Go Ayano

Go Ayano (綾野 剛, Ayano Gō, born January 26, 1982) is a Japanese actor.^[2]

Go Ayano
綾野 剛
Ayano in 2015
Born	(1982-01-26) January 26, 1982 (age 43) Gifu Prefecture, Japan
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2003–present
Spouse	Yui Sakuma ​ (m. 2022)​ [1]
Children	1

Career

Ayano was featured in several roles beginning in 2003. In 2009, he appeared in Takashi Miike's Crows Zero 2. His role in the film was described by Mark Schilling of The Japan Times as "a tall, pale-faced, delicately featured boy who looks like Michael Jackson's Japanese cousin, but fights like Bruce Lee."^[3] He was later cast in Shun Oguri's directorial debut, Surely Someday (2010).^[4]

Ayano co-starred in Takefumi Tsutsui's In a Lonely Planet (2011) with Aya Takeko and Takayo Mimura.^[5] He appeared in Mika Ninagawa's Helter Skelter (2012),^[6] and had supporting roles in Eriko Kitagawa's I Have to Buy New Shoes (2012)^[7] and Shuichi Okita's Yokomichi Yonosuke (2013).^[8]

In 2013, Ayano starred in two of his highest profile roles to date: as George "Joe" Asakura in Gatchaman, a live-action adaptation of the classic Tatsunoko Productions anime, and as Ishikawa Goemon in Lupin III, adapted from the iconic manga by Monkey Punch and directed by Ryuhei Kitamura.

In 2016, Ayano was cast as the lead character, Nyx Ulric, in the feature film Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV.^[9]

Personal life

On December 31, 2022, Ayano announced that he had married actress Yui Sakuma.^[10] On March 30, 2024, Ayano and Sakuma announced that they had a child together.^[11]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2005	Nana
2006	Black Kiss
2007	Life	Isamu Takita	Lead role
2008	Aquarian Age	Amemiya
	Love Exposure
	Be a Man! Samurai School	Hien
	Naoko	Susumu Kuroda
2009	Tajomaru
	Crows Zero 2	Ryo Urushibara
2010	Shibuya		Lead role
	Surely Someday
2011	Gantz
	Usagi Drop
	A Man with Style
	Me o Tojite Gira Gira		Lead role
	In a Lonely Planet	Tetsuo	Lead role
2012	Hasami
	Helter Skelter	Shin'ichi Okumura
	Rurouni Kenshin	Gein
	I Have to Buy New Shoes	Kango
	The Samurai That Night
	Working Holiday
2013	The Story of Yonosuke	Katō
	Gatchaman	George "Joe" Asakura
	Flower of Shanidar	Kenji Ōtaki	Lead role
2014	Lupin III	Goemon Ishikawa XIII
	The Light Shines Only There	Tatsuo	Lead role
	The Perfect Insider	Sōhei Saikawa
	Ushijima the Loan Shark Part 2	Inui		[12]
2015	S The Last Policeman - Recovery of Our Future	Iori Soga
	Piece of Cake	Kyōshirō Sugahara
	The Big Bee	Isao Saika
	Shinjuku Swan	Tatsuhiko Shiratori	Lead role
2016	64: Part I	Suwa
	64: Part II	Suwa
	Rage	Naoto
	A Bride for Rip Van Winkle	Yukimasu Amuro
	Twisted Justice	Moroboshi	Lead role
	Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV	Nyx Ulric (voice)	Lead role
2017	The Last Recipe	Yanagisawa
	Mukoku	Kengo Yatabe	Lead role
	Shinjuku Swan II	Tatsuhiko Shiratori	Lead role
	Ajin: Demi-Human	Satō
2018	Punk Samurai Slash Down	Jūnoshin Kake	Lead role
2019	The Promised Land	Takeshi Nakamura	Lead role
	Family of Strangers	Chūya Tsukamoto
2020	Beneath the Shadow	Kon'no	Lead role
	The Legacy of Dr. Death: Black File	Hayato Inukai	Lead role	[13]
2021	A Family	Kenji Yamamoto	Lead role	[14]
	Homunculus	Susumu Nakoshi	Lead role	[15]
2023	Hard Days	Takayuki Yazaki		[16]
	A Spoiling Rain	Tochitani	Lead role	[17]
2024	Let's Go Karaoke!	Kyoji Narita	Lead role	[18]
	Last Mile	Ai Ibuki		[19]
	The Real You	Nakao		[20]
	Maru	Yokoyama		[21]
	Doctor-X: The Movie	Akihiko Kōno		[22]
2025	Sham	Seiichi Yabushita	Lead role	[23]
	Baka's Identity	Kenshi Kajitani		[24]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2003	Kamen Rider 555	Spider Orphenoch/Aki Sawada
2006	Inugoe	Daiki Maeda	Lead role
2010	Mother
	Second Virgin
2011	Heaven's Flower The Legend of Arcana
	Downtown Rocket	Kensaku Mano		[25]
	Carnation	Ryūichi Suō	Asadora	[26]
2012	Pioneers	Kingi Abe
	Cleopatra Ladies: Eternal Desire for Beauty	Yu Kuosaki
2013	Yae's Sakura	Matsudaira Katamori	Taiga drama	[27]
	Matrimonial Chaos	Ryō Uehara
	Public Affairs Office in the Sky	Daisuke Sorai
	Link
2014	S: The Last Policeman	Iori Soga
	The Long Goodbye
2014–16	Ushijima the Loan Shark		Seasons 2 and 3	[28][29]
2015–17	Dr. Storks	Sakura Kōnotori	Lead role; 2 seasons	[30]
2017	Frankenstein's Love	The Monster	Lead role
2018	Hagetaka	Masahiko Washizu	Lead role	[31]
2020	MIU404	Ai Ibuki	Lead role	[31]
2021	Love Deeply!	Rintarō Hasuda	Lead role	[32]
	Kinnikuman: The Lost Legend	Himself		[33]
	Avalanche	Seiici Habu	Lead role	[34]
2022	The Journalist	Shin'ichi Murakami		[35]
2023	YuYu Hakusho	Younger Toguro		[36]
2024	Tokyo Swindlers	Takumi Tsujimoto	Lead role	[37]

Awards

2013

• Tokyo Drama Award 2013: Best Supporting Actor for Saikō no Rikon^[38]
• The 37th Japan Academy Prize: Newcomer of the Year for A Story of Yonosuke and Natsu no Owari^[39]

2014

• The 38th Elan d'or Award for Newcomer of the Year^[40]
• The 22nd Hashida Award: Best Newcomer for Saikō no Rikon, Sora Tobu Kōhōshitsu and Yae no Sakura^[41]
• The 36th Yokohama Film Festival: Best Actor for The Light Shines Only There^[42]
• The 88th Kinema Junpo Best 10: Best Actor for The Light Shines Only There and The Snow White Murder Case^[43]
• The 69th Mainichi Film Award for Best Actor for The Light Shines Only There^[44]

2015

• The 7th Tama Cinema Forum: Best Actor for Shinjuku Swan, Piece of Cake, The Big Bee, Soredake/That's It and S: Saigo no Keikan^[45]

2016

• The 15th New York Asian Film Festival: Rising Star Award^[46]
• The 41st Hochi Film Award: Best Supporting Actor^[47]