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.

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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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Holy fucking shit! I’ve been trying to work out how the fire spread through this building and how it did it so bloody fast? It wasn’t making a lot of sense how it jumped floors so fast in a modern building. The fire pattern on the front facing looked weird to my eye. Plus I couldn’t figure out what that weird pinwheel shape was on the floor plans? But I just saw these pictures of the main central office. Holy Shit!

They had a circular staircase going straight up through the main open areas of all three floors. What the Holy Fuck!‽ 33 innocent talented people are dead today, because whoever designed this fucking office was never taught why you put staircases behind fire doors in commercial buildings. And this building was less than 5 years old and built for them, was it not? So that perfect chimney ideal for spreading fire to every corner of the building as fast as physics allow was probably a day 1 design feature, and not some idiotic later modification?

I mean, these poor people faced a perfect storm. They had an obsessive psychotic in some way upset over the anime toddies they draw, with 40 gallons of gasoline and matches. They had a blocked fire exit barring the only possible way out. And they were in a building seemingly engineered to spread fire as fast and far as possible, with apparently no functional firebreaks between floors or office spaces. I’m also suspecting that that rear staircase was not properly rigged for positive pressure. If it had been they might have been able to go down and out the rear. So incredibly sad.

Edit: to add to the overall impression that this building had no fire protection whatsoever, looking at the ceiling in the before photo, I don’t see any sprinklers? I see what I think is one smoke/heat detector, and that’s it. Also the “goop” dripping from the windows looks to be the remains of mesh summer window screens. You can see a few intact screens in the third floor windows.
Muh collaborative workspace doe!

Can you imagine on a larger scale how poorly-designed buildings like Apple's giant donut would fair in something like an earthquake?

So the 3 main theorys are:
  1. Yakuza nothing personel shit
  2. Disgrunted ex employee
  3. Travis touchdown train sperg from 2ch
Am i missing anyone?
Zainichi devil, but Yakuza covers it.

Granted, everything in Japan these days is concrete, and gas valves are the main problem, but even then everything is mostly fireproofed. This isn't even counting, as I've been ninja'd before, everyone keeping their shit morally together and not sperging out like everywhere else in the world. I'll give Japan's civil planners shit and that they need to make building standards and specifications fireproofed, but this was pretty much a crime of essentially premediated murder. You don't get that much gasoline unless you're on a tanker, gas station, or distribution plant. This shit sounds as planned as my conspiracy theory on Shonen Jump, and this isn't even a conspiracy with how everything is out in the open.

In other topics, Japan and citywide fires are as synonymous as Japan and (insert Japanese cultural item here). Not even counting bombings by the USA, Japanese city planning just somehow is flammable in the fucking blueprints. Before modernization, everything was (thank you @RodgerDodger ) made of wood, rice paper, straw, and lime shell plaster. The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1928 even showed how majorly underequipped modern buildings in Japan were against its own topography and tectonics. Fuck, Yakuza around the 1960s and 70s were setting fires around Tokyo to establishments and residences post rebuilding era to clear out prime real estate and sell at inflated prices, and this continued well into the bubble economy of the 1980s. It would be nice to see Japan update its fire ordinances for buildings, but Japan itself is like Sim City on Hard Mode; the moment you fix one thing, it just opens up more doors for more problems.
The universal method of fireproofing cities since Haussmann's Paris and reaction to the Great Fire of London has been to cut them up with wide avenues. Not only does Tokyo have an infrastructure backlog for reconstruction plans after WWII, but also the Great Kanto Earthquake, because eminent domain proceedings are almost impossible in Japan because legacy of laws from the fucking Nara Period. It didn't help when SCAP subdivided huge swaths of land, resulting in sprawling dense areas. It's not unusual to see redevelopments finally under construction after land acquisition over the course of decades.

Kyoto is sort of a different story. It's historical dense cityscape sparred from war has fire protection measures everywhere. The building in question seems to be in a more remote modern area, and for better or worse, contained itself rather than spreading.
 
