When K-Pop singer Hani nipped backstage at the Death Note Musical, she thought it would amount to just a perk of her celebrity.  Meeting the cast as a member of the rags to riches Korean girl band sensation EXID.  It turned out to be much more than that.

After exchanging a significant hello with L actor Kim Jun-su, the couple have just announced that they've been dating ever since.  Roll over Light Yagami!  This time it's L who gets the pop idol girlfriend!

She may come close to being L's intellectual equal as well.  A recent Korean television programme revealed that Hani classes as genius status, with an IQ of 145.  Though whether that holds true for L actor Junsu too is yet to be divulged.

Hani's mom seems to be quite quick off the mark too.  Having heard on the grapevine that Junsu quite fancied her celebrity daughter, Hani's mother bought tickets for the theatrical production of Death Note, and ensured that the couple met backstage through Hani's connections.  Or as the singer put it,

And how did Mom know?  Apparently she's a massive Junsu fan in her own right and sings his songs constantly.  Hence keeping up with his press comments.

Korean pop gossip fans are currently ooohing over the news that it's been Junsu doing all the running, hunting her down after that first chance meeting at the Death Note Musical, enamoured of her 'beauty inside'.  Though presumably Hani's beauty outside hasn't hurt her case much either.

As Hani has spent the autumn busy with EXID promoting Hot Pink, Junsu has been turning up at various junctures on the schedule, picking his celebrity girlfriend up in his Aston Martin 007.   The pair would then retire to his house - he's currently bunking up with his manager - where they could get to know each other without the glare of paparazzi and fans in their faces.

Nevertheless, that's not always been a successful policy.  Korean Media Despatch photographers caught the couple shopping in the run up to Christmas, and delighted in revealing the pairing in their January 1st 2016 edition.

Since then, KPop Fighting and other media sources have also run with the story.  Including now us.

Near (no pun intended) the beginning of Death Note, L famously proclaims “I am justice”, which is funny because he has no such interest in justice.

It’s always been an amusing quirk that the character who heads the task force wasn’t pursing the world’s most prolific serial killer for moral reasons, but rather for his own amusement. In fact, there seems to be a massive juxtaposition between the L at the start of Death Note, and the L we see when the task force finally meets him in person.

Partially I think this is because Ohba didn’t fully know what he wanted to do with the character at the start of the series. The early L looks composed, almost handsome when we see his face. He talks about how Kira is evil to the International Criminal Police Organization with deep passion and seems to truly believe it. However, in the Death Note One Shot L tells the children of Wammy House, “It’s not a sense of justice. Figuring out cases is my hobby. If you measured good and evil by current laws, I would be responsible for many crimes.”

This is true - very early on into the series, an L who views Kira as evil is clearly a hypocrite. He lets Lind. L Tailor die to prove Kira can kill without being there in person. He attempts to let the Yotsuba Group kill criminals in order to prove their guilt and is willing to let a criminal possibly die to test the '13 day Rule'.

Whether or not you agree with these actions is moot, he’s prepared to kill criminals to catch a man who kills criminals. This is morally self-defeating in the worst way possible. The most consistent look at L (at least from the manga and anime) is one who, while not completely without redeeming features, isn’t concerned with higher values.

Too young to have known the impact of Bowie in the 1970s, I can only imagine. It must have been immense. By the time the ripples reached me - in the early noughties, thirty years on - they still sounded as a sonic boom, even then retaining power enough to rock my world. Representing one less battle for me to win, because he'd already owned it on our behalf and done it with aplomb.

Bowie brought colour to a monochrome world. Without him, all would have remained painted black for me, in counterpoint to my rival's white.  Splitting our idol's hues into two; dividing them one apiece. Like they were all that existed in the rainbow prism of a fabulous spectrum.

I wore red for Bowie. I wore feathers, leather, mascara and kohl. I wore whatever I Goddamned liked, because he made it possible for all men to do so without sacrificing one iota of masculinity. Whether we traced it back to source or not, it was Bowie who took male beauty into a cosmetic artform and gave us the glitz and glamour previously only available to ladies.

If he could do that in working men's clubs, I could do it in the Mafia. He made Metrosexual sexy. He made self-pride alright. He made it so no-one could say a blasted thing about it and not seem silly in the saying.

All this while gay men were still being beaten by police in raids on shady bars. All of this out in the open, where conversations could be had over dinner-tables watching Bowie on TV.  All giving courage to countless legions of gay and bisexual individual, and those who saw gender in its glorious fluidity, and those who simply didn't care a damn.

