SHOWTIME (Persona 5 zine)

SHOWTIME is an art, fancomics, and fanfiction zine focusing on the ship Joker/Crow, which ships the characters Ren Amamiya and Goro Akechi from the video game Persona 5.
==About==
The project was announced with an interest check on November 1, 2020 that ended on November 22, 2020. When asked, the project's social media account said there were no plans to open applications for contributors https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1324814198438653953.
Preorders opened on May 31, 2021 with the following pricing tiers
* Dark Sun ($20 USD) - Digital Zine
* Prodigal Sons ($25 USD) - Physical Zine, Digital Zine, Random Postcard
* Black Knight ($25 USD) - Physical Zine, Digital Zine, Postcards, Acrylic Charm, Sticker Sheets
* Bladed Runners ($35 USD) - Physical Zine, Digital Zine, Postcards, Acrylic Charm, Sticker Sheets, 3D Charm, Sliding Acrylic Standee
* Proof of Justice ($45 USD) - Postcards, Acrylic Charm, Sticker Sheets, 3D Charm, Sliding Acrylic Standee
On June 2, 2021, the project announced that the project had reached 700 sales in a day and promised new free merchhttps://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1400214528441282561. As promised, on June 4, 2021, the project announced that all physical zines would get a gold foil cover upgrade https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1400879578470436865. As thanks for hitting 900 sales in the first week of preorders, the project announced that they would add star-shaped buttons of Akechi Goro and the game protagonist for higher tier bundles https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1401966234862690335.
To further promote the project, a giveaway for one Proof of Justice bundle was run from June 14, 2021 to June 16, 2021. The winner was announced to be a Twitter user named Tiny_Peachyy [https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1405620559031848960.
Preorders closed as planned on July 6, 2021 with a total of 1,518 orders. The mods also asked followers be patient with the production and shipping phase as this was a high volume of orders and they only had one person responsible for shipping https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1412579658244136960. During production, the team received too many unsellable zines from their original supplier and were forced to reprint the zines under a different supplier. However due to ongoing financial troubles, the project announced that the reprinted zines would not have the gold foiled covers as promised https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1524160189640761345.
The digital zine was released on September 27, 2021, while shipping for physical orders began January 26, 2022 and lasted until October 26, 2022 https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1583481750239719426. Leftover sales for zine merch and fundraiser merch ran from October 28, 2022 to November 13, 2022.
==Contributors==
===Page Artists===
* Aryll (aryllins)
* blazemalefica
* Buns (2am_buns)
* cometsams
* fantasymg
* firidus
* goro_orb
* grimfantas
* hephasst
* impropercovus
* Jello (jell.o.verse)
* junhuans (kaewas)
* kirvia
* Koo! (kingkrcoo)
* Mango (islandofmangos)
* Meruz (automeruz) - Cover Artist
* mmediocreman
* paintvividly 
* phantomorrow (fleshkiss)
* poichanchan
* Poof (poofmalyakaet)
* poxei
* reveriesky
* Secret (deepseasecret)
* Spine (spiiine)
* spookybri
* suntama
* yourfreakyneighborh
* zubatzo
===Merch Artists===
* Aryll (aryllins)
* blazemalefica
* poxei
* scherville
* smileyswimsui (lawroute, yonafuri)
===Writers===
* Shanti (shantealeaves)
* shouldbeworking
* Tayani
* unsungillumination
* Xov (ranoutofgravity)
===Mods===
* kirvia - Co-Head
* Aryll (aryllins) - Graphics
* Madame Rin (MadameRinRin) - Graphics, Former Merch Artist
* mints (kimdokjas) - Writing Mod
* Nat (babelfell) - Shipping
* Soren (spicykei, sugarkeine) - Finance, Former Merch Artist
The Mods Madame Rin and Soren are notable for being part of the group wildcardzines, who is also listed in moderator lists.
===Former Contributors===
* Kevuma - Head Mod, Merch Artist
* vividropp - Head Mod, Shipping Mod
* alsahm (lumenize) - Writer
* Chrome (chromophilic_daydream) - Writer
* howitleft - Writer
* relationshipcrimes - Writer
* Vi (neekosiah) - Merch Artist
* Wol (sodapeche) - Page Artist
* prinzcake - Page Artist
* junvii - Page Artist
* Kiriel (witchdetective) - Page Artist
==Gallery==
File:P5 showtime logo.png|Zine logo
File:P5 showtime cover.png|Zine cover
File:P5 proof of justice bundle.png|Proof of Justice Bundle Listing
==Embezzlement Controversy==
After closing preorders, the project faced multiple delays brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic. These delays and other mishaps involved in production culminated in an embezzlement scandal.
