Isn't the whole human body a weak point to a knife?

Funny, don't know why but somehow I had faith in japanese media treating games a bit more fairly, guess I was wrong.

..."Learned about the body's weak points" through fighting games? Are they fucking serious?

Hmm... from his quote, I think he is a psychopath. "Curiosity" in murdering people isn't something you pick up from computer games.

Yeah ya know, cuz its a common fact that martial arts and CQB military training is taught through video games. :S

That is so messed up...
My condelences to everyone affected as well.
I'm sorta at a loss for words after reading this.

"it was through fighting games that Kanagawa learned about the body's weak points"...
So, weak points must be the whole body then...

Right, since the only way he could have known that the neck is a fatal place to stab a person is through fighting games...

Nope, that's not common knowledge at all. Nosiree. Musta been games.

Things like this happen less often in Japan, so it's bound to catch more attention.

El-Suave, JP games are actually quite strict with violence, many are blood censored exchanging red for blue/black etc.

Ah, but which Final Fantasy did he learn these "weak points" from? Up until VII, the on-screen sprites never even got close to actually physically striking a character on-screen.

What a bunch of sensationalist nonsense. Maybe if he'd killed someone with a volleyball they'd have something to run with. I guess this kind of scapegoating is universal.

@El-Suave: The Japanese media is just as bad, if not worse, than the American media. Pretty much every channel there is the equivalent of Fox. (Except for NHK, which is more like a cross between CBS and PBS.)

Pretty much every murder in Japan gets covered as if it's indicative of the downfall of society. Nevermind that the murder rate has dropped over the last decade or so and is pretty much the same as it has been historically. There's been a 4.6% rise in violent crime so far this year and it's being treated like the end of the world. And as you can see, the media's looking for anything it can to pin the blame on.

I wonder if the news media will ever make a story sometime with the headline "Man kills 5, watched news earlier that day". Now there's a connection...

I haven't seen any news coverage of this yet, but I would expect two things to happen.

First, any multiple-murder is national news here.

Secondly, I wouldn't be surprised if the game thing comes up, but it will all blow over pretty quick unless this guy starts screaming about video games in court or something.

Ah... knives my only weakness. I wonder how he figured that one out, must of been those damn video games again.

@badasscat: You're right and what shocks me the most is that news networks don't show any decency when they shoot every single drop of blood on the pavement or sometimes bodys being carried away by the police. If there is violence to complain about, it certainly comes from the news at the first place.

I am sad to see "experts" in Japan seem to be trying to rival "experts" on Fox news...

Should we send Geoff over there?

Isn't being a Japanese Xbox-hater kinda overkill? What could you possibly say that would compare to the utter failure of your target?

If Geoff speaks Japanese well then by all means however I doubt it'll do any good. And Honestly learning the bodies weak points from playing Fighting Video games? I'm sorry but if you DIDN'T know your neck is a weak point against any sharp object then your a bloody idiot.

lunatics ! told ya they have small brains too

I live in Ibaraki now....guess I gotta start watching my back for crazed Final Fantasy killers from now on....

Oh my, Microsoft has to pull out now

but seriously that is just sick, its really eerily similar to the Virginia tech tragedy. There are just some things which are just unexplainable

Next thing you know is that Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy will now have age ratings

You connect "neck stab" to "fighting games"? Anyone whose even remotely interested in action (hell, anyone whose seen one war film or the like) knows that the neck is one of the bodies "kill points" for a number of reasons. Besides if he'd actually "learned" something, he wouldn't actually be stabbing people through the neck so much as trying to slit their throats. That makes me feel awkward to say...

This is a tragedy, it's upset that the victims and their families have to deal with this, and it's a shame the media has already blamed video games instead of mental illness.

Is there any fighting game where you can slash someone's throat out, anyway? Mortal Kombat, maybe?

Poor taste but here it goes: Hit the weak spot for massive damage! He's playing Genji 2 for sure.

" man at mall having seizure saved by child who played too much trauma+center "
where's that article?

@ragfragger: You don't have to be stupid to be disturbed.

@cswat:

[us.i1.yimg.com]

Close enough? ;)

@Lyrai: To stab: Direct pointy object towards other with sharp end away from soft pink self. AWAAAYYY!

@Garro: Oh totally. "Neck Brutality IV" was one of the greatest in the arterial-puncture genre, closely followed by "Rusty Nail: Neck Edition", and "Mr. Stabby Goes to Neckburg". Really, it's a crying shame it doesn't have its own award category.

But really, I'm at a loss. On one hand I'm sad that 8 people were killed, but happy that he didn't mow through an elementary school. It's a real toss up.

oh noes, "Xtream Beach Volleyball killer"!

Seriously, this is getting more ridiculous every time ... even school pretty much teaches you about neck being one of "body's weak points".

Um, any chance we might find out what channel it was that broadcast the news program cited? Just saying "the Japanese evening news" makes it sound like there's only one news program that the entire nation of Japan watches.

yeah, isn't it redundant to state that a japanese person enjoys final fantasy?

Worth noting that a connection was drawn between "otaku" and "serial killer" by the Japanese media long ago, and that's one of the causes of otaku being such a prejorative term over there. Otaku of all kinds are frequently depicted as antisocial, awkward, and potentially dangerous members of society in the Japanese media.

@TrevWolf: Only one was killed during this latest spree. Still, I wish that number had been 0.