As writer Mark Simpson - 'daddy' of the Metrosexual - put it back in 1994, “(David Bowie) gaily refused to conform to 'masculine' expectations and provocatively appropriated ‘feminine’ styles, fashions, cosmetics and sensualities – anything that would make him look and feel fabulous, and piss off 1970s dads. He understood perfectly that the world was an increasingly visual culture and sired the New Romantics, who went on to invent the 21st Century.

“The glamorous seeds he sowed back in the Seventies have borne strange and wonderful bisensual fruit, enjoyed by everyone, regardless of gender or orientation.”

There is no 'feminine' anymore. No 'masculine'; no 'androgyny'; no 'unisex'; not after Bowie. There is just us and what we will be. Each of us with the potential to be heroes, rebels, leper messiahs or stardust, but mostly the potential to be whatever we want to be. He blurred boundaries until there were none, only that which we set ourselves. He normalised the weird; domiciled aliens; made diversity the new normal.

Moreover, Bowie taught generations since that it's ok to reinvent yourself, and reinvention does not have to mean losing one atom of that self.

You may know me as Mello, 'the best dresser who died like a dog'. But it was a Diamond Dog, with a fabulous wardrobe made possible by the prior bravery of Bowie. We can be heroes, he told us, and we were.

RIP the legend that was David Bowie (1947-2016)

Meanwhile, over on Twitter, no mention was made until Christmas Day proper, when someone still at work Tweeted, '¡Oficial! El TPB de #HitGirl llega en enero y #DeathNote regresa a México en febrero de 2016 ¡#FelizNavidadATodos!'   (Another general translation - 'It's official!  The TPB (trade paperback - or manga, to the likes of you and me) of Hit Girl is coming in January and Death Note returns to Mexico in February 2016.  Merry Christmas all!')

Then continued on earning their overtime in reTweeting the excitement of Death Note fans in reaction to it all.

To their credit, Panini staff didn't ignore such pointed queries, spending the Christmas period addressing comments amassing Facebook and Twitter.  The policy of no competing reprints was only ever a 'short or medium term' one, and Death Note is their most requested manga volume set in Mexico.  That latter reasoning repeated time and time again.

Its very popularity means that Panini Comics Mexico can make an exception for Death Note.  It's only a short manga series, already concluded and extremely well known.  No hassle really to reproduce and market.  It's all for the fans. The fans want it.  We're just here to deliver, was the general essence of Panini's response across the board.

So you see, nothing to do with the potential of a nice little earner later in 2016, when the franchise explodes under the glitz and frenzy of a Hollywood movie set to propel Death Note's popularity into the stratosphere.  In theory. It's Mexican manga collection coming out now is just a big coincidence; rewarding fans with what they want for Christmas.

Panini Comic Mexico's manga Death Note volumes will be on sale in February 2016, priced at MXN 75,00 each.

What have you got?  Bring out your fan-art; your links to the stories; your cosplay photographs, tutorials and places to make or buy.

Death Note academics!  Have you ever pondered a point, or thought it would be good to investigate and report back upon something within the genre?  This is your big moment to drag that vague musing out into the open and let the rest of the fandom share your findings.

Musicians!  Has something or someone in the manga inspired your compositions?  Do you have a kick-ass cover version of a theme lurking in your video channel?  Share with us. We want to hear!

Cooks, chefs, cocktail mixers and bakers!  Have you ever knocked up a Watari salad or a Sachiko Yagami soufflé? Bring forth your recipes, let us nom.

RPers unite! AMV collators, please link! Death Note video short makers, why have we not yet seen your stuff?

Do you run a community, group, channel, stream, website or whatever else focused around a single character?   We want to know about that too!  Promote your place; publicise your event; bring us cyberspaces where we might gather, met and love what you have laid on for Death Note fans to enjoy.  No-one's precious here. Here is no rivalry. Think of us as your curators in this regard.

In short, if you've got it, we want to see it; if you make it, we want to wow over it; if you can conceptualize it, then this is show and tell time right here.

Come on, Death Note fandom, bring us what you've got!

Take yourself over to the Death Note News contact page.  There you will find a form to email the editor with smaller items like links, information etc., or else discuss with her an idea that you have for the Month of...  event.

You will also discover a ready-made FileDrop box, wherein larger media - art, music, videos et al - may be submitted for inclusion in the feature.  They will be picked up and sifted through by the team here, then posted publicly for your fifteen minutes of fame and glory.   Probably on an 'as they come' basis, with no real waiting on ceremony.

