"I'm not much now, but just you wait!" -Jamillie
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I stopped looking up to Ogure Ito after years of doing so, after I made an inspiration board consisting of Bakuman. I never thought about the composition, but all of the pictures had quotes that portrayed my personal struggle to fight for my dream as a manga artist. I felt terrible. Not because of my Bakuman inspiration board, but because recently I've been feeling so helpless to accomplish my dreams.
I had my mom send me my very few Air Gear manga to me in Utah from Washington state. I made an inspiration board on the opposite side of my current inspiration board by cutting out pictures I liked from Air Gear for reference-- Even though I didn't particularly look up to him anymore. I realized I was thinking too hard about what to put on the board, and decided to let my sub-conscious speak to me and allow the pictures to form themselves on the board like how the Bakuman pictures did.
And I felt the board was really speaking to my soul, even stronger than before.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" -Kazu
[I felt as though Kazu was telling me this, and that my voice on the board was Ikki.]
"I just wanted to fly" -Ikki
"Wings get stronger, the more wind they receive." -Simca
"Man... I'm so dumb. Forgetting stuff as simple as this... All along I've gotten my wings...from incredible folks like them..." -Ikki
["Them" in this instance is referring to amazing artists like Ogure Ito and Takeshi Obata.]
"When I fly... ...I'm settin' my sights on the top of the sky... ...not the top of some measly tower." -Kilik
[This really spoke to me, because I too always knew that I had to reach outrageously hard to get even a taste of what it takes to be a manga artist.]
"In that case I'll keep it simple and crush 'em both!!" -Ikki
["Both" referring to Takeshi Obata and Ogure Ito. Outrageous as it is... I have to reach for the stars, just to land on a measly moon.]
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