Jibanyan (anime)

**Jibanyan** (Japanese: **ジバニャン** *Jibanyan*) is one of the main Yo-kai characters of the *Yo-kai Watch anime series*. He befriended Nate in the episode *The Spooky Intersection*.

During Yo-kai Watch!, Jibanyan is a Onechanside Yo-kai of the Mononoke Tribe.

In Yo-kai Watch Shadowside, Jibanyan's future self is a Shadowside Yo-kai of the Mononoke Tribe.

## History

### Prior Events

*Main article: Rudy*
Jibanyan was originally a normal red cat, named Rudy who was owned by a teenage girl named Amy. They had a strong bond before Rudy got run over by a truck, causing Rudy to turn into a Yo-kai. Amy was so sad about his death, calling it "lame". Jibanyan misinterpreted as an insult, and thought of that since.

In *Jibanyan's Secret Past*, he met three other cat Yo-kai, who are Pounce de Leon, Sir Pouncalot and Alfred, right after he became a Yo-kai.

### *Yo-kai Watch* anime series

#### Season 1 (EP001-EP076)

One day when Jibanyan was practicing combat moves on passing trucks, Nathan Adams met Jibanyan and Whisper in *The Spooky Intersection*, who befriended the former.

In *Let's Exorcise!*, he moves into Nate's house and starts causing problems for the latter's parents. However, after being saved from the Exorcist, he seemingly improved his behavior.

In Jibanyan's Secret, he was sent back in time by the malicious Yo-kai pair Kin and Gin. He relived the days he spent with Amy, where it was revealed that she wished to be a fashion designer. Rudy thought she would be great, but as a cat he was unable to tell her. When they went on over to the intersection, it turns out that Amy was supposed to die instead of Rudy, as chosen by the Yo-kai resembling grim reapers.

When Amy was about to get hit, Kin and Gin appeared before him, and told him they did this so Rudy could have a second chance, and he can change the outcome, in order to separate him from Nate. Rudy refused the offer and rammed into Amy, causing Rudy to die and Amy's life to be saved. It also turns out that Amy was calling herself this out of shame for what happened and held tight of Rudy's mangled corpse in tears.

When his spirit ascended from Rudy's body, he called out Amy's name and bids his farewell while Amy notices him from behind. After realizing that, he reminded Amy to pursue her dream of becoming a fashion designer. Rudy then went back to being a Yo-kai, and returned home to Nate.

##### Hangin' With Mr. Crabbycat

In episodes 44-46, 48, and 50, he (Mr. Crabbycat) is continuously mistreated by his own students and ends up failing all of them in the last episode.

In episodes 50-53, Venoct portrays Rubeus J, and the whole descriptions resemble Jibanyan and his life. However, Venoct defeats Rubeus J when the Yo-kai is revealed to exist.

#### Season 2 (EP077-EP150)

In episode 130, he meets his friend and rival, Tomnyan. When Nate summons him with his new Yo-kai Watch Dream, he ends up eating wasabi sushi, causing him to be summoned unluckily.

In episode 131, he is summoned luckily when Nate demonstrates to Jerry how to properly summon Yo-kai. After meeting Jerry, the latter tickles Jibanyan into giving his medal.

### *Yo-kai Watch!*

In EX001, Some time after the original series, Jibanyan and the others notice that Wazzat had accidentally erased Nate's memories of Yo-kai and tries to get them back. After many unsuccessful attempts to get Nate to notice the Yo-kai and pull Wazzat off his head, Jibanyan tries to save Nate from an oncoming truck at the same intersection where he practiced fighting trucks and manages to do so by accidentally hitting Nate on the head and letting Wazzat go.

In EX002, he was summoned to fight Snobetty, but she throws all of the chocobars into trash car, Jibanyan loses the will to fight. His Onechanside was infinite clones of him that can fills out a whole planet. Several Jibanyans clones uses Paws of Fury on Snobetty, causing her to give her Keystone to Nate and Whisper.

During EX036 in the Enma Budokai finale, Jibanyan and all the other Yo-kai try to fight against Lord Enma so one of them can be crowned the new king. Disaster suddenly occurs when Robonyan F turns himself into a dinner table after a Onechanside summon, where it soon self-destructs the entire stadium which sends Jibanyan, Nate and Whisper flying.

### Yo-kai Watch Shadowside

#### M04

Jibanyan is one of the Yo-kai summoned by Summer with the Yo-kai Watch Arcane to aid her in the fight against the Oni King Rasen.

#### Yo-kai Watch Shadowside animation series

Jibanyan continues to appear as one of Summer's Yo-kai friends. Due to his strength and skill, he appears to be her Yo-kai of choice when it comes to battling.

In SS011, it is revealed that at some point before SS003, he encountered and saved a girl named Miho from Shinigami. Miho turned out to be Amy's daughter and meeting her again restored Jibanyan's lost memories of her and how he became a Yo-kai, briefly reverting him to his previous form. After this, Amy asks him to do one thing for her, which was accompanying her while she rides her bike (just like in EP025). Instead of his previous form, he is on his Shadowside form while doing this.

