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Veteran Death Note Cosplayer blAIRbender Advises on Creating Kira in Costume

29/2/2016

3 Comments

 
Brillant Mail Jeevas cosplayer blAIRbender

blAIRbender passed over Mail Jeevas to
cosplay a mere God of the New World

For Month of Light Yagami, we're corralling all the Kira cosplayers into Death Note News to share their tips on being God.
(Remember when blAIRbender sold out Matt and started cosplaying that Yagami bloke instead?

We do.  The entire Mello and Matt fandom haven't stopped crying yet. The sadness. The horror. The betrayal in loss of all comfort and hope. The opportunities to troll during Gami-given moments like this - when the threat of a Force10 tempest couldn't give us pause to resist.

Which is probably why Blair wrote her own introduction, instead of leaving me notes to compile one for her, like everyone else.)
Here now to shed light on costuming Death Note's protagonist is blAIRbender - a cosplayer who has long-since had Kira all sewn up.
blAIRbender cosplaying Kira Death Note

Human of the Year - Light
blAIRbender cosplays Kira
I've been a cosplayer since the summer of 2008. I started as a Death Note cosplayer, mostly cosplaying as Matt and L. Then I made a Mello and a Light cosplay. I did the four of them for a few years, then started branching out into other series like Fullmetal Alchemist, Red Garden, and Venture Bros.

A few years ago, I made a Cersei Lannister cosplay from the show Game of Thrones. Nowadays I mostly just wear that and traipse around conventions with a group of Game of Thrones cosplayers called the Throne Bros. Oh, and I've also started cosplaying as Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games.

Matt makes an appearance every now and again, but for the most part, I don't do Death Note cosplay anymore.

Aside from cosplay things, I've been attending a university in PA where I'm studying costuming. In the fall, I was the assistant costume designer for the production of Ibsen's Ghosts that we did, which was an amazing experience. This semester we are doing Shakespeare's The Tempest and I have the honor of being one of three costume designers for it (thank God because there are a TON of characters in it). It's a lot of work, but I love it.

blAIRbender on How to Make a Light Yagami Costume with Goodwill Alone

Do you/have you cosplayed Kira now or in the past?
Yes - in the past

Any anecdotes about your experiences cosplaying Light?
Heh, Light was always fun to do. I would usually cosplay him while with Maru-Light and Anda-chan. Any time the three of us get together, some kind of hilarity ensues.

Light was never someone I would act necessarily in character as while wearing. I mean, I would more or less act like a caricature of his personality.

Especially when with Maru and Anda, we would make a lot of references to Patrick Bateman from American Psycho and a bunch of jokes surrounding that. The more bullshitting and banter, the better.

How would you go about creating a costume for Light Yagami?
I actually bought almost my entire Light cosplay from a Goodwill. He wears normal clothes, unlike the people I cosplay as nowadays. I was still in high school when I first cosplayed as him, so I had a very tight budget. Somehow I got lucky and found some pretty nice quality stuff that cost next to nothing.
Kira cosplay by blAIRbender - Light Lights Up Light Light

blAIRbender stars as Light Lights Up Light Light - Kira cosplay at its finest
(Oh!  Hold on! That's also Matt trolling by cosplaying as Kira in a lampshade being light Light.  OMG! blAIRbender never sold out! She subverted from the inside.  HaX0R3d teh God of teh nub world! Gf! How could we ever have doubted her?  Matt Jeevas cosplayer supreme, inside AND out!)
What's Up People? Death Note cosplayers

What's Up, People? blAIRbender Light Yagami cosplayer,
with L (Maru-Light), Mello (Anda-Chan) and Matt (KitsuneCowgirl)
What clothing and/or props do you feel are essential Light Yagami costume items?
A Death Note, red contacts, and a beautiful wig.

Is there more to cosplaying Kira than the outfit? (Look/behaviour etc.)
Well, I mean I would always act like an narcissistic asshole as Light. It's so much more fun that way. More opportunities for hilarious bullshitting.

What's your professional opinion about ready-made Light Yagami outfits, such as those in the Death Note News Cosplay Store? Any other pieces in there decent enough for a Kira cosplay? (Be honest!)
Never ever ever buy ready-made Light cosplays online. His clothes aren't unique. He just wears normal clothes that you could easily find in any store. It doesn't make sense to break the bank trying to cosplay as Light.

