NYC Celebrates Akiba Pop; Akiba Mourns Stab Victims
It does seem kind of ironic, doesn’t it? While New York City was celebrating Lolita and Maid Day with the New York Anime Fest crew at Kinokuniya– see AnimeAlmanac’s twitter for pics and updates from throughout that event, if you’d like –a man named Tomohiro Kato (pictured, left) drove a truck into a group of pedestrians on Chuo Dori, an Akihabara street that closes to vehicles on weekends due to the number of shoppers and sight-seers who visit. Kato then got out of the truck and began indiscriminately stabbing those around him, including a police officer.
Current reports state that Kato stabbed 17, 7 of whom have since died. All reports– and I’ll link them at the bottom because there are many –state that since being taken into custody by the cops, Kato has said that he’s sick of life, and that he didn’t care who he killed.
No answers yet as to why he did it or why he chose Akihabara, though it’s safe to assume that its being packed with people on a weekend would be part of the reason. PC World notes that this particular attack took place exactly seven years after a similar attack in Osaka where a man named Mamoru Takuma invaded an elementary school and killed eight children with a knife.
I wonder if there’s going to be some kind of fund for the victims and their families? If anyone hears about any such thing (or, hell, starts one? I dunno how you’d go about it, or I’d do it), please let me know so I can post about it.
For more coverage, try alafista, Moetron, Sankaku Complex, the slightly outdated Yomiuri, the Asahi (JP), ANN, Japan Probe, Yahoo! (JP), the AFP, PC World, the New York Times…
June 8th, 2008 at 8:53 am
The irony isn’t lost on me. I just keep thinking about how depressing that NYC event would have been if it happened today instead of yesterday. :-(
June 8th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Let us mourn for those akiba people.
June 8th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
[...] posting this video as a response is embarrassing insensitive to such an event. Yeah, sorry about [...]
June 11th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
[...] - In the wake of the Akihabara attacks, Konami has cancelled their Metal Gear Solid 4 events, citing concern over the safety of their [...]