Keita Amano's average elementary school life is turned on its head when he finds a capsule machine on the way to school. Upon opening a capsule-shaped rock from the machine, Keita frees the youkai Whisper, who expresses his gratitude and declares himself Keita's personal butler from then on. Whisper also bestows upon Keita the Youkai Watch, a device that allows its user to see and make contracts with the youkai around them. Soon, Keita sees a wide variety of youkai causing mayhem in his everyday life. With the help of Whisper and his growing list of supernatural friends, Keita begins to mend the relationship between humanity and the youkai without even realizing it. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Youkai Watch won the 38th Kodansha Manga Award and the 60th Shogakukan Manga Award for best children's manga in 2014 and 2015, respectively. The series was published in English as Yo-kai Watch by VIZ Media from November 3, 2015 to June 18, 2024, and volumes 1-9 by Shogakukan Asia from July 1, 2015 to May 2018. It has also been published in Spanish by Norma Editorial since May 7, 2016. The manga was released in Italian by Panini Comics from January 26, 2017, to January 25, 2018, covering the first five volumes only.