Vic Mignogna Sexual Harassment Allegations
Part of a series on AnimeGate. [View Related Entries]
Overview
Vic Mignogna Sexual Assault Allegations refer to accusations that American voice actor Vic Mignogna, best known for voicing the character Edward Elric from the English dub of the anime series Fullmetal Alchemist, sexually harassed various women.
Background
Talk of Mignogna being creepy and inappropriate have circulated in the convention community since he first started appearing at them since the mid 2000s. On February 8th, 2017, a thread compiling various accusations against Mignogna was created on the site PrettyUglyLittleLiar.[6]
Developments
2019 Twitter Thread
On January 16th, 2019, a Twitter[5] thread was published about Mignogna, which contained various accusations of homophobia, anti-Semitism and unwanted sexual advances. That day, Anime Feminist founder Amelia Cook retweeted the thread, along with the message "How is Vic Mignogna still working in anime?" (shown below). Within three weeks, the tweet garnered upwards of 2,500 likes and 1,800 retweets.
A friend linked me this
โ ๐๐ (@hanleia) January 16, 2019
Cw underage sexual assault pic.twitter.com/W0KkYbSbGj
Mignogna's Response
On January 21st, 2019, Mignogna posted a statement on Twitter[4] denying the accusations, but claiming he would stop physically interacting with fans (shown below). Within two weeks, the post gained over 8,600 likes and 2,000 retweets.
Rooster Teeth's Response
On February 5th, 2019, Rooster Teeth published an announcement that Mignogna was "no longer a part of the cast" for the show RWBY and that the company was "ending all associations with Mignogna."[3]
Funimation's Response
On February 11th, Funimation announced one of his roles will be recast and they will no longer engaging with Mignogna in future productions.
Everyone, we wanted to give you an update on the Vic Mignogna situation. Following an investigation, Funimation recast Vic Mignogna in Morose Mononokean Season 2. Funimation will not be engaging Mignogna in future productions.
โ Funimation (@FUNimation) February 11, 2019
Gofundme
On February 19th, a GoFundMe was launched by Nick Rekieta with a $100,000 goal.[7] The money will go directly to lawyer fees and any extra money left over will go to charity.[8] The GoFundME reached the goal on March 5th.
Ty Beard
On March 1st, 2019, Mignogna's attorney Ty Beard replied to a thread on Twitter[9] about accusations against Mignogna with the message "We will be in touch" (shown below).
On March 4th, the Rekieta Law YouTube channel held a livestream with Ty Beard about the Vic Mignogna case (shown below, left). The following day, YouTuber ThatUmbrellaGuy uploaded a video reacting to the livestream (shown below, right).
On March 20th, Rekieta Law held another livestream with Beard, who discussed ethics complaints, KamehaCon and various legal issues (shown below).
Search Interest
References
[1] Anime Cons โ Vic Mignogna
[2] Anime News Network โ Fans Recount Unwanted Affection from Voice Actor Vic Mignogna
[3] Rooster Teeth โ Vic Mignogna
[4] Twitter โ @vicmignogna
[5] Twitter โ @hanleia tweet
[6] PrettyUglyLittleLiar (via Wayback Machine) โ Vic Mignogna
[7] Gofundme โ Vic Kicks Back
[8] Twitter โ gofundme tweet