Watari Yutaka (Yami no Matsuei)
Title: Don't you want to know?
Character: Watari Yutaka (Yami no Matsuei)
Spoilers: Kyoto arc, minor for the rest of the manga
Author: childofatlantis
I'm not entirely sure I could tell you whether Watari or Tsuzuki was my favourite character in Yami. Some days I'm sure it's Tsuzuki, beautiful and broken as he is, but it's Watari who fascinates me when it comes to character exploration. There's nothing that hooks a writer quite like a character without much canon backstory, and Watari's canon backstory can be put into one sentence: he's the quirky mad scientist of Meifu who tends to use his co-workers as test subjects for his latest invention.
I like Watari because he amuses me, because he's bright where too many other cast members are dark or shaded grey, because he speaks Osaka dialect and because when he smiles there's nothing false about it. I'm fascinated by Watari because of the hints of something sharp and ruthless under his cheerful exterior, because he knows how to manipulate people and isn't afraid to do so, because whatever his reasons for becoming a Shinigami, the most thankless job in Meifu, it seems unlikely they included despair or self-hatred. Watari is confident, strong-willed and intelligent, and it's abundantly clear that there is more to him than meets the eye.
Dear world, I'm pleased to meet you
Yami no Matsuei is a series full of angst. Its main characters are Shinigami, gods of death, whose job is to bring the unwilling and the unready to the world of the dead. It requires a certain type of person to take that job: someone tied to life by a strong emotion, or prevented from moving on by an even stronger regret.
Through all of this, Watari breezes with a smile, a small pet owl, and a quirky, easygoing outlook. He reminds everyone that there's more to life - and they're certainly living, even if they're technically dead - than the job they do 24/7. He cares about his friends and the people he works with, but he's capable of distancing himself from his work in a way that, say, Tsuzuki and Tatsumi are not. He can be manipulative if it suits him, but it seems to spring from an understanding of people in general and his friends and co-workers in particular.
When faced with situations that leave others frozen to the spot, Watari reacts with positive emotion - anger - and galvanises them into action. He's not afraid to say things that might provoke others, or to be brutally honest. He's not crippled by Tsuzuki's lack of self-worth, nor Tatsumi's guilt complexes. I would lay money that, however he died, he became a Shinigami out of sheer fury that his life dared to end so soon - or perhaps a stubborn refusal to give up until he's seen everything there is to see.
Watari has a very strange, perhaps unique power: the ability to animate images and machines. He can reach into a picture drawn on paper and pull out the thing it represents. It doesn't matter if the picture looks nothing like what it's intended to be - it seems as if all Watari needs is to be able to see the potential of what he's trying to create. This, to me, sums up his character perfectly: he has a powerful imagination and the ability (and inclination) to make what it shows him reality.
Watari is the Summons Division's forensic scientist, computer programmer, medic and archivist all in one. He spends his free time mixing potions that wreak havoc on his co-workers: notable past failures successes have included swapping several people's bodies around, de-aging himself and Tsuzuki to childhood, and turning them both invisible. When it comes to machinery and science, there seems to be nothing he won't turn his hand to. He's called in to investigate demon curses, to dig into old files and reports, to bandage up whoever's managed to fall foul of the Forces of Darkness this week (Tsuzuki and Hisoka rank high on this list), to fix Tatsumi's computer... the list goes on. In death, Watari's passion for life has driven him to try a bit of everything, and he's not afraid of making mistakes on the route to success. He's a true scientist - someone fascinated by the world, not blinkered by the idea that he can place rules upon it.
It's in the way you're always hiding from the light
There's a tendency in fandom to ignore Watari as the odd one out, the wallflower watching from the sidelines as Tatsumi, Hisoka and Tsuzuki angst over each other and their problems. And if you've only seen the anime, I suppose this is understandable, as Watari gets the least screentime of anyone. It's a shame. Watari's an integral part of the group, and I don't think the dynamics would work out the same if he wasn't there.
Watari and Tsuzuki are, in Matsushita-san's own words, kindred spirits. They're best friends, comfortable with each other, and thinking alike when it comes to the lighter things in life. In fact, they form quite the comic duo at times, crying dramatically or bounding around together in delight. Tsuzuki is Watari's first choice for potion-testing, probably because he needs very little persuasion, despite Watari's less than stellar results in the past. Watari sticks up for Tsuzuki against Tatsumi's snarkier comments, and isn't scared to tell Tsuzuki off if he's getting too self-involved.
