The Career of Masashi Ikeda, Anime's Most Successfully Incomplete Director (for TV, At Least)

What exactly constitutes being "successful" in something like anime, especially in being a director? Is it being in charge of an influential TV series or movie (or more) that would continue to inspire others for decades to come, like Mamoru Oshii or Hayao Miyazaki? Is it being a "reliable hand" who may not necessarily have a truly "iconic" work of their own but is known for their sheer consistency & ability to work within various genres, like Toshifumi Kawase or the late Hidehito Ueda? Or is it simply being able to continually be given chance after chance after chance after chance, even if your track record at directing is spotty, at best, if not utterly incapable of finishing what you started, at worst? I bring this last one up because while something like that sounds absolutely ridiculous in defining a "successful" anime director, it actually perfectly describes one specific man, someone who has literally never fully directed a single TV anime in his entire career, his only "completions" come from OVAs & movies, yet was not only allowed to continue directing anime up through the 00s but was also put in charge of (at least for part of them) numerous anime that today are considered classics, thereby making him (technically) a "success" by most metrics.

Let's take a look at the self-paradoxical career of Masashi Ikeda.

This is literally the only photo of Ikeda that seemingly
exists online... The guy just doesn't like publicity, it seems.

Born on February 10, 1961 in Kagawa Prefecture (located on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands), Masashi Ikeda eventually attended & graduated from Tokyo Zokei University with a film major. During his time at Zokei, Ikeda would produce his own amateur animation work on 8 mm film before joining Group Ebisen, an animation production & screening circle formed in 1978 at the Japan Animation Association's first ever animation workshop. Group Ebisen would eventually include the likes of the late Masahiro Katayama (who'd eventually become chairman of the circle in 1981, before eventually joining the JAA itself), Takuya Ishida (who'd become a respected claymation animator, working on almost every single Crayon Shin-chan movie), Koji Yamamura (a very respected independent animator & director of various short films), Sunao Katabuchi (director of Black Lagoon & In This Corner of the World), Hiroyuki Kakudo (Digimon Adventure 01 & 02, Yu-Gi-Oh! "Season 0"), & Tomoo Haraguchi (best known for his work in tokusatsu), among some others. After graduating, Ikeda would be introduced to the late Atsushi Yamatoya (best known for being head writer for Lupin the 3rd Part II's latter 2/3) & would join Animal-ya, an anime planning & production studio that was affiliated with Shin-Ei Animation. With his experience in amateur animation, this eventually led to Masashi Ikeda's first job in anime, which was doing storyboards for 1980's Kaibutsu-kun, something he'd also do for both 1979's Doraemon (the second, & longest, run) & 1982's Fuku-chan, before leaving Animal-ya & joining Nippon Sunrise in 1983.

And, really, it's with Sunrise where Masashi Ikeda's career & "legacy" would really be solidified, though it'd take a good while until he was actually put in charge of a production, and he'd still take the occasional job at other studios. His first work at Sunrise was drawing storyboards for six episodes of 1983's Armored Trooper Votoms, through which he'd come to consider director Ryosuke Takahashi an influential mentor, though he also worked as episode director that same year for some episodes of Shin-Ei's Perman (the second series) & TMS' Cat's Eye, as well. Ikeda would continue doing both storyboarding & the occasional episode direction for the next four years, working on Cho Kosoku Galvion for Kokusai Eigasha, Panzer World Galient for Sunrise (another Takahashi joint), & Galactic Patrol Lensman for Madhouse in 1984, High School! Kimengumi for Studio Comet in 1985 (this one featuring the most episodes he worked on so far, in total, with 13), returning to Galient in 1986 to both storyboard & direct the third & final OVA it received (this one being an original story, whereas the first two were recaps of the TV series), & finally working on just three early episodes of Mister Ajikko for Sunrise in 1987. It was Ikeda's talent at storyboards for Votoms & Galient, in particular, that caught the eye of Toru Yoshida, a talented animator & episode director over at assistance studio Anime R who also worked on both of those shows, in particular some of the episodes that Ikeda himself had storyboarded and/or directed. With praise from Yoshida and the support of Ryosuke Takahashi himself, it was decided that Ikeda should be given the chance the direct an entire original TV series himself, though with Takahashi backing him up as head writer; Yoshida would also provide some key animation for a few early episodes. So, on April 30, 1988, Masashi Ikeda made his (series) directorial debut with Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers!

