Batusawa

Batusawa is the is the creator and illustrator of The Second Lead Syndrome on LINE Webtoon.

Background
Batusawa is a Filipino comic artist from the Philippines who works on freelance art commissions. She used to sell merchandise from artist booths at local conventions, during which she would have a chance to meet with her followers and supporters. During university, Batusawa was an architecture major but later switched to multimedia arts. She has been self-learning basic Korean.

Batusawa has been drawing since the age of 5. Through watching cartoons and anime, she learned how to draw and design original characters and ensembles. During university, Batusawa took an architecture course for a year and a half but decided she disliked the subject and quit. After taking a gap semester, she began her journey of learning digital art. She transferred to a different college where she took a multimedia arts course. During this time, she began earning small amounts of money by doing art commissions to hone her digital art skills. Later on in life, she charged at a higher rate. Batusawa desired to create her own manga series but always found herself leaving her stories unfinished. Most of her unpublished works are in the shoujo (Japanese manga romance) genre.

The Second Lead Syndrome
On June 16, 2018, Batusawa posted the first episode of The Second Lead Syndrome on LINE Webtoon Canvas. She alternated between working on art commissions and The Second Syndrome, designating one week at a time for each project. The series was regularly updated bi-weekly for two and a half years until it won the Webtoon Canvas Romance award of 2020 and was selected to be officially featured as an original webtoon.

To keep herself motivated, Batusawa has the mindset to push herself and finish a project early for more free time later. She also stated that she receives motivation from her encouraging and supportive readers. To de-stress, Batusawa browses social media, drinks tea and eats snacks, chats with friends on Discord, and spends time with her dogs.

Development
Batusawa began writing The Second Lead Syndrome as a source of practice and motivation in hopes that she can one day create a Mystic Messenger fan comic series. As time passed, however, the plot of The Second Lead Syndrome began to prolong and became deeper than what she initially planned. Eventually, she fell in love with the series and chose to continue the project.

During the conception of the series, Batusawa focused the plot on romance, as she has always been fond of the shoujo genre, and chose the title The Second Lead Syndrome in hopes of capturing the readers' attention. The colloquial term "second lead syndrome" refers to when fans begin supporting a romantic relationship between the main lead and a second lead. Because of the prevalence of this occurrence, Batusawa thought that this title would induce the readers' curiosity into figuring out how the title relates to the characters and plot. The characters Caine and Axel were initially one character with a tsundere personality, while Deeana was the female lead with a spunky disposition. After deeming the initial storyline involving an ordinary girl meeting a famous actor too cliché, Batusawa revised the plot accordingly and created Won Eun-Young, a calm, more relatable female lead. While developing the series, Batusawa stated that she did not base her plot on any existing material.

The series is based in South Korea due to the intriguing nature of the country's entertainment industry. Batusawa stated that it was easy to devise many potential scenario conflicts and drama using this premise. After outlining all the major events and spin-offs for the entire plot, Batusawa estimates that the series will consist of around 150-200 episodes.

Hobbies
Batusawa stated that other than drawing, she enjoys listening to music, watching Youtube videos, and learning about a variety of different cultures. She uses the Duolingo app to learn Korean, Japanese, and Italian for daily brain stimulation. Batusawa is also interested in fashion and enjoys browsing aesthetic designs and couture for inspiration. Batusawa stated that she has never traveled outside of the Philippines, but would love to visit other countries someday.

Seonjang-nim
Batusawa dubbed herself Seonjang-nim, meaning "Ship Captain." She has assigned herself as the leader in charge of canon relationships that appear in the story.

Assistant K

 * Main article: Assistant K

Assistant K is a fictional assistant created by Batusawa. He is an original character and considered Batusawa's mascot.