Forum - View topicNEWS: Anime Expo to Host Otaku Blogger/TV Host Danny Choo
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midnightshinigami
 Posts: 25 |
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Okay that's what I thought. I was wondering why I couldn't find a thing if so many people thought it.
He's going to be at AnimeNext this year too and I'm staffing (probably on con safety again). I'm not looking forward to see what a mess it's going to be. What annoys me is that fact that Wendee Lee is also attending and being pushed aside because he's going. No one seems to care she's going. |
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Anime World Order
 Posts: 391 Location: Florida |
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I made a post about half a year ago on this subject. It contains some links, but do look around for yourself as all that amounts to on my part is...well, a message board comment. There is more to this man's story, and it's not to be dismissed as just gossip or "haters" or "angry Internet nerds venting." The controversies surrounding Danny Choo are in my opinion valid, contain some degree of substance, and are at the very least worth discussing. That they are so relatively unknown is testament to his mastery of public media handling. He's very, very, very savvy as a result of his background and his family's background, but I can't say I support his methodology. Equating Danny Choo with Glenn Beck is a bit excessive, but it does warrant an interesting observation. The trouble with Glenn Beck is not that most people look at him and find him entertainingly crazy. The trouble with Glenn Beck is that quite a few people--roughly 2 million people per his TV ratings--believe him completely and wholeheartedly...and react accordingly. In the realm of Japanese pop culture "fandom," Danny Choo might--just might--be occupying a similar role. That is a concern for me. |
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GWOtaku
 Posts: 679 |
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Y'know, I finally sat in on a Vic Mignogna panel this past Katsucon, surrounded by a legion of his fans. All I saw was an excess of harmless enthusiasm while Vic told people what he was up to and cracked a few jokes. Said enthusiasm was often robust and noisy, to be sure, but harmless. All in good fun. I don't understand where the hate comes from. Life is too short for that. And really, seriously, does it make sense to complain that he attends too many conventions? He gets out and meets so many anime fans every year, the fiend!
I'm currently indifferent to Danny Choo and have no interest to try his show, so commenting on that would be silly. But I do mind the apparent fact that he's marketing the work (and "work") of others without bothering with even token compensation. That's not cool and it does reek of opportunism. Were I able to be at AX, I'd avoid his events. |
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asimpson2006
 Posts: 3151 Location: USA |
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[quote="GWOtaku"]Y'know, I finally sat in on a Vic Mignogna panel at Katsucon, surrounded by a legion of fans. All I saw was an excess of harmless enthusiasm. Noisy, to be sure, but harmless. I don't understand where the hate comes from. Life is too short for that. And really, seriously, does it make sense to complain that he attends too many conventions? He gets out and meets so many anime fans every year, the fiend!
/quote] I think it is because he has some issues with Yoai that people got up in arms about. I've never met him personally (I have yet to go to a con) so I have no opinion there, but I do enjoy his VA work. |
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Rukiia
 Posts: 1897 |
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Only because the conventions pay for him to attend. If there is no money involved, he won't attend. I know this because my friend was a con organizer for a small convention in Victoria, BC. Vic e-mailed her saying he would attend the con only if he was getting paid. He also demanded to have a hotel paid for him (not out of his own pocket but the convention's) and his traveling expenses paid for. She pretty much laughed at him because a small convention barely has the funds to pay for one voice actor's attendance expenses. I mean, why should they? That is stupid. But that is what my beef is with Vic. That and his ****ing ego. He thinks he is king of the anime world. |
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Sunday Silence
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Vic is often accused of being Homophobic, yet he always seems to be just fine cashing checks for roles where the characters are allegedly gay (Fai from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles), or Anime where the gay undertones is heavy (Ouran High School Club). A "Double Standard" if you will. IIRC correctly, many fangirls of Ouran were extremely upset when Vic made a go for the series. |
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Charred Knight
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I don't know how much money you think Vic makes but it isn't enough to go to conventions on a constant basis by paying for it. I am pretty sure that most major cons pay for their guests needs. It's not like Vic is the only person whose getting a free trip out of it. Conventions with large attendances can pay for those guests while small cons are going to be mainly a gathering place for anime fans. |
