U.K. tabloid The Sun seems to be grasping for a Wertham-esque connection between the November murder of a British student in Italy and Katsuhiro Otomo’s influential cyber-punk manga Akira.
Italian Raffaele Sollecito, 24, his American girlfriend Amanda Knox, 20, and former basketball player Rudy Guede, 20, are accused of sexually assaulting and killing Meredith Kercher on Nov. 1. The 21-year-old Kercher was found semi-naked with her throat slit in the student apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia, Italy.
Sollecito was brought into court yesterday to hear a judge appoint experts to examine his computer and those owned by Guede and Knox.
Here’s where the Akira link comes in, courtesy of The Sun:
The court was told the password for his computer is AKIRAFUGA. Akira is a character in violent sado-masochistic Manga comics.
Fuga is Italian for flee. One Akira story relates how the ‘hero’ ran after trying to rape students.
With all the attention given to Death Note lately, it’s good to see sensationalism-prone reporters haven’t forgotten the classics.
