Beloved Actress Dies ‘While Undergoing Medical Treatment’: Emi Shinohara Was 61

Emi Shinohara, the voice actress best known for voicing Sailor Jupiter in the first anime adaptation of Sailor Moon, has died. Shinohara, real name Emiko Watanabe, passed away on Sunday, Sept. 8, Japanese talent agency 81 Produce confirmed. While Shinohara’s cause of death is unknown, the agency said she was undergoing treatment for an undisclosed medical condition at the time of her passing. She was 81.

“Shinohara Emi (real name Watanabe Emiko), an actor affiliated with our company, passed away on September 8, 2024, at the age of 61, while undergoing medical treatment,” the translated statement from the agency read. “We would like to express our deepest gratitude for the kindness shown to us during her lifetime.”

Born on August 8, 1963, in Fukushima Prefecture, according to Crunchyroll, Shinohara built an impressive voice acting career that spanned decades. She got her start in 1986 when she voiced Biko “B-Ko” Daitokuji in the Project A-ko anime franchise. She followed it with dozens of other voice acting roles – Nakano in Battle Royal High School (1987), Kayo in Vampire Princess Miyu (1988), and Vanessa in AD Police Files, among many others, per her IMDb profile – before landing the role she would become best known for: Sailor Jupiter in the original Sailor Moon anime series. Shinohara first voiced the iconic character, as well as several background characters, when the anime series debuted in 1992. She continued to voice the character on the show through 1997 and also voiced her in following movies and specials, including Sailor Moon R: The Movie: The Promise of the Rose (1993), Sailor Moon S: The Movie – Hearts in Ice (1994), and Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie: Black Dream Hole (1995).

Shinohara lent her voice to numerous other iconic characters, such as Kushina Uzumaki in Naruto Shippuden, Kaho Mizuki in Cardcaptor Sakura, and Ophelia in Claymore. She also did the Japanese dub of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Perdita the dog in 101 Dalmatians, and the Japanese voice of Natalie Portman’s character Matilda in Leon: The Professional. Her final anime credit was as Sachiko in Netflix’s 2020 anime movie A Whisker Away.

Following news of her passing, many of Shinohara peers and others in the anime world took to social media to pay their respects. In a tribute post on X (formerly Twitter), Rika Fukami, who voiced Sailor Venus, wrote, “My very dear, dear friend has passed away. She was full of energy and hope until the very end. We were born on the same day. I love you forever.”

Shinohara is survived by her husband, actor-singer Hiroshi Watari, who shared following her passing that “there have been a lot of swallowtail butterflies flying around me lately. I feel like it’s some kind of messenger. Looking back, it was a fun 26 years. Thank you. Rest in peace.”