Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#10028
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Shota Sometani 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.
Shota Sometani appears in 24 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Shota. THE A-CARE -Disusebody- is the clearest case: a film rated 8.7 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 drama, horror, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Takashi Shimizu, Mamoru Hosoda, Itaru Mizuno and others, Shota Sometani 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.
THE A-CARE -Disusebody- (2026) · AnyMart (2026) as Sakai · Wolf Children (2012) as Mr. Tanabe (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #10028 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
24
2012–2026
Career length
14 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.7
THE A-CARE -Disusebody-
Average Nutevio score
6.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.7
THE A-CARE -Disusebody-
Most frequent director
Mamoru Hosoda
4 films together
Longest collaboration
4×
With Mamoru Hosoda
Most common genre
Drama
14 titles
Average runtime
1h 51m
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
6.6
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
6.9 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Kyojo Reunion, Sana: Play with Me, AnyMart — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
6.9
Across 19 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
7.0
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. To the Ends of the Earth, First Love, Samurai Marathon.
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 | 7.04 films | 6.910 films |
| Action | 6.83 films | 6.34 films |
| Thriller | — | 7.15 films |
| Comedy | 6.71 film | 6.66 films |
| Crime | 6.71 film | 7.02 films |
| Romance | — | 4.61 film |
| Horror | — | 6.95 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2012Wolf Children
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Mr. Tanabe (voice).
Highest rated performance · Career peak · Most recent film
8.7 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. 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.
24 of 24 films
Directed by Unknown
as Komiya (voice)
Directed by Unknown
as Shinjiro 'Kamishin' Chikami (voice)
Directed by Mamoru Hosoda
as Teenage Kyuta (voice)
Directed by Mamoru Hosoda
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
THE A-CARE -Disusebody-
THE A-CARE -Disusebody- (2026)
Performance score9.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. The role gives Shota Sometani a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Sakai
AnyMart (2026)
Performance score8.5
AnyMart asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sakai is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Komiya (voice)
100 METERS (2025)
Performance score8.1
100 METERS asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Komiya (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Shinjiro 'Kamishin' Chikami (voice)
Belle (2021)
Performance score7.9
Belle asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Shinjiro 'Kamishin' Chikami (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
Start here. THE A-CARE -Disusebody- is the clearest statement of what Shota Sometani does — accessible, 125 minutes, and rated 8.7 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Shota 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.
The Boy and the Beast (2015)
Keeps the drama register of THE A-CARE -Disusebody- but asks for a colder reading of it.
Belle (2021)
Same director as The Boy and the Beast, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
100 METERS (2025)
Keeps the drama register of Belle but asks for a colder reading of it.
AnyMart (2026)
Same director as 100 METERS, 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.
Mamoru Hosoda
Director
4 films together
Notably Wolf Children
Takashi Miike
Director
2 films together
Notably First Love
Takashi Shimizu
Director
2 films together
Notably Sana: Let Me Hear
Bernard Rose
Director
1 film together
Notably Samurai Marathon
Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Director
1 film together
Notably To the Ends of the Earth
Otsuichi
Director
1 film together
Notably Stare
Satoshi Miki
Director
1 film together
Notably What to Do With the Dead Kaiju?
Makoto Shinkai
Director
1 film together
Notably Suzume
Shimako Sato
Director
1 film together
Notably The Yin Yang Master Zero
Naoki Tamura
Director
1 film together
Notably Doctor X: The Movie Final
Hideki Takeuchi
Director
1 film together
Notably Cells at Work!
Itaru Mizuno
Director
1 film together
Notably That Person Has Disappeared
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Mamoru Hosoda
Director
4 films together · 7.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Wolf ChildrenTakashi Shimizu
Director
2 films together · 7.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Sana: Let Me HearTakashi Miike
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
First LoveHideki Takeuchi
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cells at Work!Makoto Shinkai
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SuzumeNaoki Tamura
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Doctor X: The Movie FinalItaru Mizuno
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
That Person Has DisappearedKiyoshi Kurosawa
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
To the Ends of the EarthShimako Sato
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Yin Yang Master ZeroOtsuichi
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
StareBernard Rose
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Samurai MarathonSatoshi Miki
Director
1 film together · 4.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
What to Do With the Dead Kaiju?Six 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
THE A-CARE -Disusebody-
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Wolf Children
as Mr. Tanabe (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
THE A-CARE -Disusebody-
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Kyojo Reunion
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
THE A-CARE -Disusebody-
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. Shota Sometani 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
14 catalogue titles in drama, 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 A-CARE -Disusebody-
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
THE A-CARE -Disusebody-
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
100 METERS
as Komiya (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Yin Yang Master Zero
as Minamoto no Hiromasa
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Cells at Work!
as Helper T Cell
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Cells at Work!
as Helper T Cell
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Boy and the Beast
as Teenage Kyuta (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
To the Ends of the Earth
as Yoshioka
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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