For those unfamiliar, Samurai Troopers was Sunrise's attempt at copying the success Toei was seeing with the anime adaptation of Masami Kurumada's hit manga Saint Seiya, except that in place of Greek mythology powering our armored leads (& villains) it's now a heavily Japanese aesthetic; also, in place of Bandai as the main toy sponsor, we now have Takara. In 1995, Graz Entertainment would license the anime & adapt it into English as Ronin Warriors, where it'd initially see limited success but would achieve cult favorite status when it got re-aired on Cartoon Network in 1999 as an early part of Toonami. Ronin Warriors was so beloved that when Saint Seiya debuted on Cartoon Network in 2003 as DiC's Knight of the Zodiac, it was actually derided as a "knock-off" of Sunrise's show, despite the reverse actually being true. Unfortunately, though, while the characters (& their respective voice actors) were immensely popular in Japan when it first aired, it didn't actually correlate to either high ratings (they were only decent, at best) or excellent toy sales, i.e. older otaku were all for it, but kids weren't buying in, which was the entire point of the show.

It's here where Masashi Ikeda's history of being "successfully incomplete" begins. In an attempt to help revitalize ratings & toy sales, Takara created a new line of toys, "Chodando/Super Ballistic", which allowed for the armor to be removed from the characters & swapped around. In order to help promote the toys, Takara requested that the anime visually show the Chodando logo on screen during special attacks... something that Ikeda refused to do at all costs. Because he stood his ground on this, Ikeda would be removed from Samurai Troppers after Episode 19 (which aired September 17, 1988), with storyboarder/episode director Mamoru Hamatsu acting as series director for the remaining 20 episodes that would get made; in turn, Ryosuke Takahashi would also leave the show, seemingly in protest. As for Takara's Chodando line of toys, it'd wind up being a bit of a bomb, with wholesalers quickly getting their hands on excess stock, and even an attempt at converting some of the toys for late 1988 tokusatsu series Dennou Keisatsu Cybercop didn't help in any way. In this regard, you can't really fault Masashi Ikeda for his inability to not fully direct Samurai Troopers, as what Takara wanted was undoubtedly hokey in all the worst ways, and he was arguably right to stand against it; that said, you also shouldn't argue with the company that's literally paying for the show to even be made. However, though the right move here from a creative standpoint, it also showed (at least in hindsight) Ikeda's seeming inability to accept anything other than his own personal vision when it comes to directing... but we'll get to that in due time.

Oh, and I feel we should keep track of how many times Ikeda "successfully completes" a directorial work when compared to his total number of works, so our tally begins with 0/1, a.k.a. 0%; that isn't good.

So, now out of a job, Masashi Ikeda needed a new project to work on, and luckily his next one a year later allowed him to show that he could, indeed, direct something to the end; it's just a shame that it's also one of his most obscure works, in general. Based on the Weekly Young Jump manga by Atsuo Kuwasawa that ran from 1984 to 1987 for 20 volumes, Midoriyama Koukou: Koshien-hen/Midoriyama High School: Koshien Chapter is a 10-episode OVA that came out from September 25, 1989 to December 16, 1990 & details the matches of the titular high school's newly founded baseball team, led by ace pitcher Sadaharu Nikaido, as they make their way to compete at Koshien, defeating seemingly insurmountable odds along the way with each opposing team. From what I can look up regarding it, this OVA done by Animal-ya (reuniting Ikeda with his alma mater, of sorts) went on to achieve some notoriety because of what Ikeda did with it in terms of the animation, namely a heavy usage of "concentration" & "effect" lines, as well as a penchant for some downright insane visuals, including the batting line exploding & Koshien itself literally going up in flames(!); the voice work was also celebrated, including that of Shigeru Chiba. Meanwhile, during the production of the Midoriyama Koukou OVAs, Ikeda was invited back by Sunrise to be a part of the Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers: Legend of the Inferno Armor OVAs produced after the TV series had finished up (again, while the toys didn't sell, it did well with otaku), with Ikeda writing the scripts for the latter two episodes released in December 1989 & January 1990.

