Ryunosuke Kamiki

Ryunosuke Kamiki (神木 隆之介) is a Japanese actor. Starting his career as a child prodigy, he has garnered critical acclaim and numerous awards for his performances across 25 years in the industry.

Kamiki began his career in 1995, and, four years later, he was a lead in the television drama Good News (1999). Kamiki's early film roles include Spirited Away (2001), Bayside Shakedown 2 (2003), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), and Big Man Japan (2007). He had his first leading roles in Takashi Miike's The Great Yokai War (2005) and Daihachi Yoshida's The Kirishima Thing (2012) and played supporting characters in Keishi Ōtomo's jidaigeki actioners Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno and Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends as well as Miike's horror film As the Gods Will (all 2014). Kamiki voiced the lead in Makoto Shinkai's famed anime feature Your Name (2016), which won him Best Actor at the 11th Seiyu Awards.

Kamiki has continued to gain fame after his role in Your Name, later collaborating with Shinkai once again on Suzume (2022), for which he provided the voice for a supporting character. In 2023, he co-starred with Minami Hamabe in the TV drama series Ranman and Takashi Yamazaki's Godzilla Minus One.

Personal life
He was fragile in infancy, spending months in intensive care, and at one point was given only a 1% chance of survival. He was not discharged from hospital until he was seven months of age. Doctors believed that even if he survived, he would live his life with disability. His mother came up with the idea of making him a child actor to leave concrete proof of his existence. His family consists of his grandparents, father, mother, an older sister (11 years older than him) and two nieces. His grandmother died in 2020.

Career
Kamiki began acting as a child actor after entering the Central Group talent agency. His first commercial was for a Toy Box when he was only two years old. He made his television debut with the 1999 drama Good News in a lead role. In 2001, when he was five years old, he was personally scouted by Hayao Miyazaki. Kamiki went on to voice characters in many of Studio Ghibli's feature films, giving him the title of the Ghibli Child. In 2004, he led the film Backdrop del mio Papa, for which he won his first award. In the following years, he continued to work both as an actor and voice actor, winning awards every two years. Kamiki won the Rookie Award 2020 at the Elan d'or Awards, one of the most prestigious awards in Japan.

On March 16, 2021, Kamiki left Amuse and founded Co-LaVo along with Takeru Satoh.

Other Ventures
Kamiki wrote his first book "Master's Cafe: The Fulfillment of Masters' Dreams" in 2015. He approached fifteen professionals who are active on the front lines of various fields. In 2019, he made his stage debut with the play "Beautiful: The Woman Who Met with God", written and directed by Suzuki Matsuo. The following year, he debuted in multiple fields such as a radio host for All Night Nippon 0 (ANN0), direction with the music video for "I Treasure You", and he opened his official YouTube channel. He was also the official photographer for Satoh Takeru's 2021 calendar. In 2020, he started to conceptualize his annual calendar.

The 2021 calendar, one part of the 25th anniversary project, was started when "Novel characters I want Kamiki to play" video was posted on his Twitter, urging fans to suggest novel characters for him to portray. Garnering reactions from many celebrities including voice actor Yuki Kaji and film director Shunji Iwai, among others. Finally, twelve novels were selected from the retweets to represent the themes for the twelve months. The lineup expanded from classics to more recent pieces. The calendar shot by the renowned photographer and film director Mika Ninagawa was a new attempt to play different roles for twelve works in the calendar. As Yonosuke in Ihara Saikaku's The Life of an Amorous Man for August, props such as smoke tubes are used in a colorful set to express the sex appeal of adults that has never been seen before by him, and the novel published in May cover, No Longer Human (as Ōba Yōzō), the darkness of human beings and the beauty of men are produced. Of the twelve novels so far, "Mysterious Weather at Yanaka's Retro Camera Store" (as Imamiya Ryūichi) and Hamlet (as Ophelia), including the prior mentioned works have been confirmed. For this project, Ryu challenged silver hair for the first time, shooting taking two days to complete. The calendar was sold on December 25, 2020, to signify the 25 year anniversary.

Kamiki was invited to be the photographer for Takeru Satoh's 2021 Calendar. The concept of a "photobook-like calendar" featured natural expressions when spending time with friends—with a sense of distance that can be taken by an old friend. It is a special calendar taken in places where Satoh wants to go with Kamiki and where he would like to take pictures of him such as driving the car, in Shibuya and Harajuku, in maid cafes, etc. He took over eight thousand photos. Some are excluded in the desk calendar. He wants to have a photo exhibition and albums.

In 2022, Kamiki excavated one of the world's oldest ichthyosaur fossils in Minamisanriku in his first fossil excavation during the filming of "From Miyagi". The fossil is on display at the Minasan Museum.

