Line #10 Creator/RumikoTakahashi


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8	Rumiko Takahashi (born October 10, 1957) is the best-selling female comic artist of all time, selling more than 170 million copies of her work in Japan alone, and one of the names by which to reckon the evolution of anime. She is one of the wealthiest women in Japan, all of her longer running {{manga}} have become TV series, and nearly everything she has written has been adapted into animation ({{OVA}} or TV). Perhaps more importantly, her influence and the nature of her series since 1980 have been cited as large contributors to the perception and acceptance of anime as a medium today. Of course, every master was once an apprentice; Takahashi was a graduate of the ''Gekika Sonjuku'' program, a college course by Creator/KazuoKoike, meant to teach people how to be a manga artist.
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10	The animated adaptations for her longer series have an unfortunate tendency to end well before their source comics do – the ''Manga/InuYasha'' manga ran for nearly four years beyond the anime's end (to put it in perspective, IY's ''English dub'' had been completed for almost two years at that point); ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' barely got two-thirds of the way through its story and was heavily laden with {{filler}}, to boot; and ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'''s anime likewise ended early, although some of its later arcs were adapted as {{OAV}}s, and its proper conclusion was the subject of the fifth movie. ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku'' is her only major series whose animated adaptation spans the whole story. ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}'' received a second TV series after the manga concluded – titled ''The Final Act'', it picks up where the first TV series stopped and follows the manga to its conclusion (but heavily compressed).
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12	She is noted for [[PuniPlush a distinctive stylized rounded style]], sometimes [[OnlySixFaces to an excessive degree]], [[LoveDodecahedron intricate relationships]] among the characters, [[WeddingFinale happy-ending weddings]], [[PrefersGoingBarefoot barefoot characters]], lots of BelligerentSexualTension, and an ability with puns and allusions on both visual and verbal levels. One example would be a character from ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' whose name, depending on whether the reading is Chinese, Japanese, or English (not to mention ''which kanji'' you're using), means "hair care product", "unpolished gem", "mountain girl", "she whose breasts are as mountains"… all of which describe the character in some way. (Oh, and she also happens to be a master of surrealism when it comes to certain elements in her mangas).
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14	In stark contrast to her better-known comedic works, Takahashi has also written a number of shorter dramatic manga, many of which are grouped together under the collective name "Rumic World". She has also ventured into the macabre and outright horror with her ''Manga/MermaidSaga''.
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16	In December of 2017, she completed ''Kyoukai no Rinne'' (or ''Manga/{{RINNE}}'', in English) in Shonen Sunday, which has carried all her major works to date.[[labelnote:†]] (except for ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku'', which ran in the seinen magazine ''Big Comic Spirits'')[[/labelnote]] May 8th, 2019, saw the premiere of her newest work, ''Manga/{{Mao}}''.
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18	Working non-stop since ''1978'', Takahashi has been given quite an impressive list of awards commemorating her service in the field, particularly in TheNewTens: in 2016, she was inducted into the American Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. By 2018, she had been granted recognition in the Will Eisner Comics Award Hall of Fame (having been nominated three times prior). And by 2019, the International Angoulême Comics Festival bestowed to her the Grand Prix de la ville lifetime achievement award. Thus far, she is the second woman and second Japanese person ever to win the almost-exclusively Franco-Belgian award. In April 2023, [[https://www.nippon.com/en/news/yjj2023040600858/japanese-manga-artist-rumiko-takahashi-given-french-honor.html she was additionally made a]] ''chevalier'' of the French Order of Arts and Letters.
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20	In June 2021, Takahashi opened [[https://twitter.com/rumicworld1010 her official Twitter account]] wherein she sometimes talks about the background of her characters. An English translation of her character-related tweets can be read [[https://www.furinkan.com/takahashi/takahashi42.html here]].
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23	!!!Works by Rumiko Takahashi:
24	[[index]]
25	* ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' (1978-1987)
26	* ''Manga/DustSpot'' (1979)
27	* ''Manga/MarisTheChojo'' (1980)
28	* ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku'' (1980-1987)
29	* ''Manga/FireTripper'' (1983)
30	* ''Manga/TheLaughingTarget'' (1983)
31	* ''Manga/MermaidSaga'' (1984-1994)
32	* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' (1987-1996)
33	* ''Manga/OnePoundGospel'' (1987-2007)
34	* ''Manga/RumikoTakahashiAnthology'' (1987-present)
35	* ''Manga/InuYasha'' (1996-2008)
36	** ''Anime/YashahimePrincessHalfDemon'' (2020-present; story concept and supervision)
37	* ''Manga/{{RINNE}}'' (2009-2017)
38	* ''Manga/{{Mao}}'' (2019-present)
39	[[/index]]
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41	!!Common Tropes in her work:
42	* AbhorrentAdmirer: Many characters in her work have unrequited love interests that are either extremely ugly or have an IncompatibleOrientation (or both).
43	* AbsurdPhobia: Many characters have some form of this. For example, Ranma from ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' is afraid of cats, Shun Mitaka from ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku'' is afraid of dogs, etc... It also gets downplayed with characters fearing ghosts or snakes, which is not so absurd.
44	* ArchnemesisDad: Downplayed and/or PlayedForLaughs in most of her works, but her father characters are rarely shown in a good light.