This brings us into the 90s, which is the decade where Ikeda was most prolific as a director. First up, a movie edit of the first four episodes of the Midoriyama Koukou OVAs saw release on June 30, 1990, during the release of the main series, which Ikeda was also director & writer of. Two months later, on August 15, Episode 41 of Patlabor the Mobile Police aired in Japan, which was storyboarded by Ikeda, which he did for Sunrise while also directing the Midoriyama Koukou OVAs. After finishing up those OVAs throughout 1990, though, Ikeda went straight into his next directorial work, Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers: Message. Released across March 21 to August 23, 1991, this was the third & final OVA continuation of Samurai Troopers, and while Mamoru Hamatsu directed the first two (Gaiden & Legend of the Inferno Armor), Ikeda was allowed to direct, script, & storyboard all five episodes of this last OVA series himself, effectively giving him some sense of closure to his directorial debut, which is nice. After finishing up Samurai Troopers: Message, which closed out his 1991, Masashi Ikeda would spend his 1992 directing the final episode of the Doomed Megalopolis OVA for Madhouse under the legendary Rintaro (released August 14), as well as doing storyboards & episode direction for various episodes of both Yadamon (a reboot of a 1967 series) for Group TAC & Tsuyoshi Shikkari Shinasai/Get a Grip, Tsuyoshi! (based on the manga by Kiyoshi Nagamatsu) for Studio Comet, both of which kept him busy throughout both 1992 & 1993.

Our tally so far now is 3/4, a.k.a. 75%, and I'm going to be nice by counting the Midoriyama Koukou OVAs & movie as separate works.

Up next we have what would have been Ikeda's third directorial work, but things just didn't... "work out". Possibly based on his work on Yadamon, though there looks to be no shared producers or the like, Ikeda was hired again by Group TAC, this time to direct a theatrical anime adaptation of Capcom's popular fighting game Street Fighter II. Unfortunately, just as with Samurai Troopers & Takara, Ikeda had a dispute with Capcom (the most we know is that it might have been during the storyboarding phase), which resulted in Ikeda quitting the entire production. In a panic, since not producing the film would more or less kill Group TAC, producer Ken Fujita went to the legendary Gisaburo Sugii to direct, who accepted, despite it not really being the kind of anime he (or Group TAC, for that matter) was used to directing. After bringing on board an assistant director more versed in action films who had actually quit the industry & was working at a book store at the time, Sugii & his staff were able to finish the entire film in just six months, with the film releasing in Japan on August 6, 1994; therefore, Ikeda likely left the production sometime in late 1993, if not early 1994. Astonishingly enough, the Street Fighter II Movie would go on to be celebrated to this day as one of the greatest anime adaptations of a video game of all time, not to mention one of the best action films in general, and when you consider that it was literally all made in just half a year, because of Ikeda's seeming inability to divert from his own personal vision, it truly shows just how good of a director Gisaburo Sugii was.

If we include this whole ordeal, & I guess maybe we should since I decided to bring it up, our tally is now 3/5, a.k.a. 60%.