The depth of friendship between Tsuzuki and Watari can be seen very simply and very beautifully in the manga version of the Kyoto arc, in one of my favourite sequences in the whole series. Tsuzuki is going out of his mind with guilt because Suzaku has just killed the girl he'd sworn to protect. The Judgement Bureau's buildings are in ruins around him, Hisoka has just been knocked unconscious by the overload going on in Tsuzuki's mind, and Tatsumi has completely frozen up.
It's Watari who fights his way through the rubble, despite Suzaku's determination to keep him away. He can see Tsuzuki - "... he's almost in reach - why can't I do something? Dammit!" - but he can't get to him or help him. It's Watari, not Hisoka or Tatsumi, who shouts desperately at Muraki to stop as he casually takes Tsuzuki away from them.
In the manga Kyoto, Watari doesn't just speak a few quiet words to Tatsumi to get him to save Tsuzuki and Hisoka: he grabs him by the collar and shakes him, calls him a coward to his face, and demands - begs - to know why Tatsumi isn't acting to save his friend.
Watari isn't afraid of Tatsumi and he isn't afraid to let him know it. He handles Tatsumi deftly: distracting him, appeasing him, and then quietly going about his own business, or confronting him directly, shocking him into action. Watari refuses to take Tatsumi as seriously as he takes himself; he's intelligent enough to keep up a verbal sparring match and just reckless enough to push it further than anyone else would dare.
Watari's presence balances everybody else: he's on the same wavelength as Tsuzuki, just as obsessive as Tatsumi, and I suspect he and Hisoka run into each other in the library, although their relationship is never really detailed. He's not in the spotlight all the time, and a lot of the dynamics between him and other characters are subtextual, but Watari is as much involved with Tatsumi, Tsuzuki and Hisoka as they are with each other.
You've never looked into my eyes, but don't you want to know?
Watari has a dark side. Oh, don't let his grin fool you. Look a little deeper, and watch carefully.
There's a trick to hiding yourself behind an open nature. Tsuzuki does it imperfectly, rendering his smiles tragic and his optimism unconvincing. Watari does it masterfully. There's almost nothing to imply that there's anything more to him than the cheerful, slightly careless scientist. Almost.
There are hints, however. A certain casual cruelty used to dispose of Terazuma when the man's bothering him. A certain quiet cunning in the later volumes of the manga, where Watari is not entirely honest with Tatsumi about information he's managed to procure. The moment in Kyoto when his control snaps and Tatsumi actually takes a step back from his anger. And then there's the Alchemist.
The plot of book 5, for those without the manga, revolves around a book belonging to the Earl, which writes itself. Tsuzuki falls into the book by mistake, and discovers once he's there that everyone in it is a nameless copy of the people who work in the Judgement Bureau. For the most part these reflections are much the same as their counterparts, except that some facets of their personalities are exaggerated.
Watari's equivalent in this world is the Alchemist. The Alchemist is essentially amoral, or perhaps works according to his own morals at the time - he takes money from the Steward (Tatsumi) to create a potion, but double-crosses his employer by providing an antidote to the victim. Throughout the story, his comments to the other characters are edged with a mocking tone; it contrasts sharply with Watari's appearences outside the bookworld in this arc. There, he is friendly, concerned, enthused and slightly daft as always; within the storybook, there's a dangerous unpredictability about him.
A lot about Watari is enigmatic; we don't know much about any of the characters' backstories, but we don't even know what Watari thinks or feels about his, whereas the others get a certain amount of emotional screentime. One thing I'd say for certain, however: there's more to him than he'd like you to think - if you want to know, that is.
(Titles are from: Walk the Walk, Poe; Break it Down, Tears for Fears; The Different, Melissa Etheridge)
Fic recs:
Fledglings by Ysabet
Garden in the Clouds by Literary Eagle
Twenty One by rackhamrose
Ado by ciceqi
Irresistable Force, Immoveable Object by laekin
The Doll by laekin and datenshiblue
I highly recommend visiting fuda_100 for drabbles - there are far to many to rec them all, but I remembered these two particularly:
Monsoon - Seasons
Communities and journals:
yamifics (general), watari_003 (character), tatari (Tatsumi/Watari), tsutari (Tsuzuki/Watari)
mc_recs (Tatsumi/Watari recs from threewalls)
renkinjutsushi is the Theatrical Muse roleplaying journal for Watari.
