Kōichi Yamano was a Japanese author, editor, and scenarist born in Osaka on November 27, 1939, who died in Tokyo on July 20, 2017. He is recognized as a leading proponent of the New Wave movement in Japanese science fiction, which stood in contrast to the prevailing trends that continued to favor models inspired by the Golden Age of American science fiction. His professional debut came with the story X Densha de Ikō, first published in July 1964, which would later form the basis for the anime adaptation Take the X Train.

Before creating his own original works, Yamano contributed scripts to established anime series, including Astro Boy and Big X. He subsequently created the manga and anime series Tatakae, Osupa! (known as Fight! Osper), which was serialized as a manga and adapted into a television anime that aired from December 1965 to October 1967. The series followed a hero from the sunken lost continent of Mu who is dispatched from his home under the sea to prevent a fugitive from unleashing a doomsday device.

Yamano is also credited as the original creator for the anime adaptation of his story Take the X Train, which was directed by Rintarō and released in 1987. The original story focused on a protagonist obsessed with tracking a phantom, possibly alien, train traveling around Japan's rail system.

His work is characterized by a concentration on inner space and absurdist science fiction, heavily influenced by his own experiences in counter-culture and the works of British authors such as J.G. Ballard. This orientation left him at odds with the traditional Japanese science fiction field from the outset, and his approach to the genre was defined by a focus on psychological and surreal themes rather than conventional technological or space-based narratives. As an editor and author, he played a significant role in shaping the New Wave movement in Japan, marking him as a distinctive and influential figure in the history of Japanese science fiction and anime.