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Fushigi Yuugi's Yuu Watase to Start New Original Work
posted on by Egan Loo
Manga creator Yuu Watase announced in a June 25 blog entry that Shogakukan's Yuu Watase Perfect World Fushigi Yuugi magazine (pictured at right) has ceased publication so she can start on a "new work." Watase said there are many reasons for the magazine's end, but the main reason is to allow her to deal with this new work that she has been planning since 2004. She noted that her editors asked her several times in the past to create a manga about supernatural creatures, but she did not say what her new manga's theme will be.
She assured her readers that the Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden spinoff manga will continue; the manga will move from the Perfect World magazine to Monthly Flowers magazine and run on an irregular schedule. Shogakukan published 14 volumes of Yuu Watase Perfect World Fushigi Yuugi from 2004 until this week. With Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden and Rinka magazine's Sakura-Gari manga still ongoing, Watase will have to handle three serialized works simultaneously when the new manga starts.
Watase noted that she has now done her final work for Shōjo Comic (Sho-Comi) magazine. (Perfect World is a spinoff from Sho-Comi magazine.) She said that she is grateful for the two decades she has spent in this magazine since she debuted as professional in its pages in 1989. She added that it was "perfect" timing since the live-action drama version of Absolute Boyfriend — the last manga she did for the main Sho-Comi magazine — has just finished airing this week.
Viz Media published the entire Fushigi Yuugi and Absolute Boyfriend manga series in North America, and is currently publishing Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden.
