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

For decades, Kyoto Animation and their talented team of visionaries have gifted the world with animated works that have inspired and influenced countless lives around the world. In a world where nearly anything, including Japanese anime, can be reduced to a commodity, Kyoto Animation’s productio...

www.gofundme.com

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

Goku(꒪ཀ꒪)ごみ~歴史戍る! on Twitter: "Here's a crappy picture guide, hope it…

archived 19 Jul 2019 00:57:26 UTC

archive.li

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

archived 19 Jul 2019 00:59:03 UTC

archive.li

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.

 

[Thomas Talus]

This definitely explains the characterization of prosecutor characters like Sae Nijima and Miles Edgeworth. Thanks for mentioning this lol.

Japan's legal system is scary

Ace Attorney as a series is kinda a critique of the Japanese justice system underneath all the stepladder jokes.

 

[Bender]

There are thankfully some holdouts in western culture but it's a real uphill battle.

I miss the old Sony that had the balls to let Manhunt get released on their system.

 

[Syaoran Li]

Japan's got problems, same as anywhere else in the world, it's not a perfect world by any stretch of the imagination.

But sometimes I wonder if comparatively Japan just might really be the best nation on Earth.

America used to be, but we let a guilt complex sink in that is killing us, Japan is at the end of the day a country that is proud of itself and its heritage and in the modern world that accounts for a lot.

Eh, I still think America is the best for now. We do have a guilt complex, but I also have hope we can bounce back from it since it's more recent, isn't enshrined into law like in the EU, and we have the First Amendment too.

Western Europe has a guilt complex that is truly terminal, especially Germany and the Nordic countries.

Japan has a lot of fucked up shit going against it as well, namely the hyper-conformity and the fact even a slight deviation from the norm will get you branded a pariah, If you're over a certain age and you express even just a mild casual interest in anime and manga in Japan, you get branded an otaku and are stigmatized every bit as much as the real Tsutomu Miyazaki-tier freaks.

If the United States is too individualistic for its own good, then Japan is definitely way too conformist for its own good.

If anything, I think the real future is in the United States and possibly Eastern Europe too.

That being said, Northern Europe can go fuck itself, and if there's a "worst country in the First World", it's likely located there.

 

[Megaroad 2012]

I lived in Japan and visit regularly. Lovely country but I'd only live there if I was born Japanese or had fuck you money like pewdiepie, otherwise you do feel pretty unpersoned a good deal of the time even if you're trying your best to not be an annoying tourist.

 

[sasazuka]

UPDATE: Arsonist Shinji Aoba has been deemed sufficiently healed from his wounds to be formally arrested for the murder of 36 Kyoto Animation staff.

 

[Bender]

UPDATE: Arsonist Shinji Aoba has been deemed sufficiently healed from his wounds to be formally arrested for the murder of 36 Kyoto Animation staff.

Yeah, get fucked and rot away in prison, where you belong.

 

[HumanHive]

UPDATE: Arsonist Shinji Aoba has been deemed sufficiently healed from his wounds to be formally arrested for the murder of 36 Kyoto Animation staff.

That was just the fall guy. Diaz is still very much a free man.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Considering his trial will likely get him the death penalty. It seems cruel to let him suffer with serious burns for years till he partially recovers and then kill him.

Wait, no, that’s a good plan.

 

[DocHoliday1977]

I hate seeing when Japs hit rock bottom. Full kamikaze.

 

[CWCchange]

"Isolated incidents"? Now where have I heard that before? ☪
There's quite an eerie regularity to the problems that I have described, but you managed to squeeze in some anti-left-wing comment out of nowhere, so I guess that makes this alright.

The plight of former Burakumin is well documented and while regular families might no longer check their kid's SO to check for Burakumin or Korean genes, major companies still do occasionally.
Issues such as bullying in schools is well documented as well, and extends well into issues of workplace mobbing.
Society's demand for Japanese people to fit in and just function under any circumstance means that people with clinical depression get neither help nor understanding, they are just expected to function at all (personal) costs and then you get people jumping in front of trains. I mean, I have to respect the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, they are so experienced at this shit, a suicide in the subs will only cause a 15 minute delay, cause they have so much routine in collecting body bits off the rails. Tori-Ma is a neat concept too. Someone bumps into you and runs off, then you realize dude stabbed you a couple times.
Japan's workplace attitude is so fucked up, they have a special name for suddenly dropping dead from work-related stress. And the less we say about some of the shit that politicians pull off the better.

But yeah, this is all just blangry JET program failures who don't get their dicks wet often enough speaking, right?

