I was spending the night at an acquaintance’s campsite in Bavaria after returning from a trip, so I could catch the train home the next day. When I read the email, I was sitting in a circle around a fire, listening to live music. I was very happy, but part of me thought it was an elaborate scam. I didn’t tell anyone.

Around the same time I started watching anime and reading manga, I also began taking drawing more seriously, so I soon felt the urge to create and draw my own stories. I started drawing manga at 16, and I don’t think I was thinking about anything other than creating something.

My favorite manga is *Goodnight Punpun. I’ve always been a big fan of stories that follow a character as they grow up. In Punpun in particular, I find the contrast between his childhood innocence and the person he becomes as an adult really interesting. Childhood in general is a subject that interests me a lot. The author captures Punpun’s transition to adulthood and his everyday life in an incredibly intimate and realistic way. All of this is accompanied by the most spectacular artwork I’ve ever seen, with such a rich atmosphere and so much attention to detail that you feel Punpun could be a real person out there somewhere.

I think the influence Goodnight Punpun has had on my art is immediately apparent, and it may have been this story that got me so interested in slice of life. It was also the work that broadened my view of manga as a means of expression and showed me what was possible.

*Goodnight Punpun [Manga]. SHOGAKUKAN Inc.

I’ve experimented with all three. Although the webtoon format is easier, I find it more artistically limiting. It doesn’t give me the same sense of satisfaction as seeing a completed page, which can almost be viewed as a work of art in its own right. To me, manga and comics are the same; the only difference is the reading direction. I don’t prefer one over the other.

I have neither expectations nor concerns.

I’m really excited that my work will be published in several languages. But I can’t control what readers think, so I don’t see the point in worrying too much.

I’d like to have my own series and see it in print.

I love holding a manga, flipping through its pages, and feeling the paper. It’s a completely different experience from reading it digitally. I think many creators dream of seeing their work in print; somehow, it makes their work feel more legitimate.

I enjoy creating character-focused stories. Still, at some point, I’d also like to try creating my own fantasy world. I’m also interested in mixing the absurd with drama.