An anime fan, Inomata began working for Ashi Productions, working as an animator, key animation director and character designer on several anime television series.
In 1982, she joined some of the younger staff of Ashi Productions who established Kaname Productions [ja], where she worked as an animator, animation director, and character designer on several of its series. In 1983, she also made her debut as a manga artist, with her work GB Bomber being featured in Tokuma Shoten's The Motion Comic. Later, in 1984, she left Kaname Productions and continued her work as a freelance animator.
Inomata was also a prolific novel illustrator, known for her vivid watercolor paintings which often center around young women with wide, jewel-like eyes. Many of her illustrations are collected in her artbooks, which include Voice of the Stars, Dreams of the Moon (星の聲月の夢), Eccelente, SAI, and numerous others. Her representative works as a novel illustrator are for the Utsunomiko (宇宙皇子) series written by Keisuke Fujikawa (藤川圭介) and Weathering Continent (風の大陸) series by author Sei Takegawa (竹河聖). She is also noted for being the main character designer on a number of titles in Namco's Tales of series of video games.
Inomata died on March 10, 2024, at the age of 63.[2][3][4]
Works
Manga
GB Bomber (Motion Comics)
Nyan no Ohanashi (Anime Juke Mix) - based on her love for cats.
Artbooks
Inomata Mutsumi Lovely Collection
Inomata Mutsumi Art Collection - Utsunomiko (いのまたむつみ画集 宇宙皇子)
