Began his career at Ashi Productions. Leaving years later with Nobuyoshi Habara and other Ashi staff to form Xebec in 1995.
During his time at Xebec, Ishihara would become one of the studio's most prolific and trusted animators, supervisors, and designers. He is best known for his adaptive designs for the Rockman.EXE series. Other notable character design works include Bakusou Kyoudai Let's & Go MAX, Dai-Guard, Daughters of Mnemosyne, among others.
To this day he is well regarded by former Xebec staff. Shingo Adachi recalls how it was Ishihara who had personally recruited him and led to him joining Xebec. Kiyotaka Oshiyama said that Ishihara had helped him establish connections at Bones early in his career when Ishihara invited him to take part in the first Fullmetal Alchemist film.