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Well, you have the New Zealand mosque shooter who was motivated for political reasons. And then you also get the occasional sexless male mad at society for not simply handing him a wife and a career. I don't know if that qualifies as exceptional, though there are usually reasons as to WHY they remain isolated and unable to succeed. Autism is certainly one such reason but not always the only one. I have no doubt that this will be the fact the media will go with in this case, and it will be nothing other then a determined effort to slag all men in general, and men with with no girlfriends/wives in particular with absolutely no self awareness.

This is something modern society has a VERY hard time grappling with. the "incels" are spergs, but they are right about one thing. Unmarried men are a danger to society, because they have no investment in it. In the past we had two methods for dealing with the chronically virgin. Religious service as a monk where whatever anti-social issues they had could be focused to spiritual pursuits, or as cannon fodder in a war. In modern society god is dead, so there are no longer any good monastic orders to dump autists, and we are in an unprecedented era of peace so there are no wars to send them off to die in. So what happens? Well, they latch on to whatever caused their disconnected brains view as appropriate. 8chan /pol/ sperging about muslim invasions of the west like Tarrant, or an anime company ruining a pure 2d waifu like this guy. The two events are not so far unrelated as we might think, but I am sure the nuances of it will be lost in the inevitable reeing. Remember, before 9-11, the worst terrorist attack in the USA was the Oklahoma City Bombing. Guess the marital status of Timothy McVeigh. Yep. Single.

For starters we really need to just legalize prostitution, why not? If middle ages Europe when the Catholic church controlled everything could tolerate it, because the alternative was seen as worse, what's our excuse?

If these guys had a safe, legal way to get pussy, that'd help out a lot I'm sure.
 
In the last picture it says the perp claimed they had stolen his anime. However the prevailing theory on 2/5channel is that it was the barisaku poster, who was angry over his catch phrase "barisaku" supposedly being copied.
I've seen plenty of discussion on the possibility of the whole Barisaku thing but I've seen way more of people saying there's no merit to it and it is more of a troll than anything else. I am aware that at least one news station has covered it as a possibility though. The most credible things I've see for the whole plagiarism thing and such is either an Anime story or the Light Novel story which seems entirely more likely.
 
Not only does Tokyo have an infrastructure backlog for reconstruction plans after WWII, but also the Great Kanto Earthquake, because eminent domain proceedings are almost impossible in Japan because legacy of laws from the fucking Nara Period.

We should have forced that idea on them when we occupied them, like so many other things they're now glad we did. It would have been a favor.
 
Well, this wasn't a mass fire, it was one building. The fact that it had narrow streets has nothing to do with its lack of sprinklers, glass windows, alternate exits, etc.
 
Muh collaborative workspace doe!

Can you imagine on a larger scale how poorly-designed buildings like Apple's giant donut would fair in something like an earthquake?


Zainichi devil, but Yakuza covers it.


The universal method of fireproofing cities since Haussmann's Paris and reaction to the Great Fire of London has been to cut them up with wide avenues. Not only does Tokyo have an infrastructure backlog for reconstruction plans after WWII, but also the Great Kanto Earthquake, because eminent domain proceedings are almost impossible in Japan because legacy of laws from the fucking Nara Period. It didn't help when SCAP subdivided huge swaths of land, resulting in sprawling dense areas. It's not unusual to see redevelopments finally under construction after land acquisition over the course of decades.

Kyoto is sort of a different story. It's historical dense cityscape sparred from war has fire protection measures everywhere. The building in question seems to be in a more remote modern area, and for better or worse, contained itself rather than spreading.
Kyoto, huh. Now that you mention that, it does make sense and is surprising, Onin War and Kinmon Incident and all. And to Tokyo, not surprised at that at all, considering how everything west in Yamanote/Tokyo Metro was once samurai residences and merchant territory. Always an exception to the rule...

We should have forced that idea on them when we occupied them, like so many other things they're now glad we did. It would have been a favor.
To quote script reading, "Premediated murder, man, premediated murder."
 
