Yuu Watase's Fushigi Yûgi: Byakko Senki Manga Returns in May 2024
The series was initially scheduled to return to publication in the fall.
Watase most recently launched the Fushigi Yūgi: Byakko Senki manga in Monthly Flowers in August 2017. The manga went on hiatus in August 2018 due to Watase's poor physical condition, and it has remained on hiatus. Shogakukan published the manga's first volume in April 2018. Viz Media licensed the series.
The manga will be the last story in the Fushigi Yūgi's "Four Gods" storyline. Watase previously explained that she was watching her health and stamina, and added that she would work hard to finish the story.
She previously published a 51-page one-shot manga titled Fushigi Yūgi: Byakko Ibun (Fushigi Yugi: Curious Tales of the Byakko) in Monthly Flowers in February 2015.
Watase serialized the original Fushigi Yûgi manga in Shogakukan's Shōjo Comic (Sho-Comi) magazine from 1992 to 1996, and Shogakukan published 18 compiled book volumes. She then drew Fushigi Yûgi: Genbu Kaiden from 2003 to 2013. Viz Media published both of these earlier manga and other works by Watase in North America.
The original manga inspired a 52-episode television anime series in 1995-1996. The manga also inspired three original video anime series. Geneon Entertainment first released the television series and three OVAs in North America. Media Blasters later re-released the television series on DVD in 2012-2013, and again in 2015. Media Blasters also released the three OVA series on DVD in 2013. Crunchyroll began streaming the television series and three OVAs in February 2016.
Fushigi Yûgi has also inspired three stage play productions, as well as stage musicals.
Watase debuted the Arata: The Legend (Arata Kangatari) manga in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in 2008. The manga had been on hiatus for five years, before returning with republished chapters in May 2021 and new chapters in July 2021. Watase previously resumed the manga in July 2015 (after an earlier 17-month hiatus), only to put the manga back on hiatus a month later.
The manga received a 12-episode anime adaptation in 2013, and Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired. Viz Media published the manga's 24th volume in English in August 2016.