Yuu Watase

I ran across the works of Yuu Watase toward the beginning of my manga addiction. If you are unfamiliar with shojo manga, its basically really awesome comic books for girls. Tell me then, what self-respecting nerdy girl doesn’t have a manga-based compulsion? For several years several years ago, I spent all my free time either reading manga or watching anime. And for someone who has a family and two jobs, there is no free time. So, I lost a lot of sleep over it. I would be up for hours each night watching episodes of Bleach or looking for different manga to immerse myself in. My obsessive behavior is not something I’m especially proud of now, but in the long run I think it helped me immensely with my writing. And seriously, it could have been worse. I could have been addicted to painkillers or chocolate bars or crack, ... not that there’s anything wrong with that. You crack addicts do your thing.

Anyway, Yuu Watase is a nationally recognized mangaka from Japan who has written over 80 volumes of short stories and series. She usually writes shojo manga, and is known for her beautiful male characters, aka bishonen. Many of her stories have been adapted into anime or even television series. The anime series Fushigi Yugi: A Mysterious Play was the first of her work that I came across. Although it was an older style of character drawing, I was quickly caught up in the unique storyline and fascinating characters. After that, I sought Ms. Watase out. My favorite manga by far that she has written is Absolute Boyfriend. Truthfully, it made me laugh, smile, and cry. It begins with a young girl who is rejected after confessing her love. She later runs into a strange man on the street who offers her the opportunity to purchase the perfect boyfriend. She goes online to make her order, and voila! the perfect boyfriend is delivered to her door the next day. As you can imagine, all kinds of shenanigans ensue, and … well, I don't want to spoil it.

One of her series in particular has influenced the novel I’m currently writing. Ceres, the Celestial Legend, inspired me to write about the beautiful and otherworldly celestial maidens of Japanese myth, specifically tennyo. When the main character Aya transforms into a tennyo, she obtains many supernatural abilities such as flight, teleportation, telepathy, telekinesis, premonition, superhuman speed and more. For this she is relentlessly hunted, eventually captured and studied in a laboratory.  It isn’t a very happy story overall, but the plot is compelling and the romance wonderful in a frustrating, poke-your-own-eyes-out kind of way.

So my fellow otaku, there is hope for your addiction as well, assuming you want it. I still love manga but I don’t let it control me anymore. I need my sleep.

Please support Ms. Watase by purchasing her manga. Yes, it’s much easier to watch the anime or drama online, but you'll be missing out if you take that cowardly route. To fully appreciate her captivating art, it's best to hold it in your own hands.

Jess

“Even though you're not by my side, Night, you will forever be my first man, my Zettai Kareshi.” – Yuu Watase