Character: Watari Yutaka (Yami no Matsuei)
Spoilers: Kyoto arc, minor for the rest of the manga
Author: childofatlantis
I'm not entirely sure I could tell you whether Watari or Tsuzuki was my favourite character in Yami. Some days I'm sure it's Tsuzuki, beautiful and broken as he is, but it's Watari who fascinates me when it comes to character exploration. There's nothing that hooks a writer quite like a character without much canon backstory, and Watari's canon backstory can be put into one sentence: he's the quirky mad scientist of Meifu who tends to use his co-workers as test subjects for his latest invention.
I like Watari because he amuses me, because he's bright where too many other cast members are dark or shaded grey, because he speaks Osaka dialect and because when he smiles there's nothing false about it. I'm fascinated by Watari because of the hints of something sharp and ruthless under his cheerful exterior, because he knows how to manipulate people and isn't afraid to do so, because whatever his reasons for becoming a Shinigami, the most thankless job in Meifu, it seems unlikely they included despair or self-hatred. Watari is confident, strong-willed and intelligent, and it's abundantly clear that there is more to him than meets the eye.
Dear world, I'm pleased to meet you
Yami no Matsuei is a series full of angst. Its main characters are Shinigami, gods of death, whose job is to bring the unwilling and the unready to the world of the dead. It requires a certain type of person to take that job: someone tied to life by a strong emotion, or prevented from moving on by an even stronger regret.
Through all of this, Watari breezes with a smile, a small pet owl, and a quirky, easygoing outlook. He reminds everyone that there's more to life - and they're certainly living, even if they're technically dead - than the job they do 24/7. He cares about his friends and the people he works with, but he's capable of distancing himself from his work in a way that, say, Tsuzuki and Tatsumi are not. He can be manipulative if it suits him, but it seems to spring from an understanding of people in general and his friends and co-workers in particular.
When faced with situations that leave others frozen to the spot, Watari reacts with positive emotion - anger - and galvanises them into action. He's not afraid to say things that might provoke others, or to be brutally honest. He's not crippled by Tsuzuki's lack of self-worth, nor Tatsumi's guilt complexes. I would lay money that, however he died, he became a Shinigami out of sheer fury that his life dared to end so soon - or perhaps a stubborn refusal to give up until he's seen everything there is to see.
Watari has a very strange, perhaps unique power: the ability to animate images and machines. He can reach into a picture drawn on paper and pull out the thing it represents. It doesn't matter if the picture looks nothing like what it's intended to be - it seems as if all Watari needs is to be able to see the potential of what he's trying to create. This, to me, sums up his character perfectly: he has a powerful imagination and the ability (and inclination) to make what it shows him reality.
Watari is the Summons Division's forensic scientist, computer programmer, medic and archivist all in one. He spends his free time mixing potions that wreak havoc on his co-workers: notable past failures successes have included swapping several people's bodies around, de-aging himself and Tsuzuki to childhood, and turning them both invisible. When it comes to machinery and science, there seems to be nothing he won't turn his hand to. He's called in to investigate demon curses, to dig into old files and reports, to bandage up whoever's managed to fall foul of the Forces of Darkness this week (Tsuzuki and Hisoka rank high on this list), to fix Tatsumi's computer... the list goes on. In death, Watari's passion for life has driven him to try a bit of everything, and he's not afraid of making mistakes on the route to success. He's a true scientist - someone fascinated by the world, not blinkered by the idea that he can place rules upon it.
It's in the way you're always hiding from the light
There's a tendency in fandom to ignore Watari as the odd one out, the wallflower watching from the sidelines as Tatsumi, Hisoka and Tsuzuki angst over each other and their problems. And if you've only seen the anime, I suppose this is understandable, as Watari gets the least screentime of anyone. It's a shame. Watari's an integral part of the group, and I don't think the dynamics would work out the same if he wasn't there.
Watari and Tsuzuki are, in Matsushita-san's own words, kindred spirits. They're best friends, comfortable with each other, and thinking alike when it comes to the lighter things in life. In fact, they form quite the comic duo at times, crying dramatically or bounding around together in delight. Tsuzuki is Watari's first choice for potion-testing, probably because he needs very little persuasion, despite Watari's less than stellar results in the past. Watari sticks up for Tsuzuki against Tatsumi's snarkier comments, and isn't scared to tell Tsuzuki off if he's getting too self-involved.
