Biography

When I started to draw manga, I wasn't sure people would like my work, so I was working with that doubt in my mind. I always wanted to express it anyway. Those feelings I wanted to express through manga finally came true in "Flowers of Evil", and so many readers also accepted it. I felt like that was a very satisfying feeling to be understood. Ever since then, I cannot live without that kind of feeling.

Usually, whenever I draw a manga, I have this audience in mind, which was myself when I was 14. I hope that whenever a 14-year-old reader reads my work, I help them realize there's a world outside of what they were told is the world. So I'm always paying attention to whether manga can have that role, and I aspire to make works that would have an impact on somebody's life.

"Flowers of Evil" is the first manga where I felt I was able to fully express myself.