Kunihiko Ikuhara
The "Utena" franchise was conceived by Be-Papas, a production group composed of talents from various corners of the manga and anime universe. Most notably, the 39-episode "Revolutionary Girl Utena" TV series was created by some of the same production staff responsible for "Sailor Moon", including writer and director Kunihiko Ikuhara. Ikuhara was already well known for his role in the production of "Sailor Moon", including his contributions to the highly acclaimed third season, "Sailor Moon S". When working on "Utena" Ikuhara was unsure if he would be fit for the role as producer and worried about the financial risk involved. Believing it may be the last show he ever worked on, Ikuhara set out to make "Utena" the pinnacle of his work. The member of Be-Papas responsible for the manga version of "Utena" was Chiho Saito, a well-established shōjo manga author. Though she and the other members of Be-Papas discussed concepts together, Saito had little influence on the direction of the anime, and faced a great deal more scrutiny by publishers to censor the LGBT themes in the content of the manga. She went through 4 editors during the production of the manga due to this, despite it being far more tame than the television series.