is a Japanese

manga artist A manga artist, also known as a mangaka (), is a Cartoonist, comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist before entering the indus ...

, famous for her

yaoi , also known by its abbreviation , is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that depicts homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created by women for a female audience, distinguishing it from the equivale ...

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

. After being a

doujinshi , also romanized as ', is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of ''doujin'' (self-published) works, ''doujinshi'' are often derivative of existing works and created b ...

artist from 1999 to 2000, she became an official manga artist in 2001. In addition to this, she has also illustrated a number of

light novels A is a type of popular literature novel from Japan usually classified as young adult fiction, generally targeting teens to twenties or older. The definition is very vague, and wide-ranging. The abbreviation of "''raito noberu''" is or ...

Biography

Born in

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

on October 23, she began her career in 1999 as a

Houshin Engi is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ryu Fujisaki, inspired by the Chinese literary classic ''Investiture of the Gods'', a novel. The manga was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from Ju ...

artist as well as doing fanart from popular series like

Hikaru no Go is a Japanese manga series based on the board game Go (game), Go, written by Yumi Hotta and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. The production of the series' Go games was supervised by Go professional Yukari Umezawa. It was serialized in Shueis ...

Shaman King is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiroyuki Takei. It follows the adventures of Yoh Asakura as he attempts to hone his shaman skills to become the Shaman King by winning the Shaman Fight. Takei chose shamanism as the m ...

and Yami no Matsuei. Her works were predominantly BL-related. Finally she got her break when her first original series, Harlem Beat wa Yoake Made was serialized in

Kadokawa Kadokawa may refer to: *Kadokawa Corporation, the holding company of the Kadokawa Group **Kadokawa Content Gate and Kadokawa Mobile, both former names for BookWalker **Kadokawa Future Publishing, a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation and the publis ...

Monthly Asuka , formerly , is a bimonthly Japanese manga magazine published by Kadokawa Shoten. The magazine was established in 1985. It is released on the 24th of every odd-numbered month as of May 2021. Much like its sibling publication '' Shōnen Ace'', ...

. After a well received debut, the company decided to publish the series into an actual volume. After that, she went on to make another of her well-known series: Last Client which was serialized in Biblos's ''BexBoy Magazine'' in 2002. In that same year she got

Wild Rock is an explicit yaoi manga created by Kazusa Takashima and is published in English by Blu Manga, the boys love publishing division of Tokyopop. It is published in Spain by Ediciones La Cúpula, in Italy by Kappa Edizioni, in France by Taifu C ...

published by Biblos (it went straight to manga form; not serialized). Since then she has published roughly nine distinctive titles through various publishing companies and has been the illustrator of a number of

by various authors, and other media. She filed a lawsuit against Kayono in 2004. The lawsuit was founded on Takashima's belief that Kayono had directly traced over her work ''

'', and used it for her own

. The judge threw out the case (resulting in Takashima losing). Takashima decided to go on hiatus, leaving all of her series unfinished. She resumed work in 2007 with the fourth installment of Harlem Beat wa Yoake Made. Since then, she has finished the series,

and

Man's Best Friend "Man's best friend" is a common title given to both domestic dogs, referring to their multi-millennia-long history of Human-canine bond, close relations, loyalty, friendship, and companionship with humans. The first recorded use of a related ph ...

have been reprinted, and she did a

pinup A pin-up model is a model (person), model whose mass-produced pictures and photographs have wide appeal within the popular culture of a society. Pin-up models are usually glamour photography, glamour, actresses, or fashion models whose pictures ...

of Chris (from her series Last Client, which had been left on hiatus) in Biblos's ''GOLD magazine''. She also changed websites. Takashima was more active on her

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

in 2011, and in her December 10 entry, stated that she "took a break" that she felt was necessary and that she "plans to work hard" in the new year. In 2013, she became the illustrator for

Mirage of Blaze is a Japanese light novel series written by Mizuna Kuwabara, published under Shueisha's ''Cobalt'' label. It had over 6.83 million copies in circulation as of January 2018. There were plans to establish the Mirage of Blaze Museum (炎の� ...

's prequel light novels by Kuwabara Mizuna, titled Mirage of Blaze: The Showa Era Chapters. The 11 Volumes finished publication in 2017, though her art was used for the promotional material for the stage play. This is the longest, single series light novel she's worked on thus far. In 2014, she also revitalized her Cocolog Blog, but under a new name. Among the early posts on here, she lists, in great detail, all of her various works, including published manga, illustration contributions, and minor things like doujinshi, pinups, advertisements, one-shot stories, etc. up to the present (2014) and slightly beyond that with publication plans for the following year (2015). It seems even now she doesn't post regularly to her blog with months passing before a new post appears, but she does post with more regularity to Instagram. She started an Instagram account in February 2016 where she posted various updates or notices about minor illustration work she was doing, or fan art and concept art. Larger resolution versions of all of the posts can be found on her previously mentioned Cocolog blog. In 2018, she seemed to finally end her hiatus with a new manga titled, Whiskers and Tails with Kannaduki. It is being serialized in Biblos's ''BexBoy Gold Magazine''. In June 2019, she made a post to her blog advertising the latest chapter of Whiskers and Tails, and mentioned that she'd been considering continuing one of her old works.Blog Post from June 2019
This was exciting news for fans as several of her unfinished works (Last Client, Hakobunjaa, etc.) were very popular before her hiatus and their subsequent discontinuation. She gave no hints about which series she was considering bringing back, but sounded sure she would continue at least one of them.

Major works

* Harlem Beat wa Yoake Made (2001–2008) * Last Client (2002; discontinued in 2004) *

(2001–2002) *

Dragon X Boy A dragon is a magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depict ...

(2003; discontinued after 1 chapter.) * Takuhai Sentai: Hakobunja (2003; discontinued after 1 chapter.) *

Private Magician Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

(2003; discontinued after 3 chapters.) * Kingyo Hime (2003–2004; extra in Inu mo Arukeba manga.) * Inu mo Arukeba: Fallin' Love (2004) * Mata Natsu ga Kita & Pinpoint Lovers (2004; extra in Inu mo Arukeba manga.) * Mirage of Blaze: The Showa Era Chapters (2014; illustrator) * Whiskers and Tails with Kannaduki (2018-Present)

References

External links

Old Cocolog Blog

Former Homepage

Informative Fanpage

Fan Translation of Various Sources of Information

Kuwabara Mizuna's Website Listing the Showa Era Chapter Prequels

Takashima's Instagram

{{DEFAULTSORT:Takashima, Kazusa Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Manga artists from Hokkaido Women manga artists Japanese women bloggers Japanese women illustrators