Anime fans, cosplayers bow out of Arizona convention after sexual assault accusation

Update: Allie Heady retracted her Dec. 15, 2021, sexual assault accusation against Kato Tam, also known as Gackto, in a Facebook post dated March 31, 2022. Heady wrote that although she had detailed "a traumatic and true event," Tam "never sexually assaulted me or acted inappropriately" and her allegation was "inaccurate and mistaken."

The Arizona Republic has reached out to both parties for more information.

Cosplayers and fans of comic books, anime and video games have vowed to boycott a long-running Arizona anime convention in January due to allegations of misconduct and sexual assault against the convention’s director, who has since stepped down.

On Dec. 15, Arizona resident Allie Heady, 25, detailed in a now-deleted public Facebook post that she had been sexually assaulted by someone known within the anime and cosplay communities as Gackto in November 2017. Gackto also was the name of the director of Taiyou Con, an annual anime convention scheduled for Jan. 7-9 at Mesa Convention Center.

On March 31, 2022, Heady issued a public retraction of this allegation on her Facebook page.

Soon after Heady's original post was published, it garnered hundreds of comments and shares as her story spread across social media platforms.

Organizers for Taiyou Con posted on the event’s social media accounts three days after Heady's Dec. 15 post that “the current convention director has voluntarily stepped down,” effective immediately.

Calls to #BoycottTaiyouCon ensued, with some calling the statement a lackluster response.

Taiyou Con aims to 'build back the community's trust'

On Dec. 20, Taiyou Con released a second statement that acknowledged “our team was not helpful in resolving the issue right away” and named the director who would no longer be working with the convention as Gackto.

“We do our best to make the convention fun and a safe place within the anime, video gaming and comic community. We are aware of recent allegations on social media, and we do not condone inappropriate behavior of any kind,” the statement reads.

“We will be actively investigating this matter. What we plan on doing moving forward is build back the community's trust and good will. … We have started working on the transition to new leadership and ownership, and it would be legally inappropriate to comment further at this time.”

While some social media users applauded the organizers for taking these steps, several attendees and vendors announced that they would withdraw their participation from the 10-year-old Mesa convention.

Heady told The Arizona Republic in December that Taiyou Con’s responses “have been disappointing.”

Taiyou Con director accused of assault in now-deleted Facebook post

Heady, an anime fan who lives in Arizona, alleged in her now-deleted Facebook post that she has post-traumatic stress disorder after being sexually assaulted four years ago.

“It’s taken me a long time to come forward and speak about this. But I continue to see him, and his posts and his ‘achievements.’ And I don’t want to,” she wrote. “And whether or not anyone believes me, I can finally get this off my chest.”

At the end of her post, Heady added a call to action: “He also created an anime convention called Taiyou Con. Please boycott it. Please understand what nightmares he has put me and others thru. Please share my story and uplift those who are maybe too afraid to come forward, because it’s happened. And I will not, I do not want to stay quiet anymore.”

According to the Mesa Police Department, Heady filed a report on March 17, 2022, which has been assigned to a detective.

Gackto appears to use several aliases on social media. People who participate in cosplay often create names for their personas and are known to others in the community by these nicknames. In Heady's March 2022 retraction of her allegation, she identified him as "Mr. Kato Tam, also known as Gackto on YouTube" and "his social media presence AZFOODGUY."

According to the Arizona Corporation Commission, Taiyou LLC consisted of two members: Kato Tan and Rida Son. Public records also show the name Kato Tam attached to an address listed in the corporation’s information.

On Dec. 16, Gackto Kristian K Takaida posted a statement on Facebook — which he also shared in several local Facebook groups — acknowledging that he spent time with “this woman" in the ways that Heady detailed in her post, which included buying boba tea with friends and going on a date together at a sushi restaurant.

However, he refuted Heady’s assault allegation.

“An accusation that I inappropriately touched a woman has been posted. This is (a) serious matter, so I want to address it immediately. I will clarify and explain that I'm NOT the person involved in this inappropriate incident at the concert in 2017,” he wrote.

The Arizona Republic has reached out to Taiyou Con and Gackto for comment regarding the accusation as well as more information about the organizers’ identities and plans for the event going forward.

What is Taiyou Con?

Taiyou Con is “an intense three-day anime convention that celebrates anime, cosplay, video games and other aspects of Japanese culture with guests, shopping and over 375 hours of interactive activities,” according to its website. There are panels, autograph sessions, a cosplay competition, a bazaar and “mini-Japanese festival” over the course of the weekend.

