Hideki Kakinuma is a Japanese creator known for his work in the anime industry, primarily during the 1980s and 1990s, as a writer, mechanical designer, and original concept creator. He was born on April 23, 1958, in Tokyo, Japan. Kakinuma is most widely recognized as the original creator of the Gall Force metaseries, a science fiction anime franchise that began with the 1986 OVA Eternal Story. He is specifically credited as the original creator for the 1996 OVA Gall Force: The Revolution. Beyond his creator credit, Kakinuma was deeply involved in the Gall Force series as a writer, having written the screenplays for Gall Force 2: Destruction, Ten Little Gall Force, Gall Force 3: Stardust War, Rhea Gall Force, and the Earth Chapter and New Era OVAs.

Before establishing himself as a creator, Kakinuma worked as an editor for the model hobby magazine Hobby Japan, where he was involved in editing the influential mook How to Build Gundam. Following his time at Hobby Japan, he joined the defunct design studio Artmic. While at Artmic, he served as a mechanical designer on notable titles such as the television series Genesis Climber Mospeada (1983) and the OVA Megazone 23 (1985). He also contributed mechanical designs to the cyberpunk OVA series Bubblegum Crisis (1987). The concept for the Gall Force franchise first emerged as a serialized photo novel titled Star Front Gall Force, which was published in Model Graphix magazine, a publication founded by former Hobby Japan staff. This photo novel served as the direct precursor and foundation for the animated Gall Force OVAs.

Kakinuma’s career reflects a transition from hands-on design and model-making to original story creation and screenwriting. He is also a novelist and manga writer, having authored novel adaptations of classic anime titles such as Gatchaman and Casshan, as well as the original novel for Detonator Orgun, which he also adapted into an OVA. He served as the series composer and scriptwriter for the television series DT Eightron (1998). In addition to his creative work, he is the representative of the planning company Darts and has remained active in the planning, editing, and writing of model-related books and mooks. His industry significance lies in his role as a key figure in the early original video animation (OVA) boom, particularly for his work on the science fiction genre and his ability to function across multiple disciplines, including mechanical design, storyboarding, and screenwriting, to bring original concepts to completion.