Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#600
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Koichi Yamadera represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 37 years in, and Koichi is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Koichi Yamadera appears in 43 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Koichi. Gintama: The Very Final is the clearest case: a film rated 8.2 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, science fiction, fantasy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Kazuya Kamihoriuchi, Shinji Takagi, Masakazu Hashimoto and others, Koichi Yamadera 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.
Gintama: The Very Final (2021) as Utsuro / Shouyou Yoshida (voice) · LUPIN THE IIIRD: Zenigata and the Two Lupins (2025) as Inspector Koichi Zenigata (voice) · Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (1997) as Ryoji Kaji (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #600 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
43
1989–2026
Career length
37 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.2
Gintama: The Very Final
Average Nutevio score
6.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.3
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
Most frequent director
Kunihiko Yuyama
5 films together
Longest collaboration
5×
With Kunihiko Yuyama
Most common genre
Animation
41 titles
Average runtime
1h 33m
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
6.8
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
7.8 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Kiki's Delivery Service — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.8
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.9
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. Kiki's Delivery Service.
Most productive era
2020s
21 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 | — | 8.01 film | 7.52 films | 6.62 films | 6.98 films |
| Action | — | 7.64 films | — | 6.611 films | 6.815 films |
| Comedy | — | — | 7.61 film | 6.64 films | 6.52 films |
| Crime | — | — | — | 6.53 films | 7.33 films |
| Romance | — | — | 7.51 film | 6.61 film | 7.25 films |
| Horror | — | 7.41 film | — | — | 7.01 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Bakery Worker / Policeman (voice).
Career peak
1993Ninja Scroll
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Highest rated performance
8.2 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Most recent film
2026Chimney Town: Frozen in Time
The current state of the argument.
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.
43 of 43 films
as Inspector Koichi Zenigata (voice)
Directed by Unknown
as Jubei Kibagami (voice)
Directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri
as Utsuro / Shouyou Yoshida (voice)
Directed by Chizuru Miyawaki
as Mask Seller (voice)
Directed by Tomotaka Shibayama
as Togusa (voice)
Directed by Mamoru Oshii
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Inspector Koichi Zenigata (voice)
LUPIN THE IIIRD: Zenigata and the Two Lupins (2025)
Performance score8.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Inspector Koichi Zenigata (voice) gives Koichi Yamadera a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Jubei Kibagami (voice)
Ninja Scroll (1993)
Performance score8.0
Ninja Scroll asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jubei Kibagami (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Utsuro / Shouyou Yoshida (voice)
Gintama: The Very Final (2021)
Performance score7.9
Gintama: The Very Final asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Utsuro / Shouyou Yoshida (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Mask Seller (voice)
A Whisker Away (2020)
Performance score7.9
A Whisker Away asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mask Seller (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 Inspector Koichi Zenigata (voice)
Start here. LUPIN THE IIIRD: Zenigata and the Two Lupins is the clearest statement of what Koichi Yamadera does — accessible, 55 minutes, and rated 8.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Koichi 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.
Ninja Scroll (1993)
Keeps the action register of LUPIN THE IIIRD: Zenigata and the Two Lupins but asks for a colder reading of it.
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Keeps the action register of Ninja Scroll but asks for a colder reading of it.
A Whisker Away (2020)
Keeps the animation register of Ghost in the Shell but asks for a colder reading of it.
