Seizō Watase
Manga artist
Seizō Watase (わたせ せいぞう or 渡瀬 政造, Watase Seizō) is a Japanese manga artist and illustrator born 15 February 1945 in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Outside of being an illustrator for numerous posters, books, and other works, he is most well known for his dramatic romance manga Heart Cocktail, which had sold over 5 million copies.
He won the 1974 Shogakukan Big Comic Prize. In 1987, Watase received the Bungeishunjū Manga Award for his work Phillip, P.I. (私立探偵フィリップ, Shiritsu Tantei Firippu).
In addition to various exhibits in Japan, Watase held his first major exhibit in the United States at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Los Angeles, California in 1998.
Biography
From shortly after birth until high school, Watase lived in Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka Prefecture. He attended Meiji Gakuen Junior High (a private school), then graduated to the Fukuoka Prefectural Kokura Senior High School before finally graduating from Waseda University with a degree in law.
Watase was awarded the 1974 Shogakukan Big Comic Prize. His Heart Cocktail manga series, considered to be representative of his work, began publication in Kodansha's manga magazine Weekly Morning in 1983. This series ran for six years and was adapted into an anime television series aired on NTV from October 1986 until March 1988.
The public source identifies “Seizō Watase” as manga artist. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Seizō, Watase and Manga.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1399083. VIAF identifies the subject as 254379941. The Library of Congress control number is no2019087515. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1945, 1974, 1987 and 1998.
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This entry incorporates text from “Seizō Watase” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.