manga style! pretty soldiers in sailor suits
TAKEUCHI NAOKO
Early Works
TAKEUCHI Naoko began writing manga in high school, and at the age of 19 she won the Kodansha New Manga Artist award with her manga romance Love Call. She followed this with a number of romantic short stories. These were collected into a number of tankoubon (compiled volumes) called Prism Time, Chocolate Christmas, and Miss Rain. She also wrote two short series: Maria (one volume) and The Cherry Project (3 volumes). These books are all out of print. Second-hand copies can be purchase from Japan Book Mart and JPQueen. Naoko hit it big with Codename wa Sailor V in 1991 and Sailor Moon soon followed. Translations of these series are available at The Manga of Takeuchi Naoko.
Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon & Codename wa Sailor V
Read the section entitled Sailor Moon's Origins.
After Sailormoon
Naoko has started a few new manga since Sailor Moon and Sailor V finished, but they've mostly been cancelled/dropped and none have been collected into tankoubon as of 2005.
Two collected volumes called Prism Time were published after Sailor Moon, containing her previously uncollected stories (so not new work).- PQ Angels was the first new work after Sailor Moon. It ran in Nakayoshi from September to December 1997 for a total of four chapters, but it was never continued due to her leaving her publisher, Kodansha. Apparently Kodansha lost the original scripts, so the chances of PQ Angels ever being collected or continued are slim to none =( It was a really cute series with a neat premise, and a number of PQ Angels fansites sprang up when it debuted, so it probably would have been popular (at least on this side of the ocean). [translations, fansite]
- Starting in the December 1998 issue of Young You, Naoko wrote a series of "rounds" of an autobiographical manga (which she called a "private essay comic") called Princess Takeuchi Naoko's Return-to-Society Punch!! detailing her day-to-day life, her upcoming wedding, and the release of the long-awaited Sailor Moon Materials Collection. This was followed by Princess and Prince's Marriage Punch!!, Princess and Prince's Baby Punch!!, and Hime to Ouji to Petit Ouji no Punch!!. [translations, fansite]. These personal comics continue in a form online at Naoko's Princess Room at the Sailor Moon Official Website.
- In January of 1999 she married the manga artist Togashi Yoshihiro, author of Yuu Yuu Hakusho. Following the birth of their son, she returned to Nakayoshi with a new one-shot story in the September 2001 Nakayoshi entitled Toki*Meka. [translation, fansite]. An ongoing Toki*Meka! serial appeared in the magazine from January 2005 to April 2005, at which time she promised a future return of the series as well as a tankoubon. We'll see if that ever pans out... The Naoko Princess Room messages from January 2005 onwards feature the character of Meka-chan from Toki*Meka!
- Love Witch was another new series which ran in Nakayoshi from April to June 2002, with a side story in the September 2002 issue. The series was then dropped without explanation. [translations, fansite]
- Naoko has also kept busy with the publication of the reprint editions of Sailor Moon and Sailor V which were released from Sept/03 to Nov/04. She was also involved with the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series that ran on Japanese TV from Oct/03-Sept/04 (followed by two OAV). While it was running, news about the series, development of the new edition manga, and PGSM merchandise dominanted the Naoko Princess Room messages.
