Borei Bancho (Episode)

***Borei Bancho* (**Japanese: **亡霊番長** *Bōrei Banchō*) is the first episode of Yo-kai Watch Shadowside. It aired in Japan on April 13, 2018 alongside *The Bicycle Ridden By the Dead**.***

## Plot

The episode starts off with a kid walking along a road until he encounters a large Yo-kai who attacks him. We then cut forward where we see Keisuke Amano, the younger brother of Natsume Amano, is following his sister while wearing her Yo-kai Watch Elder due to him wondering why she is coming home late recently.

Natsume then enters the building, with Touma and Akinori already inside. Akinori is mad at Natsume for coming three minutes late and proceeds to explain that they are running a Yo-kai detective agency and must be punctual, with Natsume dismissively brushes it off. Outside, Keisuke is peaking through the window speculating that one of the two males might be Natsume’s boyfriend. Akinori then shows Touma and Natsume a new forum post about a ghostly gangleader beating up people in alleys. Whisper and Micchy then comes out of nowhere to talk about the situation, with Keisuke wondering who they are talking to, as he can’t see the Yo-kai. Akinori then notices Keisuke peeping in the window and runs out to confront him. Keisuke tries to get away but bumps into Micchy and lands on the ground. Natsume is then surprised to see her brother here. Keisuke is now terrified at the sight of Whisper and Micchy, with Natsume surprised that he can see them. Whisper says that Keisuke reminds him of a certain someone before showing off his muscles along with Micchy. Natsume then notices that Keisuke is wearing her Yo-kai Watch and confronts him where he got it from, with him proceeding to say that it must be some sort of device given by a cult to brainwash her.

Whisper then comments Keisuke holds such a rich imagination. On hearing this, Akinori invites Keisuke to joining the Yo-kai Detective Agency. However, Keisuke is scared of the creatures, known as Yo-kai. He immediately slips off his watch and hurries home, adding that the members of the agency are trying to brainwash him.

After he runs off, Akinori points out that Keisuke was capable of seeing Yo-kai, even without shining the light at them. He then assumes that only Natsume and Keisuke needs to wear the watch to see such. Natsume advises their team to hurry unravel the case of Borei Bancho, adding that the most common time to sight him is during evenings.

After searching for quite some time, Natsume complains that they didn’t caught him yet, due to the fact no one is being bullied. They look around for anyone getting bullied, which turns out to be none.

Suddenly, Natsume strikes an idea. She gets a hold of a stick and asks Touma to sit in a certain spot. Then, she tells Akinori to pretend to beat Touma up with the stick she was holding. Akinori figures out the idea was for him to be a bully. Touma questions whether or not their actions are okay, and Natsume reassures the two. Action! They started pretending in such pathetic ways and phrases. Akinori even mentioned “he’s going to bully Touma,” which Natsume found strange. She then comes out from hiding to stop them and points out that bullies don’t say, “I’m going to bully you.” He told them to be more realistic.

Out of nowhere, a voice of an old lady was heard, insulting Akinori, on hearing he was about to beat up Touma. She sternly approaches Akinori with an onion in hand. She scolds him for “attempting” to beat up Touma, and shoves the onion to his face, adding that bullies deserve to smell it.

A piercing scream suddenly caught the Yo-kai detectives attention. They realize the scream was caused by Borei Bancho, so they hurried off. The old lady mentions to Akinori that she’s not done with him, but he simply runs off. When they arrived, they spot Borei Bancho. The massive Yo-kai slowly turned to face them, and Touma calls out that he’s going to hurt someone. They need to put him to a stop.

Natsume pulls out Jibanyan’s Arc and set it to Light Side. She summons the cat Yo-Kai, and he casually greets her. As soon as Jibanyan appears, Micchy and Whisper comes to, which surprises Akinori. Borei Bancho walks up to Jibanyan and challenges him to fight. However, judging by the scene, Natsume already senses that he won’t win.

Whisper then tells her not to worry, and teaches that she can transform him into his Shadow Side version by rotating the Arc, which she does. She then commands Micchy to also initiate in battle, which he agrees to. Micchy then changes into his Shadow side form and embraces himself beside Jibanyan.

Keisuke, who was watching from the behind, is stunned by the horrific looks of Micchy. Keisuke turns to face Borei Bancho, who is rotating his hand in a circle motion. Keisuke, somewhat recognizes those movements.

Watching this, Whisper comments on how strong their Shadow side versions cause them to be. It is perfect for the situation they’re in! Jibanyan actives his Paws of Fury, which he swiftly dodges. He easily defeats Micchy, and leave him crashing against the ground. As Borei Bancho was about to beat Jibanyan more, he notices Keisuke and disappears.

