Takeuchi had another serial with The Cherry Project, which ran for three volumes and dealt with skating. She based this work, her first serial comic, loosely on Daddy-Long-Legs and on her friend Marie Koizumi, who helped her write it. She worked steadily on one-shot pieces until writing Maria. Naoko Takeuchi then worked for Kodansha, starting at the age of 19 when she published Love Call, which received an award. This experience later became the ground-work for one of her characters in Sailor Moon, Rei Hino. While a tertiary student, Takeuchi did miko work at Shiba Daijingu shrine not far from the university which she attended. Her senior thesis had the title 'Heightened Effects of Thrombolytic Actions Due to Ultrasound'. (Kyoritsu University of Pharmacy merged with Keio University in 2006. Takeuchi graduated from Kyoritsu University of Pharmacy, where she received a degree in chemistry.

She wanted to become a manga artist at this age, however her father, Kenji, said that in case she did not make it she should find another profession, so she went to university to study for a degree in chemistry. This experience later influenced her work, Sailor Moon, as well as her previous manga such as Love Call and Rain Kiss. She wore sailor suits and joined the astronomy and manga clubs. She used the names of her family members in the manga of Sailor Moon, and mentions this in interviews and in several comic-strips which she produced in place of author-notes.

Naoko Takeuchi was born to Kenji and Ikuko Takeuchi.

美少女戦士セーラームーン新装版 1 by Naoko Takeuchi