Hiroki Hayashi

is a Japanese animator and director associated with AIC. He is best known as the director of the first Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVA series and co-creator of El-Hazard.

Biography Hayashi got started in animation on ThunderCats and Silverhawks. They wanted to create a series much like Gall Force and Bubblegum Crisis where there were many guys with one girl and vice versa, but with more comedy than Bubblegum Crisis since the latter was rather serious. Bubblegums Mackey was the prototype for Tenchi but he would become the main character in contrast to the girls in Bubblegum. He and Kajishima also created Ryoko as an inspiration from I Dream of Jeannie. Following the first OVA series, he left the second series to the producers.