Where would YOU source items to cosplay Light Yagami?
Honestly, just go to a Goodwill or some cheap clothing store. It's so cheap and easy and you can find really nice looking stuff without spending a bunch of money.

Any last tips for anyone reading, who wishes to create their Kira cosplay from scratch?
Make-up, friends. It's crazy how much of a difference a little bit of contouring can make.

More from blAIRbender

blAIRbender Matt Death Note cosplay
blAIRbender previously popped up in an older article about the things that can go wrong whilst in costume as a Death Note character:

It Surely Must Happen to Mello Too - Death Note Secrets
Gleaned from Cosplay

Cosplayers!

Would you like to have a go at answering these questions yourself? 

A different Death Note character forms the focus each month.

If you cosplay Death Note - or indeed a cosplayer of any tale - and you're willing to share your tips, thoughts and advice with the fandom, then visit our cosplayer's questionnaire page to fill in the form.

Thank you in advance!

Posted as part of

Kira Month on Death Note News
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Light is NOT a Sociopath - Excerpt from a Psychology Essay by Serria

29/2/2016

10 Comments

 
Death Note's Light Yagami
Reproduced with permission from an essay originally, and fully, published at DEATH NOTES: an online source for Death Note Analysis and Discussion
(links at the end)

by Serria
Disclaimer: This is a fan essay, only for fun on my part with the hope of generating discussion. I'm well-aware that characters in any form of media are always open for interpretation, and this is just mine.

Light Yagami certainly has a reputation among the fandom, and that reputation isn't founded for pointlessly. The justice-toting boy-genius murdered thousands of people, most of which without so much as batting an eye. And he doesn't regret a single one.

On the contrary, he probably views each as a job well done. It isn't just the killing, either. Light claims each victim with boyish enthusiasm and possesses a childish demeanour that leads him to be competitive to the point of taunting the condemned with a sinister smile and dancing on their grave (literally, if he gets worked up enough). Yes, that's the Light Yagami we know, our unforgettable protagonist of Death Note.
Light is a killer. Light has no disturbed childhood to blame. Light voluntarily kills and once he found the Death Note, probably wouldn't be happy doing anything else. On those facts alone, we could infer any number of similar conclusions. I've heard Light called, by the morally concerned, disturbed. The face of evil. Hopelessly insane. And, most common of all, sociopath. The label insinuates a total lack of everything we call humanity. The inability to feel guilt for any wrongdoing, and thus, a total lack of conscience. If we chose to conclude that, then Light Yagami isn't normal, he isn't like you or me.

But the aforementioned facts are not all there is to Light Yagami, and it's a slam to the complexity - and, I emphatically insist, realism - of his character to assume as such merely because he kills. 'Killer' and 'sociopath' are not interchangeable words. The nature of the killing has to be taken into consideration. As far as the victim is concerned, murder is murder is murder, but not as far as the perpetrator is. The immediate fact of the matter is that sociopaths are, as a rule, self-focused and unable to empathize with the world or the people around him. This contradicts the very nature of Kira's legacy. Certainly there's the fact that Light was a bored, under-challenged genius in a society where he functioned solely on outward appearances and achievements, and certainly there's no doubt that a part of Light was perhaps waiting for the opportunity to test himself. But I honestly cannot conceive how this in any way discounts the fact that the reason Light took the opportunity he did was out of his zealous sense of idealism.

We know for a fact that Light has a societal conscience, beyond mere conditioning (if that were the case, Light wouldn't possess even half the passion that he does). The first chapter/first episode of the series is exclusively about Light's convictions. First, the shock at perhaps having actually taken a person's life, and then the total horror when he's tested it again and realized that he's killed people and yes, it's his fault. The anxiety he feels, that he's capable of feeling, does inexcusably deny him from the title of sociopath. Light is so disturbed by his actions that he can't eat, can't sleep, loses ten pounds in the first week and looks as though he's about to throw up. And finally, the resolution: doing this could make the world a better place. "Even if I sacrifice my mind and soul," Light states (even predicts). "The world is rotting. Someone has to do it." Light even acts initially under the impression that a Shinigami is going to come take his soul as soon as he's found, and when Ryuk arrives he's surprised that he's not going to be punished. Agree with his methods or not, it wouldn't be wrong to call Light's ambition selfless, wanting to "protect the weak" and "make a perfect world" without, as far as the text writes, asking in return for anything conventional such as money, sex, or political power (which also separates him from being a dictator, by definition).

