by cheru ※Permission to upload this was given by the artist
mischievous puppy
today, july 18 2025, marks six years since the kyoani arson attack. six years ago, a man doused kyoto animation's studio 1 building with gasoline, and then he set it on fire. killing dozens of people and injuring dozens more. it was one of the deadliest massacres in japan since the end of world war 2.
the arsonist claimed that kyoto animation plagiarized his own works in their anime after he submitted his novel for a contest. so he killed them for revenge
and here were the things he said were plagiarized:
- in the anime free, they fly a banner reading "swimming club advances to local tournament". in the arsonist's novel, there were banners
- in the anime tsurune, someone buys meat at a discount. in the arsonist's novel, the main character buys meat at a 50% discount
- in the anime k-on, a character says they repeated a grade. in the arsonist's novel, a character gets told by a teacher that they might be forced to repeat a grade
that was really all it was
a lot of people know about the arson attack but not about the details of exactly why he did it other than "plagiarism". so many wonderful people were injured and murdered just for this bullshit
kyoto animation is responsible for the production of some of the most beloved and iconic anime ever made. if you watch anime, you have probably seen a kyoani show. and if you have not seen a kyoani show yet, you should.
air, amagi brilliant park, beyond the boundary, clannad, free, full metal panic, k-on, kanon, liz and the blue bird, lucky star, the melancholy of haruhi suzumiya, nichijou, a silent voice, sound euphonium, tsurune, violet evergarden, and so many more. they worked on crayon shin-chan, doraemon, pokemon, gundam, ghibli films.
since the arson attack, kyoani has worked on and released a few other anime series and movies. but this anime season, summer 2025, is the release of their first new anime series in several years: CITY the animation. it is a delightful adaptation of a manga by the creator of nichijou.
the animation, music, vocal performances, and direction are all amazing. so far it is just plain awesome. a fun show about life, being an adult, and moving forward. if you are in need of an anime to watch, especially if you do not want something too intense, give CITY a look. it is silly, it is colorful, and it is a good time.
I think one of the best things to do now is just to celebrate and support kyoani. they made something fantastic again. and apparently a lot of folks had no idea CITY was even getting an anime! it did, it is, and here it is! so if you are up for giving CITY a watch, and you wind up liking it, I hope you will consider spreading the word.
To be honest I think both, "Victor was a mentally ill teenager who had just lost his mother and was absolutely not in a good state of mind at the time of the creature's creation and is absolutely worthy of sympathy, especially for how ultimately a single moment ends up in his entire family being murdered." and, "Victor still created and (however unintentionally) abandoned a sapient being who he had the responsibility to care for and desecrated corpses in the process of making said creature, almost certainly without the consent of the original bodies nor their families," Can both be true at the same time.
Similarly, "Creature deserved to have someone care for and love him and he never would've done any of the morally abhorrent things he did had he simply been treated with the basic respect a living creature deserves," and, "Creature murdering innocent people, including a literal child, is inexcusable and how he was treated does not justify him taking it out on innocent people," are also both true.