The Facebook debacle & other issues

And now we’ve come full circle! This whole thread got started because he got mad about being compared to a nazi.

I really don’t get how what red arm bands signify in Japan has to do with anything. Danny isn’t Japanese, a whole lot of his team isn’t Japanese, and something like 90% or more of his own buyers aren’t Japanese. As has been pointed out, it’s the combination of every aspect together, not just the red arm band, that make this seem almost intentional to me. The cringey story about the entitled (which by no doubt also includes ‘everyone who complained about this outfit’) being called an ‘infestation’ is truly the (rotten) icing on the cake.

5 hours ago, Monty said:

I really don’t get how what red arm bands signify in Japan has to do with anything.

His stuff tends to be anime themed though, so I tend to see it more in that context. Still, I can see what people mean about all things in combination. I’m still more inclined to see his usual face-plant from tripping on his own cluelessness. 

1 hour ago, Monty said:

And now we’ve come full circle! This whole thread got started because he got mad about being compared to a nazi.

I really don’t get how what red arm bands signify in Japan has to do with anything. Danny isn’t Japanese, a whole lot of his team isn’t Japanese, and something like 90% or more of his own buyers aren’t Japanese. As has been pointed out, it’s the combination of every aspect together, not just the red arm band, that make this seem almost intentional to me. The cringey story about the entitled (which by no doubt also includes ‘everyone who complained about this outfit’) being called an ‘infestation’ is truly the (rotten) icing on the cake.

Yeah..."infestation" is a pretty nasty term to use. Like you're literally dehumanizing people (and all over some light, most of the time, fairly polite criticism over a damn doll. 

And he deleted the post I wonder if he’ll address anything or just ignore it?? 

And here I was saving for my first smart doll.... Not sure what to think.

4 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

anime themed

There was this back in the day:

(5:09 timestamp if it doesent go there automatically)

mind you the uniform is red .. but overall I was wondering where I had seen it before..

 

Edited August 3, 2022 by finnleo

23 minutes ago, finnleo said:

mind you the uniform is red .. but overall I was wondering where I had seen it before..

Like others have more eloquently put it in this thread, it's not that any one of these things are particularly bad or off-brand for him on their own, but the combination of them all together is pretty big yikes. My husband isn't in the community nor is he particularly socially conscious, but I showed him the post and he immediately went "yeah, that's a bad look."

I hope he makes a sincere apology. I'm glad he took down the original post, but I'm worried that he's just going to sweep it under the rug (or worse, talk about how "the entitled" made him remove it in his next post) instead of acknowledging that he really messed up this time.

3 hours ago, ladyandlion said:

Yeah..."infestation" is a pretty nasty term to use. Like you're literally dehumanizing people (and all over some light, most of the time, fairly polite criticism over a damn doll. 

i saw that post.  some lady, said she was a jew & i guess felt offened.     also so now we are what? termites?   am gonna eat all ya walls!

30 minutes ago, DollyDearest said:

am gonna eat all ya walls!

As long as you don't eat our dolls...

His statement. Cause I'm not calling whatever that is an apology. He never actually says "sorry" anywhere in that lil short novel he wrote. Lol 

 

EDIT: I forgot that hella people in this thread are probably banned and can't see his post, so I have copy+pasted it below for anyone curious to view this sh*t show 

Quote

 

I've got two things to apologize for today.

I apologize that our products continue to be offensive - the latest example was the Solar Marine Commander uniform which has a wine-colored armband. To me, this is an aesthetic, but I have been made to interpret it as a racist symbol.
Announced over a year ago, the Solar Marine uniform also has a wine armband which is why the Commander uniform followed the aesthetic.

The main character in the anime "Haruhi" wore a red armband - in Japanese society, this symbolizes leadership or distinguishes groups. You see the red armband being worn in many anime shows too.

On the same subject, pressure is being put on the Japanese government to remove the "Manji" symbol from Japanese maps because folks interpret it to be a swastika, but in fact, it is used to symbolize a temple - nothing to do with Nazism.

However, I'm not making excuses for the Solar Marine design - which brings me to my second apology.

