Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2157
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Mutsumi Tamura 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.
Mutsumi Tamura appears in 18 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Mutsumi. Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved is the clearest case: a film rated 7.5 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 comedy, fantasy, animation. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Tatsuya Ishihara, Kazuaki Imai, Tatsuyuki Nagai and others, Mutsumi Tamura 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.
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved (2025) as Kobayashi (voice) · Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna (2020) as Koshiro Izumi (voice) · Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie (2019) as Bibi (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #2157 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
18
2013–2025
Career length
12 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved
Average Nutevio score
6.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.9
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved
Most frequent director
Masayuki Kojima
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Masayuki Kojima
Most common genre
Animation
18 titles
Average runtime
1h 25m
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
6.4
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
6.9 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Hello WeGo!, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion, Made in Abyss: Journey's Dawn — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.9
Across 7 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
7.5
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. Hello WeGo!, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion, Made in Abyss: Journey's Dawn.
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 | 7.01 film | 6.54 films |
| Action | 7.03 films | 7.32 films |
| Comedy | 6.82 films | 6.64 films |
| Romance | 7.21 film | 6.11 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2013anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day - The Movie
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Young Jintan (voice).
Highest rated performance · Career peak · Most recent film
2025Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved
7.5 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 Kobayashi (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.
18 of 18 films
as Kobayashi (voice)
Directed by Tatsuya Ishihara
as Kosuke Kumagaya (voice)
Directed by Unknown
as Koshiro Izumi (voice)
Directed by Tomohisa Taguchi
as Young Mamoru (voice)
Directed by Chiaki Kon
as Nat (voice)
Directed by Masayuki Kojima
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
Kobayashi (voice)
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved (2025)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Kobayashi (voice) gives Mutsumi Tamura a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Kosuke Kumagaya (voice)
Drifting Home (2022)
Performance score7.6
Drifting Home asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Kosuke Kumagaya (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Koshiro Izumi (voice)
Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna (2020)
Performance score7.5
Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Koshiro Izumi (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Young Mamoru (voice)
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal the Movie Part 2 (2021)
Performance score7.2
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal the Movie Part 2 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Young Mamoru (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 Kobayashi (voice)
Start here. Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved is the clearest statement of what Mutsumi Tamura does — accessible, 105 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Mutsumi 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.
Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna (2020)
Keeps the fantasy register of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved but asks for a colder reading of it.
Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul (2020)
Keeps the fantasy register of Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna but asks for a colder reading of it.
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal the Movie Part 2 (2021)
Keeps the fantasy register of Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul but asks for a colder reading of it.
Drifting Home (2022)
Keeps the fantasy register of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal the Movie Part 2 but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Masayuki Kojima
Director
3 films together
Notably Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul
Tatsuyuki Nagai
Director
2 films together
Notably anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day - The Movie
Yutaka Uemura
Director
1 film together
Notably Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie
Shigeharu Takahashi
Director
1 film together
Notably Yo-kai Watch Jam: Yo-kai Academy Y - Can a Cat Be a Hero?
Katsushi Sakurabi
Director
1 film together
Notably Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion
Ryoji Masuyama
Director
1 film together
Notably Hello WeGo!
Takuya Sato
Director
1 film together
Notably Happy-Go-Lucky Days
Tomohisa Taguchi
Director
1 film together
Notably Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna
Hiromitsu Kanazawa
Director
1 film together
Notably Seitokai Yakuindomo the Movie 2
Eisaku Kawanami
Director
1 film together
Notably Free! the Final Stroke the First Volume
Chiaki Kon
Director
1 film together
Notably Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal the Movie Part 2
Takayuki Hamana
Director
1 film together
Notably The Klutzy Witch: Fuuka and the Dark Witch
Kazuaki Imai
Director
1 film together
Notably Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Earth Symphony
Tatsuya Ishihara
Director
1 film together
Notably Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Masayuki Kojima
Director
3 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep SoulTatsuyuki Nagai
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
anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day - The MovieTatsuya Ishihara
Director
1 film together · 7.5 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 lovedTomohisa Taguchi
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution KizunaYutaka Uemura
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Saga of Tanya the Evil: The MovieChiaki Kon
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal the Movie Part 2Katsushi Sakurabi
Director
1 film together · 7.2 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 OrionKazuaki Imai
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Earth SymphonyEisaku Kawanami
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Free! the Final Stroke the First VolumeRyoji Masuyama
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hello WeGo!Shigeharu Takahashi
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Yo-kai Watch Jam: Yo-kai Academy Y - Can a Cat Be a Hero?Hiromitsu Kanazawa
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Seitokai Yakuindomo the Movie 2Takuya Sato
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Happy-Go-Lucky DaysTakayuki Hamana
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Klutzy Witch: Fuuka and the Dark WitchSix 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 Kobayashi (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
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion
as Finn Deimne (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
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved
as Kobayashi (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Free! the Final Stroke the First Volume
as Hiyori Tono (childhood) (voice0
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved
as Kobayashi (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. Mutsumi Tamura 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
18 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: Dawn of the Deep Soul
as Nat (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 Nat (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Earth Symphony
as Mortzel (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 Nat (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna
as Koshiro Izumi (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna
as Koshiro Izumi (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Earth Symphony
as Mortzel (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Klutzy Witch: Fuuka and the Dark Witch
as Chitose (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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Jamie Harris
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Tom Wilkinson
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Matt Damon
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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