Meanwhile, the pieces that were shot off of Jibanyan's body during the battle with the Shinigami formed the Yo-kai Junior.

In SS016, he was summoned to deal with Gesodrill but refuses to battle due to his hatred of water.

Also in SS020, he was summoned to deal with Filmlin but ended up in illusion where he drown in the big water pot, much to his hatred of water.

In SS037, he along with Komasan (Shadowside) tried to ambush Voidera. In the end, Douketsu impales and defeats both of them.

In SS039, he and Komasan are summoned by Tate to fight Umazaru. Komasan drops a falling dog rock on him, but he tosses it back, defeating Komasan and Jibanyan.

In SS040, he is summoned to fight the VR knights and Darkness. He defeats the knights, and Darkness flees.

### Y School Heroes

*Main article: Jinpei Jiba (anime)*
In Yo-kai Watch Jam, it's revealed Jibanyan died and was reincarnated as a human named Jinpei Jiba.

Jibanyan does make a brief appearance in the third opening of the series, where he appears in his original form, his Shadowside form, and as Rudy.

## Personality

As a Yo-kai, he resorts to inspriting people to fight on-coming trucks after numerous failed attempts to do so by himself. Luckily, he is stopped from doing this and is then befriended by Nate and Whisper, whose house he later decides to move into. He initially shows a mischievous and carefree side, easily breaking the rules and nearly being exorcised and having to be saved by Nate. However, he quickly makes amends shortly thereafter.

## Relationships

### Nate

Nate befriends Jibanyan when he discovers him inspiriting people on the crosswalk. Jibanyan takes it upon himself to live in Nate's home after tons of cat Yo-kai began to inhabit the area. Despite stirring up a bit of trouble at first, he becomes a welcomed part of Nate's daily life and a close friend. Due to this, Jibanyan is usually the first Yo-kai Nate thinks to summon when confronting a problem.

Jibanyan usually shares a disliking towards Nate for interrupting his hobbies and past-times, like eating Chocobars or going to a Next HarMEOWny concert. Although they anger each other sometimes, they are fairly good friends.

### Whisper

Whisper and Jibanyan have a bit of a light-hearted rivalry and tend to bicker often, particularly if Jibanyan is the first to identify a Yo-Kai instead of Whisper or if he is lazing around. Regardless, they seem to be fairly good friends. They would often follow Nate as they help him deal with certain Yo-kai.

### Usapyon

Since they both follow Hailey and Nate most of the time, the two normally interact when they do. Jibanyan was considered weird by Usapyon due to his love for HarMEOWny when they first met, but he moved past that. The two have been good friends since.

### Komasan and Komajiro

It is unknown when Komasan and Komajiro each first met Jibanyan. It is shown however that Komasan looks up to Jibanyan's power but also wanting to fuse with him and become Jibakoma.

### Tomnyan

Jibanyan is friends with Tomnyan, whilst having a rivalry at the same time. He does seem to be rather irritated with Tomnyan as he's more often than not irritated by Tomnyan's presence. They sometimes argue on which country of their origin is better judging from the food and band, as well as the verbal tic they say.

### Amy

Jibanyan's owner before he died. Amy named him Rudy and spent most of her time relaxing with him and taking him along when going out. She loved her kitten dearly during their time together. She called him lame (though she was referring to herself) after hearing that he died by a truck, that is why he tries to defeat the truck.

### Next HarMEOWny

Jibanyan is a big fan of the pop idol group and tends to collect massive amounts of merchandise pertaining to them. Whilst he also visits concerts, he also longs to meet them in person and win their hearts with cuteness. His favorite member of the group is Fiona.

## Trivia

* In *The Spooky Intersection*, it is revealed that the victims he inspirits would act like a cat, while having his two flaming tails poke out of the victim's backside. Though, he has only shown to do this once.
* He and Tomnyan have a lot in common, with the most iconic being their backstories. The only difference to their backstories is that Jibanyan’s owner was named Amy, whereas Tomnyan’s owner was named Emily and that Jibanyan died saving Amy from a speeding truck when she crossed during a green light whereas Tomnyan died saving Emily from a speeding truck since she was not aware because she had her earphones on.
* Albeit still having contact with Whisper, as shown in M04, he does not seem to have any contact or even remember Nate.
* Because of his personality in the Shadowside series, his respect is not easily earned. But after seeing Summer save a kitten from getting hit by a speeding truck, he quickly jumps in to save her.
	+ This could be because she briefly reminded him of Amy during that scene.
* Jibanyan is the first and only Yo-kai from the Shadowside series to revert back to his original form from the present series. In his case, it was after regaining his memories.
* In EX002, his Onechanside is multiple clones of himself that could fill the entire planet.
	+ In EX004, his Onechanside transforms him into MMM Jibanyan.
	+ As of EX008, his Onechanside allows the Watch holder to summon random befriended Yo-kai to fight alongside Jibanyan.
* It is shown in EP179 that his human counterpart would have dark brown hair, similar to Nate's, but he still retains his red cat ears and his fangs.