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Naoko Takeuchi

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Naoko Takeuchi is a famous Japanese manga artist. Manga are Japanese comics that people all over the world enjoy reading. She is most well known for creating Sailor Moon, which is one of the most popular manga series ever made. This series tells the story of Usagi Tsukino. She is a girl who discovers she is the reincarnation of a hero from space. Usagi fights to protect love and justice.

Takeuchi's path to becoming an artist was very interesting. In high school, she joined the astronomy and manga clubs. Her father wanted her to have a steady career just in case art was difficult. Because of this, she studied chemistry at Kyoritsu College of Pharmacy. She actually became a licensed pharmacist after she graduated. Her senior thesis was a science paper about ultrasound.

Her career in the manga industry began in the late 1980s. She first won an award for a story called Love Call. Later, she wrote a series about ice skating called The Cherry Project. While working on that, she wanted to write about space and girl fighters. Her editor, Fumio Osano, suggested the fighters wear sailor suits. This idea led to her famous one-shot, Codename: Sailor V.

In December 1991, Sailor Moon began being published in Nakayoshi magazine. It became an instant hit and stayed popular for many years. During her first six years of success, she wrote 60 chapters. These chapters were later collected into 18 books. The series was so big it led to many cartoons, movies, and video games. She also started her own studio named Princess Naoko Planning to manage her work.

Takeuchi's life and work have many special connections. She married the artist Yoshihiro Togashi, who wrote Hunter × Hunter. They have a son and a daughter. She even used the names of her own family members for characters in her stories. Even now, she continues to work on new versions of her art. She has supervised new anime films like Sailor Moon Eternal and Sailor Moon Cosmos.

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