Hiroshi Ogawa was an animator, character designer, and animation director who graduated from Tokyo Designer Gakuin College. After joining Tsuchida Production in 1976, he left the studio in 1983 to establish his own Studio 501. Between 1987 and 1988, Ogawa worked for Disney Japan before becoming a freelancer in 1989. He then directed and storyboarded many Shin-chan episodes for Shin-Ei Animation until he began teaching at Kyoto Seika University's Comics and Animation faculty in July 2007, ending his work on Shin-chan.