Report: The Real Reason Kyoto Animation Arsonist Shinji Aoba Dropped His Appeal
Kyoto Animation arsonist Shinji Aoba received the death penalty in January 2024, appealed it right after, dropped his appeal on January 27, 2025, and then days later his defense moved to override his withdrawal. Now Japanese paper The Mainichi reports that a source they trust gave the reason why Aoba initially dropped his appeal.
It wasn’t Aoba’s way of showing an apology, as one victim’s family member wondered hopefully. Instead, according to the source, Aoba didn’t like how his defense was arguing that he was delusional. Since there is no doubt that authorities have the man who committed the arson, his defense has tried to protect him from the death penalty by contending that Aoba is mentally unfit and doesn’t fully understand what he did.
This isn’t the first time Aoba has been upset about his defense’s argument. According to the source, a victim’s family member stopped by to see Aoba at a detention house after the trial, and the convicted arsonist vented that a psychiatrist had called him delusional. The trial itself did think Aoba was delusional, though not to the point that he didn’t know what he was doing and can avoid responsibility.
Besides not liking his defense’s argument, Aoba allegedly later came to regret dropping his appeal. This led to a “closed-door three-party conference” on the last day of February with his defense talking to the high court.
The high court will go over what both the defense and prosecution say, and then rule on whether or not it thinks the appeal withdrawal can be overruled.
On July 18, 2019, Aoba set fire to Kyoto Animation, saying he believed the studio had plagiarized a scene from his novel. The result was a mass murder that cost the lives of 36 people. Almost as many were also injured.
Source: The Mainichi
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
