Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2165
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Soma Saito 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.
Soma Saito appears in 17 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Soma. HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle 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, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for war, science fiction, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Shukou Murase, Baku Kinoshita, Shunsuke Ishikawa and others, Soma Saito 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.
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle (2024) as Tadashi Yamaguchi (voice) · Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion (2019) as Hermes (voice) · BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI- (2024) as Hyoma Chigiri (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #2165 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
17
2019–2026
Career length
7 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.3
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
10.0
How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story Film
Most frequent director
Shukou Murase
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Shukou Murase
Most common genre
Animation
16 titles
Average runtime
1h 10m
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
6.2
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
6.7 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Kimi dake ni Motetainda., Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.7
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
6.8
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. Kimi dake ni Motetainda., Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion.
Most productive era
2020s
15 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 | 6.11 film | 6.75 films |
| Action | 7.21 film | 6.65 films |
| Comedy | 6.72 films | 6.45 films |
| Crime | — | 6.52 films |
| Romance | 6.72 films | 6.24 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Tokio Furuta (voice).
Career peak
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Highest rated performance
2024HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle
7.3 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Most recent film
2026MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM HATHAWAY The Sorcery of Nymph Circe
The current state of the argument, as Lane Aim (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.
17 of 17 films
as Tadashi Yamaguchi (voice)
Directed by Susumu Mitsunaka
as Sho Utsumi (voice)
Directed by Akira Amemiya
as Kazuomi Inui (voice)
Directed by Toshimasa Kuroyanagi
as Hermes (voice)
Directed by Katsushi Sakurabi
as Hyoma Chigiri (voice)
Directed by Shunsuke Ishikawa
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
Tadashi Yamaguchi (voice)
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle (2024)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Tadashi Yamaguchi (voice) gives Soma Saito a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Sho Utsumi (voice)
Gridman Universe (2023)
Performance score7.2
Gridman Universe asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sho Utsumi (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Kazuomi Inui (voice)
Love Me, Love Me Not (2020)
Performance score7.2
Love Me, Love Me Not asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Kazuomi Inui (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Hermes (voice)
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion (2019)
Performance score7.1
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Hermes (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 Tadashi Yamaguchi (voice)
Start here. HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle is the clearest statement of what Soma Saito does — accessible, 84 minutes, and rated 7.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Soma 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.
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion (2019)
Keeps the comedy register of HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle but asks for a colder reading of it.
Love Me, Love Me Not (2020)
Keeps the romance register of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion but asks for a colder reading of it.
Gridman Universe (2023)
Keeps the animation register of Love Me, Love Me Not but asks for a colder reading of it.
BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI- (2024)
Keeps the action register of Gridman Universe but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Baku Kinoshita
Director
2 films together
Notably The Last Blossom
Shukou Murase
Director
2 films together
Notably Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway
Katsushi Sakurabi
Director
1 film together
Notably Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion
Shun Kudo
Director
1 film together
Notably Kimi dake ni Motetainda.
Kobun Shizuno
Director
1 film together
Notably Monster Strike the Movie: Lucifer Dawn of Despair
Fumie Muroi
Director
1 film together
Notably How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story Film
Toshimasa Kuroyanagi
Director
1 film together
Notably Love Me, Love Me Not
Yukihiro Miyamoto
Director
1 film together
Notably The Quintessential Quintuplets∽
Shinji Ishihira
Director
1 film together
Notably Sasaki and Miyano: Graduation
Akira Amemiya
Director
1 film together
Notably Gridman Universe
Susumu Mitsunaka
Director
1 film together
Notably HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle
Shunsuke Ishikawa
Director
1 film together
Notably BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI-
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Shukou Murase
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
Mobile Suit Gundam HathawayBaku Kinoshita
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Last BlossomSusumu Mitsunaka
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster BattleKatsushi 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 OrionShunsuke Ishikawa
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI-Akira Amemiya
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gridman UniverseToshimasa Kuroyanagi
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Love Me, Love Me NotFumie Muroi
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
How to Enjoy This World: Secret Story FilmShinji Ishihira
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sasaki and Miyano: GraduationYukihiro Miyamoto
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Quintessential Quintuplets∽Shun Kudo
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kimi dake ni Motetainda.Kobun Shizuno
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Monster Strike the Movie: Lucifer Dawn of DespairSix 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
Gridman Universe
as Sho Utsumi (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 Hermes (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
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle
as Tadashi Yamaguchi (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
ODDTAXI in the Woods
as Tanaka (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle
as Tadashi Yamaguchi (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. Soma Saito 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
16 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
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion
as Hermes (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI-
as Hyoma Chigiri (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Sasaki and Miyano: Graduation
as Yoshikazu Miyano (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
ODDTAXI in the Woods
as Tanaka (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI-
as Hyoma Chigiri (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI-
as Hyoma Chigiri (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Love Me, Love Me Not
as Kazuomi Inui (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Monster Strike the Movie: Lucifer Dawn of Despair
as Noah (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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