| Hiroaki
|
|
|
Social Media Links:
Twitter: @SUPER_HIROAKI,
HIROAKI Personal Blog - Official Page
|
|
Hiroaki Hashimoto is a graduate from Design Course of Department of Art at Osaka University of Arts. He joined SNK in 1998 under the pen name "HIROAKI". First entering the fighting game spotlight with his stunning character art for The King of Fighters
'99, HIROAKI was acclaimed by fans for giving the series a refreshing and distinctive new art style. In the years to come, HIROAKI's art style would become synonymous with KOF, defining a new era and aesthetic visual style.
|
 
|
After becoming famous for his KOF character art,
HIROAKI showed his versatility by drawing illustrations for other fighting games, including: Buriki One (lead artist), Capcom Vs. SNK, KOF XI, KOF XII, KOF XIV, NEOGEO Battle Coliseum, SNK Vs. Capcom: Card
Fighters Clash (2/DS), Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Super Street Fighter IV, and more.
HIROAKI was considered by many at SNK to be
the "protégé" of Shinkiro. In an interview, he said his
biggest pressure for KOF is matching Shinkiro's quality. HIROAKI also drew a notable amount of cover illustrations for Arcadia Magazine, which included covers for various KOF titles, Guilty Gear Isuka, Virtua Fighter 5, and TEKKEN 5. In 2018, HIROAKI was hired by Bandai Namco to illustrate SoulCalibur VI story artwork.
|
|
HIROAKI's
naturally proportioned characters are complimented by a realistic "oil
painting style" of coloring and dark lines. He draws characters in "confident
and daring" poses so fans of the characters feel proud to use them. HIROAKI created a variety of covers, posters, and other official promo art for several (non-fighting) games, including: Metal Slug Attack, KOF Sky Stage, God Hand, Spikeout: Battle Street, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, Lord of Arcana, Uppers, and Deadly Premonition 2.
TFG FUN FACT:  In 2020, I opened a dialogue with HIROAKI on Twitter. He told me he has been using
The Fighters Generation website as artistic reference for many years... "since the beginning,"
in his words. He noted
the site even helped him find materials
when designing character artwork for modern games including Street Fighter V and
SoulCalibur 6. As
the Webmaster of TFG, I was incredibly honored and humbled to learn this... especially the site's original purpose was to be a dependable resource for
artists.
|
|
(Above) HIROAKI's Sol-Badguy Guilty Gear ISUKA illustration for the cover of Arcadia Magazine issue 43 (December 2003).
|
|
Edayan, known for his spectacular
Rival Schools and Street Fighter series character illustrations, is among the most iconic
(and perhaps underappreciated) Capcom artists
of all time. Edayan amazingly captured Bengus's Street Fighter
Alpha art style when he drew the character artwork for Street Fighter Alpha 2.
He drew SFA2's artwork so well in fact, that he even
confused many fans into thinking Bengus actually did the
artwork for the game!
FOLLOW 
ON: 
