1986–1997: Early work and success After graduating from the
Kyoritsu College of Pharmacy, at the age of 19, Takeuchi entered the manga industry by submitting her work
Love Call to
Kodansha; Takeuchi received Nakayoshi's New Artist award for
Love Call. She worked steadily on
one-shot pieces until writing
Maria, which was published in
Nakayoshi from early to mid-1990. This work, Takeuchi's first serial comic, was loosely based on
Jean Webster's 1912 novel
Daddy-Long-Legs and on her friend
Marie Koizumi, who helped 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
Codename: Sailor V, 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 along with it. During that six-year period, she produced 60 chapters, which 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. She had an interview with
Silent Möbius creator, Kia Asamiya. 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. 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 as a result, Takeuchi left Shueisha. 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 a daughter, 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, as she 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. At the same time, she wrote a children's book titled
Oboo-nu- to Chiboo-nu- as a birthday present to her son. (Togashi provided illustrations for the book; Takeuchi made mention of this in the back of the first volume 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, and will include fixed past mistakes 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,
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal, debuted in July 2014. It streamed on
Niconico bi-weekly, and ended in July 2015, spanning a total of 26 episodes, which cover the
Dark Kingdom and
Black Moon arc of the manga. Takeuchi wrote the ending theme song, , under her
penname, .
2020–present In 2020, the two volumes of official of the
Sailor Moon manga was released on June 29, 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 (known as
Dead Moon in Japan), and acted as a "fourth season" for 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 lyrics for the theme song, , under the name of "Sumire Shirobara". In 2022, Takeuchi chief supervised the production of the sequel to
Sailor Moon Eternal, titled
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Cosmos The Movie. The two-part film covered the
Stars arc of the manga (known as
Shadow Galactica in Japan), and acted as a "fifth and final season" for the
Sailor Moon Crystal series. Both films were released in June 2023, with the first film on the 9th, and the second film on the 30th. ==Works==