To claim a direct causal relationship between video games and violence seems imprudent. However, it strikes me as equally imprudent to deny that violent games have ever influenced bad behavior. But perhaps what is most distasteful to me is that these types of stories typically lead gamers to make themselves out to be the victims.

If they had said Fallout it might have made some sense, but feck Final Fantasy?
Omnishlash: Aim for the neck.

"I just wanted to see what it was like to kill. It could have been anyone."

I'm assuming he didn't get enough from the first guy he randomly killed earlier in the month? Sigh.

And yes... so someone who's brain is more than a bit out of whack was into some form of escapism? Very surprising. Another opportunity for the media to hop on the latest scapegoat, directing attention at the attributes he shared with millions of other people rather than the specific attributes that turned him into a unattached killer in the first place.

Might as well say "The killer was 6 foot 4 and had blonde hair... be on the lookout for people that are 6 foor 4 and have blonde hair... they could be killers."

I'm pretty much ashamed to be of the same species as these types of "journalists and experts" anymore. When common sense itself is obvious enough to defeat any arguments they might have, it really begs the question how they get the opportunity to influence so many people in the first place.

Which leads me back to the eventual results of this sort of reporting... it always strikes me as curious that people get so quick to suggest regulating entertainment media formats while never questioning the validity of the information channels that led them to that course. As though calling themselves "the news" somehow made them impervious to distortion and falsehoods.

History lesson for the world:

The media and their experts said comic books were killers... the world learned better.
The media and their experts said television was a killer... the world learned better.
The media and their experts said violent movies were killers... the world learned better.
The media and their experts said porn was a killer... the world learned better.
The media and their experts said music was a killer... the world learned better.
The media and their experts now say games are killers...

Please, rational thought, allow the pattern to finish out... but can we please, as a species, stop this goddamn pattern?

I hope some Japanese person brings this up to be at work. It'd be a welcome change of pace from hearing them talk so much about American maniacs killing randomly. Too bad these things even exist to have to talk about. What a shame.

Somehow I'm not surprised about 2ch from what I've learned from Kotaku. How far does the hatred go for a group? I remember those posters hating Koreans for something...

@Captain Impulse: Hey-hey! 7 seriously injured; I misread that part. I'm officially at "better this than an elementary school" now: moral dilemma solved.

Fighting games? Holy shit I'm gonna button mash this guy to death. They always gotta blame something

@Number41:
FNN. Fuji's evening news.

It never fails. Someone that coincidently plays videogames does an unspeakable crime and, of course, it's the gaming communities fault. Games don't kill people, raging psychopaths that can't function in a normal society kill people.

Now, if the guy had flipped the victims on to their backs, THEN I might have believed the video game connection.

However, since he didn't, he clearly didn't learn how to inflict MASSIVE DAMAGE from video games.

I learned all the weak points of the human body from the handy chart shown in Blood In, Blood Out, not some silly video game. If I learned out to attack people from video games, I'd take one step forward, wave a stick a few times, and then step back... or I'd simply butt stomp everyone. That seems to work. Ooh! No, I'd pick up the spread shot and go buck wild with red dots!!

*sigh* When will people learn that there is a huge difference between 'cause' and 'inspiration'. Music, for example, doesn't cause people to wear stupid hair or drop their pants to their knees. It does not follow that if you listen to emo, you have stupid hair. It is entirely possible that you are inspired to do so because these artists become your heroes or what have you, but it is not a tautology. "If A, then B" illustrates cause, but it's simply not so. Thus, it's not a cause.

@TrevWolf: Yeah. Still tragic, but a lot less tragic.

@Brian Ashcraft:
Cool, thank you for answering my question.
I would say that I felt better knowing that... but I had been hoping that it was a local station. Shame on Fuji TV :(

Bash, I think you summed it up best, and I quote.

"(and really, there isn't any connection to be made between gaming and this truly disturbed individual)"

Seriously, this dOOd by his own admission was just plain fucking deranged. And again, I quote.

"I just wanted to see what it was like to kill. It could have been anyone."

I mean I could see the connection if he groped a bunch of tits at that mall after playing DoAXBV...but killing, that's a fucking stretch.

The throat?

Not the toe?

I guess I've been learning murder from the wrong games.

It never ceases to sicken me how they gleefully demean the tragedy and suffering caused by events such as these with cheap, sensationalist, knee-jerk, pseudo-pop-psychology.

Did he scream "Riiiiiidge Racer" as he plunged the knife in? No.

No connection.

My money's on the fact that he learned about the neck by watching either Animal Planet or the Discovery channel. Those real life animal documentarys are quite disturbing.

oh, and FATALITY!

Over here, it seems when they go off the rails, they REALLY go off the rails.

Just a thought…What if the media was right and video games are behind these random acts of violence?

Luckily this happened in Japan. By that, I mean, if it would have been America there would have been a gun involved instead and 15 people would be dead right now. Either way, I still feel bad for the victims and hope the 7 still alive recover.

there are always weird mimics out there...

Umm...in fighting games there usually aren't any weak points. You can run someone through and take away a quarter of their life bar, then land the finishing blow by kicking them in the shin. And if he had learned killing from FF, shouldn't he have but a katana in the back? It's tragic, but I fail to see the connection.

Now that he knows what it's like to kill. He should know what it's like to die.

I blame CoD4 Knife!

@Captain Impulse: I see. That would be kind of odd seeing as how after Final Fantasy VII the series kinda fell off and became less popular.

@MartinX: I dunno, man. If you AWP someone in the knee, they die. Everyone knows this. It's a scientific fact.