For starters we really need to just legalize prostitution, why not? If middle ages Europe when the Catholic church controlled everything could tolerate it, because the alternative was seen as worse, what's our excuse?

If these guys had a safe, legal way to get pussy, that'd help out a lot I'm sure.
Prostitution is already semi-legal in Japan (as in law enforcement usually turns a blind eye to "special bathhouses"). Not getting pussy ain't an excuse, considering how much these types shill for anime shit, paying for sex would be cheaper.
I've seen plenty of discussion on the possibility of the whole Barisaku thing but I've seen way more of people saying there's no merit to it and it is more of a troll than anything else. I am aware that at least one news station has covered it as a possibility though. The most credible things I've see for the whole plagiarism thing and such is either an Anime story or the Light Novel story which seems entirely more likely.
Until we get more info, I refuse to give this fucker any sort of justification for his deeds.
 
Until we get more info, I refuse to give this fucker any sort of justification for his deeds.
I'm not by any means trying to justify it with that. I meant that as perceived plagiarism on his part, I sincerely doubt anything real like that actually took place and its more of a delusion from him. Probably could have worded it better.
 
Prostitution is already semi-legal in Japan (as in law enforcement usually turns a blind eye to "special bathhouses"). Not getting pussy ain't an excuse, considering how much these types shill for anime shit, paying for sex would be cheaper.

Until we get more info, I refuse to give this fucker any sort of justification for his deeds.

Well shoot, you're right, forgot about that.

I wonder how many otaku utilize it though? Maybe they should more often than they do.
 
I've seen plenty of discussion on the possibility of the whole Barisaku thing but I've seen way more of people saying there's no merit to it and it is more of a troll than anything else. I am aware that at least one news station has covered it as a possibility though. The most credible things I've see for the whole plagiarism thing and such is either an Anime story or the Light Novel story which seems entirely more likely.
If he does turn out to be a guy who wrote a light novel or something and maybe sent it to try to get an anime adaptation or any other similar scenario, since he is alive I kinda want to know if he will tell the exact thing he believed KyoAni took from his work just so we can see how fucking stupid his logic was beyond his justification for his actions in the arson.
 
We should have forced that idea on them when we occupied them, like so many other things they're now glad we did. It would have been a favor.

To be fair, Americans don't like eminent domain either. We just use it and pretend its not a thing. On the list of things we were going to jam into the Japanese legal system it was low on the totem pole. I still remember my modern Japanese history class. The professor made us watch a documentary about how American feminists made sure gender neutrality laws got put into Japans legal code. It was double plus good. But then it came time to discuss the post war constitution and suddenly it was "American imposition on Japan". One of the few times I lost the plot in class. "It works, doesn't it? So what does it matter if the Americans wrote it." Professor had no real good answer to that one.
 
Muh collaborative workspace doe!

Can you imagine on a larger scale how poorly-designed buildings like Apple's giant donut would fair in something like an earthquake?

Am fairly certain that like any other Apple designed product that building will eventually kill everyone inside it. But in a sleek and stylish manner. They've already had problems that the people cannot tell the difference between walls and doorways and are constantly walking into glass walls and getting hurt. Just imagine how much fun that will be in a fire or earthquake. Or if we are lucky unfortunate both at once! I've sperg'ed a bit on how difficult it is to do a search of a building on fire in a normal building. But that circus tent of horrors? It's the worlds most twisted mirror maze. The only thing that might save anybody in that building is Firefighters seemingly have this strange unstoppable compulsion to smash every single pane of glass or window in a fire building. It's like potato chips or bubble wrap. Once you start you just can't stop. And the big glass donut is nothing but windows.
 
Police confirmed he wasn't employed at any point by them. I've seen some rumors about him being in an affiliated company, but like everything else it seems to only be a theory.

The three theories I've heard are

1. He was a complete batshit insane Train Otaku who had a conspriacy theory about KyoAni targeting him. (Supposedly, he went off on 2ch / 5ch for hours about how KyoAni had slighted him.)
2. He was an insane fan who was outraged that some character in their newest Anime got a boyfriend.
3. He was a writer or songwriter who thought KyoAni stole his novel/music.
 
