It's a secret, but when I decided to apply to 'Shonen Magazine,' it was already past the deadline, so I had no choice but to go with 'Shonen Jump.' My motivation for becoming a cartoonist was... to put it bluntly, the ¥100,000 prize money."

I don't remember the very first animation I saw, but the one that stays deepest in my memory is definitely 'Astro Boy.'

I have memories of reading comics when I was in primary school, but that's about it.

There have been times when I didn't quite make my deadline.

When a man and a woman have an overwhelming passion for each other, it seems to me, in spite of such obstacles dividing them as parents or husband, that they belong to each other in the name of Nature, and are lovers by Divine right, in spite of human convention or the laws.

It's like, 'Oh, well of course you want gay marriage, you're gay.' I think when heterosexual people are talking to their peers and they're like, 'This is an equal rights thing,' it's a little bit easier.

Satan, really, is the romantic youth of Jesus re-appearing for a moment.

I don't want to get married, and I don't want to work after I'm 30, so I must manage my fortune somehow in the next seven years.