So, if Ikeda left the Street Fighter II Movie early in production, where did he go from there? In a common move we'll be seeing, he went right back to Sunrise, which more or less promptly gave him another OVA to direct: Lord of Lords Ryu Knight: Adeu's Legend. With the first episode releasing on July 21, 1994 (beating the SFII Movie to release), Adeu's Legend was technically an adaptation of the Lord of Lords Ryu Knight TV series that had debuted a few months prior on April 5 & was still airing, but where the TV series was made primarily for children, it was one of many mech anime during the early 90s which utilized "chibi"-proportioned giant robots, Adeu's Legend was instead a darker, somewhat more serious take on the same concept, and featured its own unique villains & plot. With a new episode coming out every month, the 13 episodes that comprised Adeu's Legend would make this OVA outlast the TV series that came before it & keep Ikeda busy all the way through into his next directorial work, which would also be his first TV series since Samurai Troopers... and it's easily his most famous (or notorious, depending on how see things) anime of all. Debuting on April 7, 1995, New Mobile Report Gundam Wing was the second entry in Sunrise's iconic mech anime franchise that had nothing to do with the original Universal Century timeline, following 1994's Mobile Fighter G Gundam, and the third Gundam TV series in a row to air consecutively in the same network time slot, following both 1993's Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (the last original "UC" TV series ever made) & G Gundam after that. Similar to what Yasuhiro Imagawa had with G Gundam just prior, Masashi Ikeda was allowed to conceive of what Gundam Wing would be about & what the characters would be like; by his own admission, the only prerequisite given to him was "A show with five Gundams".

Similar to Samurai Troopers, Ikeda (alongside head writer Katsuyuki Sumisawa & character designer Shuko Murase) took inspiration from Saint Seiya when it came to creating the five main characters (known collectively as the "Wing Boys" by fans), resulting in another TV anime directed by Masashi Ikeda that found a fanbase via its band of pretty boys. Also, while G Gundam was a popular show, it was actually not well received by traditional Gundam fans, so the plan was to make something more akin to the original UC storyline. However, by Sumisawa's own admission, Ikeda started diverting from the agreed upon plan after Episode 10 & decided to tell the story he wanted to tell... starting with main character Heero Yuy blowing up his own titular Gundam; apparently, Ikeda even tried asking Ryosuke Takahashi to help with the writing, but wouldn't that supersede Sumisawa?! Eventually, Ikeda left Gundam Wing after Episode 26 (which aired October 26, 1995), though he was still credited as writing Episode 29, with Shinji Takamatsu (who was directing Brave of Gold Goldran at the time) taking over for the second half of the series, which returned the plot back to the original plan; Takamatsu would then direct Wing's successor, After War Gundam X, likely as a reward for what he did here. I can only imagine that Ikeda was initially given the chance by the producers to give his ideas a go, since it took 16 whole episodes before he was gone, but when they didn't make a difference in the ratings he was eventually told to return to the agreed story or leave, and he seemingly decided "You know... I don't feel like directing this show anymore"; some reports also indicate that Ikeda was outright fired from the production.

However, for whatever reason, Takamatsu was never actually credited for directing the back half of Gundam Wing, instead seeing Ikeda's name listed as director for the entire show's run; it's possible Ikeda negotiated with Sunrise for this, after what happened with Samurai Troopers. While Gundam Wing would go on to become an extremely successful & popular entry in the entire franchise, even being the series that made Gundam initially popular in North America, the fact that Ikeda effectively went rogue & went against most (if not all) of what everyone agreed upon is astonishing, and it's kind of surprising that this didn't leave him with a poorer reputation ("Ikeda will just do whatever he wants & if you tell him otherwise he'll just leave!"). After leaving Gundam Wing, Ikeda would go on to direct the three-episode Lord of Lords Ryu Knight: Adeu's Legend II OVA series released between December 18, 1995 & April 25, 1996, though he oddly didn't direct the comical Adeu's Legend Final OVA that literally came out the month following II's final episode... so I guess you can count this entire OVA series as also being "incomplete" by Ikeda, technically?

You know what, I'm going to be generous & not count Adeu's Legend Final against Ikeda, so our tally is now 5/8, a.k.a. 62.5%.

