Mari Ijima has been dragged into the Vic Mignona mess

[kajnrig]

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2019-07-31/former-tekkoshocon-staff-allege-mignogna-harassed-macross-voice-actress-mari-iijima/.149505

Not sure who he is, though I know I've seen the name. The article details his behavior towards her at a con in 2007.

EDIT:

Okay, got the gist of it now. Vic Mignona, American VA, known for stuff like Full Metal Alchemist, came under fire for alleged super creep behavior going back a decade or more. The article details recent allegations made by con staff for Tekkoshocon that he stalked Mari Ijima, calling her hotel phone and even showing up at her door. She had to change rooms for the duration of the con and had it booked under an alias, and con organizers hired personal bodyguards for her.

Apparently there's an ongoing lawsuit by him vs Funimation and some other people, I don't know the whole story, I skimmed through most of it just to focus on the Macross stuff.

Edited August 1, 2019 by kajnrig

[Mazinger]

23 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2019-07-31/former-tekkoshocon-staff-allege-mignogna-harassed-macross-voice-actress-mari-iijima/.149505

Not sure who he is, though I know I've seen the name. The article details his behavior towards her at a con in 2007.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=2516

Apparently he's the English voice actor for Broly in Dragon Ball.

And there seems to be a history of this according to the wikipedia page about him:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vic_Mignogna#Sexual_harassment_allegations

Huh.  Not good.

Edited August 1, 2019 by Mazinger

[Seto Kaiba]

Jeez... is there anyone Vic didn't sexually harass?  Holy sh*t.

 

42 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

Apparently there's an ongoing lawsuit by him vs Funimation and some other people, I don't know the whole story, I skimmed through most of it just to focus on the Macross stuff.

The TL;DR version is that, after launching an internal investigation into the allegations of sexual harassment against him by a fair number of his coworkers and convention-going fans and finding out that "Bad-Touch Broly" has allegedly been behaving badly for over a decade with fans and coworkers alike, HR at FUNimation's parent company Sony Pictures ended Vic's employment with the company.  Several other companies, including RWBY creators Rooster Teeth Productions, have similarly terminated their business relationships with Vic in response to the growing mountain of accusations against him.  Basically, he got #metoo'd, but all the evidence suggests he f*cking well earned it many times over.

Vic is suing FUNimation and the first few voice actors who accused him of sexual harassment (Jamie Marchi¹ and Monica Rial²) for defamation, interference in existing contracts and business relations, and civil conspiracy.  The TL;DR explanation of that being that Mr. Mignogna is suing them for, in short, conspiring to destroy his career and reputation with false accusations of sexual harassment.  (Basically, he's claiming this is all made up to ruin him for... reasons?  He's not super clear on that front, really.  He's going to have some problems with the "made up" part, given the amount of testimony and video/photographic evidence.)

 

1. A prolific ADR script writer who is also known for voicing Mitsuko in A Certain Scientific Railgun, Rana Linchen in Freezing, Mikako in Heaven's Lost Property, Rias Gremory in High School DXD, Haruna in Negima, Panty in Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, and Mexiah in Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari.

2. A VERY prolific voice actress who you would know as the dub voice of Misa Hayase in ADV's Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Tsuyu in My Hero Academia, Doll in Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari, Tsubaki in Soul Eater, Renge in Ouran High School Host Club, Kyoko in the ADV Full Metal Panic! dubs, and Bulma in several Dragon Ball Z features.

[Duymon]

It's more idiocy from Anime News Network. They've been trying to nail Vic for forever and it seems like it's all been coordinated out of professional jealousy and political beliefs.

Oh look... all the "evidence" is yet again another weirdo ranting on twitter with yet another hearsay story

https://archive.is/dfGly#selection-3471.0-3539.202

I've been following this for a while and as usual, all the evidence is more bullcrap twitter hearsay and Wikipedia hitjobs. The livestreams from Nick Rekieta about the lolsuit and whatnot have been very eye-opening into all of this madness.

the whole legion of weirdos on twitter will keep putting out bullcrap like this to take down somebody who has yet to be charged with a crime or even outed officially by a convention for being what they claim he is.

These people are trying to use Mari as a weapon against Vic. They don't give a damn about Mari they just want to use her name recognition to throw more shade at somebody. 

It's sickening.

 

Edited August 1, 2019 by Duymon

[jenius]

But like why are they doing that? Generally good guys don't get taken down by a coordinated effort... 

[Bolt]

Unless someone is standing on a grassy knoll..

All sick jokes aside. I have no skin in this game ,so I’m not arguing for against this bloke. But I’m wondering, is it all bull crap, if there are multiple allegations? What does Mari Ijima actually saying herself about this guy?

