Interest

Miss Universe Japan 2013 Is Aspiring Manga Creator

Yukimi Matsuo, the winner of the Miss Universe Japan (MUJ) 2013 beauty pageant on Monday, revealed in press interviews that since she had achieved the title, she now wants to become a serialized manga artist. She told reporters that she had been drawing manga since quite a few years ago, such as illustrations and four-panel comics. However, due to her modeling, she knew that she would not have any time to serialize a manga in a magazine.

However, last summer, an editor at a web manga magazine invited her to work with him with the aim of her final goal of serialization. She told reporters that she had completed her goal of modeling by winning the pageant, and wanted to take on being a manga artist as her "final challenge" in life, as she is already 25 years old.

She pointed to Ai Yazawa (NANA, Paradise Kiss) and Moyoco Anno (Sakuran, Sugar Sugar Rune) as role models for drawing the beauty of women. When asked what type of person she likes, she said it would be someone who likes manga. Using manga as an example, she specifically called out Leorio from Hunter x Hunter as her type.

When asked about her motivation for getting into manga, she replied, "My grades weren't all that great, and my physical skills weren't the best either. The one thing that I would be complimented on by my relatives were the illustrations I drew... I'm not very good at talking a lot, so I hoped I could convey my feelings by drawing manga. I showed my friends my illustrations to show them how I felt. That was about 5th grade."

She added that she became a model not only to assure her family that she had a job, but also to collect ideas for manga she wanted to write. She said that she entered the contest to inform children around the world about Japanese manga.

Source: Joshi+, Mainchi Shimbun's Mantan Web