Watase Seizo:Celebrating his 50th year as an artist, he is 80 years old this year and "still active for life" - the inside story behind the creation of his masterpiece "Heart Cocktail"

Manga artist and illustrator Seizo Watase, known for his manga series "Heart Cocktail" and "Na", will celebrate his 50th year as an artist in 2025. Watase, who will turn 80 this year, has declared that he will be "active for the rest of his life" and is "always challenging himself". We asked Watase to look back on his 50 years as an artist and talk about his future.

◇The turning point: "Heart Cocktail"

Watase was born in Kobe in 1945 and grew up in Kokura, Kitakyushu. After graduating from the Faculty of Law at Waseda University, he worked as a businessman at Dowa Fire & Marine Insurance (now Aioi Nissay Dowa General Insurance) while drawing manga. In 1983, he began serializing his signature work, "Heart Cocktail," in the magazine "Morning" (Kodansha). After working as both a businessman and a manga artist, he retired at the age of 40.

I loved drawing since I was a child. However, the pictures I drew were a little different from other kids'.

"My father loved drawing. He had a private tutor who taught him art. This was when I was in the last year of kindergarten or the first year of elementary school. I remember drawing pictures of airplanes. It was after the war, so he was drawing a Zero fighter. I remember drawing it from the right rear diagonal, and that was my favorite."

Cars often appear in Watase's work. Sometimes he draws cars from a diagonal rear view, which may be the origin of his work as a child, when he used to draw three-dimensional pictures.

As he celebrates his 50th anniversary as an artist, he says, "I have a long history and it has changed all the time. I am still challenging myself to seek change." The turning point for him was "Heart Cocktail."

"My starting point was drawing 'Heart Cocktail' in four colors, but I've been changing ever since. Before 'Heart Cocktail', I drew a four-page color comic for Futabasha. The editor-in-chief of Morning saw it and asked me to do four pages in color. I was happy. I like drawing in color, so I thought it was my chance. I was working as a salaryman for about seven years, so I drew on weekends. For the first four years or so, it wasn't all color. I started drawing in color around the time of 'Heart Cocktail', about three years before I quit my job as a salaryman."

Watase's works are strikingly beautiful with their beautiful skies. He does not paint the sky or parts of the background, but specifies the colors.

"I colour people and flowers with markers, and specify the CMYK colours for things like the sky using numbers. Now I find myself thinking, 'This sky colour is in CMYK...' It's an occupational hazard. In the beginning, artisans at the printing press would colour it like ukiyo-e. I learned this from an editor at Futabasha, but no one was doing that with comics. At first it was a simple process, but now it's complicated. Since going digital and being able to do it on a computer, there are so many options that I get lost."

He uses photographs he has taken himself as reference for his landscapes, and some of his works are inspired by landscapes he encounters during his travels, not only in Japan but also in the United States, Italy, France, and other places.

"I take pictures every day. Whenever I travel, I always take pictures. I use a smartphone now, though. I don't want to make it my job, so I try to take pictures of landscapes that inspire me. The same goes for the sky. I take a lot of pictures of clouds. Clouds have expressions, too."

How does he feel about the changes in the landscape over the course of nearly 50 years of painting?

"It has changed. Tokyo has changed dramatically. I wonder if it is really okay to develop Tokyo like this. New, large buildings are being built one after another in such a big city. Japan is a country with many earthquakes, and I'm sure they are earthquake-resistant, but the old buildings and highways are not. I can't help but wonder what will happen if there is a big earthquake. Drawing buildings is no fun. I prefer nature. I always draw green things like plants and mountains. It is relaxing, and the sea and sky are pleasant."

◇New "Heart Cocktail" for the first time in a quarter of a century

"Heart Cocktail" gained overwhelming support in the 1980s. In 2023, a new TV anime "Heart Cocktail Colorful" was produced and broadcast on NHK, making it a revival hit. The number of fans among young generations who were not even born when the series was serialized is also increasing. The soundtrack "Heart Cocktail Original Soundtracks", created by Naoya Matsuoka and others, will also be released in February.

"I went to Los Angeles with Mr. Matsuoka a long time ago. There was an exhibition at the Japan America Cultural and Community Center, and since there was a hall next door, we did a joint concert. Rie Akagi played the flute, and I took to the stage with maracas. We practiced. Mr. Matsuoka and I have always been friends as a family."

Music is a source of inspiration for my artwork.

"I rely on the power of music. It's like Pavlov's dog; when music comes on, the world opens up. It takes me straight to that world. The world of a painting is limited, but music has the expanse of the universe, and it lets my imagination expand. Nothing can beat music."

A short manga collaboration with Hiromi Matsuo, a popular illustrator known for his retro-modern world, is being serialized in the quarterly magazine "Illustration" (Genkosha), and is also garnering attention. Matsuo has declared himself to be a fan of Watase, and says he was particularly influenced by one of Watase's representative works, "Na." The collaboration with Matsuo is four pages long, the same as "Heart Cocktail," and Watase is in charge of the name.

"This is our first attempt at collaboration. The short manga is four pages long, but Matsuo said, 'Four pages is difficult.' "Heart Cocktail" is also four pages long, and Kurihara (Kurihara Yoshiyuki, editor of "Heart Cocktail") once told me, 'Four pages is your world.' I draw the best part, and then the reader is left to think about the rest. It's like the world of haiku."

"I'm currently revising four pages. To mark the 50th anniversary, I'm thinking of drawing a new version of 'Heart Cocktail.' In terms of color, it's the colors of Asia, China and Shanghai. 'Heart Cocktail' was created from 1983 to 1989. After that, I drew 'Heart Cocktail Eleven' as a picture book, and 'Heart Cocktail Colorful' was a work for animation, so the number of pages was variable. So this will be my first work in a quarter of a century. The themes are love, warmth and peace. I'll also try my hand at writing the original story for a musical set in Shanghai. The theme will again be love and peace."

Watase says, "I always tell myself that if I don't constantly challenge myself, there's no tomorrow. But it's fun," and declares that he will remain active for the rest of his life, adding, "I will keep drawing forever. I'm still on my journey."

Watase-san looks so young that it's hard to believe he's turning 80 this year. Is it because he's always taking on new challenges?

"I think that's true. My tea teacher is an 88-year-old woman, but she looks young. I think the secret to her youth is that she devotes herself to the tea ceremony every day together with her young disciples. I don't think much about my age either. I'm 80, so... I try not to let it hold me back."

Last year, he republished "Chalk-Colored People" and added new works to "Chalk-Colored People Complete Edition" (Genkosha), which was released in March, and his new work "Heart Cocktail Colorful" (Shogakukan Creative) and memoir "My Heartful Life - The Trail of a Colorful Traveler" (Rittosha) were released in May. An exhibition commemorating his 50th anniversary as an artist is being held at Matsumoto PARCO (Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture) until January 19th, and will also be held at Tobu Department Store Ikebukuro (Toshima Ward, Tokyo) from February 6th to 13th, and at Kitakyushu Manga Museum (Kokurakita Ward, Kitakyushu City) from March 15th to May 11th.