Viz Media Europe has acquired the rights to the Japanese brand "Yo-Kai Watch" for TV, home entertainment/video-on-demand, licensing and merchandising in Europe, Russia and Africa.

Created by the Japanese video game company Level-5 ("LBX: Little Battlers eXperience," "Inazuma Eleven") the "Yo-Kai Watch" franchise currently boasts a Nintendo 3DS video game series, a TV series jointly produced by Level-5, Dentsu and TV Tokyo, manga and related books published by Shogakukan, as well as toys and other merchandise that have generated more than $1 billion USD in retail sales in Japan.

Dentsu and TV Tokyo have already partnered with Hasbro to bring the brand's toy line to Europe in 2016, and Viz Media Europe will present the TV series to international broadcasters this April at MIPTV in Cannes, France. Video games and merchandising partnerships will be announced later this year.

"Yo-Kai Watch" stars a young boy, Nate, who gets a special watch empowering him to see mysterious beings called Yo-kai that cause nuisances in human's daily life.

"We strongly believe that 'Yo-Kai Watch' will become a major hit in Europe," says Pascal J. Bonnet, senior director, TV sales and licensing, VIZ Media Europe. "Kids, broadcasters and licensees have all been waiting for long for the next big anime thing. This is it."