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- Nov 9, 2016
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There have been a lot of controversies surrounding morally questionable people backing cons, and many of those people being Vic apologists. Anime Matsuri was probably most famous for the allegations against its owner. Didn't go partially because of the controversy and partly because Houston is a long drive away and there are already 9 other Texas anime cons. I just found out about new convention Anime Oklahoma, successor convention to Izumicon, and its controversies. The financial backer was accused of pedophilia, kidnapping, homophobia/transphobia, and other sordid deeds. The security officer of Anime Oklahoma was a huge Vic apologist who lobbied for him to be invited to Tokyo in Tulsa (the overwhelming outcry from people on that convention's facebook group prevented that from happening. Some even testified to being victims of his.) Anyway, the con very reluctantly got rid of their backer and are now begging for money on Gofundme to pay for the convention. Vic probably got away with that stuff because many people in the convention business are slimy and did similar things as him, and unfortunately, quite a few cons in the rural central US have very slimy people in charge. The Arkansas Cosplay Con and Anime Experience scandal was enough to make Bleeding Cool news, Con Man: Arkansas Convention Organizer Allegedly Took Money And Ran and Izumicon fell after 10 years because of a similar scandal.
I'm hoping that now that Anime Oklahoma has gotten rid of the controversial guy, that they can maybe make it as a less corrupt Izumicon, but I still feel uncomfortable about the Vic apologetics one of the people in charge is responsible for. The fans at least lobbied to ensure that we got Tia Ballard instead of Vic or Todd or one of those individuals. She'll probably be the only voice actress because of the money issues.
Anyway, what my point is that Vic is only part of the problem with anime cons as the corrupt people in charge enabled him and possibly other voice actors and other people at cons. I don't know if cons in other parts of the US have the same corruption issues as the south central US near where Funimation is headquartered, but corruption is really bad here.
Edit: Major update on the Anime Oklahoma situation. They have kept the controversial investor and have threatened anybody who criticized them with legal action. Just now, they took down their Facebook page after censoring all negative criticism. I think this takes the cake for the worst action any con has done in America in a year with lots of cons doing bad things.
I'm hoping that now that Anime Oklahoma has gotten rid of the controversial guy, that they can maybe make it as a less corrupt Izumicon, but I still feel uncomfortable about the Vic apologetics one of the people in charge is responsible for. The fans at least lobbied to ensure that we got Tia Ballard instead of Vic or Todd or one of those individuals. She'll probably be the only voice actress because of the money issues.
Anyway, what my point is that Vic is only part of the problem with anime cons as the corrupt people in charge enabled him and possibly other voice actors and other people at cons. I don't know if cons in other parts of the US have the same corruption issues as the south central US near where Funimation is headquartered, but corruption is really bad here.
Edit: Major update on the Anime Oklahoma situation. They have kept the controversial investor and have threatened anybody who criticized them with legal action. Just now, they took down their Facebook page after censoring all negative criticism. I think this takes the cake for the worst action any con has done in America in a year with lots of cons doing bad things.
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