---
name: "Tsutomu Tatsumi"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/tsutomu-tatsumi"
fi1m_id: "tsutomu-tatsumi"
imdb_id: "nm0851302"
tmdb_id: 72413
wikidata_id: "Q11637864"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "1 January 1972"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-17T23:10:40.086064+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Tsutomu Tatsumi

## Identity

Tsutomu Tatsumi

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/tsutomu-tatsumi
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** tsutomu-tatsumi
- **IMDb ID:** nm0851302
- **TMDB ID:** 72413
- **Wikidata ID:** Q11637864
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Tatsumi, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11637864, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0851302/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/72413

Actor. Born 1 January 1972 in Japan.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 1 January 1972, Japan
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Tatsumi, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11637864, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0851302/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/72413

## Streaming the US now

- **Netflix:** [*Grave of the Fireflies*](https://film.one/film/grave-of-the-fireflies.md) (94)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Tsutomu Tatsumi

> Tsutomu Tatsumi makes Seita in *Grave of the Fireflies* convincing company, with interests beyond his suffering. We rate the performance highly for that ordinariness, though one defining role is a narrow basis for judging an actor.

In *Grave of the Fireflies* (1988), Seita still has room for pleasure and distraction as his circumstances worsen. Tsutomu Tatsumi voices him with a naturalness that makes those ordinary moments worth our attention. Alongside Ayano Shiraishi as Setsuko, he helps establish children we care about spending time with, which matters in a film where pity could so easily become their only purpose. We were moved by their small moments of happiness, because the performances allow us to share the children's pleasure even while we worry about them.

His earlier work includes voice acting in *Jarinko Chie* (1981) and live action in *MacArthur's Children* (1984), part of a career concentrated in child and adolescent roles. Seita is the defining part, and Tatsumi was selected partly for his Kansai dialect and his closeness in age to the character. Dialect and age are useful advantages here. Tatsumi makes good use of them, giving a performance that sounds close to the child's experience without making the acting itself the thing we notice.

The credit needs sharing with director Isao Takahata, who allows the children interests beyond the disaster, and with drawing that treats their ordinary responses as carefully as their distress. Tatsumi works within that attention to daily life; his performance never seems to demand pity in advance. It would be easy for a young voice in this story to serve only as a reminder of suffering. What we value is the sense that Seita has something else to do with his day, even when his circumstances make that difficult.

His reputation rests heavily on this one role, and we would be cautious about claiming versatility on that basis. We can value what Tatsumi achieves here without pretending it tells us how he would handle an entirely different character. Begin with *Grave of the Fireflies*, with fair warning that its quieter, happier passages are part of what makes it so hard to bear.

## Biography

Tsutomu Tatsumi is a former Japanese actor and voice actor from the Kansai region. Active primarily as a child actor in the 1980s, he was affiliated with Actor Pro during that period.

He voiced the protagonist Seita in the 1988 Studio Ghibli film *Grave of the Fireflies*. He had earlier appeared in the films *MacArthur's Children* (1984) as Takayuki Yoshizawa (Dankichi) and *Itoshiki Hibi Yo* (1984) as the protagonist in his youth. No further entertainment activities have been confirmed after a 1989 television appearance.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Grave of the Fireflies* (1988), Fi1m 94, as Seita (voice) — [page](https://film.one/film/grave-of-the-fireflies.md)

## Complete filmography (1)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Grave of the Fireflies* (1988), as Seita (voice) — Fi1m 94, [page](https://film.one/film/grave-of-the-fireflies.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/tsutomu-tatsumi