KyoAni fire leaves 33 dead, many injured

Disaster struck in Kyoto today, when at approximately 10:30 AM local time, a massive fire swept through the halls of the 1st Studio building of Kyoto Animation (commonly known as KyoAni). The event was quickly deduced to be an act of arson, with eyewitness accounts reporting an unknown individual pouring flammable liquid in several parts of the building. Some report a violent explosion from within.

After setting the fire, the attacker remained inside to terrorize the building's staff, stabbing and pouring gasoline on targets of opportunity. Despite the optimism of initial reports, thirty-three people have been confirmed dead, with an additional thirty-six hospitalized for injuries. The perpetrator himself was found incapacitated by his burns, and is currently detained at an undisclosed location.

Frankly, I'm at a loss for words. For all my studies of humankind, I can scarcely imagine what would possess a man to do such a thing. As for the victims and their families, I can only pray they'll find peace someday in the wake of this horrible tragedy.

via the Japan Times

via NHK

via the New York Times

via the Washington Post

Reddit thread

The current working theory is that the perpetrator was a train otaku, of the fanatical type often referred to as foamers, who was set off for a number of reasons, all of which related to Hibike! Euphonium.

Basically, 33 people had to die because some weirdo got upset about an anime. What really depresses me about this situation is that I don't think the prospects of KyoAni bouncing back from this are very good. They lost a quarter of their total staff and a lot of their assets went up in flames. I don't care for that much of their stuff but I still recognize that they're one of the highest quality anime studios around and that they strove to have good working conditions for all their employees. There was a nursery in that building because they hired on several mothers. Everything about them just radiated positivity and good feelings. And now it feels like it's all been snuffed out in a single day for absolutely no reason.

It's really upsetting to see this happen to the people responsible for the works that helped change my life forever. The fact that a human being is able to do this is disgusting.

It's not just the grudge set upon against a well-known company over a trivial ripping of a single Japanese word and train decor collab project, but the suspect might've done other things prior to this, but no matter how far it all went downhill, once he's out of the hospital bed within days to weeks, it's off to the death row room for him after a trial.

All I can say for now is that 'KyoAni' being the first outside of the Tokyo metro area going down have to catch up with so much of their lost paid artwork contributed to the fire, since a lot of theirs with ink on it is made out of paper sheets. On the other hand, my best suggestion for them is to move on to another place in the country and keep working on what they are doing, I hope they have backup copies beforehand.

The internet does not lose all their uploaded artwork overnight, so we are feeling free to look through all what they did prior to the fire. They might however have to put their official anime sites on hold for a little while or even have to shut it down.

Loko wrote

I'm generally not the type to endorse the death penalty, but in the case of this scum waste of bacteria I can make an exception.

I'm inclined to agree, but remember that a fair trial is still in order. If it turns out that it was 100% him, and nobody forced him to do it or whatever, then yeah, smoke him.

Gotta remember that with the death penalty, if at any point after the sentence it turns out that circumstances were a little different, it's too late to do anything about it.

I used to think it wasn't right to use death as a punishment, but lately it hasn't bothered me :/

All in One wrote

The current working theory is that the perpetrator was a train otaku, of the fanatical type often referred to as foamers, who was set off for a number of reasons, all of which related to Hibike! Euphonium.

Basically, 33 people had to die because some weirdo got upset about an anime. What really depresses me about this situation is that I don't think the prospects of KyoAni bouncing back from this are very good. They lost a quarter of their total staff and a lot of their assets went up in flames. I don't care for that much of their stuff but I still recognize that they're one of the highest quality anime studios around and that they strove to have good working conditions for all their employees. There was a nursery in that building because they hired on several mothers. Everything about them just radiated positivity and good feelings. And now it feels like it's all been snuffed out in a single day for absolutely no reason.

The train guy has apparently been cleared since he's posted after the attack. The name has now been published as Aoba Shinji (41) and apparently had delusions of KyoAni ripping off a LN he published or something (possibly he submitted it to a contest they held? IDK details are sketchy).

Identities of those dead are not yet confirmed. The big-name directors and seiyuu will be most eye-catching but it's important not to lose sight of all the talented animators behind the scenes bringing us all the visuals that this studio is famed for.

KyoAni is encouraging people to buy hi-res images from their store if you want to directly support them (no need to ship out anything that way). I would encourage that more than fundraisers at the moment.

Grief is a long process. I hope we can find some happiness moving forward even with this in our hearts, and I hope we can redirect it into not only anime, but into the works of KyoAni which mean so much to us all.

GlassMoon wrote
All in One wrote

The current working theory is that the perpetrator was a train otaku, of the fanatical type often referred to as foamers, who was set off for a number of reasons, all of which related to Hibike! Euphonium.

Basically, 33 people had to die because some weirdo got upset about an anime. What really depresses me about this situation is that I don't think the prospects of KyoAni bouncing back from this are very good. They lost a quarter of their total staff and a lot of their assets went up in flames. I don't care for that much of their stuff but I still recognize that they're one of the highest quality anime studios around and that they strove to have good working conditions for all their employees. There was a nursery in that building because they hired on several mothers. Everything about them just radiated positivity and good feelings. And now it feels like it's all been snuffed out in a single day for absolutely no reason.

The train guy has apparently been cleared since he's posted after the attack. The name has now been published as Aoba Shinji (41) and apparently had delusions of KyoAni ripping off a LN he published or something (possibly he submitted it to a contest they held? IDK details are sketchy).

Identities of those dead are not yet confirmed. The big-name directors and seiyuu will be most eye-catching but it's important not to lose sight of all the talented animators behind the scenes bringing us all the visuals that this studio is famed for.

KyoAni is encouraging people to buy hi-res images from their store if you want to directly support them (no need to ship out anything that way). I would encourage that more than fundraisers at the moment.

Grief is a long process. I hope we can find some happiness moving forward even with this in our hearts, and I hope we can redirect it into not only anime, but into the works of KyoAni which mean so much to us all.

Yeah, I came here to post an update that the train guy was deconfirmed. As for the LN stuff, apparently KyoAni holds annual submissions of manuscripts where if they like your work they'll try to adapt it into an anime. Here's the link to KyoAni's webstore if anyone is interested in supporting them directly.

I got someone to translate this interview for me, and apparently most of KyoAni's works were destroyed in the fire as well. It really seems nothing was spared :c

Absolutely horrendous for so many different reasons. I hope those who are affected by this are able to find peace. 🙁

6 days later

Takemoto was confirmed dead by his parent's earlier today. I'm devestated :c

floattube wrote

Takemoto was confirmed dead by his parent's earlier today. I'm devestated :c

Fuck me, man...

floattube wrote

Takemoto was confirmed dead by his parent's earlier today. I'm devestated :c

I do not like this.

The mentor of the studio who did so much in life known as Kigami in featured works like Akira, K-ON!, Lucky Star, and not to forget the new works that draw tourists from all over to visit these realistic places is among the 34 also dead at just over 61 years.  Up until now all of the 200+ email threats over the previous year was directed at the company thought to be just anonymous hate turned out to be from the suspect himself and he was in the area prior, ranging from petty insults to death.
 
They're not giving up to this day and are rebuilding their studio, though they'll have to start over fresh with whatever imagination they still have once its rebuilt. The hospital in Osaka is still performing skin grafting on the suspect, and the police have just acquired a proper warrant to search for the area where he lives for any further proof.

Donations is widely accepted by the company as it already reached the millions, it even extended permissions to places that have a very high density of anime fans for support and handing out some original artwork to passersby.