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Kyoto Animation arson


Plk_Lesiak

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49027178

Some madman barged into KyoAni offices earlier today and lit the building up with gasoline. The BBC article claims there's 33 dead, but I imagine the number will go up, as there's both many people being treated in hospitals with heavy injuries and I don't think it's even clear there are no more bodies in the building. 

Holy fucking shit.

Edit: And for the context, KyoAni was responsible for all the highly-rated Key adaptations, that is Clannad, Kanon (2006 version) and Air. Also Kobayashi's Dragon Maid which is still one of my all-time favourite shows. It looks like many high-rank employees died in the fire, including the director of Clannad anime (thankfully, it seems this one was just a false rumour) and well-known animators. 

Edited by Plk_Lesiak
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Oh no, that's terrible news. If it weren't for the Key adaptions they made, I might not even be on this forum. Such a awful shame to see that happen to them.

I hope the survivors get well soon, and I wish the best for all the families involved.

4 hours ago, Happiness+ said:

I am shaking right now. I donated $50 to their GoFundMe. I wish I could’ve donated more. 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-kyoani-heal

 

Thank you very much for this. I'll pitch in too.

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Read it as well - pretty shocking! Who the hell targets an anime studio?!

They made a bunch of really popular animes: K-On, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, some Key classics, etc.

I hope they can recover from that, but having over 30 victims in a studio with just about 130 employers isn't something where life can go on like before.

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10 hours ago, ChaosRaven said:

Read it as well - pretty shocking! Who the hell targets an anime studio?!

Apparently the culprit's motives was that Kyoto Animation screwed him over in a deal and plagiarized his work.

Edited by Nier
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god, that is horrible. started re-watching violet evergarden and it is just stunning. each episode is like the quality of a high budget animated movie. amazingly beautiful if you want to check it out. 

 

violet-evergarden-1080p-bd-eng-sub-hevc.

 

as well as koe no katachi, an excellent movie. their level of skill is unmatched in the animation world. this is just terrible news.

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9 minutes ago, mitchhamilton said:

even if thats true, he took 30 lives over it. i hope he faces prison for the rest of his life.

Well, I don't think that's even a question, unless he's clinically insane. But either way, no one will ever let him out.

Honestly, that piece of human trash is not even worth talking about, along with whatever delusion drove him to doing this. 

Edited by Plk_Lesiak
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One one side this is truly horrible, on the other side it shows how unhealthy out society is, with businesses fucking the little man over and he's completely powerless to do anything, and some flick goes off (or on in his head). I find it somewhat natural that stuff like this happens, and i'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

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Just now, adamstan said:

But aren't you jumping the gun a bit, believing the rumors - and rumored culprit's reasoning - already? He could as well just be insane without KyoAni screwing him over in any way. Some other sources/news claimed that he had no relations with KyoAni or anime business in general.

Not that i'm believing it or anything, but someone doesn't just do stuff like this for no reason. So yes, in the end i believe it. Now they might cover it up to make him look worse and the victims (perpetrators) better.

Edited by Stormwolf
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You severely underestimate the power of delusions*. The reason could be in his head only as well. And shifting the blame to the victims so easily is just horrible.

Take famous serial killers for example. Yeah, everey one of them indeed had his "reasons", but those reasons were products of their insanity.

Edited by adamstan
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Either way, I think thinking about the perpetrator's motives is ultimately irrelevant. Whatever it was, it doesn't justify what they did to the studio, nor to the families that are grieving for the loss of their loved ones. Useless to talk about it, and pretty insulting to those that have died.

Prayers out for those suffering from loss.

If you ever want to help them monetarily too, you can opt to buy from their online shop instead so that they directly receive the money. It would be helpful if you buy products that do not need packaging as well to not burden their employees with the work. This guy lays out the process for doing it.
 

Edited by Kosakyun
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While the terrorist (I prefer to call the arsonist that) motive is might be understandable like Stormwolf said (Emphazise on might), it's not quite ethical to directly dump the blame to the victims because most of the victim would surely don't know what's the deal with the terrorist who ruined their life (Besides the terrorist himself is known as the robbery perpetrator back at 2012). I know that it's not wise to call the arsonist terrorist either, but seeng that the death count is quite high I think it's quite fitting to call the culprit as the terrorist seeing that he already planned the attack by sending the threat to KyoAni (My apologise if you felt uncomfortable with 'terrorist' word here). In any case, I hope that Japanese didn't give in to the fear of terror and they'll find a way to recover from it (Especially KyoAni for very obvious reasons). Also my consolence to the victims who passed away at the attack.

Edited by littleshogun
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Found additional info:

ZIklTH1.jpg

The arsonist proclaimed "they stole my novel", apparently it seems to be related to KyoAni's yearly light novel competition, where he submitted his light novel and his application was rejected or didn't win and then KyoAni went on to make an anime leeched off his light novel whitout him getting neither compensations nor crediting for his work and ideas.

Regarding the KyoAni Light Novel Competition, as an example Violet Evergarden was actually the first grand prize winner of KyoAni's light novel competition of 2014, which they later created an anime adaptation out of it.

