Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1351
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Ikue Otani represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 38 years in, and Ikue is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Ikue Otani appears in 24 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Ikue. My Neighbor Totoro is the clearest case: a film rated 8.1 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, drama. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for action, mystery, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Takahiro Hasui, Katsuya Shigehara, Chika Nagaoka and others, Ikue Otani 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.
My Neighbor Totoro (1988) as Additional Voices (voice) · Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway (2026) as Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya (voice) · The Imaginary (2023) as Doron (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #1351 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
24
1988–2026
Career length
38 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.1
My Neighbor Totoro
Average Nutevio score
6.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.1
My Neighbor Totoro
Most frequent director
Kunihiko Yuyama
5 films together
Longest collaboration
5×
With Kunihiko Yuyama
Most common genre
Animation
23 titles
Average runtime
1h 40m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.1
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.9
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1980s
8.1 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. My Neighbor Totoro — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
8.1
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
8.1
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. My Neighbor Totoro.
Most productive era
2020s
12 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | — | — | 6.62 films | 7.03 films |
| Action | — | 6.91 film | — | 6.66 films | 7.06 films |
| Thriller | — | — | — | — | 6.51 film |
| Comedy | — | — | — | 7.21 film | 6.81 film |
| Crime | — | — | — | 6.21 film | 6.97 films |
| Romance | — | — | — | — | 6.72 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Additional Voices (voice). 8.1 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.
Most recent film
2026Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway
The current state of the argument, as Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya (voice).
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
24 of 24 films
as Additional Voices (voice)
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
as Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya (voice)
Directed by Takahiro Hasui
as Pikachu (voice)
Directed by Tetsuo Yajima
as Tony Tony Chopper (voice)
Directed by Munehisa Sakai
as Doron (voice)
Directed by Unknown
From the library
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
#1
Additional Voices (voice)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Additional Voices (voice) gives Ikue Otani a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya (voice)
Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway (2026)
Performance score7.6
Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Pikachu (voice)
Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us (2018)
Performance score7.6
Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Pikachu (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Tony Tony Chopper (voice)
One Piece Film: Strong World (2009)
Performance score7.5
One Piece Film: Strong World asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Tony Tony Chopper (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Additional Voices (voice)
Start here. My Neighbor Totoro is the clearest statement of what Ikue Otani does — accessible, 86 minutes, and rated 8.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Ikue 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.
One Piece Film: Strong World (2009)
Keeps the fantasy register of My Neighbor Totoro but asks for a colder reading of it.
Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us (2018)
Keeps the fantasy register of One Piece Film: Strong World but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Imaginary (2023)
Keeps the fantasy register of Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us but asks for a colder reading of it.
Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway (2026)
Keeps the animation register of The Imaginary but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Kunihiko Yuyama
Director
5 films together
Notably Pokémon: The First Movie
Chika Nagaoka
Director
3 films together
Notably Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram
Hayao Miyazaki
Director
1 film together
Notably My Neighbor Totoro
Munehisa Sakai
Director
1 film together
Notably One Piece Film: Strong World
Tetsuo Yajima
Director
1 film together
Notably Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us
Konosuke Uda
Director
1 film together
Notably One Piece: Episode of Skypiea
Rob Letterman
Director
1 film together
Notably Pokémon Detective Pikachu
Motonori Sakakibara
Director
1 film together
Notably Pokémon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution
Yasuichiro Yamamoto
Director
1 film together
Notably Detective Conan: Kaiju Gomera vs. Kamen Yaiba
Susumu Mitsunaka
Director
1 film together
Notably Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween
Nobuhiro Yamashita
Director
1 film together
Notably Ghost Cat Anzu
Katsuya Shigehara
Director
1 film together
Notably Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback
Takahiro Hasui
Director
1 film together
Notably Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Kunihiko Yuyama
Director
5 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 5 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Pokémon: The First MovieChika Nagaoka
Director
3 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar PentagramHayao Miyazaki
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
My Neighbor TotoroTakahiro Hasui
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the HighwayMunehisa Sakai
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
One Piece Film: Strong WorldKatsuya Shigehara
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Detective Conan: One-Eyed FlashbackKonosuke Uda
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
One Piece: Episode of SkypieaTetsuo Yajima
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Pokémon the Movie: The Power of UsRob Letterman
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Pokémon Detective PikachuNobuhiro Yamashita
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ghost Cat AnzuMotonori Sakakibara
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Pokémon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back - EvolutionYasuichiro Yamamoto
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Detective Conan: Kaiju Gomera vs. Kamen YaibaSusumu Mitsunaka
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Detective Conan: The Bride of HalloweenSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway
as Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya (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
My Neighbor Totoro
as Additional Voices (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
My Neighbor Totoro
as Additional Voices (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
My Neighbor Totoro
as Additional Voices (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
My Neighbor Totoro
as Additional Voices (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
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Ikue Otani has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
38 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Animation Legend
Awarded
23 catalogue titles in animation, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
My Neighbor Totoro
as Additional Voices (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway
as Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Imaginary
as Doron (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Detective Conan: Kaiju Gomera vs. Kamen Yaiba
as Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway
as Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
One Piece Film Red
as Tony Tony Chopper (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Pokémon the Movie: White - Victini and Zekrom
as Pikachu (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Detective Conan: Love Story at Police Headquarters ~Wedding Eve~
as Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
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Reference
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