Chris Niosi’s ‘Honkai: Star Rail’ Role Renews Interest in His Past Controversy
Voice actor and animator Chris Niosi, who sometimes goes by the pseudonym Kirbopher, was recently announced as a cast member in the video game Honkai: Star Rail. The announcement of his involvement in the game quickly renewed interest in his past controversies.
Honkai: Star Rail is a China-based role-playing game, which recently began announcing the voice actors for its English translation. On July 17, it announced that Niosi would provide the English voice for Moze, a “Shadow Huard of the Yaoqing” who is known for his silence and intelligence. However, it wasn’t long before social media users began questioning the choice to involve Niosi in the game, considering his history of admitted abuse.
While the controversy took place in 2019, and Niosi has since returned to providing his voice for various animated projects and video games, the reactions to his involvement in Honkai: Star Rail prove that it hasn’t been forgotten.
Chris Niosi admitted to being abusive in the past
Niosi’s controversy came to light in 2019 when his ex-girlfriend, Amy, called him out on Tumblr. The post was titled “Chris “Kirbopher” Niosi is an emotionally abusive a**hole.” She went into detail describing the abuse she suffered in her relationship with him, as he was prone to angry outbursts, refused to respect her bodily autonomy, gaslit her, repeatedly lied to her, and even got physical with her in front of her friends during an outing. Amy also accused him of planning to sexually assault her while she was intoxicated. She wrote her post to demand he come clean about his behavior, as well as to protect other women from him.
Amy’s post soon inspired numerous other individuals to speak out, with several other ex-girlfriends and colleagues recounting their own experiences with Niosi’s abusive behavior. His former friend, Tara Welker, confirmed she witnessed his abusive behavior towards another ex-girlfriend, Audrey Kare, and knew him to be very “sexually coercive.” Numerous other acquaintances, including Cailen Denton and a creator who goes by Filthyanimal, also made call-out posts describing how he relentlessly harassed numerous individuals, supported other alleged abusers, and made light of and joked about sexual abuse.
All these allegations are known to be true because Niosi admitted to all of them. He took to Tumblr shortly after Amy’s post, admitting to having abused and mistreated countless former friends, co-workers, and partners. Niosi admitted to being a terrible person and claimed he was taking steps to better himself. He also wrote individual apology letters to many of his victims. While it was commendable that he apologized and took accountability, many users still wondered if the post was largely a PR move to save his career or an attempt at getting pity, as he made sure to detail how he was negatively impacted by the stories of his abuse coming out.
Although this accusation paled in comparison to the abuse allegations, Niosi was also accused of breaking a non-disclosure agreement with Nintendo by revealing his role as Blythe in the Fire Emblem series before he was supposed to. It is believed the violation of the NDA, along with the abuse allegations, led Nintendo to replace him as the voice of Blythe with Zach Aguilar.
About a year after the controversy broke out, Niosi released another statement, revealing he had taken part in several therapy programs to better himself and to learn anger management. However, once again, he used the statement to describe how much he had suffered from the stories coming out. He claimed that some lies had been mixed in with the truth, denying that he ever did anything “criminal,” and denouncing the harassment he had been subjected to because of the alleged lies.
Ultimately, though, the controversy didn’t have a significant impact on his career aside from losing the Fire Emblem role. He continued to secure voice acting roles in various animes and video games, although his roles in the latter were fairly small until the Honkai: Star Rail gig. So his selection for the English translation of the popular game isn’t very surprising, but it’s still understandable that it would spark mixed reactions. Some have chosen to take his apology as genuine and accepted that he is “rehabilitated,” while others still question if he should continue having a prominent career in the voice acting industry despite his past abusive behavior.
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