Your work often explores deep emotional landscapes — from A Silent Voice (2013-2014) to To Your Eternity (2016-2025). How have your experiences shaped the stories?
A Silent Voice is very much based on my own experiences as a teenager. A lot of the emotions in that story come from things I wasn’t able to do at the time.
Sometimes I overlap with Shoya. Through him, I’m writing about the things I wish I could have done — not only for someone like Shōko, but for the people around me. Whatever I couldn’t do back then has come into my manga. It’s there not only in Shoya or Shoko, but in all of the characters. They all carry something I wished I had done or said.
For me, that’s where those emotions come from.
Many readers discover your work at different stages of their lives, and it continues to resonate across generations and cultures. Did you ever imagine your stories would reach so many people?
