No, I don't. As I draw the under-drawing, I choose the character's position and composition. For colouring, if I use rikitex (?) I paint on an illustration board, not paper. I first draw a draft on a normal piece of paper, and I use pencil on the other side of the drawing and I trasfer it onto a board. After that I use pen, but depending on the picture, I may use a thick line on top of the paint, using ink or pencil.

You know how to use papers and drawing instruments properly...?

I'm stubborn and picky in nature, (laughs), so I like to do things differently. In "Video Girl", the theme I incorporated was wrinkled paper, and I found that when I used pastel to draw on good traditional Japanese paper, it was interesting. For "Wingman" I drew on patterned paper or used a collage.

What type of drawing material do you use?

In the beginning, with "Wingman", I used to use water magic markers, and diluting it with water, but, one day, I was told by Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball series) that a colouring ink called Ruma was good, so I used that along the way. Then, Gash and Rikitex and so on. I came to know Rikitex through Terada-kun. In the cover page of the first volume of the collector's edition of "Wingman", I didn't have time for painting, so Terada-kun did it for me. At that time, I was told by him that "you can draw well with Rikitex", so from "DNAČ" I started using that. At first I experimented with it but on the way I got used to it pretty much. I got addicted to rikitex because you can keep painting over what you've done before. I kept changing and improving the cover of "I's". For the first volume, I did the cover four times. That's why the first volumes are a bit different from the later volumes. (Laughs) I was told by Taketani-kun "you're an idiot", but.

For the girls you draw, do you have models?

Not a real model as such. About all I do is look at magazine models. If I were to draw from a real model, it would have bad balance since human eyes aren't that big, so I change all the sizes and draw. But then I start thinking sometimes, "Is this face right?" (laughs). And if I have to redraw, that would be very troublesome (laughs). I think I work hardest on the nose or mouth. If the eyes aren't "lively" I don't like it, but if I drew the eyes normally as they are, it becomes repetitive for the girl's face so I try to define a character with the hair-style and the shape of the face.

Who is your favourite character?

Ami from "DNAČ" is one I put a lot of thought into. Her double-eyelidded eyes that aren't that special, but that's what I like about it. Kind of ill-fortuned (?) (laughs). So I was happy when Ami was done cutely in the anime version. In "Video Girl" it's probably Ai-san... There's nothing special visually, but her place in the story and her relation with the other characters, is probably why it's Ai-san. Then it's probably Zetman.

You have many anime-versions, but what do you think of changing media?

In regard to character design, I'm not that strict. But if it's not similar I might ask them to change, sometimes.

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