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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The KyoAni Studio 1 server was recovered with no data loss.

Also from that tweet chain: The JP fundraiser has nearly broken 1 billion yen (~9 Million USD), and key animation, storyboards, and finished visuals from past works were NOT stored onsite at KyoAni Studio 1.

(Please ignore the silly "You're victim blaming for suggesting that studios should have an actual data security plan involving actually backing up data" comment later down the thread.)
The whole "backup data vs. human life" spergery has been going on, but so far I've seen no one arguing about how the building was a death trap, for a building built in 2007(!) it lacked things like sprinkler systems, which have been standard in U.S. office buildings for decades now, even small ones.
 
The whole "backup data vs. human life" spergery has been going on, but so far I've seen no one arguing about how the building was a death trap, for a building built in 2007(!) it lacked things like sprinkler systems, which have been standard in U.S. office buildings for decades now, even small ones.

Sprinker systems is one thing. Apparently the stairwell wasn't even pressurized.

20 people died before they could climb the stairs to the apparently open roof. If the stairwell was properly pressurized, they likely would have had the air to make it.

To say nothing about the goddamned wooden spiral staircase in the center of the building.
 
So uh.

That's a BOSE AWCS-II Acoustic Wave Cannon Loudspeaker.


If I'm understanding it right, that's a loudspeaker for fucking sports stadiums and dance clubs. Rated for up to 109db, aka fuck your ears loud.

And this psychopath had it installed in a small Japanese apartment?! Blasting Touhou and Animu music at 1 AM? Jesus christ.

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If he lived in America, this would have never happened as someone would have killed him already.
 
Sprinker systems is one thing. Apparently the stairwell wasn't even pressurized.

20 people died before they could climb the stairs to the apparently open roof. If the stairwell was properly pressurized, they likely would have had the air to make it.

To say nothing about the goddamned wooden spiral staircase in the center of the building.
Spiral staircases are a legitimate death trap. Only twice I've come across a spiral staircase in a commercial office building, both were in very old building (neither younger than half a century) and both were like climbing a ladder. If they built a building like what's been built in Europe and America for the last 50 years, a sturdy staircase near the exit with landings on every half floor, then maybe everyone would have lived.
 
The whole "backup data vs. human life" spergery has been going on, but so far I've seen no one arguing about how the building was a death trap, for a building built in 2007(!) it lacked things like sprinkler systems, which have been standard in U.S. office buildings for decades now, even small ones.

Japan tends to be extremely technologically backwards. Happens when you're a country full of ignorant old people obsessed with tradition.
At least they have low crime rates though.
 
Japan tends to be extremely technologically backwards. Happens when you're a country full of ignorant old people obsessed with tradition.
They do still love their fax machines I believe!

At least they have low crime rates though.
Can't argue there! People at least have the decency to keep out of mischief.
 
This whole thing still makes me ill. Its just.....ugh. I feel like the western media is avoiding it.

And when they aren't avoiding it, they're trying to shove their woke takes in it.

"KyoAni hired women, was this guy an INCEL outraged that STRONG INDEPENDENT WAMMYNS were succeeding in an INDUSTRY DOMINATED BY THE PATRIARCHY?!"
 
It's sad that people like BoingTango actually applaud the arsonist all because he thinks people who watch those anime are "lolifags."

Well, listen up, moralfags! People like you are no better than the Taliban for wanting people killed or put in jail for victimless crimes! I am sick of people supporting censorship and tyranny because "THINK OF THE CHILLINZ" and similar shit. Just because you find something objectionable doesn't mean that the person making the art should be put away. Neither does it mean people who consume said art are "child f*ckers" and stuff.

Besides, using someone's interest in fictional art as "evidence" that they do something in real life is a childish and totalitarian view. It seems much of the anti-lolicon people subscribe to the idea that "fiction informs reality" which is part of the Marxist BS social justice warriors use.

People praising the arsonist and saying "nothing of value was lost" are people who are prone to being totalitarian and need to be kept out of office. The silver lining to this is that it exposed many moralfags for who they are and we should make sure they never get a position of power.
Look

I am not saying arson is good but I am saying Loli is bad. When you combine both, it balances out the Ying yang u know wut im sayin
 

The "you stole my work" theory was confirmed as they found out the suspect did submit a story to them. Thing is, his story didn't have any similarity to released work by the studio and it was eliminated in the first round.