Japan is CWCchange's golden cow, if I'm not mistaken, he's an Australian with Japanese roots (might mix him up with someone else, though), which would explain a lot of his stance. Immigrants (or their descendants) usually have fairly idealized visions of what their ancestor's homes are like. Doesn't matter if it's Turks or Germans or whoever, they usually tend to glorify their own nation and downplay its problems while highlighting its qualities.
So, it would be only a small surprise to see that he's been steadfast in dismissing and ignoring the many issues plagueing Japan. Any well-known and well-documented example of fucked up shit going on in Japan oftentimes is either played down in its scale or dismissed outright - whatever remains is relativized and Japan gets a free-pass for being ethnically homogenous.
I mean, Japan isn't the worst and as I said, I like that nation a lot, too, but to pretend that Japan doesn't have massive problems with for instance discrimination and yap on about JET Program blokes is just beyond ridiculous. This shit is well-documented, to dismiss it is akin to the "religion of peace"-drivel that muslims peddle after a terrorist attack.

Um, what the fuck are you talking about? I'm white and from the U.S. in case you didn't realize from two-thirds of my posts being unashamedly bigoted and prejudice against non-white foreigners who can never be considered Americans. So yes, you are sorely mistaken. I'm not Australian nor Japanese, but I can assure you, if I was some hapa from the land down under with reasonable proficiency in Japanese, I could take advantage of Japan's returnee policy and could live a normal life, quite contrary to your "well-documented" incidents. The fact you mistaken me as some wog and compare Muslim barbarism to a civilized and functional society based on "well-documented incidents," which I imagine to be sensationalist press coverage, foreign and even in Japan, which love pick that shit up, all support making your argument moot.

Alas, I will say this: perhaps I have my biases, as mentioned above, and fact you're a kraut who can't say anything critical about rapefugees, or consider the Nazis were right about even the slightest thing, without getting a visit from the GSG 9. But please do go ahead and continue effectively comparing Japanese law enforcement to the Stasi, even when only just being able to arrest the perp over a year later; the conformist culture to North Korea, even when there are clearly many subcultures, some rightfully frowned upon (the point of this forum, no?) or not, which is the case in many functional societies; or that Japan denies or refuses to acknowledge war crimes like Russia, Turkey, or some other country with limited freedom of speech, even when there are "well-documented" acknowledgements and apologies to people under authoritarian regimes which fit exactly what you consider Japanese society.

 

[Dick Justice]

Japan's got problems, same as anywhere else in the world, it's not a perfect world by any stretch of the imagination.

But sometimes I wonder if comparatively Japan just might really be the best nation on Earth.

America used to be, but we let a guilt complex sink in that is killing us, Japan is at the end of the day a country that is proud of itself and its heritage and in the modern world that accounts for a lot.

no freedom
no guns
no recourse for the accused and unpersoned
no love
no hope

what part of that justifies triple-digit work weeks and the cessation of all personal life?

 

[Dom Cruise]

no freedom
no guns
no recourse for the accused and unpersoned
no love
no hope

what part of that justifies triple-digit work weeks and the cessation of all personal life?

It's freer than a lot of countries like say China, when someone tried to do the whole communism thing in Japan some righteous young man stood up and stabbed the fuck out of them, need I say more? Hell, it's freer than the UK at this point.

No guns, ok, fair enough, but maybe not every country absolutely needs the guns, America certainly does for various reasons, but maybe that just wouldn't make sense for Japan, but hey, it's debatable.

No recourse for the accused and unpersoned, are you referring to the law system? Yeah, from what I understand it has its flaws, but so does America's law system, it's not a perfect world.

No love and no hope? You don't know what you're talking about.

And I'm sorry to say, at least stuff like Minneapolis doesn't happen in Japan.

 

[AnOminous]

No recourse for the accused and unpersoned, are you referring to the law system? Yeah, from what I understand it has its flaws, but so does America's law system, it's not a perfect world.

You can't have racist police if you don't allow other races in the country.

 

[Cheetahman]

https://soranews24.com/2020/05/29/oh-is-that-so-says-kyoto-animation-arsonist-when-told-how-many-people-he-killed/

京アニ放火容疑者「犠牲2人ぐらいだと」　逮捕時に：朝日新聞デジタル

　36人が亡くなった京都アニメーション第1スタジオ（京都市伏見区）の放火殺人事件で、京都府警に殺人や現住建造物等放火などの疑いで逮捕された青葉真司容疑者（42）=無職、さいたま市見沼区=が、「（犠牲者…

www.asahi.com

Admits that his goal was to kill as many as possible.

On the morning of May 27, 42-year-old Shinji Aoba was arrested at a hospital in Kyoto, more than 10 months after lighting a fire at the Fushimi studio of anime production company Kyoto Animation last July. Aoba was initially apprehended at the scene of the crime shortly after it took place and quoted as saying “I spread gasoline around the studio. I lit it with a lighter.”

