Yo-kai Medals

A Yo-kai Medal (Japanese: 妖怪メダル, Yōkai Medaru) is a small coin-like disc used with the Yo-kai Watch to summon Yo-kai. They are featured in the video games and the anime, in which are given to the protagonists by Yo-kai as a sign of their friendship and stored in the Yo-kai Medallium.

There have been known to be many kinds of Yo-kai Medals that come in many different types and colors. One example are Z Medals, which are reserved for normal Yo-kai like Houzzat and Herbiboy and special Yo-kai like the Wicked Executives and the Onis that appear during Terror Time.

Yo-kai Medals also exist in real life, in the form of collectable items. They have been known to be a big selling point for the franchise and has expanded onto other international territories.

Overview

Appearance

Yo-kai Medals are small disc-shaped objects that have a picture of the Yo-kai on them. They come in different colors, that depend on the Tribe and type of Yo-kai. There are different variants for other types of Yo-kai like Classic Yo-kai having a traditional art for it's design and 'Merican Yo-kai having comic book-inspired aesthetics.

Each Yo-kai has a Yo-kai Medal after they become one, with some of them having their photo taken in M02 and given multiple medals to give to Yo-kai Watch bearers as a sign of friendship. When a new Yo-kai Watch is released, Yo-kai line up to get new types of Medals for new Yo-kai Watch models. They all carry Yo-kai Medals in specific places, such as Jibanyan who carries his in his haramaki.

For a Yo-kai Medal to be given from a Yo-kai, the bearer must do certain deeds to earn their friendship such as listening to their backstory and fulfilling their wishes. Depending on the Yo-kai, the Yo-kai Medal may or may not be given, such as Yo-kai like Crook-a-doodle giving away a fake.

Summoning Yo-kai

They can be summoned with the Yo-kai Watch by putting the medal inside the clock's face, allowing colorful spirals to flow out of the watch and the summoning chant to play before the Yo-kai fully appears. Yo-kai that are summoned are immediately transferred from their location in a circular-shaped ring, making them do the summoning dance and pose no matter what situation they were in.

Though the mechanic is applied to most Yo-kai Watch models, the way they're summoned can be different depending on them. The Model U makes them do a different summoning dance, and to an extent gives them the ability to perform songs with Song Medals. The Yo-kai Watch Dream has a "Dream Roulette", that can have an equal good or bad outcome when being summoned.

Some Yo-kai Medals vary on the Yo-kai Watch, such as the Model Zero Watch not being able to summon regular Yo-kai Medals or newer medals being incompatible with older Yo-kai Watch models. The Model U does have a slot on the side, allowing it to be upgraded to summon newer Yo-kai.

Types of Yo-kai Medals

Normal Medals

Jibanyan's regular Yo-kai Medal.

Normal Medals (Japanese: グレーメダル, Guree Medaru), (or also known as grey medals) is the first known type of Yo-kai Medal to be seen.

They work with all of the Yo-kai Watches, except for the Model Zero and summons a Yo-kai regularly. They're only available to all the befriendable Yo-kai that first debuted in the video game.

Z Medals

Main article: Yo-kai Medals/Z Medals

Jibanyan's Victory Soultimate Medal.

Z Medals are the second variation of Yo-kai Medals, and contains Yo-kai that aren't found normally. Some Medal types are compatible with the Model Zero watch, while some are only compatible with the Model U Watch.

Classic Medals

Main article: Yo-kai Medals/Classic Medals

Faux Kappa's Medal.

Classic Medals are known to be the oldest varation of Yo-kai Medals, and does not work on the original Yo-kai Watch. All of them contain Classic Yo-kai, which are said to be scarce.

Medals of Classic Yo-kai introduced in Yo-kai Watch 2 only work on the Model Zero and the Model U Watch, merchandise-wise.

U Medals

Main article: Yo-kai Medals/U Medals

U Medals are green Yo-kai Medals with U's on them from some Yo-kai who debuted in Yo-kai Watch 3 and are used with the Yo-kai Watch U.

