Naoko Takeuchi

, known by her maiden name , is a Japanese manga artist. She is best known as the author of "Sailor Moon," one of the most popular manga series of all time.
She has won several awards, including the 1993 Kodansha Manga Award for "Sailor Moon".
Takeuchi is married to Yoshihiro Togashi, the author of "Yu Yu Hakusho" and "Hunter x Hunter".
Early life.
Takeuchi was born in Kofu, Yamanashi, Japan, to parents Kenji and Ikuko Takeuchi. She has a younger brother, Shingo. She gave the names of her relatives to the characters she created for "Sailor Moon", and mentions this in interviews and in several comic strips she produced in place of author notes.
Takeuchi attended Kofu Ichi High School. She wore sailor suit uniforms and joined the astronomy and manga clubs. These experiences influenced her work for "Sailor Moon", in addition to her other pieces such as "Love Call" and "Rain Kiss". Her formative high school experiences influenced her trajectory to become a manga artist. Takeuchi's father encouraged her to pursue other career paths in case she wouldn't find success as a professional artist, which is why she attended university to study chemistry.
Takeuchi graduated from Kyoritsu University of Pharmacy, where she received a degree in chemistry and became a licensed pharmacist. Her senior thesis was called "Heightened Effects of Thrombolytic Actions Due to Ultrasound".
Career.
1986–1997: Early work and success.
Before becoming a manga artist, Takeuchi worked as a miko at the Shiba Daijingu shrine near her university. This experience later became the basis for one of her characters in "Sailor Moon", Rei Hino.
After graduating from Kyoritsu University of Pharmacy, at the age of 19, Takeuchi entered the manga industry by submitting to Kodansha her work "Love Call", which received an award. She worked steadily on one-shot pieces until writing "Maria", which was published in "Nakayoshi" from early to mid-1990. She based this work, her first serial comic, loosely on "Daddy-Long-Legs" and on her friend Marie Koizumi, who helped her write it.
After completing "Maria", Takeuchi worked on the ice-skating series "The Cherry Project" which was serialized in "Nakayoshi" from late 1990 to 1991. While working on "The Cherry Project", Takeuchi wanted to do a manga on outer space and girl fighters. Her editor, Fumio Osano, asked her to put the fighters in sailor-suits. This concept would later become a one-shot called "", which would later begin serialization in "RunRun". When Toei Animation planned to adapt her manga into an anime series, she reworked "Sailor V" and added four other superheroines.
In December 1991 "Nakayoshi" began serializing "Sailor Moon", which became an instant hit. The success encouraged Takeuchi to work on both "Sailor Moon" and "Sailor V" from 1991 to 1997. However, "RunRun" was canceled with the November 1997 issue, and the planned "Sailor V" anime adaptation was canceled with it. During that 6-year period, she produced 52 chapters that were collected in 18 volumes. The success of the manga led to a 200-episode anime adaptation, three animated films, numerous video games, and wide-ranging merchandising.
At the series' end, Takeuchi worked on "PQ Angels" for "Nakayoshi". This gained a fair amount of popularity but was canceled due to Kodansha losing seven pages of her manuscript. Takeuchi said that Toei Animation had the manuscript, therefore it would have been possible to create an anime adaptation of the series.
Takeuchi's own studio is called "Princess Naoko Planning" (PNP). Takeuchi established PNP to manage her properties, mainly "Sailor Moon". The studio later encompassed Yoshihiro Togashi's work as well and appeared in the credits for such anime as "Level E" and "Hunter × Hunter". Its name also appears on the musical credits for "Shin Kaguya Shima Densetsu" and other projects.
1998–2009.
Following the loss of seven pages of Takeuchi's "PQ Angels" manuscript, Osano departed Kodansha and the plans for the "Materials Collection" were canceled. Takeuchi departed Kodansha for Shueisha.
On August 13, 1998, Takeuchi made her first appearance in the United States at the San Diego Comic-Con International convention for three days. That same year, she published the first "Sailor Moon" artbook since her departure from Kodansha, "Sailor Moon Infinity Collection Art Book" with limited releases.