Smart Doll has option hand packs containing gestures that I have been told are racist in certain cultures and should not be sold - "the flat hand is a nazi sign," is just one example.
I was in the middle of making an "OK" hand gesture when I was told it would offend folks because it's now considered a racist symbol.

The most "constructive feedback" I get is about our "offensive racist decision" to make more cocoa-skinned dolls which goes, "most of the world is white, so you should make more white dolls and not black ones."

I even get feedback about medical devices - "stop making hearing aids because it encourages people not to learn sign language. Because of you, sign language will die out."

So my second apology is for not intending to change designs or halt sales of products that did not have any intent to be offensive - because everything we do will end up offending folks in some way or another - be it hand gestures, cocoa skin dolls, medical devices - or wine-colored armbands.

The only way to avoid offending anybody is not to do anything and pack up business - which is not going to happen, so I think this is a good enough reason to either boycott or avoid investing in Smart Doll - and encourage others to do the same.

 

Edited August 3, 2022 by MaKayla_Panda
spelling; additional information

So do any of these ‘red armband of leadership’ characters he’s using as examples to defend himself command a military-like force dedicated to eradicating a group he has deemed inferior to his special chosen ones….?  No? Huh!

Nice deflection Danny, you almost had me thinking it was just a misunderstanding. Don’t worry, you can make some super special doll later on based on the next minority you decide is sexy and marketable and everyone will forget about this.

Edited August 3, 2022 by Monty

God. I was really hoping that the deleted post was a sign that he was going to listen. That is so incredibly disappointing.

2 hours ago, fishbuttz said:

I'm worried that he's just going to sweep it under the rug (or worse, talk about how "the entitled" made him remove it in his next post) instead of acknowledging that he really messed up this time.

Sooooo I called it. Somehow I'm disappointed but not surprised

1 hour ago, MaKayla_Panda said:

so I have copy+pasted it below for anyone curious to view this sh*t show 

Did he post this before or after @finnleo posted the Haruhi clip? 🤣😂🤣😂🤣

4 hours ago, finnleo said:

 

mind you the uniform is red .. but overall I was wondering where I had seen it before..

 

To be fair, the red uniform with orange band would've been more accepted than this :'D 

 

But yeah, as Fish said, it's the combination of things. As someone who's family has been half wiped out due to WW2, with a grandma that still gets scared when the air alarm sounds or loud bangs of fireworks, I draw the line right here with DC's behaviour. The red band alone, fine. It gets used a lot in anime. The pose itself. meh, but okay-ish. But the combination of the band with the pose, with the text and then blocking people who inform him and with the sh*ttiest excuse that basically says "that's a you-problem"... I am done. 

 

I decided to keep a few Smartdolls that I really really love but will sell the rest and invest in the Dollfies I want. I will not be supporting someone that glorifies the deaths of thousands of people. It wouldn't have been hard to say, we didn't realize, we'll make different photos, we're sorry. But it would've been too good to be true. With how DC acts (the complaints of supposedly many people wanting refunds... the "reasons not to buy". The sh*tshow that went down around the BLM "we're a minority too!" situation, the bad use of words with the transgender topic, shal I go on...?) it is a distant dream to ever hear him truly apologize. 

 

I will be here. Lurking in the shadows, loving my last Smarties, and loving people's photos of their Smarties. But I won't ever buy a Smartdoll myself again. 

2 hours ago, Sebby said:

but will sell the rest

which do you have for sale? I don't want to buy direct from him. Anything blue??? dm

Edited August 3, 2022 by Aurea_Arleigh

TL;DR: "I apologize for not caring about your stupid opinions, entitled ones."

Just now, Aurea_Arleigh said:

which do you have for sale? I don't want to buy direct from him. Anything blue???

Nope and they've all been sold already  I mostly had tea skin dolls so sold them. I wasn't really a fan of he blue skintone in the end, used to own two around the start of the year but I they werent my thing. Sold them in februari or so. 

54 minutes ago, Testament said:

TL;DR: "I apologize for not caring about your stupid opinions, entitled ones."

