yokai

Japan went nuts over The Force Awakens, but not enough. The next film is slated to be released a month late in Japan — and some are blaming Yokai Watch!

As you may have heard, the most recent entry in the Star Wars cinematic universe was released last week. It was even released in Japan on the world-wide release date, much to our pleasure, excitement, and surprise.

See, for residents of Japan, getting a new movie on its international opening day is hardly par for the course — just look at what happened when the first movie was released in the ’70s! And while many Japanese cinema-goers had hoped that the upcoming eighth Star Wars movie would be released in a similar timely fashion to The Force Awakens, it looks like that’s not going to happen.

▼ Freaking July?!

swIMDB

Even though the eighth episode will be released at the end of May around the world, Japan won’t get the film until over a month later! On one hand, we suppose sci-fi fans should be happy — after all, The Martian won’t make it to Japan until February, after the film’s DVD release in the U.S. But some Internet commenters think there might be a very specific reason for the delay: Yokai Watch.

As you probably know, Episode 7 made a lot of money — enough to break all sorts of box office records, in fact. But not in Japan. Now, to be sure, the movie certainly made a ton of money over here as well, but it wasn’t the number one film of the week. That distinction went to Yo-Kai Watch the Movie 2: King Enma and the 5 Stories, Nyan!, the second film in the franchise that seems to be ready to topple Pokémon.

With the news that the next movie will be delayed a month, many commenters took to the Internet to lay the blame (jokingly) at the feet of Yokai Watch.

“This is Yokai Watch’s fault!”
“You can’t beat the Japanese yokai!”
“Is that damn yokai anime still popular?!”
“Even Star Wars couldn’t beat the yokai!”
“Yokai Wars ヾ(*｀Д´)ノ”
“Japan’s film industry is so horrible it’s embarrassing.”

Well, there’s still plenty of time to petition Disney to release it sooner in Japan, though we get the feeling that the mouse isn’t one to forgive easily.

Sources: Hamusoku, IMDB
Top image: Yokai Watch