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Mike Toole
 SubscriberANN Columnist  Posts: 105 Location: THE GOOD OLE U-S-A |
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Christ. Now I've heard it all. Listen, kid: By what right would your friend contact an entertainer like Vic Mignona and ask him to come to her show and work for nothing? Do you get a paycheck where you work? When you go to the gas station, don't you have to pay for the fuel? Would you go into a surgeon's office and demand a kidney transplant, you know, on the house? How dare you expect a working actor to schlep to the airport and spend several days away from home, days on which he may well be turning down paid work, so he can use his name and talent as an entertainer for the benefit of someone ELSE'S show... and then bristle when he has the nerve to ask for compensation? You really, seriously don't like the guy because he wants to get paid? THAT'S the reason?! |
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Almaz
Posts: 134 |
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It is interesting that you brought up that thread. He gets "volunteers" to do his work. No different from internships provided he gives credit to the specific work involved. Unless his promised money and did not pay it, there is no story here. No different from Facebook using whatever they want from the millions of users to sell off and make money. FYI I believe that forum you linked had users warned of soap boxing (about Danny Choo) by the same people bringing up a stink here. I made my primary comment because I did like the Culture Japan series and wanted to see more of it. I would like to see a company publish or stream the full show and not hear about how many workers are exploited to make that Iphone, Android phone, or most other electrical devices you bought. I did not want to read about the evils of the world, how manga artists are exploited (which is more widespread than this), or how life sucks in general. To that end, I am done on this subject. Too many sour grapes. As of the Vic affair, what the heck? Yes, I would agree that the main guest should be someone rare. If there is no one you want to see, don't go. Otherwise, is it any different than any anime con? Just go enjoy yourself. When someone finds the perfect world, email me. Unless Vic lived in the city that hosted the con, I would expect to have my expenses covered. I knew some guests come free to conventions in Texas since they lived in the area. Otherwise, the con could set up some kind of web conference and host it live at the con. That is more productive than the name calling. Last edited by Almaz on Sat Feb 26, 2011 2:32 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Paploo
Posts: 1875 |
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Going to echo what Mike said as a longtime con staffer- paying for the hotel room of your guests is a pretty standard thing at Cons. Paying for their travel expenses is often a must too, especially if air travel's involved. Seriously, a professional cartoonist or a successful voice actor who's taking time out of their schedule to attend your show? If they're going to help attract attendees, run panels, hold signings, they deserve the courtesy. Covering their meals is also pretty common. Sometimes there might be guests who are local, but even then, some sort of courtesy is usually extended to them. Last edited by Paploo on Sat Feb 26, 2011 2:29 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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SalarymanJoe
 Posts: 468 Location: Atlanta, GA, USA |
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I'll echo Mike's sentiment as an organizer for a small convention: Some form of compensation for guests is pretty standard. The bigger name of the guest typically results in larger forms of compensation. Our con didn't have any industry guests because we simply couldn't afford it. We may not have any for a couple of years, because we cannot afford it. However, once we can afford guests, we're going to be getting them because having them translates to more people coming to the show, which means more money for the convention. Expecting guests to show up for free, and then making money off of them, is fairly exploitative. Vic isn't an ass for demanding compensation - he knows what he's worth because other shows have paid him to be there. He does so many shows a year because he keeps packing panel rooms and autograph lines. There are people who will attend a show simply for their guest list. That's just knowing the business end of things. As for Danny Choo, AWO posted one point of contention. I would also like to enter some examples from the anime blog Colony Drop: A preview of his panel at AX2011 and an older post, Operation British Phase Six. Much of my contention with Danny Choo is, as the CD folks have termed it, The Myth of Akihabara: that anime fandom (and all of its subfandoms or associated fandoms) have wider acceptance in Japan and are considered more normal hobbies. This idea is naive and sophomoric at best and divorced from reality at worst. Don't get me wrong - I'll be amongst the first to call out anyone who thinks anime fans are some minority that are persecuted for mysterious reasons and victims of intolerance from "The Normies". But it is, to me, just as wrong to go to the other extreme and present the exact opposite (The Myth of Akihabara).
