Kenichi Ishikura

Template:Nihongo is a Japanese director and storyboard artist best known for his works with Shaft and the anime adaptation of Sakura Trick.

Career

Ishikura began his career in the industry in 2000 as a production assistant for Invincible King Tri-Zenon under E&G Films, and made his debut as an episode director with the 18th episode of Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars. For the next several years, he worked mainly as a freelance director. In 2007, Ishikura had his first job with Shaft as an episode director and storyboard artist for Hidamari Sketch. Ishikura was working with a subcontracting studio when they asked him to choose one of their projects to work on. Ishikura chose Hidamari Sketch as he had seen director Akiyuki Shinbo's previous works including Pani Poni Dash!, which was a type of project he was interested in working on. According to him, Ishikura often got in trouble in his previous works for including too many parodies to other works; but for Hidamari Sketch, director Shinbo and the staff gave him the okay to do such. For the next 5 years, Ishikura worked mainly with Shaft, and made his series directorial debut with Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chū (under Shinbo's general direction). The following year, he directed the third season to the Hidamari Sketch franchise with Shinbo, but he started to work less with Shaft. Following his mainstay departure from Shaft, Ishikura dirercted Da Capo III (2013) at studio Actas, but mainly based himself out of Studio Deen, where he directed both Sakura Trick (2014) and a short Ongaku Shōjo (2015) film. He stopped series directing for the time and focused mainly on episode directing and storyboarding until 2025 with the release of I'm a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic.

Works

Television

Template:Color box In "Director(s)" column highlights Ishikura's directorial works.

Year	Title	Director(s)	Studio	SBTemplate:Efn	EDTemplate:Efn	Other roles and notes	Ref(s)
2000	Invincible King Tri-Zenon	Takashi Watanabe	E&G Films	Template:No	Template:No	Assistant production manager
2001	Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars	Tatsuo Satō	Madhouse	Template:No	Template:Yes
2002	Cyborg 009: The Cyborg Soldier	Jun Kawagoe	Japan Vistec	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Aquarian Age: Sign for Evolution	Yoshimitsu Ōhashi	Madhouse	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Shrine of the Morning Mist	Yuji Moriyama	Chaos Project	Template:No	Template:Yes
2003	L/R: Licensed by Royalty	Itsuro Kawasaki	TNK	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Shadow Star	Toshiaki Iino	Planet	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch	Yoshitaka Fujimoto	Actas SynergySP	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2004	Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure	Yoshitaka Fujimoto	Actas SynergySP	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Tsuki wa Higashi ni Hi wa Nishi ni	Mitsuhiro Tōgō Template:Small Shōsei Jinno	Radix	Template:No	Template:Yes
	To Heart: Remember My Memories	Keitarō Motonaga	OLM, Inc. AIC ASTA	Template:No	Template:Yes
2005	Gun Sword	Gorō Taniguchi	AIC ASTA	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Petopeto-san	Akira Nishimori	Xebec M2	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Paradise Kiss	Osamu Kobayashi	Madhouse	Template:No	Template:Yes
2006	Sugar Sugar Rune	Matsushita Yukihiro	Pierrot	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Amaenaide yo!! Katsu!!	Keitarō Motonaga	Studio Deen	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Tactical Roar	Yoshitaka Fujimoto	Actas	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Love Get Chu: Miracle Seiyū Hakusho	Mitsuhiro Tōgō	Radix	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Yume Tsukai	Kazuo Yamazaki	Madhouse	Template:No	Template:No	Assistant director
	Night Head Genesis	Yoshio Takeuchi	Actas Bee Media	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Tokimeki Memorial Only Love	Nobuhiro Takemoto	AIC ASTA	Template:No	Template:Yes
2007	Hidamari Sketch	Akiyuki Shinbo Template:Small Ryouki Kamitsubo Template:Small	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Kaze no Stigma	Junichi Sakata	Gonzo	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Nagasarete Airantō	Hideki Okamoto	feel.	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Ef: A Tale of Memories	Shin Oonuma	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2008	Hidamari Sketch x 365	Akiyuki Shinbo	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Ef: A Tale of Melodies	Shin Oonuma	Shaft	Template:No	Template:Yes
2009	Hidamari Sketch x 365 Specials	Akiyuki Shinbo	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Natsu no Arashi!	Akiyuki Shinbo Shin Oonuma Template:Small	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Maria Holic	Akiyuki Shinbo Yukihiro Miyamoto Template:Small	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chū	Akiyuki Shinbo Shin Oonuma Template:Small Kenichi Ishikura Template:Small	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Ending director
2010	Hidamari Sketch x Hoshimittsu	Template:Yes	Shaft	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Hidamari Sketch x Hoshimittsu Specials	Template:Yes	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2011	Infinite Stratos	Yasuhito Kikuchi	Eight Bit	Template:Yes	Template:No
	Shōwa Monogatari	Mitsuhiro Tōgō Masahiro Murakami Template:Small	Wao World	Template:No	Template:Yes	Assistant director (four episodes)
	Maria Holic Alive	Akiyuki Shinbo Template:Small Tomokazu Tokoro Template:Small	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Assistant director Opening director
2013	Da Capo III	Template:Yes	ActasTemplate:Efn	Template:Yes	Template:No	Series composition
2014	Sakura Trick	Template:Yes	Studio Deen	Template:Yes	Template:No	Series composition
2016	Bakuon!!	Junji Nishimura	TMS Entertainment 8PAN	Template:Yes	Template:No
2017	Princess Principal	Masaki Tachibana	3Hz Actas	Template:No	Template:Yes
2018	100 Sleeping Princes and the Kingdom of Dreams	Yukina Hiiro	Project No.9	Template:Yes	Template:No
	Hozuki's Coolheadedness	Kazuhiro Yoneda	Studio Deen	Template:Yes	Template:No
2020	The Seven Deadly Sins: Imperial Wrath of the Gods	Susumu Nishizawa	Studio Deen	Template:Yes	Template:No
	Sorcerous Stabber Orphen	Takayuki Hamana	Studio Deen	Template:Yes	Template:No
	Tamayomi	Toshinori Fukushima	Studio A-Cat	Template:Yes	Template:No
2021	Redo of Healer	Takuya Asaoka	TNK	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Sorcerous Stabber Orphen: Battle of Kimluck	Takayuki Hamana	Studio Deen	Template:Yes	Template:No
	I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level	Nobukage Kimura	Revoroot	Template:Yes	Template:No
2022	My Isekai Life	Keisuke Kojima	Revoroot	Template:Yes	Template:No
2025	I'm a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic	Template:Yes	Studio Deen Marvy Jack	Template:TBA	Template:TBA

Film

Year	Title	Director(s)	Studio	SBTemplate:Efn	EDTemplate:Efn	Other roles and notes	Ref(s)
2011	Mahou Sensei Negima! Anime Finale	Akiyuki Shinbo	Shaft Studio Pastoral	Template:Yes	Template:No	Assistant director
2015	Ongaku Shōjo	Template:Yes	Studio Deen

Notes

Works cited

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book

External links

• Template:Anime News Network
• Template:IMDb name