===Excess Shipment Delays===
Throughout the production period, the project gave progress updates by email and on their social media accounts as the project ran into multiple delays and communication issues. Concurrently with these updates, a Twitter user named akechiphobic posted a thread with their findings and observations about the suspicious developments going on throughout the project's production and shipping troubles https://twitter.com/akechiphobic/status/1502854382379012097. Such details included unprofessional responses to fan concerns about the delays on social media and release of private conversations and messages from the project's Discord server.
==== Delays by Illness and Bereavement ====
The team originally expected to ship orders in September, but due to potential delivery delays during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdowns, they announced that they would begin shipping in late October or November https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1437397146857259010]. Although physical shipments were delayed, the project was able to release the digital bundles on September 24, 2021.
On January 13, 2021, the project announced that their sole shipping moderator, Ree, had fallen ill with COVID-19 and needed a break from packaging physical zines. The project asked that followers and customers be patient and give their shipping moderator time to recover https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1481787170037792768. In the meantime, physical orders began shipping on January 26, 2022. The mod team released a full schedule of when they expected to ship specific bundles https://twitter.com/i/status/1486272886637740034.
By February 7, 2022, the team reported that only the merch bundles had been shipped out even though other bundles were slated to be sent out by then https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1490799084873027587, and on February 12, 2022, the shipping mod would be changing to a different service for processing labels https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1490799084873027587. Another shipping update on February 19, 2021 announced a delay in shipping orders due to postal issues. The shipping mod reportedly hired outside help to assist with shipping https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1495132698561548288. An update on February 28, 2021, added that the shipping mod was still dealing with personal affairs and had been in slow communication with the rest of the team, effectively pausing shipments. The team was in discussions to ship out stock to another person, explaining that the decision was only made now instead of earlier because of concerns of damaging the merchandise in transit https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1498366585488113664. On March 9, the social media account announced that Ree would be unable to fulfill shipping the orders until March 25th, as she was dealing with funeral preparations https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1501753254450909187], and that when she returned home, she would send packages to the new shipping moderators https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1501753254450909187.
==== Change in Shipping Responsibilities ====
On April 1, 2022, the project came out with a major update to answer customer concerns about the latest delays, how to process refunds, and new developments in the shipping process. A new, anonymous mod was announced to have been hired to assist with shipping the merchandise, while the current shipping mod would continue to maintain communications. The update also reported that duplicate orders had been shipped out to customers. Some orders had been marked as shipped even though they had not been received by the customers. The mod team cited issues with the mailing labels that had been bought online and doubly scanned by accident when they were taken to the post office. To address concerns about financial transparency, the mod team promised to give contributors access to a financial sheet detaling income, expenses, and receipts https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1509861713570635776.
A screenshot from Discord was posted on May 2, 2022 showing an apology from Ree for the delays and broken promises to ship the orders in a timely manner https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1521166543429804033. Ree cited plummeting mental health and stress that began when confronted with the high volume of orders during the preorder period and overestimating her ability to handle shipping alone. From then on, Ree announced she would relinquish her responsibilities as shipping moderator but would remain on the team to manage financials. She also arranged for Aryll, a member of the team, to fly in and see Ree in person and take all the orders and send them to Nat, the recently hired shipping moderator. Ree also reported in this Discord message that she had received damaged zines from their supplier and would be looking into getting a refund and finding a new supplier, another hit on the project's finances.
On a personal account and later retweeted by the project's social media account, Aryll posted a thread detailing her role in the project https://twitter.com/aryllins/status/1521232665583697920. Aryll clarified that she was only involved in graphic design, was offering knowledge to Ree on shipping merchandise, and never had a role in finances or logistics. Aryll explained that she had not flown out to help Ree with shipping earlier as planned because of time conflicts made worse by the project not meeting production deadlines. In the thread, Aryll stated that she did not know how far behind the project was in production and apologized for not playing a more active role on the team while promising to fulfill the orders. The team would later confirm on May 9, 2022 that Aryll had arrived at Ree's place to help with packaging and shipping https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1523860240260689920
. 
Nat, the newly announced shipping moderator, issued a statement on May 3, 2022 on the project's social media page to introduce themselves, clarify their role, and report on the project's shipping status https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1521557598817996800. Nat explained that they were only a customer of the project at first and reached out to offer assistance while Ree was reporting problems about being overwhelmed from her responsibilities. Initially, the offer was turned down, as they had planned for Aryll to assist Ree. Nat offered to help again when Ree announced the loss of her father and officially joined the mod team on February 28, 2022. Nat had remained anonymous until the time of this posting not to avoid accountability, but because they were waiting to receive the merchandise from Ree before they could officially assume shipping moderator responsibilities.
==== Unchecked Production Errors ====
Continuing from Nat's introductory post on May 3, upon being notified that the remaining merchandise were on the way to their location, Nat learned that the zines had not been graded (checked for errors and damage), after which they discovered a lot of the zines were defective or badly damaged in transit. Nat also stated that because they did not have enough viable merchandise to ship out, they would not be able to send orders out faster in spite of the complaints from customers threatening to take legal action or sue.
