Joker, Panther, Skull and Morgana pose from the shadows.
Last night, the creative team behind a long-awaited Persona 5 anthology fanzine announced that its project leader had confessed to spending $ 27,600 CAD (about $ 21,300 USD) of zine funds to to “personal use.” The money was originally intended for printing and sending unofficial art and merchandise to customers. One of the fanzine artists claimed that the main organizer, who passes by Ree, spent the embezzled funds playing Genshin Impact.
Showtime is an unofficial zine with the characters Joker and Crow from the popular RPG Persona 5 from Atlus. In response to the alleged embezzlement, the five remaining staff members of the project removed Ree from the moderation team (meaning “management team” in the zine world). However, they said they cannot take legal action, as all of Showtime’s pre-order funds were processed through Ree’s personal account and the team never signed contracts with her. The mods are intended to host a fundraiser to meet pending advance orders.
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Kotaku contacted Showtime staff, who declined to comment. Kotaku also contacted Ree, but was unable to obtain a response at the time of publication.
The fanzine alleges that Ree lied to his team members and faked screenshots for months, hiding evidence of misappropriation. However, the project had been in trouble for some time.
In January, Showtime tweeted that its submission moderator had contracted coronavirus, but comments below the tweet noted that customers had not received transparent communication about the zine’s shipping status for months.
The story goes on
On May 2, Ree withdrew from shipping orders, but retained sole control of the project’s finances. Graphic designer Aryll acknowledged customers ’concerns about the zine’s financial situation, and Showtime released its financial spreadsheet a day later. As of May 15, the project had cost nearly $ 90,000 CAD (~ $ 69,600 USD).
After the alleged embezzlement became known yesterday, Zubatzo, one of the artists on the zine’s collaborating page, tweeted that the moderators had trusted Ree because he had previously moderated five successful fanzine projects. In now-protected tweets, he claimed, based on a message Ree had sent to other moderators, that Ree had spent the funds on Genshin Impact and takeaway food.
Kotaku was unable to verify these claims independently, but Ree told GamesRadar that the money was spent on Genshin and things like stuffed animals, fanzines and day-to-day bills. In any case, the mention of HoYoverse’s great mobile RPG sparked a meaningful discussion about the dangers of gacha games. Some Twitter users have pointed out that it is mathematically unlikely to spend the entire amount embezzled on Genshin, and others have blamed the general lack of professionalism and lack of recourse on zine projects.
Here’s what we know: Fan-produced fanzine projects like Showtime are risky creative endeavors. Intellectual property law means companies can decide to sue artists who create fan content, especially if that content is sold or generated revenue. The risk is even greater for queer artists who want to create LGBTQ content with official characters.
The legally gray environment of fan communities can encourage creative expression, but it also means that creators don’t usually sign enforceable contracts between them. And customers don’t have an easy resource when their promised merchandise isn’t shipped for months. As such, we can see the Showtime incident, in part, as an unfortunate result of how fan communities are being forced by media corporations that have IPs to operate essentially in the shadows.
According to his statement, the remaining Showtime moderators spoke with a lawyer on June 22, but were told they could not initiate legal action against Ree. The Showtime team pledged to provide a new financial sheet as they try to raise funds to meet remaining orders.