Naoko Takeuchi



Naoko Takeuchi is the creator of The Cherry Project, Codename: Sailor V and the world famous Sailor Moon manga, which codified the Magical Girl Warrior sub-genre. Married to fellow manga-ka Yoshihiro Togashi. A pharmacist-turned-mangaka, she has been a Shojo inspiration for many years.


 * Author Appeal: White Haired Pretty Boys, racing cars (her favorite is a Ferrari 512M) and figure skating, namely. Sailor Moon was inspired by Wonder Woman, which gives the inspiration of most of the senshi having combat stilettos. She likes drawing shoes.
 * Author Avatar: Usagi is stated to be this in Sailor Moon.
 * Executive Meddling: A victim of it, often.
 * Fanfic: Naoko loves reading Sailor Moon fanfic and encourages different interpretations of her work heartily.
 * Hot Mom: She's pretty cute and has had two kids with Togashi-san.
 * I Was Just Joking: When she came to her boss one day in 1990's and said that she would like to draw a manga about a female superhero, the editor remarked: "Right. A female superhero. Maybe a schoolgirl at that, who is a crybaby, and yet saves the day?" And thus, Codename Sailor V, and by extension, Sailor Moon, was born.
 * Lap Pillow: Says of this cute drawing: "I love sleeping with my head on someone's lap. I also love having someone's head on my lap. Since both really put me at ease, I can be happy."
 * Odango: She has famously worn them, like her Author Avatar Usagi.
 * Orphaned Series: Several after Sailor Moon.
 * Real Life Writes the Plot: Usagi has a father named Kenji, a mother named Ikuko, and a younger brother named Shingo, just like her creator, Naoko.
 * Rule 34 Creator Reactions: She enthusiastically encourages and enjoys reading fanworks based on it, including hentai material, and has been known to say so in her manga marginalia.
 * Shout-Out: She makes one of them as part of an artbook drawing, since she loves when fans homage her works, and compliments it back as she can.
 * Tender Tears: In an artbook she comments that "Naoko is prone to tears,". She cries when she is overwhelmed by something beautiful and from touching letters from fans.
 * What Could Have Been: A lot of the elements she wanted to include in Sailor Moon can be found in her artbooks, but most especially the Materials Collection she released as a Doujinshi. Tuxedo Mask was supposed to play a much larger part (and would have been named Mysterious 2098 Face!), Makoto would have been a smoker and sukeban leader... the list goes on.
 * Write What You Know: She did Miko work in a shrine, using this experience as the basis for Rei Hino's character.