The three theories I've heard are

1. He was a complete batshit insane Train Otaku who had a conspriacy theory about KyoAni targeting him. (Supposedly, he went off on 2ch / 5ch for hours about how KyoAni had slighted him.)
2. He was an insane fan who was outraged that some character in their newest Anime got a boyfriend.
3. He was a writer or songwriter who thought KyoAni stole his novel/music.

Does anyone have the theory that the perpetrator was a Western Animation fan, to the levels of theoretical "Cartoons Master Race", akin to PC Master Race?

And has anyone from the Western Animation industry made any exceptional statements regarding this incident yet?
 
I'm not by any means trying to justify it with that. I meant that as perceived plagiarism on his part, I sincerely doubt anything real like that actually took place and its more of a delusion from him. Probably could have worded it better.
Sorry dude. Yeah, he's probably just going on some scene being plagiarized because he had a daydream of a similar situation or something. Why can't the schizos just cower in their tinfoil manors and leave us normies in peace.
Well shoot, you're right, forgot about that.

I wonder how many otaku utilize it though? Maybe they should more often than they do.
Like I said, they value virginity highly to an autistic level. Also some think one day their dreams will come true and the girl of their dreams will come to whisk them into some dumb isekai scenario.
 
The more I read about this the more I thought about the "clown world" meme, which people wonder if "the world is getting more insane". But I think this kind of tragedy is not really a product of something recent, but systemic societal issues that have been around for at least two decades.
 
Muh collaborative workspace doe!

Can you imagine on a larger scale how poorly-designed buildings like Apple's giant donut would fair in something like an earthquake?
Kinda reminds me of that one warehouse rave in Oakland ("Ghost Ship", I believe?).

The three theories I've heard are

1. He was a complete batshit insane Train Otaku who had a conspriacy theory about KyoAni targeting him. (Supposedly, he went off on 2ch / 5ch for hours about how KyoAni had slighted him.)
2. He was an insane fan who was outraged that some character in their newest Anime got a boyfriend.
3. He was a writer or songwriter who thought KyoAni stole his novel/music.
His memo talked about him being scared of his only hobby (train spotting) being ruined by KyoAni's following (if you don't know, Kyoto Animation's following love to explore places that were used in their cartoons) after a train's theme was used in "Sound! Euphonium", what he was anxious of is what can be described as a classic case of "tragedy of the commons".
If only anime studios didn't promote office jobs as the "sole way to live" and demonize those working in trades...
 
In almost every structural Fire death I have witnessed or reviewed (that did not involve an explosion and structural collapse, such as a gas leak) they would have easily been prevented by some combination of these three things. Working and effective smoke detectors, sprinklers, and unblocked fire exits. And the fire exits is the big one. I think every case I have seen involving multiple non related victims has been blocked or unclear fire exits.

The only real exception to the holy trinity of smoke detectors, sprinklers and clear fire exits is trailer homes. If you live in a trailer home you are completely fucked if fire is involved they go up so fucking fast.

I've looked at some fire casualty data for a decently sized metropolitan area and another big factor is intoxication or impairment. Given this was a workplace I doubt that played any factor.





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This is so fucking sad. Possible hope of escape right in front of a dozen or more people, but they can't do shit but either perish or choke to death or both.
Something must happen to their fire prevention standards. What we're seeing is no standards.


Keep him alive:
Firstly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pear_of_anguish\
Second: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingchi
Third: There's another Chinese one where the criminal is fused upside down in a candle, then lit. Forgot the name of it.
About time.
Final: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dismemberment

Whenever a heinous crime like this happens it's natural for internet users to call for violent retribution. But it really is against a civil society and humanity itself to do such things. The State or any private individuals should never be allowed to do what basically amounts to torture and war crimes. I think the death penalty is enough. Calling for torture or the like does nothing for society or the victims and has little deterrent effect against the mentally ill.
 
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