Tomo Nakai

Nakai's screen career appears to have taken shape in the early 2020s, with *Sayonara, Girls.* (2022) among her earlier documented credits (Letterboxd, Rotten Tomatoes). That film — a coming-of-age drama — didn't make enormous noise internationally, but it's the kind of grounded early credit that tends to look prescient in retrospect. The real inflection point came with *Baby Assassins 2* in 2023. Her role as Mana Miyauchi sits in the support tier, but the *Baby Assassins* franchise has a devoted enough audience that even secondary characters get scrutinized. The original film built its reputation on kinetic action choreography and a sharp tonal balance between absurdist comedy and genuine threat — and the sequel leaned into that same formula. Nakai's Mana shows up in scenes that require her to hold her own against leads who are doing a lot physically, which isn't nothing. The role extended into *Baby Assassins: Nice Days* (2024), the series continuation, giving her a longer runway with the character than a single film would have allowed (IMDb). Also in 2023, she appeared in *I Cannot Reach You*, adapted from a manga about two childhood friends navigating feelings neither of them quite knows how to name — a much softer, more emotionally internal piece of work than anything in the *Baby Assassins* orbit. The contrast between those two 2023 projects alone is enough to suggest she's not locking herself into one lane. Looking ahead, her 2025 slate includes *Call Me by No Name*, *Time Traveler's Disease*, and the TV series *Taigan no Kaji* (IMDb). Three projects. That's an aggressive schedule for an actress still in the early phase of her career, and it'll be worth watching which of those gets the most international distribution pickup.