Some argue the sincerity of Light's resolve as being only an excuse to jump at the chance to ease his boredom. I don't personally think that's fair, but nonetheless, the very fact that Light experiences such vivid anxiety before impulsively engaging in such risky behavior already excludes him from the title.

Now to get technical. "Sociopath" isn't a medical term, and though it has general uses it's not a proper diagnosis. When talking about sociopaths/psychopaths in the psychology field, most often we're talking about Antisocial Personality Disorder. The brief definition as listed in the DSM-IV is "The essential feature for the diagnosis is a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood." Sure, that's pretty vague and by that sentence alone, I'd agree without a doubt that Light is quick to violate the human rights of others, in particular the right to life (but let it be stated that the same can be said of L, Near and Mello). But the criteria goes beyong that. First, we can't quite call Light an APD at the beginning of the series - one has to be an adult aged at least 18. Furthermore, APDs ought to have a history of conduct disorder (breaking the law, inappropriate actions, truancy, running away from home, etc) since before the age of 15. I think it's safe to say that the Yagami's golden boy who so emphatically values the law hasn't even come close. Also, APDs are known for drug and alcohol abuse, which again, does not apply...
To read more, please visit DEATH NOTES and Serria's original posting of her Kira essay: Light is NOT a Sociopath.

DEATH NOTES is an invaluable resource for those who like a bit of academia in their reading of the Death Note manga.  Largely inactive now,  its archives nevertheless contain a rich bounty of timeless essays written during the period when Death Note was first coming to the attention of international audiences and readers.  The site's essayists emanate from varying disciplines within the academe, with less formal - sometimes downright flippant - pieces interspersed for flavour.

The excerpt above was republished here with permission from DEATH NOTES' editor Jennifer Fu.

Posted as part of

Month of Kira
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Light Yagami, King of the Resin People - Guest Written by Death Note Doll-maker Maru-Light

29/2/2016

1 Comment

 
When I first saw the Death Note anime, I fell hardcore—like mad hardcore—for Light.

(Like absolutely-devastated-at-the-ending hardcore for Light.) There wasn’t truly another Death Note character that mattered to me that initial time around (later on I fell for L too) but I’m such a Light fan it’s scary.

Feeling rather castrated, for lack of a better word, once Kira fell from grace at Yellowbox, I sought in vain for a creative outlet to vent my love and frustrations, so I got involved in my ball joint doll community with a Death Note photo-story series.
 
Wait. What?
 
To those unfamiliar with the niche hobby that has been rapidly gaining popularity these past few years (enough to garner a rather destructive recast market), a ball joint doll is not a mass-produced item. It's not like Barbie, endlessly chugging off an assembly line of infinite dolls to be packaged and shelved in stores.

A ball joint doll, start to finish is—essentially—a work of art.
(No offense, Babs.)
Death Note's L and Kira Ball Joint Dolls by Maru-light

Death Note L and Light Yagami ball joint dolls
crafted by Maru-Light
I'm not saying that to sound pretentious, I'm being sort of literal. The life of a “BJD” begins and ends as a piece of artwork that passes through the hands of a variety of artists before it is "complete" (though honestly, are they ever really complete? I don't really think so...) 
 
The fabulous thing about BJDs that makes them so attractive (imo) is their customizability. A BJD is a blank canvas with which to shell a character of your choosing. Heads, bodies, eyes, hair, face ups—all of it can be changed and customized at will to create the being you want.

This is a major piece of the hobby. There are those who spend years crafting the perfect doll detail by detail—making or commissioning other artisans to produce aesthetics, wardrobes, accessories, anything under the sun. Then there are those who are sort of addicted to making character after character after character (I don't know anyone like that... >.>; )
A BJD is first designed and sculpted by its original artist, who may be working on their own, creating dolls as a passion or hobby or employed by one of the increasing number of doll companies (who at best have maybe 10 - 30 employees? At least, have one. We're not talking major corporations here folks.)
 
