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

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/...-man-sprays-liquid-at-kyoto-anime-studio.html

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.

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.
View attachment 846932
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?

Click here to support Help KyoAni Heal organized by Sentai Filmworks

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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.

京アニショップ！ダウンロード販売専用サイト

京都アニメーション製作オリジナルグッズのダウンロードショップです！

kyoani.shop-pro.jp

This is a direct link to the KyoAni shop. A Twitter user has provided a guide for creating an account and making purchases.

https://twitter.com/gokunobaka/status/1151813889362989056

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archived 19 Jul 2019 00:57:26 UTC

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Goku(꒪ཀ꒪)ごみ~歴史戍る! on Twitter: "Thanks for the notification about thei…

archived 19 Jul 2019 00:59:03 UTC

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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

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.

 

[Glad I couldn't help]

View attachment 849194

This how I predicted a certian anime review cuck would react.

He's going to tie the arsonist to incels, Elliot Rodgers and Alek Minassian; then he will tie them to the rise of far-right everywhere, particularly the Bad Orange Man and Brexit. Then he will call for unionizing the anime industry, better gun control, better help for mental health issues (it could save Etika, BTW) and finally more curation and moderation of various sites where the alt-right and incels gather, like the *chans, Twitter and reddit. Also, he will call for the closure of a certain den of incels, transphobes and various other ne'er-do-well stalkers, who harass, for example, true and honest anime reviewers and their adult cosplaying girlfriends.

 

[AnOminous]

highlighting that kyoani hired mostly women and was very progressive by industry standards makes sense in highlighting their achievements but making it the headline and painting it like it was related to the incident is scummy as fuck and whoever wrote it should be fired

The people who write the articles and the people who write the headlines are not the same people.

 

[Unpleasant]

The people who write the articles and the people who write the headlines are not the same people.

So you're saying we need two hangings, not one?

 

[pickleparty]

And fire force got cancelled just like i speculated neat.

 

[LocalFireDept]

Mastermind of the attack is a Yakuza veteran, goes by the street name "Haido Samu"
View attachment 849198

You could at least be a little clever and make it Samurai Hyde.

 

[Freddy Freaker]

And fire force got cancelled just like i speculated neat.

I should note that technically its not cancelled. So far theyve postponed episode 3

 

[HTTP Error 404]

Seriously.

A wooden spiral staircase. Wooden walls. Wooden floors. No sprinklers. No firebreaks or firedoors.

That sounds like a goddamned Sims deathtrap, not a workplace.

Ages of victims, but not names. JP media is taking their time with releasing information.

15 20-30 year olds. 11 30-40 year olds. 6 40-60 year olds. 1 person over 60 years old.

 

[Cosmos]

View attachment 849671

Ages of victims, but not names. JP media is taking their time with releasing information.

15 20-30 year olds. 11 30-40 year olds. 6 40-60 year olds. 1 person over 60 years old.

The largest group of victims were 20-30 years old. KyoAni has a reputation for hiring young animators and training them in-house. I bet those young folks were thrilled to be working and learning at such a famous and well-regarded studio.

Obviously all the deaths are tragic, but it's especially sad to see such young talent snuffed out prematurely.

 

[Glad I couldn't help]

Seriously.

A wooden spiral staircase. Wooden walls. Wooden floors. No sprinklers. No firebreaks or firedoors.

That sounds like a goddamned Sims deathtrap, not a workplace.

Not sure why I'm making the association, but it's reminds me of how the London Underground had wooden escalators until one of them exploded in a fireball that killed 31 people, or there was a fire in an UK association football stand that killed 56 people.

 

[von Hapasbourg]

Not sure why I'm making the association, but it's reminds me of how the London Underground had wooden escalators until one of them exploded in a fireball that killed 31 people, or there was a fire in an UK association football stand that killed 56 people.

is it really possible that they all got toasted due to trench effect? Most of the deaths are on the staircases just like the King's cross fire.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

That was the second draft of the title.

View attachment 849143

If I were a more charitable person, I would agree that this was to highlight how progressive the studio was.
I am not a more charitable person, because what they have attempted to do with these titles is transparent.

Aren't women in general over-represented in terms of animators in not only Japan but the countries animation is outsourced to (you know, those Korean or especially nowadays Vietnamese names you see in the ending credits?). I'm finding it funny how different sources (all shit evidently) are describing Kyoani as "feminist and SJW studio" and then other sources describing them as your typical anime studio full of degens and all (and can't forget how moe anime was routinely derided as "sexist").

 

[Glad I couldn't help]

is it really possible that they all got toasted due to trench effect? Most of the deaths are on the staircases just like the King's cross fire.

I doubt it, as the staircase doesn't seem to be in any kind of trench, from the pictures I've seen.

 

[VacuousSpooder]

Dunno if this is late or not.

Talk about a double whammy.

 

[Sinner's Sandwich]

NHK/Kyoto Police confirm 34th death.