On May 18, 2022, a new update reported the bundles Ree packaged and sent to the new shipping mod had not been quality checked, requiring multiple bundles to be unpacked, quality checked on the new shipping mod's end, and repacked, leading to further delays.
===Confession to Fraud===
On Jun 24, 2022 the mods posted a thread as well as a Google on the zine's Twitter account that Ree, the head mod, confessed to stealing $27.6k CAD of zine funds for personal use and had been removed from the project https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1540123546030026752. Also attached to the thread was a Google Document containing the team's full statement on the situation SHOWTIME Statement Regarding Stolen Funds, Statement by the SHOWTIME Mod Team on Google Docs.
The statement explained that Ree had been lying to the team by giving false reassurances and providing misleading, out-of-date screenshots of banking information to suggest nothing had been stolen. Ree only came forth with the confession when funds had been entirely depleted, and she could no longer fulfill requests for postage funds. The statement did not detail exactly what she spent the money on, only that she spent the funds on personal use. Ree returned $3000 CAD to the project by taking a loan and could not repay the remaining $24, 625.10 CAD of stolen funds. Consequently, Ree was immediately removed from the team and revoked of her access to the project's accounts and funds. Soren, another mod, would take over from Ree for finances from then on.
The mod team reported that they sought legal counsel and learned that they could not take legal action against Ree to get the money back because they did not hold formal contracts with Ree, and all transactions were processed through her Etsy and bank accounts. Instead, customers and contributors were encouraged to take action against Ree themselves and seek legal counsel. Since there were no longer any funds for postage or refunds, a fundraiser would be organized to recoup their losses.
On a personal account, zubatzo, one of the zine’s contributors, remarked that the mod spent the stolen funds on Genshin Impacthttps://twitter.com/zubatzo/status/1540136041717317640, She spent it on Genshin Impact by the way. I cannot make this up.. This tweet, now deleted, went viral and was subsequently often brought up in online discussions about the zine. The games media outlet GamesRadar reported to have confirmed this when reaching out to Ree for comment while also adding that the mod also used the funds on electronics, merchandise, food, rent, and transportation Persona 5 fanzine derailed after founder spends $20k on "necessities" and Genshin Impact.
===Fundraiser===
To gather funds to ship the remaining orders, the mod team organized began an fundraiser on June 25, 2022, to accept monetary donations for the shipping costs of someone else's unfulfilled preorder https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1540804713767022592. On a new bigcartel storefront, some amount of stock set aside for leftover sales and additional merch donated by artists involved in the project were also offered for purchase. The mod team promised that the funds would be used to make up for the embezzled funds and reimburse expenses that the mods had been paid for out of pocket for the past months. The rest would be divided evenly among the contributors.
The fundraiser was able to reach its goal by June 27, 2022. As thanks, the mod team released a letter to fans on the success of the fundraiser, reporting a combined total of over 750 orders and donations. The team also announced they would hire additional help with shipping the fundraiser orders and the remaining 650 and counting orders. Although monetary donations were closed, fans could still buy physical goods until July 1, 2022. As a demonstration of transparency, the mod team said that fundraiser purchases made after the donations were over would go to compensating the additional help being hired. https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1541485985212538885.
===Aftermath===
In light of the embezzlement scandal, multiple concurrent zine projects put out statements in reaction to the project's controversy to promote the fundraiser.
Other projects' statements about the controversy involved detailing their plan and methods for ensuring accountability of their mods. Some solutions include implementing contracts, sharing their finance sheets and receipts with all project members, ensuring multiple parties have access to financial accounts, maintaining a dedicated account for zine funds, and public release of finances upon project completion.
The controversy also added to existing discussion throughout social media about online gambling addiction and predatory game design practices, since Genshin Impact, which the mod purportedly spent a majority of the zine's stolen funds on, is an online game with gambling mechanics. Games media outlets such as KotakuPersona 5 Fanzine In Disarray After Lead Organizer Allegedly Embezzles $20,000 and GamesRadar covered the controversy in relation to online gambling.
== Fan Reception ==
===Reactions to Products===
The following are select social media posts about the zine retweeted by the project account:
Killian, posted on Twitter:
will, posted on Twitter:
Cosmic, posted on Twitter:
Cosmi, posted on Twitter:
Tabby, posted on Twitter:
Rianka, posted on Twitter:
rose, posted on Twitter:
けっぱく, posted on Twitter:
===Reactions to Controversy===
The following select tweets were found in discussion about the controversy.
kai, posted on Twitter:
sam, posted on Twitter:
jay, posted on Twitter:
bread, posted on Twitter:
lawa, posted on Twitter:
slumberish, posted on Twitter:
==References==
Category:Persona
Category:2022 Zines