Emi Shinohara

Emiko Shinohara (篠原 恵美子 , Shinohara Emiko ; August 8, 1963 – September 8, 2024) , known professionally as Emi Shinohara (篠原 恵美 , Shinohara Emi ) , was a Japanese voice actress from Fukushima Prefecture. At the time of her death, she was affiliated with 81 Produce. She was best known for voicing Sailor Jupiter in the first anime adaptation of Sailor Moon, Kaho Mizuki in Cardcaptor Sakura and its sequel Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, and Kushina Uzumaki in Naruto: Shippuden. She was married to tokusatsu actor Hiroshi Watari.

Shinohara was born in Fukushima Prefecture on August 8, 1963, and raised in Ueda, Nagano.[ a] She joined the drama and choir clubs during her later years in elementary school. Since junior high school, she had always wanted to become an actor, and after graduating from Ueda High School, she thought that "singing can also be a way to study acting", and she was subsequently educated at the Kunitachi College of Music Department of Music Education. [ 11] While at the college, she joined an off-campus club and performed in musicals.

While aiming to become an actress, she joined a study group called Voice Arts, and she took part in an audition at the invitation of sound director Yasunori Honda, who was a teacher of hers at Voice Arts, and passed, and she was cast as B-ko Daitokuji in the 1986 film Project A-ko. Subsequently, she joined Arts Vision and then 81 Produce.

In 1992, Shinohara began starring as Sailor Jupiter, one of the major characters in the first anime adaptation of Sailor Moon.[ 12] According to Megan Peters of ComicBook.com, Shinohara's "work on Sailor Moon helped kickstart one of anime's most magical stories" and she "brought that headstrong performance to life with ease."[ 12] In addition to Sailor Jupiter, she also voiced other background characters.[ 12]

In addition to Sailor Jupiter, she also voiced Presea in Magic Knight Rayearth, Kaho Mizuki in Cardcaptor Sakura, Yayoi Matsunaga in Nightwalker: The Midnight Detective, Charlotte Elbourne in Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000), Yōko Mizuno in Maria-sama ga Miteru, Ophelia in Claymore, and Kushina Uzumaki in Naruto: Shippuden. [ 13] [ 14] She also voiced Agarte Lindblum in the video game Tales of Rebirth and Bakuryū Pteranodon in the tokusatsu series Bakuryū Sentai Abaranger.[ 15] She would often voice "older sister" or "mother" characters in anime. In the last few years of her career, she reprised her role as Kaho in the 2018 sequel series Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, and she voiced Sachiko in the 2020 film A Whisker Away.[ 12]

She released three albums through Apollon (now Bandai Music Entertainment [ja] : Windows (1994), Street (1994), and Ashita e (1996).[ 16] [ 17] [ 18] In 1997, she released another album from Nippon Columbia, Missing Piece.[ 19]

Her husband was tokusatsu actor Hiroshi Watari.[ 15] She had an older brother.[ 20] She also shared the same birth date as her Sailor Moon co-star Rika Fukami, and they even had a joint birthday concert together, performing as the duo Funky Twins on their 33rd birthday in 1996.[ 21] [ 22] She also worked at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music as a voice acting and anison teacher.[ 23]

Shinohara died on September 8, 2024, at the age of 61. Undergoing treatment for an unspecified illness at the time, she reportedly had recently been on a respirator and wheelchair and some of her bones had fractured.[ 23] In addition to her husband, several other voice actors, including her Sailor Moon co-stars Kotono Mitsuishi, Rika Fukami, Megumi Ogata, and her Naruto co-star Toshiyuki Morikawa.[ 24] Additionally, Sailor Moon creator Naoko Takeuchi and her husband, YuYu Hakusho and Hunter × Hunter creator Yoshihiro Togashi both drew Sailor Jupiter as a tribute to Shinohara.[ 25]