Yuu Watase

Revision as of 05:01, 31 August 2007

Yuu Watase is a popular mangaka, or manga artist, that lives in Japan. She was born in 1970 near Osaka, Japan. She lived there until she was an adult, and then chose to move to Tokyo in order to become a professional mangaka. Her first short story was called An Intrusion in Pajamas, or Pajama de Ojama in Japanese. Since then she has become very popular, creating more than fifty volumes of short stories and manga series. Two of her manga have been turned into anime, and she has been able to reap the benefit of merchandising on the animes, and some of her more popular manga.

Type of Manga

Yuu Watase is best known for creating shōjo manga, which are Japanese comics that are created for girls that are between the ages of 13 and 18. These stories focus a lot on romance and the relationships between men and women. Yuu Watase’s work is also known for being bishōnen manga. Bishōnen manga is manga where the male characters are drawn to be very beautiful. Some believe that the beautiful men are created for sex, but they are not. Watase tends to prefer to draw the men beautifully, but does not make them seem feminine, as some mangaka do.

Her Work

During her career, Watase has created a number of manga. One of her more popular manga is Fushigi Yūgi. Fushigi Yūgi was turned into an animated series, and also had a few original video animations (OVA’s) before it stopped production in 1996. Fushigi Yūgi is about a junior-high student named Miaka Yūki, who winds up being pulled into a book and brought back into the feudal era. She discovers that she is reincarnation of priestess who is supposed to gather the Celestial Warriors in an effort to stop evil.

Fushigi Yūgi was so popular that in 2003, Watase created Fushigi Yūgi – Genbu Kaiden. This is the prequel to the original Fushigi Yūgi, and tells the story of the original Priestess that is meant to gather the Celestial Warriors. Takiko Okuda is the main character in this manga. She is a seventeen year old whose father has been creating a novel called “The Universe of the Four Gods”, which is the very book that the main character in the first series uses to go back to the feudal era. When Takiko rips the book up in frustration, it whisks her back to the feudal era as well.

Another of Yuu Watase’s famous manga is Ceres, Celestial Legend. This story is about a pair of teenaged twins, one boy and one girl, who discover that they are reincarnations of celestial maidens. Aya Mikage is then reviled by her family, due to the legend that the reincarnation of the celestial maiden will bring bad fortune to the entire Mikage family. She becomes Ceres, the maiden, whenever she needs to battle. Both Ceres and Aya are in love with Toya. Toya is a young man who was created to care for and protect Ceres, and winds up falling in love with Aya.

Category:Japanese mangka