Rumiko Takahashi

Rumiko Takahashi was born in Niigato, Japan in 1957. She grew up to attentd women's college in Tokyo, where she met Kazuo Koiko(author of Crying Freeman). Together they began to study comics. In 1978 she won a prize in Shogakukan's annual "New Comic Artist Contest". In that same year she started Lum*Urusei Yatsura, which is her comedy series about a boy-meets-alien. This appeared in the weekly manga magazine Shonen Sunday. It was a successful series that ran for 9 years & sold over 22 million copies!!! Her later series Ranma 1/2 was even more popular! Today she is considered one of the most popular manga artists around, and since Ranma1/2 has published it's 34th Volume, she enjoys a total sales record that passses the 100 million copies of her combined works! Some of her works include Lum*Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2, One-pound Gospel, Maison Ikkoku and Inu-Yasha. She has also drawn a series of short stories that's published in America under the title of "Rumic Theater" as well as several volumes of her "Mermaid" series. Most of her series have been animated and are widely available as translated copies throughout the world! Inu-Yasha is her latest serial story and it was first published in Shonen Sunday in 1996.