Category Archives: Obituary

Arson at Anime Studio Kyoto Animation kills 34, hospitalizes another 34.

This past week, a 41-year-old man doused the primary office building of the anime studio Kyoto Animation with gasoline, along with people as they left the building, and set it on fire. The blaze (reportedly due to the positioning of ignition sites) raced through the building, killing 34 people (20 women, 13 men, one unknown), and badly injured another 34. The building itself has been badly damaged, with computer servers and art on the site being a total loss. The arsonist was taken into custody at the scene and confessed to the crime to law enforcement.

Kyoto Animation’s work has included several anime series that have been reviewed on the site, including Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu and Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Other genre series they have produced include Violet Evergarden (which is currently available on Netflix), and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid (available on Netflix). They also received tremendous critical acclaim for the films A Silent Voice and Liz and the Blue Bird.

The staff of Bureau42 offers our condolences to the victims and families of the victims of this attack.

The names of the victims have not been officially released at this time. We ask that you refrain from speculating on the identity of the victims, and refrain from stating the name of the arsonist.

Mad Magazine, R.I.P.

After nearly seventy insane years, satiric Mad Magazine will cease publishing new material after August of this summer.

Issues of reprints will contain new cover art, and Mad may survive in some form.

I can’t say that I’ve paid much attention to it in decades, but I speak for many here when I say it played a huge part in my childhood.

But magazines have become difficult to maintain– and real life has grown nearly impossible to satirize!

UPDATE: Tom Richmond chronicles the fall of the House of Mad here.

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Lawrence “Larry” Roberts, R.I.P.

As the year closes, we lose Larry Roberts, 81, to a heart attack.

As a manager of the US Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, ARPA, Roberts oversaw the development of Arpanet, the major forerunner to the World Wide Web. On October 29, 1969, the first message (“Login,” but only “lo” got through) went from UCLA to Stanford. Roberts later went on to work in the burgeoning computer industry.

Memorial Review: Don’t Look Now (1973)

Nicholas Roeg has passed away at the age of 90.

The influential British filmmaker first made his name as a cinematographer, working on such classics as Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, and Fahrenheit 451. He got his directorial career off to a rocking start with the controversial Performance (1970) starring Mick Jagger. Roeg was no stranger to genre; his films include The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) and The Witches (1990).1 Many people remember him for the movie we’re reviewing as a memorial, Don’t Look Now (1973). The cryptic cult classic combines Hitchcockian style and psychological horror with twists supernatural (or science-fictional, I suppose, depending on your interpretation of the film).

Rest in Peace.

It’s questionable whether the characters in this film can.

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Harlan Ellison, R.I.P.

Harlan Ellison, the outspoken, prolific author of stories, novels, screenplays, TV, and comics, died in his sleep this morning at the age of 84. Ellison wrote many a beloved and thought-provoking SF story including Trek‘s “The City on the Edge of Forever,” and won, in the words of Rick Green, “every coveted award– except Miss Congeniality.” Stephen King opined today that “If there’s an afterlife, Harlan is already kicking ass and taking down names.” John Scalzi has offered his own perspective on the irascible Mr. Ellison.

SF will miss him.