Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1632
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Kazuya Nakai works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Kazuya Nakai appears in 17 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Kazuya. Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy is the clearest case: a film rated 10.0 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, screen presence. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for action, science fiction, animation. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Naoya Ando, Sunghoo Park, Chizuru Miyawaki and others, Kazuya Nakai 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.
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy (2021) as Ultraman Max · Gintama: The Very Final (2021) as Toushirou Hijikata (voice) · Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple (2018) as Tatsuhiko Shibusawa (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #1632 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
17
2007–2026
Career length
19 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
10.0
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy
Average Nutevio score
7.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
10.0
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy
Most frequent director
Hiroyuki Seshita
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Hiroyuki Seshita
Most common genre
Animation
15 titles
Average runtime
1h 27m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.4
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
2020s
7.8 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Gintama the Movie 2026: Yoshiwara in Flames, Monsters 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation, The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
7.8
Across 8 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
7.8
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2000s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. One Piece Film: Strong World, Death Note Relight 1: Visions of a God.
Most productive era
2020s
8 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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.41 film | — | — |
| Action | — | 7.15 films | 7.97 films |
| Thriller | 7.41 film | — | — |
| Comedy | — | 7.63 films | 7.41 film |
| Crime | 7.41 film | 5.61 film | — |
| Romance | — | 7.41 film | — |
| Horror | — | — | 7.41 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2007Death Note Relight 1: Visions of a God
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Kanzo Mogi (voice).
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2021Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 10.0 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
2026Gintama the Movie 2026: Yoshiwara in Flames
The current state of the argument, as Toshiro Hijikata (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.
17 of 17 films
as Ultraman Max
Directed by Koichi Sakamoto
as Toushirou Hijikata (voice)
Directed by Chizuru Miyawaki
as Ranburn Tidal (voice)
Directed by Kei Oikawa
as Toshiro Hijikata (voice)
Directed by Naoya Ando
as Tatsuhiko Shibusawa (voice)
Directed by Takuya Igarashi
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
Ultraman Max
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy (2021)
Performance score9.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Ultraman Max gives Kazuya Nakai a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Toushirou Hijikata (voice)
Gintama: The Very Final (2021)
Performance score8.2
Gintama: The Very Final asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Toushirou Hijikata (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Ranburn Tidal (voice)
ZENONZARD THE ANIMATION Episode 0 (2019)
Performance score8.0
ZENONZARD THE ANIMATION Episode 0 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ranburn Tidal (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Toshiro Hijikata (voice)
Gintama the Movie 2026: Yoshiwara in Flames (2026)
Performance score7.8
Gintama the Movie 2026: Yoshiwara in Flames asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Toshiro Hijikata (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 Ultraman Max
Start here. Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy is the clearest statement of what Kazuya Nakai does — accessible, 103 minutes, and rated 10.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Kazuya 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.
Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple (2018)
Keeps the action register of Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy but asks for a colder reading of it.
ZENONZARD THE ANIMATION Episode 0 (2019)
Keeps the action register of Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple but asks for a colder reading of it.
Gintama: The Very Final (2021)
Keeps the action register of ZENONZARD THE ANIMATION Episode 0 but asks for a colder reading of it.
Gintama the Movie 2026: Yoshiwara in Flames (2026)
Keeps the action register of Gintama: The Very Final 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
Tetsuro Araki
Director
1 film together
Notably Death Note Relight 1: Visions of a God
Munehisa Sakai
Director
1 film together
Notably One Piece Film: Strong World
Masaaki Yuasa
Director
1 film together
Notably Night Is Short, Walk On Girl
Takuya Igarashi
Director
1 film together
Notably Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple
Konosuke Uda
Director
1 film together
Notably One Piece: Episode of Skypiea
Hiroyuki Kato
Director
1 film together
Notably Lupinranger vs Patranger vs Kyuranger
Kei Oikawa
Director
1 film together
Notably ZENONZARD THE ANIMATION Episode 0
Koichi Sakamoto
Director
1 film together
Notably Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy
Kobun Shizuno
Director
1 film together
Notably The Journey
Kenji Nagasaki
Director
1 film together
Notably My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission
Chizuru Miyawaki
Director
1 film together
Notably Gintama: The Very Final
Sunghoo Park
Director
1 film together
Notably Monsters 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation
Naoya Ando
Director
1 film together
Notably Gintama the Movie 2026: Yoshiwara in Flames
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Hiroyuki 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 BattleKoichi Sakamoto
Director
1 film together · 10.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute ConspiracyChizuru Miyawaki
Director
1 film together · 8.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gintama: The Very FinalTakuya Igarashi
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead AppleNaoya Ando
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gintama the Movie 2026: Yoshiwara in FlamesKei Oikawa
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ZENONZARD THE ANIMATION Episode 0Kenji Nagasaki
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
My Hero Academia: World Heroes' MissionMasaaki 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 GirlMunehisa 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 WorldTetsuro Araki
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Death Note Relight 1: Visions of a GodSunghoo Park
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Monsters 103 Mercies Dragon DamnationKonosuke 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 SkypieaKobun Shizuno
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The JourneyHiroyuki Kato
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lupinranger vs Patranger vs KyurangerSix 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
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy
as Ultraman Max
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Night Is Short, Walk On Girl
as Seitarō Higuchi (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
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy
as Ultraman Max
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Monsters 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation
as Roronoa Zoro / Dragon / Narration (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy
as Ultraman Max
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. Kazuya Nakai 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.
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
15 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
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy
as Ultraman Max
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy
as Ultraman Max
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 Seitarō Higuchi (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 Kozo Ryuga (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy
as Ultraman Max
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Monsters 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation
as Roronoa Zoro / Dragon / Narration (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Night Is Short, Walk On Girl
as Seitarō Higuchi (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Journey
as Musab (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
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Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and comedy
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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