For someone like me, who was born in Tosa, "creating a manga of Ryoma Sakamoto" is like finishing some homework that I was given when I was young. Everyone has their own image of Ryoma Sakamoto, I sure that some people see something similar to what I see, but there are others who, regardless of how I portray him, will see him in a totally different light. So I decided to draw what I saw and enjoy myself. So winning this award makes the joy of drawing this manga that much greater and gives me more energy to create my next work. Thank you very much.

The idea of using manga to explore history is certainly not new, but this work is completely different from what has come before. One suspects the artist did an incredible amount of research for this project, and the result is a powerful message about how the artist views history, a message that could only be expressed in the medium of manga, and one that is also convincing to the reader. This work marks a new step in the broadening of the expressive range and possibilities of manga.