For the full interview at Japan Expo 2025.
>Question 1: Question for all three of you: what is your greatest artistic influence, whether in manga or elsewhere?

>Toyotaro: As you can probably guess, Dragon Ball had a huge influence on me as a child. But if we take Dragon Ball out of the equation, it would be all the manga I read when I was a kid like Kenshin, Vagabond, Slam Dunk, and all the manga from that era.
>However, if a mangaka only reads manga, that’s not enough. The manga world is really very narrow. I’ve also always been passionate about cinema and other forms of media. I was a huge Star Wars fan as a kid, and I watched a lot of Hollywood films, like the Back to the Future trilogy.

>Torishima: Before joining Shueisha, I had never read manga, so I had no influence coming from manga. I was very passionate about novels, and I always loved French literature. I read all of Stendhal. I even once took a three-month break at university to read and study Proust, especially In Search of Lost Time. So I think I have a very strong compatibility with France. I also love cinema, so let me give you my TOP 3: 1.) The Godfather (1972) by Francis Ford Coppola. 2.) Roman Holiday (1953) and my ideal woman is precisely Audrey Hepburn with short hair like in that movie. 3.) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). I think it's a fantastic work that actually does a good job of predicting what awaits us with AI.