Kyoani Arson Victim’s Picture Book to Become Anime Series; Former Colleagues Aim to Carry on Creator’s Legacy

By Haruka Hamasaki / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

1:00 JST, July 20, 2025

KYOTO — Friends and former colleagues of Yoshiji Kigami, an animator who died in the July 2019 arson attack at a Kyoto animation studio, are pushing ahead with a plan to turn a children’s book he wrote into an anime series.

The project intends to carry on the legacy of Kigami, who was determined to create works “that touch the hearts of children.” Kigami was 61 when he died in the blaze at the studio of Kyoto Animation Co., or KyoAni.

“Kigami was a genius. There was nothing he couldn’t draw,” said Toshiyuki Honda, an animator at Tokyo-based anime production company Ekura Animal. “Even now when I start on a new project, I wonder how he would have drawn it.”

In 1982, Honda, Kigami and several others established the company that would eventually become Ekura Animal.

Kigami also wrote a picture book titled, “Small Jam and Opp the Goblin.”

Published in 1989, the book tells the tale of an apprentice magician boy called Jam who grows as a person while he considers “what courage really is” during his interactions with a goblin named Opp. In the postscript, Kigami wrote that he “made it a point to create works that broaden children’s dreams.”

The company considered turning the story into an anime, and Kigami created manuscripts for seven sequels and prepared sketches for the project. However, Kigami moved to KyoAni in 1991 and plans for the anime faded away.

After Kigami’s death in the attack, Honda reached out to animators and other contacts in the industry. They worked together to create a 17-minute anime film version of the book, which was completed in 2024. The credits named Kigami as the work’s original author. Kigami’s wife and mother conveyed their thanks to the production team for including his name.

Honda and Ekura Animal employees are now planning to create a new anime series based on the book and manuscripts Kigami wrote, along with original stories they created. Honda, 74, has asked individuals and companies in Japan and overseas for donations to help cover production costs.

“I hope we can make anime in which the children watching will feel friendship and compassion,” Honda said.