Kunihisa Sugishima
Career. Sugishima started his career on Sunrise in the 1980s, having worked as the setting producer for "Heavy Metal L-Gaim"s episodes 1 to 18, as well as the director and storyboarder for other episodes. Another major work in his early career was his involvement with the "Gundam" series; he directed several episodes of "Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam" and "Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ". His first work as main director was in 1994 when he directed at Sunrise a single-episode special titled "Shinizokonai Kakarichō". His subsequent works were not at Sunrise; he directed "Gokudo" (1999) at Trans Arts , "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters" (2000–2004) at Gallop, and "Speed Grapher" (2005) at Gonzo. For the latter company he also directed the original video animation "Strike Witches" in 2007. After directing "Nabari no Ou" at J.C.Staff in 2008, he went to direct four "Beyblade"-related television series and one film at Tatsunoko Productions and SynergySP between 2009 and 2012. He returned to work for Sunrise where he was the director for two "Battle Spirits" anime; "Burning Soul" (2015) and "Double Drive" (2016).