So, after what happened with Gundam Wing, you'd imagine that Masashi Ikeda probably wouldn't be allowed anywhere near that franchise again, right? Well, you'd be 100% wrong, because on April 25, 1996, the same day the final episode of Adeu's Legend II came out, the first two episodes of Gundam Wing: Operation Meteor, a four-episode OVA recap/epilogue to the TV series, saw release... with Masashi Ikeda back on board as director & storyboarder! In fact, Ikeda was even credited as helping script Episodes 3 & 4, which came out on October 25, though it's possible that was simply giving proper credit to ideas of Ikeda's that Sumisawa & his staff still used later on, as Sumisawa admitted that Ikeda had originally planned out as far as Episode 40 really early on (& all done in just a week!); however, Ikeda would have absolutely nothing to do with the proper sequel to Gundam Wing, 1997's Endless Waltz. Ikeda would then move over to help Madhouse by directing 1997's Vampire Hunter: The Animated Series, a.k.a. Night Warriors - Darkstalkers' Revenge, a four-episode OVA adaptation of the second game in Capcom's then-still-hot Vampire/Darkstalkers fighting game series; Ikeda also wrote the script for the first two episodes, and storyboarded the final episode. Comparing credits, it looks like none of the producers of the Street Fighter II Movie were involved with the Darkstalkers OVA, so that might explain how he got the job, as I imagine the SFII Movie producers wouldn't want to work with the man who simply left the movie because he seemingly wouldn't get his way. Reuniting with Shuko Murase for character designs & animation direction, this OVA isn't necessarily lauded for its plot, but would go on to become very beloved for its excellent animation & overall extremely stylish & (fittingly) dark aesthetic, becoming a strong cult classic in its own right. Even if Ikeda is already finding himself a rather unflattering reputation as a director, there's no doubt that he's talented.

Our tally is now 7/10, a.k.a. 70%.

After finishing up the Darkstalkers OVA in early 1998, Ikeda would spend the next couple of years bouncing around doing what he originally got his start in anime with: Storyboarding. Throughout 1998 he storyboarded the CG cutscenes for SquareSoft RPG Parasite Eve on the PlayStation (the only time he'd ever work on a video game), as well as did the storyboards for Episode 2 of Nightwalker: The Midnight Detective (July 15) & Episode 25 of Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 (which actually never aired on TV), both of them for AIC. Meanwhile, his 1999 went by without almost any anime work (he likely still got royalties for Gundam Wing, which would have kept him afloat), only doing storyboards for Episode 13 of Infinite Ryvius for Sunrise (December 29). He continued to work on Infinite Ryvius to enter 2000, providing storyboards for Episodes 18 & 23, followed by storyboarding Episode 24 of Blue Gender (March 24) for AIC. Up next is an interesting project for Ikeda, Dinozaurs: The Series for Sunrise, which he provided some storyboarding for. This was a 26-episode reboot of a five-episode OVA series from 1998 called Dinozone, but was made for English release first, and because of that the credits one can find only list Ikeda as one of a trio of storyboarders in every episode, so it's nigh-impossible to tell which episodes Ikeda actually worked on.

This brings us to Ikeda's next directorial work, this tenth overall (seven if you combine the individual Midoriyama Koukou, Adeu's Legend, & Gundam Wing productions together) & his third TV series. Debuting on October 16, 2000 & animated by Sunrise (we're starting to see a commonality when it comes to TV, aren't we?), InuYasha was the anime adaptation of Rumiko Takahashi's third consecutive long-running Shonen Sunday manga, following Urusei Yatsura & Ranma ½, was the first Takashi adaptation for TV to not be produced by Kitty Film, & is generally considered the title that truly made Takahashi herself a major name around the world; Ranma had seen international release prior, but InuYasha was the one that truly aired on TV worldwide. As for Masashi Ikeda, alongside writing the scripts for Episodes 1, 2, & 11, storyboarding those same episodes as well as Ep 7, & episode directing the premiere, he was also series director for Episodes 1 to 44, taking him up to September 17, 2001... but the anime itself would air until September 13, 2004, totaling 167 episodes.

OK, so what did Masashi Ikeda disagree with THIS TIME that led to his departure?!