TL;DR v2: "I'm "sorry" you feel that way"

Edited August 3, 2022 by Yumeiro

The way he’s comparing his Really unfortunate post to the Japanese Manji situation is so fucking embarrassing GOD 

He does like to compare his own mistakes to Things Which Are Actual Problems or Cultural Misunderstandings. The difference being the Japanese temples/government/whoever makes the maps would probably at least be willing to add some text onto them explaining what the "manji" actually means and be polite about it.

He could have cut out that one pose, added a note like "In Japan the red armband signifies so-and-so", and avoided a lot of this situation. Also yeah, you can't talk about eradicating people/a species when we all know dang well they're a metaphor for people who don't agree with you. What happened to just ignoring the haters?

He keeps thinking he can do whatever he wants and get away with this stuff because he has so many followers and people who will agree with whatever he says, but every time he does something like this he loses supporters. Sooner or later, the consequences of this attitude are gonna catch up with him and he's gonna have no one left to play "yes-man" to him and he's probably gonna burn out completely. It's a shame, but unless DC does some serious self-reflection or leaves the company in the hands of someone who can handle it better, I don't think these beautiful dolls are gonna be around as long as we'd like.

(And I don't see him doing either of those, which sucks because if someone else was put in charge of SmD I'd absolutely reconsider buying them. But I think he'd rather hunt down every SmD in the world, gather them up and burn them all then let someone else play with his toys.)

I'm new here, and had been saving up for my first smart doll for a while. I had noticed that Danny doesn't tolerate people talking back at him, but I thought those had been "an entitled person complaining to get something for free"-situations. His response is very tone deaf and doesn't take any responsibility over his actions. I come from an abusive family, and his response reminds me of the way my abusers would "apologize". Which never was a real apology and never took responsibility over the toxic behaviour.

"I apologize that our products continue to be offensive" = Not an apology. I'm sorry if/that... puts the blame on the other person. Tells us that our fair and reasonable reaction to something is wrong.

"To me, this is an aesthetic, but I have been made to interpret it as a racist symbol." = He grew up in England so he should be well aware that the pose, armband and the language in his post had clear Nazi connotations. And as someone who sells products internationally he has a duty to stay away from hurtful/triggering/problematic subjects. He cannot claim ignorance in this situation, especially since Japan used to be allied with Germany in WW2.

"The main character in the anime "Haruhi" wore a red armband - in Japanese society, this symbolizes leadership or distinguishes groups. You see the red armband being worn in many anime shows too." = So you're giving us the "other people are doing it too, so it's ok"-argument. How about the pose and the language you used, why do you ignore those parts of your post in this "apology"? Nothing about how you used words "the entitled infestation" in this post with Nazi imagery?

"On the same subject, pressure is being put on the Japanese government to remove the "Manji" symbol from Japanese maps because folks interpret it to be a swastika, but in fact, it is used to symbolize a temple - nothing to do with Nazism." = Maybe not to the locals, but you have an international company and you have to take into account how something comes across in the other countries. You cannot say "It's ok in my country so you should be ok with it, no matter how hurtful it is to a large amount of people who I'm supposed to be providing a service to." 

His comments on the other criticism or "constructive feedback" that he has received sounds either made up to sound like "he's being persecuted" or something he only mentions to prop himself up. "Hey look at me, I'm defending making cocoa skin dolls, I'm the good guy. What, you want proof that these things happened, I'm not gonna give any. Why would I care about your opinion, since mine is clearly better than yours."
 

"So my second apology is for not intending to change designs or halt sales of products that did not have any intent to be offensive - because everything we do will end up offending folks in some way or another - be it hand gestures, cocoa skin dolls, medical devices - or wine-colored armbands." = Again, not an apology. Putting the blame on the people who "dared to get upset over something he creates". I'm a creative person myself, and if we cannot take constructive criticism and we block people because of it, we will stagnate and are in danger of creating an echo chamber of blind followers who will enable your toxic actions.
_____
Seems like I'm going to start looking into other dolls to buy instead of Smart Dolls. I love the style of them, but I cannot support toxic behaviour like this. 

