Biography
Kazuyuki Ikai is a Japanese animator and animation director who has moved between several Tokyo studios over his career, including Life Work, Studio Z5, and Studio WAVE, before his current affiliation with Studio Gomez [1][2]. He has animation-directed some of the past decade's biggest television runs: all 175 episodes of Fairy Tail across its 2009-2013 run, The Rising of the Shield Hero in 2019, Dr. Stone the same year, and both seasons of the Fruits Basket reboot in 2019 and 2020 [1]. Earlier in his career he served as chief animation director on Cobra The Animation in 2010 [1]. His animation-direction credits also include Black Clover, confirmed on the broadcast staff list for episode 74 [3], as well as more recent work on Blue Lock, Goblin Slayer II, and Monogatari Series: Second Season [1]. He has also picked up occasional key animation and animation-director work on Pokemon television episodes [2]. Public information about Ikai beyond his production credits remains scarce: no birthdate, hometown, or interview material could be verified.