'Merican Medals

Main article: Yo-kai Medals/'Merican Medals

'Merican Medals are vibrant-red Yo-kai Medals from Merican Yo-kai and are used with the Yo-kai Watch U.

B Medals

Main article: Yo-kai Medals/B Medals

B Medals are black (except for the Legendaries), with their artwork featuring their Yo-kai doing some sort of action, with the name being written in a calligraphic font. Similar to the Z and U Yo-kai Medals, B Medals feature a distinctive marking in the upper right corner of 4 specific kanji, which vary depending on what that Yo-kai's role is as a Buster: Attack for Figthers, Heal for Healers, Odd for Rangers and Protect for Tanks. The kanji, much like the names, are written in a calligraphic font. The role of a Yo-kai as a Buster also influences the inner frame's color: Red for Attackers, Green for Healers, Purple for Rangers, and Dark Blue for Tanks. There are also B Medals that depict Boss Yo-kai. The B Medals that have Boss Yo-kai on them are known as Boss Medals.

Sangokushi Medals

Main article: Yo-kai Medals/Sangokushi Medals

Song Medals

Main article: Yo-kai Medals/Song Medals

Uta Medals (or known as Song Medals) are known to be a special variation of Yo-kai Medals. Unlike other medals, some of them are known to contain multiple Yo-kai and they sing a song while they get summoned.

Dream Medals

Main article: Yo-kai Medals/Dream Medals

Jibanyan's Dream Medal.

Dream Medals are the third variation of Yo-kai Medals, only compatible with the Yo-kai Watch Dream. They resemble poker chips, and play a roulette song while they're being summoned. Depending on the outcome, a Yo-kai will either win or lose, reflecting their mood on the situation.

Kuroi Medals

Main article: Yo-kai Medals/Dark Medals

Kuroi Jibanyan's Medal

Kuroi Medals (or known as Dark Medals) are another special variation out of the Medals. They are known to have come from another dimension, where Yo-kai are a lot more scarier. They only work on the Kuroi Yo-kai Watch or the Yo-kai Watch Dream.

Treasure Medals

Main article: Yo-kai Medals/Treasure Medals

A Bronze-Rank Treasure Medal of Treasure Jibanyan.

Treasure Medals are Yo-kai Medals that taken on the form of treasure coins.

Luck Medals

Main article: Yo-kai Medals/Luck Medals

Soultimate Medals

Main article: Yo-kai Medals/Soultimate Medals

Merchandise

The Jibanyan and Whisper Medals bundled with the Hasbro-manufactured Yo-kai Watch toy.

Main article: Yo-kai Medals (merchandise)

In real life, Yo-kai Medals are available as collectable toys. They're either found in blind packs, gasha machines (only in Asia), or bundled with Yo-kai Watch toys. On the back, there is a QR code that can be read in the game to obtain coins that can be used in the Crank-a-kai or special key items that would allow the player to fight certain Yo-kai.

The Yo-kai Watch is also available as a real-life toy, and can be used to insert Yo-kai Medals. If one of them is inserted, the Watch will act if it is summoning a Yo-kai by playing the tribe song and the Yo-kai's name will be said. The Medal can be taken out of the Watch at any time, and can be stored in a real-life Yo-kai Medallium.

Trivia

Jibanyan's Korean Dream Medal, which has a different pattern.

• There were a total of 1,758 Medals produced by Bandai.
• In the Korean localization, Dream Medals have a different pattern on the front, that are of a zigzag pattern. This was likely done due to strict gambling laws in South Korea, as the Dream Medals resembled poker chips too much.
  • Strangely, the back of the Yokai Medal retains the poker chip design, as seen in the anime.

See Also

• Yo-kai Watch (item)
• Crank-a-kai
• Yo-kai Ark

Links

• Japanese site
• Korean site (Now Closed as June 29, 2018)