Quotes

Once, my mother caught the cold and told me; "Go to the local clinic and bring some cold medicine back for me." And so, I went. Once they called out my waiting number, the doctor ran out and said to me, "Come! Hirohiko-kin, take off your clothes, I'm going to give you a needle." What! The one with the cold isn't me! "You're lying." At the time, I was really mad. However, now that I think about it, the whole experience itself seems funny in hindsight. In fact, I feel that this story is a precious experience for me to becoming a top notch manga artist.

In my entire life, I've only seen a ghost once. It happened a few years ago when I traveled in England. I stayed in a hotel that used to be an old castle. It was only eight o'clock, but I was exhausted, so i want to bed early. A few minutes after I lay down, a woman came out through the slightly open bathroom door. I saw that there was blood on her wrist. The female ghost floated across the room. Standing beside my bed, she looked down at me with a blank expression. I thought to myself, "I'm seeing a ghost! I thought I had no psychic powers!" Then the next moment I thought, "I'm really sleepy... I don't want to deal with this right now." As if she knew what I was thinking, the ghost's expression turned to sadness, and she slowly disappeared.

A long, long time ago, people sat under the starry night sky and gathered round a fire, as they listened to an old man tell frightening tales. They listened intently and let their imaginations take them into the world he described. "Okay. That's enough for tonight." "We want to hear more. I'll give you this fruit if you tell us more." "I'll tell you tomorrow! Now, go to bed!" That's the kind of story I hope to tell, and keep on telling.

I constructed Part 4 (Diamond is Unbreakable) around the theme of mental and emotional weakness. The Stands were created by exaggerating the viewpoints of characters consumed by their own flaws.

JoJo is an ode to life and a celebration of humanity. Without help from machines or technology, the main characters face danger with their bodies as their only weapon. For me it's a principle. Indeed I think that science doesn't necessarily make men happier.

The magnificence of music resides within the chord in a sequence; Mozart once said to the Emperor that no note could be omitted from a piece. The human body is also made of a genetic sequence called DNA. Thus we cannot neglect the existence of that sequence of pre-established facts we call Fate. But if everything is decided in advance by Fate, we tend to think that the efforts we deploy everyday are vain. This is one of the points I have to consider when I tell a human epic: Is there a solution to that question?

My parents don't understand my manga. They still don't understand, which is puzzling to me because I draw manga with respect to Eastwood, whom my Dad loves. Why the heck can't they get to like my work? What is at the very core of my works is the same as Eastwood's. Maybe the JoJo anime will help them get interested.

I'm more of a "forgetting" than "moving-on" type of person. My works resemble a diary in that I don't put too much thought into what I had previously written, but more so into drawing what I'm feeling NOW. Now is what matters most.

Which type of character is easier for me to draw, good guys or bad guys? I can't say which is easier, because good/bad are like heads and tails, they're two sides of a coin and there is a really fine line between the two. Good characters tend to be bound by rules, but it's fun to work with them because at a certain times they begin to have a weird eccentricity. Depicting good characters is fun, but I guess depicting bad ones can be more fun since I can make them do anything (illegal) or destroy everything.

I am interested in fashion. I take Italian fashion into account when deciding what my characters wear. Versace and Moschino's clothes are so loud and gorgeous, they make my illustrations beautiful. However, they do have their weaknesses. I get bored with them if I draw them for too long (laugh). Similar to how certain clothes go out of fashion throughout the years. I used to check out Japanese fashion books, but they are something different; they seem out of date.

About "Babel II": I've always thought how cool it was to have an adventure in a school uniform. This idea boggled me. It permeated a sense of "a man's spirit of romantic adventure," and "beauty" that could only be found from a boy having an adventure in a school uniform in a desert.

There are mangakas famous for their story, but I'm more on the drawing side, so I want to draw the ultimate picture, something really good.

Rather than believing in God, I believe something exists. It's difficult to say it concretely, but it includes destiny. Because of that, if the basis of my works doesn't have that kind of thing, they become something scary. "Why am I drawing manga?", stuff like that. Am I doing it in order to earn money or to impress women? In time, they become terrible things to feel. But if I have fairness and humanity, I persevere. You reach this question when you draw about things like destiny - "Why is this person here?". If you're attached to the protagonist,the question gets even more important.

When it comes to fashion, I love looking at models. Don't you think models have this kind of spectre quality to them? The way they tilt their head or their mouths look oddly big. That kind of stuff captivates me. And so, by reproducing them, they gradually turn into Jojo-like characters (laughs) - like bending their hips back or forth. This kind of bending is also because of Italy.

I think people's actions should be based on their "eyes to judge beauty." How to judge what's beautiful. Are your own actions beautiful, or not. And by beautiful, I don't simply mean the appearance of something, but does something fit in, can you understand it. I think studying is for training your "eyes to judge beauty." For example, whether its physics, sociology, or literature, its a way to find out how the pieces fit together nicely, and the study of medicine is the way to discover a theory to cure beautifully. And as you layer those theories together, you are able to judge things, and if you know how judge you will be able to make a decision. I want young people to train their "eyes" so they can judge things, theories, and themselves, and I don't want them to study only as a way to become rich or for a high academic record. I think having such evil or not is important. It may sound fancy, but being something like a hero for the good is really important.

About Western music: If the bands are foreign, using their names is OK. But this is definitely not the case for Japanese bands. That's no good. Or maybe I should say, it's empathy. It's a bit strange, like "What kind of silly things is this guy talking about?" If I knew what they were saying, I'd get too embarrassed to continue listening. That's why for me it's about the rhythm, the propagation of sound. There's a sort of space between the sounds. Like the subtlety of the strings, the pauses, the way the air vibrates. That's why I'm fine with whatever that person sings.

What I love about Stands is that I can express psychological warfare. The Stand's physical powers are not what matters most. A stand with no physical power but with the the ability to make enemies tell lies can still be very formidable.

On the creation of Stands: I doubt such powers like, "Just think hard enough and things will begin to move." I don't see anything. How can you say your "willpower" moved things? I wanted something visible that could explain these powers. Stands are proof of those superpowers, basically my way of explaining how these invisible powers work.

You know how you learn from your elders? Back then was a time when doing the same thing as your elder was really looked down at. You had to do something different. If there were several paths that your elder paved, it was like finding somewhere in between that no one else has gone before. Well, you had to kind of make sure not to mimic anyone. It wasn't necessarily about going your own way, but learning from your elders and not stepping in their footsteps. You were looked down if you ever stepped in it. People would say "you're just doing the same thing, just coping!" or something, and look at you with scornful eyes.