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Yuu Watase's Sakura-Gari Manga Gets Prequel 1-Shot

The official X/Twitter account for Yuu Watase's Fushigi Yūgi manga announced on Sunday that Watase will publish a new one-shot story for her Sakura-Gari manga in the spring issue of Shogakukan's Zōkan Flowers magazine on March 13. The one-shot celebrates the 10th anniversary of the new edition volume releases for the manga in 2016. The new story will be a prequel focusing on Saiki Soma's childhood.

The manga is set in the Taisho era, and centers on Masataka Tagami, a teenager who leaves his provincial home to try his luck at enrolling in a preparatory school in Tokyo. Just as he arrives in Tokyo, he is involved in a small traffic incident with the 25-year old Saiki Soma, the scion of the Soma family and president of the family's trading company. With Masataka's housing prospects grim, he decides to make his services available to the Soma family as a servant, and grows closer to the young Saiki, while learning more about the family's dark secrets.

Watase serialized the manga in Shogakukan's Rinka magazine beginning with its premiere issue in June of 2007, and ended it in January 2010. Shogakukan published three compiled book volumes for the manga from 2009 to 2010, and published new editions of the three volumes in 2016.

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, but returned in May 2024. 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.

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.

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 ended in November 2023. Shogakukan released 18 volumes for the manga in a remastered edition. 

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 (from the original edition) in English in August 2016.

Source: Fushigi Yūgi's X/Twitter account