Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#573
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Kazuyuki Okitsu 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.
Kazuyuki Okitsu appears in 12 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Kazuyuki. Samurai Ballerina -L'étoile de Paris en fleur- is the clearest case: a film rated 9.0 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, animation, action. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Hiro Kaburagi, Shunsuke Ishikawa, Susumu Mitsunaka and others, Kazuyuki Okitsu 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.
Samurai Ballerina -L'étoile de Paris en fleur- (2026) as Eitaro Tsuguta (voice) · HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle (2024) as Suguru Daisho (voice) · Josee, the Tiger and the Fish (2020) as Hayato Matsuura (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #573 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
12
2017–2026
Career length
9 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.0
Samurai Ballerina -L'étoile de Paris en fleur-
Average Nutevio score
7.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
9.0
Samurai Ballerina -L'étoile de Paris en fleur-
Most frequent director
Hiro Kaburagi
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Hiro Kaburagi
Most common genre
Animation
12 titles
Average runtime
1h 23m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.3
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
2020s
7.4 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Samurai Ballerina -L'étoile de Paris en fleur-, GREAT PRETENDER razbliuto, BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI- — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
7.4
Across 11 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
7.8
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. No Game No Life: Zero.
Most productive era
2020s
11 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 | 7.41 film | 7.57 films |
| Action | — | 7.25 films |
| Comedy | — | 7.32 films |
| Crime | — | 6.61 film |
| Romance | 7.41 film | 7.71 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Aley (voice).
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak · Most recent film
2026Samurai Ballerina -L'étoile de Paris en fleur-
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.0 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. The current state of the argument, as Eitaro Tsuguta (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.
12 of 12 films
as Eitaro Tsuguta (voice)
Directed by Unknown
as Zantetsu Tsurugi (voice)
Directed by Shunsuke Ishikawa
as Hayato Matsuura (voice)
Directed by Kotaro Tamura
as Suguru Daisho (voice)
Directed by Susumu Mitsunaka
as Gotchan (voice)
Directed by Unknown
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
Eitaro Tsuguta (voice)
Samurai Ballerina -L'étoile de Paris en fleur- (2026)
Performance score8.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Eitaro Tsuguta (voice) gives Kazuyuki Okitsu a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Zantetsu Tsurugi (voice)
BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI- (2024)
Performance score7.8
BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI- asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Zantetsu Tsurugi (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Hayato Matsuura (voice)
Josee, the Tiger and the Fish (2020)
Performance score7.7
Josee, the Tiger and the Fish asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Hayato Matsuura (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Suguru Daisho (voice)
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle (2024)
Performance score7.6
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Suguru Daisho (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 Eitaro Tsuguta (voice)
Start here. Samurai Ballerina -L'étoile de Paris en fleur- is the clearest statement of what Kazuyuki Okitsu does — accessible, 0 minutes, and rated 9.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Kazuyuki 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.
Josee, the Tiger and the Fish (2020)
Keeps the drama register of Samurai Ballerina -L'étoile de Paris en fleur- but asks for a colder reading of it.
Sing a Bit of Harmony (2021)
Keeps the drama register of Josee, the Tiger and the Fish but asks for a colder reading of it.
BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI- (2024)
Keeps the drama register of Sing a Bit of Harmony but asks for a colder reading of it.
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle (2024)
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.
Atsuko Ishizuka
Director
1 film together
Notably No Game No Life: Zero
Tsutomu Mizushima
Director
1 film together
Notably SHIROBAKO the Movie
Kaori Makita
Director
1 film together
Notably Twittering Birds Never Fly: The Clouds Gather
Kotaro Tamura
Director
1 film together
Notably Josee, the Tiger and the Fish
Masaki Tachibana
Director
1 film together
Notably Princess Principal Crown Handler: Chapter 2
Kenji Nagasaki
Director
1 film together
Notably My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission
Bob Shirohata
Director
1 film together
Notably The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh Part 2
Susumu Mitsunaka
Director
1 film together
Notably HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle
Shunsuke Ishikawa
Director
1 film together
Notably BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI-
Hiro Kaburagi
Director
1 film together
Notably GREAT PRETENDER razbliuto
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Susumu Mitsunaka
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster BattleKotaro Tamura
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Josee, the Tiger and the FishKenji Nagasaki
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
My Hero Academia: World Heroes' MissionShunsuke 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-Atsuko Ishizuka
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
No Game No Life: ZeroMasaki Tachibana
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Princess Principal Crown Handler: Chapter 2Bob Shirohata
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh Part 2Tsutomu Mizushima
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SHIROBAKO the MovieHiro Kaburagi
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GREAT PRETENDER razbliutoKaori Makita
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Twittering Birds Never Fly: The Clouds GatherSix 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
My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission
as Fat Gum (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
Samurai Ballerina -L'étoile de Paris en fleur-
as Eitaro Tsuguta (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
Samurai Ballerina -L'étoile de Paris en fleur-
as Eitaro Tsuguta (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle
as Suguru Daisho (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Samurai Ballerina -L'étoile de Paris en fleur-
as Eitaro Tsuguta (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. Kazuyuki Okitsu 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
12 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
Samurai Ballerina -L'étoile de Paris en fleur-
as Eitaro Tsuguta (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Samurai Ballerina -L'étoile de Paris en fleur-
as Eitaro Tsuguta (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Samurai Ballerina -L'étoile de Paris en fleur-
as Eitaro Tsuguta (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Princess Principal Crown Handler: Chapter 2
as Richard (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Samurai Ballerina -L'étoile de Paris en fleur-
as Eitaro Tsuguta (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh Part 2
as Priest (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
SHIROBAKO the Movie
as Shimeji Maitake (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission
as Fat Gum (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
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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