profiles1

Filmography

Junior Director
1986      Maple Town Monogatari
`86-`90   Shin Maple Town Monogatari Palm Town
                Hen
                 Toushou!! Ramen-man
                 Akuma-kun
                 Mouretsu Atarou

Senior Director
1990        Mouretsu Atarou
`91-`92     Kingyou Chuuihou
`92 -96     Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon

General Director of Image Planning Company BePapas
1997         Shoujo Kakumei Utena
1999         Shoujo Kakumei Utena: Adolescence
                  Mokushiroku

Kunihiko Ikuhara was born on 21 December 1964 in Kanagawa, Tokushima-ken, Japan. He majored in graphic design at the Komatsu City College and joined the Toei Douga in Tokyo immediately after his graduation. He spent five years as a junior director - assistant to director Junichi Sato - before being allowed to go solo behind the helm. His breakthrough finally came in 1992 when he was asked to direct the series Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon.

However, the lack of creative control over his work galled him and soon he found himself forming alliances with fellow artists Yoji Enokido, Shinya Hasegawa, Yuichiro Oguro, and mangaka Chiho Saito to produce the most revolutionary girls' show on Japanese television: Shoujo Kakumei Utena. It was an uphill struggle: sponsors who feared reprisal from Toei spurned the young director and his own health suffered, forcing him into hospitalization on New Year's Day 1997.

The big break finally came when Utena was released on TV Tokyo in April 1997. It was a critical success that immediately grabbed the attention of the world's animation cognoscenti and led to his being hailed as Japan's most promising animation master at the 1997 Kobe Animation Awards. He followed up his success with the 1999 animated feature film Shoujo Kakumei Utena: Adolescence Mokushiroku which was a hit the world over.

Ikuhara-sama is currently taking some time off and he's spending the year 2000 at different anime conventions in America and Europe. He has also finished the graphic novels for Schell Bullet with Mamoru Nagano. On a lighter note, he loves the theater and has dabbled in directing plays, has also sung on the soundtracks for Utena and Schell Bullet, and cats. He's currently unattached and is somewhat desperately seeking a girlfriend. ^_-