Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1063
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Yusuke Kobayashi 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.
Yusuke Kobayashi appears in 9 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Yusuke. Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie is the clearest case: a film rated 8.1 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, drama. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for action, science fiction, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Tensai Okamura, Naoko Takeichi, Minoru Ashina and others, Yusuke Kobayashi 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.
Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie (2019) as Vooren Glanz (voice) · Sword Art Online the Movie – Progressive – Scherzo of Deep Night (2022) as Morte (voice) · Isekai Quartet the Movie: Another World (2022) as Natsuki Subaru / Warren Grantz (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #1063 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
9
2018–2024
Career length
6 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.1
Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie
Average Nutevio score
7.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.1
Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie
Most frequent director
Tensai Okamura
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Tensai Okamura
Most common genre
Animation
9 titles
Average runtime
1h 30m
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
6.6
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
7.6 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Frozen Bond, Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Memory Snow — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
7.6
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
7.6
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. Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Frozen Bond, Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Memory Snow.
Most productive era
2020s
6 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 | 6.91 film |
| Action | 8.11 film | 7.33 films |
| Comedy | — | 7.13 films |
| Romance | — | 7.51 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2018Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Memory Snow
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Subaru Natsuki (voice).
Highest rated performance
2019Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie
8.1 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2023Mask Danshi wa Koishitakunai noni
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2024My Hero Academia: You're Next
The current state of the argument, as Paulo Gorrini (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.
9 of 9 films
as Sayama Keigo (voice)
Directed by Naoko Takeichi
as Subaru Natsuki (voice)
Directed by Masaharu Watanabe
as Vooren Glanz (voice)
Directed by Yutaka Uemura
as Subaru Natsuki (voice)
Directed by Kenichi Kawamura
as Morte (voice)
Directed by Ayako Kono
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Sayama Keigo (voice)
Mask Danshi wa Koishitakunai noni (2023)
Performance score8.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Sayama Keigo (voice) gives Yusuke Kobayashi a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Subaru Natsuki (voice)
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Memory Snow (2018)
Performance score7.9
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Memory Snow asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Subaru Natsuki (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Vooren Glanz (voice)
Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie (2019)
Performance score7.8
Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Vooren Glanz (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Subaru Natsuki (voice)
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Frozen Bond (2019)
Performance score7.7
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Frozen Bond asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Subaru Natsuki (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 Sayama Keigo (voice)
Start here. Mask Danshi wa Koishitakunai noni is the clearest statement of what Yusuke Kobayashi does — accessible, 23 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Yusuke 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.
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Memory Snow (2018)
Keeps the animation register of Mask Danshi wa Koishitakunai noni but asks for a colder reading of it.
Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie (2019)
Keeps the fantasy register of Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Memory Snow but asks for a colder reading of it.
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Frozen Bond (2019)
Keeps the fantasy register of Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie but asks for a colder reading of it.
Sword Art Online the Movie – Progressive – Scherzo of Deep Night (2022)
Keeps the fantasy register of Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Frozen Bond but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Masaharu Watanabe
Director
1 film together
Notably Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Memory Snow
Yutaka Uemura
Director
1 film together
Notably Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie
Kenichi Kawamura
Director
1 film together
Notably Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Frozen Bond
Hirofumi Ogura
Director
1 film together
Notably Cells at Work!! The Return of the Strongest Enemy: A Huge Uproar in the Body’s Bowels!
Tsutomu Mizushima
Director
1 film together
Notably SHIROBAKO the Movie
Ayako Kono
Director
1 film together
Notably Sword Art Online the Movie – Progressive – Scherzo of Deep Night
Minoru Ashina
Director
1 film together
Notably Isekai Quartet the Movie: Another World
Naoko Takeichi
Director
1 film together
Notably Mask Danshi wa Koishitakunai noni
Tensai Okamura
Director
1 film together
Notably My Hero Academia: You're Next
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Yutaka Uemura
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Saga of Tanya the Evil: The MovieAyako Kono
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sword Art Online the Movie – Progressive – Scherzo of Deep NightMinoru Ashina
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Isekai Quartet the Movie: Another WorldNaoko Takeichi
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mask Danshi wa Koishitakunai noniKenichi Kawamura
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Frozen BondMasaharu Watanabe
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Memory SnowTensai Okamura
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
My Hero Academia: You're NextTsutomu 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 MovieHirofumi Ogura
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Six 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
Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie
as Vooren Glanz (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
Mask Danshi wa Koishitakunai noni
as Sayama Keigo (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
Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie
as Vooren Glanz (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
My Hero Academia: You're Next
as Paulo Gorrini (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Mask Danshi wa Koishitakunai noni
as Sayama Keigo (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. Yusuke Kobayashi 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
9 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
Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie
as Vooren Glanz (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie
as Vooren Glanz (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Mask Danshi wa Koishitakunai noni
as Sayama Keigo (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Memory Snow
as Subaru Natsuki (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Sword Art Online the Movie – Progressive – Scherzo of Deep Night
as Morte (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
My Hero Academia: You're Next
as Paulo Gorrini (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
SHIROBAKO the Movie
as Daisuke Hiraoka (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Isekai Quartet the Movie: Another World
as Natsuki Subaru / Warren Grantz (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and comedy
Tom Wilkinson
Built a career in the same territory: comedy and adventure
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Elliot Page
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
Which Yusuke Kobayashi performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
Collections to read next
