Star #4: =Wato Chiyoko=
Through the ages: Three-eyed one manga, Three-eyed one 1990 anime, Black Jack guest star, “Yuko” 2003
See her in action: THREE-EYED ONE 1990 EPISODE 1, 2003 EPISODE 1, BLACK JACK 2004 EPISODE 2
(All credit for scanlated Three-eyed one manga pages go to The Little Corner Scanlation, read the two translated chapters HERE.)
Tezuka character list bio: Number 02
[b]
- She is a very cheerful girl who is full of energy. Dr. O’Shay put her in charge of educating Astro, but she was kidnapped by robots. She always carries bandages with her, just in case someone gets hurt. She plays the female lead character in the anime, “The Three-Eyed One.” Her unusual name is derived from “Dr. Watson” of “Sherlock Holmes”.[/b]
Wato’s our first foray into characters that really have no right being here but ARE ANYWAY. She’s from a series known as “The Three-Eyed One”, and whenever something like this pops up, I’ll be specifying the series from which they come in the reference pics. If it’s just an unlabeled date (1963, 1980, 2003), it’s Astro Boy.
As far as her role in the game goes, she’s a generic princess to rescue to get the plot movin’. While it’s kind of eyerolly in how she’s presented as someone who’s gonna further educate Astro only to IMMIDIATELY get kidnapped and not actually teach him anything, I can let it slide just because it would not exactly be fun to have to sit through some math classes just to further her characterization. What I CANNOT let slide is the fact that they chose this particular character for the role. See, Wato should have been less
and more
because she is not a girl you normally mess with.
In her story of origin, she plays a supporting role to the protagonist, one Sharaku Hosuke, a wimpy little second-year middle school student. He’s a dude that’s constantly getting bullied and beaten up, and she’s a girl that’s constantly kicking the ass of whoever is bullying Sharaku at the current moment. She always chews the guy out about his weakness, but sticks around anyway, because the whole gimmick of the story is that Sharaku becomes a superpowered evil psychic when the large X-shaped bandage on his head is removed, and she finds that side of him interesting for some reason.
Pictured: Wato planning the next bandage-removing instance after Sharaku straight-up murdered a couple of people. Again, she is not someone you would normally just lug off, possessing some very respectable combat skills and a whole lotta spunk, with maybe a dash of insanity. She’s also fairly intelligent, not to mention beautiful enough to grab the attention of many of the boys at school.
In terms of the bio’s bandage line, it’s a subtle reference – she’s not really carrying the bandages in case someone gets hurt, she’s carrying them so she can seal Sharaku’s evil side again. And incidentally, Sharaku Hosuke is an allusion to “Sherlock Holmes”, much as Wato’s name is to Watson. I personally wasn’t able to read past the second chapter due to a lack of scans, but apparently this is because the characters spend much of their time traveling the world and solving the mysteries of ancient ruins to try to uncover the secrets of Sharaku’s ancestry.
That’s not ~quite~ all there is to her, though. She’s had cameo appearances in a variety of works (like the Black Jack episode up there), and there’s also a character in the 2003 Astro Boy series named “Yuko” who may or may not be based on Wato. While she’s significantly older than the 12-14 year old Wato of old, she strongly resembles the girl and acts as O’shay’s right-hand woman, much as Wato appears as O’shay’s assistant in-game - I won’t say she’s definitively supposed to be the same character, but the resemblance is certainly there and it would better justify her presence at the beginning of the game. In the show, Yuko’s very organized and forceful, is constantly followed by a flamingo robot named Momo, and spends most of her time forcefully telling off the Professor for not getting to his meetings on time. Again, she’d be more likely to be beating those robots over the head than she would be getting hauled away like a sack of potatoes.
Other facts:
-Is often described as a Tomboy, and has been known to crossdress on occasion.
