Photo/Illutration Shinji Aoba in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, on July 16, 2019, two days before the arson attack on a Kyoto Animation Co. studio (Provided by a resident)

Back in 2014, I saw young Australian fans of “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” dancing to the Japanese anime series theme song in a Sydney park where a Japan festival was being held.

Cosplaying in a sailor suit that is a typical Japanese girls’ school uniform, with its sky-blue miniskirt and a yellow hair ribbon, the youngsters danced in perfect unison. They reminded me anew of the popularity of Japanese anime abroad.

Around that time in Japan, a young man named Shinji Aoba, serving time for a convenience store robbery, was busy writing down ideas for a novel in a notebook. He reportedly drew inspiration from the Haruhi anime series he had seen on TV.

He felt passionate about Kyoto Animation Co., which had created the anime.

But his positive aspirations deteriorated into unjustified resentment after his novel, which he had submitted to a contest of the company, was rejected.

Aoba was sentenced to death on Jan. 25 for taking as many as 36 irreplaceable lives in an arson attack at a Kyoto Animation studio in 2019.

Aoba’s checkered life was examined across 23 court hearings. The story that emerged was that of poverty, childhood abuse, refusal to go to school and unstable employment--a chain of problems inherent in today’s society.

Could that chain not have been broken at any point at all?

Many bereaved family members of Aoba’s victims attended the court hearings, taking advantage of a “victim-participation system” that enables crime victims to participate in criminal proceedings.

Among them was the husband of a woman who was a character designer for the Haruhi series. He continued to attend the hearings.

He told Aoba to his face in court how deeply distressed he was that his wife never got her chance to pursue her career to the fullest and that she also had to leave their young son behind.

Kyoto Animation has a huge overseas fanbase. After the deadly arson, condolence messages filled social media sites.

And when a U.S. animation distributor solicited online donations to help Kyoto Animation recover, about $2.37 million (250 million yen) was raised almost immediately.

I would like to think about what we can do so that this kind of terrible crime never happens again.

My thoughts go out to the victims and also to the young Australians who were happily dancing far away from Japan in 2014.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 26

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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