Rumiko Takahashi
Rumiko Takahashi was born on October 10, 1957 and she's currently one of the most wealthiest women in Japan. During her early years, Takahashi, ironically, never showed any interest in manga. It wasn't until she enrolled in Gekiga Sonjuku, a manga school founded by Kazuo Koike, a fellow manga-ka, that she began to publish doujinshi. Kazuo Koike often urged his students to create well-thought out, interesting characters, that greatly impacted Takahashi's works throughout her career.
Rumiko began her professional career in 1978 with a comedic science fiction story titled, Those Selfish Aliens. Later that year, after publishing three stories in Shonen Sunday, Takahashi attempted her first full-length series, Urusei Yatsura. The series did have a rocky start, but it later became one of the most beloved anime and manga comedies in Japan.
Urusei Yatsura became the first of Takahashi's works to be animated in 1981. Ranma 1/2, although never concluded, became the first successful anime that quickly gained popularity in the Western world. Although the popularity quickly died down around 2000, Viz Media obtained the rights to InuYasha, airing it for the first time on AdultSwim. The success of InuYasha was the cause of the major wave of anime on cable networks.
Although Rumiko Takahashi's major works are massive in length, she also found success in short story manga. Three of her works, The Laughing Target, Maris the Chojo, and Fire Tripper, were all adapted into OVAs (original video animations).
This "Princess of Manga", although she has two extremely popular anime/mangas in the US, has a nice list of works that shouldn't go unnoticed:
- Ranma 1/2
- InuYasha
- Urusei Yatsura
- Maison Ikkoku
- Mermaid Saga
- One-Pound Gospel
- Rumic Theater
- Rumic World