Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#469
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Akira Ishida represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 29 years in, and Akira is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Akira Ishida appears in 20 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Akira. 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, screen presence. 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 Naoya Ando, Haruo Sotozaki, Shinji Takagi and others, Akira Ishida 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 Kaworu Nagisa (voice) · Gintama: The Very Final (2021) as Kotarou Katsura (voice) · Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train (2020) as Akaza (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #469 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
20
1997–2026
Career length
29 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.3
EVANGELION 30th Anniversary Special Screening
Average Nutevio score
7.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.3
EVANGELION 30th Anniversary Special Screening
Most frequent director
Haruo Sotozaki
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Haruo Sotozaki
Most common genre
Animation
19 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
7.2
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
8.0 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
8.0
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
8.3
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. Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion.
Most productive era
2020s
14 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 | 8.01 film | — | 7.34 films |
| Action | 8.01 film | 6.93 films | 7.59 films |
| Comedy | — | 7.32 films | 7.36 films |
| Crime | — | 6.72 films | — |
| Horror | — | — | 7.41 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1997Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Kaworu Nagisa (voice).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2026EVANGELION 30th Anniversary Special Screening
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
2026Gintama the Movie 2026: Yoshiwara in Flames
The current state of the argument, as Kotaro Katsura (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.
20 of 20 films
as Kaworu Nagisa (voice)
Directed by Unknown
as Akaza (voice)
Directed by Haruo Sotozaki
as Kotarou Katsura (voice)
Directed by Chizuru Miyawaki
as Fyodor Dostoyevsky (voice)
Directed by Takuya Igarashi
as Akaza (voice)
Directed by Haruo Sotozaki
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
Kaworu Nagisa (voice)
EVANGELION 30th Anniversary Special Screening (2026)
Performance score8.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Kaworu Nagisa (voice) gives Akira Ishida a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Akaza (voice)
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle (2025)
Performance score8.2
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Akaza (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Kotarou Katsura (voice)
Gintama: The Very Final (2021)
Performance score8.2
Gintama: The Very Final asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Kotarou Katsura (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (voice)
Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple (2018)
Performance score8.1
Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Fyodor Dostoyevsky (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 Kaworu Nagisa (voice)
Start here. EVANGELION 30th Anniversary Special Screening is the clearest statement of what Akira Ishida does — accessible, 0 minutes, and rated 8.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Akira 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 comedy register of EVANGELION 30th Anniversary Special Screening but asks for a colder reading of it.
Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train (2020)
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 Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train but asks for a colder reading of it.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle (2025)
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.
Naoyoshi Shiotani
Director
2 films together
Notably Psycho-Pass: Sinners of the System - Case.2 First Guardian
Kazuya Tsurumaki
Director
2 films together
Notably Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
Kunihiko Ikuhara
Director
2 films together
Notably RE:cycle of the PENGUINDRUM Part 1: Your Train Is the Survival Tactic
Haruo Sotozaki
Director
2 films together
Notably Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train
Tatsuma Minamikawa
Director
1 film together
Notably Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry
Takuya Igarashi
Director
1 film together
Notably Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple
Jumpei Mizusaki
Director
1 film together
Notably Batman Ninja
Hirofumi Ogura
Director
1 film together
Notably Cells at Work!! The Return of the Strongest Enemy: A Huge Uproar in the Body’s Bowels!
Junichi Sato
Director
1 film together
Notably Looking for Magical Doremi
Chizuru Miyawaki
Director
1 film together
Notably Gintama: The Very Final
Kiyotaka Taguchi
Director
1 film together
Notably Ultraman Blazar The Movie: Tokyo Kaiju Showdown
Mitsuo Fukuda
Director
1 film together
Notably Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM
Shinji Takagi
Director
1 film together
Notably Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League
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.
Haruo Sotozaki
Director
2 films together · 8.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen TrainKazuya 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 EvangelionKunihiko Ikuhara
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
RE:cycle of the PENGUINDRUM Part 1: Your Train Is the Survival TacticNaoyoshi Shiotani
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Psycho-Pass: Sinners of the System - Case.2 First GuardianChizuru 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 FlamesMitsuo 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 FREEDOMHirofumi Ogura
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Kiyotaka Taguchi
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ultraman Blazar The Movie: Tokyo Kaiju ShowdownShinji 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 LeagueJunichi Sato
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Looking for Magical DoremiTatsuma Minamikawa
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fairy Tail: Dragon CryJumpei 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 NinjaSix 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
Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train
as Akaza (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
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
as Kaworu Nagisa (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
EVANGELION 30th Anniversary Special Screening
as Kaworu Nagisa (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry
as Zeref (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
EVANGELION 30th Anniversary Special Screening
as Kaworu Nagisa (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. Akira Ishida 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
29 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
19 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
Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train
as Akaza (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple
as Fyodor Dostoyevsky (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
as Kaworu Nagisa (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 Kenji Nagata (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Gintama: The Very Final
as Kotarou Katsura (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry
as Zeref (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry
as Zeref (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Batman Ninja
as Red Hood / Jason Todd (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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Built a career in the same territory: animation and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and comedy
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
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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