Anime News Network has reported that a man who was pretending to be animator Honda Takeshi and teaching at colleges in Japan has been discovered and forced to resign.

The first thing I have to say is…what kind of balls does a guy have to pull off a stunt like that?!

I mean, yeah, people probably don’t know Honda Takeshi’s face all that well, and this guy created some story about pen names and aliases and such, but to appropriate someone else’s life and celebrity and use it to your own ends, it sounds like an American going to Japan and claiming he’s a famous football superstar in order to get the ladies. How do you live your life knowing it’s currently built on a lie (insert American financial market joke here)?

Really though, we can joke all we want about this guy’s 8-year-long Las Vegas act, but there’s one major problem, and that’s the effect it has on the students. What about all those students who attended his classes and were able to proudly declar that they were being taught by the Honda Takeshi? What about the students who sought after his advice, or the students who were given bad advice stemming from the fact that the guy in actuality had no real credentials or significant experience? How the hell do you so intentionally damage people’s educations?

About the only good thing that could come out of that is that this would make for a wicked anime or manga plot.