If the Takeuchi Naoko does not ring a bell, we know for sure that you will have heard of her most famous work, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon at least once in your lifetime. Well, hopefully more than that or else you live under a rock. Anyway, oh yes, Takeuchi Naoko is the mind behind Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, a series that has a rather cult-like following, even to this day. For many, she is one of the most successful shoujo mangaka, but what is it exactly that makes her such a success?
Have you ever wondered to yourself, what else is Takeuchi Naoko known for? How did she get her start as a mangaka? Or maybe you want to follow her footsteps so you ask yourself, how can I get to where Takeuchi Naoko is? Well, if so, we are going to dive in and find out how Takeuchi Naoko got famous! Tune in if you are a fan of Sailor Moon or Takeuchi Naoko herself!
Starting Out
Takeuchi Naoko was born in 1967 in the Yamanashi prefecture in a town called Kofu. As a teenager, Takeuchi attended Kofu Ichi High School, a school that she has admitted to using her experiences from for her own work such as the sailor uniforms for Sailor Moon. At Kofu Ichi High School, she joined the astronomy club and the manga club, and all of her experiences there influenced her life to take a turn towards writing manga. Her father, however, suggested some more practical alternatives in case her career as a mangaka didn’t pan out.
Did you know that Takeuchi Naoko had attended Kyoritsu University and majored in Chemisty? Yes, her practical career choice was to become a pharmacist, something that she did indeed become. However, Takeuchi still ended up being a mangaka after graduating, and as we all know, she became an extremely popular and successful one at that.
Getting into the Manga Industry
After graduating with her pharmaceutical license, Takeuchi began her work as a mangaka in 1985 with her first manga, Love Call, which she submitted to Kodansha and won the Nakayoshi Comic Prize for NewComers. From there, Takeuchi worked on one shots until she wrote Maria, a manga that she worked on with her friend Marie Koizumi that became her first ongoing series. From there, Takeuchi moved onto her next project, The Cherry Project, a shoujo manga that was serialized in Nakayoshi starring a girl named Cherry who pursues ice skating in order to win over the heart of a talented ice skater.
It is actually Takeuchi’s next work that really lead to her success and no, it’s not Sailor Moon. Takeuchi had dreamt of writing about girls fighting in space, and with one note from her editor to put the girls in sailor uniforms, Codename: Sailor V came into fruition in RunRun! Oh yes, Sailor V came first! Codename: Sailor V was a light hearted adventure about Aino Minako and a talking cat named Artemis.
However, that’s not the end. Toei Animation was interested in turning Codename: Sailor V into an anime, but they requested that Takeuchi include more girls in on the adventure. That’s when Takeuchi came up with Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, a magical girl adventure staring Tsukino Usagi as the lead while Minako came in as a senpai of sorts as a side character.
Right from the start, the Sailor Moon manga was popular with readers, which spurned Takeuchi to work on both of her magical girl series. Sailor Moon is said to have revitalized the magical girl genre making it seem less childish with important themes like gender roles discussed. Many credit Sailor Moon with the later successes of magical girl anime, but it can only be expected with the amount of success that Takeuchi saw with her series Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon. It is without hesitation that we say that Takeuchi Naoko’s most famous work is Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, even if you have heard of her other works.
Following Her Success with Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon...
Takeuchi Naoko saw a lot of fame and notoriety with her work Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon. However, Codename: Sailor V was cancelled with Runrun and its anime was never to come to life. Then, Takeuchi had difficulty with her next series, PQ Angels, when Kodansha neglected to print 7 pages of the manuscript, resulting in its cancellation despite its initial success.
Eventually, Takeuchi left Kodansha in favor for Shueisha. With the help of her future husband Togashi Yoshihiro, Takeuchi began working on Toki*Meca. Eventually, Takeuchi returned to Kodansha and began serializing Love Witch, which was cancelled. Toki*Meca was also published in Nakayoshi, but it was around this time that Takeuchi became interested in the production of anime and started working on the live action for Sailor Moon. While Takeuchi has worked on quite a few things since including a children’s book, her work has come in full circle and a new Sailor Moon anime was announced in 2012.
Takeuchi Naoko has seen so much success as a mangaka, but it’s clear that her most successful work is Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, a manga that seemed to start off by accident. Still, despite her success, Takeuchi has managed to continue drawing manga despite some series becoming cancelled or lost. It’s amazing to see how much work Takeuchi has put into her career, but it’s that hard work, dedication, and her creativity that really made her such a successful and famous mangaka.
Information has been taken from the following sources:
http://comicsalliance.com/tribute-naoko-takeuchi/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naoko_Takeuchi
http://sailormoon.wikia.com/wiki/Naoko_Takeuchi
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