i'm not sure whether or not to blame japan here

[jpmeyer]

SO FUCKED UP.

[Kowal]

If I had to sum up my reaction in one word, that word would be...

WHAT THE FUCK?!

[Klep]

Frankly, I don't know what's more disturbing.  The murder, or the intarweb craze sparked by it.

[jpmeyer]

And as you probably guessed, she talked about Battle Royale in her blog all the time, although it's uncertain as to whether or not she'd actually seen or read it (seeing how she's 11 and all.)

[Jacob Orlove]

Arguing on message boards clearly leads to getting your throat slashed.

Doing ANYTHING in japan clearly leads to a enormous cult following, if you draw enough attention to yourself.

[Matt]

I'm pretty sure that Japan needs to be - what is it that you say? - "nuked from orbit."

[Magi]

SO THAT'S WHAT'S WITH ALL THOSE DAMN NEVADA GIRL PICS!!!!!

I've been seeing them anywhere and everywhere....it was driving me insane.

PS. the Nevada Girl magic card is quite good. Nekrataal + Bounty Hunter all in one?


So...all it takes to become an interweb celeb is to slash someone horribly in the throat. Who want's to become famous with me?!

[MuzzonoAmi]

That's just nuts...I almost cried...

[Dr. Sylvan]

My lack of surprise at this has convinced me that I am the new definition of "jaded and cynical beyond his years".

Have I mentioned that people are really, really stupid? If I haven't, let this count as a mention.

[wuaffiliate]

i almost cried too!

ok so that was really fucked up, i also said WHAT THE FUCK outloud while reading that shit.

[kirdape3]

Awesome.  The more children that do this, the less that they would pollute the gene pool by instilling these tendencies in future generations. :<

[CrazyCarl]

I wasn't paying that much attention to it, so I thought it was an anime/manga about some 11 year old that murdered some kid.  I wasn't overly suprised by this, but I wondered why it was getting so much attention.

Then it wasn't.

The Japanese are no more fucked up than the rest of us.  They just draw cartoons to describe it as opposed to being covered up by the media(conspiracy theories 4L).

[Often Lost]

LMAO.

Owned.

[jpmeyer]

My lack of surprise at this has convinced me that I am the new definition of "jaded and cynical beyond his years".

Have I mentioned that people are really, really stupid? If I haven't, let this count as a mention.

When I heard about the killing, I didn't think much about it but the whole like Internet cult of personality complete with FAN ART was just so fucked up.

[Azhrei]

A classic example of how anonymity lets people do things they'd never dream of doing otherwise. Fan art? Those people should be sewn into burlap sacks full of badgers and thrown into a river.

[MuzzonoAmi]

I love you.

[Magi]

A classic example of how anonymity lets people do things they'd never dream of doing otherwise. Fan art? Those people should be sewn into burlap sacks full of badgers and thrown into a river.

Weasels man. You could probably fit 1 or 2 badgers in a sack. You can easily manage a dozen weasels, maybe more.

[Bram]

That's nonsense. Glorifying voilence is an important part of Japanese culture. The very roots of manga lie there. Work ethic means something completely different there. The hours the average Japanese person puts in at the office are insane. Their personal identity blends with the corporate identity (this was true especially in the late eighties and early nineties). The only spare time they had was the X minute tram ride to and from the office, in which they needed to unwind. Violent emotions, which are largely suppressed during working hours, needed an outlet. Hence tha nature of the pulp comics they read. Japanase people are no more violent than we are; they just express it differently. The 'fan art' people cannot be blamed for this.

On the other hand, 'western' fascination for events like these stems from something completey different. It's the 'disaster tourism' effect which is deeply rooted in our culture. Like how when there's an accident on one side of the road, a traffic jam appeard on the other side because people slow down to look at it. In the present day, reality TV is the most notable exponent of this. This accounts for 'our' fascination with insane homicides like this. You can't hold us responsble either. We just like to be freaked out.

The guilty parties are obviously the parents, who've done grade A job in raising a psychopath (possibly by allowing her access to 'adult' material at too early an age when she couldn't tell the difference between fiction and reality, or possibly by inducing some trauma or another), and to a lesser degree the girl in question. You can't lay ALL the responsibility with the parents...an 11-year old is not like a trained monkey and generally has a (beit underdeveloped) conscience.

In my hown town, I frequent some alternative music bar. I saw this guy there a couple of times who looked like a homeless junkie dressed like a Final Fantasy character. Turns out he was a PSYCHO homeless junkie dressed like a Final Fantasy character. He hid in his boyfriend's house one night and attempted to murder his lover's father with a hatchet since he was opposed to his son's relationship with this lunatic (well DUH!). The attempt failed although the guy's father is now basically a vegetable. The psycho's defence pleaded insanity based on depersonalisation and obsessive identification with a violent anime video game character. Do we blame the Japanese again? No way man. If this was the eighties, this dude probably would have identified with Rambo and killed the guy with a hunting knife or something. There have always been psychopaths, and there will always continue to be. Don't blame popular culture. Been there, done that.