According to its Facebook event, more than 300 people planned to attend, and 1,100 people were interested in going.

The convention, which has gathered thousands of fans annually in Mesa for the past decade, has a page on its website that details its harassment policy that has since been updated. It reads, in part:

"Taiyou Con is committed to fostering a community that promotes prompt reporting of all types of misconduct including, but not limited to… violence, sexual harassment, property damage, stalking, discrimination, disruptions of operations, etc."

What has happened since the Gackto allegation?

After Taiyou Con announced that its director stepped down, several people asked organizers for more information about Gackto’s future involvement, including his financial gain from the event.

As of Dec. 20, the information for Taiyou Convention LLC had been updated to exclude Kato Tan, according to the Arizona Corporation Commission. Current members include Rida Son.

Taiyou Convention LLC was incorporated in 2016 and has a separate identification number from Taiyou LLC, which was created in 2010 and lists Kato Tan.

The convention announced that Jai Son, who "has been with Taiyou Con since the beginning," has been elected as the new director.

Within a week of Heady’s accusation, several vendors shared that they were pulling out of the event. Others have said they would no longer attend. Some people expressed that they look forward to seeing changes and new leadership.

Marina Sharpe, a model and actor who has been involved with the Arizona cosplay community since 2013, posted on Instagram that she no longer planned to debut her version of the anime and manga character Utena Tenjou at Taiyou Con.

Sharpe told The Republic in an email that she has attended Taiyou Con twice, in 2015 and 2019, though she is "not hugely involved in the local anime convention scene."

“Given the numerous testimonies from victims of harassment and assault at the hands of Gackto/Kato Tam (the con’s now former director), I will not be attending Taiyou,” Sharpe wrote in the caption of her Dec. 20 Instagram post. “I stand with the survivors, and until Taiyou takes meaningful action to address the atrocities committed by one of their founders, I urge my fellow Arizona cosplayers to #BoycottTaiyouCon if you are able.”

Sharpe told The Republic, “I was actually sexually assaulted by another cosplayer myself shortly after my first con, though it took me a long time to come to terms with it. When I read Allie's post, it resonated strongly with my own experience.”

Some cosplayers demand change from Taiyou Con

More than 70 people joined a private Facebook group dedicated to planning how to boycott the convention and expose misconduct at all cosplay and anime conventions.

A 23-year-old cosplayer and Arizona State University student who goes by Kaila Rain organized this Facebook group, as well as a Twitter account called @BancottTaiyou that has since been deleted. She helped draft an open letter to Jai Son and Taiyou Con staff with suggestions on “how we can move forward and begin to heal this community.”

The letter’s requests include refunding tickets for those who no longer feel safe attending and ensuring a safe environment at future events by creating plans for “helping the victim, de-escalating the situation so everyone is safe and (enforcing) concrete consequences for the perpetrator.”

Sharpe concurred that the option to obtain a refund as well as “a clear action plan for how they intend to keep remaining attendees safe is essential.”

Kaila Rain also plans to create a coalition called Cosplayer Survivors of Sexual Assault that is dedicated to “fighting predators in the con scene," she told The Republic in December.

There is an unrelated Ohio-based organization called the Cosplayer Survivor Support Network. It describes itself as a "volunteer organization devoted to improving the convention community. We work to provide resources to those who have experienced or are currently experiencing abuse, assault or harassment and encourage conventions to create better policies to ensure safer environments."

An alternative event sprouts up in Phoenix

In her Instagram post, Marina Sharpe said she would be attending Luna Con instead of Taiyou Con. A Phoenix store called Kei Collective organized it as a “free and safe pop-culture convention” that fans can attend if they are no longer interested in supporting Taiyou Con.

Proceeds from Luna Con benefitted the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, according to its website.

The event took place Jan. 7-9 at Kei Collective, 2303 N. 44th St., Phoenix, and promised a vendor hall, maid café, panelists and cosplay contest. Kei Collective “features independent artists who specialize in alternative styles,” according to its website.

In an Instagram comment, the organizers said there will be “zero tolerance for harassment of any kind,” with trained volunteer security staff stationed “in every building.”

Victims of sexual assault and abuse can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline 24/7 at 800-656-4673 or chat with a trained staff member at https://hotline.rainn.org/online.

Reach the reporter at kimi.robinson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @kimirobin and Instagram @ReporterKiMi.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona anime convention director accused of sexual assault