Forum - View topicINTEREST: 'Far From Perfect': Fans Recount Unwanted Affection from Voice Actor Vic Mignogna
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Takizawa-Shinzou
Posts: 102 |
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I've been hearing stories like this about him since the early 00s, from people with absolutely nothing to gain from making it up. People that WERE his fans until the things apparently happened to them. It's very hard for me to believe him. Especially when all these photos exist of him doing some of the things. The evidence is more on the victim's side than his.
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xBTAx
Posts: 189 |
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Not quite so far in the past for me, but I too have been hearing these sort of things for a LONG time. And, as you say, these pictures exist, he’s not exactly been careful about hiding any of it. It’s nice to finally see this get attention, but astonishing that it was allowed to continue for so long. |
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Mad_Scientist
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 3013 |
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So hey, folks, this is a an article that deals with some very sensitive and uncomfortable material. So I'm just gonna say this now, please keep that in mind when posting. A bunch of different folks are gonna have a bunch of different reactions to this, and that's okay. This article is gonna be a LOT for some folks, especially for those who weren't super familiar with some of the allegations against Vic before now. And so figuring out how to deal with this, how to process it and figure out what to think and how to proceed going forward, won't necessarily be an easy thing.
So just keep that in mind when posting, and of course keep the forum rules in mind when posting. Let's be good to each other, okay? For myself, most of what is in this article is stuff I had (in some cases very recently) heard or heard rumors of before, so it doesn't surprise me, but seeing some of the pictures kind of brings it home in a way just reading about it doesn't. I've kinda joked before that so far the theme of 2019 for me is just the word "yikes", but honestly that seems to be becoming less and less of a joke. Because it seems that more and more, I just don't know what to say to something other than, well, yikes. |
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RegSuzaku
Posts: 273 Location: Ikebukuro |
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(Comment I probably shouldn't have included with a story from a male voice actor about what Vic did to him in the bathroom at FUNi, but it was from a voice actors after dark panel, and I don't remember who it was, so like... probably shouldn't put it here).
(I'm not defending him or anything, so don't think that) ... but also. He's probably not the only one. The fandom and conventions "scene" is exactly the kind of environment where this kind of thing - where ANY kind of abuse thrives. Because of the whole outsider-insider thing. Mignogna's the only one getting called on it because the community has been against him for years. The two that actually went to jail for things, well, the "community" hushed that up because they were arrested by outsiders. Not that others shouldn't come forth about other people, too. They should, and I'm sure they have - but they've probably been shut down by "the community", the same community that's right up on the front lines against the perpetrator when it's someone who's seen as an outsider. A lot of people who heard complaints from their friends, and told the friends "I'm sure they didn't mean anything bad" and all the other horrible things "friends" say, are probably jumping on this now, and telling their friends who were hurt by someone else, "At least it wasn't Mignogna." But then, there are going to be people saying, "See? I told you so, dubs are bad!" about this one, or the next one, when like... a) even if no seiyuu ever did things like this, that wouldn't mean anything about dubs and b) there are probably some seiyuu who have done a lot of that, too, and anyone who's said anything about them have definitely gotten shut down by their fans and press, but especially the fans. And if a seiyuu did get in trouble for something like this, it would turn into the "mainstream media" against anime/otome media, and that would be just as wrong as people who want to turn this into a subs vs. dubs issue. So like. People's inclinations to make things into outsider-insider things complicate situations like this a lot, and people should be careful they're not ignoring someone else's issue, just because they've checked "good deed" on their to-do list for calling out Mignogna. (Again, not defending him. If someone else is guilty too, that doesn't make him less guilty.) Last edited by RegSuzaku on Wed Jan 30, 2019 10:21 am; edited 1 time in total |
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meruru
Posts: 475 |
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I can't say I'm entirely surprised, as Mignogna always gave the impression that he thought that anyone who might be the least fan was a fan of him as if he were some sort of rockstar, and well, it is true some of his fans do act this way, and so it seemed like he has this really skewed impression of himself that leads him to assume consent when he really shouldn't.
For example, I had a friend who cosplayed from FMA who is a fan of the sub only, never even seen the dub, yet he approached her and got within her personal space, assuming she must be his fan. Mind you, at the time, since she doesn't care for dubs, she didn't even know who the heck he even was. This particular instance she wasn't bothered by it exactly, but we were definitely thinking that he really should have asked for consent, and that he could easily get into legit bad situations if he's like that all the time. |
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yurigasaki
Posts: 193 |
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I've heard all kinds of horror stories from friends of mine who've had the misfortue of running into him at cons – either where they were attending and ended up getting leched on or had ti deal with him being a jackass on the staff side of things.
