[Nightengale]

Ah...Mugen no Ryvius. Now that I think about it, I used to dislike his Ryvius designs because there was a sense of plain~ness. It is the most distinstive however, in terms of self-confined comparisons, though looking back now, IR was probably the only anime that captured the Hirai style at it's best. Cosmic Era's faithfulness to the Hirai style was about as faithful as Gundam is to Okawara's boxy linearts, and others are pretty much the same as well. Heroic Age doesn't look like it'll be any different, based on the main picture character vs lineart character art.

When I think Hirai, the words that pop up almost instantly is CLAMP. I'd swear, sometimes I think Hirai is a member there. Their older artworks and styles, while not very distinctive on their own, imo were some of their better ones. And as they've changed their styles over the years, they get more and more distinctive, but for some reason, loses a sense of diversity in their art. Hirai's copypasta is very apparent in his "emo teen designs" and CLAMP's "Noodle Monkeys" is not appealing to my eyes. Not to mention both their designs respectively cater to fujoshis in general. Though personally, what I like about both arts are that their fashion taste, while sometimes eccentric, I find them very appealing. Cosmic Era's wardrobes are some of my favourite clothes designs.