Gundam 00 Assistant Director released by Police
The District Public Prosecutor's Office of Osaka released 42-year-old anime technical director Masaki Kitamura, after determining that it is possible that he had nothing to do with the massacre threat posted on the city's website in July.read more at http://www.animenewsnetwork.com
The authorities determined that Kitamura's computer was infected by a virus, and that a third party had then remotely posted the massacre threat via Kitamura's computer. The public broadcaster NHK noted that it is very unusual for the Japanese police and prosecutors to arrest and charge a defendant, only to release him without a trial.
The authorities had arrested Kitamura in August. They had accused him of going to Osaka's inquiry page on the Internet and writing, "I will commit a massacre in Otaroad [in Osaka's Nipponbashi area] next Sunday. I will ram into pedestrian paradise, and after stabbing indiscriminately with a knife, I will commit suicide" on July 29 at about 9:45 p.m.
"Pedestrian paradise" is the traditional practice of cordoning vehicles off a particular street or streets and limiting the area to foot traffic. Nipponbashi's Otaroad is essentially Osaka's otaku shopping counterpart to Tokyo's Akihabara.
