Ikuhara Kunihiko

All Rei-chan fans should make note of this name. If you have ever wondered why Rei's image on TV seems to have deviated rather far away from her image in the manga, Ikuhara Kunihiko (幾原邦彦) is the answer to your question. He is responsible for the many ideas in various episodes which cast the current image of Hino Rei into stone:

all the comic dialogues (i.e. manzai) between Usagi and Rei (episode 11)
tripping over, and then having Mamoru step on her head (episode 15)
bringing loads of signing boards to visit Studio Dive (episode 21)
pinching Ami's ankle (episode 26)
talking to Mamoru's answering machine (episode 31)

Supposedly, Ikuhara is Satoh's student in animation. Ikuhara must be credited as the person who broke the simplistic pattern in the style of the early Sailor Moon episodes. His first task was directing episode 6. Episode 6 brought a change in the pace and story style to the series. Later on being criticized by Mr. Satoh as being too heavy of an episode, he decided to make the next one extremely light, and the result was episode 11. After the episode was aired, Mr. Satoh once again criticized him, "Don't you have the concept of not over-doing things!?".

Ikuhara was promoted to the position of Series Director after the Black Moon chapter of the TV series began.

Another Ikuhara trademark is the use of 24 frames/second animation for casual sequences, and for no apparent reason. One example of such is the sequence showing Ami in pain as Rei pinched her in the ankle in episode 26. Another example is when Usagi turns around to show Ami and Makoto the Sailor V game cartridge in episode 31. Incidentally, the standard for casual (i.e. not action-intensive) animation sequences is 8 frames/sec.

Mr. Ikuhara's important work is listed below:

Episode 6
Episode 11
Episode 31
Episode 46
Usagi's second transformation sequence
Sailor Moon's moon princess halation sequence
Sailor Mars' burning mandala sequence
Sailor Moon R movie

Ikuhara's birthday is 1964.12.21, and he was born in Tokushima prefecture. He joined Toei Douga in 1986, and he worked on Kingyo Chuuihou! before working on Sailor Moon.

[Sailor Moon staff]

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