Rumiko Takahashi facts for kids

Rumiko Takahashi (高橋 留美子, Takahashi Rumiko, born October 10, 1957) is a famous Japanese manga artist. She creates popular comic books and stories. Her career started in 1978 with Urusei Yatsura. She is one of Japan's most well-known and successful manga artists.

Her works are loved all over the world. They have been translated into many languages. Over 230 million copies of her comics have been sold. This makes her one of the best-selling authors ever. She has won many awards for her amazing stories. These include the Shogakukan Manga Award twice and the Seiun Award twice. In 2019, she won the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême. She was the second woman and second Japanese person to win this award. In 2020, the Japanese government gave her the Medal with Purple Ribbon. This award recognized her important contributions to art.

Rumiko Takahashi's Career Journey

Rumiko Takahashi was born in Niigata, Japan. When she was a child, she did not show much interest in manga. But she would often draw in the margins of her school papers. She even started a manga club in high school. Her interest in drawing manga for a living grew later. In an interview, she shared that she always wanted to be a professional comic author.

Early Works and Training

During her university years, Rumiko Takahashi went to a manga school. It was called Gekiga Sonjuku. The school was started by Kazuo Koike, a famous manga author. Under his guidance, she began to publish her first fan-made comics in 1975. These included Bye-Bye Road and Star of Futile Dust. Her teacher, Kazuo Koike, taught his students to create interesting characters. This advice greatly influenced Rumiko Takahashi's work. She also worked briefly as an assistant for horror manga artist Kazuo Umezu.

First Big Successes

Her professional career began in 1978. Her first published work was a one-shot story called Katte na Yatsura ^[jp] (Those Selfish Aliens). This story earned her an honorable mention in a comics contest. Later that year, she started her first series in Weekly Shōnen Sunday magazine. It was Urusei Yatsura, a funny science fiction story. At first, she found it hard to meet deadlines. So, chapters were published now and then until 1980. During this time, she lived in a small apartment with two assistants. She sometimes slept in a closet because there was not much space. In the same year, she published other short stories in Weekly Shōnen Sunday. This magazine became the home for most of her major works for the next twenty years.

Romantic Comedies and Short Stories

In 1980, Takahashi started her second major series, Maison Ikkoku. This story appeared in Big Comic Spirits magazine. It was for an older audience than her first work. Maison Ikkoku is a romantic comedy. Takahashi used her own experiences living in an apartment building to create the series. She worked on Maison Ikkoku at the same time as Urusei Yatsura. She finished both series in 1987. Urusei Yatsura had 34 volumes, and Maison Ikkoku had 15.

Throughout the 1980s, Takahashi wrote many short manga stories. Her stories Laughing Target, Maris the Chojo, and Fire Tripper were all made into animated videos. In 1984, while working on her two big series, she began Mermaid Saga. This series was published sometimes in Weekly Shōnen Sunday. It ran for 10 years, until 1994.

Another short work by Takahashi was One-Pound Gospel. She finished this series in 2007. It was also made into a live-action TV show.

Other Popular Works

In 1987, Takahashi started her third major series, Ranma ½. This manga was a martial arts story with a fun gender-bending twist. The series continued for almost ten years, ending in 1996 with 38 volumes. Ranma ½ and its animated show were some of the first Japanese comics and cartoons to become popular in the United States.

In the late 1990s, Rumiko Takahashi continued with short stories. She also worked on Mermaid Saga and One-Pound Gospel. Then, she began her fourth major work, Inuyasha. Unlike most of her other works, Inuyasha has a more serious tone, similar to Mermaid Saga. It was published in Weekly Shōnen Sunday from 1996 to 2008. This makes it her longest series so far.

On March 5, 2009, Rumiko Takahashi released a one-shot story called Unmei No Tori. On March 16, 2009, she worked with Mitsuru Adachi on a one-shot called My Sweet Sunday. Her next manga series, Kyōkai no Rinne, began on April 22, 2009. This was her first new series since Inuyasha ended in June 2008. She finished Rin-ne on December 13, 2017. It had 398 chapters, collected into 40 volumes.

Many of her major works, like Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, Ranma ½, Inuyasha, and RIN-NE, are published in English in the United States.

