Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1065
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Nobunaga Shimazaki 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.
Nobunaga Shimazaki appears in 24 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Nobunaga. How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story Film 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, emotional range. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for romance, animation, action. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Chen Dali, Shota Goshozono, Tatsuya Ishihara and others, Nobunaga Shimazaki 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.
How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story Film (2020) as Aizo (voice) · Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved (2025) as Azad (voice) · Your Name. (2016) as Tsukasa Fujii (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #1065 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
24
2016–2026
Career length
10 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
10.0
How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story Film
Average Nutevio score
7.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
10.0
How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story Film
Most frequent director
Eisaku Kawanami
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Eisaku Kawanami
Most common genre
Animation
24 titles
Average runtime
1h 20m
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
7.0
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
2010s
7.3 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. ZENONZARD THE ANIMATION Episode 0, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection, Free! Road to the World - The Dream — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
7.3
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
7.3
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2010s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. ZENONZARD THE ANIMATION Episode 0, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection, Free! Road to the World - The Dream.
Most productive era
2020s
19 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 | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.32 films | 6.79 films |
| Action | 7.52 films | 7.06 films |
| Comedy | 7.01 film | 7.26 films |
| Crime | 7.12 films | — |
| Romance | 8.71 film | 6.97 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2016Your Name.
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Tsukasa Fujii (voice).
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2020How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story Film
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
2026The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie
The current state of the argument, as Haruya Nanjo (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 Aizo (voice)
Directed by Fumie Muroi
as Tsukasa Fujii (voice)
Directed by Makoto Shinkai
as Azad (voice)
Directed by Tatsuya Ishihara
as Souta Azuma (voice)
Directed by Kei Oikawa
as Seishiro Nagi (voice)
Directed by Shunsuke Ishikawa
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
Aizo (voice)
How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story Film (2020)
Performance score9.9
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Aizo (voice) gives Nobunaga Shimazaki a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Tsukasa Fujii (voice)
Your Name. (2016)
Performance score8.6
Your Name. asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Tsukasa Fujii (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Azad (voice)
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved (2025)
Performance score8.5
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Azad (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Souta Azuma (voice)
ZENONZARD THE ANIMATION Episode 0 (2019)
Performance score8.2
ZENONZARD THE ANIMATION Episode 0 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Souta Azuma (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 Aizo (voice)
Start here. How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story Film is the clearest statement of what Nobunaga Shimazaki does — accessible, 0 minutes, and rated 10.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Nobunaga 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.
Your Name. (2016)
Keeps the animation register of How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story Film but asks for a colder reading of it.
ZENONZARD THE ANIMATION Episode 0 (2019)
Keeps the animation register of Your Name. but asks for a colder reading of it.
BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI- (2024)
Keeps the action register of ZENONZARD THE ANIMATION Episode 0 but asks for a colder reading of it.
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved (2025)
Keeps the animation register of BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI- but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Eisaku Kawanami
Director
3 films together
Notably Free! the Final Stroke the First Volume
Makoto Shinkai
Director
1 film together
Notably Your Name.
Hatsuki Tsuji
Director
1 film together
Notably Lupin the Third: Prison of the Past
Kei Oikawa
Director
1 film together
Notably ZENONZARD THE ANIMATION Episode 0
Fumie Muroi
Director
1 film together
Notably How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story Film
Toshimasa Kuroyanagi
Director
1 film together
Notably Love Me, Love Me Not
Takuya Sato
Director
1 film together
Notably Happy-Go-Lucky Days
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
Yoshihide Ibata
Director
1 film together
Notably Fruits Basket -prelude-
Mamoru Hatakeyama
Director
1 film together
Notably Kaguya-sama: Love Is War -The First Kiss That Never Ends-
Masaki Tachibana
Director
1 film together
Notably Blue Thermal
Shinji Ishihira
Director
1 film together
Notably Sasaki and Miyano: Graduation
Ayataka Tanemura
Director
1 film together
Notably Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King
Toshiki Hirano
Director
1 film together
Notably Baki Hanma VS Kengan Ashura
Shunsuke Ishikawa
Director
1 film together
Notably BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI-
Tatsuya Ishihara
Director
1 film together
Notably Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved
Shota Goshozono
Director
1 film together
Notably JUJUTSU KAISEN: Execution
Chen Dali
Director
1 film together
Notably The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Eisaku Kawanami
Director
3 films together · 6.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Free! the Final Stroke the First VolumeFumie Muroi
Director
1 film together · 10.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story FilmTatsuya Ishihara
Director
1 film together · 8.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be lovedMakoto Shinkai
Director
1 film together · 8.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Your Name.Mamoru Hatakeyama
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kaguya-sama: Love Is War -The First Kiss That Never Ends-Kei 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 0Chen Dali
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Dangers in My Heart: The MovieToshiki Hirano
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Baki Hanma VS Kengan AshuraShunsuke Ishikawa
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI-Ayataka Tanemura
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard KingYoshihide 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-Toshimasa Kuroyanagi
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Love Me, Love Me NotHatsuki 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 PastToshifumi 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: SolomonMasaki Tachibana
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Blue ThermalShinji Ishihira
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sasaki and Miyano: GraduationKazuto Arai
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Shota Goshozono
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
JUJUTSU KAISEN: ExecutionTakuya Sato
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Happy-Go-Lucky DaysSix 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
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved
as Azad (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
How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story Film
as Aizo (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
How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story Film
as Aizo (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Kaguya-sama: Love Is War -The First Kiss That Never Ends-
as Mae (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story Film
as Aizo (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. Nobunaga Shimazaki 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
24 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
How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story Film
as Aizo (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story Film
as Aizo (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie
as Haruya Nanjo (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Summer Ghost
as Ryo Kobayashi (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story Film
as Aizo (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King
as Yuno (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Blue Thermal
as Jun Kuramochi (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Your Name.
as Tsukasa Fujii (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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Reference
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