I've probably looked at 10,000 candidates myself at this point, and…

“I've probably looked at 10,000 candidates myself at this point, and I've never seen anyone who I immediately wanted to give an S until Shinkawa. He's the only one, and it was an instant hanamaru (the Japanese equivalent of a "gold star").”

Kojima said in 1998 that Shinkawa was an exceptional find, the kind you only come across once every ten years; he said that before interviews they review portfolios of about a hundred candidates and grade them with S downwards, that he has looked at roughly ten thousand candidates over time and had never immediately wanted to give an S until Shinkawa, the only time, an instant hanamaru; he added that Shinkawa’s portfolio contained four completely different styles — including American comic and French comic styles — that did not look like the work of the same hand.