Update about an anime harasser

[nita]

'Member back in March when I posted about Vic Mignogna's fall from grace when Funimation and others dropped him after allegations of his sexual harassment final got the notice of the anime companies?  His behavior had long been rumored and discussed among the fan community and among other voice actors. 

Well, I had hadn't followed the story since then, but it seems that ol' Mignogna is suing Funimation, a couple of voice actresses and the finance of one the actresses.  For defamation.  For a million dollars plus what ever else he can get  punitively.  Because of course he is.

Vic Mignogna Sues Funimation, Jamie Marchi, Monica Rial, Ronald Toye

Funimation has filed a motion to dismiss.   Funimation Files Anti-SLAPP Motion to Dismiss Vic Mignogna's Lawsuit

If you think about it, none of this is any surprise.  Mignogna doesn't have much of a career left unless he can fight this.  My money however is on Funimation.  I doubt they did anything without making sure they covered everything legally.  And, as I said back in March, I suspect after years of rumors, they finally investigated and dropped Mignogna because they didn't want his reputation to blow back on the company or the company being sued from an incident involving him. 

Comments

[feuervogel]

He is such a creep. He was at Animazement like 15 years ago, back when I still went, and I heard so many rumors after that con. I hope his career is over and he learns his lesson.

[nita]

Fan online have been talking about him for years. I don't go to the big cons any more (the ones big enough that could afford him). I just go to smaller ones. Even at those, you hear stories about him.

Unfortunately, repeated offenders like him don't learn their lesson. They just spend the rest of their time whining about how badly they've been treated or maligned. Yeah, right.

[phosfate]

He will go full-time Christian and find a way to milk his creepy fan cult for as long as he can. They also will learn nothing.

I do not know a lot about defamation, but considering that there are hundreds of examples of his behavior, including video and photos, I doubt he can win. He can keep it going for so long that it's cheaper for Funimation to settle, but I would be surprised if he has the resources. In any case, his career in anime is probably gone.

[nita]

You're probably right about the full-time Christian thing. "I'm being soooo persecuted...."

I'm sure there is more out there than I've seen, but most of the support for Mignogna I've seen has been from the kinda of fanboys out there who think men are oppressed all women who claim harassment are liars. The kind who are mad at women becaues they can't get laid. (And couldn't get laid if they were trading pardons for sex in women's prison.)

I hope Funimation doesn't settle. I'm more concerned with the impact this will have on the two actresses and the finance - they're are private individuals and have less resources than a corporation. But your are right there are plenty of evidence of his behavior.

I'm certainly not going to shed a tear over his career.

[phosfate]

I've seen reposts of discussions on his...oh godddammit whatever that chat/game program is that I lost when my hard drive died. It's not just fellas, unfortunately. His nonpologies/thanks for your support I do everything for you posts to the group are pretty terrifying.

[nita]

Ugh. Just gross. People, get it through your heads that just because someone is famous or was an actor in something you like does not mean s/he is a good person. He's an actor! It's his job to pretend! Including to pretend to be a nice to his fans. It doesn't mean he can't be shit when the mask is off.

Even without this business, I finally crystalized what I don't like about his voice acting: he's incredibly hammy. In the right scenes (like some in Ouran) it can work, but he can't handle subtlety.

[phosfate]

The sound of his voice can make me bail on a dub, and I had no idea who he was. (I can name maybe three EL voice actors, and a few You Know The Guy Who Played That Guy In That Thing.) That is by no means a quality unique to him, but still. America's tendency to show dubbed anime very late at night means that certain shows cut through my head like a circular saw.

[nita]

I get that. Some voice are irritating. For me it's high-pitched voices. There's a voice actress - can't think of the name - her acting is fine, but the pitch of the voice grates on me. With VM, it's not the sound, it's the acting that annoys me.

[phosfate]

Literally everyone on Evangelion makes me want to fling myself in front of a bus.

[nita]

And the story didn't give you that same reaction?

A lot of the old ADV dubs like Evangelion were painful to listen to. Come to think of it, VM started at ADV.

[phosfate]

I never got far enough in to learn the story. Now that I know what it is, I'm glad.