Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1210
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Nobuyuki Hiyama 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.
Nobuyuki Hiyama appears in 14 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Nobuyuki. Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless Night is the clearest case: a film rated 7.3 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 action, mystery, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Katsuya Shigehara, Shinji Takagi, Toshiki Hirano and others, Nobuyuki Hiyama 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.
Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless Night (2021) as Diabel (voice) · Baki Hanma VS Kengan Ashura (2024) as Saw Paing Yoroizuka (voice) · Night Is Short, Walk On Girl (2017) as Johnny (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #1210 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
14
2017–2025
Career length
8 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.3
Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless Night
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
10.0
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Destined Crossroad
Most frequent director
Hiroyuki Imaishi
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Hiroyuki Imaishi
Most common genre
Animation
13 titles
Average runtime
1h 26m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.8
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
6.3
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
6.7 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback, Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League, Baki Hanma VS Kengan Ashura — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
6.7
Across 8 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
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. Promare, Case Closed: The Fist of Blue Sapphire, Promare / Side: Lio.
Most productive era
2020s
8 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 | — | 6.51 film |
| Action | 6.64 films | 6.95 films |
| Comedy | 7.01 film | 6.51 film |
| Crime | 6.31 film | 6.81 film |
| Romance | 7.01 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2017Night Is Short, Walk On Girl
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Johnny (voice).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2021Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless Night
7.3 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
2025Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League
The current state of the argument, as The Flash (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.
14 of 14 films
as Diabel (voice)
Directed by Ayako Kono
as Saw Paing Yoroizuka (voice)
Directed by Toshiki Hirano
as Johnny (voice)
Directed by Masaaki Yuasa
as Makoto Kyogoku (voice)
Directed by Katsuya Shigehara
as Gueira (voice)
Directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi
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
Diabel (voice)
Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless Night (2021)
Performance score7.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Diabel (voice) gives Nobuyuki Hiyama a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Saw Paing Yoroizuka (voice)
Baki Hanma VS Kengan Ashura (2024)
Performance score7.3
Baki Hanma VS Kengan Ashura asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Saw Paing Yoroizuka (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Johnny (voice)
Night Is Short, Walk On Girl (2017)
Performance score6.9
Night Is Short, Walk On Girl asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Johnny (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Makoto Kyogoku (voice)
Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback (2025)
Performance score6.7
Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Makoto Kyogoku (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 Diabel (voice)
Start here. Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless Night is the clearest statement of what Nobuyuki Hiyama does — accessible, 97 minutes, and rated 7.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Nobuyuki 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.
Night Is Short, Walk On Girl (2017)
Keeps the fantasy register of Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless Night but asks for a colder reading of it.
Promare (2019)
Keeps the animation register of Night Is Short, Walk On Girl but asks for a colder reading of it.
Baki Hanma VS Kengan Ashura (2024)
Keeps the action register of Promare but asks for a colder reading of it.
Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback (2025)
Keeps the action register of Baki Hanma VS Kengan Ashura but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Hiroyuki Imaishi
Director
2 films together
Notably Promare
Masaaki Yuasa
Director
1 film together
Notably Night Is Short, Walk On Girl
Kobun Shizuno
Director
1 film together
Notably My Tyrano: Together, Forever
Tatsumi Fujii
Director
1 film together
Notably Promare / Side: Lio
Chika Nagaoka
Director
1 film together
Notably Case Closed: The Fist of Blue Sapphire
Tsutomu Mizushima
Director
1 film together
Notably SHIROBAKO the Movie
Koichi Sakamoto
Director
1 film together
Notably Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Destined Crossroad
Ayako Kono
Director
1 film together
Notably Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless Night
Hiroaki Ando
Director
1 film together
Notably Kaina of the Great Snow Sea: Star Sage
Ryuta Tasaki
Director
1 film together
Notably Kamen Rider Gotchard: The Future Daybreak
Toshiki Hirano
Director
1 film together
Notably Baki Hanma VS Kengan Ashura
Shinji Takagi
Director
1 film together
Notably Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League
Katsuya Shigehara
Director
1 film together
Notably Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Hiroyuki Imaishi
Director
2 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
PromareAyako Kono
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless NightToshiki Hirano
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Baki Hanma VS Kengan AshuraMasaaki Yuasa
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Night Is Short, Walk On GirlKatsuya Shigehara
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Detective Conan: One-Eyed FlashbackShinji Takagi
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza LeagueKoichi Sakamoto
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Destined CrossroadTsutomu Mizushima
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SHIROBAKO the MovieTatsumi Fujii
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Promare / Side: LioRyuta Tasaki
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kamen Rider Gotchard: The Future DaybreakChika Nagaoka
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Case Closed: The Fist of Blue SapphireKobun Shizuno
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
My Tyrano: Together, ForeverHiroaki Ando
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kaina of the Great Snow Sea: Star SageSix 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
Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless Night
as Diabel (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
Night Is Short, Walk On Girl
as Johnny (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
Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless Night
as Diabel (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Destined Crossroad
as Ultraman King
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless Night
as Diabel (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. Nobuyuki Hiyama 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
13 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
Baki Hanma VS Kengan Ashura
as Saw Paing Yoroizuka (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback
as Makoto Kyogoku (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Night Is Short, Walk On Girl
as Johnny (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback
as Makoto Kyogoku (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless Night
as Diabel (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Case Closed: The Fist of Blue Sapphire
as Makoto Kyogoku (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Night Is Short, Walk On Girl
as Johnny (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Kaina of the Great Snow Sea: Star Sage
as Hundergil (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
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Reference
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