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Tsunekazu Ishihara

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Tsunekazu Ishihara (Tsunekaz also seen; Japanese: 石原恒和 Ishihara Tsunekazu, born November 27, 1957) is the president and CEO of The Pokémon Company, a producer of Pokémon, and the founder and former CEO of Creatures, Inc. He manages all aspects of the Pokémon franchise including the anime, games, and the Pokémon Trading Card Game.

Tsunekazu Ishihara

History

Ishihara graduated from the University of Tsukuba in 1983, with a master's degree in Art and Design. Soon after graduating, he joined Ape Inc., where he was the producer in such titles as EarthBound and Mario's Picross. After Ape Inc. ceased production activity, Ishihara would later found Creatures, Inc. in November 8, 1995,[1] with the assistance of Satoru Iwata.[2][3]

In the early 1990s, Ishihara assisted in the development of Pokémon Red and Green. Shortly after, he was inspired to create a trading card game based on the titles, ultimately resulting in the creation of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.

In April 1998, The Pokémon Company was established and Ishihara was given the position of representative director. In 2001, he was named the president.

In April 2023, Ishihara stepped down as CEO of Creatures, Inc., being succeeded by Yuji Kitano.[4]

Game credits

Anime credits

Executive producer

Production supervisor

Supervision

Appearances in games

Ishihara (Japanese: Ｍｒ．イシハラ Mr. Ishihara) appears in Pokémon Trading Card Game as a Pokémon card collector. Ishihara owns over 10,000 cards. He's also written many books about the Pokémon Trading Card Game.

In the game, Ishihara can always be found in his house on the cape to the northwest after being told by someone in the game where he is. He will trade very rare promotional Pikachu cards to the player for rare colorless cards. In order, he will trade a Surfing Pikachu for a Clefable, a Flying Pikachu for a Ditto, and an alternate design Surfing Pikachu for a Chansey. After all three trades have been completed, Ishihara will leave in search of someone who will give him the Phantom Cards.

In Pokémon Card GB2: Here Comes Team GR!, Ishihara moves between his house and a new area, his villa. He will still trade cards with the player, but this time, he will be available to duel in his villa after all his trades are completed. He uses the Very Rare Card Deck, which contains many rare promotional cards.

Sprites

         
Main sprite from
Pokémon Trading Card Game 2 		Win sprite from
Pokémon Trading Card Game 2 		Loss sprite from
Pokémon Trading Card Game 2 		Overworld sprite
(GB1) 		Overworld sprite
(GB2)

Videos

#Pokemon20: The Pokémon Company's Tsunekazu Ishihara

By The Official Pokémon Channel
This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.


Trivia

  • Images of Ishihara are often incorrectly identified as Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri. The origin of this error is unknown.
  • Ishihara's favorite Pokémon is Exeggutor because he used it all throughout the debugging and testing of Pokémon Red and Green Versions.[5]
  • 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.

References

  1. ↑ Creatures Inc. Company Outline
  2. ↑ 社長が訊く『ポケットモンスター ハートゴールド・ソウルシルバー』
  3. ↑ Iwata Asks : Pokémon HeartGold Version & SoulSilver Version : Just Making The Last Train
  4. ↑ Creatures Inc. sees leadership change as CEO and president step down
  5. ↑ (February 9, 2000). "ABC News Pokémon Chat Transcript." IGN.
  6. ↑ (November 2002). 1-5. 開発者よりみなさまへのメッセージ。 『ポケットモンスター　ルビー・サファイア』大特集。 Nintendo Online Magazine (N.O.M). No.52.

External links


NPCs in the Trading Card Game Islands
Dr. Mason • Ronald • Mr. Ishihara • Imakuni? • Sam • Aaron • Tap
Club Members • Club Masters • Grand Masters • Team Great Rocket
Enigmatic Masks • Dungeon Masters • Ghost Masters
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