Artistry and public image
In the award-winning The Great Yokai War he overcame his fear of swimming. For his role in Kokoro no Ito, he learned sign language and the piano. In 2022, he was voted the Most Powerful Actor in Japan.

Dubbing

 * Live-action


 * Animation

Awards and nominations

 * 2004
 * Backdrop del mio Papa
 * The Japanese Movie Critics Awards 2004: Rookie of the Year
 * Won
 * 2006
 * The Great Yokai War
 * The 29th Japan Academy Film Prize: Newcomers of the Year
 * Won
 * 2007
 * Tantei Gakuen Q (2007)
 * 54th Japanese Drama Academy Awards: Lead Actor
 * Won
 * 2011
 * Kokoro no Ito
 * Seoul International Drama Awards: Popular Actor
 * Won
 * 2011
 * Kokoro no Ito
 * Mipcom Buyers' Award for Japanese Drama
 * Won
 * 2011
 * Kokoro no Ito
 * 47th Hugo TV Awards Feature Film Category Gold Award
 * Won
 * 2011
 * Kokoro no Ito
 * 51st Monte-Carlo Television Festival: Best Actor
 * 2011
 * Kokoro no Ito
 * 51st Monte-Carlo Television Festival: The AMADE Prize
 * Won
 * 2012
 * The Kirishima Thing and SPEC: Heaven
 * Tama Cinema Forum: Best Emerging Actor
 * Won
 * 2012
 * The Kirishima Thing
 * 37th Hochi Film Award: Best Actor
 * 2014
 * Fathers
 * Galaxy Monthly Awards: TV
 * Won
 * rowspan="3" | 2013
 * rowspan="3" | The Family Game
 * The 17th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix Spring: Best Supporting Actor
 * Won
 * The 77th The Television Drama Academy: Best Supporting Actor
 * Won
 * The 23rd TVLife Drama Award 2013: Best Supporting Actor
 * Won
 * 2015
 * Poison Berry in My Brain and Bakuman
 * 40th Hochi Film Awards
 * 2015
 * Popularity
 * Seoul International Drama Awards: Asian Stars
 * Won
 * 2015
 * The Girl's Speech/Samurai Teacher
 * TV Navi's Drama Awards 2015
 * Won
 * 2016
 * Too Young to Die!
 * Fantasia Film Festival: Best Asian Feature Silver
 * Won
 * 2016
 * Too Young To Die!
 * Rotterdam International Film Festival: Netpac Award
 * 2016
 * Too Young To Die!
 * New York Asian Film Festival: Audience Award
 * Won
 * 2017
 * March Comes in Like a Lion
 * 42nd Hochi Film Award: Best Actor
 * 2017
 * Your Name
 * The 11th Seiyu Awards: Best Lead Actor
 * Won
 * 2018
 * Detective Yugami
 * The 10th CONFiDENCE AWARD DRAMA PRIZE: Best Supporting Actor
 * Won
 * 2018
 * Detective Yugami
 * The 95th Drama Academy Award: Best Supporting Actor
 * Won
 * 2020
 * Idaten: The Epic Marathon to Tokyo
 * The 44th Elan d'or Awards: Best Producer
 * Won
 * 2020
 * Idaten: The Epic Marathon to Tokyo and Fortuna's Eye
 * The 44th Elan d'or Awards: Newcomer of the Year
 * Won
 * 2021
 * Life's Punchline
 * The 108th The Television Drama Academy Awards: Jury Votes
 * Won
 * rowspan=2| 2024
 * rowspan=2| Godzilla Minus One
 * The 66th Blue Ribbon Awards: Best Actor
 * Won
 * The 47th Japan Academy Film Prize: Best Actor
 * }
 * Won
 * 2018
 * Detective Yugami
 * The 10th CONFiDENCE AWARD DRAMA PRIZE: Best Supporting Actor
 * Won
 * 2018
 * Detective Yugami
 * The 95th Drama Academy Award: Best Supporting Actor
 * Won
 * 2020
 * Idaten: The Epic Marathon to Tokyo
 * The 44th Elan d'or Awards: Best Producer
 * Won
 * 2020
 * Idaten: The Epic Marathon to Tokyo and Fortuna's Eye
 * The 44th Elan d'or Awards: Newcomer of the Year
 * Won
 * 2021
 * Life's Punchline
 * The 108th The Television Drama Academy Awards: Jury Votes
 * Won
 * rowspan=2| 2024
 * rowspan=2| Godzilla Minus One
 * The 66th Blue Ribbon Awards: Best Actor
 * Won
 * The 47th Japan Academy Film Prize: Best Actor
 * }
 * rowspan=2| 2024
 * rowspan=2| Godzilla Minus One
 * The 66th Blue Ribbon Awards: Best Actor
 * Won
 * The 47th Japan Academy Film Prize: Best Actor
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }