A middle school girl (15) who stabbed to death her father (46) ignited a typical mass media firestorm of finger pointing, when searches of her room turned up copies of the ひぐらしのなく頃に / Higurashi no Naku Koro ni manga (“occult manga”), a notably bloody tale derived from the famous doujin game series, as well as a variety of other suspect titles, such as murder mystery novels.
The girl slew her father some days ago, stabbing him repeatedly in the chest whilst he slept. On arrest she offered little in the way of a detailed motive: “I aimed for his upper body when I stabbed”, and “I didn’t like studying”. As a result, police keenly rifled through her room looking for something to pin the crime onto her with, turning up the manga in question.
Police are said to be looking to pursue the manga as a lead in understanding the case.
Acquaintances questioned offered their observations: “She was reading a manga including scenes of murder with a deadly weapon” (let us ignore for a moment the fact that this covers most manga and indeed drama, films, etc.), and “She started reading it recently after having it recommended to her by a friend”. Look for something unpleasant to happen to the unfortunate friend soon…
More from the usual mass media nuts: Yomiuri & TBS.
It will be interesting whether those involved with the various Higurashi related productions cave to the almost inevitable media scapegoating, like the craven wretches at Kotobukiya did recently over the Akiba stabber’s childhood fondness for a figure they were due to release, or whether they will just ignore this froth.
My suspicion is that as a doujin outfit, and one specialising in more mature works, they can easily ignore this sort of thing; hopefully the same will be true of the recently announced Umineko anime.
I think the fact that nobody is leaping to mention the exact shocking and murderous details of her murder mystery novels can pass without comment – the mass media don’t seem to deviate from their established pattern, as usual. Games and manga. They don’t after all publish any of those. How about calling for a ban on murder mystery novels for a change?
Don’t screw with my Higurashi! >:C
What is wrong with Rena’s wrist in the last pic?
Clearly deformed.
Someone taking murder hints from higurashi wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
The girl accusing higurashi..SHALL DIE…damn bastard HIGURASHI DID NTHNG AND WAS AN AWSOME MANGA/ANIME =.= u ppls always looking for a way to ssue and blame some1 else u disgust me
I just finished a game about Jack The Ripper. Since I haven’t gone out in the wee hours to dismember prostitutes, I must be odd by media thinking.