She is a mangaka, animator, director, character designer, and an animation director.

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. Due to her magnificent artwork, she became very popular even outside the anime and manga scene, doing illustrations and character designs for many other projects.

Kakinouchi is married to anime director Hirano Toshiki.