Fushigi Yugi: Animation World, Part 2

Fushigi Yugi - Art Books

by Yuu Watase

Animation Book and Guide to the making of the manga and 1992 TV show.

Genres: Manga

97 pages, JP Oversized

First published February 20, 1996

About the author

Yuu Watase (渡瀬悠宇) is a Japanese shoujo manga-ka. She is known for her works Fushigi Yūgi, Alice 19th, Ceres: The Celestial Legend, Fushigi Yūgi Genbu Kaiden and Absolute Boyfriend. She likes all music, except heavy metal and old traditional music.

She received the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo for Ceres, Celestial Legend in 1997. Since writing her debut short story "Pajama de Ojama" ("An Intrusion in Pajamas"), Watase has created more than 80 compiled volumes of short stories and continuing series. Because of her frequent use of beautiful male characters in her works, she is widely regarded in circles[which?] as a bishōnen manga artist.[citation needed] In October 2008, Watase began her first shōnen serialization, Arata: The Legend in Weekly Shōnen Sunday.
Her name is romanized as "Yû Watase" in earlier printings of Viz Media's publications of Fushigi Yūgi, Alice 19th, and Ceres, The Celestial Legend, while in Viz Media's Fushigi Yūgi Genbu Kaiden and Absolute Boyfriend her name is romanized as "Yuu Watase". In Chuang Yi's English-language versions of Fushigi Yugi (spelled without a macron or circumflex), her name is romanized as "Yu Watase".

Reviews

[Bibliothecat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good example why I generally prefer manga over anime. The art is often lost in translation and worst of all, many anime styles manage to make the eyes go funky. Just looking at the cover alone, at least three of the characters are oddly spaced out or cross eyed. This is in no way true for all anime - there are a few fantastic ones out there and some that are superior to their manga counter part. This is also very rarely an issue when it comes to anime movies. But shoujo manga above all often seem to have this weird issue with the faces.

Knowing that, I almost didn't buy this artbook. Luckily, a preview showed me that this book also includes manga art which lead me to buy it after all. The first pages are dedicated to the anime art and, while not my favourite, it is worth a glance. The following pages are manga illustrations by Watase and really the only reason I picked this up. I was happy to see that they made out more than half of the book. Her artwork is as gorgeous as ever, it's just a shame that some pictures are very small.

It's not as interesting as the first artbook but it's still a fine addition to a collection.