A recently resurfaced recording shows Funimation voice actor and script writer Jamie Marchi disingenuously attributing criticism of the studio’s questionable dub scripts to outright misogyny.
The clip, resurfaced by Twitter user @SlaveOfSuzumiya, was originally recorded during the Women of My Hero Academia panel at the 2018 Summer SacAnime convention and features Marchi (Mount Lady) alongside fellow series VAs Caitlin Glass (Mina Ashido) , Monica Rial (Tsyu Asui), Morgan Berry (Thirteen) & Trina Nishimura (Kyoka Jiro).
In their tweet featuring the clip, @SlaveOfSuzumiya praised Marchi and stated that they “wouldn’t have the guts to just lay it out there followed by a mic drop”.
A friend of mine sent this over for us to watch, I don’t remember where this was at but good lord @marchimark is amazing. I wouldn’t have the guts to just lay it out there followed by a mic drop XD pic.twitter.com/Y5I5uERste
— Mario Tainaka (@SlaveOfSuzumiya) October 19, 2020
In response to the clip, Marchi herself replied that “I think the only reason I have guts is because I didn’t have any other choice.”
In the specific clip, a fan approaches the panel to ask Marchi specifically on her thoughts regarding how “Funimation has come under criticism for how they choose to adapt their scripts for a couple of shows” and after expressing how he personally feels that “a lot of that I feel is directed at you unfairly,” asks Marchi if she would “like to respond to that kind of criticism?”
After first dismissing the dub criticism as “unnecessary hate,” Marchi asserts that these scripts only receive backlash due to her gender, stating “I have a vagina. Deal with it.”
“Honestly, that’s the truth,” said Marchi. “I am a funny woman. We are all talented, funny, powerful women. We are out here. It is going to happen. Deal with it.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22tS0BuCp5o
[Timestamp 10:20]
Marchi adds to her response by painting her critics as sexually frustrated ‘incels’, telling them “I’m sorry you’re not getting laid, it’s not about you, move on.”
“That’s my reaction,” the actress concludes.
Related: Funimation Featured on Anime Production Committees For Three Titles in Winter 2020 Season
After her initial response to @SlaveOfSuzumiya, Marchi would proceed to discuss the criticism she has received during her time as a script writer for Funimation, beginning by stating, “When gamergaters attacked me over a line in Prison School that I neither wrote nor directed, my career as I knew it was over.”
She then recalled how “everything I wrote was gone over with a find toothed comb looking for any changes that could be twisted to an ‘agenda’ I never had.”
Marchi then lamented how “the days of adapting for shows like Panty and Stocking, Hetalia, Spice and Wolf, and others were gone,” as “there seems to be little complaints with shows I wrote before Prison School came out.”
However, Marchi failed to either mention or recall that anime fans were not outraged at a necessary localization in Prison School, but rather a ham-fisted and poorly-aged reference to the GamerGate controversy.
Related: Funimation Censors Mild ‘Butt’ Pun Joke in Nekopara
“I receive relentless hate for a handful of lines I wrote years ago,” said Marchi. “Overall, that’s less than 1% of the lines I have ever written while adapting scripts for anime. Statistically, their complaints should be a compliment. 99% is a pretty high approval rating.”
“Instead,” Marchi stated, “I am relentlessly criticized. If you follow anime, you’ve seen the memes with the changes I’ve made for adaptation. And while there has been some support, I’ve been generally left to deal with the harassment alone. It’s been ‘my’ problem.”
Marchi explained that “it had also been made clear to me that if I did stand up for myself and refused to take the harassment like a good girl, I would no longer have a job.”
She also noted how “the harassment grew” because she “was in a show that used the term “SJW”, referencing a widely-panned edit in the English dub of Interviews With Monster Girls.
The voice actress clarified that she “did not write or direct that show” but stated that she “was the one who received death threats” and “was the one targeted in a continued public campaign of harassment.”
“And again, I was left to deal with it alone,” Marchi continued. “”Don’t feed the trolls” right? Yet, my silence never silenced them or prevented them from telling me to kill myself.”
According to Marchi, her “silence has only ever empowered” her critics, which she points to as a reason for “why I’m so loud, why I fight back, why I scream my opinion.”
“It’s because I have to. Otherwise, I won’t be heard,” said Marchi.
She then noted that she would not “let monsters online and certain elements of the industry make me feel like my voice isn’t worthy of being heard.”
Marchi’s lengthy thread concluded with the voice actress giving thanks “to those who have been supportive,” as they “kept me from feeling completely abandoned.”
What do you make of Marchi’s statements in 2018? What about her follow-up explanation in 2020? Let us know your thoughts on social media or in the comments down below!