Disaster Kyoto Animation studio set on fire - 35 Dead, Many Injured

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Article said:
A man started a fire at a Kyoto animation studio after spraying a liquid there Thursday morning, leaving nearly 40 people injured, several of them unconscious, and one person feared dead, local police and rescuers said.

The fire started around 10:30 a.m. at a three-story studio of Kyoto Animation Co., a company known for producing popular TV animation series "K-On!!" and "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu).

The man believed to have set the fire, apparently in his 40s, was among the injured and has been taken to a hospital.
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This appears to still be ongoing and details are pretty sparse between any article covering it in english at least. This seems like a very unique case though, in that I don't think there is any precedent for this kind of thing at all.

10+ dead at this point.
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According to Kyoto Police and fire department, one person died on first floor.
12 more cardiac arrest (dead).
36 more injured, 10 severe, 6 moderate, 20 meh.

View attachment 847467
Locations and Bodycounts based on areas of the building. The 19 on the staircase on the third floor are pretty much stacked on eachother as they tried to make a rush to the roof, but appearantly the door only opens from the outside (suicide prevention) or was a pull door.

How can I support?
There is no clear indication of where the funds are headed as of yet, other than that they will be on hold until they can coordinate a distribution method.
This is a direct link to the KyoAni shop. A Twitter user has provided a guide for creating an account and making purchases.

Who?: 青葉真司 AOBA, Shinji. 41, unemployed. He was not an employee at any point. He had a prior arrest in 2012 for robbing a convenience of 20,000 yen and was in jail for 3.5 years. In 2016 he was released and lived in a rehabilitation facility before moving to a single apartment somewhere in Saitama. In March and August of 2018 police went to his apartment over Noise Complaints. July 14 days prior to the incident he had grabbed and threatened to kill a neighbor after they complained about noise, police were called again. He was spotted the day before the incident within the area of the studio laying on park benches.

How?:He brought 40 liters of Gasoline between 2 tanks, a BBQ lighter, and a bag with knives and a hammer. He used a pushcart to transport everything to a nearby area. Poured the gasoline at the entrance by the spiral staircase, which funneled the fire and smoke upwards at a rapid rate. He himself was caught in the fire. Due to an event being held that day, the security system which used ID cards had been disabled that day for a guest event, allowing him entrance.

Why?: Currently the theories are taken from statements that have been connected to him prior on 2ch/annel, and something he said while arrested.
1; Music/A song he may have claimed ownership too was used in Sound! Euphonium
2; He was a Railfan that had snapped over wrappings on a train "dirtying" it (This is being disputed by news stations)

3; Possibly another undetermined claim of them "ripping him off". Now claimed to be over a novel he had written, which was "plagiarized" by KyoAni. This is the prevailing theory as of yet due to his statements to the police
4; His waifu he shipped with another girl was confirmed to not be gay, got a boyfriend or was interested in one, and is not "pure" anymore

How many people were injured or killed?: 35 Confirmed Dead, 33 others injured, with 8 of them in critical condition. 6 Escaped unharmed.
Police say 74 people were in the building at the time of the attack. Some of which were guests from an outside studio attending an event.

Who died? (this may partly be speculation, its built off of people not being accounted for):
-Takemoto Yasuhiro
-Kawanami Eisaku
-Nishiya Futoshi
-Ishida Naomi
-Tsuda Yukie
-Ono Megumi

Here's a newer article with a more detailed explanation of the situation
Asahi Times Article said:
KYOTO--Thirty-three people were killed and 17 others remain hospitalized after a suspected arsonist set fire to a three-story animation studio here on July 18, police and fire department officials said.

Some of the 36 people injured in the fire were unconscious, according to Kyoto prefectural police.

The studio, operated by Kyoto Animation Co., is located in a residential area in Kyoto’s Fushimi Ward about 100 meters north of Rokujizo Station on Keihan Electric Railway Co.’s Uji Line. There were about 70 people in the studio at the time.

Several neighbors called the fire department around 10:35 a.m. after they heard an explosion and saw smoke rising from the building. Thirty-five firetrucks were dispatched to the scene.

Police detained a 41-year-old man who is believed to have spread a flammable liquid in the area. Witnesses said he ran into the building screaming, “Die.”

He was injured in the incident and remains unconcious at a hospital.

A 61-year-old woman in the neighborhood said she initially mistook the suspect for a victim of the blaze.

She said she opened the front entrance to her home after the interphone sounded and found a large man kneeling on the ground. Both of his arms had burns and his right leg was on fire. His hair appeared singed.

The woman asked the weakened man if he was all right, but he did not respond. She used a hose to pour water on the man.

As she waited for an ambulance, a number of police officers surrounded the man and peppered him with questions about how he entered the studio and why he set it on fire, she said.

