ICv2 put up a new interview this week with VIZ Media senior editorial director Beth Kawasaki. In it, Kawasaki discussed the success of Yo-kai Watch and also shared some information about The Legend of Zelda: Legendary Edition.

Continue on below for some excerpts from the interview. You can read the full piece here, which includes some talk about Pokemon (including a cookbook coming this year).

On Yo-kai Watch’s success…

We’ve had great success with Yo-kai Watch. We thought it would do well, but it’s really gone above expectations. We’ve seen a lot of support in all channels for that property. It’s a video game for Nintendo, and the animated series is airing here in the States on Disney XD. We have seen a lot of pick-up on that across all channels. We’re seeing a lot of support through our regular retail channels, as well as Diamond has been supporting it (we’ve seen some reorders there), and with Scholastic also, so we’re really getting a nice reach with that property. There was some placement at Walmart when we launched the property.

It’s a really funny comic about a young boy who sees what are called yokai, which in Western culture, the closest thing we could equate it with is spirits, although it’s not exactly the same. It’s basically these characters that have died then come back, either for good or evil, and problems have to be solved. It’s very comedic, very gag-driven, very physical humor.

On what’s driving Yo-kai Watch’s success…

I think it’s definitely the TV exposure as well as the video game exposure. I know Nintendo put some marketing behind the video game launch and continues to do so. It’s just a really funny story. A lot of gatekeepers that saw and read the information we sent out, they took a chance on it and it’s performed well. Now they’re ordering more and asking us for more content.

On what else is among VIZ’s better sellers after Pokemon and Yo-kai Watch…

Those are really the two biggest ones we have right now. We’re really seeing some backlist stuff continue to go gangbusters, like The Legend of Zelda series, which has been out since 2010. We’re still seeing healthy orders for that on our backlist.

It’s just one of those stories that has now become the fabric of pop culture. As new people discover it, people who first read it five-six years ago may be older and moved onto something else. There’s a whole new generation. It’s very similar in that way to Pokemon where every five years or so there’s a new set of kids that are getting into this. It’s just classic interesting and exciting entertainment, so that hook’s always there and they continue to buy and support it. It just amazes us how well it continues to perform.

On The Legend of Zelda: Legendary Edition…

We are. We’re doing some more deluxe two-in-one editions of that, which have some extra material. There’s a color art piece in there, in addition to some pages that are being colored by the artist that were not colored before. They’ve gone back and colored about 16 pages for each volume. That was originally a 10-volume series and it will be collected into five volumes. It’ll be a bigger size, nicer paper stock. We’re really looking forward to it. Kids may buy it as well, but we think that will reach a little more into the adult audience.

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