' is a Japanese sh?jo manga author and artist. She received the Shogakukan Manga Award for sh?jo for Ceres, Celestial Legend in 1997. Since writing her debut short story "Pajama de Ojama" ("An Intrusion in Pajamas"), Watase has created more than 80 compiled volumes of short stories and continuing series. Because of her frequent use of beautiful male characters in her works, she is widely regarded in circles as a bish?nen mangaka. In October 2008, Watase began her first shonen serialization, The Legend in Weekly Sh?nen Sunday.
Her name is romanized as "Yű Watase" in earlier printings of Viz Media's publications of Fushigi Y?gi, Alice 19th, and Ceres, The Celestial Legend, while in Viz Media's Fushigi Y?gi Genbu Kaiden and Absolute Boyfriend her name is romanized as "Yuu Watase". In Chuang Yi's English-language versions of Fushigi Yugi (spelled without a macron or circumflex), her name is romanized as "Yu Watase".