British teacher murdered by Japanese hentai collector?

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
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The popular conception of anime and manga in the UK has always been edgy and sensationalist, but it took another turn for the worse today after it was reported that British teacher Lindsay Ann Hawker was murdered by a Japanese hentai manga fan. Detectives are investigating the property of prime suspect Tatsuya Ichihashi, who it is said could well have been playing out a "sick fantasy" from his graphic novels by burying Lindsay's strangled body in a bath of sand.
  • "Murdered British teacher Lindsay Ann Hawker was strangled after her hands and feet were bound with plastic cords – echoing the grisly images of Japanese Manga comics."

    "It emerged that prime suspect Tatsuya Ichihashi had stalked the pretty 22-year-old in the week before her naked body was found buried in a bath of sand at his flat."

    "Ichihashi, 28, has been on the run since fleeing barefoot from police when they called at his apartment in Ichikawa, east of Tokyo, to question him about Hawker. Detectives are probing the possibility that comic book fan Ichihashi had played out a sick fantasy from one of the stories in Hentai Manga – piles of which were found in his flat."
Read the full story at thelondonpaper website. The article was featured on the front page of today's thelondonpaper newspaper, the headline reading "Manga Twist To Bath Murder". Thanks to shh227, Solo Tremaine and jeremy1985 for reporting this news.
 
I wonder how this is going to reflect on Japanese culture. It's already a grey area and now with Johnathan Ross' program and Kelly Osbournes shining light onto their culture (as innacurate as it may be), this is the last thing we need. It's a horrible thing but lets face it, it happens all the time and all over the world.

Oh whatever, this may have no effect on anything but I can only imagine that it will.
 
Yes, let's mention how bad Japanese Culture is with this article, even though it has really nothing to do with the murder!
 
All I can say is that I hope this doesn't "go nuclear" in the UK. The last thing we need right now is for anime and manga to be scapegoated and tarnished as the so-called evil influence on this sick murderer. While this chap may well have acted out some scene from one of his hentai graphic novels, that just means he is extremely messed up.

Knowing the UK press's view of Japanese culture (and especially the liberal content in anime\manga, because apparently "cartoons are for kids!!!!!"), this could get twisted into a shitstorm about protecting our children, lack of censorship and at worst, a witchhunt for "those sick bastards" who watch anime and read manga.

Tatsuya Ichihashi is a psychopath. Whether he was reading hentai or The Daily Mail, I suspect he would still end up doing this.

Incidently, someone buy the Daily Mail tomorrow and look out for their story on this. I'll wager the word "filth" is used at least once.
 
Paul said:
All I can say is that I hope this doesn't "go nuclear" in the UK. The last thing we need right now is for anime and manga to be scapegoated and tarnished as the so-called evil influence on this sick murderer. While this chap may well have acted out some scene from one of his hentai graphic novels, that just means he is extremely messed up.

Knowing the UK press's view of Japanese culture (and especially the liberal content in anime\manga, because apparently "cartoons are for kids!!!!!"), this could get twisted into a shitstorm about protecting our children, lack of censorship and "those sick bastards" who watch anime and read manga.

Tatsuya Ichihashi is a psychopath. Whether he was reading hentai or The Daily Mail, I suspect he would still end up doing this.

Incidently, someone buy the Daily Mail tomorrow and look out for their story on this. I'll wager the word "filth" is used at least once.
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Isn't this just like the usual "omg my kid only killed someone cause he was playing Grand theift auto" thing though
 
There's usually a copy lying around at college. I'll have a look out for it.

It really saddens me. The moment anime starts to get steadily more and more accepted in the UK we get a shitstorm of bad press about various things Japanese. Then again nobody cares unless something is negative. Just really.. ugh.
 
I think this is a dead-end for anyone trying to make it sensationalist attack on UK manga, since, though it involves a British woman, the case happened in Japan and anything they can attempt to get censored isn't actually available in the UK. Sure, it can't help perceptions of Japanese exports, but i'd be more worried about what kind of image it gives Japanese people through the eyes of the British. Expect Tabloid Xenophobia rather than a 'Ban this Filth!' reaction.

edit: though it's a boo-hiss thing to advocate censorship around these parts, would it really hurt Japan to have a few less illustrated rape fantasies?
 
kupoartist said:
but i'd be more worried about what kind of image it gives Japanese people through the eyes of the British. Expect Tabloid Xenophobia rather than a 'Ban this Filth!' reaction.
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That is one of the things that bothers me. It's not just anime and manga, ignorant people will base their entire culture on this and believe me when I say there would be more than a few.
 
