News
K-On! Goods Stolen from Anime's Real-Life Model School
posted on by Egan Loo
Early on Wednesday morning, over 20 K-ON! anime character goods and a safe with about 290,000 yen (about US$3,500) were discovered to be missing from the former campus of Toyosato Elementary School — the real-life model for the high school seen in the K-ON! anime. The safe contained proceeds from the on-campus store.
In the year between May 2009 and May 2010, about 40,000 fans visited the campus in Shiga Prefecture, and over 1,000 goods were put on display. Among the stolen goods were two replicas of the guitars owned by the anime's main characters, a bass guitar, and 22 figures of the main characters. All of the stolen goods were items lent by fans, and the local tourism association apologized to them and future visiting fans.
According to the local Hikone police, a glass window of the school building was broken, and they are investigating the incident as theft.
Source: 47 News
Update: More background information added.
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history