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Kouta Hirano

Kouta Hirano (平野 耕太, Hirano Kōta^?, born July 14, 1973) is a Japanese mangaka born in Adachi-ku, Tokyo, Japan, most famous for his manga Hellsing.

Starting his career first as a mangaka's assistant (self-described as "horrible" and "lazy" in said assistant position), and later an H manga artist, he went on to enjoy somewhat limited success with other relatively unknown manga titles such as Angel Dust, Coyote, Gun Mania and Hi-Tension. His first major success came with his manga series Hellsing, which got its start and was subsequently serialized in a monthly manga magazine, Young King OURs, towards the latter half of 1997.

However, Hellsing was not the earliest Hirano series to be published in Young King OURs monthly. In 1996, the very same year Hellsing's precursor, The Legends of Vampire Hunter, was first released as a single hentai short story in Heavenly Pleasure (a monthly hentaicentric manga magazine), another WWII-based short story named Hi-And-Low was being published in Young King OURs by a then lesser-known Kouta Hirano. The story takes place primarily at a train station in Russia and features two female characters that are strikingly similar to Heinkel and Yumiko/Yumie in Crossfire; and who are, in actuality, undercover Axis spies in-league with one another for a common purpose: the success of Operation Barbarossa. However, this story only saw ink in one issue of OURs before being discontinued in favor of Hellsing itself.

A decent number of Hirano's older works are now considered collector's items due to the small number of them that exist. Many characters from Hellsing appear in his previous works and, as mentioned above, there is a rare hentai prototype of Hellsing titled The Legends of (the) Vampire Hunter. At Otakon 2006, he said in an interview that in about a year and a half to two years, he will finish Hellsing and move on to a different project which he says will be kept a secret until the time comes.

Hirano's name is usually romanized Kouta Hirano. However, it is occasionally romanized Kohta Hirano (e.g. the cover of Dark Horse's version of Hellsing and the Japanese tankōbon Covers).

Works listed alphabetically.

• Angel Dust
• Arera no Shūmatsu
• Be Wild!!
• Count Pierre Eros' Gorgeous Daily Grind
• Coyote
• Crossfire
• Daidōjin Monogatari
• Deep
• Desert Schutzstaffel
• Front
• Gun Mania
• Hellsing
  • Hellsing: The Dawn
• Hi-Tension
• Hi-and-Low
• Ikaryaku
• Ikasu Sōtō Tengoku
• Koi no Strikeback
• Mahō no Muteki Kyōshi Kawaharā Z
• Susume! Ikaryaku
• Susume!! Seigaku Dennō Kenkyū
• The Legends of Vampire Hunter
• The Weekenders

• Hirano says that he enjoys Eiichiro Oda's series, One Piece. At the end of Hellsing volume 5, he states that he'd like to feel up Nami, for instance.
• In a panel question at Anime Expo 2005, Hirano stated his favorites: his favourite male characters were Alucard and Alexander Anderson, and his favorite female character was Seras Victoria.
• It is believed that Hirano may also be a fan of Marilyn Manson. There are several instances in Hellsing in which the band's lyrics make appearances as background art, and Manson himself even makes a throwaway appearance in one of Seras' dreams.
• Hirano is openly a fanboy of many anime and manga series, including Gundam, Saint Seiya, and One Piece, and describes his hobbies as "being obnoxious" and "beating off".
• Interestingly, a character named Hirano Kouta is featured in the manga Highschool of the Dead by Daisuke and Shouji Sato. Even more interestingly, he bears startling resemblance to the manga artist, as he wears glasses, is overweight, and is rather perverted. However, the character's name is spelled in his alternate name.