Actually, while there were some rumors that Ikeda came to a disagreement with Rumiko Takahashi herself (this was Ikeda's first time directing an adaptation for TV, after all), in this case the truth looks to be much more... amicable. After Episode 44 aired the show took a two-week hiatus & returned on October 8, 2001, with the show now being directed by Yasunao Aoki (Mon Colle Knights, Yakitate!! Japan), who would stay on board for the remainder of the series & then return in late 2009 for InuYasha: The Final Act, which adapted the the rest of the manga's story, as it had finished up in the interim. Aoki would eventually be asked about why there was a change in directors in interviews, which isn't surprising considering the history of the man he had replaced, and Aoki responded that Ikeda had only agreed to direct the show for roughly one year, and when he fulfilled his duties he simply decided not to renew it, which necessitated Aoki bring brought on. Now, sure, one could argue that Aoki was just trying to prevent any sort of drama from coming out, as this would make Ikeda 3-for-3 in regards to not being able to fully direct a TV anime (a.k.a. he was removed), but at the same time Aoki's answer does make perfect sense. It's entirely plausible that Sunrise only initially planned for the InuYasha anime to air for one year, so when Ikeda was brought on board that's what he agreed to, but when the show became a gigantic hit, & it was decided to extend it out as long as possible, Ikeda could have simply stated that he only wanted to direct for the length he had agreed to & decided to leave afterwards. And, to be fair, I guess it's also possible that Ikeda still had disagreements with Takahashi, which made him less likely to stay on, in general. In the end, InuYasha would be the longest stretch of time that Ikeda ever was a director for a TV series, & by a large margin at that, which already doesn't sound that great. Also, following his run with InuYasha in late 2001, Masashi Ikeda would effectively disappear from the anime industry entirely... for four whole years!

Meanwhile, our tally is now 7 or 8/11, a.k.a. 63.6% or 72.7%, depending on whether you count InuYasha as "complete" or not.

Before you wonder, I have absolutely no idea what Ikeda was doing during those four years away from the anime industry, and I can't find any indication online even making a guess about it. For all we know, maybe he just wanted to get away from it all for a while, and I would imagine royalties from Gundam Wing, Samurai Troopers, & InuYasha alone would be decent enough to not require working any more than he'd feel like, especially from the first & last ones; some guessed that he might have just caught up on fishing, which he apparently enjoys. Whatever he was doing during that time, Masashi Ikeda decided to return to anime in 2005, and he'd once again do it with his seemingly favorite studio, Sunrise. However, this time around, Ikeda wouldn't be working on a TV series sponsored by an overbearing toy company desperate for a surge in sales, or help create something that was part of a massive franchise that had prior expectations, or direct an adaptation of a popular manga. No, this time around he was going to work on & direct something of his own creation, something that would be 100% a Masashi Ikeda original, something that he wouldn't have to listen to anyone else in regards to &, thereby, not get into disagreements over, resulting in him leaving the production before it could finish!

On October 4, 2005, Cluster Edge debuted on TV Tokyo, with Masashi Ikeda not just directing but being credited as "Original Concept" (alongside collective Sunrise staff pseudonym Hajime Yatate, naturally), and while he wouldn't write every single episode himself he would be in charge of "Series Composition", i.e. he was also head writer; he also storyboarded a handful of episodes himself. In short, Cluster Edge & its cast of pretty boys (OK, now we definitely know that he has a seeming preference for his leads) were all in the hands of Masashi Ikeda, so now he could finally, truly, direct a TV anime from start to finish, and absolutely nothing could stop him!

*Three Months Later...*

Masashi Ikeda would leave Cluster Edge after Episode 13 closed out 2005, with the remaining 13 episodes in 2006 now being directed by Hitoyuki Matsui (Ayatsuri Sakon, Dokkoida?!), who did some storyboards for the first half, while writer Hiroshi Ohnogi (Aquarion, Noein) would take over as head writer; Ikeda himself only wrote nine episodes & storyboarded four. After finishing up on March 28, 2006, a three-episode OVA titled Cluster Edge ~Secret Episode~ would be released on DVD on September 22, 2006, with Ikeda having absolutely nothing to do with it at all.

Our tally is now 7 or 8/12, a.k.a. 58.3% or 66.6%.

