Ai Nonaka

Performer

Ai Nonaka

A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.

Born
Unknown
Active
2012–present
Performances
4
In Nutevio
2012–present
Known for
Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising-
Performer Score
6.8
  • Modern Classic
View filmography

Nutevio rank

#14144

of 909177 performers

Top 5%

Ai Nonaka works on quiet performance rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
Ranked #14144 of 909177 performers in the Nutevio catalogue. Recalculated automatically as titles and credits are imported.

The essay

Reading Ai Nonaka

Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.

Why this performer matters

Ai Nonaka appears in 4 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Ai. Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion is the clearest case: a film rated 7.8 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.

Signature style

The recognisable elements are quiet performance, versatility, emotional range. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for mystery, fantasy, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.

Legacy

Working with Yukihiro Miyamoto, Ai Nonaka helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.

Best known for

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion (2013) as Kyoko Sakura (voice) · Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings (2012) as Kyoko Sakura (voice) · Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising- (2026) as Kyoko Sakura (voice)

Career snapshot

The career at a glance

Ranked #14144 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.

  • Films in Nutevio

    4

    2012–2026

  • Career length

    14 yrs

    Measured across our catalogue

  • Academy Awards

    Unknown

  • Oscar nominations

    Unknown

  • Highest Nutevio score

    7.8

    Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

  • Average Nutevio score

    3.8

    Across catalogue work

  • Highest IMDb rating

    7.8

    Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

  • Most frequent director

    Yukihiro Miyamoto

    3 films together

  • Longest collaboration

    With Yukihiro Miyamoto

  • Most common genre

    Fantasy

    3 titles

  • Average runtime

    1h 2m

    Across catalogue work

  • Golden Globe wins

    Unknown

Nutevio metric

Performer Score

Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.

Nutevio Performer Score

6.8

out of 10

A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.

  • Performance quality6.4
  • Consistency6.4
  • Emotional range6.4
  • Character transformation6.4
  • Cultural impact6.4
  • Iconic roles6.4
  • Career longevity7.5
  • Influence6.4
  • Awards recognition6.6
  • Rewatch value6.4

Nutevio metric

Influence Score

Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.

Nutevio Influence Score

6.2

out of 10

A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.

  • Cultural impact5.5

    How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.

  • Legacy5.5

    What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.

  • Industry recognition6.6

    Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.

  • Career longevity7.6

    Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.

  • Awards6.4

    Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.

  • Iconic performances6.8

    Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.

  • Influence on filmmakers5.5

    Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.

  • Influence on other actors5.5

    The reading other performers now have to answer.

Actor DNA

How they work on screen

A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.

  • Quiet performance98
  • Versatility66
  • Emotional range60
  • Transformation58
  • Drama49
  • Charisma45
  • Screen presence41
  • Rewatchability40
  • Intensity26
  • Comedy20
  • Villain presence20
  • Action7
  • Physical performance7

The shape of a career

Career evolution

Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.

6789102012201320202026
  • Nutevio
  • Performance score
  • IMDb

Peak years

Best era

Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.

Best decade

2010s

7.7 average MV

The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion, Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.

Highest average Nutevio score

2010s

7.7

Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.

Highest average IMDb rating

2010s

7.7

The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.

Most awarded era

2010s

0 Academy Awards

Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion, Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings.

Most productive era

2010s

2 films

The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.

Range, mapped

Career heatmap

Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.

The career concentrates in thriller during the 2010s, and the scores hold there.
Genre2010s2020s
Drama
0.01 film
Thriller
7.61 film

Chronology

Career timeline

Firsts and peaks

Career milestones

The turning points, in the order they happened.

  1. First film in Nutevio

    2012Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings

    Where our catalogue meets this career, as Kyoko Sakura (voice).

  2. Highest rated performance · Career peak

    2013Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

    7.8 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.

  3. Most recent film

    2026Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising-

    The current state of the argument, as Kyoko Sakura (voice).

Our order

Performances ranked

Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.

