Hisashi Hirai

[Wiki (jp)](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/平井久司)

_Hisashi Hirai_ is a Japanese animator, designer, illustrator and mangaka. He is best known for his character design work on [Gundam SEED](https://anilist.co/anime/93/Mobile-Suit-Gundam-Seed/) and the Fafner series.

Currently a freelancer. He began his career as an in-betweener for [Nakamura Production](https://anilist.co/studio/6658/Nakamura-Production) and debuted in the 1983 TV series, [Cat's Eye](https://anilist.co/anime/2043/Cats-Eye/). He often worked on many outsourced episodes for [Sunrise](https://anilist.co/studio/14/Sunrise) shows as a key animator and animation director.

In 1992 he would work on [Dragon Slayer](https://anilist.co/anime/3025/Dragon-Slayer/). An animated adaptation of the 1989 video game Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes by Nihon Falcom, his first major character design credit. Since then, he became more active as a character designer on numerous series. Most notably for Sunrise productions such as [Infinite Ryvius](https://anilist.co/anime/593/Infinite-Ryvius/), [s-CRY-ed](https://anilist.co/anime/168/sCRYed/), and the aforementioned Gundam SEED series; which he had won the Character Design Prize for at the 3rd Tokyo International Anime Fair in 2004.

Hirai is also said to be a close friend of director [Gorou Taniguchi](https://anilist.co/staff/98066/Gorou-Taniguchi).