Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#956
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Kazuhiro Yamaji represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 31 years in, and Kazuhiro is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Kazuhiro Yamaji appears in 20 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Kazuhiro. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle is the clearest case: a film rated 8.0 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for action, science fiction, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Masaki Kitamura, Haruo Sotozaki, Mamoru Hosoda and others, Kazuhiro Yamaji 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.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle (2025) as (voice) · Ghost in the Shell (1995) as Garbage Collector A (voice) · The Boy and the Beast (2015) as Iozen (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #956 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
20
1995–2026
Career length
31 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.0
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
Most frequent director
Mamoru Hosoda
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Mamoru Hosoda
Most common genre
Animation
17 titles
Average runtime
1h 41m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
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
6.7
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
1990s
7.9 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Ghost in the Shell — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.9
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.9
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Ghost in the Shell.
Most productive era
2020s
14 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 | 1990s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 7.61 film | 6.64 films |
| Action | 7.91 film | 7.03 films | 7.19 films |
| Thriller | — | — | 7.01 film |
| Comedy | — | 7.41 film | 7.33 films |
| Crime | — | — | 6.82 films |
| Romance | — | 7.41 film | — |
| Horror | — | — | 7.41 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Garbage Collector A (voice).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2025Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
8.0 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
2026Assassination Classroom the Movie: Our Time
The current state of the argument, as Mario (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.
20 of 20 films
as (voice)
Directed by Haruo Sotozaki
as Garbage Collector A (voice)
Directed by Mamoru Oshii
as Iozen (voice)
Directed by Mamoru Hosoda
as Goma Rosalia (voice)
Directed by Koichi Sakamoto
as Katsunori Ryuga (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
(voice)
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle (2025)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. (voice) gives Kazuhiro Yamaji a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Garbage Collector A (voice)
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Performance score7.7
Ghost in the Shell asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Garbage Collector A (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Iozen (voice)
The Boy and the Beast (2015)
Performance score7.4
The Boy and the Beast asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Iozen (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Goma Rosalia (voice)
Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger vs. Kyoryuger (2024)
Performance score7.3
Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger vs. Kyoryuger asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Goma Rosalia (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 (voice)
Start here. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle is the clearest statement of what Kazuhiro Yamaji does — accessible, 156 minutes, and rated 8.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Kazuhiro 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.
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Keeps the action register of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Boy and the Beast (2015)
Keeps the action register of Ghost in the Shell but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe (2023)
Keeps the fantasy register of The Boy and the Beast but asks for a colder reading of it.
Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger vs. Kyoryuger (2024)
Keeps the fantasy register of The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Hiroyuki Seshita
Director
2 films together
Notably Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle
Shunsuke Tada
Director
2 films together
Notably Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These - Intrigue 1
Naoyoshi Shiotani
Director
2 films together
Notably Psycho-Pass: Providence
Mamoru Hosoda
Director
2 films together
Notably The Boy and the Beast
Mamoru Oshii
Director
1 film together
Notably Ghost in the Shell
Masaaki Yuasa
Director
1 film together
Notably Night Is Short, Walk On Girl
Yugo Sakamoto
Director
1 film together
Notably A Janitor
Ayako Kono
Director
1 film together
Notably Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless Night
Yasuichiro Yamamoto
Director
1 film together
Notably Detective Conan: Kaiju Gomera vs. Kamen Yaiba
Takashi Katagiri
Director
1 film together
Notably SPY x FAMILY CODE: White
Koichi Sakamoto
Director
1 film together
Notably Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger vs. Kyoryuger
Shinji Takagi
Director
1 film together
Notably Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League
Haruo Sotozaki
Director
1 film together
Notably Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
Masaki Kitamura
Director
1 film together
Notably Assassination Classroom the Movie: Our Time
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Mamoru Hosoda
Director
2 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Boy and the BeastNaoyoshi Shiotani
Director
2 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Psycho-Pass: ProvidenceHiroyuki Seshita
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Godzilla: City on the Edge of BattleShunsuke Tada
Director
2 films together · 3.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These - Intrigue 1Haruo Sotozaki
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity CastleMamoru Oshii
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ghost in the ShellKoichi Sakamoto
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger vs. KyoryugerMasaaki Yuasa
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Night Is Short, Walk On GirlAyako Kono
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless NightMasaki Kitamura
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Assassination Classroom the Movie: Our TimeTakashi Katagiri
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SPY x FAMILY CODE: WhiteShinji Takagi
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza LeagueYasuichiro 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 YaibaYugo Sakamoto
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A JanitorSix 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
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
as (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
The Boy and the Beast
as Iozen (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
Ghost in the Shell
as Garbage Collector A (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
as (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
as (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. Kazuhiro Yamaji 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
31 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
17 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
The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe
as Katsunori Ryuga (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe
as Katsunori Ryuga (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Night Is Short, Walk On Girl
as Todo (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe
as Katsunori Ryuga (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
as (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger vs. Kyoryuger
as Goma Rosalia (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Night Is Short, Walk On Girl
as Todo (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Detective Conan: Kaiju Gomera vs. Kamen Yaiba
as Heizou Hattori (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Have your say
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Reference
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