Gintama: The Very Final (2021)
Keeps the animation register of A Whisker Away 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
Satoshi Kon
Director
2 films together
Notably Tokyo Godfathers
Kazuya Tsurumaki
Director
2 films together
Notably Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
Hayao Miyazaki
Director
1 film together
Notably Kiki's Delivery Service
Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Director
1 film together
Notably Ninja Scroll
Mamoru Oshii
Director
1 film together
Notably Ghost in the Shell
Jumpei Mizusaki
Director
1 film together
Notably Batman Ninja
Tetsuo Yajima
Director
1 film together
Notably Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us
Tatsuya Nagamine
Director
1 film together
Notably Dragon Ball Super: Broly
Hatsuki Tsuji
Director
1 film together
Notably Lupin the Third: Prison of the Past
Kenji Kodama
Director
1 film together
Notably City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes
Takahiro Ikezoe
Director
1 film together
Notably Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion The Movie: The Marvelous Fast ALFA-X That Comes From the Future
Motonori Sakakibara
Director
1 film together
Notably Pokémon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution
Hiroshi Ikehata
Director
1 film together
Notably BEM: BECOME HUMAN
Tomotaka Shibayama
Director
1 film together
Notably A Whisker Away
Hisatoshi Shimizu
Director
1 film together
Notably Eureka: Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution
Shinji Aramaki
Director
1 film together
Notably Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Sustainable War
Kyohei Ishiguro
Director
1 film together
Notably Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop
Chizuru Miyawaki
Director
1 film together
Notably Gintama: The Very Final
Sunghoo Park
Director
1 film together
Notably Jujutsu Kaisen 0
Ayako Kono
Director
1 film together
Notably Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless Night
Shinji Higuchi
Director
1 film together
Notably Shin Ultraman
Shuhei Matsushita
Director
1 film together
Notably DEEMO Memorial Keys
Tetsuro Kodama
Director
1 film together
Notably Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero
Hiroyuki Seshita
Director
1 film together
Notably LUPIN THE 3rd vs. CAT'S EYE
Masakazu Hashimoto
Director
1 film together
Notably Crayon Shin-chan the Movie: Super Hot! The Spicy Kasukabe Dancers
Shinji Takagi
Director
1 film together
Notably Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League
Kazuya Kamihoriuchi
Director
1 film together
Notably Eiga Kamen Raidā Zettsu Sayonara no Misshon
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 MovieKazuya Tsurumaki
Director
2 films together · 7.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of EvangelionSatoshi Kon
Director
2 films together · 7.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Tokyo GodfathersChizuru 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 FinalMamoru 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 ShellSunghoo Park
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jujutsu Kaisen 0Hayao Miyazaki
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kiki's Delivery ServiceTetsuro Kodama
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dragon Ball Super: Super HeroTatsuya Nagamine
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dragon Ball Super: BrolyTomotaka Shibayama
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Whisker AwayShuhei Matsushita
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DEEMO Memorial KeysShinji Higuchi
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Shin UltramanYoshiaki Kawajiri
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ninja ScrollAyako 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 NightKyohei Ishiguro
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Words Bubble Up Like Soda PopTetsuo 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 UsHiroshi Ikehata
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BEM: BECOME HUMANHatsuki Tsuji
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lupin the Third: Prison of the PastShinji Aramaki
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Sustainable WarMasakazu Hashimoto
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Crayon Shin-chan the Movie: Super Hot! The Spicy Kasukabe DancersMotonori 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 - EvolutionTakahiro Ikezoe
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Shinji 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 LeagueHisatoshi Shimizu
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Eureka: Eureka Seven Hi-EvolutionKenji Kodama
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
City Hunter: Shinjuku Private EyesHiroyuki Seshita
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LUPIN THE 3rd vs. CAT'S EYEJumpei Mizusaki
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Batman NinjaKazuya Kamihoriuchi
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Eiga Kamen Raidā Zettsu Sayonara no MisshonSix 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
Gintama: The Very Final
as Utsuro / Shouyou Yoshida (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
Kiki's Delivery Service
as Bakery Worker / Policeman (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
Gintama: The Very Final
as Utsuro / Shouyou Yoshida (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Eureka: Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution
as Dewey Novak (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
LUPIN THE IIIRD: Zenigata and the Two Lupins
as Inspector Koichi Zenigata (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. Koichi Yamadera 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
37 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
41 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
Kiki's Delivery Service
as Bakery Worker / Policeman (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
LUPIN THE IIIRD: Zenigata and the Two Lupins
as Inspector Koichi Zenigata (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Chimney Town: Frozen in Time
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
DEEMO Memorial Keys
as Valensky (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
LUPIN THE IIIRD: Zenigata and the Two Lupins
as Inspector Koichi Zenigata (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
LUPIN THE IIIRD: Zenigata and the Two Lupins
as Inspector Koichi Zenigata (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Tokyo Godfathers
as Taxi Driver (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Pokémon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution
as Mew (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
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Rumi Hiiragi
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Miyu Irino
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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