Aikawa might be the most prestigious anime staff member you have never heard about, except when he has been criticized or caused controversy. He could be considered the anime version of Paul W.S. Anderson, the kind of writer you hire in order to make someone else's anime and/or just churn out watchable crap - yet at the same time, he left his mark in history in the form of dark, nasty and politically provocative plots whenever he was given the freedom to. His thematic work is pretty varied, having a hand in such divergent titles like Martian Successor Nadesico, Angel Cop and Urotsukidoji, but as you can note in his resume, he was quite at home in the ultra-violent 80s OVA boom.
He is a coinosseur of the western culture, being a fan of American Comic Books, and has often controversially resorted to employ Nazi imagery as a mean to draw attention to his works. This trait is present in which is possibly the best known of his modern works, the first anime adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist.
Not to be confused with actor and composer Show Aikawa.
Anime works
- Daimajū Gekitō: Hagane no Oni (1987) - Original concept
- Urotsukidoji (1987-1989, 1991-1992)
- Maryuu Senki (1987-1989)
- Starship Troopers (1988)
- Dragon Century (1988)
- Violence Jack Evil Town (1988)
- Peacock King (1988-1989)
- Vampire Princess Miyu (1988-1989)
- Jushin Liger (1989)
- Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma (1989)
- Kyomu Senshi Miroku (1989)
- Dog Soldier: Shadows of the Past (1989)
- Angel Cop (1989-1990)
- AD Police Files (1990)
- Demonic Beast Front (1990)
- Geno Cyber (1993)
- Sorcerer Hunters (1993)
- My Dear Marie (1996) - Original concept (with Sakura Takeuchi)
- Martian Successor Nadesico (1996-1997) - Base planning
- Neo Ranga (1998) - Original concept
- Love Hina (2000-2001)
- Hiwou War Chronicles (2000-2001) - Original concept
- Angelic Layer (2001)
- Shaman King (2001-2002)
- The Twelve Kingdoms (2002-2003)
- Strange Steel Fay Rouran (2002-2003) - Original concept (with Toshiki Hirano)
- Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)
- Simoun (2006) - Original concept (with several other authors)
- Ayakashi Ayashi (2006-2007) - Original concept
- Eureka Seven (2012)
- Future Card Buddyfight (2013-2015)
- Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou (2015-2016) - Original concept
- Cardfight!! Vanguard (2019-2020)
Live action works
- Jikuu Senshi Spielban (1986)
- Ultraman: Towards the Future (1993) - Main Writer
- Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger (2003-04)
- Kamen Rider Blade (2004-05) - Main writer (second half)
- GoGo Sentai Boukenger (2006-07) - Main writer
- Juken Sentai Gekiranger (2007)
- Engine Sentai Go-onger - Main writer (movies)
- Kamen Rider Decade (2009) - Main writer (first half)
- Kamen Rider Wizard (2013) - (Guest writer for episodes 52 & 53, which feature the return of Decade)
- Ressha Sentai ToQger (2014)
Tropes about his work
- Darker and Edgier: A staple of all his works, born in the time where anime and manga were the darkest.
- God of Evil: A prominent choice for the Greater-Scope Villain in his works.
- Metafiction: A lot of his work indulges in this, to the point he admitted not to be able to write something without giving it some sort of meta-commentary about tropes of the story.
- Write What You Know: His MO, according to him."I think that script writing is kind of like writing a diary. Because you can only write what you felt on that day, you cannot suddenly write something that has nothing to do with present society or your present self or what you feel now. When I read my old works now I notice that, for example, in my younger years, "oh in this work I remember I was very upset about something," or "this work, this was around when I got married, so happy stuff is in it." Everything I feel will influence my work and that will also be the case for my future works."