Expect all the diversity in our collective scope and vision.

And if you really do have nothing, then please contribute anyway in comments and support.

It's anticipated that many of those sharing their work or thoughts with us aren't used to doing so in such a public forum.  They may be nervous as Hell and hoping just that someone reads, and comments, and likes it.  That's you, in the frame.

Good luck, good fight and off you go!

What's up people?  I hope you're all beautifully recovered from whatever decadence and over-everything your Midwinter festivals produced.

I'd like to say that we are fighting fit and raring to go here at Death Note News.  But the truth is that most of us are dying of various strands of flu. Hence the slow start to the season in New Year 2016 news about Death Note. Nevertheless, the stories, columns and articles are stacking up behind the scenes and it's about time that us editorial types crawled out of our beds to post them. Matti here, on the case. *cough*

So what's happening on Death Note News for 2016?  In addition to the usual columns, features, editorials and up to the moment news about the franchise and its fandom as it occurs, we do have plans for new stuff, which all hope that you'll find rather exciting.

The first addition will be On This Day in Death Note - a new feature which, in theory, alerts you daily to what each day brings in terms of celebrations, anniversaries, birthdays, memorials etc. You will also be able to look up dates in advance, thus forever knowing what happened in the Death Note universe on your birthday and that of all your friends and family.

It is all coming soon.  It would have been here already, but production on the calendar collapsed under the aforementioned plague epidemic assaulting our editorial staff.

Fact and fiction alike are included. We are scouring canon, plot-lines, reference guides and biographies to create something as comprehensive as possible, spanning all media in which this story has been told.  That's important dates within Death Note as a tale, and also those pertaining to its creators, actors, producers etc.  A resource for you all.

Related to the above, we're going to declare a Month of... at each appropriate juncture of the calendar, wherein we'll invite folk to submit anything pertaining to that character.  Be it fan-art, links to fan-fiction, one off articles, musings, essays, cosplay photographs etc.   As long as its clean and family friendly, this is your big moment to have your work, guest blog or whatever in the spotlight of Death Note News.

This is in addition to the general articles, which our team will be writing as normal in and around all the focused rest.

We're planning to begin in February with Light Yagami.  Therefore if you have anything to say, investigate, report, write, draw, link or otherwise contribute on the subject, please do start putting it together now.  Contact us for discussions in advance if needful and/or details on how to submit.

And yes, your stuff is good enough. As Walt Whitman so eloquently put it, 'the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse'.

Much else that is planned for the website early in 2016 is cosmetic.  With the new theme fully installed, there's tatting in the archives to ensure all is working well (feedback greatly appreciated if you find something awry); plus organising navigation to make it all appear more user friendly and easier to find content.

However, there are some hangovers from last year which need completing.  Notably the last in the Sachiko Yagami articles, plus our analysis of the final episodes of Death Note 2015 TV drama.  Both of which were woefully edged out by festivities, or else accidentally overlooked for the back end of the previous year.  They will be put in place.

We also need to bring you up to date with The Cosplayer Chronicles - details of which have been sent, just not published.  Squad Six Cosplayers HAVE completed their Death Note panel and it was - by all reports - quite wonderful.  As for the other columnists, there's more from Nathaniel's philosophical overview of Death Note to post, plus another article from Tarot Mikami taking a more esoterical perspective in Death Note Tarot Tales.

Expect more too from Lucas King, as well as on-going Focus on a Fan community features.

If you'd like to participate in the latter, or indeed if you have an idea for a column which you would like to write/see written, then please do run it past us. This could be your year for fame and glory in the franchise or at least, the fandom.

Moreover, we've made a long list of people to contact in order to expand another neglected part of the website - our Death Note Interviews.  Keep you posted, should anything more come of that. 

2016 promises to be a big year for Death Note. The fandom has already swelled with its Musical and TV adaptations bringing our story to ever wider crowds, then two live action movies are going to see those numbers explode.  Are you ready for it? 

As for the burgeoning volume of fans in the Death Note community, we've certainly witnessed it in our readership of Death Note News.  Check out these stats for the past month (ignoring the dip at the end, as it was screenshot first thing in the morning when no-one had time to read anything):

To put that in context, this time last year, we were receiving less than 500 page views per day.  Now that number has quadrupled. It will be quite amazing to watch what happens on Death Note News in 2016.  For now, let us all enjoy the ride!

There were twenty-one stories for Death Note News in December 2015.   In addition to the November 2015 Death Note News Digest, they were: