My character is somebody who is smaller in stature and yet who's strong, so to see the fighting situations between people who are not generally thought of being strong is in itself unusual and therefore interesting, I think.

I didn't understand the American fascination with the Japanese schoolgirl. No, I don't think I can, really.

I think for a girl to be strong, it doesn't have to involve being physically strong.

I think the biggest difficulty is that when I'm here in America, there's a necessity of using English, so I really have a great sense of really wanting to learn, but unfortunately when I head back to Japan, the necessity vanishes and so does my enthusiasm about learning.

I mean, I like to think of myself as being strong and independent, but I definitely wasn't like that at 14.

I think where men are credited for being strong, women are divas. I just think it's such a cop out.