One that always sticks with me is a story a friend recounted being stuck in a lift with him at a con, when Vic struck up a seedy conversation with one of the girls in the lift with them and made some vile comments about "Sailor Venus buttplugs". [Edit]: removed personal abuse. Keep it nice, folks. Errinundra. |
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Escaflowne2001
Posts: 468 |
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I first heard rumors about Vic in 2006 when reading the comments for this news story on ANN.
animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2898285 The comments are still there you would have to question why he has gotten away with it for so long. There are far to many stories and similar stories going around that there isn't some truth in these stories. This is 13 years ago. |
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Wyvern
 Posts: 1596 |
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It's about time this started getting attention in the mainstream fan press. I remember one of my friends being warned about Vic at a con I attended over ten years ago. He's been getting away with this creepy bullcrap for a long time and it should be brought to light. Fans deserve to know what sort of people they're interacting with.
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5500 |
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Mixed feelings on this, certain things seem harmless, kissing on the cheek is something that while may not be liked, is not something to make a deal out of. I also wonder if that homophobia thing is like what happened with Greg Ayres(who is gay) when some Yaoi fangirls got mad at him for apparently not liking a show. On the other hand his relationship with the children seems rather shady, even if it is innocent, it still lacks tact on his part.
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Kai99
 Posts: 89 |
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I've never gotten too into the voice acting fandom and even I heard the rumors of his bad temperament. It just goes to show that bad behavior eventually WILL catch up to you regardless of your status, even if it may take some years. Thank god for the "Me Too" movement which is encouraging so many people to speak out about this crap.
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johnnysasaki
Posts: 946 |
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if this thing doesn't stop growing bigger,he better be prepared to join Scott Freeman and Illich Guardiola and their little burned bridge...
Hell,Vic has much more to lose than those two since he has multiple ongoing roles in big series like Dragon Ball,One Piece and Jojo. |
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Morry
Posts: 756 |
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I can only speak from personal experience where Vic has been a fine, fun, and decent human being, but that's just mine. So reading this, I can see both sides and how it could be either really serious or misconstrued. The Jewish thing sounds like a joke taken the wrong way, and I've heard the homophobia claims before and still think it's an overreach.
The biggest red flag to me is the personal phone number and the temper. The first is at best ill-advised and the second is simply unjustifiable. |
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Twilightmaster
 Posts: 129 |
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It's been a few years now, but I have worked in the Guest Relations department at a couple cons that have had Vic as a guest. I never personally saw anything to support the homophobic claims or the over-affection to younger fans but I will say that I've seen his temper first hand. It was understandable in some cases that he would be upset, the big moment I remember is when the con forgot to book his hotel room and he has a horrible time getting checked in. But even still, his rage fits were quite extreme. I know the person working directly for him as a handler the last year I was there had a horrible weekend mainly due to Vic's attitude.
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LinkTSwordmaster
 Posts: 535 Location: PA / USA |
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I'd always felt the anime con scene was precursor to a lot of the harassment stuff you see/hear with YouTubers & Twitch streamers these days. Any medium/venue where a "cult of personality" situation can form (especially with minors lacking supervision) definitely runs this sort of risk, that someone others see as famous or popular can wield that fame/popularity to take advantage of people given how easy it is to access the fandom these days. It's important when not just attending these events but also organising and staffing them that you keep your eyes peeled for this sort of stuff to slowly creep in.
I personally have a small Rolodex of stories and rumours not just about Vic but about a handful of other regulars that would filter through my local convention ranging from "caught with a minor in a hotel room" to "demands & treats con staff like personal servants" - all male con guests actually. I guess it definitely explains why I'd see certain faces disappearing from the local scene after a while, but you never really think too much about rumours because they're rumours.... at least until it happens to you or your family/right in front of you. As I've gotten older, I know to stay a lot more vigilant about making sure everyone is safe. Gotta say, this looks pretty cut and dry. Having so many photos is pretty damning. What really pushes me that extra mile here though is Vic's "you're just as guilty as I am" wording in his statements. He, with his own words, is pretty much checking all of the boxes that you look for in cases like this.... gets me down, especially knowing how tightly-knit the FMA community used to be back in the day (and still tended to be). I'm just.... legit speechless (though not shocked, honestly) that it ran this deep. Stay safe everyone. It sucks that you cant expect your car to not-be set on fire in the parking lot, and it sucks that you cant expect the people you look up to to return the respect you are willing to show them. Also great reporting & sourcing Lynzee. Hopefully more people speaking up or at least talking about it will help shrink the number of future victims at anime/comic cons. |
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Scalfin
Posts: 249 |
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I think a large part is that he's also been the target of a smear campaign by the yaoi contingent, which has historically been very aggressive toward anyone who dosn't accept their slash pairings as cannon or deliberate insertions/coding by the authors (although that's been going down since cons started treating sexual assault/paddles as a bannable offense and message boards took a similarly hard line stance toward harassment), so many people likely assumed it was just more slander by the usual suspects. |
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