1
Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion (2013)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

2013 · Mystery

1h 57m

7.8IMDb
2
Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings (2012)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings

2012 · Fantasy

2h 11m

7.6IMDb
3
Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising- (2026)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising-

2026 · Mystery

4
Official poster for Girls Frontline Operation Calling - Online Live (2020)

Girls Frontline Operation Calling - Online Live

2020 · Music

Every title

Filmography

Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.

Genre
Decade
Sort

4 of 4 films

From the library

Complete credits

Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.

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The defining work

Signature performances

Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion (2013)

#1

Kyoko Sakura (voice)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion (2013)

Performance score7.8

The performance the rest of the career is read through. Kyoko Sakura (voice) gives Ai Nonaka a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.

View movie
Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings (2012)

#2

Kyoko Sakura (voice)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings (2012)

Performance score7.7

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Kyoko Sakura (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.

View movie
Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising- (2026)

#3

Kyoko Sakura (voice)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising- (2026)

Performance score6.5

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising- asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Kyoko Sakura (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.

View movie
Official poster for Girls Frontline Operation Calling - Online Live (2020)

#4

416

Girls Frontline Operation Calling - Online Live (2020)

Performance score6.5

Girls Frontline Operation Calling - Online Live asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. 416 is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.

View movie

Start here

The movie journey

A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.

Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion (2013)

Best entry point

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

as Kyoko Sakura (voice)

Start here. Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion is the clearest statement of what Ai Nonaka does — accessible, 117 minutes, and rated 7.8 by our editors. No context required.

Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Ai at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.

  1. Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings (2012)

    Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings (2012)

    Same director as Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.

  2. Official poster for Girls Frontline Operation Calling - Online Live (2020)

    Girls Frontline Operation Calling - Online Live (2020)

    A deliberate change of key after Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.

  3. Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising- (2026)

    Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising- (2026)

    A deliberate change of key after Girls Frontline Operation Calling - Online Live — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.

Company kept

Frequent collaborators

The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.

Behind the camera

Director network

Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.

Six degrees

Connected through cinema

Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.

Categories of our own

Most rewatchable, most emotional, most influential

Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.

Most rewatchable

Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion (2013)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

as Kyoko Sakura (voice)

The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.

Most emotional performance

Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings (2012)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings

as Kyoko Sakura (voice)

Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.

Most influential performance

Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion (2013)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

as Kyoko Sakura (voice)

You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.

Best ensemble performance

Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion (2013)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

as Kyoko Sakura (voice)

Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.

Career defining performance

Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion (2013)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

as Kyoko Sakura (voice)

If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.

In their films' words

Lines that stay

You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Ai Nonaka has known it for a long time.

Nutevio Editors · On Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

Head to head

Compare performers

Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.

Ours alone

Nutevio Honors

Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.

Modern Classic Performer

Awarded

Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.

Fantasy Legend

Awarded

3 catalogue titles in fantasy, each one a reference point for the films that followed.

Our desk

Editor's picks

Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.

Best ending

Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion (2013)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

as Kyoko Sakura (voice)

The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.

Best opening

Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion (2013)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

as Kyoko Sakura (voice)

A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.

Most emotional

Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings (2012)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings

as Kyoko Sakura (voice)

The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.

Best twist

Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion (2013)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

as Kyoko Sakura (voice)

A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.

Best visual achievement

Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion (2013)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

as Kyoko Sakura (voice)

Images that would survive with the sound switched off.

Best action sequence

Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion (2013)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

as Kyoko Sakura (voice)

Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.

Best dialogue

Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings (2012)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings

as Kyoko Sakura (voice)

Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.

Most underrated film

Official poster for Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings (2012)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings

as Kyoko Sakura (voice)

The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.

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Community

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Reference

Quick facts

Born
Unknown
Years active
2012–present
Known for
Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising-
Genres
Mystery, Fantasy, Drama
Nutevio rank
#14144
of 909177 performers tracked

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