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NEWS: LGBTQ+ Organizations, Spaces Cut Ties with Voice Actor Kiba Walker Due to Sexual Allegations




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Beltane70



Joined: 07 May 2007
Posts: 4184
PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2025 9:43 am Reply with quote
I heard about these allegations about a week or so ago and was surprised that it took so long to come up on ANN. My heart goes out to the members of the LGBTQ+ community that have to deal with people like Kiba Walker who actually do the things that the bigots accuse the entire community of doing.
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loveliver



Joined: 26 Nov 2014
Posts: 210
PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2025 10:42 am Reply with quote
Beltane70 wrote:
I heard about these allegations about a week or so ago and was surprised that it took so long to come up on ANN. My heart goes out to the members of the LGBTQ+ community that have to deal with people like Kiba Walker who actually do the things that the bigots accuse the entire community of doing.


My guess is that Rafael was waiting on more info before publishing it. It happens to like every VA that gets these kinds of accusations. Heck, we're still waiting on Crunchyroll to say something about this, maybe Sentai and Bang Zoom!.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 5969
PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2025 10:53 am Reply with quote
Tsubaki was an important character for a lot of LGBTQIA+ anime fans so this is disappointing to hear about Kiba Walker. It should also be noted Kiba was a founder of Ascendant Animation which focuses on licensing and dubbing NSFW anime. I’m not sure if he’s still working with them but they also have yet to comment publicly about the allegations.
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Eddy2



Joined: 08 Oct 2022
Posts: 284
PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2025 12:46 pm Reply with quote
Cardcaptor Takato wrote:
Tsubaki was an important character for a lot of LGBTQIA+ anime fans so this is disappointing to hear about Kiba Walker. It should also be noted Kiba was a founder of Ascendant Animation which focuses on licensing and dubbing NSFW anime. I’m not sure if he’s still working with them but they also have yet to comment publicly about the allegations.


I remember Kiba making a tweet at one point a while back saying he stopped working for Ascendant Animation, so we're good there.

loveliver wrote:
My guess is that Rafael was waiting on more info before publishing it. It happens to like every VA that gets these kinds of accusations. Heck, we're still waiting on Crunchyroll to say something about this, maybe Sentai and Bang Zoom!.


I wouldn't expect any of them to say anything about this at all. I don't remember Crunchyroll ever making statements on the Anthony DiMascio or Mike Haimoto situations for example, likely because it would be bad for business. The most I can see is that they'll quietly let Kiba go and we'll never hear him in their dubs ever again.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2025 1:03 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I wouldn't expect any of them to say anything about this at all. I don't remember Crunchyroll ever making statements on the Anthony DiMascio or Mike Haimoto situations for example, likely because it would be bad for business. The most I can see is that they'll quietly let Kiba go and we'll never hear him in their dubs ever again.
Though Mike Haimoto is still being cast in newer seasons of the dub of Natsume's Book of Friends. These are episodes recorded after the allegations came out so they can't say they didn't know then like they could have feasibly said for the earlier seasons.
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998553



Joined: 04 Feb 2025
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2025 4:30 pm Reply with quote
Cardcaptor Takato wrote:
It should also be noted Kiba was a founder of Ascendant Animation which focuses on licensing and dubbing NSFW anime. I’m not sure if he’s still working with them but they also have yet to comment publicly about the allegations.


Ascendant just released their comment and it turns out Walker lied. (https://twitter.com/AscendedAnime/status/1954990903111848030)
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2025 5:17 pm Reply with quote
This just brings up more questions why Kiba Walker was allowed to write a press release statement calling himself the president of the studio and it's only being corrected now.
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Multi-Facets



Joined: 15 Oct 2019
Posts: 393
PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2025 6:25 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
My heart goes out to the members of the LGBTQ+ community that have to deal with people like Kiba Walker who actually do the things that the bigots accuse the entire community of doing.


[face in hands, huge sigh] Thank you. That means a lot.

Yeah, this is just yet more ammo for everyone who wants us erased. Hopefully this won't really impact the hiring of other LGBTQIA+ voice actors. But hell, who knows.


Last edited by Multi-Facets on Mon Aug 11, 2025 9:30 pm; edited 1 time in total
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RommieSG



Joined: 10 Feb 2004
Posts: 196
Location: Hokuei High School
PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2025 7:35 pm Reply with quote
Cardcaptor Takato wrote:
Tsubaki was an important character for a lot of LGBTQIA+ anime fans so this is disappointing to hear about Kiba Walker.


The first thing that came to mind when reading this. I hope that this doesn't diminish the importance that Tsubaki has become for so many who feel they don't have representation in anime, or felt a strong connection with the character. The character, and the message they represent shouldn't be tainted by the actions of a voice actor that portrays them.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 5969
PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2025 8:15 pm Reply with quote
If you've actually watched Wind Breaker Tsubaki is more than just another crossdressing guy you can just choose from for a lot of fans and I think it does a disservice to other characters to only view them as replacements for Tsubaki.
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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
Posts: 20003
PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2025 10:17 pm Reply with quote
My condolences to the people Walker made unwanted advances to.
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SinisterOracle
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Joined: 13 May 2023
Posts: 862
PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2025 11:00 pm Reply with quote
My heart goes out to all of Walker’s victims and everyone who has been let down by their actions. I dealt with similar situations myself when I was younger and it’s never easy when you’re a kid who doesn’t understand adult situations and topics, nor do you want to let others down or push them away. I hope all of those affected will find peace and comfort and realize they did nothing wrong and that their self worth has never been compromised by Walker’s actions. You deserved better from someone who you admired. I’m sending you all much love and support.

I too hope this won’t become fodder for the extremists who want to erase us.


Last edited by SinisterOracle on Tue Aug 12, 2025 3:36 am; edited 1 time in total
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 8229
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Thu Aug 14, 2025 7:36 pm Reply with quote
I hope the news of this don't find it's way into right-wing/conservatives news, the last thing I want to see is this news giving the narrative that LGBTQ grooming conspiracy theory and they could use Kiba Walker and this story as evidence.

SinisterOracle wrote:
I too hope this won’t become fodder for the extremists who want to erase us.


You're not alone, that's what I also worried about too. I better hope Fox News, or even Libs of TikTok doesn't get wind of this news. If they're aware of this, and this get reported. That would put the whole LGBTQ communities in danger. That's why Kiba Walker revelation scares me a lot.
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