Seiko Tanabe was a celebrated Japanese author whose literary work forms the foundation for several acclaimed anime and manga adaptations, most notably the story Josee, the Tiger and the Fish. She was born on March 27, 1928, in Osaka, Japan, and passed away on June 6, 2019, in Kobe. After graduating from the Department of Japanese Literature at Shōin Joshi Senmon Gakkō (now Osaka Shoin Women's University), Tanabe established herself as a major literary figure, winning the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1964 for her novel Sentimental Journey. Over her long career, she received numerous other honors, including the Yomiuri Prize, the Asahi Prize, and Japan's highest cultural honor, the Order of Culture, in 2008.

As an original creator, Tanabe is best known in the world of anime and manga for her 1985 novel Joze to tora to sakanatachi, which is officially translated as Josee, the Tiger and the Fish. This source material has been adapted multiple times. The first major adaptation was a live-action film released in 2003. In 2020, the story was reimagined as an anime feature film produced by Bones, which brought the story to a wider international audience. Subsequently, a manga adaptation illustrated by Nao Emoto was published in 2020, with an English-language omnibus edition released by Yen Press in 2022.

Tanabe's artistic identity is deeply rooted in her Osaka upbringing. She was a pioneer in using the direct and vivid Kansai dialect in her novels, a style that lends her work a sense of authenticity and regional character. Her writing frequently focuses on strong, independent, and self-aware female protagonists navigating love, work, and personal identity, often in the context of a modernizing Japan. While she is celebrated for this humorous and frank exploration of women's lives, Josee, the Tiger and the Fish demonstrates her range, striking a more poetic and emotional tone. Her extensive body of work also includes biographies and modern adaptations of classic Japanese literature, such as The Tale of Genji.

Seiko Tanabe's significance to the industry lies in her stature as a major literary author whose work successfully transitioned into popular visual media. Her story provided the source material for a globally distributed anime film, demonstrating how literary fiction can serve as a powerful foundation for animated works. Through the anime and manga of Josee, the Tiger and the Fish, new generations of viewers and readers continue to encounter her legacy as a creator who could capture the nuances of human connection with both wit and profound sensitivity.