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.

  • @doctorcrimson@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2•10 months ago

    They 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.