Two of Takano's short story collections, Zettai Anzen Kamisori (1982) and Kiiroi Hon (2002), won awards.
She submitted a short story of her own to an amateur contest of Bessatsu Shōjo Comic magazine, which Moto Hagio published her works in at the time, and received a prize.
During this time, she discovered COM magazine and the works of Shinji Nagashima and Fumiko Okada [ja].
She started drawing doujinshi amateur manga, she participated in the Comiket[4] and published her first short story Hana ("Flower") in 1977 in the zine Rakugakikan.
[2] She published her first work as a professional manga artist in 1979 in June with the short story "Zettai Anzen Kamisori".
[6] Her first short story collection Zettai Anzen Kamisori, named after her professional debut, was published by Hakusensha in 1982 in an unusual A5 format and with a cover design by Garo editor Minami Shinbo.
Her husband Kyoichiro Akiyama also worked for this publisher and edited, among others, some of Katsuhiro Otomo's short story collections.
[7][11] She received the Japan Cartoonists Association Award in 1982 for Zettai Anzen Kamisori and the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2003 for Kiiroi Hon.
[5] In 2015, she was the second manga artist after Osamu Tezuka to win the Iwaya Sazanami Literary Award.