I did find some clips of it on YouTube and I even went to his website to find some non-anime/non-figure/non-dollfie articles to see if he just spergs out over these things or if his attitude is prevalent in everything he writes about. Fortunately, there is an article on High School Kyudo that I can set aside all of my Japanese cartoon prejudices -
Wait, did I just read that right?
Let's ignore that he's talking about a girl in high school - there are perfectly acceptable English words to use in place of oppai. Not to mention that the article contains little to no background of Japanese archery for the reader who is not familiar with it at all. It appears his TV show Culture:Japan suffers from some of the same narrow focus. I skimmed much of one episode skipping to random points and watching to get a gist of it. It seems put together to promote his worldview of anime fandom being mainstream. Instead, I would recommend the BBC program(me) Japanorama which looks at various cultural phenomenons of Japan but with a more balanced view. You can find some clips on YouTube and its probably worth checking out.
And here is another point of contention - not all anime fans are like Danny Choo. I have serious reservations with trying to associate an entire fanbase with any single individual, especially those who create or re-enforce negative stereotypes. EDIT: It's not my intention to give the impression that I am in any way jealous of Choo's success. Quite the opposite really; I think its cool that he has found a way to leverage his skills and be successful in a niche market. I merely disagree with the message and image he presents with his subject matter.
Well, there is the issue of calling a spade a spade. If Choo wanted interns, then he should have advertised he was looking for interns. I'm not very familiar with unpaid internships (I know that A - They exist and B - They are very common in the arts and media fields) but even when doing unpaid internship work, there are a few more guarantees for good work, right? Potential to get hired or at least good references (beyond "we'll put your name in the credits"), no? To me, it appears that he is trying to crowdsource part of the work involved in his productions that border on the exploitation. |
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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I believe the equating is incorrectly applied, as I was targeting those who dislike the information coming from Glenn Beck, not his viewers. In other words: there's more "dirt" on Glenn Beck than of Danny Choo. If I were to do a direct comparison, then there's no question both are masters at handling the media. However, I'm not comfortable in reading Choo's mastery of the media is the reason controversy is difficult to find. I disagree with this vehemently and will remind readers of issues Glenn has stated and how easy it is to find despite his attempts at stating the words were taken out of context. If there's anything the media is well known for, it's the memory, and this helps support the position the biggest "controversy" is in regard to Chinka. I'm not sure why people are bent out of shape at volunteering for a project, but shouldn't this be the issue of those volunteers rather than those standing outside, looking in? |
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Rukiia
Posts: 1897 |
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First off, please don't patronize me. I am an adult, thank you. Secondly, he actually contacted her. Not her. She didn't even know who the hell he was because, again, she was hosting a very small convention and was not familiar with alot of the VA's in the anime industry. At the time it was going on its 3rd year (the con had its last year in 2010 so its no longer around) and only had an attendance of less then 250 people. It cost a whole $10 to attend the entire week-end, or you can get in for free if you make a food donation. Let me clear something up here. The fact that he e-mailed her and made all those ridiculous demands is what is stupid. It was a small convention, which is what I said above. He should know better then to expect so much from a baby convention. They could barely afford alot of the equipment used for hosting video panels. Anime Expo and Sakura con can afford VA's and if they want to pay them to attend then fine, whatever. That is good for the VA's and I have no beef with that whatsoever. I never said it was ridiculous for all of the conventions to have to pay for VA's to attend. He, however, should have known better then to be so demanding to a small, cheap, convention.
No, I don't like how he so demanding. There are many other reasons I don't like him. He was such a tool in the CLAMP panel where he berated the fans who read the manga of Tsubasa Chronicle. And, again, his ego gets on my nerves. Last edited by Rukiia on Sat Feb 26, 2011 6:33 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8519 Location: Penguinopolis |
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The only thing entertaining about Vic Mignogna is that he keeps getting work. It's a comedy. Also, he's got a decent singing voice. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Ah. That makes a lot more sense - and I've heard that same story from several other small cons. Frankly I've heard so many stories about Vic's behavior at conventions that they all blur together at this point, and the strangest thing about your original story was that it seemed like you were angry with him for something that actually wasn't his fault. |
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