Rumiko Takahashi started a new manga series called Mao in Weekly Shōnen Sunday on May 8, 2019.

Animated Adaptations

In 1981, Urusei Yatsura was the first of Takahashi's works to be made into an animated show. This series first aired on Japanese television on October 14. It had 195 episodes and ended in March 1986. However, Urusei Yatsura continued to have animated videos and movies until 1991.

Kitty Films and Other Studios

In 1986, the studios Kitty Films, Studio Pierrot, and Studio Deen worked together. They adapted Rumiko Takahashi's second work, Maison Ikkoku. This show started the week after Urusei Yatsura ended. The TV series had 96 episodes, 3 animated videos, a movie, and a live-action movie.

Other animated videos made in the 1980s and 1990s include:

• Maris the Chojo (May 21, 1986)
• Fire Tripper (December 16, 1985)
• Laughing Target (March 21, 1987)
• Mermaid's Forest (August 16, 1991)
• Mermaid's Scar (September 24, 1993)

All these titles were later translated into English. Viz Communications has released the animated versions of Maison Ikkoku, Ranma, and Inuyasha in English.

Ranma ½ was the last major series produced by Kitty Films. The animated series was never fully finished, even with 161 episodes and two movies. Studio Deen continued the work until 1996.

After Kitty Films, Sunrise was the first studio to adapt another major Rumiko Takahashi series. From 2000 to 2004, Inuyasha ran for 167 episodes. It also had four major movies. The first animated show ended before the manga was finished. A second Inuyasha series, Inuyasha the Final Act, ran from 2009 to March 2010. This series officially finished the story.

Special Exhibit in 2008

The year 2008 marked two important anniversaries. It was the 50th anniversary of Weekly Shōnen Sunday magazine. It was also the 30th anniversary of Urusei Yatsura being published for the first time. Rumiko Takahashi's manga work was celebrated in "It's a Rumic World." This was a special exhibit held from July 30 to August 11 at a department store in Tokyo.

The exhibit included new animated videos for Ranma ½ and Inuyasha. It also had an introduction featuring characters from Urusei Yatsura, Ranma, and Inuyasha. These characters were voiced by their original voice actors. This introduction became a popular video online.

"It's a Rumic World" also opened in Sendai in December 2008. A new Urusei Yatsura animated video premiered there. A special DVD with all three new animated videos was released on January 29, 2010.

The Rumiko Takahashi Anthology animated many of her short stories from the 1980s. These included stories like The Tragedy of P and One Hundred Years of Love. Also, a TV series of Mermaid Saga was made in 2003. It animated 8 of her stories.

Influence and Legacy

Many of Rumiko Takahashi's works have been translated into English and other European languages. She has said she does not know why her works are so popular with English speakers. She believes that even with cultural differences, her stories have enough depth for people from different backgrounds to enjoy them.

Other artists have said that Takahashi and her work influenced them. These include Canadian Bryan Lee O'Malley (who created Scott Pilgrim). Also, American Colleen Coover, Japanese Chihiro Tamaki, Chinese-Australian Queenie Chan, and Thai Wisut Ponnimit were influenced by her. A Scottish rock band even named themselves Urusei Yatsura after her first work. Matt Bozon, who created the Shantae video game series, said Ranma ½ was a big influence. Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Domee Shi listed Ranma ½ and Inuyasha as influences for her film Turning Red.

Awards and Honors

Rumiko Takahashi has received many awards for her contributions to manga.

• She won the Inkpot Award in 1994 at the San Diego Comic-Con.
• In 2005, she was added to the Friends of Lulu's Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame.
• In 2016, she was listed as one of twelve women cartoonists who deserved a lifetime achievement award.
• She was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2017.
• In July 2018, Takahashi was added to the Eisner Hall of Fame.
• In January 2019, Takahashi won the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême. She was the second woman and second manga artist to win this award.
• In 2020, Takahashi received Japan's Medal with Purple Ribbon.
• She was inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame in October 2021.
• In April 2023, the French government gave Takahashi the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres award.

Major Works by Rumiko Takahashi

See also

In Spanish: Rumiko Takahashi para niños