Hiramatsu would show off his Obari influence on Episode 23 when Simon punches Rossou a classic Obari Punch sakugabooru.com/post/show/112646

Following Lagann Hiramatsu covers an array of anime. In 2007 he’d direct an episode on Dennou Coil the same year made some contributions to the first Evangelion Rebuild movie. A for the next years he’d work on the first and second Gurren Lagann movie doing some very long sequences in a black and white void with Simon at the epicenter, sakugabooru.com/post/show/78486 sakugabooru.com/post/show/112849

In 2009 he’d work on the second Rebuild film, Hiramatsu did a lot more than the first. The first half would be a ton of character acting from Hiramatsu, and the second would be the sequence of Shinji attempting to save Rei from Zereul. The character acting early on is great, Asuka cooking for Shinji is so weird.

and of course Rei’s unintentionally botched rescue causing Third Impact is epic.

After a quick stop on the Idolm@​ster Hiramatsu did some work on 3.0, he’d animate the first half of Kaworu’s sacrifice scene, and also did debris effects which was pretty uncommon for him. 2013 would have some pretty nice work from Hiramatsu first animating some breathtaking rough animation on Ending 1 for the first season of the to be insanely popular Attack on Titan. The rough sketch style would be something entirely new for Hiramatsu to approach and the final result pays off in spades.

Hiramatsu til 0:56


This effort would be followed by more animation on Kill La Kill and the next year Space Dandy

2014 marked Hiramatsu first non-Gainax character designs on studio Madhouse’s Parasyte.




Hiramatsu served as AD on the first episode, and would key animate a few others.

2015 Hiramatsu would animate a 1 minute portion of a dance from Wake Up, Girls! Beyond The Bottom.

all cuts of girls dancing are Hiramatsu

The same year Hiramatsu would also direct an animated short for the Japan Animator Expo featuring his KA, AD, and character designs.

The short like most of the Expo’s shorts essentially functions of a pilot for a show.

Yuri!!! on Ice would be Hiramatsu’s second serialized venture into character designs. This would begin a trend fully associating himself with studio Mappa from 2016 to the present. One of the first requests allegedly gotten by Hiramatsu came from director Sayo Yamamoto where she said “would you like to try drawing beautiful boys?”. And he forsure would

Hiramatsu goes into magnificent detail in this interview blog.sakugabooru.com/2017/11/29/yuri-on-ice-interview-character-designer-and-chief-animation-director-tadashi-hiramatsu Some of my favorite passages are when Hiramatsu goes into detail on his favorite scenes from the show and fans perspective on the show. One of the more enlightening sections is the oscillating character designs, particularly of Yuri.

“─ Regarding Yuri, It’s interesting how the impression he gives off can suddenly change at the flip of a switch. It’s like he just transforms into a demon out of nowhere.

Hiramatsu: Yeah, you can tell he changes based on the look in his eyes (laughs). When Yuri makes up his mind, in that moment, his eyes sharpen and his eyes and eyebrows come closer together. Normally, he’s got this limp expression, like, with droopy eyebrows… but when that switch flips, suddenly his powers of concentration increase, and he fills the air with tension. The Yuri on the cover of the February issue of Animage is about halfway between those two modes.”

Though Hiramatsu KA here is very expressive, his animation direction brings the flow of Mitsurou Kubo’s original designs to life. This is especially apparent in the opening with very vivid skating animation by the show’s chief animator Sunghoo Park

Following Yuri!!! Hiramatsu would go to work on Maquia- Where The Promised Flower Blooms directed by Mari Okada. Hiramatsu took on a serious brunt of the workload in the film serving as AD, Core Director, KA, Storyboard illustrator, sub character designer, and unit director (mostly in the character acting scenes). With Toshiyuki Inoue animating a majority of the scenes in the movie, it’s amazing Inoue even let anyone else come close to his sakuga masterpiece. The next year Hiramatsu would work on another Mappa project called Banana Fish where he would do some minor KA.

On Jujutsu Kaisen, Hiramatsu would get his second leap into shonen working on character designs, animation direction, OP animation direction, and director for Episode 2, 3, and 6. Gege Akutami’s character designs are sharp and rigid, and with the task of animating them Hiramatsu was able to convey that pretty well in his reference sheets.

While Hiramatsu technically did do OP direction, the aesthetics of second OP director Shingo Yamashita would reign supreme in the final product of the first opening

Less so in the second

But as one franchise begins, another must end as the following year in 2021 Tadashi Hiramatsu would provide KA to the last Evangelion Rebuild movie, animating the final moments of the film.

Having Hiramatsu serve as KA on the last scene of the movie is a wonderful wrap around, as his final animation on End of Evangelion 24 years prior definitely warranted a return.

In the realm of multi versatile personnel in anime animation production Tadashi Hiramatsu fits the profile. Though his key animation isn’t as outstanding as his former Gainax regulars like Hiroyuki Imaishi and Yoh Yoshinari, and he certainly doesn’t have the resume of a Takeshi Honda, Hiramatsu carved out his own legacy being a freakishly good character designer and ambitious creative. The thing that has made his work standout overtime is his dedication to realism, authenticity to source material, and shrewd attention to detail. One of the finest of former Gainax animators.

Hiramatsu art

Love this thread with these features tbh. @MORPHE Did you catalogue when and which pages you posted these? I've been so busy with my convention work that I haven't had time to post them in sections of the OP.

I can update with links to the pages for people to look back to (especially me)

can u do run with the wind next?