A 12-year-old boy in Kolkata, India, jumped to death from the 11th floor of a highrise hoping to get saved by an angel. The residents of the highrise, who were alerted after hearing a loud crash, found him lying in a pool of blood by the swimming pool.

Initial investigation by the cops revealed that the boy, identified as Biraj Pachisia, was influenced by a scene from the anime Platinum End.

Mirai Kakehashi, the protagonist of Platinum End, attempts suicide in a similar fashion at the start of the series. However, he is saved by his guardian angel, following which he receives special powers.

“After primary investigation we are convinced that the boy was addicted to this serial and inspired by it took this fatal step,” an officer told IANS, a news agency. “Though there is no physical evidence to his suicide but considering the circumstantial evidence we are apparently sure that the boy was so much addicted to this web-series that he though of jumping from the roof.”

The incident took place on Saturday, at a high-end housing complex at Canal Circular Road in Phulbagan area in Kolkata. Pachisia went to the roof of the high rise evading his family members who were busy attending Saraswati Puja (a prominent festival in India), and leaped off it.

Upon being discovered, he was rushed to a nearby medical facility, where he was declared dead.

The boy was recently given an “electronic gadget because of his online classes”. He apparently used to it watch the series online and got addicted to it.

Suicides and accidental deaths are a common trope in fantasy & isekai anime. This is not the first time the negative influence of such a trope has been discussed.

On April 26, 2021, the Russian district court in Saint Petersburg banned a total of five anime titles- including isekai anime KonoSuba and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.

The court ruled that the isekai (meaning “otherworld”) titles KonoSuba and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime “promote reincarnation beliefs,” and show that “after death, there can be a more full and interesting life, free from the control of one’s parents.” 

Platinum End is a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, of Death Note fame. It was serialized in Shueisha’s Jump Square monthly magazine from November 2015 to January 2021. An anime television series adaptation by Signal.MD premiered in October 2021.