WHAT...THE...****?!?!?!?! How the hell did Masashi Ikeda get taken off of a TV series half way through when he was the creative mind behind it?! This is just about up there with Yasuchika Nagaoka being taken off of Engage Planet Kiss Dum the following year, but in that show's case the "original creator" was removed after Episode 1, and at least there was seemingly some some of undisclosed personal or even medical reason behind that removal, as Nagaoka wouldn't work on another anime until three years after Kiss Dum. Masashi Ikeda, though, would return to working on anime a mere 11 months later, doing the storyboards for Episode 6 of Gin-Iro no Olynssis for Toei (November 9, 2006)! Unfortunately, unlike with Samurai Troopers, Gundam Wing, or even InuYasha, there's seemingly no word whatsoever on what went down with Cluster Edge that resulted in Masaki Ikeda leaving his own original creation & necessitating promoting people who only had storyboarded two episodes & written three of the show up to that point to the positions of director & head writer, respectively. Out of all the anime Masashi Ikeda had directed up to this point, which tended to either be at least remarkable in some way or downright popular & iconic, Cluster Edge isn't actually all that well regarded or remembered, though it apparently does improve in its second half, i.e. Ikeda was the worst part of his own show(!); simply put, something big must have gone down, & no one wants to talk about it. Also, this now made Ikeda 4-for-4 when it came to never fully directing a TV anime, though I guess you could remove half a point for InuYasha, on a technicality, since he apparently did everything he was contractually obligated to do. In the end, Cluster Edge would be the last TV anime that Masashi Ikeda would ever direct, which isn't surprising in the least since he now had a terrible track record in that regard... though supposedly Sunrise might have still tried asking him repeatedly to direct other TV anime since then; this is nothing more than hearsay, however. If true, though, why would Sunrise want him back?!

So, after proving himself utterly incapable of fully directing a TV anime from start to finish, even when it was his own original creation, you'd think that Masashi Ikeda would more or less be persona non grata in the anime industry, or at least in regard to being made director... right?! Well, as proven already in this career overview, you'd be wrong! After his sole involvement with anime in 2007 being storyboarding Episode 22 of Big Windup! (September 6), Aniplex & its anime studio A-1 Pictures decided to give Ikeda a shot at directing once again, though this time it'd be much, MUCH smaller in scope. A few days after Ep 22 of Big Windup! aired in Japan, Animax announced the winners of its 6th Animax Awards for anime scriptwriting, with the Grand Prize going to Hayato Takamaga's Takane no Jitensha/Takane's Bicycle, with part of the winnings being having the story be adapted into a TV special by A-1 Pictures & aired on Animax; naturally, A-1 Pictures & Animax would co-own the copyright over the script, not Takamaga. Masashi Ikeda was chosen to be the director, and the TV special adaptation of Takane no Jitensha would air on Animax on July 5, 2008. To this day, Takane no Jitensha remains the very last anime that Masashi Ikeda has ever directed, so at the very least we can say that he's (so far) ended things "successfully complete", though it would admittedly be hard to leave a literal 25-minute TV special halfway through; if anyone was capable of doing so, though, it'd certainly be Ikeda. Still, when you plot out the popularity, relevance, & iconicity of the various anime that Masashi Ikeda directed in those 20 years, there's no denying that he went through a steep & massive drop following InuYasha.

Our final tally for Masahi Ikeda actually directing something from start to finish is 8 or 9/13, a.k.a. 61.5% or 69.2%, depending on how you define InuYasha.

