The thing is that I don't normally think in terms of manga when I'm writing. Sounds odd from someone who has is getting a reputation for doing manga related work. But I would say that my scripts are NOT manga at the stage of my writing process, they are just comic book stories in a more general sense.

Mistakes and prejudices are as interesting as anything else. They reveal a lot about the mind set and culture of the time under consideration.

Who are we to be so arrogant as to say 'now WE know what's best, THAT era was full of daft ideas' etc. There will be plenty things we take as normal and good now that future generations will look back at in horror or amusement.

There are many things I still don't know or don't do well in comic books. It's more a question of having the will to do something creative on a subject that seems interesting. Then just giving it a bloody good bash - that's the main thing.

When its comes to music and books 'OK' is not good enough. We need creative work that floors us! That we can't believe the beauty and brains and style and cool of. 'OK' can kiss my arse.

Me being from a Celtic culture that tends to emphasize directness, conflict, openness has a big effect on my living in Japan, which tends to focus on indirectness, avoidance of conflict and keeping things close to your chest. So that has led to quite a lot of cultural misunderstandings in dealing with this East Asian culture I live in.

Most comic book creators consider about making characters that people recognize and that can carry across many books. Something that becomes a trademark. For me I have always just followed IDEAS, and that takes me into a whole range of things.