Rent-a-Girlfriend voice actor Laura Stahl recently alleged that she was the target of hate mail from fans unable to separate her from her on-screen character, Mami Nanami.
On August 11th, Stahl announced through her personal Twitter page that she would be “playing Mami Nanami in the English Dub of Rent a Girlfriend!”:
A noted anime voice actor, Stahl has previously provided voice works for series such as Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (Hayato Kawajiri), Pokemon: Twilight Wings (Bea) and Iruma Suzuki (Welcome to Demon-School, Iruma-kun).
The following day, Stahl would return to Twitter to ask if fans could “at least wait until [the dub drops] to send messages telling me how horrible I am?”:
The voice actress would state that she was “not going to out anybody,” but declared that she was “not the character” and that fans “literally haven’t even seen my performance.”
In accordance with this declaration, Stahl did not provide any screenshots of the alleged harassment or hate mail.
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According to Stahl, the voice actress found that “waking up to a box full of ‘You’re a horrible person’ on your birthday you’re already spending working alone in a room is a lot.”
She then asked fans to refrain from being bullies:
She then stated, “One last thought- Male/Masculine VA, when you play sadistic, toxic characters (who sometimes aren’t even antags) – how much hate do you get? I’ve only seen this much outward hatred when women play them. Why?”
She would later add, “Thanks y’all. I’m ok, honest. The love is definitely drowning out the hate. I’m grateful for all of you, and that I get to spend today doing what I love, with some of my favorite people (remotely,) creating new projects I can’t wait to share with all of you. Let’s be kind.”
The English dub of Rent-a-Girlfriend is set to premiere on August 28th exclusively on Crunchyroll.