One thing that stands out about the Strider series, for better or worse, is how little is known about its creator, Moto Kikaku. It's not even certain whether this is a single person or group of people.

What is certain is that, aside from the Strider series and the Hiryu character, Moto Kikaku has a copyright credit on the Tenchi wo Kurau (Destruction of Heaven and Earth) manga series. This series is set in the Chinese historical period of the Three Kingdoms, and takes place just after the Hen Dynasty ended. Capcom made four video games off of the Tenchi series, the first two of which made it stateside under the names "Dynasty Wars" (which was released in 1989, the same year as Strider) and "Warriors Of Fate" (which was released in 1992). These are side-scrolling beat-em-ups similar to Final Fight, and are fairly popular in Japan in their own right.

Beyond that, none of the English-language sites have any useful information. The trail ends there, as far as direct searches go. With nowhere else to turn, I emailed Rey Jimenez, game producer at Capcom, asking him if Capcom had information on Moto Kikaku. This is what he replied:

Moto Kikaku is the name of a company. The artist that you are referring to is Hiroshi Motomiya. I think Moto Kikaku is the company he works for. As you might know, he is a famous manga artist. You can see some of his art at the URL below:

http://users.skynet.be/mangaguide/au1239.html

Now, Hiroshi Motomiya is the creator of several manga series, the most popular of which is Salaryman Kintarou. You may have heard of it. I hadn't. I had no idea who Hiroshi Motomiya was, before Rey Jiminez directed me to the page on that site.

But something still bothered me. There is no reference to Strider in any of Hiroshi Motomiya's listed bodies of work. Nor any mention of the Tenchi wo Kurau series. Since those are the two things Moto Kikaku is famous for in the West, if Hiroshi Motomiya and Moto Kikau are one and the same, why wouldn't they be listed?

I'm not sure whether to entirely scrap Rey Jiminez's information or what, but the information I've uncovered myself offers several potentially conflicting options for Moto Kikaku's identity:

1. Moto Kikaku is an alias for Tatsumi Wada, the artist who is credited on the manga itself.
2. ...or an alias for Tetsuo Shiba, the manga's plot writer.
3. ...or himself. It's his real name.
4. ...or the company that Strider's creator worked for when he came up with the concept.

In December of 2005, two people who were doing research on Moto Kikaku emailed me, suggesting that #4 is the correct assumption. Take a look, and judge for yourself.

From: "Zero-chan" [zerochan@*****.com]
Subject: ATTN: LSCM webmaster : about Moto Kikaku

I don't know who the other person who wrote to you about the Strider manga is, but he's totally wrong. The artist of the manga is Wada Tatsumi, who, along with Hiroshi Motomiya, have worked under the Moto Kikaku banner..

This leads me to believe that Moto Kikaku is a planning/development company ("kikaku" is Japanese for planning. I think the "moto" part comes from Motomiya's name.)

Several manga artists have their own company that manages the rights to their concepts and designs, so I think this is what Moto Kikaku is.

Then, quite independently of Zero-Chan, someone else emailed me, providing further information concerning the "kikaku" part of "Moto Kikaku".

From: "Max H" [staticmotion@*******.com]
Subject: ATTN: LSCM webmaster - Motomiya Kikaku

It sounds as if "Motomiya Kikaku" is actually a manga "circle" and not an individual creator. Circles are more common with doujinshis, but they have been known to be credited with mangas and other works since it's basically a collective of writers and illustrators that work together.

Motomiya Kikaku translates to "Motomiya Planning", "Motomiya Development", or "Motomiya Production House" (I would have to see the kanji used to figure out which one they intended). Motomiya Kikaku, later renamed Moto Kikaku, is a group of writers, artists, etc. The "Kikaku" part was used to denote a development group that creates original works. Apparently, "Circle" is usually used for a group of doujinshi artists and writers. It's like trying to find out who Studio Madhouse or Studio Gibli is - they aren't anyone in particular, just a bunch of animators and writers that create movies or TV series or what-not.

That seems to make sense. If "Moto Kikaku" is the name of a production studio that Hiroshi Motomiya started, then it's entirely possible that he didn't have anything to do with Strider, himself. Someone in his "circle" could've created Strider and the Hiryu character, without Hiroshi Motomiya being directly involved. Moto Kikaku would still retain the rights to these properties, however, in much the same way that Masato Nakamura of J-Pop band Dreams Come True owns the rights to the main theme of Sonic the Hedgehog.

If that's how the pieces fit together, then it clarifies much of the mystery surrounding Strider's origins. However, actually finding anything useful about "Moto Kikaku" is nigh impossible, so if anyone comes across anything particularly interesting, please email me.