Can I learn more about the yokai watch au? If you want to that is.
ofc!! sorry for taking so long to reply !! but better late than never ig lol
As mentioned in this post, this au takes place in a version of twst where magic doesn’t really exist. In addition, this means no beastmen and no fae… kind of. I’ll explain more of this later, but put a pin in it for now and just keep it in the back of your mind.
Because both twst and yokai watch originate from Japan, that is the main setting for most things including NRC itself, the dorms, etc. Every character isn’t necessarily Japanese, but for the sake of having the whole twst cast in the same general area, most—if not all students—live in the dorms. This includes the two characters I shoved into the spotlight: Ace Trappola and Deuce Spade.
In terms of the relationship between the two of them, not much has really changed; they’re still roommates, have the exact same friendly rivalry as presented in canon, etc etc. However, this au focuses a lot more on them rather than the ramshackle duo!! (And for the sake of the story, they don’t have any other roommates, just each other)
my interpretation of nrc itself was something i was a little less sure of. Currently, i have the school as a normal college/high school (or whatever nrc is supposed to be ig??) that’s considered just a little strange and quirky rather than magical. But, in reality, nrc is a very supernatural place underneath the surface without the knowledge of most students and faculty.
As of right now, this au doesn’t have any definitive storyline. If you’re at all familiar with the yokai watch anime, I’d say this au presents itself in a similar manner—semi episodic with some longer arcs here and there. Said longer arcs are focused on each individual dorm and end with an overblot-esc scene (w yokai ofc).
Now, remember how I said that beastmen/fae technically don’t exist and how most of the school’s population doesn’t know about NRC’s supernatural side? Well this is where it starts getting a lil funky.
Fae are a special and specific type of yokai that are typically more easily perceived by humans. Not only do they tend to take the shape and appearance of humans much easier than other yokai, but they are easier to be spotted by humans without a yokai watch. This contributed to the notion of fae being their own thing because back when fae were first discovered by humans, they had even less knowledge on yokai as a whole and kinda just assumed fae were their own separate species. In other words, fae don’t exist in the same way they are in twst; in this au, they’re just another form of yokai.
Beastmen, on the other hand, are not a subspecies of yokai like fae—they’re a side effect and phenomenon caused by some yokai possessions. Think of the yokai watch episode where they introduced jibanyan and he possessed people who were using this crosswalk (either episode 1 or 2??). There were physical differences and changes in mannerisms to represent the possession. However, the whole beastmen thing is a lil more permanent than one-time possession but u get the idea.
When putting all this into consideration, malleus + Lilia + Crowley (?) are all yokai. Sebek is a rlly weird case that I admittedly didn’t put much thought into but we cross that bridge when we get there…… Silvers still human, but bc he was raised by Lilia, he can spot yokai better than the average human, even without a yokai watch. On the other hand, savannaclaw is entirely human and they only rlly get their animal features sometime during their version of books 1-2.
Speaking of humans who can see yokai w/ out yokai watches, this applies to ALL of the overblotters. This is bc I’m treating their phantoms in twst as powerful yokai that have been present in most if not their whole lives. Because they came in contact with their respective phantoms so frequently, they’ve been eased into and are more aware of NRC’s more supernatural side, similarly to Silver. Meaning they can see and interact with Yuu n grim just fine.
Speaking of Ramshackle, i did not forget abt the three ghosts!! While i wouldn’t classify them as yokai, they’re like yuu’s honorary dead uncles n kinda just show up around adeuces dorm every now and again. They’re not super important to the story but like. theyre implied to be former nrc alumni……. who may or may not have died there but who knows……
As for the individual yokai, the yokai watch franchise based them off of Japanese mythology for the most part. Because this au takes place in Japan, some of the original yokai may pop up every once in awhile but they’re not rlly the main focus. Instead, most of the yokai will be based on different elements n characters in disney movies. I don’t have a ton of them planned out just yet, but i have one based on the white rabbit that makes u lose track of time but i can never get its design right for some reason tbh……..
honestly that’s pretty much everything i have as of rn !! hope my rambling was satisfactory :3