PA Works' President Horikawa Kenji’s speech at the company all-hands meeting on the second day after the Kyoani incident:
As many of you might have already known, an arsonist set Kyoto Animation on fire yesterday. Before the whole picture of the incident is investigated and revealed, we already know that 33 precious lives are lost, with many injured. Let’s pray for them.
This is absolutely the worst and the most terrible event in the history of anime industry. Sadness and fury took over the Internet and the news. I also tried to follow up with the updates, but the intense fluctuation of my emotions has made me mentally unstable. I thought I needed some time to calm down, yet knowing that my employees have also become swayed by the incident, I think I should (stand out now and) tell you all my thoughts at this moment. I cannot guarantee whether what I am going to say is calm, sane, or whether my thoughts are well tidied up or not.
Regarding the crime, though we don’t know much beyond what has happened as a matter of fact, the tragedy that happened was so devastating, and can never be recovered. I shall refrain from commenting (on the cruelty of the incident)
Regarding the precious lives that are lost, before these souls can fulfill their dreams, the fact that they died young was so regrettable, so upsetting, beyond anyone’s imagination. Nevertheless, they’ve left their proof of existence – look at the messages that fans from the world sent to them – “they were the hopes of my life”, “I became myself at the moment because of Kyoani”. They gave the fans who watched their works the power to live. The works that they produced wholeheartedly, and the proofs of their existence, shall never be forgotten. Let’s pray that it will resonate in people’s heart around the world, and forever become their drive to live.
Kyoto Animation spent 40 years only to eventually become the ideal form of anime production. With such long time effort, they possess the organizational power to unify the entire company towards one goal. I firmly believe that they will reconstruct and revive! I will pray for that. First, after the turmoil calms down a little bit, I think Mr. Hatta will demonstrate his strong leadership and plans. When that happens, we shall carefully consider how we can help them out.
News happen on a daily basis, washing off the tragedies to treat them only as one-time events. However, for us, despite living in the world that we live in having such ruthless and unreasonable incident, we need to think about how we can live strong, with hopes – this is the top priority that we need to take our time to think about – it is to devote your passion in your works and express it to the world; it is to create pieces to be talked about widely, generations by generations. I believe devoting our technics, our time, and our passion is the best way to achieve this. Please do not forget this.
Horikawa Kenji
(Disaster Prevention, Fire Prevention, and Security Measures – we will reevaluate our policy and actions again. I will try my best to change people’s impression that the environment of an animation studio is ‘special’)