Tanemura debuted professionally at the age of 18 in 1996. Her debut work was a short comic titled The Style of the Second Love, which was published in the shōjo manga magazine Ribon Original. Despite being published in a sister magazine of the main Ribon, Tanemura stated that the story received positive feedback, and that she received 500 fan letters after it was serialized. The comic, along with her other short works, was later reprinted in the anthology Short-Tempered Melancholic. In 1997, Tanemura released I.O.N, her first series. 1998–2011: Mainstream popularity From 1998 to 2000, Tanemura worked on Phantom Thief Jeanne. Phantom Thief Jeanne was successful, selling a cumulative total of 5,500,000 print copies. After Phantom Thief Jeanne ended, Tanemura followed up with Time Stranger Kyoko, but because the protagonist's "strong personality" failed to appeal to the editors and reader demographic, she was forced to end it after a year with 12 chapters. From 2002 to 2004, Tanemura worked on Full Moon o Sagashite, a story centered on an idol singer. Tanemura, having once wanted to become a lyricist, created the series out of a desire to write lyrics. Due to the negative feedback from Time Stranger Kyoko, this time, she gave the protagonist a subdued personality. The popularity of Phantom Thief Jeanne and Full Moon o Sagashite led both works to receive television anime adaptations. Time Stranger Kyoko also received an anime adaptation and was screened as a short film at the 2001 Ribon Festival. For Full Moon o Sagashite, Tanemura also recorded a cover version of Changin' My Life's "Smile" titled "Smile (Arina's Vocal Version)", which was released on the soundtrack album Full Moon o Sagashite: Full Moon Final Live. In 2004, Tanemura published The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross, which ran in Ribon until 2008. Unlike her previous series, The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross contained no fantasy elements. She provided the voice for Maora Ichinomiya and the Postman for the limited edition drama CD. Afterwards, she published Mistress Fortune, making her the first artist who ended and debuted a new series in the same issue of Ribon. Tanemura wrote Mistress Fortune as a "middle school romance" and intentionally made the story more light-hearted compared to The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross. Later in 2008, she launched Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura. From 2008 to 2009, Tanemura hosted her own online radio program, Tanemura Arina de Kyan: Manga Seminar, on Niconico