Japan man sentenced to death for killing 36 in 2019 Kyoto Animation studio arson

Shinji Aoba's lawyers entered a not-guilty plea claiming he had "a mental disorder"

The perpetrator of a 2019 arson attack on an animation studio, Kyoto Animation, which killed 36 people, was sentenced to death by a Japanese court on Thursday, the BBC reported.

"Japan's deadliest crime in decades" unfolded when Shinji Aoba, now 45, broke into the building, spread gasoline around the ground floor, lit it and shouted "drop dead" on the morning of July 18, 2019, according to survivors.

Many of those killed were young, including a 21-year-old woman. Several victims were found on a spiral stairwell leading to the roof, suggesting they were overcome as they desperately tried to escape.

"There was a person who jumped from the second floor... but we couldn't rush to help because the fire was so strong," one woman told local media at the time. "It was like I was looking at hell."

More than 30 others were injured, with firefighters calling the incident "unprecedented" and saying that rescuing people trapped inside was "extremely difficult".

Aoba, arrested near the scene, faces five charges including murder, attempted murder, and arson. Prosecutors seek capital punishment in the trial.

Aoba's lawyers entered a plea of not guilty, claiming he couldn't "distinguish between good and bad due to a mental disorder". However, the judge ruled Aoba was "neither insane nor suffering diminished mental capacity at the time of the crime," NHK reported.

Later the court handed down a sentence of capital punishment, local media reported.

"I didn't think so many people would die, and now I think I went too far," Aoba told the Kyoto District Court when the trial opened in September, reports said at the time.

Aoba had a "delusion" that the studio known by its fans as KyoAni — founded in 1981 by a husband and wife — stole his ideas, prosecutors said, a claim the company has denied.

Aoba suffered severe burns in a fire, requiring 12 operations. After regaining consciousness weeks later, he underwent a procedure that restored his speech.

KyoAni is a household name for anime fans, responsible for popular TV series including "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" and "K-ON!"