While working on her short comic strip "Princess Naoko Takeuchi Back-to-Work Punch!!", Takeuchi met Yoshihiro Togashi at a "Weekly Shōnen Jump" meeting hosted by Kazushi Hagiwara, and had a meeting arranged between them by voice actress Megumi Ogata. She collaborated with Togashi as an assistant (doing screentone) and as a manager on volume 1 of "Hunter × Hunter". However the work and the demands proved more than she had expected, and Takeuchi left Shueisha as a result.
Around this time Takeuchi conceived the idea for a one-shot called "Toki*Meka", which eventually turned into "Toki*Meca". Togashi had a similar idea at the same time as her, but never fully brought it to fruition. He helped somewhat with "Toki*Meka" at this point in developing the idea by drawing some concept sketches, which Takeuchi showed in "Toki*Meca" volume 1.
Togashi and Takeuchi married in 1999. From this marriage, the couple have two children: a son, born in January 2001, and another child, born in 2009.
After Kodansha's rights to "Sailor Moon" expired, Takeuchi returned to the publisher in 1999 to develop and publish the "Materials Collection". She also began serializing "Love Witch", but it was cancelled. Takeuchi started to work on the reprints of "Sailor Moon" and "Sailor V", and published "Toki*Meca" in "Nakayoshi".
In 2003 Takeuchi became heavily involved in producing "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon", a tokusatsu television series based on "Sailor Moon". Takeuchi had an interest in learning more about the anime industry. This culminated in the creation of "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon". The series displays a plot that is heavily reliant on the manga and also explores many themes that the manga was unable to explore. She showed up at the official conference with a fist up, meaning "good luck", in Act Zero.
After the production of "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" ended in 2004, Takeuchi continued to work on "Toki*Meca". During the manga's serialization, Osano returned as her editor. Takeuchi also worked more closely with managing PNP and gave talks to college students. At the same time, she wrote a children's book titled "Oboo-nu- to Chiboo-nu-" as a birthday present to her son. (Togashi illustrated the children's book. She made mention of it in the back of volume 1 of "Toki*Meca".) She still works on the website, updating it about once a month with new flash animations or profiles.
2010-2019.
In 2012 it was announced that a new "Sailor Moon" anime adaptation was in development. With it, Takeuchi started a "Kanzenban" version of the manga which was announced by Osano, which will include fixed mistakes from the past and new covers for the manga. Color pages are also included for the title pages. There was also an artbook announced and she has been working on merchandise which was announced by Osano on his Twitter feed.
The new reboot anime debuted on July of 2014, titled "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal". It streamed on Niconico bi-weekly, and ended on July 2015, total of 26 episodes, covering the "Dark Kingdom" and "Black Moon" arc of the manga. Takeuchi wrote the ending theme song, titled , under the her penname, "Sumire Shirobara". The series eventually gained its 13-episode third season titled "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal Season III", covering the "Infinity" arc of the manga (subtitled "Death Busters"), and aired weekly on Japanese television from April to June 2016.
2020–present.
In 2020, the two volumes of official of the "Sailor Moon" manga was released on June 29th, with Takeuchi providing new illustrations for both covers.
In 2021, Takeuchi chief supervised the production of the two-part anime film, "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal: The Movie", which adapted the "Dream" arc of the manga (subtitled "Dead Moon"), and acted as a "fourth season" to the "Sailor Moon Crystal" series. Both films were released in 2021 in Japanese theaters, with the first film on January 8, and the second film on February 11. Takeuchi also provided the theme song lyrics, titled , under the name of "Sumire Shirobara".
Works.
Song lyrics.
Takeuchi wrote the lyrics for a number of songs featured in the "Sailor Moon" anime and live-action series. Though mainly character-based image songs, they include a few theme songs.
These include:
Awards.
Takeuchi has won several awards, including the 2nd Nakayoshi Comic Prize for Newcomers for "Yume ja Nai no Ne" in 1985. She also won for "Love Call", which won Nakayoshi's New Artist award which debuted in the Nakayoshi Deluxe September 1986 issue. In 1993 she won the 17th Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo for "Sailor Moon".