Zazel

is a Rank S, Drain-attribute Rare Yo-kai of the Shady tribe.

He was at first a Boss Yo-kai, but had transitioned to being a recruitable Yo-kai as of Wibble Wobble.

Appearances

 * Yo-kai Watch Blasters: Moon Rabbit Crew: Boss Yo-kai.
 * Yo-kai Watch: Wibble Wobble: Event Yo-kai
 * Yo-kai Watch 3: Sukiyaki: Befriendable Yo-kai.
 * Yo-kai Watch: The Great Enma and The Five Tales Nyan!: Antagonist Yo-kai (Episode 5).
 * Yo-kai Watch: The Great Adventure of the Flying Whale & the Double World, Nyan!: Supporting Yo-kai.
 * Yo-kai Watch Shadowside: Return of the Oni King: Supporting Yo-kai.

Biology
Zazel has pale gray skin, long white hair, two pointy ears, light blue eyes, and short black nails. He wears a pale blue garment with a collar that stands upwards, a black robe with slate gray wisp-like patterns, tied together by an indigo blue obi with a mulberry colored rope, pale blue pants, and grey boots with wisps placed at the ends. He wields a dark silver gray staff with a single horned skull and one red eye.

Zazel has another form, more monstrous in appearance, in which his body is mostly a mass of thorny dark purple-colored tentacles, with three shorter tentackes under his neck which seem to be made of skin. His arms get thinner and slightly longer.

If you look closely on his obi, Zazel has two small differently colored wisps, one pink and one blue, alongside with what seems to be a small white piece of paper.

During the last fifth of M02, Zazel shows signs of misanthropy, that is, a deep seated hatred for humans. This mindset steams from a conversation he held with King Enma, in which the monarch viewed humans with disdain for he felt they were a corrupting influence for the Yo-kai World. As such, Zazel believes he is the only one who can carry King Enma's will.

When setting his plan into action -arbitrarily ordering all the Yo-kai in the human world to return to the Yo-kai World-, he is shown to be very cunning: he lied to Nekokiyo and Inumaro about Lord Enma having contracted a human sickness in order to enforce his authority as the head of the Yo-kai Council and act as the de-facto ruler of the Yo-kai World, while he supposedly sealed Lord Enma in his room -actually the Yo-kai sovereign was feigning he was sealed-.

In his battle with Jibanyan, Komasan, Whisper, Hovernyan, and Usapyon, he clearly showed his ruthlessness and unreasonability: he mocks his opponents as being "weak" and refused to listen to their and Nate and Hailey's arguments about the bonds between humans and Yo-kai. When all of them teamed up and powered up to stop him only for that attitude, he had no qualms putting them into submision in a less-than-savory way.

After his defeat at the hands of Lord Enma, he finally accepts the new Sovereign's policy about humans.

Zazel can blast red energy through the eye of his skull staff as his Soultimate Move.

He can assume two different forms depending on how he powers up. By himself, he can assume a massive form with thorny tentacles, which are strong enough to tear through buildings. He also has the ability to fuse himself with Duke Doggy and Aristokat which allows him to become Zazelmare.

Duke Doggy and Aristokat
The two act as Zazel's servants. Even so, Zazel had no problem into lying to them about Lord Enma's "sickness". Despite this, after their defeat at the hands of the heroes, Zazel absorbs them to become Zazelmare.

Lord Enma
Even though they are in the same political circle as the two Yo-kai with the highest authority in the Yo-kai World, initially Zazel never approved of Lord Enma's views on humans. To carry his plan, he sealed Lord Enma in his room and used his authority as second-in-command to issue a degree about Yo-kai returning to the Yo-kai World. Later, it was revealed Lord Enma was not actually sealed, and the Yo-kai sovereign personally defeated Zazel, and the latter finally accepted his views on humans and Yo-kai. Since then, he is incredibly loyal to Lord Enma,

King Enma
The previous ruler of the Yo-kai World was the primary influence on Zazel's initial mindset, for he believed humans were fools and began corrupting the Yo-kai World. Zazel refered to him as "my liege" and believed he was the only one to carry on the previous ruler's will.

M02
Zazel appears in Yo-kai Watch the Movie: The Great King Enma and the Five Tales, Meow! as the main antagonist and is the head of the Yo-kai Council. In the final fifth of the movie, Zazel apparently seals Lord Enma and tells his servants Aristokat and Duke Doggy that he contracted an human illness, and as Lord Enma was "unable" to exert his authority, Zazel had the de-facto authority in the Yo-kai World for being the head of the Yo-kai Council. Using Lord Enma's "illness" as pretext, he quickly enforces his authority by issuing a decree in which all Yo-kai in the human world must return to the Yo-kai world immediately.