The sculptor painstakingly crafts the doll, maybe just the head, maybe the whole body (which is a laborious effort that requires not only skill with anatomy, but engineering as well since these are "ball-joint" dolls and are many pieces strung together with elastic). Then the sculptor casts the head/body in resin and puts it up for order.

A blank doll is the result of this process. In order to bring it further to life, the doll then proceeds to the next artist on the totem—the face-up artist. The face-up artist is what it sounds like: the person who paints the doll’s face (and often the rest of it too.)
 
I am a BJD face-up artist. I don’t sculpt the doll, but I paint it, style it, photograph it and basically sell my internal organs on the black market to support its expensive demands. (It’s worth noting, that I only buy original BJD dolls, and do not support the recast market, which is stealing from artists.)

The face-up is something that takes practice of course. It's a lot of fun and can be both rewarding and frustrating depending on the degree of perceived success on the artist's behalf. It's sort of like putting on make-up; the color goes down in layers with sealer in between. The materials to accomplish this are usually a blend of chalk pastel, colored pencils and acrylic paint both hand-applied and airbrush (I don't use airbrush.)

My method is the chalk pastel x hand-painted acrylic method. I layer on the pastels with Q-Tips and paint in the details. This process averages about 5+ hours (for me) depending on my ADD and the weather. (Humid weather & cold weather adversely affect the sealer spray and have been known to wreck face-ups and sanity. I can vouch for this personally, so can my therapist.)
Maru Light BJD Death Note Kira doll
So let’s bring this back around. A bunch of fellow BJD-collectors were collaborating on a Death Note photo-story with their dolls. They had an L and a Mello—they didn’t have a Light.

However, I just happened to have a bored, blank, doll head sitting in a box on the shelf for about a year with no purpose. (We call that sort of thing an impulse-buy.) He was a bit of a happy-smiley mold, but he was the only proper head I had access to immediately, so I dug him out, painted him up and introduced him to the storyline as the Kira they’d been needing.

Considering the doll photo-story was sort of like a role-play done in still pictures (with dolls), it required me to dig in to the mentality of my new fave and start understanding what made Kira tick. How was I going to portray him, and all of his illustrious motivations, dynamics and ideals in the doll world? I didn’t want my resin child to just be an avatar of Light Yagami, I wanted him to actually be the character. I worked to try and achieve that. A little too hard.
 
The little monster went above and beyond.
Death Note doll - God of this New World Maru-Light
What began as a creative jaunt, became something of an obsession, and despite my growing collection of resin crew, Light was the King of the Crop, the Bratling Resin Prince. He got spoiled. He got all the fancy clothes he wanted; he got bodies—oh so many bodies.

Bodies are not often an easy thing. For one, they’re not cheap, and you can’t just try them on like clothes (considering it sometimes takes months to get BJD dolls and parts from their original artists)
 
Finding a body for a head requires research to see if the head will match in both resin color and proportion. And sometimes, if you’re not lucky enough to score a body on the second-hand market (for quicker shipping, not necessarily lower prices), you have to buy a full doll for the body alone, or go in on a “split” where one person takes the head and the other the body.

I did all of these things for Light. He cycled through about 4 different bodies before finally settling on a svelte 68” cm body with jointed hands.
 
And once he did that… he decided he wanted a new face.
 
The bastard.
Little Kira doll made by Maru-Light
By that point I was several years into the hobby and I’d built up my skills to a point where I was confident that I could go in and do drastic things to what was my most treasured doll. I “wiped” his face (read: removed the paint with a paint cleaner) and then I modded (modified) his sculpt.
 
A lot of the Kira-effect in Light’s doll photos came from creative camera angles. You know the ones, head down, eyes up, looking all sinister-egomaniacal. I wanted him to have that look naturally.

So with the use of a dremel (omg the horro!) I had to first drill his eyes open (this was as painful to accomplish as it sounds, considering he was my fave) and then sculpt a new eye shape with a resin modelling compound called Amazing Sculpt.

