Ryûnosuke Kamiki

Ryunosuke Kamiki had an acclaimed career as a child actor and has sustained his career as a star or co-star in a string of successful Japanese productions. Kamiki had his first success as “The Ghibli Child,” having performed as a child as a voice actor in several Studio Ghibli animated movies, many of them directed by Hayao Miyazaki.

After his on-screen debut in Rockers (2003) as well as six other features, Kamiki starred in the lead of renowned writer-director Takashi Miike in The Great Yokai War (2005), released by Shochiku. Ryunosuke Kamiki played  “Child Monster” in writer-director Hitoshi Matsumoto’s mockumentary, Big Man Japan (2007), premiering at the Cannes Film Festival and released in the U.S. by Magnolia Pictures.

Kamiki joined the ensemble of the third entry in the hit manga adaptation, 20^th Century Boys 3: Redemption (2009), grossing $23 million, and then Kamiki took on the co-lead character of Ninomae in Toho’s SPEC: Heaven (2012), the feature sequel to the hit Tokyo Broadcasting System series, SPEC, followed quickly by the sequel, SPEC: Close (2013), earning a $22 million gross.

In between this franchise and the highly successful two-film series, Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (2014) and Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (2014) (grossing a combined $95 million), Kamiki built his growing stardom as lead in the critical and commercial hit, The Kirishima Thing (2012), a high school drama from writer-director Daihachi Yoshida which won five Japanese Academy awards, including best picture, director, and editing.

Kamiki was cast again as co-star by Miike in his wild horror movie, As the Gods Will (2014), premiering at the Rome film festival and released by Toho in Japan and Funimation in the U.S. Ryunosuke Kamiki grew his reputation as a popular leading young actor as co-star of writer-director Hitoshi One’s coming-of-age comedy, Bakuman (2015), based on the beloved manga, and earning over $13 million for Toho.

After playing in the Yuichi Sato-directed romantic manga adaptation, Poison Berry in My Brain (2015), Kamiki co-starred in writer-director Kankuro Kudo’s horror comedy, Too Young to Die! (2016), premiering at the Hong Kong Film Festival. Kamiki continued his streak of hit movies and sequels as the star of the two-part adaptation, March Comes in Like a Lion (2017) and the follow-up released by Toho a month later, March Goes Out Like a Lamb (2017).

Ryunosuke Kamiki again joined up with filmmaker Takashi Miike as co-star in the fantasy action movie, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable Chapter 1 (2017), released by Toho and Warner Bros. For editor/director/writer Shunji Iwai (adapting his novel), Kamiki co-starred in the romance, Last Letter (2020), and then Kamiki played support in the fourth installment of writer-director Keishi Otomo’s manga series adaptation, Rurouni Kenshin: The Final (2021), grossing $37 million for Warner Bros.

In an unusual move, Kamiki reunited with Miike sixteen years after their first entry in The Great Yokai War for a different (older) role in The Great Yokai War: Guardians (2021), which was released jointly by Toho and Kadokawa before its international premiere at the Fantasia film festival.

For director Ryuichi Hiroki, Kamiki joined the cast of the manga adaptation, Noise (2022), and followed this with a co-starring role in the live-action xxxHolic (2022), Shochiku’s and Asmik Ace’s feature version of the manga series by the all-woman manga author team, CLAMP. Kamiki then starred in his first monster movie, Godzilla Minus One (2023), written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, co-starring Minami Hamabe, and released wide in the U.S. by Toho International.