Arina Tanemura

Arina Tanemura (種村 有菜, Tanemura Arina?, born on March 12, 1978) is a Japanese manga artist who mainly creates shōjo manga. Her debut work was a one-shot work titled "The Style of the Second Love" (2番目の恋のかたち, Niban-me no Koi no Katachi?), which was later reprinted in her anthology work Short-Tempered Melancholic. Tanemura gained fame with the 1997 publication of I.O.N, a high school romance with a supernatural twist. From 1998 to 2000, she worked on the popular series Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, about a young girl who is the reincarnation of Joan of Arc, followed by Time Stranger Kyoko in 2000-2001 and Full Moon wo Sagashite in 2002. In 2004, Tanemura came out with The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross, which broke her tradition by having more than seven volumes in one single series. Tanemura serialized a series in Margaret magazine from July to November 2011. Her current work, Sakura Hime Kaden, debuted in 2009 and is ongoing.

Despite Tanemura's intentions to draw in a style that makes her stories difficult to animate, both Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne and Full Moon wo Sagashite have been adapted into TV series. Her works are primarily serialized in Ribon magazine, with series published in collected volumes by Shueisha. For the 15th anniversary since her debut, she was involved in creating a CD featuring songs based on ten of her heroines. Tanemura contributed to a dōjinshi along with other manga artists that was sold for charity efforts for the March 2011 Japanese earthquake. As of November 2011, Tanemura has become a free agent manga artist, no longer solely affiliated with Shueisha. However, Sakurahime Kaden will continue to be published in Ribon magazine until the series is completed. Tanemura stated herself that a new series is planned during AnimeFest 2012 in Dallas, Texas, but details were not given, Sakurahime is expected to end soon by the 12th volume, reported by AnimeNewsNetwork in August 2012.

With the exception of Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne (published in the US by CMX Manga) and the unlicensed Fudanjuku Monogatari, all of her manga have been published in English by Viz Media in North America.