In a media interview on Friday, Kyoto Animation (KyoAni) President Hideaki Hatta revealed that all past animation materials and computers inside the building has been destroyed in the arson attack.
“Apart from the human casualties, everything has been lost. All materials, whether its paper or digital, had been burned,” Hatta said. “Every computer has been destroyed.”
When asked regarding the monetary amount lost in the fire, he says that it is “Extreme”, but he has yet to know the full extent of the damage.
The company president also recount the day of the incident, “I rushed to the site thinking that it was just a small fire, but I saw black smoke covering the sky.”
“I’m deeply heartbroken. I can’t bear it. Never in my dreams would have thought such a catastrophe would happen,” Hatta added. “People who had a promising future lost their lives. I don’t know what to say.”
When asked by the media regarding threats received by KyoAni, the company spokesperson says that they had received threatening emails for the several years, but mostly are anonymous emails sent by unspecified number of people.
Most of the messages, according to the spokesperson, says “I don’t like the director” or “The expression (of the characters) are not good”, but they did not received a specific complaint about its work.
When asked about the security measures taken by the company, they said that they have installed multiple security cameras at several locations in the head office, studios and shops, but there was no information about a suspicious person.
Kyoto Animation’s first studio building, located in Uji City in Kyoto Prefecture, was engulfed in flames on Thursday, July 18, at 10:30am local time (09:30am PHT) which taken the lives of 34 people and severely injured 34 more. Local police said that there are about 74 people inside the building when the fire started.
A 41-year-old man has been apprehended by the police and identified by witnesses as the suspect, who threw gasoline inside the building and shouted “Die!” before setting the building on fire.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported that, according to investigative sources, the suspect was previously arrested in 2012 for armed robbery at a convenience store and he was sentenced to three years and six months in jail.
The suspect was not formally arrested as of press time because he was being treated in a hospital for serious burn injuries, but the authorities are saying that he had admitted to the crime.