However, a few Yo-kai were not pleased with this order -namely Jibanyan, Hovernyan, Whisper, Komasan, and Usapyon. These Yo-kai decided to head to the Yo-kai world in order to try to convince Lord Enma -as they're under the impression the decree came from him- to revoke the order. After the defeat of Alicktokat and Duke Drooly, Zazel appears before the heroes and refuses to listen to their arguments about the bonds of humans and Yo-kai. He then assumes a form suited for battle and, despite the group's intial efforts, he easily gains the upper hand in battle. Nate and Inaho suddenly arrive, much to Zazel's displeasure, and Nate summons Tattletell to force Zazel to reveal his secrets. When the heroes plead Zazel to tall with Lord Enma -and with Hovernyan eventually deducing he was not ill after all-, Zazel replies about humans and Yo-kai never been allowed to mix together, to which the heroes scoff at it and the Yo-kai decide to power-up. However, Zazel does not budge to their onslaught of attacks initially, but with Buchinyan, Darknyan and Usapyon's Emperor Mode's combined attacks, he is forced to return to his normal form, albeit still standing. Zazel then absorbs Aristokat and Duke Doggy and becomes Zazelmare, and easily overpowers his opponents.

However, Nate and Hailey eventually combine their Yo-kai Watches' power and summon Lord Enma, who revealed he was just feigning being trapped in Zazel's barrier. Lord Enma dismisses Zazel's ideas by using his own personal experiences throughout the story as arguments for humans not being bad, and easily defeats Zazel and forces him into his normal form again. Lord Enma then proposes Zazel to advance with him to the next era, at which Zazel seems the previous King Emna's kindness to him reflected in Lord Enma, and sheds a few tears and accepts, revering to him as "my liege".

M03
Zazel plays a role in the third movie, The Great Adventure of Flying Whale &amp; the Double World, Nyan!. He, along with Lord Enma, were affected by Narwail's powers, as they took real-life appearances, in addition of occasionally doing an unvoluntary coordinated dancing (accompanied by BGM). He's present with Lord Enma when Hovernyan seeks some advice from them. Under Lord Enma's orders, Zazel decides to ready the Enma Blade in order for it to be used by Nate as a way to free Kanami from Narwail's influence.

M04
Main Article: Zazel (Shadowside)

Zazel appears in the fourth movie.

Yo-kai Watch Blasters: Moon Rabbit Crew
Zazel appears as the main boss of the second extra chapter introduced in this update of the game. His appearance is a rendition of his role in M02, with two notable differences: He, Alicktokat, and Duke Drooly fighting simultaneously the Busters team, which can be composed by any Yo-kai the player has recruited up to that point -although only the initial team lineup and the Yo-kai who confront him in the movie appear in the cutscenes, without Nate and Hailey appearing at all-, and being defeated initially by them as well; also, when facing the Busters as Zazelmare, Lord Enma appears during the battle assisting the heroes with his energy orbs, which have to be hit in order to give them a chance to strike at the Boss Yokai, and Zazel is defeated by the Busters as well, unlike by just Lord Enma in the film.

Yo-kai Watch 3
Zazel initially appears as a NPC in Lord Enma's office in New Youma City. As of 2.0 update, Zazel can be befriended by completing the request "Yo-kai Council's Top Secret Order".

Origin
This Yo-kai is directly named after the Nurarihyon, but unlike Awevil/Greesel (see Awevil), Zazel's design appears to discard most of his namesake's physical traits and focus only on its role as a youkai leader of dubious morality.

"Zazel" comes from "Azazel", a fallen angel whose evil influence led to the corruption of humanity. Because he was a leader among the fallen angels, the Jewish Book of Enoch commands its readers to “ascribe all sin” to him.

Trivia

 * Both Lord Enma and the previous King Enma refer to him with the affectionate nickname.
 * In the 2nd movie he is voiced by.
 * In the 3rd movie he is one of two Yo-kai (along with Lord Emna) which are portrayed by human actors in the live-action sequences as opposed by being rendered in CGI. He is portrayed by Takumi Saitoh.
 * In the English version of Yo-kai Watch Blasters, Zazel speaks with a Transylvanian accent (the one Count Dracula has), probably because of how he looks like a vampire.

In other languages

 * Italian: Zazel
 * German: Sasel