Hiroki Kazama

Hiroki Kazama (Japanese: 風間太樹; born July 22, 1991) is a Japanese film and television director attached to the production company AOI Pro., best known to BL audiences as the lead director of TV Tokyo’s Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! (2020) and as the sole director of its sequel feature Cherry Magic! THE MOVIE (2022).

Kazama was born in Nanyo, Yamagata Prefecture, and studied in the Department of Film and Video at Tohoku University of Art and Design, where his teachers included the directors Kichitaro Negishi and Satoru Maeda. He began making short films while still a student, directing Halcyon days (2013), on which he also took the writing, camera and editing credits, followed by Umi Nari (2014) and Okujo no Obake (2017), and the music video for GOMESS’s “MUKU” (2016).

After graduating he joined the production company AOI Pro., starting in its commercial production department before transferring to the entertainment content production division, where he now holds a partner-level position. His first television credit was the Fuji TV spin-off drama Teiichi no Kuni: Gakuseigai no Kissaten (2017), and he followed it with the GYAO streaming drama Koi wa Ameagari no You ni: Pocket no Naka no Negaigoto (2018). His feature debut came in 2019 with Cheer Boys!!.

Cherry Magic arrived the following year. He directed the opening episode and shared the twelve-episode run with Hiroaki Yuasa and Masataka Hayashi; the series took the 106th Television Drama Academy Award for Best Work and a Galaxy Award monthly prize. When the story was continued as a feature in 2022 he directed it alone, and the film won the Film Fan Award in the Japanese film section of the 77th Mainichi Film Concours.

His profile in Japan rose further with the Fuji TV prime-time drama silent (2022), which brought him the 114th Television Drama Academy Award for Best Director, a Galaxy Award monthly prize, an Elandor Award special prize and the Directing Award at Tokyo Drama Award 2023. He also directed Ukiwa: Tomodachi Ijo, Furin Miman (2021), Kyakuhon Geinin (2022) and Umi no Hajimari (2024), and wrote as well as directed the feature Buzzy Noise (2024). Two further features, Mobuko no Koi and Yomei Ichinen, Otoko wo Kau, are listed for 2026.