When we look at Japan first we see is this is a beautiful and peaceful country. But it is not all beautiful and peaceful over the past decade Japan had the most brutal serial killers, and The otaku Killer is one of them. Tsutomu Miyazaki also known as the infamous Rat Man also known to be The Otaku Killer, Little Girl Murderer was a serial killer who raped his victims and also a cannibal and a necrophile who murdered four young girls in Tokyo and Saitama. Between 1988 and 1989.
His family ran a famous newspaper so he came from a wealthy family. Miyazaki was born premature and suffered from a rare birth defect that caused his hand joints to be fused together. Despite his deformity and with raised by his grandparents because his parents were always busy running the family business he had a normal school life. After his school days, he moved back and stayed with his sister but no one in his family cared for him except his grandfather. In May 1988, his grandfather died, which served to deepen his depression and isolated him even further. Then he becomes to be obsessed with anime and pornography. Thus comes the name The Otaku Killer.
With his obsession on anime and pornography he went to go after little girls with the age between 4 and 7. He lure to his vehicle and kill the child and basically rape while recording. After that he dismembers the body and eat little girl’s parts and drink her blood and he put them into fire. he randomly selected children to kill. He wrote to the families of his victims, sending them letters recalling the details of his murders. Police found that the families of the victims had something else in common: all received silent nuisance phone calls. If it wasn’t answered he calls them about 20 times .
His first victim was Mari Konno who was only 4 years old. He lured her in to his black Nissan and then drove westward of Tokyo and parked the car under a bridge in a wooded area. There, Miyazaki sat alongside Konno for half an hour before murdering her. After that he raped her corps and dumped her body into a forest nearby his house. I first found this on a scene in Netflix original series Ju-on origins. After he dumped her body in the forest he comes and picks her body and dismember her hands and legs which was later found in his closet. He burned the body into bones in his furnace which he later sends to her parents in a box along with a postcard, few of her teeth. The post card read “Mari. Cremated. Bones. Investigate.
His second victim was 7-year-old Masami Yoshizawa after spotting her while driving along a rural road. Miyazaki had offered Yoshizawa a ride, which she accepted, then drove her to the same place he had killed Konno. Miyazaki killed Yoshizawa then engaged in sexual acts with her corpse, and took her clothes with him when he departed.
His third victim was 4-year-old Erika Namba as she was returning home from a friend’s house. Miyazaki had forced Namba into his car then drove to a parking lot in Naguri, Saitama, where he forced her to remove her clothes in the back seat and began to take pictures of her. Miyazaki then killed Namba and tied her hands and feet behind her back, covered her with a bed sheet, and placed her body in his car’s trunk. Miyazaki disposed of Namba’s clothes in a wooded area and left her body in the adjoining parking lot, where it was discovered three days later. After that, Namba’s family received a postcard sent by Miyazaki with a message assembled using words cut out of magazines which read “Erika. Cold. Cough. Throat. Rest. Death.”
As for his last victim convinced 5-year-old Ayako Nomoto to allow him to take pictures of her. Miyazaki then led Nomoto into his car and murdered her, covered her corpse with a bed sheet and placed her in the trunk of his car. Miyazaki took Nomoto’s corpse into his apartment and spent the next two days engaging in sexual acts with it, taking pictures of it in various positions, and filming it. When Nomoto’s corpse began to decompose, Miyazaki dismembered it, abandoning her torso in a cemetery and her head in the nearby hills. Miyazaki kept her hands, drinking blood from and cannibalizing them. Fearing that the police would find Nomoto’s body parts, Miyazaki returned to the cemetery and the hills two weeks later and carried the remains back to his apartment, where he hid them in his closet
But, even it was Miyazaki’s last victim was Ayako, Miyazaki didn’t stop there, On 23 July 1989, Miyazaki saw two sisters playing in a park in Hachiōji, Tokyo, and managed to separate the younger of the sisters from the older one, who stayed behind. Miyazaki was taking photographs of the younger daughter, who he had convinced to strip nude, when he was caught by their father, who attacked Miyazaki but was unable to restrain him. But, after escaping he ran to the hills to hide. But then police were already arrived there to catch him. After sometime he came back to the vehicle but, was caught by the police. That was his last attempt to do such bizarre things.
Even after being caught Miyazaki Denied the fact that he didn’t do those things, it was always the rat man who did those things. And also saying that he just watched rat man do them. He stated that rat man was always looking at him by afar. Later the first psychiatrist who examined him told that it was all miyazaki’s doings and his alone. But the psychiatrists who examined Miyazaki told that he had multiple personality disorder and mental issues where he imagined rat man, who does these bazar things. Later the court decided to give him death penalty. It says that Miyazaki denied the fact that he didn’t do these killings even in jail when he was about to be executed. After Miyazaki’s execution jail informed the parents to come and collect the ashes of him. But, Miyazaki’s mother said “I’ll leave the cleaning up to you”.
When sweeping his place police stated that they found along a huge stack of pornography that he stored along with the tapes of the little girls that he raped. And they also found missing parts of the corpses stored in his closet and bones and skulls that Miyazaki burned in front of their yard.
Because of his obsession with anime news called him as The Otaku Killer. But Miyazaki preferred calling himself as The Rat Man. But was called The Otaku Killer due to his obsession with anime. With this no one wanted to call themselves as an Otaku because of the Otaku killer, no one respected being an Otaku. This issue can also be seen in several animes for example I think Oreimo can be taken as an example. Also Miyazaki was simply a fan who liked anime and an otaku. This does not mean that everyone is a serial killer. Now the times have changed to where anyone can call themselves an Otaku and be accepted in society.
FQA
Tsutomu Miyazaki, popularly known as the Little Girl Murderer or the Otaku Murderer, was a Japanese serial killer who murdered four young girls. Also a cannibal and a necrophile, he was apparently influenced by Japanese anime and pornography. He used to preserve body parts of his victims as trophies.
yes (1962–2008)
in the West) used to refer to avid consumers of anime and manga. The term can be compared with Hikikomori. In Japan, otaku has generally regarded as an offensive word, due to the negative cultural perception of withdrawal from society.