The lengthy gap between the arson and arrest stems from a requirement of the Japanese legal system that stipulates a suspect must be healthy enough to withstand incarceration before being placed under arrest. Aoba sustained severe burns in the attack, resulting in a lengthy loss of consciousness and extensive skin grafts to replace destroyed tissue on his face and arms. The coronavirus outbreak caused a secondary delay in the process, but on Wednesday he was deemed fit to transfer, and after being placed under arrest was taken to Kyoto’s Fushimi Police Station, where the investigation is headquartered, for processing and his first round of official questioning.

During the interview with investigators, at which medical staff were also present, Aoba reiterated statements attributed to him at the time of the arson. “I had a grudge against Kyo Ani,” he told investigators, employing the commonly used nickname for Kyoto Animation and seemingly referring to his failed entry to Kyoto Animation’s periodic novel-writing contest. Aoba also admitted that “I thought that if I sprayed gasoline around the building while setting the fire, I could kill more people, so that’s why I did that.”

Most stomach-churning of all, though, is Aoba’s reaction to learning just how many lives he took. When informed that 36 people died either in the attack or due to injuries sustained in it, and that another 33 survivors suffered serious injuries, Aoba responded with “Oh, is that so?” (“Sou nan desu ka?”).

As the first official interview since the attack, Aoba had been unaware of just how many people had perished. “I thought maybe about two people died” he told the investigators. However, his admission that his goal was to kill as many as possible, as well as his nonchalant reaction to the death toll, are unlikely to earn him any clemency from the Japanese justice system, and there are no doubt many who share Kyoto Animation’s sentiment that Aoba, regardless of any remorse he may or may not eventually express, be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Author schizo confirmed
Kind of surprised that for nearly a year, nobody 'accidentally' unplugged him.

 

[slartifartblast]

Ah, so there's hope he may still get the rope.

 

[AnOminous]

Ah, so there's hope he may still get the rope.

His crime fits the very narrow set of crimes that get you death in Japan.

 

[TowinKarz]

If the United States is too individualistic for its own good, then Japan is definitely way too conformist for its own good.

That right there is not only correct, but, it wins BOTH showcases..... both countries are opposite sides of the same coin. America's extreme individualism causes drug epidemics, lawsuit mania and lifestyles built on unsustainable ever-expanding credit lines, since fuck society.. land of the free baby! While Japan's extreme conformity causes people to become so neurotic about success and not rocking the boat that they are too stressed out to cope in a "healthy" fashion and end up wanting to marry animated women instead of real ones and locking themselves in closets to just have a moment's peace, less they jump out the nearest window or self-combust like the Nazis at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

 

[Dom Cruise]

That right there is not only correct, but, it wins BOTH showcases..... both countries are opposite sides of the same coin. America's extreme individualism causes drug epidemics, lawsuit mania and lifestyles built on unsustainable ever-expanding credit lines, since fuck society.. land of the free baby! While Japan's extreme conformity causes people to become so neurotic about success and not rocking the boat that they are too stressed out to cope in a "healthy" fashion and end up wanting to marry animated women instead of real ones and locking themselves in closets to just have a moment's peace, less they jump out the nearest window.

We could learn a lot from each other a matter of fact.

America could learn from Japan's striving for excellence and Japan could learn from America's willingness to on occasion let loose and blow off some steam.

 

[WinchesterPremium]

https://soranews24.com/2020/05/29/oh-is-that-so-says-kyoto-animation-arsonist-when-told-how-many-people-he-killed/

京アニ放火容疑者「犠牲2人ぐらいだと」　逮捕時に：朝日新聞デジタル

　36人が亡くなった京都アニメーション第1スタジオ（京都市伏見区）の放火殺人事件で、京都府警に殺人や現住建造物等放火などの疑いで逮捕された青葉真司容疑者（42）=無職、さいたま市見沼区=が、「（犠牲者…

www.asahi.com

Author schizo confirmed
Kind of surprised that for nearly a year, nobody 'accidentally' unplugged him.

I think its pretty clear to everyone they're giving him the rope, no reason to risk your own career to off someone already effectively on death row.

Japanese death row inmates arn't legally considered prisoners and have no rights, so he won't be having a fun time waiting for the random morning they tell him its time.

No guns, ok, fair enough, but maybe not every country absolutely needs the guns, America certainly does for various reasons, but maybe that just wouldn't make sense for Japan, but hey, it's debatable.

Gun rights are human rights shitlord

 

[Dom Cruise]

Ah, so there's hope he may still get the rope.

Hang 'em high!