Rumiko Takahashi

She also received the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême in 2019, becoming the second woman and second Japanese to win the prize. In 2020, the Japanese government awarded Takahashi the Medal with Purple Ribbon for her contributions to the arts.

• Name — Rumiko Takahashi • Born — 10 October 1957 • Birthplace — Niigata, Niigata Prefecture, Japan • Occupation — Manga artist • Years Active — 1978–present • Notable Works — * Urusei Yatsura • Maison Ikkoku • Mermaid Saga • Ranma ½ • Inuyasha • Rin-ne • Mao • Awards — * Shogakukan Manga Award (1980, 2001) • Seiun Award (1987, 1989) • Inkpot Award (1994) • The Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame (2018) • Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême (2019) • Medal with Purple Ribbon (2020)

Takahashi was born in Niigata, Japan. Although she showed little interest in manga as a child, she was said to occasionally doodle in the margins of her papers while attending Niigata Chūō High School. She co-founded a manga club at high school together with Yōko Kondō, who also became a manga artist. Takahashi's interest in drawing manga herself did not start until later. In an interview in 2000, Takahashi said that she had always wanted to become a professional comic author since she was a child.

During her university years, Takahashi enrolled in Gekiga Sonjuku, a manga school founded by Kazuo Koike, author of Crying Freeman and Lone Wolf and Cub. Under his guidance, Takahashi began to publish her first dōjinshi creations in 1975, such as Bye-Bye Road and Star of Futile Dust. Koike often urged his students to create well-thought out, interesting characters, and this influence would greatly impact Takahashi's works throughout her career. Takahashi worked as an assistant for horror manga artist and Makoto-chan series creator Kazuo Umezu.

Takahashi's professional career began in 1978. Her first published work was the one-shot Katte na Yatsura (Those Selfish Aliens), which garnered her an honorable mention at that year's Shogakukan New Comics Contest. Later that same year, she began her first serialized story in Weekly Shōnen Sunday; Urusei Yatsura, a comedic science fiction story. Takahashi initially had difficulty meeting deadlines, so chapters were published sporadically until 1980. During the run of the series, she shared a small apartment with two assistants, and often slept in a closet due to a lack of space. During the same year, Takahashi published Time Warp Trouble, Shake Your Buddha, and the Golden Gods of Poverty in Weekly Shōnen Sunday magazine, a publication which would remain the home to most of her major works for the next twenty years.

In 1980, Takahashi started her second major series, Maison Ikkoku, in Big Comic Spirits magazine, which had an older target audience than her previous work. Because of the influence of the New Wave movement of manga in the late 1970s, seinen manga, or comics marketed toward young men, became more open to including shōjo manga aesthetics, or the aesthetics of comics marketed toward young women, and to hiring female manga artists. Maison Ikkoku is a romantic comedy, and Takahashi used her own experience living in an apartment complex to create the series. Takahashi managed to work on the series on and off simultaneously with Urusei Yatsura. She concluded both series in 1987, with Urusei Yatsura ending at 34 volumes, and Maison Ikkoku at 15. During the 1980s, Takahashi became a prolific writer of short story manga. Her stories Laughing Target, Maris the Chojo, and Fire Tripper were all adapted into original video animations (OVAs). In 1984, during the writing of Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku, Takahashi began a series published sporadically in Weekly Shōnen Sunday called Mermaid Saga which ran for 10 years, until 1994. The series was partially released in two wide-ban volumes, with the complete story released as a set of shinsoban, or special edition, in 2003. Another short work of Takahashi's to be published sporadically was One-Pound Gospel. Takahashi concluded the series in 2007 after publishing chapters in 1998, 2001, and 2006. One-Pound Gospel was adapted into a live-action TV drama.