So... has Masashi Ikeda done anything in anime since Takane ni Jitensha brought a seeming end to his career as a director? Yes, he has, though it's been rather sparse & focused primarily on the gig that got him noticed & made into a director in the first place: Storyboarding. However, it is worth bringing up that there do look to be two different people in anime named "Masashi Ikeda", with the other one being a producer who's listed for the various Cobra the Animation productions made between 2008 & 2010, as places like ANN do list the director under some titles when it's actually the producer. It's pertinent to know the difference between 池田成 the director & 池田正史 the producer, especially since the director's first name isn't normally read as "Masashi" with the singular kanji he uses; "Masa", yes, but not "Masashi". Anyway, Masashi Ikeda the director would eventually return to anime in 2009, reuniting with his mentor Ryosuke Takahashi to storyboard the compilation movie version of the Armored Trooper Votoms: Pailsen Files OVAs for Sunrise, which released on January 17. Ikeda would then stick with Takahashi to script & storyboard the one-off Armored Trooper Votoms: Alone Again OVA (January 8, 2011), before taking another notable hiatus, this time for three years. Ikeda would return to anime once again in 2014 to storyboard Episode 2 of Space Dandy Season 2 for BONES (July 13), a.k.a. Episode 15 overall, followed by spending his 2015 storyboarding both the OP & ED sequences for Young Black Jack for Tezuka Productions, and then 2016 would feature him storyboarding Episode 4 of the ONA for Dream Festival! for Sunrise spin-off studio Bandai Namco Pictures (October 21), before going on yet another hiatus, this time lasting another four years.

What Masashi Ikeda did to his career as a director.

This more or less brings us to the end of our look at the career (so far) of Masashi Ikeda. He'd return to anime once again in 2020 to storyboard the OP sequence for Saikyo Kamizmode! and then in 2021 he'd storyboard Episode 9 of Cestvs: The Roman Fighter (June 9), both of which for Bandai Namco Pictures once again, but since then there's been no sign of Ikeda at all when it comes to anime, so he's seemingly gone on hiatus for a fourth time. On the one hand, calling Masashi Ikeda a "successfully incomplete" director sounds a bit harsh, as when you look at his entire catalogue raisonné he's actually led more titles to completion than not, so saying that he's known for constantly leaving/being fired from anime productions can come off a bit like a misnomer. On the other hand, one can certainly argue that celebrating a man who can't even fully direct a solid 70% of his entire catalog to completion sounds a bit, as the British would say, mental. However, there is one undeniable constant when it comes to Masashi Ikeda's career & that is the simple fact that he's never been able to direct a TV series from start to finish. Whether it's Samurai Troopers, Gundam Wing, InuYasha, Cluster Edge, or even the Street Fighter II Movie there was always something that wound up resulting in Masashi Ikeda either leaving or being removed from his position (depending on certain points of view), and the through-line that links all of them together (to varying extents) looks to be Ikeda's inability to be flexible in any way; it's seemingly his way or (he ups & leaves, taking) the highway.

Whether it's not wanting to do what the lead sponsor wants for promotional purposes, being unwilling to just compromise with the company behind the work being adapted, deciding to just go rogue & ignore most of (if not everything) that was agreed to for the plot, possibly getting into arguments with the original mangaka, or whatever the hell went down that resulted in him no longer being a part of his own original creation, Masashi Ikeda has made himself a reputation that I'd say has resulted in him being completely unappealing to hire as a director, hence why he's done pretty much nothing but storyboarding (plus a script or two) for the past 15 years. However, there is no denying that Masashi Ikeda is a talented director, as while Cluster Edge isn't remembered much at all, Samurai Troopers & Gundam Wing are still considered classics, while there are some who argue that his early run on InuYasha might just be the show's strongest; plus, the stuff he did manage to direct to completion tend to be considered good to great, on the whole. Therefore, calling him "successfully incomplete" sounds appropriate, and that's 13/13, a.k.a. 100%, undeniable.

Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers © Sunrise

Midoriyama Koukou: Koshien-hen © 1990・2006 Atsuo Kuwasawa/Barque Inc.

Street Fighter II Movie © Capcom Co., Ltd.

Lord of Lords Ryu Knight: Adeu's Legend © Takehiko Ito/Shueisha・Sunrise

New Mobile Report Gundam Wing © Sotsu・Sunrise

Night Warriors - Darkstalkers' Revenge © Capcom/Showgate

InuYasha © Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan・Yomiuri TV・Sunrise 2000

Cluster Edge © Sunrise・Bandia Visual

Takane no Jitensha © A1 Pictures・Animax