The woman said she could not catch much of what the man said, but she did clearly hear him shout, “They ripped me off.”

A woman in her 20s who works nearby said she went outside after hearing the explosion around 10:30 a.m. When she approached the burning building, she saw a man apparently in his 20s trying to escape along a support on the outer wall on the second story.

The woman and a co-worker brought a ladder to the building to help the man reach the ground.

The head of a local taxi company’s branch near the site said two men ran into the office around 10:40 a.m. and asked that the fire department be called.

One of the men was assisting the other, whose clothes were badly burned. The branch chief tried to support the two while they waited for an ambulance to arrive.

A 22-year-old man said he heard two or three explosions and saw black smoke emerging from a first-floor window. He said flames could be seen in many of the building’s windows.

Kyoto Animation has produced a number of popular TV anime series, such as “K-On!,” “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” and “Sound! Euphonium.”

Although many major animation companies are located in the Tokyo area, Kyoto Animation has kept its base of operations in the ancient capital since its founding in 1981 because the city has accumulated a long cultural history, company officials said.

Much of the work on the company’s TV programs and movies is done in Kyoto.

Sources-
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201907190042.html
http://archive.fo/WZ1Ed
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190719/p2a/00m/0na/003000c
http://archive.fo/zr1gf
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/...-repeatedly-caused-trouble-for-neighbors.html
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190719_32/
http://archive.fo/qNZ6l

Edit: Cleaned formatting, additional information, trying to identify what is speculated, spelling/grammar.
Edit: Added information, added sources, archived sources.
 
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people who are really obsessed with trains. They have alot of them in Japan
I really didn't wanna believe it was something that fucking stupid. I swear to god, if this entire thing ends up being over trains, (not even over trains really, over a fucking sax song title that just happened to have the word "train" in it) I'm going to have a stroke, because my brain can't handle something that fucking re.tarded.
 
people who are really obsessed with trains. They have alot of them in Japan. Many of their kind are huge nutcases

We have them here, too, and it is almost all autists, as in actually autistic people. They're called "foamers" by actual train professionals because they foam at the mouth about trains.

One of the most prolific and borderline retarded cows the site had was one Leonard Shaner, a foamer who had problems with the law. There's also a short thread on foamers in general. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be one of these loons.
 
Out of pure curiosity as to how such a shitty looking building could be allowed to exist and whether the speculation about potential legal consequences is feasible or not, I went and looked up the fire safety provisions applying to Japanese building code. I found that the Fire Service Act (found in English here) and the Building Standards Law (which is turning out to be a real pain to find in it's native format but can be found summarized very well alongside the FSL here and here among other sites) are the sole documents governing fire management. Neither are nearly as comprehensive as codes I've seen from North America and the critical summary to the best of my very sleep-deprived abilities is that:
1) Office buildings like the one KyoAni was in are only required to be fire retardant, rather than fire-resistant as residential and commercial dwellings are, and do not require fire doors or material breaks
2) Dedicated escape stairs and fire extinguishers/sprinklers are not required by law as the building is (presumably) neither over 31 meters or 4 stories, nor a high-density commercial zone (like a grocery or department store)
Unless I've read something wrong, which is very possible so I encourage you to skim the documents yourself, the building was up to code. If I'm right and that is the case, I doubt any sort of wrongful death suit would go far, and there's nothing to prosecute the building owners or construction firm for since it wasn't caused by a structural fault. I'd like to say this is a wake-up call for Japanese lawmakers to push for better fire safety standards, but the fact that this was caused by an act of otaku terrorism leads me to believe that the most it'll lead to is some posturing from the Diet or Abe's cabinet about further restrictions on anime publication and a slap on the wrist at most for whatever agency verified the structures compliance with code.
Yep, my assumption was right.
The building did have an emergency exit which was allegedly where the fire was set, walking into evaporated petrol while on fire... not a good idea.

people who are really obsessed with trains. They have alot of them in Japan. Many of their kind are huge nutcases
The antagonist of Pokemon Black and White (should not mix) "N" is one of these.
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"Toy train set, appears to be played with recently".
Autistic antagonist.
 
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这可能是只有粉丝才会关心的内容:
山田尚子(《声之形》导演)确认安全无事。
石原立也(《凉宫春日》)确认安全无事。
石立太一(《紫罗兰永恒花园》)确认安全无事。

武本康弘(《冰果》《凉宫春日》)下落不明。
河浪荣作(《Free》 )下落不明。

Don't know any of these cartoons or the corresponding authors. Names taken from Wikipedia, ones with [?] are a translation, probably wrong. Linked after is a Japanese wikipedia article.

