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Yoshitoki Ōima: “It’s wonderful to see manga reach people everywhere”
The author of A Silent Voice on the emotional landscapes of her work, and the growing international popularity of the Japanese comic book form
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?
I’m really happy that they have.
When I was working on A Silent Voice, there were already stories about people with disabilities, but many of them were written for adults or for a particular audience. Mine was being published in Weekly Shōnen Magazine, which is a magazine for young boys, so I wanted to tell that story for those readers too.
Maybe that’s one of the reasons it reached so many people. It wasn’t written only for one kind of reader. Looking back now, I’m very happy that people of different ages have been able to find something in it.
How do you see manga evolving over the next decade, especially as digital platforms and international readership continue to grow?
It’s interesting because we’re already seeing that change happen. In Japan, there are manga competitions that now receive entries from all over the world. You can really feel that manga has become international. In that sense, I think the medium is continuing to grow.
For me, it’s exciting to see so many talented people creating manga. At the same time, it’s a little bittersweet because the standard keeps getting higher. But overall, I think it’s wonderful to see manga reaching people everywhere.
Who were the storytellers that influenced you as a creator?
One person who had a big influence on me was the manga artist Yuzo Takada, especially his series 3×3 Eyes. I loved his work when I was young, and I spent a lot of time copying his illustrations. I learned a great deal just by drawing from his work.
These days, inspiration comes from many different places. I watch films, I watch YouTube, and I’m always looking at different kinds of stories.
And yes, I like Bollywood very much. I’m a big fan.
Rutvik Bhandari is an independent writer. He lives in Pune. You can find him talking about books on Instagram and YouTube (@themindlessmess).
