Anime Revolution Anime Revolution of Las Vegas has Deceptive Employment Practices, Labor Violations, a Culture of Sexual Harassment Las Vegas Nevada

It has been revealed that the Las Vegas store Anime Revolution has been involved in illegal employment practices, violation of labor laws, and a culture of sexual harrassment against employees and/or contractors. Below is a copy of the claim, posted publicly on social media. I have copied and pasted the complete text (which as of posting on Rip-Off Report has been liked nearly 500 times, shared 200+ times, and received hundreds of comments from other corroborating the claims). I am reposting this here to assist in spreading the word.

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I want to take a moment to talk about worth as a cosplayer, especially when it comes to working and getting paid. Never let your employer undersell your worth or take advantage of you. Cosplayers are getting a lot more opportunities for work, which is great, but at the same time you may not always know you are being taken advantage of until it is too late. Let me tell you a personal story.

As you may know, I've been working for the local Vegas store, Anime Revolution, since December as a cosplayer. I would help with their video game tournaments and on Saturdays would be a living mannequin in their window. It was pretty fun to cosplay and scare people by standing really still for some extra cash. However, due to a lack of respect, poor communication and having zero professionalism I have quit working there.

They have lied to me and several of the other cosplayers about the work we were doing (promotions, events, sponsorships and pay) and have straight up sexually harassed one of the other girls saying that she needed to show off her body more and should only cosplay characters with skimpy outfits; bringing anxiety and tears on a couple of occasions. I was also told when helping them stream that it didn't matter if I didn't know anything about the game, I just had to be a pretty face for the camera. Real nice, right? After one particular event, they paid us less than minimum wage for our time- despite making costumes specifically for the event where they even lied about reimbursing us for said costumes. Keep in mind, we are standing in costume from 12-9 and come home extremely sore from these events. 

Not only all this, but we were told we had to promote the store and their events. However, they very rarely promoted any of us, nor did they pay us any kind of advertisement compensation. They simply wanted free advertisement from us. NO! Do not let people take advantage of your social media if it's not in your contract or you're not getting paid in some way. Do not let people use your hard work on social media for free.

Several of us had issues we wanted to bring to light but those were reinforced by how terrible the Capcom event was a couple weeks ago; so we wanted to talk to the owners about some of the issues we were having. We wanted to hash things out face-to-face and be open and honest about the way we were being treated in hopes that we could move forward. Unfortunately, they were not willing to compromise on a time. They stated they could only do Wednesdays and Thursdays at either 11 or 2. Some of the girls work a 9-5 during a week; so that was impossible. I tried to suggest other times that were far enough in advanced that we could all make work. Instead of trying to work with everyone's schedules, one of the managers responded with "I understand the word compromise is being used often and we are compromising by working you into our schedule for a meeting." I'm sorry, but no respectable business owner says that to their employees; this is just plain rude.

After I responded with a lengthy email with all the problems we were going to discuss I never received a reply. Not only that, but the same manger I just quoted, then goes and blocks us all on social media and their business Twitter; again, instead of wanting to talk through any of the issues. We later found out that they were willing to accommodate their work schedule for other cosplayers and have the screencaps as proof. 

Recapping, Anime Revolution underpays people (illegal), pays in cash under the table (illegal), sexually harasses their employees (illegal), consistently lies to its employees and lacks any kind of professionalism when handling situations.

If you are a cosplayer or even just a regular employee, do not stand for these things. You should be paid your worth. You deserve to have people be honest with you. You deserve to feel safe in your work environment. You deserve respect for working hard. If you aren't getting these things or aren't feeling like you are treated fairly, please talk to someone or seek help! This is especially true for younger employees. You might feel like this is normal or maybe you are scared to speak up. Please do not feel this way! These things are not your fault but the fault of your employer. Get help if you don't want to resolve things on your own; but do try to get things resolved. You are important; you matter! Don't let unprofessional companies treat you badly because you are worth more than you can imagine. Please be safe in all you do!