Read on Twitter
this is the statement that Anime Dallas made on their FB late Friday, an attempt to justify the existence of their event in the middle of a pandemic that has killed almost 300K Americans and almost 25K Texans. 1/
It is also an admission of institutional failure on the part of pretty much everyone involved. 2/
To quote the statement, "actors, artists, and vendors are hurting because of events and conventions shutting down..." This is true. Also true but not mentioned is the failure of federal & state govt to provide meaningful financial assistance to those affected by shutdowns. 3/
Instead, here the anime fan community is expected to put its life at risk to support the livelihood of anime voice actors. It seems to me that if your financial stability is dependent upon speaking fees & autograph sales at anime cons, your work as a voice actor is secondary. 4/
What you are is an autograph salesman. 5/
At least the artists and vendors are up front about their business, which is selling artwork and merch to anime fans. And I have sympathy for your position. However, should I risk my life so that you can sell T-shirts or prints or keychains? 6/
Should I encourage others to risk their lives so you can sell T-shirts and prints and keychains? My answer is a loud NO. 7/
I don't have any solution to the problem of how to safely produce an anime convention in the middle of a pandemic. Nobody does. We'll NEVER have that solution, because anime conventions aren't essential. We're the definition of non-essential. 8/
If your livelihood was dependent upon anime fandom volunteering their unpaid time, largely unrecognized effort, un-reimbursed resources, and limited energy to plan & staff anime cons, then COVID or no COVID, you were already financially dead. 9/
If COVID wasn't going to destroy your business, something else would have. 10/
Anime conventions - the anime con world - is run by volunteers because we love stupid cartoons and we love getting together and sharing that love. It's not meant to survive pandemics because it doesn't have to. Surviving is *our* job. 11/
Our job is to stay healthy & keep the essentials running so when things get back to whatever our new normal will be, we can pick things back up. Fandom will still be here when COVID-19 is a memory. 12/
Whether or not you, personally, will also be here... well, that might be up to whether or not you can stay the hell home. 13/
Anime Dallas says they're putting on their event "for those who can't exist without this community." Really? The lack of a Japanese cartoon festival is an existential threat? The only existential threat I see here is COVID-19, and you can avoid that threat very, very easily. 14/
Stay home.