45	* ArtEvolution: Her style ranged from being rounded and cartoony (Both ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' and ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku'', to various extents), to less-cartoony rounded (''Manga/RanmaOneHalf''), to more angular looking (''Manga/InuYasha'' onward)
46	* BelligerentSexualTension: Former {{Trope Namer\|s}}, since couples formed by a tsundere and a kind-hearted jerkass who are constantly bickering are very ubiquitous in her stories.
47	* CasanovaWannabe: Several of her works feature characters defined by both their lustful desires and their inability to succeed in sating these desires, with such failures being played for comedy, but not necessarily without sympathy.
48	* ComedicSociopathy: Much of her comedy relies on how many hardships her characters can endure.
49	* GenderBlendingTropes in general: As a blog puts it, "For Takahashi, gender is something like a soft ball which can be squeezed into the shape of gourd that has both a male end and a female end". This was mostly apparent in her early work, though. For example, ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' has Ryuunosuke, [[RaisedAsTheOppositeGender a girl raised as boy by her father]], and Ranma from ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' is a SexShifter.
50	* HandsomeLech: Works featuring a CasanovaWannabe may also include other lustful characters who are much more successful with the women, to the point of their attentions being seen as actively desirable. These characters tend to be the antagonists to some level, contrasting the usually more sympathetic treatment of the CasanovaWannabe.
51	* HistoricalFantasy: As a SubGenre of UrbanFantasy, a common theme for Takahashi's works, several of her stories involve versions of historical Japan where magic and/or {{youkai}} are real. TimeTravel is a common plot for these, usually bringing a female protagonist from the modern world to the past; see ''Manga/FireTripper'', ''Manga/InuYasha'' and ''Manga/{{Mao}}''.
52	* KarmaHoudini: Many of her works will feature one JerkAss who gets away with almost anything (Ryoko Mendo, Yotsuya, Nabiki Tendo, Sabato Rokudo...).
53	* LoveDodecahedron: Most of her long-runners feature one of these, ranging from being pretty simple arrangements of love triangles (''Manga/UruseiYatsura'', ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku'') to being a defining feature (''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'').
54	* MagicMushroom: ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' alone has several instances of this trope. There's also the giant mushrooms from ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' and examples in both ''Manga/InuYasha'' and ''Manga/{{RINNE}}''.
55	* MegaNeko: Appear in several of her works, mostly as {{Youkai}}.
56	* {{Miko}}: Many of her female characters are either miko or sometimes dressed like one.
57	* MiniatureSeniorCitizens: They exist in practically all her series: [[Manga/UruseiYatsura Cherry]], [[Manga/MaisonIkkoku Yukari Godai]], [[Manga/RanmaOneHalf Happosai, Cologne]], [[Manga/InuYasha Miyoga]]...
58	* MissingMom: Many characters have mothers who either died long ago or otherwise didn't raise them.
59	* MultipleDemographicAppeal: Despite being a Shounen writer, she also has a lot of female fans due to the huge number of romantic plotlines through her works. Also, her younger fans will be more drawn to things like slapstick, gag comedy, surreal/cartoony nonsense and animal characters (or transformations), while her older fans will be more drawn to things like {{Fanservice}}, serious romances, drama, historical context and (possibly accidental) reflections on gender and sexuality.
60	* OnlySixFaces: Due to her rounded style, the faces of her characters tend to look almost identical. Inuyasha and Rokudo look like Ranma with different hair colors and styles. Kyoko looks like UY's Sakura with different eyes. Sakura Mamiya is identical to female Ranma...
61	* PoorCommunicationKills: Usually PlayedForLaughs, the various comical misunderstandings being a staple of her romantic comedies.
62	* UnfazedEveryman: Eventually, the background characters of her most surrealistic series come to the realization and acceptance that their world makes very little sense, becoming inured to the weirdness. Ataru's classmates will not even blink at alien dumplings who turn people into dumplings. Ranma and Akane's friends see nothing strange about their life energy-absorbing, size-changing English teacher. Sakura's schoolmates are barely surprised when they are attacked by haunted theater props.
63	* UrbanFantasy: Whilst she has done purely mundane slice-of-life stories like ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku'' and ''Manga/OnePoundGospel'', her works generally take the real world and add fantasy, science fiction, or both to it. This started with ''Katte na Yatsura'', or "Those Selfish Aliens", her first published work, a one-shot about an ordinary guy who ends up being kidnapped and turned into a human bomb by aliens, fish-people and a secret government conspiracy.
64	* WardingGestures: Most notably in ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', but they also appear in some of her other works, including ''Manga/InuYasha'', ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku'' and ''Manga/UruseiYatsura''.
65	* WingdingEyes: Occasionally show up in her work, most often as starry eyes.
66	* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: She never thinks about the ending when she starts a series.
67	* {{Youkai}}: Takahashi is a big fan of traditional Japanese myths, legends and monsters, and whilst perfectly happy to both invent her own critters (especially in her earlier science fiction stories) or to put unusal spins on the myths for RuleOfCool or RuleOfFunny, she usually bases her fantastical elements on youkai myths. ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' includes both traditional youkai and AncientAstronauts versions of the {{Oni}} and YukiOnna, and ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' has a depiction of the Yamato-no-Orochi as a giant disembodied dragon's head with seven smaller dragon's heads sprouting from it, for example.
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Context Creator / RumikoTakahashi