Then there was the filing, the sanding, the nervous breakdowns (because, yeah.) When those hurdles were cleared (and I got talked off the ledge), I repainted him, this time with a less manga-minimal approach.
And at last. He was satisfied.
 
The bastard.
Death Note Light Yagami ball joint doll by Maru-Light
Unfortunately, time and other interests have rendered Light less and less the prima donna of the household.

Nevertheless, there really is not another doll in my entire hoard who can equal the sort of attention that Light got. So he still has that to his name, along with all of his spoilings… and his own personal L. And Mello. And Matt. And Beyond Birthday. Did I mention spoiled?
 
These days I still paint bjds when time allows, and you can check out my more current portfolio of work on my Flickr account.

Lately my aesthetic preference is less God of the New World and more, red-eyed, junky rock-star, but whaddya gonna do? Times they are a-changing.
Maru-Light's Death Note ball joint dolls
Links:
  • Flickr
  • Death Note Galleries

Posted as part of

Month of Kira
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See more from Maru-Light

Maru Light Focus on a Fan Thumb
Focus on a Fan: Maru-Light -
Kira Dollmaker, Light Yagami Costumer and More
Maru Light Kira cosplay thumb
Goddess of the Killer Kira Cosplay - Maru-Light on Making
Light Yagami Gleam
Maru Light Redeemer thumb
What Happened to
The Redeemer Series?
(Guest Post by Maru-Light)
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Death Note's Astrological Kira: Western Zodiac Pisces as Light Yagami's Sun-Sign

29/2/2016

3 Comments

 
Death Note managed to cram quite a lot of symbolism and imagery, religious and otherwise, into its twelve short manga volumes. We have a lot more for Light Yagami in lieu of his 30th birthday celebrations (or 27th, as reckoned by the anime). Examining destiny's data may even explain why the plot-line for Kira played out that way.

Feature writer Orangepunch takes on the omens, follows the signs and explores the stars.
Death Note Astrology Light Yagami
Astrology plays a highly significant role culturally in Japan, so much so that it has even been shown to affect birth-rates in years wherein the zodiacal associations are less desirable than others.

We explored the extent to which astrological systems around the world played a role in the development of Death Note's main character.

Was Kira's Fate written in the stars?  We'll see by starting with Light Yagami in Western astrology, then moving on to explore what the next zodiac has to say about him for future articles in this series.

Our Lord and Saviour Represented by Fish: Piscean Light Yagami

Light's birthday remains unchanged in Death Note manga and anime alike - February 28th -making Kira a Pisces, as his sun-sign in Western Astrology.

That's all we really have to go on here. In order to map the rest of his chart with any kind of accuracy, a time and place of birth would be required.

Due to the location given for the teenage Kira in Death Note, we might guess that the erstwhile God of the New World's nativity occurred in a hospital somewhere in the Kanto region of Japan.

There's a strong likelihood that it might be true, as nowhere in the narrative are we told that the Yagami family lived anywhere else. At the very least, it's practically certain that Light was born in Japan - which isn't big enough to mess too much with the precision of his birth location data.

However, Tsugumi Ohba never mentioned a time of birth for Light Yagami.

This is a far greater blow, as it constricts the accurate placement of Kira within the houses, ascension and moon configuration of Western Zodiac.
A mean would have to suffice - placing his birth at noon or midnight on the basis that the worse that could happen is that the calculations for him are a mere twelve hours out.

His parents DID label their newborn cherub with the kanji for Moon Night God - which seems a trifle strange if the future mass murdering megalomaniac arrived into this rotten world in the middle of the day. So perhaps we might be forgiven for opting for midnight as our mean for Kira's birth-time, but it hardly seems worth the hassle for a fictional persona.
Dual fish, the symbol of Pisces

The Zodiac Symbol for Pisces
Someone should just threaten Ohba with a quill - in whatever way seems appropriate - until he publicly announces his character's full zodiacal data. Then we'll play.

In the interim, we'll just stick with what we do know. Death Note Kira's star-sign is Pisces the Fish. This is was the constellation wherein our ruling star - the sun - appeared lodged when viewed from the Earth, at the time of Light Yagami's birth.

