| Yo-kai Watch Episode 31 | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Season | 2 |
| Number | 31 |
| English titles | "Yo-kai Journey to the West" |
| Japanese titles | "Yōkai Saiyūki" (妖怪西遊記) |
| Original air date | August 15, 2014 |
| English air date | August 5, 2016 |
| Channel | Disney XD |
| Previous | Yo-kai Watch Episode 30 |
| Next | Yo-kai Watch Episode 32 |
| Discussion | - |
"Yo-kai Journey to the West"
This episode begins with an introduction by Whisper of the critically acclaimed yo-kai director Mr. Movien. A creepy, humanoid yo-kai who wants to shoot a yo-kai version of “Journey to the West.”
Nate wakes up in on the ground in ancient China wearing a special costume, and Whisper is twisted into the shape of a cloud. They try to wake up from what must be a dream but no luck. While the two are still getting their bearing, Jibanyan fall out of a nearby bush wearing a pig nose. He is as confused as his friends are. The three of them are all being panicked together when a disembodied voice shrieks for them to cut. Mr. Movien follows the voice out of a portal in thin air himself followed by a small film crew.
Mr. Movien cuts on the explanation of his director nature because his full title is “genius movie director yo-kai,” and he demands to be addressed as such. Whisper goes on to detail all the awards Mr. Movien wins every year and all the festivals where he’s celebrated. Nate and Jibanyan want to ditch the movie, but Whisper tells them they can’t all go home until the movie wraps and Mr. Movien lets them go. Since they’re all playing along, they allow themselves to be directed by the genius movie director as he explains all their roles. Nate has been cast as the Monkey King, Sun Wukong. Jibanyan is playing the role of Zhu Wuneng, Pigsy “awakened to ability.” Whisper is portraying the Monkey King’s cloud. Komasan appears out of nowhere to fill the role of Sandy. And Kyuubi gets to lay the lead, Tang Sanzang.
The gang haven’t met Kyuubi before, and they haven’t heard of him. Kyuubi is so flustered by this, he forces his medal on Nate like a business card. Then Mr. Movien cuts away from Kyuubi’s indignation to summarize the story. Three mystical beings travel with a monk from China to India, the original home of Buddhism, in search of divine knowledge. Whisper also interjects that the Monkey King wears a headband that Tang Sanzang can tighten as punishment for mischief. Mr. Movien also introduced the Obedient Pole, a useful and loyal weapon. Jibanyan doesn’t fully understand what they’re actually doing and asks for details, but Mr. Movien is already thinking about award season.
Nate’s hoping to escape still, but there’s no bailing. Lucky for Mr. Movien, he has one cast member, Kyuubi, who loves all attention. The cast is put through hair, costuming and makeup instantly, and Mr. Movien is finally ready to call action. When he does, a crew member holds up a cue card with a little Monkey king drawn on. Nate reads his line half-heartedly, but Kyuubi responds with 100 percent conviction. And he moves to shrink Nate’s headband. Then the headband turns into caterpillars instead. Jibanyan also gets some caterpillars, and the two flip out. Whisper asks if this counts as acting, but the director loves it and finishes with that take. Next is scene two.
Movien tells Monkey King to use the Obedient Pole to jump over a mountain the background and that the super magic words are “super long chocopole.” Nate says the words, and the pole transforms into a chocobar that expands infinitely toward the sacred land. Kyuubi and Jibanyan fly after him, leaving Komasan to ride on Whisper’s back. Kyuubi, looking at a hand mirror the whole time, calls for everyone to follow him, but Jibanyan points out he’s in very last place. Finally, someone other than Kyuubi is enjoying themselves because Komasan is hype for surfing through the sky on the back of a cloud. When they reach their destination, the landing is kind of rough. Kyuubi only just recovers on his landing, but is knocked out by a runaway Whisper. Mr. Movien likes Whisper’s crash so much, he shoots almost takes of the crash to get an extra authentic- looking landing without ever explaining what he needed his cloud to do.
Next, Mr. Movien says they’re going to start the first trial of the sacred land: “the school where you cannot be angry.” Keita asks if this modern school was actually in the original story, but Mr. Movien checks with his script supervisor, an old man who knows everything about “Journey to the West,” but looks suspiciously like the old man Keita once met in a public bath who liked the water too hot. The old man approves the school. Whisper brags that he’s impossible to anger, but the slightest prodding from Jibanyan makes him snap and fail the trail right away. With a wave of his megaphone, the director swaps his cast’s costumes for gym clothes and summons some annoying students, two girls who want to make boys take out the class garbage. Jibanyan says that gender has nothing to do with the chore, but his friends bailed before he even started talking, and the trash is forced onto the cat in the pig nose. They give him so much trash, he can’t walk. Keita and Whisper agree that girls always do that stuff, but Kyuubi reminds them to stay cool enough for school. Another student taps Komasan on the shoulder to ask him a question, but the boy retracts his question and refuses to even hint at what it might have been. At first, Komasan tears up and nearly begins to cry, but instead snaps at the kid before returning to his tears. Even more annoying students appear to Keita and claim they have to tell him something: that he ripped his pants open. The monkey king is overcome with embarrassment and runs away. Four more kids come for Kyuubi and make fun of his gym uniform looking worse than everyone else’s.The fox begins to tremble with fury instantly, but stays calm for like a minute with Whisper’s help. Mr. Movien calls the scene a failure, but all his actors begin to glow with fiery energy because they’ve gotten so angry, refusing to try another take.
In the next trial, they’re in the Sensei-approved “cafeteria where you can’t say hot.” The cafeteria is on a freezing rooftop, so they all think it should be easy. But the cost of failure is getting sucked up into an enormous gourd-shaped vacuum cleaner. When Movien calls action, the cast all take seats around a table, and a waitress brings cups of steaming green tea.Because it’s cold, Kyuubi is too eager to drink his tea and stops just short of screaming the forbidden word. Right after everyone congratulates Kyuubi for his quick thinking, Komasan does the exact same thing and gets the whole word out, so he gets vacuumed into the gourd.
Now there’s only four of them, Mr. Movien directs them to pair up and eat food where one person stands behind another and acts like that person’s arms. Jibanyan and Kyuubi are going to eat stew with Keita and Whisper as their arms, respectively. They both take care to blow on their food to keep it from being too hot, but Jibanyan’s sensitive cat tongue betrays him and he cries out it’s too hot, but doesn’t get vacuumed.
Instead, Mr. Movien calls it a wrap, and already know that the movie will become amazing in editing.After bemoaning the process of the movie, the world melts a little, and they wake up at home. But they wake up to find that Mr. Movien won all the Yo-Kai Academy awards for the movie they made. Keita still can’t believe that movie happened until he discovers he was already palming Mr. Movien’s medal when he awoke.