News
Yoshiki Donates 10 Million Yen to Kyoto Animation
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
X Japan member YOSHIKI donated 10 million yen (about US$94,000) to support the victims of the fire at Kyoto Animation's 1st studio building on July 18. YOSHIKI's YOSHIKI Foundation America transferred the donation to Kyoto Animation's dedicated account for donations.
The announcement noted YOSHIKI's "personal and professional connection to anime." He said on Twitter on July 19, "I am in the United States. I learned about the Kyoto Animation fire on the local news. My heart aches. Japanese anime, and each one of those creators, is a treasure of the world. I hope they recover as soon as possible."
YOSHIKI's professional connection to anime began 22 years ago. He has composed songs for anime such as X, Attack on Titan, Saint Seiya: Legend of Sanctuary, and Buddha: The Great Departure.
X Japan's most notable anime contributions were the songs in the X² music video collection and later X movie. The animation Studio Madhouse adapted both productions from CLAMP's X manga. The surviving band members — Toshimitsu "Toshi" Deyama, Yoshiki Hayashi, Tomoaki "Pata" Ishizuka, and Hiroshi "Heath" Morie — reunited in 2007, 10 years after they first disbanded and nine years after the death of guitarist Hideto "Hide" Matsumoto.
The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported on Monday that donations to Kyoto Animation have exceeded 1.2 billion yen (about US$11.4 million) as of 3:00 p.m. JT on Monday. The studio's bank account for donations after the deadly fire has received a total of 965.63 million yen (about US$8.87 million) from 47,991 donations as of that time.
The studio's account that opened on July 24 to had raised 620 million yen (about US$5.7 million) by July 26. The account had raised 274 million yen (about US$2.53 million) from 14,000 sources in its first day. The company will give the funds to families of the deceased and injured victims of the fire, as well as use them for rebuilding.
Source: Press release
