Topic: Breaking News - Arson attack at Japanese's studio "Kyoto Animation" Edit 2 (Read 227 times)

KyoAni is a very good studio, I'm familiar with some of their work (Ie. K-On). Its a shame security was so lacking, because in Japan crime is so rare they don't think too much about it until it happens (and yet its still rare).

Also something could be said about the building poor design regarding fire prevention and escape.

This type of thing, arsonist and many deaths must have shocked Japan, regardless of place and motive.

single individuals nowadays are often threated like crap that can simply be ignored scammed or laid off all burden too, that man who took revenge on that studia might not be such an evildoer, in societies that need fear as a prophylaxy against crime these events are necessary to create certain social memes.

I believed that there can only be two real reason why it happens. If what he is saying is true then he is probably depressed.

But based on his previous action it also seems that this man has a mental issue. He keeps on telling that it was his work which seems to be just a meme or creating new back stories of his favorite character

Last I heard from the news, the arsonist was a 41-year old guy. Apparently he was angry for them either "ruining" his favorite character or "stealing" his meme. I think with all the info that came out the likelihood that he was a former employee is pretty low and even if, many anime fans claim KyoAni actually have the best working environment among animation studios. (They have regular employees while other companies usually hire freelance to avoid paying benefits.)

It's crazy what these tards would kill for. And the guy managed to do it without a gun. (He also had knives but there was no report he got to stab anyone.)

This event is just insane.

Not familiar with their work (though I heard of Freed! at least once) so I was surprised to see "anime studio" and "arson" on the same headline. RIP.


At least that's one consolation for the bereaved, that this lunatic is going to rot in jail. Considering this is Japan, I'm expecting some people would also come out and take part of the blame for the tragedy.

Unconfirmed but from what I read on Twitter, some bystanders heard the arsonist scream something like "you copied me!" which could mean that this studio may have plagiarized something of his (some artwork or story). But we're talking about a highly unstable individual so god knows if that's true.

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According to NHK^[1], out of the 33 bodies found, 20 were piled on each other on the stairs between the 3rd floor and the roof.
So, after reading about the whole thing for the past few hours, i think this is how it all went down and kinda explains why the death toll is so high:

(First off, this is how the building looks from the outside + building plan^[2])

• The arsonist arrives at the building with 40L of gasoline and holding knives^[3]. He then starts pouring gasoline on the 1st floor and the main staircases, all of this while yelling.

• Employees confront him, and then he proceeds to ignite the room and suddenly the 1st floor is on fire, and very quickly, fire on gasoline spreads fast. Combine that with highly flammable objects (almost each floor was filled with: wooden floor, a lot of paper/documents, wooden doors, paper walls, plastic, etc,) and before you know it, 1/3 of the building is on fire in a couple of minutes.

• People on the 1st floor panicked, rang the alarm and then ran away suffering some mild to severe injuries from the fire. The arsonist sees people running away from the 1st floor and starts pouring gasoline on them^[4]. The crazy fucker tries to escape, also suffers some injuries from the fire, but an employee follows him and then the Police captured him^[5].

• Once the rest of the people (on the 2nd floor and 3rd floor) found out what was going on (most likely, because of the smoke going up through the stairs, which you can see in the building plan above, the small circle is a spiral stair), it was too late. Escape routes can't be used by the people on the upper floors as the entire 1st floor is on fire. Breaking windows and jumping down was an option, and probably some escaped that way, but there's a chance that in a matter of minutes the windows, that were covered by blinds (as seen above in the pic outside of the building), got caught on fire too or were extremely hot...Plus, disorientation, coughing, panicking and low visibility due to thick smoke wouldn't allow you to find the window and/or try to break it.

• The trapped employes tried to go to the roof but couldn't since, according to the NHK report^[1], there's a high chance that people tripped and blocked the way up on the stairs since the door to the roof was unlocked (from the outside, unclear if from the inside as well). As hot air, toxic and thick smoke began to go up, it's very likely that suffocation was the main cause of death which explains why the authorities found so many bodies on the stairs between the 3rd floor and the stairs to the roof.

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1. [source in japanese] https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20190718/k10011998101000.html
2. [source in japanese] https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20190718/k10011997791000.html
3. [...] https://twitter.com/nhk_news/status/1151704299707273218 (Police taking pictures of backpack, knives, found near the building).
4. https://twitter.com/you629/status/1151695567287795713
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7U7SgV6cOI (unconfirmed that the person on this video is the arsonist, but he was indeed caught by the authorities).

Maybe someone from the studio was involved in criminal activity and crossed someone and the guy came for payback?  Or perhaps it is just a crazy person that wanted to cause havoc.  Anyways its a shame that innocent people had to die from this, so much damage can be done with a few dollars of gasoline and a match.

Lot's of crazy people going around doing stuff these days. I can't find more info about the attack so for now I'm going to assume it's a "regular" mentally unstable person.

That could be the only reason aside from this unnamed man being a former employee. If this was about an anime that some groups found offensive, we would have already heard about it even before this happened.

Condolences to the family of the 25 confirmed dead.

The CEO of Kyoto Animation has confirmed to reporters about receiving death threats, which raises the question why was security not enhanced and could this incident have been avoided?. The person who lit the gasoline was shouting out the word “Die”, which says a lot about his mental health. It’s pertinent to note that the article has reported that around 20 people are yet to be accountable for, I hope they all will be found soon.

News Source with live updates: https://kotaku.com/fire-at-kyoto-animation-sixteen-confirmed-dead-and-sus-1836473998

^ No local media reported anything regarding motive yet. It's one of the good studios in Japan, Majority of studios treat their artist very well. Sometimes Low paycheck or long working hours can be problematic, but its kind of the norm in Japan, and I doubt that it's because of any published content.

Edit : @TECSHARE : attacker was not the employee ( unverified source) will update after some digging.

Does anyone have any information on motives? Is this a disgruntled employee or maybe some one who objects to what they publish? This also proves one thing, we need common sense gasoline control laws.

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July 18th 2019 : According to Local Media, one man (age 40 41) carried out an Arson attack in one Animation studio " Kyoto Animation" leaving 13 people dead and 36 people injured. According to sources at the time of the attack, around 70 people were inside the Studio.

Local Source : 13 feared dead after explosion at Kyoto Animation studio, dozens injured



Int. Source : Kyoto Animation fire: Thirteen dead after suspected arson attack

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Edit 1

• 33 people dead, confirmed :  Read More
• Hideaki Hatta, head of Kyoto Animation confirmed about receiving death threats : Read More
• The man, who attacked at the studio was not an employee of the studio, and he never worked there ever. Some strange gossips are floating around that Animation studio plagiarized his work and he accused them many times that they stole his work.  Source NOT VERIFIED

@Juggy777 : Thanks for update

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July 19th 2019  Edit 2

The attacker has told the police that Studio plagiarized his novel and that's the reason he attacked. So now we have the real motive behind this attack although the investigator's team didn't confirm the alleged theft yet.

Suspected arsonist in deadly Kyoto anime studio fire says firm stole his novel