In 1987, Takahashi began her third major series, Ranma ½. Following the late 1980s and early 1990s trend of shōnen martial arts manga, Ranma ½ features a gender-bending twist. The series continued for nearly a decade until 1996, when it ended at 38 volumes. Ranma ½ and its anime adaptation are cited as some of the first of their mediums to have become popular in the United States. During the latter half of the 1990s, Rumiko Takahashi continued with short stories and her installments of Mermaid Saga and One-Pound Gospel until beginning her fourth major work, Inuyasha. Unlike the majority of her works, Inuyasha has a darker tone more akin to Mermaid Saga and, having been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday from 1996 to 2008, is her longest to date. On March 5, 2009, Rumiko Takahashi released her one-shot Unmei No Tori. On March 16, 2009, she collaborated with Mitsuru Adachi, creator of Touch and Cross Game, to release a one-shot called My Sweet Sunday. Her next manga series, Kyōkai no Rinne started on April 22, 2009. This was Rumiko Takahashi's first new manga series since her previous manga series Inuyasha ended in June 2008. She concluded it on December 13, 2017, with a total of 398 chapters, collected in 40 volumes. Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, Ranma ½, Inuyasha, and RIN-NE are all published in English in the United States by Viz Comics. The 1989 re-release of Urusei Yatsura was halted after only a few volumes were translated, but a reprint in a 2-in-1 omnibus format began in 2019. Rumiko Takahashi started a new manga series entitled Mao in Weekly Shōnen Sunday issue #23 released on May 8, 2019.

In 1981, Urusei Yatsura became the first of Takahashi's works to be animated. This series first aired on Japanese television on October 14, and went through multiple director changes during its run. Though the 195-episode TV series ended in March 1986, Urusei Yatsura was kept alive in anime form through OVA and movie releases through 1991. Most notable of the series directors was Mamoru Oshii, who made Beautiful Dreamer, the second Urusei Yatsura movie. AnimEigo has released the entire TV series and all of the OVAs and movies except for Beautiful Dreamer (which was released by Central Park Media in the U.S.) in the United States in English-subtitled format, with English dubs also made for the first two TV episodes (as Those Obnoxious Aliens) and for all of the movies.

2008 marked the 50th anniversary of Weekly Shōnen Sunday and the 30th anniversary of the first publication of Urusei Yatsura. Rumiko Takahashi's manga work was honoured in It's a Rumic World, a special exhibition held from July 30 to August 11 at the Matsuya Ginza department store in Tokyo. The exhibit included a new half-hour Ranma ½ and Inuyasha OVAs and an introductory sequence featuring characters from Urusei Yatsura, Ranma and Inuyasha (starring the characters' original anime voice talents). It's a Rumic World was scheduled to re-open in Sendai in December 2008, at which time a new half-hour Urusei Yatsura OVA was scheduled to premiere. A special DVD release containing all three new OVAs was announced as coming out on January 29, 2010, with a trailer posted in September 2009. However, it is not known whether any of the new episodes will ever be released outside Japan. Rumiko Takahashi Anthology, animated by TMS Entertainment adapts many of her short stories from the 80s. It features her stories The Tragedy of P, The Merchant of Romance, Middle-Aged Teen, Hidden in the Pottery, Aberrant Family F, As Long As You Are Here, One Hundred Years of Love, In Lieu of Thanks, Living Room Lovesong, House of Garbage, One Day Dream, Extra-Large Size Happiness, and The Executive's Dog. Also, a TV series of Mermaid Saga was produced in 2003, animating 8 of her stories.

• Years — Name — Magazine — Total number of volumes — Circulation in Japan — Japanese publisher — English publisher • 1978–2015 — Rumic World — Various — 5 — Shogakukan — Viz Media • 1978–1987 — Urusei Yatsura — Weekly Shōnen Sunday — 34 — 35 million • 1980–1987 — Maison Ikkoku — Big Comic Spirits — 15 — 25 million • 1984–1994 — Mermaid Saga — Weekly Shōnen Sunday — 3 • 1987–1996 — Ranma ½ — Weekly Shōnen Sunday — 38 — 55 million • 1987–2006 — One-pound Gospel — Weekly Young Sunday — 4 • 1987–present — Rumic Theater — Big Comic Original — 6 • 1996–2008 — Inuyasha — Weekly Shōnen Sunday — 56 — 50 million • 2009–2017 — Rin-ne — Weekly Shōnen Sunday — 40 — 3 million • 2019–present — Mao — Weekly Shōnen Sunday — 28 — 1 million

Rumiko Takahashi is recorded with the occupation character designer. Recorded with the occupation comics writer. Recorded as mangaka, animator, screenwriter and character designer.