation of the movie, Touma's neighbors point out how he seems depressed, and some fans have pointed out how he shows a lot of common symptoms in autism (trouble expressing his emotions, difficulty in social situations, sort of flat/monotone voice, etc).
- Fanon: Natsume's friend Saki is the daughter of Hailey Anne. They bear a resemblance and Saki was seen in the manga with a keychain of Usapyon.
- Fight Scene Failure: The fights in the series are rather contentious as they generally involve a lot of floating around until the first hit lands. Whichever Yo-kai get hit then instantly loses. Sometimes this doesn't even result in them being harmed, such as episode 12, where Jibanyan lands a hit on Douketsu, who clearly isn't wounded, but everyone celebrates that they've won, and he ultimately retreats (though this was due to him only being there to buy time, which he succeeded in doing). A general formula is: antagonist Yo-kai shows up > protagonists summon Yo-kai > the Yo-kai are unable to phase the enemy and are easily dispatched > a more powerful Yo-kai joins the fray and lands a hit on the antagonist Yo-kai > the antagonist Yo-kai is defeated. Sometimes steps 2 and 3 are skipped entirely. The only particularly drawn out fights are against Jorogumo and Overseer.
- Foe Yay Shipping: Natsume x Shutendoji has quite a lot of fanart, though it's rather divisive due to the rather... large age gap between a fully grown, possibly multiple century old Yo-kai and a 13-14 year old girl.
- Jerkass Woobie:
- Was Fukurou an accomplice to terrorists who want to overthrow the current order and replace it with their own? Yes. Was he an unscrupulous individual with very few boundaries? Also yes. Despite this, it's hard not to feel bad for him with how badly his allies treat him, and him slowly losing his mind, culminating in an Accidental Suicide, is rather disturbing to watch.
- Dr. Chameleon, a Yo-kai targeting famous actors by removing their good looks, is revealed to be the former co-star of his victims who took his own life. His motive? He was harassed so badly by the public for acting as a villain, which were the only roles he could land due to his age, that he threw himself off a building. When it's revealed that his victims respected him for his experience and skill, and mourned him greatly, he's clearly touched, even if trying to play it off, and gives his Ark to Ayame as thanks for opening his eyes. He's tragically not allowed a happy ending, as Jorogumo has Haruya murder him for having the same type of victim as her.
- Memetic Loser: Benkei gets made fun of a lot for being the Genma who gets defeated the most.
- Memetic Mutation:
- "The new Ben 10 series look great!" Explanation
- Junior's resemblance to both Whisper and Jibanyan has spawned multiple jokes about him actually being their child, with further memes claiming that the two had a bad breakup.
- With everything Soranaki has done, the Japanese fan base began making arts of Soranaki having lemon sprayed into his eye.
- Natsume with a stick
Explanation - Every frame of the infamous "Fan Translation" of episode 49, the final episode, due to it very blatantly not trying and just writing whatever's funny. The opening shot of the title frame has it outright saying "wtf does this say lol." Special mention goes to the Running Gag of Princess Shuka's deceased bodyguards really wanting to go to McDonald's and Akinori confusing everything for a Stand Power.
- Retcons, New Anime, No Direction, Merchandise! Explanation
- Lmao, just learn Japanese Explanation
- Narm: While Ghostcycle is intimidating at first, when he chases the cast, the combination of him constantly ringing his bicycle bell, his relative slow speed, and how he's just sorta... short, makes it hard to see him as a genuine threat.
- No Yay: Any human/Yo-kai pairing, especially the deceased Oni who have canonical ages, are despised among the fanbase given the century if not millennia-wide age gap between the participants.
- One True Pairing: Ananta x Lord Enma is very popular due to them being canonically around the same age, compared to most Yo-kai playing Vague Age very straight, having known each other since childhood, some leftovers from Foe Yay Shipping due to their enmity in the movie, and Ananta's various attempts to redeem himself for overthrowing Enma. Enmas Holiday revealing that Ananta's ideal spouse was pretty much just "Enma but a girl", and Yo-kai Watch: Wibble Wobble revealing the two families would eventually get together, only furthered it.
- The Scrappy:
- Zundoumaru is despised for being a walking personification of Demographically Inappropriate Humor.
- Sendo Rei, a fortune teller and main antagonist from episode 12, is universally hated due to how uncomfortable her episode is, and how, despite being stripped of her powers and given Laser-Guided Amnesia, she effectively escapes with no consequences and is promptly forgotten about.
- Tough Act to Follow: Episode 11, I Am a Cat Yo-kai, is generally seen as one of the best episodes in the show, tying it together with the original series as well as having some very powerful and emotional moments. As a result, episode 12, Touma's Imprisonment, is not looked upon vary favorably due to being seen as a massive dip in quality.
- What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Despite it being Lighter and Softer compared to the film, it really tries to live up to the latter's legacy at times. Episode 14 features Fukurou's Sanity Slippage, where he effectively slits his own wrist to prove himself, bleeds out, gets mocked on his deathbed and fully succumbs to despair, mutating into a shark monster before being killed.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The idea that Komasan and Komajiro are different characters to the versions people came to know and love in the original series was a hard pill to swallow for a lot of viewers.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Many fans were saddened that Lord Ananta's backstory as a human-Yo-kai hybrid and managing to successfully convince the officials of the Yo-kai World to put him on the throne wasn't explored in the series.
- Some wished that Fukurou received more screentime due to him seemingly be a non-Oni fighting for Oni supremacy, as well as his relationship with Shutendoji being less fleshed out compared to Douketsu.
- Hyper Micchy has a Shadowside form only revealed in promotional material. Some wish it had gotten the time to shine in an actual episode.
- A lot of people wish adult Nate would have been able to regain his memories of his old Yo-kai friends, or at least appear more to offer advice.
- Despite being the protagonist, Natsume isn't able to do much against the Big Bad. It ends up being Touma who finishes him off.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- Shutendoji gives powers to the human Sendo Rei so that she can better serve him. Shutendoji never employs human servants after her, even as his allies dwindle.
- Fukurou is the only Yo-kai to ever go One-Winged Angel due to Overseer's influence. Must other Yo-kai simply gain a dark aura and red eyes.
- Many feel that the plot fails to actually take advantage of it being a Spin-Offspring taking place in Next Sunday A.D. With very few appearances from the original cast, and no meaningful leaps in technology, the series could very well occur during the same time period as Yo-kai Watch, with Natsume and Keisuke being entirely unrelated to Nate and Katie, and nothing much would change.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic: A lot of people aren't fond of the way Natsume treats Keisuke, a byproduct of him being the series Butt-Monkey, finding her to be at times a little too mean. The group always drag him off on their adventures, something he really would rather not be apart of, and it often results in his life getting threatened in pretty bad ways.
- The Woobie: Poor Keisuke. He really doesn't want to deal with all the Yo-kai shenanigans, but gets dragged along anyway and often ends up getting attacked or captured.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Ymmv/YokaiWatchShadowside
Go To
