The definition of celebrity according to google is a famous person, especially in entertainment or sport or the state of being well known. In terms of my subject Sailor Moon, i decided to explore the brand/character of Sailor Moon is the celebrity and also see if the voice actor is as well.
The Japanese voice actor of Sailor Moon, Kotono Mitsuishi (it kept trying to autocorrect her last name to the Japanese car brand Mitsubishi, odd!) has her own website, which i am unable to understand due to it being in Japanese so i chose to google translate some of it. It seems to discuss her current adventures.
I google translated it and she is talking about her visit to Australia. Funnily enough i was directed to this page via fan on tumblr where she has a following. The Kotono tag on the blog has both Kotono and Sailor Moon posts.
In her tag on tumblr, there is a mix of her personal life, events and sailor moon posts.
While the pictures are tagged of her they feature her almost always pictured with Sailor Moon and sometimes even without her, maybe just her signature.
Sailor Moon has several Facebook pages dedicated to her. The book series has 663,576 followers, the TV Show has 131,564. Kotono Mitsuishi only has 968 followers.
Upon reflection i wonder if it matters if the character is more famous than the voice or the actor but if you’re are looking at it to see which could be considered the celebrity, I would say it’s the character.
As i just did, we are now able to find out origins of people and things with a click of the button and i wonder if i wouldn’t have been so ignorant if i had been able to use the internet for things like that and perhaps even if i had the internet access we had today, would have i cared?
Personally i never knew who the voice actor was or even knew the origin of the character. I was born into the younger series where we all had broadband so we would constantly hear “GET OFF THE INTERNET I NEED TO USE THE PHONE.” And we used to get up early and watch it on CheeseTV.
The idea of fame and a collective admiration of people or characters is too broad to delve into completely but i can say that as i got older when i heard the word costume party i thought Sailor Moon.
Sources
Mitsuishi, K 2009, Kotono Mitsuishi, viewed 20th August, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kotono-Mitsuishi/43990602694
Mitsuishi, K 2014, Seagull and Opera House, weblog, viewed 20th August 2014, http://kotochawan.com/main/blog.php?itemid=2026
Moon, S 2011, Sailor Moon, viewed 20th August, https://www.facebook.com/SailorMoonUniverse
Tumblr, 2014, viewed 20th August, http://sailorstarfighter.tumblr.com/tagged/Kotono+Mitsuishi
Tumblr, 2014, viewed 20th August, yuritsukikage.tumblr.com/tagged/Kotono+Mitsuishi
Digital Asia 
There seems to be an interesting dichotomy between product and process emerging in discussions we are having on Japanese digital culture. I suppose that there can be some comparisons drawn with American cartoons in your case, how many actors voicing the Simpsons or Family Guy can you name? It might be that, no offence but only diehard fans would seek to find the voice actors in Japan? There are parallels that can be drawn with J-Pop and the relative ambiguity of the producer/writer of the tracks that are performed compared to the performer, perhaps in an attempt to preserve the illusion of perfection, at any rate I think it would be an interesting point to investigate further.
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Hi Kristy,
Maybe you could, as part of your digital artefact, communicate and participate within the Sailor Moon Fandom. I don’t know if you’re aware but just recently the series was rebooted as “Sailor Moon Crystal.” Perhaps you could watch it alongside the fans and talk to them, perhaps finding their thoughts on it and asking them questions such as, why has Sailor Moon become so iconic in the West? Perhaps also at what Sailor Moon herself communicates about Japan? It would be interesting to get opinions from both Japanese and English fans.
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I never thought of Sailor Moon being a celebrity but the more I think about it, I’m convinced. I can’t say I’ve ever heard of a famous voice actor (Although its possible I live under a rock when it comes to animation).
You raised some interesting points that I think would be really interesting to pursue, for example when you discussed that Kotono Mitsuishi is rarely seen without the trade mark Sailor Moon. Or perhaps even the fandom as the precious comment has suggested.
p.s. Sailor Mars was always my favourite!
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