To say the least, it was a far-fetched perversion... in many ways. ZAKZAK is the official news website of Yuukan Fuji, a popular evening paper by Sankei Shimbun Co., Ltd. The artwork was uploaded to pixiv on June 19, 2008.
At the end of Azumanga, they're at the graduation ceremony and as they're announcing awards such as valedictorian, Tomo keeps standing up, as if she expects to win despite being a world-class idiot. Yomi keeps trying to shove her back down, letting her know that she won't, in fact, likely win anything in her life, save, perhaps, a Darwin Award.
Photo by Reuters - caption: Due to the atrocities caused by 2 video game otakus, many fans who come to visit shops in Akihabara are experiencing inconvenience.
Katou Tomohiro, the 25-year old suspect who murdered and wounded 17 in Akihabara, Tokyo and the suspect in the stabbing spree in Tsuchiura loved the same game. Katou said "I don’t like things that hurt me. Anime and video games don’t hurt me" in the course of the investigation. Every time something tragic happens, the subject of video games and murder comes up. Is there a causal relationship between the two? "This is the same knife used in ‘Touhou’". This is what Katou said to a friend as he handed him a knife on the morning of the crime, June 8th. "Touhou" series is a game series where beautiful young girls use knives and bullets to defeat their enemies. Katou handed the knife used by the main character to his friend as a memento. He also liked a game (sic) called "Gunslinger Girl", also another game where beautiful girls commit numerous murders. He recited the lines from the anime over and over again at his friend’s house and didn’t stop even when his friend told him to. On the first day of the same month, he posted <<I wish they would legalize murder… I guess I should buy Higurashi… Or run them over with a car>> on a mobile SNS website. "Higurashi" refers to a video game of bizarre repetitive murders. It became an anime series, but last autumn, when a girl (16) murdered her father with an axe in Kyoto, the anime went off the air because it was very likely that she was inspired by it. This March, when a young man (18) pushed a man onto the tracks on JR Okayama station, he had the same anime in his possession. According to friends, Katou criticized Higurashi saying "Higurashi is too commercial. They only care about making money". According to an analysis by Shinomoto 634(Musashi), a game journalist, he says “As the otaku level rises, they tend to hate it when their favorite anime and games go mainstream. Normally, they would look for other titles, but Katou just complained. This twisted way of thinking did not change in the real world. He was an otaku but even before that, he was a difficult and complicated individual". Katou once sent a photo from an one-on-one video game, “Dead or Alive XTREAM BEACH VOLLEYBALL”, a game that focuses on the breasts of women. Kanagawa Masahiro (24) suspect of the stabbing spree of Tsuchiura, an incident Katou said he could “relate to” and was inspired by, got second prize in a tournament for this game. "It combines fighting and sex, it is very comforting for 2D fans. But most fans know the difference between video games and real life. These two didn’t cause these atrocities because they were enthusiasts. We should lament the fact that these two suspects, who could only think about hurting others in real life got so into these games" (Mr. Shinomoto) Inoue Toshiyuki, a journalist, warned, "Games today, they are so sophisticated in terms of story and picture. People who cannot get response from others in real life get hooked to beautiful girls in the game who obey their commands 100%. And with these 2 suspects, the worst case scenario happened. It is an unfortunate coincident, but also an unfortunate inevitability".