The depth of friendship between Tsuzuki and Watari can be seen very simply and very beautifully in the manga version of the Kyoto arc, in one of my favourite sequences in the whole series. Tsuzuki is going out of his mind with guilt because Suzaku has just killed the girl he'd sworn to protect. The Judgement Bureau's buildings are in ruins around him, Hisoka has just been knocked unconscious by the overload going on in Tsuzuki's mind, and Tatsumi has completely frozen up.
It's Watari who fights his way through the rubble, despite Suzaku's determination to keep him away. He can see Tsuzuki - "... he's almost in reach - why can't I do something? Dammit!" - but he can't get to him or help him. It's Watari, not Hisoka or Tatsumi, who shouts desperately at Muraki to stop as he casually takes Tsuzuki away from them.
In the manga Kyoto, Watari doesn't just speak a few quiet words to Tatsumi to get him to save Tsuzuki and Hisoka: he grabs him by the collar and shakes him, calls him a coward to his face, and demands - begs - to know why Tatsumi isn't acting to save his friend.
Watari isn't afraid of Tatsumi and he isn't afraid to let him know it. He handles Tatsumi deftly: distracting him, appeasing him, and then quietly going about his own business, or confronting him directly, shocking him into action. Watari refuses to take Tatsumi as seriously as he takes himself; he's intelligent enough to keep up a verbal sparring match and just reckless enough to push it further than anyone else would dare.
Watari's presence balances everybody else: he's on the same wavelength as Tsuzuki, just as obsessive as Tatsumi, and I suspect he and Hisoka run into each other in the library, although their relationship is never really detailed. He's not in the spotlight all the time, and a lot of the dynamics between him and other characters are subtextual, but Watari is as much involved with Tatsumi, Tsuzuki and Hisoka as they are with each other.
You've never looked into my eyes, but don't you want to know?
Watari has a dark side. Oh, don't let his grin fool you. Look a little deeper, and watch carefully.
There's a trick to hiding yourself behind an open nature. Tsuzuki does it imperfectly, rendering his smiles tragic and his optimism unconvincing. Watari does it masterfully. There's almost nothing to imply that there's anything more to him than the cheerful, slightly careless scientist. Almost.
There are hints, however. A certain casual cruelty used to dispose of Terazuma when the man's bothering him. A certain quiet cunning in the later volumes of the manga, where Watari is not entirely honest with Tatsumi about information he's managed to procure. The moment in Kyoto when his control snaps and Tatsumi actually takes a step back from his anger. And then there's the Alchemist.
The plot of book 5, for those without the manga, revolves around a book belonging to the Earl, which writes itself. Tsuzuki falls into the book by mistake, and discovers once he's there that everyone in it is a nameless copy of the people who work in the Judgement Bureau. For the most part these reflections are much the same as their counterparts, except that some facets of their personalities are exaggerated.
Watari's equivalent in this world is the Alchemist. The Alchemist is essentially amoral, or perhaps works according to his own morals at the time - he takes money from the Steward (Tatsumi) to create a potion, but double-crosses his employer by providing an antidote to the victim. Throughout the story, his comments to the other characters are edged with a mocking tone; it contrasts sharply with Watari's appearences outside the bookworld in this arc. There, he is friendly, concerned, enthused and slightly daft as always; within the storybook, there's a dangerous unpredictability about him.
A lot about Watari is enigmatic; we don't know much about any of the characters' backstories, but we don't even know what Watari thinks or feels about his, whereas the others get a certain amount of emotional screentime. One thing I'd say for certain, however: there's more to him than he'd like you to think - if you want to know, that is.
(Titles are from: Walk the Walk, Poe; Break it Down, Tears for Fears; The Different, Melissa Etheridge)
Fic recs:
Fledglings by Ysabet
Garden in the Clouds by Literary Eagle
Twenty One by rackhamrose
Ado by ciceqi
Irresistable Force, Immoveable Object by laekin
The Doll by laekin and datenshiblue
I highly recommend visiting fuda_100 for drabbles - there are far to many to rec them all, but I remembered these two particularly:
Monsoon - Seasons
Communities and journals:
yamifics (general), watari_003 (character), tatari (Tatsumi/Watari), tsutari (Tsuzuki/Watari)
mc_recs (Tatsumi/Watari recs from threewalls)
renkinjutsushi is the Theatrical Muse roleplaying journal for Watari.