Hiroko Ai is a fictional character in a science-fictional universe created by Kim Stanley Robinson. Robinson's trilogy begins with Red Mars which is followed by Green Mars and concludes with Blue Mars. Hiroko Ai is one of the First 100 colonists sent to colonize Mars aboard the spacecraft Ares. Hiroko, the youngest member of the crew, is a Japanese expert on biology, agriculture, and ecological systems. She is also the charismatic leader of "the farm team," one of the important work groups and cliques among the First Hundred.
Hiroko Ai is the focus of many of the trilogy's primary themes. Most importantly, she teaches the importance of maintaining a respectful relation to one's home world planet. On Mars, this is called the Areophany. She is seldom at the center of the narrative, but her personality is pervasive. She is always a central force in the trilogy --- often as an absence akin to that of Harry Lime in The Third Man or John Galt in Atlas Shrugged. Hiroko is a unique, unforgettable character. Long live Hiroko!