アニメ会社放火 男性１人死亡 死者34人に 警察 | NHKニュース

京都市の「京都アニメーション」のスタジオが放火された事件で、京都府警察本部は19日夜、病院で手当てを受けていた男性１人が…

www3.nhk.or.jp

edit: link

There will be more. Either because of dying from injuries or suicide

 

[ProfDongs]

Its incredibly hard to see any form of practical recovery from this regardless of how much money is raised for them. Its not hard to imagine that if what was said about the Free and Violet Evergarden movie are true than that will be the end of the line for them. Maybe that's too pessimistic but its hard to think otherwise.

 

[FuckedUp]

View attachment 849671

Ages of victims, but not names. JP media is taking their time with releasing information.

15 20-30 year olds. 11 30-40 year olds. 6 40-60 year olds. 1 person over 60 years old.

At least this confirms no kids in the nursery died.

 

[Finrod Felagund]

View attachment 848966

Did NYT get into the Covington fiasco? How the mighty have fallen in Clown World Current Year.

That was the second draft of the title.

View attachment 849143

If I were a more charitable person, I would agree that this was to highlight how progressive the studio was.
I am not a more charitable person, because what they have attempted to do with these titles is transparent.

What the fuck. This is the Far East, not the bloody Far West. To these people shit like this is disrespectful. Fucking hell.

Ok, lurked around NHK for a bit. They summarized the entire ordeal in English.

Over $1 Mil. Raised for Kyoto Animation | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News

The incident has shocked anime fans and people in the industry around the world. John Ledford, the president of US distributor Sentai Filmworks, is now reaching out to offer support to Kyoto Animation.

www3.nhk.or.jp

 

[Cedric_Eff]

Seriously.

A wooden spiral staircase. Wooden walls. Wooden floors. No sprinklers. No firebreaks or firedoors.

That sounds like a goddamned Sims deathtrap, not a workplace.

Kinda sad because of the history of major fires in Japan. I mean there was a similar fire like this back in 2001 and they haven’t updated the building code to meet the post 2001 code? It’s shit like this that makes me worry about Japanese architecture. When the Japanese cut corners, they really cut a lot of corners.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

Far too many. This might accelerate the anime industry to that awful 3DCG style, and I'll point out as a relevant example, compare Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid to Full Metal Panic! Invisible War. The former has beautifully done mecha (admittedly a continuation of what the non-Kyoani first FMP had done), the latter has ugly CGI mecha that you can only accept because the fights are done so well. And let's not forget how Invisible War had numerous delays when it aired and still gave some rather poorly animated scenes. TSR didn't have anything like that, even if it did have times when it dragged compared to the first FMP.

And here's an example of Invisible War's "Quality": In the car chase during episode 2, they didn't even try to render in a CGI car interior at one point, just a black void of nothingness because they were too fucking lazy to put in the extra effort. Makes me glad Xebec's dead.

But that's besides the point, KyoAni was one of the few studios that used CGI as effectively as possible when they used it. And unless Animation DO picks up the slack until the main studio can rebuild as best they can, we're going to see one of the last mostly 2D studios that isn't an outsourcing house die out in the worst way possible.

At least this confirms no kids in the nursery died.

It's entirely possible there were none in there at the time too. If there were, people would want the guy deader than what they want him right now.

 

[HTTP Error 404]

Dunno if this is late or not.

View attachment 849714

Talk about a double whammy.

アニメ会社放火 男性１人死亡 死者34人に 警察 | NHKニュース

京都市の「京都アニメーション」のスタジオが放火された事件で、京都府警察本部は19日夜、病院で手当てを受けていた男性１人が…

www3.nhk.or.jp

The ages have been released of the victims. Only one age was listed to be over 60, which would most likely be Yoshiji Kigami.
Their ages range from 20 to 61
20s: 15
30s: 11
40s: 6
60s: 1
Another report from earlier stated that Studio 1 was not working on any current projects set to be released in the near future, only pre-production. Studio 1 typically handles pre-production before being handed off to one of the other studio locations, and also serves to train new animators. Any materials at Studio 1 would have been from past shows or pre-production work.
A reminder of KyoAni's studio locations;
>Studio 1, which is what burned down
>Studio 2, rented in the HiShop building on the 3rd floor (Largely responsible for Maid Dragon and adaptation/marketing work)
>Studio 5, located by Kohata Station (Hibike and Violet Evergarden)
>Animation Do, located in Osaka (They're responsible for animating Free!)
Also, there is a story floating around Japanese Twitter that the CGI company KyoAni works with, which is based in Tokyo, keeps back ups of everything they work on. They have been involved with every KyoAni show since 2015, and are involved during all stages of production, instead of just editing and post. The only thing I can find about it seems to be from a NicoNico video about the company when they were doing the Violet Evergarden anime.
There will be a police press conference at 4pm JST today to discuss the current investigation. Names are expected to be officially released then as well.

There's a chance that everything digital was backed up offsite. Which I would fucking presume would be standard operating procedure, but apparently not.