Hiroyuki Kitazume

Hiroyuki Kitazume (北爪宏幸) is a Japanese animator, character designer, and illustrator celebrated for shaping the look of 1980s–1990s Sunrise anime, especially the Gundam franchise. Rising from key animation and animation direction on Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, he became the character designer for Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ and a leading visual force on Char’s Counterattack, refining Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s foundations into sleek, luminous faces and crisp, elegant silhouettes. Beyond Gundam, Kitazume’s drawings—clean linework, precise shading, and expressive eyes—defined countless posters, model-box illustrations, and artbooks, while his manga work, including the Char-focused “Deleted Affair,” showcased the same blend of glamour and realism. His influence endures in the way contemporary mecha shows balance cinematic polish with emotive, immediately readable character acting.