'Fullmetal Alchemist' actress exits Houston anime convention over contract dispute

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Just days before Houston's long-running annual anime convention kicks off this weekend, the event is again embroiled in controversy.

Anime Matsuri is slated to kick off this weekend on July 23 and celebrate its 20th anniversary. Among the planned events is a reunion of Maxey Whitehead and Vic Mignogna, who voiced brothers Alphonse and Edward Elric, respectively, in the 2009 English dub of the anime series Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Anime Matsuri announced the reunion event on Sunday. 

But on Monday morning, Whitehead wrote in a Facebook comment on Anime Matsuri's page that she was pulling out of the convention due to Mignogna's presence. Whitehead said she had agreed to specific terms in order to appear at Anime Matsuri that had not been honored.

"The convention has promoted my appearance as a reunion with Vic Mignogna, which is false and was explicitly prohibited under my contract," Whitehead wrote in a comment underneath a now-deleted Facebook post promoting her appearance at Anime Matsuri. "I notified the convention immediately and requested that the promotional materials be removed. Despite those requests, the promotional posts have remained public." 

"I sincerely apologize to everyone who was looking forward to meeting me," Whitehead continued. "This decision was made because my contractual agreement was not honored, not because of the fans. Thank you for your understanding."

Facebook posts announcing Whitehead's appearance at Anime Matsuri and promoting her appearance as a "reunion" with Mignogna were deleted on Monday shortly after Whitehead pulled out of the convention. 

While Whitehead did not directly address why she did not want to have her appearance promoted as a reunion with Mignogna, he has now been a source of controversy in the anime world for a number of years. 

Mignogna was once a prolific English-language anime voice actor in the 2000s and 2010s, best known for voicing Edward Elric in both the 2003 anime series Fullmetal Alchemist and a 2009 reboot series, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. He has also voiced the character Broly in the Dragon Ball series of movies and appeared in Bleach, Naruto, Attack on Titan and countless other anime dubs. 

A regular appearance at anime conventions around the country besides Anime Matsuri, Mignogna was accused of sexual harassment in 2019 at the height of the #MeToo movement. Both convention attendees and former coworkers accused Mignogna of sexually harassing them and making homophobic comments as far back as at least 2010. 

After the accusations emerged, anime distributor Funimation, now CrunchyRoll, cut ties with Mignogna in early 2019. Mignogna subsequently sued Funimation and former Funimation voice actors Monica Rial and Jamie Marchi, who had come forward with the allegations, for defamation. A Texas judge dismissed the case, and Mignogna lost the appeal in 2022. Many anime fans have spoken out against Mignogna's appearance on the convention circuit, including several Houston cosplayers and con attendees.

Whitehead did not immediately respond to a Facebook direct message asking for further comment on her decision to pull out of Anime Matsuri. Anime Matsuri didn't immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Organizer John Leigh, who on Facebook lists himself as Anime Matsuri's CEO, posted a screenshot of Whitehead's statement in the convention's Facebook group.

"What is this? The contract I have says otherwise. Anyway, moving on," Leigh wrote. Leigh did not respond to a Facebook direct message requesting comment.

Hosted at George R. Brown Convention Center in Downtown Houston and billed as Texas' largest anime convention, Anime Matsuri is no stranger to controversy. Earlier this summer, when Mignogna was announced as an attendee at this year's Anime Matsuri, Facebook commenters brought up his allegations. 

"Y'all forgot the part about him being a massive predator," one Facebook commenter wrote. 

Anime Matsuri has been accused of not paying vendors and has long been dogged by complaints from some attendees who say that it is poorly run and disorganized. Leigh himself was accused of sexual harassment in 2015 by women who accused him of slapping their butts, making sexual jokes, asking for nude pictures, and "asking a woman when she last had an orgasm." Leigh apologized in a now-deleted post on the Anime Matsuri website, and claimed in a 2019 interview with Houston Chronicle entertainment editor Cary Darling that he was "joking around as friends." 

Anime Matsuri is slated to kick off on July 23 and run through July 26. 

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