I make manga because I love manga.

Manga is a subjective term. I don’t know how to define it.

I read very little Western comics, webcomics, webtoons. I feel confused by left-to-right pages. I don’t like comics in color. Generally speaking, the color feels superfluous.

As a minimalist, I love the simplicity in the monochrome pages of manga.

There is no sound or motion in manga. A pure expression of storytelling. I see manga as the closest direct link to a person’s mind.

Movies are like a collage with everyone’s fingerprints adding to the picture. There is a value in that. However, I want to know the exact mind of another person. I think this is because I feel like my own self is misunderstood. I feel alienated from others. Many of my oneshots are an attempt to express something I can’t tell people, or I lack the words to articulate (Others are attempts at being mainstream, or an extended art exercise – but even these have a reflection of the self).

I also have the hope that my work will inspire people. Leave the world better than you found it. Maybe someone else will feel a personal connection when reading my work. Grander social and political action feels like something too complex for myself to understand, let alone artfully convey in fiction. That does not mean I want apolitical work.

It would be easier to try to make a stake in webcomics. However, this world is unfamiliar to me. I don’t know what the culture is like. I’m sure I could learn, but I don’t feel the same sense of inspiration that manga gives me. If I’m going to reach for a career in the arts, it has to be what I love.