Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#766
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Maaya Sakamoto represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 31 years in, and Maaya is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Maaya Sakamoto appears in 27 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Maaya. EVANGELION 30th Anniversary Special Screening is the clearest case: a film rated 8.3 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 science fiction, comedy, animation. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Shoji Kawamori, Haruo Sotozaki, Kiyotaka Oshiyama and others, Maaya Sakamoto 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.
EVANGELION 30th Anniversary Special Screening (2026) as Mari Makinami Illustrious (voice) · Cosmic Princess Kaguya! (2026) as Momiji Sakayori (voice) · Pretty Cure All Stars F (2023) as Preme / Cure Supreme (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #766 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
27
1995–2026
Career length
31 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.3
EVANGELION 30th Anniversary Special Screening
Average Nutevio score
7.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.3
Cosmic Princess Kaguya!
Most frequent director
Masayuki Kojima
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Masayuki Kojima
Most common genre
Animation
27 titles
Average runtime
1h 36m
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
6.9
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
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
20 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 | — | — | 7.09 films |
| Action | 7.91 film | 7.33 films | 7.18 films |
| Comedy | — | 7.71 film | 7.84 films |
| Romance | — | 7.22 films | 7.22 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Kusanagi Girl (voice).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
8.3 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
The current state of the argument, as Miucha (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.
27 of 27 films
as Preme / Cure Supreme (voice)
Directed by Yuta Tanaka
as Mari Makinami Illustrious (voice)
Directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki
as Mari Makinami Illustrious (voice)
Directed by Unknown
as Momiji Sakayori (voice)
Directed by Unknown
as Artemis (voice)
Directed by Katsushi Sakurabi
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
Preme / Cure Supreme (voice)
Pretty Cure All Stars F (2023)
Performance score8.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Preme / Cure Supreme (voice) gives Maaya Sakamoto a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Mari Makinami Illustrious (voice)
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time (2021)
Performance score8.1
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mari Makinami Illustrious (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Mari Makinami Illustrious (voice)
EVANGELION 30th Anniversary Special Screening (2026)
Performance score8.0
EVANGELION 30th Anniversary Special Screening asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mari Makinami Illustrious (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Momiji Sakayori (voice)
Cosmic Princess Kaguya! (2026)
Performance score8.0
Cosmic Princess Kaguya! asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Momiji Sakayori (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 Preme / Cure Supreme (voice)
Start here. Pretty Cure All Stars F is the clearest statement of what Maaya Sakamoto does — accessible, 73 minutes, and rated 8.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Maaya 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.
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion (2019)
Keeps the action register of Pretty Cure All Stars F but asks for a colder reading of it.
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time (2021)
Keeps the action register of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion but asks for a colder reading of it.
EVANGELION 30th Anniversary Special Screening (2026)
Keeps the science fiction register of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time but asks for a colder reading of it.
Cosmic Princess Kaguya! (2026)
Same director as EVANGELION 30th Anniversary Special Screening, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Masayuki Kojima
Director
3 films together
Notably Made in Abyss: Wandering Twilight
Kyohei Ishiguro
Director
2 films together
Notably Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop
Mamoru Oshii
Director
1 film together
Notably Ghost in the Shell
Shinji Aramaki
Director
1 film together
Notably Space Pirate Captain Harlock
Yasuto Nishikata
Director
1 film together
Notably The Seven Deadly Sins: Prisoners of the Sky
Katsushi Sakurabi
Director
1 film together
Notably Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion
Kazuto Arai
Director
1 film together
Notably Fate/Grand Order the Movie: Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot 2 Paladin; Agateram
Toshifumi Akai
Director
1 film together
Notably Fate/Grand Order Final Singularity – Grand Temple of Time: Solomon
Takayuki Hamana
Director
1 film together
Notably The Seven Deadly Sins: Cursed by Light
Kazuya Tsurumaki
Director
1 film together
Notably Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time
Shunsuke Tada
Director
1 film together
Notably Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These - Intrigue 1
Yoshihide Ibata
Director
1 film together
Notably Fruits Basket -prelude-
Hiroaki Ando
Director
1 film together
Notably Kaina of the Great Snow Sea: Star Sage
Yuta Tanaka
Director
1 film together
Notably Pretty Cure All Stars F
Mitsuo Fukuda
Director
1 film together
Notably Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM
Kiyotaka Oshiyama
Director
1 film together
Notably Look Back
Haruo Sotozaki
Director
1 film together
Notably Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
Shoji Kawamori
Director
1 film together
Notably Labyrinth
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Masayuki Kojima
Director
3 films together · 7.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Made in Abyss: Wandering TwilightKyohei Ishiguro
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
Words Bubble Up Like Soda PopYuta Tanaka
Director
1 film together · 8.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Pretty Cure All Stars FHaruo 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 ShellKazuya Tsurumaki
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a TimeKiyotaka Oshiyama
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Look BackTakayuki Hamana
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Seven Deadly Sins: Cursed by LightKatsushi Sakurabi
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the OrionYasuto Nishikata
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Seven Deadly Sins: Prisoners of the SkyMitsuo Fukuda
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOMYoshihide Ibata
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fruits Basket -prelude-Toshifumi Akai
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fate/Grand Order Final Singularity – Grand Temple of Time: SolomonShoji Kawamori
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LabyrinthShinji Aramaki
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Space Pirate Captain HarlockKazuto Arai
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Shunsuke Tada
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These - Intrigue 1Hiroaki Ando
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kaina of the Great Snow Sea: Star SageSix 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
Cosmic Princess Kaguya!
as Momiji Sakayori (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
Look Back
as Woman from 4-Frame Manga (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
Pretty Cure All Stars F
as Preme / Cure Supreme (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
Pretty Cure All Stars F
as Preme / Cure Supreme (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. Maaya Sakamoto 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
27 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
Made in Abyss: Wandering Twilight
as Lyza / Narrator (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Made in Abyss: Wandering Twilight
as Lyza / Narrator (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Look Back
as Woman from 4-Frame Manga (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul
as Lyza / Narration (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Pretty Cure All Stars F
as Preme / Cure Supreme (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Pretty Cure All Stars F
as Preme / Cure Supreme (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Pretty Cure All Stars F
as Preme / Cure Supreme (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Bright: Samurai Soul
as Chihaya (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
Community
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Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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