If things like Hentai manga give this murderer an idea to kill with a bath of sand, why not rip off the "Saw" movies? They do the exact same thing!

This is just another lame attempt on banning something they can't stop coming to the UK.

kupoartist said:
edit: though it's a boo-hiss thing to advocate censorship around these parts, would it really hurt Japan to have a few less illustrated rape fantasies?
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Yeah. There's just no way of stopping the perverted side of it from leaking. I mean, I don't mind them keeping it too themselves, but how easy is it to get that stuff?
 
This is a somewhat connected issue.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/ ... tue_03.ram

The experts brought on pretty much admitted that there was no evidence that looking at bizarre pornography turns you into a murderer. The excuse given by one of them for wanting it banned was that "you wouldn't want one of your relatives going out with someone who looks at this stuff" which made no sense to me at all. I'm against graphic sexual violence but I don't know how people can think that by looking at it you're going to become a pervert. Would these same people claim that looking at gay porn could make you gay?
 
Chaz said:
If things like Hentai manga give this murderer an idea to kill with a bath of sand, why not rip off the "Saw" movies? They do the exact same thing!
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I've never watched the Saw movies but it just seems like speculation that the causing factor in this is hentai manga. The easy answer to a much more complicated question. Maybe he did in fact watch Saw and hentai manga had nothing to do with it or maybe he's just mentally unstable and this was always running around in his head. Just seems like they saw this hentai and thought 'oh ****, well there you go, case closed'. I guess it makes interesting news though, 'JAPANESE ANIME FAN KILLS BRITISH SCHOOL TEACHER!'. Whatever sells.
 
Well I got the newspaper today and I was so shock to find it on the front page saying "manga twist to bath murder", I had to take my time to understand what this was about. Anyway they just simply claim that the murder copied this from a hentai manga, but really this does'nt really bother me. Its not going to ban manga in the UK or any thing like that.
 
kupoartist said:
edit: though it's a boo-hiss thing to advocate censorship around these parts, would it really hurt Japan to have a few less illustrated rape fantasies?
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I think idea is fine; I wouldn't complain about the censorship of such offensive and extreme material, though I would be concerned about the precedent being set in doing so. Ultimately Japan could end up in another "video nasties" era where anything deemed as potentially "offensive" is banned, reactionary censorships are carried out - mostly because the government is pressured by the sensationalist media. For years now concerned prudes have been complaining about violent video games in which players literally act out murder. Personally my view of censorship is that it is a wholly pointless process that simply serves to abate the masses; a psychopath is a psychopath, the problem lies in human nature, no matter what these people are reading, playing or watching, they are simply mad.
 
I have a very cynical view on such issues (I've read the Daily Mail at my parents' place out of a mixture of boredom and amusement) and I'm expecting them to latch onto it with a tagline of 'weird Japanese otaku kills middle class English person' or similar.

In a broader sense, my thoughts on the influences of video games, books and music on crime follow Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. You can blame the media all you like but murderers such as this guy are psychopaths to start with.
 
What I find more shocking is that everyone is more upset and angry about how manga is being portrayed by the British press than the fact that a poor girl has been murdered. (Just kidding, guys...)

Still, even though it will potentially give manga/anime a bad name, this is no reason for me to feel any different about it. The Daily Mail is not about to rant and rave for this for years, advising people against going anywhere within a mile of it, it'll just be bashed a little while this case is being investigated. It won't really affect anything you do unless you have overzealous parents who need to shield their poor babie's eyes from bad, bad Japan. 8D
 
hmmm aren't the police clever, they know when they first met. Maybe he kept a diary.

Bad publicity on anime and manga never refuses to go away... it's always been attacked ever since so it's not a surprise for me that they exaggerates things related to it but public's perception of the country, it's people and culture might have an bad impact ... Let's hope not! If they will ban or censor manga unreasonably because of this incident I will be in line of the protesters... A psycho is a psycho and they don't just appear in one certain place. We also have psycho here so let's be careful...

This is really sad news for everyone... Bless her soul!
 
naya_lulu said:
hmmm aren't the police clever, they know when they first met. Maybe he kept a diary.
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Remember her roommate?

And so it begins again. (goes out to clean the weeds off the bomb shelter and restock the shelves with manga and DVD's) :cry:
 
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