Time Magazine Interview with Takaya Natsuki (Author of Fruits Basket)

Fruits Basket is a very nice manga about the life of a first year high school student Honda Tohru and her relationship with several people of the Souma family who have a curse that turns them into members of the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals when hugged by the opposite sex.

I'm currently reading the manga, though I did watch the Fruits Basket anime which was aired around 2001. The story is still on-going.

Here's an excerpt from the interview with Takaya Natsuki which I have a keen interest in (mainly, manga story writing and drawing):

TIME: How do you define manga in terms of storyline, characters and visual style?

NT: I try to make it so that I don't hold a firm definition. Rather than be locked into that and have my creations become clumsy and awkward, I want everything to have a certain softness — a freedom.

TIME: What do you think about manga being attempted by non-Japanese creators? Do you consider it manga or another form?

NT: Simply put, I'm glad that manga as an expressive form is expanding. I think that nationality has no relation to that which gives rise to manga. Even among the Japanese, manga creators are making their creations everyday reflecting their own individuality, with none being the same. What is important isn't the differences between the creators but their love for manga.