Ryûnosuke Kamiki

Biography

Ryûnosuke Kamiki was born in Fujimi, Japan. He was diagnosed with a rare disease soon after he was born and was lucky enough to become one of the 1% who survived the disease. To celebrate this miracle, his mother decided to register him as a child actor in an agency to record his growth. He acted in his first TV advertisement when he was two, and he quickly became one of the best child actors of his generation. He debuted in TV drama when He was 6, acting as the stepson of the main character Takeshi Kurosawa(played by Japanese idol Masahiro Nakai) in the 1999’s TV drama Good News. (He also appeared briefly as a Supporting actor in the 1998’s drama Happy Mania). Since then, he acted in numerous TV dramas, including Quiz(2000), Namida o fuite(2000), Mukodono! (2001), Wedding Planner(2001), Tantei Kazoku(2002). As he grew up, Kamiki also started to act in big screen production, including Insutôru(2004), Otôsan no backdrop(2004), Ren’ai-shousetsu(2004), Survive Style 5+(2005). 2005 is an important year in Kamiki’s career. He became the sole leading actor of a movie for the first time in Takashi Miike’s Yôkai daisensô(The Great Yokai War). The film was shown in Venice Film Festival that year, but young Kamiki missed the red carpet because of jet-lag and tiredness from the flight to Venice. His performance is widely praised both in Japan and internationally, winning him the Newcomer of the Year of 29th Japan Academy Prize. Besides, he also starred in TV drama Aikurushii that year and became friends with his co-star Kanata Hongo, who also grew up as a child actor. In 2007, Kamiki got his first sole leading role in a TV drama in detective drama Tantei Gakuen Q, playing alongside with many of his future high school classmates and friends including Mirai Shida and Hey! Say! JUMP’s Ryosuke Yamada. He acted in an NHK Asadora(Dondo Hare(2007)) for the first time this year as the brother of the leading female character. His works in 2007 also include Little DJ: Chiisana koi no monogatari, Tôku no sora ni kieta and he is the leading stars in all of these film. Kamiki spent most of the year 2008 shooting the TV drama Kaze no gâden in Hokkaido. The drama was written by famous Japanese screenwriter So Kuramoto, and Kamiki played the mentally-disabled son of the main character, Sadami Shiratori, who is starred by Kamiki’s favourite actor Kiichi Nakai. Kamiki developed a father-and-son kind of friendship with Kiichi Nakai during the shooting. In 2010, Kamiki played one of his most famous character, Ninomae Juichi, in the TV series Keizoku 2: SPEC. His character is so widely loved that the producer of the series tried everything they could to get him appeared in the followed-up movie series of the show. Then in 2012, he played the famous Japanese tragic hero Minamoto no Yoshitsune in NHK Taiga drama Taira no Kiyomori. As he also played young Minamoto no Yoshitsune in NHK 2005’s Y Taiga drama Yoshitsune, he literately portrayed the whole life of Minamoto no Yoshitsune on small screens. Another important work by Kamiki in 2012 is the Japanese-Academy-Award-Wining film Kirishima, bukatsu yamerutteyo(The Kirishima Thing). While almost the entire young Japanese actor generation shined in the film, Ryûnosuke Kamiki still managed to give an impressive performance as the leading star, and he influences other young actors, many acting for the first time, to give their best performance as a “senior” actor. 2013 is another productive year as the first year after Kamiki graduated from high school and became a full-time actor. Apart from continuing to act in the SPEC series film and acting in TV Mini-Series Kogure shashinkan, Kamiki played alongside Shô Sakurai in TV drama Kazoku gêmu. His performance is so overwhelmingly good that he won the best supporting actor in 77th Drama Academy Awards while the highly-praised drama swept the awards. In 2015 he co-starred with Takeru Satoh in the well-received comic-based movie Bakuman. as Akito Takagi. While the movie is about two high school students working hard as professional Japanese manga artists for Jump Magazine, Kamiki said Akito Takagi is one of the roles that are most similar to himself, as he has been a long-time manga lover. Ryûnosuke Kamiki is widely loved and appreciated by many famous Japanese actors and screenwriters. He cooperated with well-acclaimed Japanese screenwriter and director, Kankuro Kudo for the first time in 2011, playing the main character in Kudo’s TV drama 11 nin mo iru!. They worked together again in Kudo’s 2016 film Too Young to Die, and Kamiki was cast for Kudo’s 2019 NHK Taiga drama Idaten: Tokyo Olympics Banashi. Ryûnosuke Kamiki also cooperated with director Keishi Ohtomo several times, who is famous for making good comics-adapted movies. Kamiki played Sojiro Seta in Keishi Ohtomo’s 2011 film Rurôni Kenshin: Kyôto taika-hen(Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno) and Rurôni Kenshin: Densetsu no saigo-hen(Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends), and as a fan of the original manga series Rurôni Kenshin and Sojiro Seta, Kamiki practised for the role even before he was officially cast for it. He is also the first choice for Rei Kiriyama, the main character of 3-gatsu no raion zenpen(March Comes in Like a Lion)(2017), and he even got a rank for Amateur Shogi players during his preparation for the role as Rei Kiriyama is a professional Shogi Player. Apart from his acting career, Kamiki has a stunning career as a voice actor. He became one of the favorite voice actors of Hayao Miyazaki when he was young, dubbing for Bô in Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning animation movies Spirited Away in 2001. His performance is so good that Hayao Miyazaki invited him to work in another well-acclaimed animation movies of the Studio Ghibli, Howl’s Moving Castle, in 2004. He also played the major character in Ghibli Museum exclusive short film The Day I Harvested a Planet. Kamiki stated to work with animation director Hiromasa Yonebayashi when the latter was still working in Studio Ghibli. In 2010, Hiromasa Yonebayashi based the main character, Sho, of his directorial debut, The Secret World of Arrietty on Ryûnosuke Kamiki, and he also invited Kamiki to become the voice of the character. After Hiromasa Yonebayashi started his own animation studio, STUDIO PONOC, he invited Kamiki to dub for the main male character, Peter, in the first long animation of the studio, Mary and the Witch’s Flower in 2017. Other famous animation directors who worked with Kamiki included Mamoru Hosoda and Masayuki Kojima. Kamiki dubbed for the main character of Masayuki Kojima ‘s Piano no mori(Piano Forest) in 2007, and he played the main character of Mamoru Hosoda enjoyable and well-received film Samâ uôzu(Summer Wars) in 2009. He also worked as a voice actor in a Doraemon movie(Doraemon: Nobita’s Dinosaur 2006) and in 2011 animation movie The Princess and the Pilot. Kamiki’s highlight in his career as a voice actor came in 2016 when he dubbed for the main character in Makoto Shinkai’s widely accepted animated romantic fantasy drama film Your name. As his character, Taki Tachibana, switches bodies with the major female character, Mitsuha, Kamiki gave a wonderful performance of dubbing both for Taki and Mitsuha in Taki’s body, winning Best Actor in 11th Seiyu Awards for his performance. The film is a worldwide success with high grossing as well as widespread acclaims from critics and the general public, while it also became one of the best-selling films worldwide and the second highest grossed domestic films in Japanese film history, which make Ryûnosuke Kamiki the only actor who acts in all three top-grossing Japanese domestic films. (The other two is Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle.) Kamiki enjoys photographing and he even won an award for his photographs. He is also a big fan of railway and an enthusiastic manga lover.