 

3 minutes ago, monkeypizzasonic said:

But I think he'd rather hunt down every SmD in the world, gather them up and burn them all then let someone else play with his toys.

Poor dolls. Sucks to become a symbol of peoples hatred. T.T 

Oh god, I leave for a bit and holy crap! Sorry Jewish Smart Doll collectors, I guess you're not the right kind of minority for Danny! If only you had some visible way of knowing someone's Jewish, like idk being forced to wear a star or something... apologies, that's very poor sarcasm aimed mostly at Danny for being a gobshite (mods: that's British English for saying he's talking out of his ass) and absolutely not a thing I endorse. Because it's an atrocity. Anyway, I'm pretty sure the smarter Haruhi cosplayers back in the day changed the colour of the arm band, just because it's very yikes. Even knowing the Japanese context, if you walk around town in your cosplay with a red arm band, someone is going to give you shit. Because nazis are a thing here, and your average person doesn't know every obscure weeb fact.

Also, with regard to his apology, I've never heard hearing aids be blamed for loss of sign language. Cochlear implants, yes. (There's even an episode of Scrubs about it, and I hate that show!) Because hearing aids tend to be worn by people with partial hearing loss, compared to implants which "fix" deafness. Hence the debate over actual loss of culture and community, whether deafness is something to be fixed or not, whether that's genocide or not. Considering how pro the social model of disability Danny is... actually no, he doesn't care about disability politics because it's just marketing to him. I doubt he knows about social vs medical models. At this point, if your Smart Doll doesn't have enough torque, he'll probably claim it's a special one with EDS or fibromyalgia lol. Too much torque and your poor Smartie has early onset rheumatoid arthritis. Hyperbole is fun.

Also, the manji thing. Fun weeb fact - Dark Horse bent over backwards rearranging the panels on Blade of the Immortal, because the main character has a manji on his back. The books also had a big disclaimer about how it's not a swastika. And this was before nazis really became a problem again. It's not that unusual to confuse a manji for a swastika (though the way to tell is the top point on a manji goes to the left, like hippies, and the swastika used by the nazis goes right, like a, uh, nazi. Also it's usually rotated 45°.) Problem is now we have fash on twitter using the unicode manji symbol in place of a swastika, because it's close enough. And who can tell the difference.

Ironic that Danny hasn't realised his peace sign hands ✌️ are offensive. Just turn them around...

Sorry, I've really gone off on one haha... Really flipping the table here.

14 hours ago, scorps said:

Danny was also born and raised in the UK and moved to Japan well into adulthood (source: https://dannychoo.com/en/posts/about-danny-choo)

Ironically, WWII is quite a big topic in school over here. I wonder why... 🤔 Hmm, what could it be.

Danny seems to want to have his cake and eat it. He sells most of his dolls to Westerners, but doesn't give a crap about whether something might be offensive to his audience. Gotta be awkward at anime-sugoi.de with those red arm bands, ngl.

Man waking up today to Danny’s response has been a headache. I’ve had people in my messages telling me, a Jewish person, why I shouldn’t be offended.

That “apology” proves why Danny doesn’t care. All I did was gently point out the issue before I got BANNED. I didn’t throw a fit in his comments, I didn’t insult or attack him. But now he’s acting like I’m some villain. I wish he’d understand the combination of everything is what makes this bad. Using the Japanese excuse for the arm band is void- it’s not used on MILITARY uniforms for characters that eradicating other humans.
 

I’m so tired guys. I’ve had so many fellow Jewish collectors voice their upset and exhaustion over this. My hobby shouldn’t be a reminder of things I still deal with daily. 
 

edit: 

 

Thought I should add this- I’ve literally been following Danny since before the prototype Mirai days. I literally had planned to make my first doll a Smartdoll before he decided to behave the way he does. This entire thing is just the final nail in the coffin on why if I ever buy a smartdoll- it’ll be second hand and customized to high hell. 

Edited August 3, 2022 by GremlinBonDD
After thought