She gained mainstream popularity from the late 1990s to mid-2000s with her series Phantom Thief Jeanne, Full Moon o Sagashite, and The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross.

Throughout her career, Tanemura's work has been recognized in shōjo manga for her art style and themes of young girls transforming into the women they would like to become.

Her main source of entertainment was manga magazines because her local television stations only ran re-runs of older anime series, and she was unable to watch new shows.

[3][4] Tanemura described her submission as a "dark" and "sad" story about the main character's boyfriend dying in a traffic accident and later being approached by his brother.

[6] Her debut work was a short comic titled The Style of the Second Love, which was published in the shōjo manga magazine Ribon Original.

[11] The popularity of Phantom Thief Jeanne and Full Moon o Sagashite led both works to receive television anime adaptations.

[15] Tanemura wrote Mistress Fortune as a "middle school romance" and intentionally made the story more light-hearted compared to The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross.

[19] To commemorate the 15th anniversary of her debut, Tanemura released an independent album titled Junai Tenshi on December 29, 2010, at Comic Market 79 under the circle name "Meguro Teikoku", with songs based on ten of her main female characters from her previous works.

[24] Beginning in May 2011, to celebrate Tanemura's 15th debut anniversary, Shueisha began reprinting I.O.N, Phantom Thief Jeanne, Time Stranger Kyoko, and Full Moon o Sagashite in bunkoban format.

[29] Following her announcement, Shueisha reprinted her short comics from 2001 to 2010 in the anthology Tanemura Arina: Ren'ai Monogatari-shū, which included a previously unpublished 6-page story.

"[34][35] On March 23, 2013, Tanemura released her second album, Princess Tiara, on an independent record label, composed of theme songs performed by her based on her characters.

[40] In October 2015, Tanemura collaborated with Yui Kikuta, one of her former assistants, to create the manga series Shunkan Lyle, which ran in Monthly Comic Zero Sum.

[42] In 2019, to celebrate her 20th anniversary, Animate hosted a collaboration café from September 5 to 24 featuring food based on characters from her original series published with Shueisha.

[46] Tanemura drew a reversal of this theme for Idol Dreams, where the main protagonist transforms into the young girl she had wanted to be, to appeal to fans who had grown up with her work.

[22] Referring to Full Moon o Sagashite and The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross, Tanemura disclosed that her main female characters and their relationships are based on her friends or stories she has heard from them.