Itaru Hinoue - Career

Career

Hinoue entered a vocational school to become a professional artist due to the influence of the popular adult visual novel Dōkyūsei by ELF. Her first work for a visual novel was as one of many artists for Tamago Ryōri by Bon Bin Pompon in 1996, but shortly after transferred to the software company Tactics under the publisher Nexton. There, she was the art director of three games: Dōsei, Moon., and One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e. After the completion of One, Hinoue and much of the staff who made both Moon. and One, including Jun Maeda, Shinji Orito, Naoki Hisaya, and OdiakeS, left Tactics to work under the video game publishing company Visual Art's where they formed the company Key. At Key, Hinoue was the sole art director for their first three titles, Kanon, Air, and Clannad, but did not contribute for the two games that followed, Planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no Yume, and Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life. For Key's sixth title Little Busters! released in July 2007, Hinoue shared the position of art director with fellow artist Na-Ga, though Na-Ga provided most of the art for the characters. Outside of Key in 2006, Hinoue was the art director for the yaoi visual novel Bokura wa Minna, Koi o suru by the company Pekoe, also under Visual Art's. In 2007, Hinoue provided uniform design and one of five character designs in a five-part moe adult drama CD series named School Heart's produced by Mana, a brand under Visual Art's. Between December 2007 and August 2010, Hinoue was one of three personalities (the others being Shinji Orito and another named woman from Pekoe named Chiro) on an Internet radio show sponsored by Key in regards to the brand called Key Net Radio. Hinoue worked on Key's ninth game Rewrite by heading the project's planning, and acting as the sole art director and character designer.