Japan: Man sentenced to death for Kyoto anime fire which killed 36
Japan: Man sentenced to death for Kyoto anime fire which killed 36
The arson attack in a revered Kyoto animation studio killed 36 people and injured dozens more.
A Japanese man has been sentenced to death for an arson attack at a Kyoto animation studio in 2019 which killed 36 people and injured dozens more.
The incident, one of Japan's deadliest in recent decades, killed mostly young artists and shocked the anime world.
Shinji Aoba, 45, pleaded guilty to the attack but his lawyers had sought a lighter sentence on grounds of "mental incompetence".
Judges rejected this however, ruling that Aoba knew what he was doing.
"I have determined that the defendant was not mentally insane or weak at the time of the crime," Chief Judge Masuda said on Thursday at Kyoto District Court.
Japanese stans are next level crazy. Like the stories of idols being murdered and shit by crazed stalkers, I don’t get what breeds this level of extreme response to media.
40Biased local/national sensationalist news and far-right culture... mostly.
6
Shortening that to "Anime Fire" in the title was an awful choice by the BBC.
31I think they just forgot to capitalize the A. Whoops.
4In all seriousness, they could've just said "studio fire".
8
To be fair, BBC is also an awful choice of shortening in time of the adult internet ;)
2Though the BBWs are pretty fond of getting their news there.
2
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A Japanese man has been sentenced to death for an arson attack at a Kyoto animation studio in 2019 which killed 36 people and injured dozens more.
Shinji Aoba, 45, pleaded guilty to the attack but his lawyers had sought a lighter sentence on grounds of "mental incompetence".
"I have determined that the defendant was not mentally insane or weak at the time of the crime," Chief Judge Masuda said on Thursday at Kyoto District Court.
In July 2019, he burst into the studio during a work day, splashing petrol on the ground floor and setting it alight while repeatedly shouting "Drop dead".
Families of the victims were seen in the court room, with many visibly emotional as the judge read out the details of Aoba's crime, NHK reported.
The KyoAni studio in Kyoto is a beloved institution, known for producing films and graphic novels that are well-regarded by fans as well as critics - including K-On!
The original article contains 534 words, the summary contains 157 words. Saved 71%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
9From the article:
Aoba himself suffered burns to over 90% of his body in the fire,
and
Those convicted typically remain on death row for years, or even decades. The death penalty is conducted by hanging.
That's going to be an agonizing wait for the hangman.
7They usually do hangings, right?
5They apprehended him in May 2020 and he pled guilty in September 2023, maybe it took so long because of the burns?
He supposedly accused the studio for plagiarizing his work for the creation of Sound! Euphonium 響け! ユーフォニアム which is surprising to me because I expected something a lot more personal than that. The poor standards of living and working conditions for anime production leaves a lot to be desired, I expected him to just be a disgruntled employee.
2the death sentence is a mercy. shame.
-15Huh, I swear I was always told that America was the only modern Democratic country to still use the death sentence. It's a "fact" that people bring up whenever there is a high-profile death-row case, like right now.
-38Anything happens anywhere in the world.
The US: "Oh, this is about me!"
48To be fair, it's quite generous to call a political system based on a 1700s document "modern"..
17That's a peculiar statement, considering the U.S. is essentially the most recent major nation (and one of very few) to be formed and grown, about as far from the intense pressures of previously established cultural or governmental influences (both from within, or from surrounding territories) as you can get, without leaving the planet.
...If that's not considered relatively modern when compared to the rest of the world, what is?
2
The only modern *Western country
4To be honest, I am genuinely surprised Japan has a death penalty.
2That was the point of my comment as well.
1