Tsunekazu Ishihara
Tsunekazu Ishihara (Tsunekaz also seen; Japanese: 石原恒和 Ishihara Tsunekazu, born on November 27, 1957) is president and CEO of The Pokémon Company and producer of Pokémon. He manages all aspects of the Pokémon franchise including the anime, games, and the TCG.
History
Ishihara graduated from the University of Tsukuba in 1983, with a masters in Art and Design. Soon after, he joined Nintendo, where he was the producer in such titles as EarthBound and Mario's Picross. His involvement with Pokémon started in the early 1990's, when he started helping with the development of Pokémon Red and Green. Shortly after, he was inspired to create a trading card game based on the titles. In April of 1998, The Pokémon Company was established and Ishihara was given the position of representative director. In 2001, he was named the president.
Credits
Producer
- Pokémon Red and Blue Versions
- Pokémon Yellow Version
- Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions
- Pokémon Crystal Version
- Pokémon Trading Card Game
- Pokémon Snap
- Pokémon Stadium
Executive producer
- Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire Versions
- Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire
- Pokémon Colosseum
- Pokémon Emerald Version
- Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness
- Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen Versions
- Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team
- Pokémon Ranger
- Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness
- Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia
- Pokémon Trozei!
- Pokémon Conquest
- Pokémon TV series
- Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters out of the Gate!
Production supervisor
- Pocket Monsters: Advanced Generation TV series
- The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon
- Spell of the Unown
- Mewtwo Returns
- Pikachu's PikaBoo
- Pokémon Heroes
- Jirachi: Wish Maker
- Destiny Deoxys
- Lucario and the Mystery of Mew
- Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea
Supervision
Trivia
- Ishihara's favorite Pokémon is Exeggutor because he used it all throughout the debugging and testing of Pokémon Red and Green Versions.
- The character Ishihara in the Pokémon Trading Card Game GB is based on Tsunekazu Ishihara.
- A hidden Easter egg in Pokémon Red and Green sets the rival's default name to Ishihara as soon as the game is turned on. This name does not appear in the default names list and is overwritten as soon as the player has a chance to choose a name.
- One of the default player names in the Japanese Blue is Tsunekazu, much as "Satoshi" is for Red and "Shigeru" is for Green.
- Similarly, one of the default rival names in Pokémon FireRed Version is Kaz (Japanese: ツネカズ Tsunekazu).
External links
- Global Information Summit, "Creating Contents that Reach Deeply into Our Lifestyles"
- "Master of the Pocket Monster Universe puts success down to better experience" at Times Online
- "Tsunekazu Ishihara: The Pokémon Interview" at SPOnG
- "ABC News Pokémon Chat Transcript" at IGN
- "Q&A: Head Pokétrainer Tsunekazu Ishihara" at GameSpot
- "E3 2004: The Pokémon Creators Speak" at IGN
- Magazine article on Ishihara
