Naoko Takeuchi was born on March 15, 1967, in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. Her early life would later provide a foundation for her creative work; during high school, she wore a sailor uniform and was a member of both the astronomy and manga clubs. Despite her early interest in becoming a manga artist, her father encouraged her to pursue a more conventional career path. She subsequently attended Kyoritsu College of Pharmacy, where she earned a degree in chemistry and became a licensed pharmacist.

Takeuchi entered the manga industry at the age of 19 when her submission Love Call won the Nakayoshi New Artist Award from Kodansha. She spent several years creating one-shot stories before producing her first serialized work, Maria, which was loosely based on the novel Daddy-Long-Legs and ran in the early 1990s. She followed this with The Cherry Project, a figure-skating-themed series. Her desire to create a story about girl fighters in outer space, combined with a suggestion from her editor to put the characters in sailor suits, led to the one-shot Codename: Sailor V. This concept was subsequently redeveloped and expanded into her most famous work, Sailor Moon.

The Sailor Moon manga was serialized in Kodansha’s Nakayoshi magazine from December 1991 to February 1997. The series became an instant hit, and its 60 chapters were compiled into 18 tankōbon volumes. It is considered one of the best-selling manga series of all time and won the 1993 Kodansha Manga Award. The success of the manga ran parallel to a popular anime adaptation produced by Toei Animation, which aired from 1992 to 1997 and consisted of 200 episodes. The franchise also spawned animated films, a live-action television series titled Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon in 2003, and extensive merchandising.

Takeuchi established her own studio, Princess Naoko Planning (PNP), to manage her properties, particularly Sailor Moon. Her career saw a period of transition following the conclusion of Sailor Moon. The cancellation of her subsequent series PQ Angels, after Kodansha lost several pages of the manuscript, led to her briefly leaving the publisher. In 1999, she married fellow manga artist Yoshihiro Togashi, creator of YuYu Hakusho and Hunter × Hunter. They have two children together.

After her marriage, Takeuchi eventually returned to Kodansha and continued to produce work, including the series Toki☆Meca. She also became heavily involved in the production of the live-action adaptation, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, to learn more about the anime industry. In the 2010s, a new anime adaptation, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal, was announced, which more faithfully followed the original manga. Takeuchi was involved in this reboot, serving as chief supervisor for the subsequent film adaptations, including the two-part Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie and the two-part Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Cosmos The Movie. She also contributed lyrics to theme songs for these projects under the pen name Sumire Shirobara.

Her artistic identity is defined by a highly stylized approach featuring long, tapered limbs and flowing hair. Thematically, her works often fuse the magical girl genre with elements of astronomy, astrology, and Greco-Roman mythology. Sailor Moon, in particular, is credited with revolutionizing its genre and playing a significant role in popularizing Japanese anime and manga in the Western world.