KAKOGAWA, Hyogo Prefecture--Shinichi Tsuda has grown impatient waiting for the worst possible news.

A week after the deadly arson attack at a Kyoto Animation Co. studio, Tsuda, a 69-year-old resident of Kakogawa, has yet to receive information about his daughter Sachie, who worked for the company.

In fact, Kyoto prefectural police as of July 24 had not released the names of any of the 34 victims who were killed in the July 18 fire that gutted the three-story studio in Kyoto’s Fushimi Ward.

Tsuda says he tries not to think about the tragedy, but his mind often wanders back to Sachie, a daughter who remained devoted to her parents while thriving in her dream job in Kyoto.

He said that on July 18, after his sister alerted him to the incident in Kyoto, he immediately turned on his television and saw flames gushing from the windows of the familiar No. 1 studio building.

When Tsuda called the company, he learned that Sachie, 41, worked on the second floor.

“This could not be worse,” he said to himself.

Thirty-one of the 33 bodies found in the building were on the second or third floors of the studio. The dead ranged in age from their 20s to 60s.

Tsuda frantically and repeatedly called Sachie’s smartphone, only to hear a recording saying the phone was either beyond radio-wave range or was turned off.

The following day, Tsuda’s phone finally rang. But it was not from Sachie, the second oldest of his four children. Instead, it was Kyoto prefectural police.

“There are unidentified remains,” an officer said. “Could you please come to Kyoto (for a DNA test)?”

He traveled to Kyoto with another daughter and his son.

Tsuda’s mouth was swabbed to obtain samples for a DNA analysis at the prefectural police academy in Fushimi Ward, which had been turned into a temporary morgue.

Police would not offer any details of the attack, saying their investigation was ongoing.

When the family visited Sachie’s apartment in the city, they found a cat that she had adopted from an animal shelter.

Drawing was Sachie’s passion when she was a child. After graduating from high school, she enrolled at an animation school in Osaka Prefecture, where she studied chromatics.

About 20 years ago, she started working at Kyoto Animation.

One of her first assignments at the company was creating celluloid pictures, thousands of them. The heavy workload made it nearly impossible to take regular days off.

But Sachie never failed to return to her parents’ home in Kakogawa for the Bon summer holidays and New Year holidays.

She happily told her family that she was involved in producing hugely popular TV anime series, such as “Crayon Shin-chan” and “Detective Conan.”

Several years later, Tsuda and his wife, Yoko, were excited to find their daughter’s name in the credit rolls of TV anime productions.

Sachie accumulated more job skills, such as digital painting and creating special effects.

Her proud parents always looked forward to hearing about her latest project.

“Sachie was enjoying a fulfilling life,” Tsuda said.

But Sachie thought about moving back to her parents’ home to take care of her mother after she was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and was repeatedly hospitalized for treatment.

Kyoto Animation allows its employees to work from remote locations.

Sachie obtained a driver’s license to prepare to drive her mother to a hospital. The daughter also saved enough money to buy a car that could accommodate a wheelchair.

But Yoko died in February last year.

In February this year, Sachie showed up unannounced at her parents’ home, bringing a sushi lunch for herself and her father.

“I came back because I may be too busy to visit you during summer and New Year holidays,” she told him.

Tsuda thought Sachie was concerned that he was now living alone.

After she finished her sushi, Sachie left with a smile, saying, “I will see you soon.”

That was the last time Tsuda saw his daughter.

As he anxiously awaits news about his daughter, Tsuda appears prepared for the worst. He has already made arrangements for a relative to take care of Sachie’s cat.

“I have been trying very hard not to think about anything,” he said. “I just want to see my daughter as soon as I can.”