Vic Mignogna: Asshole?

   The beloved voice actor of Edward (or Edu) Elric attended Anime Banzai 2008, much to the organizers of Anime Banzai’s delight. In fact, they were so ecstatic, they raised dear Vic upon a pedestal, to that of comparable idol status, where Vic lived out his idolatry with flying colors.
   Vic, along with a handful of other voice actors, held a signing panel on the Saturday of Anime Banzai for two hours, where rabid anime fans stood, sat, and squeed in line for two plus hours waiting to have some stranger write on their stuff. At the end of the two-hour panel, there were still a hundred or more fans who had not gotten through the line, and much to their dismay, began being dismissed. Anime Banzai officials were responsible for crushing the idle dreams, hero-worship, and fan service of this hoard of fans, turning them away by gently explaining that the room was booked for a different panel for the next hour: Defend Your Series, a panel run by a cynic who forced silly otaku to defend their favorite, although mostly pointless, anime. Unfortunately for Vic fans, the cynics must go on.
   Fortunately for my friends, and not so much I, we went out to dinner at eight that evening. Down the street at a local, friendly Denny’s it was our good-luck, and similar celebrity worship that brought to us a pleasurable event. Vic was eating dinner there, too! What a surprise! Who knew that voice actors had to eat? A member of our party screamed, and so began an onslaught of on-the-spot graffiti all over our personal items, as well as probing questions into the life of an anime star. From that point on, I have been an owner of a Vic signature, signed “*heart* Vic Mignogna” in my Anime Banzai event book. Which much to my disappointment, doesn’t sell for much on Ebay- damn you, apathetic otaku!
   Afterward, the remaining members of our group sat through the rest of the Cosplay Contest, and then through the Closing Ceremony, where the finalists from the Anime Idol competition sung their final songs, were judged, and then crowned respectively with their awards and titles. It is during these performances that I realized Vic was an asshole. A certified prick, if you will. The elite karaoke artists did their thing, and the crowd went, in varying levels, wild and crazy. I myself could be heard yelling, “take it off!” to the final female singer, as well as swooning to the fourteen year-old channeling Frank Sinatra while dressed as Goku from Dragonball Z, who I later analyzed as “suave, classy, and better.” The aforementioned screaming member of my group was never more aware of Vic’s presence than this moment in time, due to the fact he was sitting less than forty feet away, and throughout the entire session of Anime Idol, she was screaming, “I love you, Vic” and “Have my children, Vic.” This perhaps is the most telling sign of Vic’s overwhelming vibe of asshole.
   As I sat there taking in the pleasant and not so pleasant voices of Anime Idols, Vic did various crowd-pleasing actions, such as dancing with the man sitting next to him, kissing his girlfriend, waving his cellphone in a delightful socially abstract representation of a lighter, and doing some Latin-esque dance moves to a particular song. Inevitably, the crowd mimicked Vic obsessively; waving their phones, clapping their hands, doing that awkward little Latin number… all in all, it became less about the talent, and more about the voice actor. Vic had stolen the audience right out from underneath the performers, and in essence, had out performed them. A disturbing theme to the entire Closing Ceremony.
   To top it all off, Vic received a gift basket from the organizers of Anime Banzai, commented on the hospitality and fun-factor of Salt Lake, and left his drinking glass in plain sight for the screaming, obsessed member of our party to froth at the mouth over.