Cricky

is a Rank E Water-attribute Yo-kai of the Slippery tribe.

Appearance
A dark teal frog with three dark orange stripes on its head. Its mouth, chest, and stomach is white. It wears a light orange towel tied around its waist with a yellow string. It carries a beige pillow with white trimmings.

Personality
Cricky appears to have a non-confrontational personality and is more likely to surrender rather than fight when cornered.

Abilities and Powers
Cricky causes the possessed to sleep in a weird position, causing their head to be in a strange alignment similar to how his head is aligned. This causes the victim to suffer from neck pains when they wake up.

History
Cricky is identified in EP035 after Nate notices that everyone in school has developed stiff necks. Although he summons Jibanyan to deal with Cricky, Cricky readily surrenders without a fight. He admits to his wrongdoing, and tells them his history.

While he was alive, Cricky was a wild frog who was adopted by an elderly masseuse and nicknamed "Froggy". The masseuse ran a very successful massage clinic by herself due to her skill and popularity with the customers, and even the children hung around to watch Cricky in his tank. However, a large health spa was constructed near her clinic and her customers were drawn away. Upon hearing that his owner considered closing up shop, Cricky ran out to draw in more customers but was killed in a collision with a bicycle, and woke up as a Yo-Kai. He gave everyone stiff necks in hopes they would go to his owner's clinic as customers.

Moved by his story, Nate, Jibanyan and Whisper decide to visit the masseuse with Cricky in tow, discovering that the masseuse renamed her clinic after Cricky's nickname, and her customers had returned to her after realizing that the health spa only used massage chairs. The masseuse admits to a young client that she considered retiring, but she remembered the energetic hopping off her pet frog and took it as a message that she shouldn't give up. Although she was saddened when "Froggy" left, she remains hopeful that he is outside drawing in customers and hopes that he will return one day. In tears, Cricky gives Nate his Yo-Kai Medal, swearing to stay by his owner's side even though she can no longer see him.

Name Origin

 * "Nechigaeru" is a pun on kaeru (蛙, "frog") and nechigaeru (寝違える, "getting a stiff neck from bad sleep posture").
 * "Cricky" derives from crick, which alludes to the phrase "having a crick in your neck." It also bears some similarity to croak, the sound a frog makes.