Back in the early 80s, a group of talented young animators were brought onto the production of a little series called Super Dimension Fortress Macross. Toshiki Hirano was one of these animators, joining Space Runaway Ideon colleague Ichiro Itano on the project. Hirano quickly became known for his quirky character designs, penchant for cute girls, and raw animation talent.

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Following Macross’s conclusion, he served as character designer and animator director on Megazone 23 Part 1. He then took those same talents to tiles like Dangaioh, Fight! Izcer-One, and Magic Knight Rayearth (1994). In recent years, Hirano has put much of his creative energy behind directing the currently ongoing Netflix adaptation of Baki the Grappler.