I was shocked and saddened to hear this morning that Kyoto Animation, better known colloquially as KyoAni, had been the victim of an arson attack. As I type this, 33 people have been confirmed dead, with many more injured, missing or in critical condition. The motive for the attack remains unknown right now.
I'm not going to talk too much about the specifics of this incident, as the story is still developing. I did want to acknowledge it, however, as it's a devastating blow to Japanese popular media — and, hell, popular media in general.
On the offchance you're unfamiliar with KyoAni, they're an anime studio who, since 2003, have been putting out a pretty consistent string of widely beloved anime, ranging from adaptations of Key's classic visual novels Air, Kanon and Clannad to series like Lucky Star and K-On!!, which played a significant part in defining modern anime in general, and the "slice of life" genre specifically.
The studio is particularly noteworthy for the fact that its employees are all salaried rather than paid per frame on a freelance basis. This allowed the company to both develop a distinctive "house style" that is immediately recognisable, and for its animators to be able to focus on the quality of each frame rather than rushing to produce as much work as possible in a short period of time.
In other words, they were a studio doing a great amount of good — and, unlike the disagreements that tend to spring up over most popular media, I don't know a single person who ever had a bad thing to say about a KyoAni production.
The company was not especially large, so it's entirely possible that it will be unable to recover from an attack of this magnitude. That hasn't stopped people from rallying around to gather support, however; American licensing company Sentai Filmworks set up a GoFundMe page that has raised nearly three quarters of a million dollars in less than a day at the time of writing, and various people have pointed out that KyoAni has an online shop where you can buy high-definition digital pictures. If you'd like to support those affected by this tragedy, these appear to be the two best (or at least easiest) ways to do so right now. That and, as always, buying official KyoAni products such as anime and merchandise.
I'm saddened and disappointed by this news, and anything further I might be able to say feels a bit futile; nothing will bring those 33 people back or heal the countless injured, and KyoAni will never be the same after this — if it even survives at all. But it has, at least, been encouraging to see how many people wanted to offer their support and condolences after this horrific tragedy; small comfort for those affected, perhaps, but a reminder that not everyone in the world is as reprehensible a creature as the one responsible for this attack.
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