Rumiko Takahashi was born in 1957 in Niigata, Japan. She attended women's college in Tokyo, where she began studying comics with Kazuo Koike, author of Crying Freeman. She later became an assistant to horrormanga artist Kazuo Umezu. In 1978, she won a prize in Shogakukan's annual "New Comic Artist Contest," and in that same year her boy-meets-alien comedy series Lum*Urusei Yatsura began appearing in the weekly manga magazine Shonen Sunday. This phenomenally successful series ran for nine years and sold over 22 million copies. Takahashi's later Ranma 1/2 series enjoyed even greater popularity. Takahashi is considered by many to be one of the world's most popular manga artists. With the publication of Volume 34 of her Ranma 1/2 series in Japan, Takahashi's total sales passed one hundred million copies of her compiled works. Takahashi's serial titles include Lum*Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2, One-Pound Gospel, Maison Ikkoku and Inu-Yasha. Additionally, Takahashi has drawn many short stories which have been published in America under the title "Rumic Theater," and several installments of a saga known as her "Mermaid" series. Most of Takahashi's major stories have also been animated, and are widely available in translation worldwide. Inu-Yasha is her most recent serial story, first published in Shonen Sunday in 1996.