Biography

A long time ago, in a magazine called COM2, I drew a manga about myself. In the manga, I'm sitting at my desk, trying desperately to think of a good idea and then when I finally come up with something, I enthusiastically draw it. But then, when I look back at it, I think "Ah, this is so boring" and I go to sleep... It was really fun to draw!

I'm always telling [my students] to keep the dialogue to a minimum and to express things with the characters movements or the background. You don't want people to read your manga, you want them to feel it! And I don't mean to say the characters must be of silent types, it's okay to have chatty characters too.

Manga is something that's meant to be read smoothly. A reader may be turning the pages quickly, but he's completely absorbed in the story. But if there's too much information, he's not quite sure where to look. It's very unfortunate if an artist takes so much time and puts in so much effort but the message doesn't get across :- the piece must be read several times, carefully checking each panel, only then the reader might realize that it's actually a very good story.

You need to explain the setting earlier on, to let your readers come in to your world. But, I think that instead of using narration or dialogue, you should try to explain those things silently.

In school anime, you have a lot of characters wearing the same uniform. If you don't make your characters distinct, then they can get lost in the background. I often stop and ask my students "Wait, who's this guy again?" You have to make characters so distinct that you can tell who they are just by looking at their silhouette. Not just their size, but the look in their eyes, their accessories, the way they speak... You have to make it so that the reader knows who they are with just a glance.