First 3 are know verified to be safe.
Following 2 missing, probably dead at this point.
Names:
1. Naoko Yamada
2. Tatsuya Ishihara

3. Taichi Ishidate [?] https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/石立太一

4. Yasuhiro Takemoto
5. Konami Kosaku [?] https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/河浪栄作


Update on death toll:
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Too much to translate, lots of known information, and I'm not getting paid, so I'll summarise instead.
1. Date etc. of crime
2. Dox
3. The area of the premise and its function etc (anime studio, nearly 700 sqm)
4. Cause? (Still under investigation) Perhaps the stuff previously was speculation? Police yet confirmed the guy carried multiple knives or he intentionally laced the emergency exit with petrol.
5. Current state of the fire -- still under investigation. Fire is very severe.

6. Damage
(1) Victims: total of 60, 7 dead, 17 cardiac arrest (also dead), 10 severe injuries, 6 moderate, and 20 light wounds.
(2) Goods: under investigation

7. Motivation
Still under investigation, as fire fighters are still trying to put out the blaze.

8. Fire department timeline
12:30 Emergency received
17:15 Still investigating the cause of the blaze and handling it etc.


This was released about 90 minutes ago, and the firefighters only cleared the second floor. They are now proceeding to the third. Assuming people's natural instincts are to run higher, yeah... not looking good. The victim count is probably going to reach 30, we are at 24 already. That's also not including the ones that were just annihilated in the fire.
 
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So do we actually know this sick fuck's motive? Maybe im retarded but i couldnt find a clear answer. Also Japan needs to get their shit together with fire safety. Theres zero excuse and whoever allowed these conditions in the first place should hang too
 
I fear that there will be a couple of suicides because of this in the next couple of days. Not just from people related to the studio.
I've already seen some Japanese artists depressed over this on Twitter, mentioning how every is worthless, how you can work very hard at something every day of your life in hopes of making it big but then everything can come to a sudden end because of some exceptional individual. How they should just end it.
It's depressing as fuck.
 
https://goodlerner.com/5937/
Information on some victims here, use google translate on this one, I can't be bothered.
It contains information about directors, authors and etc. along with the movies or cartoons they are involved in, and obviously their current safety status.

So do we actually know this sick fuck's motive? Maybe im exceptional but i couldnt find a clear answer. Also Japan needs to get their shit together with fire safety. Theres zero excuse and whoever allowed these conditions in the first place should hang too
Read the post above you, we currently don't.
 
I think the Death sentence is still in place for things like murder so I wouldn't be too surprised given the scale.
Sure is. They are real enthusiasts. They hanged a whole bunch of Aum Shinrikyo cult members after they had been on death row for decades. There are the tards that lmade their own nerve agent. I think it was sarin.
They were in different prisons. And the Japanese government has gallows dotted round the country and did a couple of them simultaneously on the same gallows. That really is dedicated. But what is amazing is the cult leader, Shoko Asahara, was a fat slob who could not walk or stand. Fuck knows how the prison guards managed it. Especially given his weight ...might have torn off his head. TMI, I know but I read about while I was stuck in an airport in asia. My admiration for the Japanese went up.
 
Not into anime but I hope they make this fuck commit seppuku or something. Mass murderers deserve the least humane forms of execution a justice system can provide.

How much of their work do you think was lost anyways though? Surely these days companies keep their shit backed up on "the cloud" or whatever right?
 
Full Metal panic and Amagi Brilliant Park director Yasuhiro Takemoto is confirmed dead
 
Not into anime but I hope they make this fuck commit seppuku or something. Mass murderers deserve the least humane forms of execution a justice system can provide.

How much of their work do you think was lost anyways though? Surely these days companies keep their shit backed up on "the cloud" or whatever right?
Probably a decent amount, I doubt anyone predicted this so they thought the cloud was unnecessary. Even if the stuff is safe, the people who actually animated it and such weren't, I could honestly see Kyoto going under or downsizing a fuck ton because of this, they lost 26 staff including a pretty popular director. Also sad fact, this attack killed more than the Tokyo Sarin Attack, which only killed 13 people.
 
Will the fire force anime be cancelled? Japan has a tendency to cancel tv shows whenever disasters happen espiecally something when the subject is tangentially related like the fire force is about arson demons and people spontenously combusting.
 
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What a tragedy.
KyoAni puts a lot of heart and work into their shows. It's evident even if you're not a fan of moe or slice-of-life.
K-On and Hyouka were two of the best anime i've seen because of it. Down to the beautiful backgrounds, they had a level of craft in their work which is sadly missing from a lot of other studios.
 
Full Metal panic and Amagi Brilliant Park director Yasuhiro Takemoto is confirmed dead
That's too bad, I loved the FMP shows he did.
 
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