 

Edited August 2, 2019 by Bolt

[Duymon]

1 hour ago, jenius said:

But like why are they doing that? Generally good guys don't get taken down by a coordinated effort... 

They're taking him down because

 

1. he is probably the most well known male voice actor for dubbed anime and has huge lines on the con circuit

2. he is an outspoken christian advocate

3. he refused to autograph fanart depicting characters he's voice in homosexual relationships 

All this VIC takedown stuff happened just as people actually started to know who he was because he voices Broly in Dragonball super and it was relatively successful in theatres for an Anime flick.

I didn't know or care who he was either because I don't watch dubbed Anime. But this bullcrap cancel culture online outrage mob doesn't have a place in out hobby. 

If they don't bring hard evidence I won't bother. We' ve already had a bunch of #metoo's debunked (johnny depp, chris hardwick, andy signore) so I'm all out of taking just accusations on mere faith.

Hell, ANN didn't even reach out to Mari Ijima herself. They asked another VA ? like why?

 

Edited August 2, 2019 by Duymon

[JB0]

Yeah, the thread title is misleading. Less "Mari Ijima has gotten involved" and more "Mari Ijima has been dragged into"

2 hours ago, Bolt said:

Unless someone is standing on a grassy knoll..

All sick jokes aside. I have no skin in this game ,so I’m not arguing for against this bloke. But I’m wondering, is it all bull crap, if there are multiple allegations? What does Mari Ijima actually saying herself about this guy?

 

She said she didn't want to talk about it.

[Einherjar]

I was hoping this would not end up being posted here.

[DewPoint]

I generally do not watch dubbed anime, so I don't know who most of these people are.  Unless you were directly involved with one or more of these alleged incidents or know someone personally who was, all we can do is speculate.  Any accusation of sexual harassment and sexual assault should be taken very seriously until it is proven or dis-proven.  As far as sexual harassment goes, it is sexual harassment based on how the woman (or man) feels abut the encounter.  If the interaction, with a sexual nature, was unwanted, unwelcome, made them feel uncomfortable or disgusted, then it IS sexual harassment.  Will people lie about sexual harassment or sexual assault for revenge or out of hate?  Sure.  That's why we have a legal process to try to sort these things out.

The bottom line is that we have far too many traumatized women (and men) in this world; we DON'T need any more.

I personally know three women that have been victims of sexual assault and/or abuse.  They are a mess.  They have an extremely difficult time trusting anyone as well as a multitude or other issues from their experience.

Edited August 2, 2019 by DewPoint
Because I need to proofread more.

[kajnrig]

32 minutes ago, JB0 said:

Yeah, the thread title is misleading. Less "Mari Ijima has gotten involved" and more "Mari Ijima has been dragged into"

Yeah, I wasn't sure how to word it, either. It's actually changed once already. I think yours works better, I'll change it again.

4 hours ago, Duymon said:

It's more idiocy from Anime News Network.

I didn't intend to get you riled up about this, I hope you know. I posted it because it's a weird freak instance of outside shenanigans intersecting with Macross shenanigans. I don't know enough about ANN to speak to their veracity or lack thereof.

2 hours ago, Duymon said:

Hell, ANN didn't even reach out to Mari Ijima herself. They asked another VA ? like why?

They did reach out to her. From the article:

ANN sent a query to Iijima about the alleged incidents involving Mignogna at either the 2007 or 2010 Tekkoshocon event. Iijima declined to comment on the matters.

ANN didn't ask another VA. They saw and reported the Twitter post made by a VA named Brett Weaver, and followed up on it with Iijima, who declined to comment. I mean, they probably also followed up on it with Weaver and the other people mentioned in the article, too. I'm just saying they followed up with her specifically and she declined to comment.

So I guess that's the end of that as far as this forum is concerned. True or not, I never would've thought that the Mignogna... fiasco... would ever in a million years intersect with our neck of the woods, so to speak. Anyway. That's that.

[Beltane70]

I’m not surprised at all and was actually almost expecting to learn that Mari was one of his victims. 

It’s been an industry “secret” for at least a decade that Mignogna is a predator. Each and every one of my friends that have staffed at conventions (some of them are even friends with Monica herself) and have dealt with him in the past have all said that Vic is garbage and that the only reason that cons have him as a guest is because he brings in attendees. So, yeah, I believe all that Mignogna has been accused of is true. 

[Roy Focker]

I remember seeing rumors years ago on other message boards.  They were mostly hearsay from someone that had a friend who saw him at a convention.   At the same time there were people who praised him.

We have since learned about claims of unwanted behavior from his very peers.  These claims aren't rumors traded on the Internet.  Here we have his fellow Voice Actors of worked with or attended conventions with him.  When his peers start speaking up you have to think maybe there's more to this than just rumors.

I'm now shutting down this topic.