Novala Takemoto

Novala Takemoto (嶽本 野ばら) is the professional name of Toshiaki Takemoto (嶽本 稔明), a Japanese author, and fashion designer.

Takemoto was born in Uji, south of Kyoto.

As a child, he was shy and preferred drawing and reading (two of his favorite authors were Osamu Dazai and Yasunari Kawabata) to spending time with others, and was a big fan of the anime series Candy Candy, in the discovery of which he was "happy to finally find what [he] liked".

He was also sometimes beaten by his father, which he says persuaded him to follow his own path in life.

After dropping out of Osaka University of Arts in 1987, he participated in a variety of artistic, musical and theatrical activities.

From 1992 to 1997, he made his literary debut contributing serial essays to Hanagata Bunka Tsūshin (花形文化通信), a Kansai free arts newspaper.

These essays were collected and published in book format in 1998 as Soleilnuit: For Becoming a Proper Young Lady, and received wide recognition.

These essays also increased the popularity of the Japanese term otome, referring to a young lady or young maiden.

Shogakukan published his debut novel Missin' in 2000.

Another of his novels, Twins: A Variety Store Named "The End of the World", was also adapted for film in 2001 by Kiseki Hamada.

He was nominated for the Yukio Mishima Literary Award twice, for his novels Emily (in 2003) and Lolita (in 2004).

Takemoto is best known for Shimotsuma Monogatari, titled Kamikaze Girls in English.

The series was adapted to a manga and a film which was directed by Tetsuya Nakashima.

Takemoto was arrested in September 2007 for violating the Cannabis Control Law and was later convicted of the crime.

He was arrested again in 2015 after he was found to have two grams of contraband that are banned under the Narcotics Control Law in his possession.