Kunihiko Yuyama

Admirers of anime films and television series will certainly be, whether knowingly or unknowingly, familiar with the work of director Kunihiko Yuyama. Yuyama got his start in the late 1970s and early 1980s, working on multiple episodes of such popular Japanese animated television series as "Josephina the Whale" and "Mahô no purinsesu Minkî Momo." By the middle of the 1990s, Yuyama began scoring big within the anime genre with such popular works for younger children as "Kimagure Orange Road: Summer's Beginning" and "Wedding Peach," both of which are far from the violent and sexually charged material that those unfamiliar with the style first think of as anime. By the end of the decade, he landed his best known work via an association with the "Pokémon" franchise. Eventually, this included a string of "Pokémon"-related videos and films with such titles as "Pokémon: The Movie 2000," "Pokémon 3: The Movie," "Pokémon 4: The Movie," etc. Additionally, Yuyama has been known to work as a storyboard artist on films he directs, an unusual doubling of responsibilities that gives him a greater control over the final product.