Arina Tanemura facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Arina Tanemura
種村 有菜
Born	(1978-03-12) March 12, 1978 (age 47) Aichi Prefecture, Japan
Other names	Meguro Teikoku (目黒帝国)
Occupation	Manga artist illustrator character designer
Years active	1995–present
Employer	Shueisha (1995–2011)
Known for	Phantom Thief Jeanne Full Moon o Sagashite The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross Idolish7
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Arina Tanemura (born March 12, 1978) is a famous Japanese manga artist. She also works as an illustrator and character designer. She started her professional manga career in 1996. Her first work was a short comic called The Style of the Second Love. It appeared in the Ribon Original magazine. In 1997, she published her first series, I.O.N, in the main Ribon magazine. She became very popular from the late 1990s to the mid-2000s. This was thanks to her popular series like Phantom Thief Jeanne, Full Moon o Sagashite, and The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross.

Arina Tanemura's work is known in the shōjo manga world. Shōjo manga is a type of Japanese comic aimed at young girls. Her art style is unique, and her stories often feature young girls growing into the women they want to be. Besides her manga, she has also released music albums based on her characters. She is also the character designer for the popular game and media project Idolish7.

Early Life and Drawing Journey

Arina Tanemura was born on March 12, 1978, and grew up in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. When she was young, manga magazines were her main source of fun. Her local TV only showed old anime shows, so she couldn't watch new ones. Her mother often bought manga magazines for older girls. Her older brother read Weekly Shonen Jump, a magazine for boys.

When she was in elementary school, a friend showed her Ribon magazine. She loved its cute art style and asked her mother's co-worker to buy her a copy. She also read Margaret regularly. In junior high, she started reading Shōjo Comic.

Tanemura began drawing when she was just 5 years old. She was greatly inspired by the shōjo manga she read as a child. She mostly drew female characters. She started drawing manga seriously during her first year of high school. She even sent her first comic to an amateur manga contest. She described her story as "dark" and "sad." Even though she didn't win, she passed the first round and earned 2,000 Japanese Yen. After that, she practiced by drawing yonkoma, which are four-panel comics.

Career Highlights

Starting Out: 1996–1998

Arina Tanemura became a professional artist at age 18 in 1996. Her first published work was a short comic called The Style of the Second Love. It appeared in Ribon Original magazine. She received a lot of positive feedback and even 500 fan letters for this story. This comic and other short works were later collected in a book called Short-Tempered Melancholic. In 1997, Tanemura released I.O.N, which was her first full series.

Becoming Famous: 1998–2011

From 1998 to 2000, Tanemura worked on Phantom Thief Jeanne. This series was a huge success, selling over 5.5 million copies. After Phantom Thief Jeanne finished, she started Time Stranger Kyoko. However, the main character's strong personality didn't appeal to everyone, so the series ended after only 12 chapters.

From 2002 to 2004, Tanemura created Full Moon o Sagashite. This story was about an idol singer. Tanemura had always wanted to write song lyrics, so she created this series to fulfill that wish. To avoid the issues from Time Stranger Kyoko, she made the main character in Full Moon o Sagashite more gentle.

Both Phantom Thief Jeanne and Full Moon o Sagashite became so popular that they were turned into anime TV shows. Time Stranger Kyoko also became a short anime film. For Full Moon o Sagashite, Tanemura even recorded her own version of a song called "Smile."

In 2004, Tanemura published The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross. This series ran in Ribon until 2008. Unlike her earlier works, this one did not have any fantasy elements. She even lent her voice to some characters in a special drama CD for the series. After that, she released Mistress Fortune. She made this story a "middle school romance" and kept it light-hearted. Later in 2008, she started Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura.

From 2008 to 2009, Tanemura hosted her own online radio show. It was called Tanemura Arina de Kyan: Manga Seminar. To celebrate 15 years since her debut, she released an album called Junai Tenshi in 2010. The album featured songs based on her female characters, with her singing and writing the lyrics. She performed some of these songs live. After the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Tanemura helped create a special comic book to raise money for charity. From July to November 2011, she drew Fudanjuku Monogatari. This manga was about the idol girl group Fudanjuku.

New Paths: 2011–Present

In May 2011, her publisher, Shueisha, started reprinting her older popular works. In November 2011, Arina Tanemura decided to become a freelance artist. This meant she no longer worked exclusively for Ribon magazine. Her last work with Ribon was Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura, which finished in 2012. After she became freelance, Shueisha released a collection of her short comics.

Tanemura wrote and illustrated Neko to Watashi no Kinyōbi from 2013 to 2015. At the same time, she also began her series Idol Dreams. For a special CD released with Idol Dreams, Tanemura wrote the lyrics for a song called "Sakura-iro Time Trip." In March 2013, she released her second album, Princess Tiara. This album also featured theme songs based on her characters.

In 2015, Tanemura designed characters for the game and media project Idolish7. She also drew illustrations for the novel and manga versions of Idolish7. She contributed colored illustrations to the Touken Ranbu comic collection. From 2016 to 2017, she published the series Akuma ni Chic × Hack. In 2019, to celebrate her 20th anniversary, a special café was held. It featured food inspired by characters from her original series.

Art Style and Story Themes

Arina Tanemura says her art style is influenced by the shōjo manga she read as a child. She especially liked comedy stories. She tries to draw in a style that is popular and fashionable. She has been drawing in a similar style since she was young. She has also mentioned artists like Hayao Miyazaki and Rumiko Takahashi as inspirations. Tanemura prefers to draw without digital tools. She uses special coloring inks. The clothes her characters wear are often inspired by clothes she owns herself.

A common theme in Tanemura's shōjo manga is female characters who change between being young girls and the mature women they want to become. She drew Phantom Thief Jeanne, Full Moon o Sagashite, and The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross to show how girls wish to grow up. For Idol Dreams, she flipped this idea. The main character transforms into the young girl she wanted to be. This was to appeal to fans who grew up reading her works.

Another important theme in her works is the influence of idol singers. Tanemura is a big fan of idol groups. She even based the main character of Full Moon o Sagashite on a real idol singer's hairstyle. Idol Dreams also focuses on an idol singer. Tanemura is friends with the members of the group Fudanjuku. She even wrote the manga Fudanjuku Monogatari based on them.

Tanemura has shared that her main female characters and their friendships are often based on her own friends. Or they come from stories she has heard from them. She says her stories are not meant to teach a specific lesson. They are simply for everyone to enjoy. Her favorite work is The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross.

Other Projects

Voice Acting

Radio Shows

Character Design Work

Other Illustrations

Music Albums

Studio Albums

Soundtrack Songs

See also

In Spanish: Arina Tanemura para niños