Hiroaki Hirata (平田 広明 Hirata Hiroaki?) is a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator who was born on August 7, 1963 from Tokyo. He is the founder of Hirata Production.
Role in the Devil May Cry series[]
Hirata is the voice actor who played the role of Vergil in first in the released update to Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
Since then, Hirata reprised his role in Project X Zone 2, Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition, Devil May Cry 5 and the Netflix series.[1]
Other Roles[]
He is most known for the roles of Sanji (One Piece), Sha Gojyo (Saiyuki), Kotetsu T. Kaburagi (Tiger & Bunny), Mutta Nanba (Space Brothers) and the Narrator of Digimon Adventure. He is also the official Japanese dub-over artist for Johnny Depp and most recently voice acting as Mr. Kondō from the anime After the Rain.
He won the award for Best Actor in a leading role at the 6th Seiyū Awards for his work on Air Gear, One Piece and Tiger & Bunny.
Coincidentally, another similar Japanese-swordsman-esque character that Hirata had voiced that fans had made notable comparisons to is Samuel Rodrigues, AKA Jetstream Sam, from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (given that they had dark falls from grace that pit them against their respective opposing protagonists).
Trivia[]
- Hirata was directly/intentionally chosen as the Japanese voice actor for Vergil by the developers of both the Devil May Cry/Sengoku Basara team and (Ultimate) Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Both Ryōta Niitsuma and Hiroyuki Kobayashi personally deemed that Hirata's voice suited Vergil.[2]
- With the memetic comparisons between both Vergil and Jetstream Sam, the irony between them aside from their personalities being rather opposite, is also their usages of double/midair jumping:
- Vergil throughout the Devil May Cry games can never normally midair jump/use Air Hike; he either must use Trick Up as a bypass or solely in UMvC3, activate his Devil Trigger to gain access to both (mid)air dashing and midair jumping.
- Meanwhile Sam is the only character in Metal Gear Revengeance (when playing his DLC scenario) that can midair jump.
References[]
- ↑ Netflix Anime (@NetflixAnime): "Introducing the Japanese voice cast for Devil May Cry 😈 Toshiyuki Morikawa as Dante Fumiko Orikasa as Mary Hiroaki Hirata as Vergil Devil May Cry is coming exclusively to Netflix on April 3! #AJ2025 #AnimeJapan2025 #NetflixAnime" | Twitter
- ↑ 『ULTIMATE MARVEL VS. CAPCOM 3』ステージでアイアンフィスト＆バージルが公開！ バージルの声優は平田広明さんに決定!!