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Cartoon blamed for man's fatal beating on mom
YAMAGATA -- A man accused of beating his mother to death with a baseball bat was influenced by a cartoon that made him believe humans were unnecessary beings, prosecutors told the Yamagata District Court on Monday.
In opening statements at the trial of Hiroyuki Tsuchida, 22, prosecutors claimed that watching the science-fiction cartoon "Neon Genesis Evangelion" had made Tsuchida believe a phrase in it that said, "The ultimate conclusion of (human) evolution is ruin."
He also came to believe that humans were unnecessary beings who were destroying the world's environment, and in turn began to want to kill people, prosecutors said.
They said the man fatally smashed his mother in the head with a baseball bat at about 2 p.m. on June 25, thinking that if he killed family members he would not hesitate when murdering others.
A representative of Gainax, the firm involved in writing and producing the cartoon, said it did not think the content of the cartoon was related to the killing. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Dec. 2, 2003)
YAMAGATA -- A man accused of beating his mother to death with a baseball bat was influenced by a cartoon that made him believe humans were unnecessary beings, prosecutors told the Yamagata District Court on Monday.
In opening statements at the trial of Hiroyuki Tsuchida, 22, prosecutors claimed that watching the science-fiction cartoon "Neon Genesis Evangelion" had made Tsuchida believe a phrase in it that said, "The ultimate conclusion of (human) evolution is ruin."
He also came to believe that humans were unnecessary beings who were destroying the world's environment, and in turn began to want to kill people, prosecutors said.
They said the man fatally smashed his mother in the head with a baseball bat at about 2 p.m. on June 25, thinking that if he killed family members he would not hesitate when murdering others.
A representative of Gainax, the firm involved in writing and producing the cartoon, said it did not think the content of the cartoon was related to the killing. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Dec. 2, 2003)
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