Is Mitsuko Horie Very Well Known in Japan?

[Tama83]

Over the years (notably in the 60's and 70's), Mitsuko Horie has sung quite a few opening and closing theme songs to anime shows (in fact, the Japanese Wikipedia entry lists her "genre" as "anime song"), although not always both in the same show. Moreover, she sometimes sings anime themes as part of a "group" (for lack of a better word). What I'm wondering is, is she "renowned" for her anime theme songs? Is she very famous in Japan (I won't say "idol" because that would be stretching it)? Also, on a related note, does she still sing anime theme songs?

[tenshi_a]

You're best off asking AN member Tomoe over in the Anime Music section, really, but I think Horie Mitsuko is very well known... at least, within the anime-song fan community. She's always known as one of the "Big Four" famous anime song singers - though the 4th member seems to change a lot depending on what you read through the years, her name is always undisputedly regarded as one of the 4 greatest anisong singers. She has recorded over 800 songs for anime & TV shows over the years, some of her compilation albums go for a fortune on ebay sometimes, and she still appears in various special live concerts - including the big NHK ones on national TV every year - and always appears to be well received.

I haven't seen her release any non-anisong albums since the 1980s... but I might just not know about it.

I don't know if she's well known as a seiyuu, but she sometimes acts as well - I think her first acting role was in Daikengo in 1981, and she usually has a role in recent Mr Driller games playing all the roles that don't require a deep manly voice. She also sings the opening theme for those, where there are vocals. Lucky!

The last anime theme song I know of her singing was the Kaze No Shoujo Emily theme, last year. She also did a song for the sentai series Boukenger. Bouken-punch! :D I haven't been keeping a close eye on what she's been working on recently, if anything, though. There was a compilation CD earlier this year comprising of most of her duets with Mizuki Ichirou, and they performed live together too.

As I said, you might be best off asking Tomoe, though. Biggest Micchi fan I know, and unlike me, has actually been living in Japan, has attended these anime song live concerts and talked to a lot of other fans.

[Tomoe]

Well, thank you, tenshi_a, for the nice words. :)
The answer is: yes, Mitsuko Horie is well-known in Japan. There are several reasons for that.
1. Candy Candy. This was a tremendous hit back then in Japan. The song itself is still one of the best selling anime songs ever. There was even a period when people were coming to Micchi's concerts just to hear that song, and not for the singer. She felt frustrated by that and didn't want to sing it for some time, but later changed her mind. Also, other anime like Himitsu no Akko-chan, Hana no Ko LunLun and Voltes V were quite popular as well, so people got used to hearing Micchi's voice.
2. Kid songs. While she may be known for having recorded over 900 songs, the truth is that a large part of these songs are kid songs, released as special educational CDs, music books, nursery rhymes, etc. This has become especially common in recent years - Micchi may be recording 1-2 anime songs per year, but she's releasing less known kid songs about every three months or so. Of course, it's not the name of the singer that really matters in these CDs, but voice becomes well-known even outside anime community.
3. Family concerts. Micchi's doing a lot of family concerts. These are local mini-lives where parents bring their children and everyone has fun for the afternoon. Not all singers fit into the concept of family concerts; and the more they do, the more popular they are.
However, in the anison community, Ichiro Mizuki and Isao Sasaki are somehow more popular than Micchi. Main reason for this is that they're considered "celebrities" (especially Mizuki) and often appear on TV shows, while Micchi has stated she doesn't really like that. I've seen a big Catalogue of Japanese Celebrities, with names, pictures and recruit info for hundreds of Japanese stars, and the only Anison singer in it was Mizuki. Hiring him for a concert costs much more than hiring Kageyama, for example.
Also, you should bear in mind that the concept of Anison is song-oriented, rather than singer-oriented. It's not that the singers are not the same all the time, or they're unprofessional, it's just that the songs become more popular than the singers. I know people who have never heard the name "Hironobu Kageyama", yet they know Dragonball Z and Cha La Head Cha La pretty well. I guess there might be a lot of such cases for Micchi as well. Singers themselves are somehow ok with that and accept it (oh, well, unless they pay you only 40 000 yen for a Guiness smash hit like Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun, then you'll hate human world like Shimon as well).
Besides, Japan has more celebrities than any other country, I suppose, and they're constantly changing. Thus names solely may not bring up vivid images, but I think most Japanese have actually heard Micchi's voice, and a lot of them might have even seen her, so I'd rather say she's well-known. :)