Quotes

Manga is actually a really inconvenient form of media. There are no colors, no movement, no voices and no music. Yet you must express all those things, through drawing only. This is the challenge that makes it so interesting and fuels my desire to draw more. Because everyone competed with each other and developed new methods, it has evolved into something truly unique, despite being so inconvenient. But there is still room for it to develop further and there is a kind of joy in making your own discoveries. So, take a step outside of Japan's world of anime and manga, add some of your own culture and customs and draw something that is unique and distinctive of your part of the world. Through this competition, Japan's manga formula will continue to evolve all over the world, and I'm looking forward to something completely new being born.

I'm one of those guys who doesn't really listen to the lyrics in a song. Sometimes I think the lyrics are actually in the way. The beauty of the melody, the rhythm and the sound itself is often more than enough for me to feel the emotions and the storyline. Music without lyrics might not work to explain a complex fictional world, but you don't need lyrics to move someone.

Perhaps due to the influence of anime, young authors nowadays only think about the fast scenes. Manga is about utilizing both "static" and "dynamic" scenes to mesmerize the reader.

If you draw only from your own point of view, you become complacent and this can derail your story. Of course, there is a certain pleasure in drawing manga only for oneself, so I can't say that this is a hard-and-fast rule, but if you are drawing for a magazine and you want to please your readers, then I think it's really important to view your work from above, like an impartial god.

Regardless of country or generation, young people are young people. Growing up through the same kind of hardships, living energetically all the same. Realization of that really lifted my spirit.

The young artists of today have never seen the beautiful clarity and contrast of black and white films. Think of it like drawing a picture with your color palette converted into shades of grey. I've wondered why the pictures in recent manga have become so indistinct and I think it's because young artists don't know about the world of shading, the beauty of contrast in a monochromatic view.

When you have the right characters, then there's no need to come up with a story. If you understand the characters and you know how they think, you just plug them into a situation and see what they do. Your characters will take the bait, so you just need to put them down on paper.

At their core, there's always a stance that they are pieces of entertainment meant to be simply, straightforwardly enjoyed. Especially in Cat's Eye, where I had the intent of giving readers a "glimpse into adult romance" since "you would be adults one day too."

The artstyle of our generation might come across as old-fashioned in contrast to modern anime and manga, and I'm more worried whether it will be accepted. Although I've heard some voices say that it's got a cool retro vibe (laughs).

On his works: To be honest, as the person who drew those series, I'm not entirely sure why it has remained so loved. It doesn't feel real (laughs). However, both were series in shonen magazines, so there is no point in trying to sound sophisticated. I drew them content in the fact that they're manga meant for readers to simply enjoy-that they could find pleasure in as pieces of entertainment.

I get the impression that I was able to draw all of this because I had youth on my side, and I doubt that I could ever draw anything like them again now that my rationality is always getting in the way. But I also think that was what made drawing those manga possible, so I now find them both nostalgic, all of the drive and energy from back then included.

I would receive comments like "Your manga saved me," or "Reading this gave me the will to live." I felt my spine straighten with solemn weight since I never thought that any manga I drew would ever save anyone and, while it comes across as an overstatement, it made me glad to be alive.