Animegate

Event
Event:	Animegate
Participants:	Vic Mignogna, hanleia, Monica Rial, Jamie Marchi, Ty Beard, Nick Rekieta, T. Greg Doucette
Date(s):	2018-2019
Type:
Fandom:	anime
URL:
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Animegate was a series of controversies in the English-speaking anime fandom. The event is named for Gamergate, and shares similar throughlines of conflict over diversity/representation, feminism, and the #metoo movement.

2018

Know Your Meme counts the January 2018 English release of Goblin Slayer as the first part of Animegate. The first episode was posted with what many felt was an inappropriately low rating, as it contained both graphic violence and an onscreen rape scene. Some fans spoke up regarding their discomfort with the way the onscreen rape was sexualized, while others felt they were jumping to conclusions and missing the point of the scene.

The year 2018 was also marked by several conflicts over translation. In March, a joke in the Funimation dub of Ms. Kobayashi's Dragon Maid changed a character's remark about how dressing more modestly didn't divert male attention to one about the character being forced to conform to patriarchal standards, leaving some fans frustrated with a perceived SJW bias in the company. In November, the 8th episode of the anime Zombie Land Saga revealed that one of the characters was a trans girl; again, some fans suspected that this was a mistranslation fueled by SJW biases.

2019

Vic Mignogna Misconduct Allegations

On January 16, 2019 (the same day as the Dragonball Super: Broly movie's US premiere (which featured Vic Mignogna playing Broly), Twitter user hanleia posted a thread:

Vic Mignogna is a homophobic rude asshole who has been creepy to underage female fans for over ten years and I've been screaming about this since 2010 but every year nothing changes

"him being rude to staff is a RUMOR"
I have literally staffed cons he was in. Every single staff member hated him, but we were told we'd be kicked out if we revealed things to outsiders. They'd joke "you can only punch him ONCE"
He's really THAT BAD guys
I don't know what to tell you guys if you don't believe me.
It's a shame my original 2010-12 Twitter is dead because then you could see even all the way back then me complaining about him in the exact same way and how I got @'s from other con staff scolding me for it
I don't know first-hand accounts of him being creepy to underage girls, I've lost online receipts over the years
But given everything I know about him, I 10000000% believe those accusations
But yeah you can at least see how I've been screaming about it since 2014

(Image Description: a screencap of tweets posted by haneleia on November 11, 2014: "queue his fangirls being pissed as hell at staff. And vic being rude to staff about it" "Vic is so bad to con staffers that we're banned from discussing our experiences with him and can get kicked out of staff for it." "Idc about Vic's skills as a voice actor I don't like him because he's a huge asshole IRL.")

hanleia, Jan 16, 2019

None of these allegations were particularly new; similar opinions had been shared online as early as 2011. However, in the wake of the #metoo movement, this post gained more traction than others, especially after it was retweeted by voice actress Monica Rial. Over the next week, Rial and another voice actress, Jamie Marchi, alleged that Mignogna sexually harassed them. Several other fans shared stories of times they felt uncomfortable around him. At the same time, Mignogna's fan club, the Risembool Rangers, rallied in defense of their favorite voice actors. Many otherwise uninvolved fans shared their opinions on the quality of the evidence, and made judgements on the topic.

Court Battles and "The Threadnought"

In February 2019, Mignogna made public his intention to take legal action regarding the allegations made against him, and said that "a friend" had set up a GoFundMe for his legal expenses. The resulting GoFundMe, given the name "Vic Kicks Back," was set up by Ty Beard of Texas law firm Beard & Harris. Also involved was Minnesota lawyer and Youtuber Nick Rekieta, who was not able to participate directly in the lawsuit due to not being licensed to practice in Texas.

Mignogna's legal strategy focused on framing the allegations against him as defamatory. However, many of the specific charges were fairly weak from a legal standpoint, and observers began to allege that what Mignogna was doing qualified as "strategic lawsuits against public participation," commonly known as SLAPP. In SLAPP lawsuits, the goal is not to win the case, but to intimidate the accused defamer into silence via repeated, expensive lawsuits.

In addition to being the home of Funimation Entertainment, Texas is the US state with the strongest anti-SLAPP laws. This, coupled with several irregularities in the initial filings, attracted the attention of law experts outside of anime fandom. Most notable among these was T. Greg Doucette, a North Carolina lawyer and podcast host who used his Twitter to comment on the case. Ty Beard was unamused by his criticism, and encouraged Mignogna's supporters to "make him miserable;" in response, fans doxxed him and left numerous bad reviews on his law firm's Google page. Undaunted, Doucette continued commentating on the case as it developed, resulting in a massive Twitter thread that he and others referred to as "The Threadnought."

The Rising of the Shield Hero

The Rising of the Shield Hero anime also sparked controversy, as the main character, Naofumi, is falsely accused of rape early in its run and then goes on to purchase several slaves, one of whom eventually becomes his romantic interest. Some fans were very concerned about the messages contained in this work, while others insisted it was good and that they needed to give it more of a chance. The series premiered in January, prompting fans who disbelieved the allegations against Mignogna to make comparisons between him and Naofumi. One fan even made a Change.org petition to have him cast as Naofumi.