Yo-kai Watch Episode 53

Jibanyan is enjoying a nice day in the park when Venoct drops in for a surprise visit again. Venoct has been diligently searching the entire city for his nemesis Red J, and the park is the only place he hasn’t searched yet. Nate signals to Jibanyan from behind a nearby tree that they need to have a chat.

Nate explains to Jibanyan that “Red J” has actually been Jibanyan this whole time. Jibanyan is shocked at this assertion and initially doesn’t understand at all—but when Nate jogs his memory about Venoct’s description of Red J, Jibanyan realizes it certainly does sound like him. Jibanyan foolishly decides that this means the other Yo-kai must believe that Jibanyan is the strongest, so he has to tell Venoct!

However, Jibanyan quickly remembers that Venoct wants to kill Red J. To gauge Venoct’s reaction, Jibanyan asks him what he would do if he encountered Red J—to which Venoct answers that he would kill Red J in just two seconds, and slams his fist into the ground, causing it to crack and explode upward. Jibanyan quickly realizes that Venoct is dead serious, so Jibanyan tries to persuade Venoct that he’s make a mistake.

Jibanyan asks Venoct what he would do if Red J was actually just a harmless cat ghost that loves chocolate bars—but Venoct simply replies that he doesn’t care and would pulverize him anyway. Jibanyan is terrified and runs off back to Nate. Nate, Whisper, and Jibanyan argue for a bit over who is going to spill the beans to Venoct about Red J’s true identity, and eventually Jibanyan decides to just do it himself.

Jibanyan goes back out to Venoct, but he can’t bring himself to say it. However, in a moment of internal turmoil Jibanyan accidentally lets the cat out of the bag, so to say, revealing that he is the Yo-kai that Venoct has been searching for. Venoct has a flashback to his past as a human, when Red J took his friends, family, and home from him, and his thirst for vengeance transformed him into Venoct.

Jibanyan finally realizes there’s something amiss about this story, as Jibanyan definitely couldn’t have done any of that. Right at that moment, the REAL Red J has appeared behind Jibanyan, swathed in a purple aura. The massive red Yo-kai calls out his Red Palace, which is exactly as Venoct described it, henchmen and all.

After some provocations a fierce battle begins between Venoct and Red J’s forces, with Venoct effortlessly breaking through every single obstacle that Red J throws at him. The two finally face each other head-on, with Venoct matching Red J equally for strength. Red J summons a massive black fireball and prepares to deal the finishing blow, but Venoct uses his signature move Octo Snake to break through and deliver a fierce barrage of blows to Red J.

Defeated, Red J hurtles to the ground and his Red Palace crumbles away, the atmosphere in the area returning to normal. But before Venoct can enjoy his victory, Red J reveals that he is merely the henchman of an even more powerful Yo-kai known as Mighty Dog, who has white fur, controls blue fire, wears a green pouch on his back, and loves eating a swirly white treat. That sounds a lot like Komasan, who is sitting nearby on a bench, completely oblivious as usual.

Nevertheless, Orochi hands over his Yo-kai Medal to Nate, and heads off in search of his next opponent.

Nate’s in a rush to get home from school in order to see the newest episode of his favorite TV show. But an unknown Yo-kai is watching him from the shadows, and a strange spell is put over the whole town…

As Nate makes his way home, he soon finds himself lost in a place he doesn’t recognize. When they get to a certain mailbox, Whisper realizes that they’ve passed it once before. Nate insists that he’s not lost, and takes off running… only to find himself back where he started, by the mailbox. He keeps trying until he finally realizes something fishy is going on, and uses the Yo-kai Watch. However, this time it’s not an ordinary Yo-kai—it’s a massive Yo-kai nearly as big as the entire town!

The towering giant turns out to be Dromp, a gentle giant Yo-kai that loves to make mazes. Whoever he inspirits gets stuck in his maze, and in order to get out they have to find the goal. No problem, Whisper’s got a map app on his Yo-kai Pad… but it doesn’t work because Dromp is constantly changing the landscape.

Nate decides it’s time to summon a Yo-kai, and his first pick is Buhu to scout the area from the air. However, Buhu immediately gets lost, ruining Nate’s plan. Whisper suddenly changes forms, appearing in a track suit to give Nate a pep talk. Whisper gives Nate a blindfold and instructs him to use his “inner eye” to sense the proper direction of the maze’s exit.

At first Nate can’t see a thing, but after a few moments of focus, a radiantly glowing path appears before him. Nate eagerly runs straight towards victory… and also straight into a telephone pole. Whisper continues his bizarre pep talk, telling Nate to just follow his nose this time. Nate smells his mom’s curry… but again, it’s just Dromp making curry.

Next, Whisper is attempting to decide which path to follow in the maze by dropping a fake sword on the ground and seeing which path it points to. However, every time he does this, the landscape shifts shape and the paths split in two. Fed up with Whisper’s foolishness, Nate yells at him to cut it out. Just then, Jibanyan and another Yo-kai called Leadoni show up.

Leadoni’s ability is to lead people straight where they need to go to—perfect for Nate’s current situation. They follow Leadoni through the maze for quite a while, eventually reaching Nate’s house. Dromp is overjoyed that they solved his maze, and hands over his Yo-kai Medal. However, Dromp also says he’s going to send Nate back to where he started… the start of the maze, that is!

Nate is teleported all the way back to the mailbox where he started, much to his dismay. Now he’s going to miss out on his favorite TV show for sure—and to add insult to injury, Buhu decides to finally show up, just a little bit too late.

Humans

• Nate

Yokai

• Venoct
• Red J
• Komasan
• Mighty Dog
• Dromp
• Buhu
• Jibanyan
• Leadoni
• Whisper