Ascendent Animation released a statement on Monday regarding voice actor Kiba Walker (also known as “Salem Moon” in drag and LGBTQ+ circles), following allegations made against Walker on July 30 for sending sexually suggestive messages to minors. The company claimed that it “has had no affiliation with [Walker], personally or professionally, and haven’t had any contact with them since January of 2022.”
Ascendent Animation confirmed that Walker was not the President nor the founder of the company, and that Walker’s partner Cole Feuchter was not the Vice President. The company had only contracted Walker as a voice actor and director who also helped out with adaptation for its early series. Ascendent Animation shared the following comment with ANN on Thursday:
“Ascendent Animation would have never worked with Kiba if we had been aware of such deplorable behavior. One of the reasons he was dismissed was because he kept speaking for the company without authorization. He continued to do so even after his departure. We even sent a cease and desist, and only then did he finally stop making public commentary about his ‘company position’.
We lost contact with Walker on purpose. His contract with us was terminated near the end of 2021 due to numerous behaviors we could no longer ignore. This included extremely inappropriate and unprofessional behavior, unauthorized use of the company name, and other egregious misconduct. At the time, we were still unaware of these specific allegations that would arise against Walker. Distant communication was maintained only for the execution of any remaining obligations between the two parties.”
Previous press releases and the company’s X/Twitter account had referred to Walker as the President and COO. However, Ascendent Animation replied in a comment on X/Twitter that Walker had sent factually incorrect press releases on behalf of the company. Ascendent Animation told ANN that Walker had never been authorized to send out press releases, and as such, any press releases sent by Walker before 2022 had inaccurate information. The company sends official press releases through its marketing person, and WWWave Corporation‘s anime streaming platform OceanVeil sends press releases on Ascendent Animation‘s behalf for dubbing licenses. In addition, according to the company, Walker had started the “@AscendedAnime” X/Twitter account to advertise his own claims and social media accounts. Ascendent Animation has since officially taken over the account, after parting ways with Walker, and it unblocked the voice actors that Walker had blocked.
Ascendent Animation told ANN that Walker’s claims of being the President, COO, and founder “were made of his own accord on his own social media accounts.” The company added that “his own words on the original tweet misspell the name of the company he claimed to have founded and represented, by naming it as ‘Ascendant’ instead of the proper ‘Ascendent.’ The name for the company came from the idea of “Ascend Entertainment”; Ascend Ent.; Ascendent. However, this would have been basic knowledge for the founder.”
The company informed ANN that K. Cornell Kellum and Steve Warky Nunez co-founded Ascendent Animation. Nunez has always been and is currently the President and CEO of Ascendent Animation. The company confirmed “there has never been an official COO or Vice President role.”
Ascendent Animation stated that it had not publicly addressed the rumors of Walker’s position in the company in the past because the staff was scared of retaliation. The company apologized for hurting and misleading people.
Anime News Network regrets and apologizes for any errors regarding attributing Kiba Walker as President, COO, or founder of Ascendent Animation.
Background on Kiba Walker‘s Allegations
Voice actor Korey Solomon posted allegations on July 30 saying that Walker messaged Solomon with sexually suggestive messages when Solomon was only 15 years old, with Walker being 22 years old at the time. Solomon, known professionally as Blade or BladeWillBe, accused Walker of grooming him since 2017. Solomon added that he had cut off all contact with Walker in 2023.
The following day, voice actor James Molloy also posted similar allegations against Walker, saying that Walker began grooming him and sending sexually suggestive messages when Molloy was 17 years old in April 2017.
Both Solomon and Molloy’s allegations are supported by screenshots of the messages with timestamps.
LGBTQ+ organization Pride in Dallas issued a statement on August 1 that it has ended its relationship with an “individual” after allegations against one of its local community performers. Walker is based in Dallas, Texas. The LGBTQ+ bar 1851 Club in Arlington, Texas also issued a statement that it has “parted ways” with a performer. Walker, under his “Salem Moon” drag name, has performed at the bar before. Game developer BLits Games also issued a statement saying that it has “cut all professional ties” with Walker, including recasting the role of the character Yoshino (which Walker voiced) in its Scoutmaster Season game.
Walker has voiced roles in numerous English anime dubs, with some notable roles including Meynard in Clevatess (a currently airing anime), Tasuku Tsubakino in Wind Breaker, Caius Lao Bistail in The Titan’s Bride, Minoru Chiaki in Twilight Out of Focus, Makio Tanihara in Horimiya, Taira no Kiyotsune in The Heike Story, Kanji Koganegawa in Haikyu!! To The Top, and Yuuya Niyodo in Phantom of the Idol.
Sources: Ascendent Animation‘s X/Twitter account, email correspondence
