Manga Creator Masako Watanabe Dies At 97
Watanabe kept publishing into her nineties, and her career, from a 1952 debut through a 2020 series launch, traces the shojo and josei field's postwar formation.
Reporting from 1 source: Anime News Network.
Masako Watanabe, a manga creator who worked in shojo and josei for decades, died on October 3 at 12:38 a.m. JST, according to her X account. She was 97. Born in Tokyo on May 16, 1929, she debuted in 1952 with the story "Suama-chan" and launched the Himegoto manga in 2020, at 91. She won the 16th Shogakukan Manga Award in 1971 for Glass no Shiro.
Watanabe's Hitori Matsuri, published in 1985, was adapted into a live-action television drama. She collected the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award at the 31st Japan Cartoonists Association Awards in 2002, and in 2006 the Order of the Rising Sun. She was a director of the Japan Cartoonists Association. Her other works include Dai-San no Onna, Hakuba no Shojo, Mimi to Nana, and Saint Rosalind.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- Anime News Network News Manga Creator Masako Watanabe Dies at 97