The Man Behind The Iconic Title: Rest In Peace, Hiroshi Hirata
We all are aware of the importance & impact of Japanese anime and cinema by now.
While the movies are very iconic, oftentimes the insane covers & posters are overlooked, especially in the digital-streaming era we live in today. There is however one title where the cover art is recognized by not only people in Japan but fans all across the world: AKIRA.
The 3 Japanese katakana characters "アキラ" might just be the most globally recognized title in the world. We all know the film is directed by none other than the legendary Katsuhiro Ōtomo, but the title lettering was created by another mangaka: Hiroshi Hirata, who just passed away at the age of 84.
Born 1937 in Tokyo, Hiroshi originally had no plans of pursuing a career in manga. After moving to the Nara prefecture in 1945 after Tokyo was bombed, he lost his father when he was still 17, leading to him working at a manufacturing company in Osaka to put food on his family's table.
Later, mangaka Masahiro Miyachi, who was his middle school senpai invited him to the world of manga. In one night, he created what became his debut manga "Aizōhissatsuken", submitted it to the publishing company "Hinomaru Bunko", and got instantly hired. He is one of the pioneers of the Gekiga manga style [thick, dramatic lined manga], and became known for his Jidaigeki [historical, samurai] works. Later in 1965, he moved back to Tokyo and created "Ai", which was his first appearance in the legendary manga magazine Garo.
His strong drawing style & touch lead him to create one of the most iconic titles ever, the AKIRA title. Since then, he has also done the lettering for numerous other works that range from manga, novels, video games, and even ero-games. Some titles are Shigurui, Genome, Kaiho Shojo.
He also had a deep interest in electronics, and had a workshop dedicated to fiddling with them at his house. He created music with synthesizers, made his own 8mm movies, and was an avid Mac user [however, limited to OS9, as he didn't like OSX].
The mark Hirata has left in anime and manga history is immense. Rest in peace to a legend.
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