Yellow Tanabe is a Japanese manga artist known for creating the popular supernatural series Kekkaishi. Born on June 13 in Tokyo, Tanabe is a graduate of the prestigious Musashino Art University. She initially began her career using the pen name Tanabe Ierō before switching to Yellow Tanabe around the time she started her breakout series. Her professional path was shaped by her experience as an assistant to several established creators, including Mitsuru Adachi, known for Touch and Cross Game, and Makoto Raiku, the creator of Zatch Bell.

Tanabe's career in manga began in 2000 when her story Yami no Naka received an honorable mention in Shogakukan's Shinjin Comic Taisho (Newcomer's Award for Comics). She made her formal debut in 2002 with the short story Lost Princess. Her most famous work, Kekkaishi, was serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday from 2003 to 2011. The series follows Yoshimori Sumimura and Tokine Yukimura, rival heirs to families of kekkai (barrier magic) users who must defend their school from spirits. Kekkaishi was a significant commercial and critical success, earning Tanabe the 52nd Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen manga in 2007. The series was adapted into a 52-episode anime television series produced by Sunrise, which aired from 2006 to 2008.

Following the conclusion of Kekkaishi, Tanabe continued to create manga in Weekly Shōnen Sunday. She authored Laughter at the World's End, a short series published in 2012. From 2013 to 2020, she wrote and illustrated Birdmen, a series that ran for 16 collected volumes. In 2024, she launched her next serialized work, Kaihen no Mahōtsukai. Tanabe is known for maintaining a private, low-profile public persona. She rarely makes public appearances, and her first photographed appearance was at the Shogakukan Manga Award ceremony. Her self-portrait is a penguin, a character she created to help remember her first original manga character.