Takayuki Hirao

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He graduated from Osaka's Designer College and started his career at Madhouse as a production assistant, later making the transition to storyboarder and episode director with Texhnolyze. During his time at Madhouse he served as Assistant Director to Satoshi Kon on Paranoia Agent and was greatly influenced by him, regarding him as his mentor. Shortly after leaving Madhouse he joined Ufotable, where he worked for several years and made his proper directorial debut with Kara no Kyoukai 5.

He left Ufotable in 2016 and he's been freelance since, returning to the company only to direct the opening for the video game Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey.

Him and Tetsurou Araki are really close friends since their days at Madhouse. They run a column called *Bariuta no ai wo shiritai!!* published in the Animage monthly magazine.

He is married to color designer Emi Chiba.