Kakinouchi was born in
Osaka Prefecture, Japan. After graduating from high school, she began working at
Studio Beebo under the direction of
Tomonori Kogawa, then moving on to
Studio Io,
Artland,
AIC and other studios where she was an animator, designer, and animation director on many TV series and
OVAs. She made her
manga and character designer debut with
Vampire Princess Miyu. Kakinouchi made her key animation debut with her work on the 1980 series
Space Runaway Ideon. She then garnered great attention as the character designer, storyboard artist, and animation director for the
Vampire Princess Miyu OVAs in 1988, and in March of that same year she co-authored the first
Vampire Princess Miyu manga, serialized in the mystery/horror monthly manga magazine
Susperia. She made her directorial debut with
Ryokunohara Labyrinth in 1990, in addition to being the character designer, scenario creator, storyboard artist, and animation director for the OVA. In addition to her manga work, as an illustrator she has also done work for a number of books, album covers, a card game, and a cover of the adult manga magazine
Lemon People. After a 16-year hiatus, in 2014 she returned to work as animator, serving as animation director of single episodes of ''
The Pilot's Love Song, Date A Live II, Aldnoah.Zero, Psycho-Pass 2, Shirogane no Ishi Argevollen, Shinmai Maō no Testament'', as well as TV episodes and a TV movie of
Lupin the Third. Kakinouchi is married to anime director
Toshiki Hirano, with whom she has frequently collaborated on manga and anime projects. ==Anime works==