News
Shigofumi #3 Altered after Recent Events in Japan
posted on by Egan Loo
The official Japanese website for the Shigofumi television anime series announced that the third episode, which was broadcasted on January 16, was "altered in light of recent circumstances in the society at large." The anime adapts Ryo Amamiya's Shigofumi - Stories of Last Letter light novel series about a girl who delivers the last letter from the dearly departed to those left behind. The third episode, "Tomodachi" ("Friends"), focuses on three friends after one of them commits suicide. The dead boy's father violently enters the friends' classroom to demand answers in his son's death. The website's notice includes an apology for the lack of advance notice on the change, and asks on behalf the staff and cast for the audience's understanding on the matter.
The lack of details in the website's notice have led Japanese fans to wonder if the notice's "recent circumstances" phrase refers to the 18-year-old boy's alleged murders of his mother, brother, and sister on January 9, or the December 14 shotgun rampage that left three people, including the suspected shooter, dead. Recent real-life events have led to changes or preemptions of other anime series, including School Days, Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kai, and Kodomo no Jikan (Nymphet).
Source: Ultimatum
Image © Ryo Amamiya/Bandai Visual, GENCO