Hiroyuki Yamaga

Hiroyuki Yamaga is a director, writer, and anime producer, and is best known for being president and representative director of studio Gainax that he established together with fellow Osaka University of Arts students Takami Akai and Hideaki Anno.

After directing the successful DAICON III Opening Animation, he went professional at Studio Nue's request, joining the production staff of 1982's Macross. In 1984 he began working on the production of Gainax' first professional work, Ouritsu Uchuugun: Honneamise no Tsubasa, an alternate universe retelling of the first space shuttle launch. The movie was released in 1987 and despite its initial domestic box office failure, the film and Yamaga's bold vision garnered a lot of attention and it later became a cult classic remembered as one of the defining works of science fiction in anime.

Yamaga's creative output slowed down after Honneamise. He directed Mahoromatic and Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai, but he would mostly keep himself to managerial duties after failing to get several projects off the ground. In 2019, he directed the second season of Piano no Mori, working as a series directed for the first time since Mahoromatic's second season in 2002.