The #KickVic crowd is still at it, attempting to get anime voice actor Vic Mignogna booted out of the industry. This time they’ve targeted the Japanese themed Tekko convention, which already took place back in the middle of April of this year. However, many anime fans want Vic Mignogna there as a guest for the next convention, and those who are part of the #KickVic crowd have been attempting to paint the voice actor as a harasser. Well, Tekko issued a statement, outright saying that they have no evidence, reports, or documents that indicate that Vic Mignogna was ever involved with any kind of misconduct.
The news came courtesy of a tweet that was published on June 28th, 2019. You can read it below.
Message from the Pittsburgh Japanese Culture Society Board of Directors pic.twitter.com/ipXRpF5izu
— Tekko (@TeamTekko) June 28, 2019
If you’re unable to view the image in the tweet, it states…
“Allegations associated to our organization regarding Vic Mignogna have been brought to the attention of our leadership team. Due to the sensitive nature of the matter, we feel we must respond in a timely and fact-based manner.
“As many have already communicated, no member of the current Board of Directors was present during the years in question. Specifically, the current board does not have any information pertaining to incidents years prior to 2013. Unfortunately, no documented harassment issues were passed along from the previous leadership team during the transition period.
“At Tekko 2018, Vic Mignogna was a quest and there were no incident reports submitted. Additionally no related incidents were brought to our attention by our Harassment Response Officer regarding infractions of our strict Harassment Policy. The full harassment policy can be viewed on our rules page: http://www.teamtekko.us/rules/. Any violations of this policy may be reported to [email protected]
“Since the current leadership team has stepped into this role, we have made a diligent effort to be transparent with the community and have an open door policy. Should you have any questions, we encourage you to email us at [email protected]”
The response from the #KickVic crowd was quite telling, with many of them chiming in to beg Tekko not to invite Mignogna back to future events.
I would ask that you take the very serious allegations into consideration and do not invite him again.
— Tamara 🌈🔜 Tennocon (@totalspiffage) June 28, 2019
Thank you for taking the time to write this. Please do not invite him back again.
— 💎🏳️🌈 Mezz 🏳️🌈💎 @ ONCE MORE LUMINOUS (@mezzatto) June 28, 2019
This, combined with the tweet about upcoming guests, makes me nervous.
Please don’t invite Vic back.
— Noodle | Nintendo Won E3 (@n00dl3gal) June 28, 2019
Please do not invite him back or to any of the other conventions the Pittsburgh Japanese Culture Society are in charge of
— Rae (@sgtbrightside) June 28, 2019
Vic is a sexual predator. There’s 15+ years of accounts to that.
— Michael Fitz-Gibbon (@penguintruth) June 28, 2019
People who don’t put their feelings before facts, and who actually believe in the letter of the law that people are innocent until proven guilty, were quick to thank Tekko for being reasonable and fact-based. They also championed for the convention to re-invite Vic Mignogna for future events for the sake of real fans.
So this means no documented harrassment has been found yet? Cool, so invite Vic back.
— Chronoha (@Chron973926) June 28, 2019
Please invite vic as a guest there has been no reports of any incidents of cons he’s been too , and the cons he recently attended have been successful and with no incidents and many fans came to support him, with lines such as 7 hours long pic.twitter.com/ZZ0NUXDrHp
— AverageFanboy (@FanboyAverage) June 28, 2019
I was at your convention last year and met Vic. He was such a gentleman and so kind to his fans. Please continue to have him at your convention because, he brings in money for you and it’s for the fans who love seeing him and bring positivity to the anime community!
— demonicrose21 (@demonicrose21) June 28, 2019
Give the man his due process and base your decision on how your current board has interacted with him in the past. Do not give in to a mob that wants to convict someone with nothing more than hearsay as evidence.
— Twisted Puppet (@twistedpuppet) June 28, 2019
Thank you for your honesty please do not listen to these #kickvic on the verge of loss lying UNDER OATH Yikes thank you for understanding cons ARE FOR THE FANS ! pic.twitter.com/wHizJKiwLE
— YT SGSAMI 🍀 (@SGSAMII) June 28, 2019
This all stems from the ongoing battle that Mignogna has been fighting the last half year, where allegations of misconduct were levied against him, but without any proof. What evidence that was provided turned out to be fake.
Mignogna retaliated after being fired from Funimation and Rooster Teeth by suing the people responsible for costing him his jobs.
Since then there’s been an ongoing battle from the #KickVic group who insist on getting Mignogna ousted from the anime industry based on false claims, and those funding Mignogna’s lawsuit to help get him his job(s) back or at least make those who spread the defamatory allegations pay for tortious interference.
A variety of YouTubers have been keeping track of the case, such as Hero Hei, YellowFlash, That Umbrella Guy, and Come Geek Some, the latter of which recently did a video going over the latest developments of the lawsuit.
Many fans want to see Mignogna at conventions, so now the new battleground is between fans and the #KickVic crowd how are trying to compel places like Tekko to banish Mignogna. However, given that there’s no evidence or reports of misconduct, it’s hard for conventions to do so on the basis of facts, which has stirred up the #KickVic side into a frenzy.
Depending on how the lawsuit goes this shouldn’t even be an issue in the future since without any substantiated claims of misconduct, conventions barring Mignogna from attendance would only be doing so out of spite rather than because of any kind of actual criminal conduct.
Thankfully, most organizers seem to be affable toward Mignogna after fans willed him back into the good graces of conventions, and so regardless of what the #KickVic side says, it seems like Mignogna’s fate and future will most reside in the hands of dedicated fans.
(Thanks for the news tip Animatic)