Messages from the internet:

Quote

Apparently the motivation for the attack was that "KyoAni has stolen something from the attacker", unconfirmed reports that the something in question was a Light Novel the attacker wrote but got rejected by KyoAni, which apparently then got turned into an original work by the studio (possibly stealing here and there from the LN or anyhow drawing inspiration from it) without crediting the attacker or compensating him. I can see this happening in all honesty, I am sure that editors get to read a lot of stuff from applicants which can then be polished to produce something in-house, kind of like when bigger companies fish for start-ups tech to reimplement it in-house.

Quote

I knew the light novel contest was going to end up badly somehow (making the contestants give up all rights to KyoAni seemed like legal trouble in the making), but I didn't expect this.

Quote

They've been doing that for 10 years and it's a common practice in general in Japan.

Quote

This is why Hollywood doesn't accept unsolicited scripts. Its not just that they aren't interested, they don't want the liability.

Quote

>Have this idea when you were younger.
>Spend years crafting it. Having your life inspire events and characters.
>Finally, after ironing everything out, an opportunity arises.
>Submit your work.
>Get denied.
>Crushed, but suck it up.
>Discover the people who denied your idea has used it regardless without your involvement, making millions, their names on what you created, everyone giving them praise.
>The Oni within takes over - hungry for revenge.

A few years ago, someone mentioned how Square Enix's story of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII was basically based off Final Fantasy fanfics.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/619315-final-fantasy-xiii-2/63922337

No wonder Final Fantasy XIII story was a complete mess after XIII, it was a mish-mash of fanfictions (it even felt like it).

Edited by Nier
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Most recent news from NHK:

Quote

41-year-old resident of Saitama City, near Tokyo.

Investigative sources say the man used to live in Ibaraki Prefecture. He was indicted in 2012 for a convenience store robbery and sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison.

After he served his sentence, the man briefly lived in a shelter for former convicts before moving to an apartment building that is registered as his current address.

Sources also say the suspected arsonist lives on welfare and was treated for mental health issues.

Police were called last year and this year after he caused trouble with his neighbors over noise.

The man is being treated for severe burns. Investigators plan to question him when his condition improves.

 

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News report from CNN:

Quote

Tokyo (CNN)The suspect at the center of Japan's worst mass killing in almost 20 years told police that his work was plagiarized and that he used gasoline to torch the renowned Kyoto Animation studio, killing 33 people.
Police identified the suspect as 41-year-old Shinji Aoba during a press conference on Friday and said he has unspecified mental health issues.
Kyoto Fushimi Police spokesperson Ryoji Nishiyama said they were not yet aware of a link between the suspect and the studio in Kyoto's Fushimi-ku district.

The suspected arson attack on Thursday has left anime fans world-over grieving the loss of life and a studio, which claimed to put its employees first and was a major force in the industry.
Twelve men, 20 women and another individual whose gender was unknown died in the blaze and 35 were injured. All of those who died were employees.
As they apprehended the suspect, police said the man spoke about his work being plagiarized but cautioned that they need to wait until the suspect is formally interviewed before confirming a motive.
Officers have so far been unable to question the man, who remains sedated in hospital owing to the severe burns he sustained during the attack.
Grim details started to emerge from the scene on Friday as police began their inspection of the site.
After dousing flames, firefighters entered the building and found 20 bodies lying on the staircase leading to the roof exit. Another team found 11 bodies on the second floor of the building and two on the ground floor.
Police said that 74 people were inside the building at the time of the blaze.
The fire spread so rapidly that many inside did not have time to escape, Kyoto Prefectural police told CNN. Several people jumped out of the second and third floor windows and suffered bone fractures.
A woman pays her respects next to flowers and tributes laid at the scene of the Kyoto Animation fire.
A woman pays her respects next to flowers and tributes laid at the scene of the Kyoto Animation fire.
The attack was the worst mass killing in the country since a 2001 arson attack on a building in Tokyo's Kabukicho district, which killed 44 people. The death toll from Thursday's fire was greater than the Tokyo sarin gas attack on a subway in 1995, which killed 13.
Anime fans and mourners Friday began visiting the building and laid flowers in tribute to those who had lost their lives.
"I was so encouraged by the KyoAni works," said one young fan, calling the studio by its popular name. "I have no words to say in sorrow."
On Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe added his voice to the outpouring of grief on Twitter, saying that he was left speechless at the "gruesomeness of the crime," and offered condolences to victims.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/19/asia/kyoto-animation-fire-investigation-intl-hnk/index.html

I first discovered KyoAni when I watched the anime adaptation of Kanon, Air and Clannad many years ago. That's also how I discovered Key:

Pw1CWio.png

Edited by Nier
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I wonder if the arsonist is really the only thing to blame here. The whole severity and rate of spread of the arson doesn't exactly make you believe that this building had a real fire protection system.

The simple fact that the culprint was caught by his own fire, suggests that things weren't exactly going as intended. I wouldn't even be surprised if his initial idea was just to cause some property damage to bring his point across and then call it a day. In that case I'd really like to know if the severity of the arson was actually caused by a violation of fire safety regulations.

Edited by ChaosRaven
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