#does kenny/nathaniel exist in the opposite continuity. like does kenny exist in nate's continuity. you never see him

[oh-meow-swirls]

okay but i think that the single most inconsistent thing in yo-kai watch is how seeing yo-kai when you have a yo-kai watch works- like. nate/katie can't see yo-kai without it of course. but they can see whisper fine without it in both 1 and 2. this is never explained (though could potentially be due to something to do with nathaniel/kenny, since how they see yo-kai is never explained in the games, n for katie, maybe also her aura sensing stuff from nyanderful days since 4 canonizes that; the anime doesn't explain it either, with whisper stating only nate can see him but not saying why). additionally, you need to rank up your watch to see yo-kai of higher ranks,,, but you can find them fine if they're at a yo-kai spot. in dungeons and stuff, you can also see yo-kai perfectly fine, and quest-giving yo-kai are never hidden. mirapo are also never hidden.

3 clearly shows that in the yo-kai world, any human can see yo-kai without any external means even if they can't normally; when blunder n folly go to new yo-kai city at the end of 3 (side note because i can't remember: is it ever explained how they got there? n also why are they in the game in the first place-), they can see yo-kai fine, but they can't when they're in the human world. also additionally something i think's interesting: in the chapter where you go to yopple inc., hailey sees whisper n jibanyan without needing her yo-kai watch at all, which makes sense, but she can also still see them fine in the human world. you could make an argument for whisper since nate/katie also could but not really for jibanyan.

this is all headcanon but the way i see it is that a yo-kai's want to be seen also influences it. shadowside seems to canonize this as apparently yo-kai can become visible to ANY human there if they want to, but basically the way i see it is that with a yo-kai watch, if a yo-kai wants to be seen, you can see them without having to scan them or anything, but if they don't, you have to scan them. additionally, yo-kai disguising as objects at yo-kai spots and stuff don't hide themselves as well. yo-kai who give quests don't care about being seen, yo-kai in dungeons also don't care, etc. but again, this is all headcanon because it's just. never explained. not even the anime explains any of this really,,, other than the fact that, in manjimutt's introductory segment, when nate goes to investigate, whisper says that manjimutt being visible to people without a yo-kai watch means he's very powerful. of course this isn't the case n manjimutt (n dandoodle by extension, though you could make an argument for strength there, but other legendary yo-kai don't seem to be visible to humans) is just. weird. but it's interesting to note.

anyways in conclusion i just want explanation of this shit it's interesting to me n there's so many instances of yo-kai being visible without you having to use the yo-kai watch, i get it from a gameplay standpoint but there's no explanation story-wise n yo-kai watch is usually pretty good at that sort of thing-