Kunihiko Ikuhara

Early-life and education

Ikuhara was born on December 21, 1964 in Osaka Prefecture. He studied graphic design at the Komatsu City College, and joined Toei Animation in Tokyo after graduating. He served as assistant director to Junichi Sato on Maple Town Monogatari, Akuma-kun, Toushou!! Ramen-man and Mōretsu Atarō, and episode director on Kingyo Chuuihou! and Sailor Moon.

Interests

Ikuhara has stated that he likes anime with yuri elements because he feels that when a female character is given a male love interest, the relationship between them tends to overwhelm the other elements of the show.^[1]

He has expressed interest in the possibility of collaborating on a project with David Lynch someday.^[2]

As with Miyazaki and Tomino, Ikuhara's works (especially Mawaru Penguindrum^[3] and Yurikuma Arashi) contain certain criticisms against the capitalist system.^[4] In Ikuhara, such criticisms are often accompanied by a more or less latent distrust towards the whole social order, or even human nature itself.^[3]

Interaction with fans

Ikuhara has attended several conventions and similar events, given interviews to fans and reporters, and, along with Chiho Saito, provided commentary tracks for the DVD releases of Utena. He often dresses in brightly colored clothes when socializing with fans. He has cosplayed as Sailor Mars on a few occasions.^[1]

When questioned about his work by fans, particularly about the more mystifying aspects of Utena, he tends to give humorous, odd or evasive responses (for instance, asked about the significance of the stopwatch carried by the character Miki, he said that it contains the key to "all the mysteries of the world"). The implication is that he wishes to leave interpretation of his works open to the audience.

Sailor Moon

Ikuhara's most famous work with Toei was on the TV anime adaptation of Sailor Moon. He served as director of many episodes over the course of the series' run, and took over the position of series director from Junichi Sato during the third season, Sailor Moon S. Additionally, Ikuhara served as the director of the first Sailor Moon theatrical movie, called Sailor Moon R.

Revolutionary Girl Utena

Displeased over the lack of creative control granted to him, Ikuhara left Toei after the fourth season of Sailor Moon in 1996 to form his own creative group, Be-Papas, consisting of himself, the famous shōjo manga artist Chiho Saito, animator Shinya Hasegawa (animation supervisor for Neon Genesis Evangelion), writer Yōji Enokido, and producer Yuuichiro Okuro. Be-Papas collaborated to produce the anime and manga series Revolutionary Girl Utena (Shōjo Kakumei Utena).

Ikuhara had much more creative control over the anime, which he directed, than he did over the manga, which was written and illustrated by Chiho Saito. Notably, he also recruited composer J. A. Seazer, who provided the series' distinctive duel chorus tracks. Ikuhara stated that he had always admired Seazer, who had enjoyed popularity during Japan's 1960s student protest movement, and felt that Seazer's work, with its themes of revolution and changing the world, was perfectly suited to Utena.

The series was a success, winning the "Best Television Series Award" and the "Kobe Award" at Animation Kobe '97. Be-Papas collaborated again in 1999 to produce a Revolutionary Girl Utena movie, Adolescence Mokushiroku ("Adolescence Apocalypse", released in English as Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie), with an accompanying manga, again authored by Saito. Ikuhara also helped supervise the production of other Utena-related works, including a Sega Saturn video game and a stage musical. Be-Papas disbanded after the release of the movie.

Other works

Ikuhara's post-Utena works include the manga The World of S&M (released in English as The World Exists for Me), on which he collaborated with Chiho Saito; the novel Schell Bullet, which he co-wrote with Mamoru Nagano; and the Schell Bullet-based concept album Thanaphs 68. He enjoys the theatre and singing, and has sung on the Utena and Thanaphs 68 soundtracks.

He supervised the production of the English dub of the Utena movie, checking the quality of the translation; he expressed strong distaste for the idea of his work being censored or changed to seem more "American", and made sure such changes were not apparent in the U.S. release.

After the conclusion of Utena, Ikuhara's only works in anime for a time were as the storyboard creator for the opening sequences of Nodame Cantabile and yuri anime Aoi Hana, until his return to as series director for the show Mawaru Penguindrum, which began airing in July 2011.

He is currently writing the manga Nokemono to Hanayome, illustrated by artist Asumiko Nakamura and published monthly in Japanese fashion magazine KERA.

His third project was Yurikuma Arashi, which consists of an anime series produced by Silver Link and a manga series illustrated by Akiko Morishima. The anime began airing January 5, 2015.

A new project titled Sarazanmai is slated to air in 2019.