Posted on 07/18/2019 8:08:07 AM PDT by chajin
Fire department officials in Kyoto said they have confirmed 33 people died in a suspected arson attack in Kyoto. They say 36 others were injured.
The fire broke out around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday at the studio of Kyoto Animation. It took firefighters nearly five hours to extinguish the blaze. Officials say about 70 people were in the building at the time of the fire.
Police say one suspect, believed to be in his 40s, has been taken into custody.
The man was reportedly seen pouring a flammable liquid inside the building before it went up in flames. Witnesses also say he was heard yelling "die" in Japanese.
NHK has just obtained footage of the suspect being apprehended. He is now being treated at a nearby hospital.
The circumstances leading up to the alleged arson are still unclear. But the head of the studio said that he had recently received some threatening emails.
President of Kyoto Animation, Hideaki Hatta, said, "They were addressed to our office and sales department and told us to "die"."
Kyoto Animation has been in operation since 1981 and has gained critical acclaim around the world.
The company has produced a number of popular shows such as "K-On" and "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya."
The series was known for its dance sequences at the end of each episode. Its popularity surged when fans began posting videos of themselves dancing to the song "Hare-Hare-Yukai."
An expert says the studio has had an indelible impact on Japan's animation industry.
Visiting Professor of Meiji University, Ryusuke Hikawa said, "The name of Kyoto Animation is a strong brand with its sophisticated directorial and production techniques."
He added that Kyoto Animation is known as the first successful studio outside Tokyo.
My daughters were big fans of “Free! Iwatobi Swim Club”.
Someone didn’t like anime?
Or - didn’t like stories of HS girl anime characters?
Or, did someone steal his idea of HS girl anime stories?
Ban all matches and cigarette lighters! Is anyone thinking about the children??
It’s way past time to outlaw gasoline and matches. /s
Perp was not employed there, claimed they’d stolen something from him.
My blind guess is he felt they’d stolen an art idea of character from him, had developed it w/o him.
That’s a GUESS.
A strong quirk of Japanese law:
Arson of any kind is treated WAAAAAY more seriously than in the West.
I’d say this guy will eventually get the death penalty.
Thank you; I looked for earlier posts and didn’t see this one. I haven’t seen anything on the fire in local news here in FL, generally don’t watch any MSM including FoxNews.
It sounds like the attacker believed he was in a business dispute with the studio. Some kind of intellectual property issue.
Not surprising since we burned most of Tokyo to the ground in WW2.
I hadn't thought of that, but you're right, of course. It goes back to the days when all buildings (except castles) were wooden. The 100,000 Tokyo deaths in the Great Kanto Earthquake of September 1, 1923, and the subsequent 100,000 Tokyo deaths in the bombing of March 10, 1945, were both largely people burning to death from the wooden structures. A murderer could kill one or at most a few people, but an arsonist could wipe out a whole city.
No one’s thinking about the children...
The call here should be for mental health awareness. Bring back asylums!
Human beings just suck. Whether it’s a gun, a club, a fist, or a can of gasoline, we’re REALLY good at figuring out how to kill one another.
It’s not just the wood. Rice paper is like a gasoline soaked rag.
I’m willing to bet that Japan won’t even entertain the “mental illness” crap.
I worked in a state Mental Hospital in the late 1960s. The left released these dangerous people into society. It was a plan to destroy the west. It’s working.
And now their are in their elected offices. (blue states)
“Arson of any kind is treated WAAAAAY more seriously than in the West.”
Don’t know if it’s true or not but I remember reading somewhere that in Feudal Japan arson was punished by burning the arsonist and their entire family to death.
Not hard to understand given that wood and paper made up most of the housing.
L
True.
Because many (most?) residential dwellings around the countrysides are of wood, straw and paper.....unless things have upgraded drastically since I was there. And they work fine. Have for many centuries. But it calls for extreme care with fire.
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