Source: HoYoverse
Fans of the space fantasy RPG Honkai: Star Rail are protesting the casting of Cristopher Niosi as the English voice actor for the 4-star character Moze.
Cristopher Niosi, who had an illustrious career in voice acting, previously admitted to abusing and mistreating friends, colleagues, and loved ones in a now-deleted Tumblr post back in 2019 as well as in a series of tweets on his X account.
His Tumblr post, which can be accessed through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, contains links to public individual apologies to a few of those he victimised in the span of ten years. In his multiple apologies, he enumerated how he was emotionally abusive, sexually coercive, and manipulative, and how he would take steps to better himself coming forward.
Because of this, and for breaking a nondisclosure agreement, Niosi was removed from Nintendo’s cast for Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Heroes, where he was supposed to voice the male version of Byleth.
However, it seems that Niosi’s return to mainstream media has been met with backlash. After Honkai: Star Rail announced his casting as the newest playable character Moze, fans came forward to protest his casting, citing that providing Niosi with a platform could once again put potential victims at risk.
Sunday VA defends Niosi casting
Because of the mounting backlash, Griffin Puatu, who voiced Sunday in HSR, took it upon himself to support the casting choice through Honkai: Star Rail’s official subreddit, highlighting his belief in Niosi’s journey from “cancellation” to “redemption” after the controversy, and how his “situation” did not warrant a total blacklisting in their profession.
“Those of us who have watched his journey from cancellation, to growth and redemption, we believe in him. We've seen him change. We've watched him take all of the right steps, not knowing if it would make a difference or get him his career back, but because it was the right thing to do. During that time, he's been hired back for roles at multiple studios, while OTHER voice actors who've faced cancellation have not. Why? Because his situation is different from theirs, and warranted welcoming him back.”
Puatu’s attempt to support was met with vitriol however, as victims came forward in the comments on Reddit as well as through posts on X citing that Niosi did not apologise privately, and also alleged that he continued with his manipulative and abusive behaviour even after the events of 2019.
In response to this situation, fans have started a change.org petition to remove both Niosi and Puatu from the HSR cast. The petition now currently has over 4,000 signatures.
Puatu has also been fired from two games that he had been cast in.
HoYoverse, as well as the HSR VA agency Rocket Sound, has yet to release a statement regarding this issue.
This isn’t the first time that a HoYoverse affiliated voice actor has been met with controversy. In February 2023, Elliot Gindi, who previously voiced Tighnari from Genshin Impact, was promptly removed from the cast after allegations of grooming, sexual harassment, and abuse came to light. Gindi would later be replaced by Zachary Gordon.
And in October 2021,HoYoverse suspended cooperation with Chinese voice actor Li Yuantao after it came to light that he committed adultery and was manipulating his fans for sexual favours. Li Yuantao voiced Oz, Fischl's familiar. Yuantao was replaced by Zhao Yuecheng.
