カタカナ

カタカナサンプル①です。

「ソ・ラ・ノ・ヲ・ト」はアニメです。

説明：

Katakana is used here for artistic effect/personal preference.

質問：

Why use "(w)oto" instead of "oto"? It is definitely supposed to be 空の音... does making the "wo" sound better? Is there meaning in the show? (I didn't watch it.)

カタカナサンプル②です。

友達はM2Mで「仮面サイダー」を買いました。

サイダーの缶（カン）で漫画の絵がありました。カタカナもありました。

説明：

Katakana is used here for the loanword "cider" and for onomatopoeia in the manga panels.

質問：

American cider and Japanese cider are very different. How did "cider" begin to be used for this purpose?

今日それだけです〜

Edit:

カタカナサンプル③です。

これはAKB48のシングルです。「上からマリコ」

(The CD is difficult to read, so I used a screencap from a music show instead)

説明：

Katakana is used here as a personal preference. Shinoda Mariko's first name in kanji is 麻里子. However they chose to write it katakana. Perhaps this is to avoid having to use ふりがな in order to tell people who were not familiar with her how to read her name.

質問：

Is it at all common for Japanese celebrities to switch to a katakana name if their name is not easily read? (Akanishi Jin [赤西仁] sometimes has his name read as "Hitoshi" by accident). How about if it is a common and not easily misunderstood name? (Like Utada Hikaru?)