It sounds like he was pissed off over the fact he lost a contest and his response was to burn the whole studio down.
 
>the people in the comments of that article actually taking his plagiarism accusation seriously
*yawn*
Fucking what. Anime is so formulaic these days you could program a bot to write it. I completely doubt that a giant company would be so strapped for ideas for their high school slice of life dramas that they would have reject an amateur manuscript to plagiarize it, especially not one from a 41-year-old convicted criminal with absolutely 0 previously published works. Compare that to the tens of thousands of published works from this decade alone.

Lord only knows how many other publishers rejected this psycho's manuscript, was probably just a matter of time before one published something that sent him over the DONUT STEEL edge.
 
Of course I'm still under the assumption that Aoba's a nutjob, but why did KyoAni lie about his work being sent to them? Keep in mind, they only started admitting this after police found, among other things, writing paper which Aoba may or may not have used for sending his shit to the company. No one's going to blame KyoAni for dismissing some piece of shit work that wasn't formatted properly. Why did they have to hide it though? Doesn't make much sense.
 
Of course I'm still under the assumption that Aoba's a nutjob, but why did KyoAni lie about his work being sent to them? Keep in mind, they only started admitting this after police found, among other things, writing paper which Aoba may or may not have used for sending his shit to the company. No one's going to blame KyoAni for dismissing some piece of shit work that wasn't formatted properly. Why did they have to hide it though? Doesn't make much sense.
Lie?
Maybe they just couldn't pick out one particular submission from the flood they probably get. And that's assuming the person who dealt with it is even in a state to talk about it. And that's figuring without the fucking fire.
There's no lying involved here, just completely understandable confusion.
 
Lie?
Maybe they just couldn't pick out one particular submission from the flood they probably get. And that's assuming the person who dealt with it is even in a state to talk about it. And that's figuring without the fucking fire.
There's no lying involved here, just completely understandable confusion.
Then there's no reason telling the press "There were no such submissions from the perpetrator". Then there's the fact that there WAS no security whatsoever in the building despite KyoAni's claims that they had it set but had to deactivate it for an NHK interview (which caused quite a bit of unwarranted backlash to NHK, mind you). I'm not saying KyoAni could have stopped this from happening (the door to the roof wasn't locked, so I'm assuming the people who died couldn't muster the power to open it due to carbon monoxide poisoning), but there's no reason to try scoring extra pity points and when your statements start falling apart, even under these circumstances, it's bound to raise a few questions.
 
Apart from genuinely (if mistakenly) believing this to be the case?
That is an extremely dumb thing to do for a guy running an incredibly influential company in a dire time like this. Even if there was no malicious intent, it's still a completely insane move that can have repercussions, like insurance companies refusing to grant full payouts, loss in donations from fans who lost their trust, and so forth. The head of KyoAni (to me at least) does not seem like the kind of person who wields strong leadership under desperate situations, and I pray he isn't mistakenly believing (or hiding) any more info regarding this.
 
Apparently, on August 10, the police released the names of 10 of the deceased after their bodies were released to their families and funerals were held:




Among the dead, alongside the aforementioned Yasuhiro Takemoto (age 47), the studio's top director who handled, among others, Lucky Star, Full Metal Panic! (both Fumoffu and Second Raid) and Haruhi Suzumiha, are: Futoshi Nishiya (37), character designer and animation director most well known for being the lead character designer of Nichijou, and doing the original character designs for Hyouka; Yoshiji Kigami (61), a veteran animator and mentor to younger KyoAni members, most well known for being the animation director for Free!; Yuka Kasama (22), a new hire at the studio; Ami Kuriki (30), key animator who worked on Liz and the Blue Bird; Yuki Omura (23), a new hire; Sachie Tsuda (41), a finishing animator who worked Free!; Junichi Uda (34), a key animator who worked on Hyouka; Keisuke Yokota (34), production manager; and Mikiko Watanabe (35), who was an art director who worked on Beyond the Boundary.

Edit: For all those wanting a firm understanding of how the studio worked (and how much this loss will hurt them), here is a very informative article (warning: contains pictures of staff members who may or may not be dead):

 
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