They questioned why he ran away? Jibanyan claims that whatever way they visualize it, he had the upper hand, but still thinking for a reason of him fleeing. Natsume asks the kid is he okay, but Micchy gets in the way and answers the question. Suddenly the kid turned and ran away. They tried calling him back, but he ran too quickly.

Keisuke came out of hiding and asked of what he just witnessed. He then questions what are these creatures his eyes are showing him are. Whisper then humbly describes to him again that they are Yo-kai. Keisuke suddenly lets out a scream and runs off.

Keisuke has ran off to somewhere he didn’t even recognize. He questions himself about what he saw, but can’t seem to figure out the answer. He then spots the kid from earlier, walking to somewhere. After the kid walked passed him, he carefully followed him. He was led to a place with a quite a crowd. There was Shiroda, who was asking whether or not everyone brought their dues. The kid from earlier confirms that he did. Keisuke overheard, but found it suspicious.

He then spotted everyone throwing money into a box. Everything went to place now, all the pieces of the puzzles were placed right. He saw these members on news before, they were a street gang. As he was mumbling in the bushes, two of the members spotted him. They grabbed him and threw him on the stage. Shiroda knew that Keisuke had discovered their secret meeting. Unfortunately, they needed to keep him silent. He grabbed a chain and started beating him with it.

He then gave Keisuke a choice. If he wanted to get off easily, he needs to scream “I won’t tell anyone about Shiroda. Please forgive me!” as loud as he can. Keisuke started getting beaten up by his gang members. Keisuke suddenly got up and admitted that he would never give up to bullies like them. He then adds that he would never surrender. He claims that it was a promise he made with his friend. A blue fireball with the sky came crashing down. Borei Bancho was revealed from the midst. Shiroda pointed out the uniformed man. Borei Bancho charges to his members and starts punching one-by-one away. Keisuke glances at Borei Bancho and recognizes him. He then told Keisuke to never give up.

Fukuro blasts a quill into Shiroda’s neck, which begins to mutate him into a Kaima. He then starts laugh psychotically and asks is the oversized Frankenstein is his pal. He then claims that he’ll defeat everyone there. The Kaima starts to fight Borei Bancho.

The three detectives plus their Yokai arrives. They spot Borei Bancho fighting the monster, and decides to help him. As Natsume was about to summon a Yo-kai, the watch hovered to Keisuke’s wrist. Natsume then demands Keisuke to summon a Yo-kai. However, Keisuke refuses, but due to the current situation he’s in right now, he has no choice.

The three detectives plus their Yokai arrives. They spot Borei Bancho fighting the monster, and decides to help him. As Natsume was about to summon a Yo-kai, the watch hovered to Keisuke’s wrist. Natsume then demands Keisuke to summon a Yo-kai. However, Keisuke refuses, but due to the current situation he’s in right now, he has no choice.

Keisuke approaches Borei Bancho and tells him that he remembers him from a long time ago. He’s Kenji. He saved Keisuke from a long time ago. He’s even wearing the bracelet. It then flashbacks to bullies running away. Kenji tells Keisuke that he’s weak, and Keisuke thanks him for saving his life.

In another time, Keisuke is shown swinging and complaining that those bullies always pick on him. Kenji then tells him that if they ever came back, he’ll scare them off, but in one condition. Keisuke will never give up. He tells him that men are courageous, and if he is strong, Kenji will lend Keisuke his strength. However, sadly after that, Kenji met with a car accident. It’s because of Kenji that Keisuke’s able to stand up to bullies.

We then see a hollow Kenji standing within Borei Bancho. He starts complimenting on how strong Keisuke is now. Keisuke then says that Kenji made him strong. Kenji needed to go soon, so he wishes farewell to him, and disappears. As he fades, the Arc of Borei Bancho flies out to Keisuke. Akinori then explains about the Arc to Keisuke. He then claims the Arc is for Keisuke.

Later, when they were walking home, Akinori asks why Keisuke won’t join the Yo-kai Detective agency. Keisuke explains that he visualizes it as a dream, and he’s going to walk home and wake up now. However, Keisuke accepts the fact that Yo-kai exist, as in, his best friend’s a Yo-kai.

Meanwhile, in Natsume’s class, the teacher introduces a brand new classmate named Haruya Sakami.

## Characters

### Humans

* Natsume Amano
* Keisuke Amano
* Touma Tsukinami
* Akinori
* Old Lady
* Kenji

### Yo-kai

* Borei Bancho
* Whisper
* Micchy
* Jibanyan
* Wicked Yo-kai
* Komasan

## Yo-kai Summoned

* Jibanyan (Light and Shadow)
* Komasan (Light and Shadow)

## Trivia

* This marks the first time Keisuke uses the Yo-kai Watch Elder.
* It's revealed that Keisuke used to have a friend named Kenji before he died in an accident, becoming Borei Banchou.