Sentai Filmworks’ official Twitter account has confirmed this Friday that they have sent the “final disbursement of reserved funds” to Kyoto Animation last November 21. Their statement further details that “a small percentage of funds” was left for “final credit card processing”. With this, the release of donation funds to Kyoto Animation is now complete.
They also stated that a Kyoto Animation representative has confirmed receipt of the donations. The GoFundMe campaign, which was started on July, raised a total of $2, 367, 030.
Kyoto Animation also opened a bank account to accept local donations for families of the victims. By October 17, the bank account received a total of 2,915,460,000 yen (about USD26.8 million). Control of the bank account was handed over by the studio to the Kyoto Prefectural Government, who will oversee the management of the donation funds as well as its distribution to the families of the victims.
Final count of the casualties in the fire is 35, with 10 names already released to the public.
The fire started at around 10:30 AM JST on July 18, with the Kyoto City Fire Department immediately dispatching 30 fire engines to respond to the scene. Fire out was officially announced at 3:19 PM JST. Police apprehended a 41-year-old man who was seen by nearby residents to have poured gasoline around the building and then started the fire.
The suspect was identified to be a resident of Saitama City but used to live in Ibaraki Prefecture in Honshu, where he was indicted in 2012 for a convenience store robbery. He served three and a half years in jail for this crime. He was also found to have lived in a shelter for former convicts before moving in to his present address, which was found on the driver’s license he was carrying with him. He was also reported to have a mental illness, something which prosecutors expect will be used in court to his favor.
As of this writing, the suspect was already reported to have recovered enough to have regained his speech, although he still requires a ventilator and will also need to undergo rehabilitation. It will be remembered that he was in critical condition after being apprehended by the police shortly after he set fire to the studio, as he had burns all over his body. Police have already obtained a warrant for his arrest but are still waiting for him to recover fully to be able to imprison him.
Source: Anime News Network