To Western astrologers, our star - or sun - sign, dictates how we are outwardly perceived to be. For Light, Pisces would govern the conscious self; his creativity and initiative; his ego's external expression; leadership qualities, ambition and pride; personal power and authority; and the projection of his everyday personality. For 'fish' then, read 'sodding big shark'. Though Kira's kill count surpassed even the most Great White ridden Hollywood movie beach massacre. In his case, reading Pisces as 'algae' is probably closer to the mark; the greatest mass murder in natural history.

So how does Kira's Piscean nature propel him on?

Something Fishy about the God of the New World in Death Note

In the Death Note manga volume 13: How to Read, Light is depicted as brilliant, and hard working. He was described as having good intentions and a pure heart behind his determination and commitment toward realising his high ideals.

This aligns with the archetype of Pisceans as gentle, honest, devoted, and highly knowledgeable.

Light's life was ruined the moment he touched the Death Note, again according to Ohba in the How to Read volume of the manga. It is also suggested that it was actually the otherwise positive Piscean traits which ultimately, and a tad ironically, led to the destruction of Light in favor of Kira. As Light's pre-death-note idealism for reducing crime and fighting for justice was born of purity, almost in a sense, innocence. Combined with the unrelenting, determined aspects of his personality, Light ends up consumed by his evil tendencies.

Perhaps worse is that after losing all memory of the Death Note, the corruption disappeared with the memories, and for a short period we see the person Light could have been had he never decided to just see if the Death Note was real.

In all likelihood, L saw his purity as well, which explains the sadness he feels knowing that Kira had existed.  The bells were unusually loud that night, as they tolled for the fading, dying Age 0f Pisces,  as overseen by Light Yagami in Death Note.
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Light Yagami: Descent of a Saviour - Kira Fan Art by ProcerDeCrepusculum

28/2/2016

1 Comment

 
ProcerdeCrephsculum - Light Yagami: Descent of a Savior - Month of Kira on Death Note News
An older painting, since retouched by its creator Malcolm Scot Newton
- a professional artist, working with a variety of media in his native USA.

Discover Newton's Light Yagami - Descent of a Savior and the rest of his Death Note inspired fan-art on DeviantART.
Updates therein to his Death Note gallery - and so much more! - found under his artistic pseudonym Procer de Crephsculum.

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Nell Fallcard Kira art thumb
Award-winning Mexican Artist
Nell Fallcard Tells All About
Drawing Light Yagami
Lei K Kira art thumb
Depicting the Darker
Shades of Light Yagami with
Graphite Pencil Artist Lei K

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Whom Would Your Death Note Kill?

28/2/2016

2 Comments

 
Death Note falling gif

Surely all who ever read the manga, watched the anime, or enjoyed the films and TV drama have pondered its central point:

     If a Death Note dropped and landed in your lap;
     if you were guaranteed that it worked
     and nobody knew that you had it;
     what then?

I'm certain each of us have silently amused ourselves harmlessly thinking psychopathic thoughts. Surprising ourselves by shocking into open daydream hitherto unknown and unsavoury cerebral indulgences. Serial killing tendencies that may otherwise have never crossed our minds.
But it's OK.  No-one will ever know.  Just a bit of fiction wrapped around with fancy, that anyway is never going to happen.

So we mentally kill a politician or two, whomever is being an idiot on the news that day, or whose policies have actually ruined our world. An opening gambit in our meandering musing bid to save humanity; improve our lot - not us per say - the little people without much of a voice, trampled historically from ancestor to ancestor and then well into our own lifetimes. Or those suffering properly in far-flung war-torn places; repressed, helpless, bereft of hope and security; certainty only in that looming loss of life and liberty.

Because we personally know plenty of them.

Nevertheless, it sounds suitably heroic. And we can be heroes, David Bowie said we can.

Except then we cerebrally kill the rude commuter just now pushing past us in the queue, and the jobs-worth conductor on the train, and the incomparably selfish git who sent that smug email waiting for us when we get in.

Suddenly the self-congratulatory glow of knowing ourselves to be superheroes - secretly - has slipped a little, and its going to take a lot more justification to accept the slip of their wanton murder, than it does for that of a talking head politician abusing your mandate to act upon domestic and world stages. 
Doesn't it?  It's not just disappointment in politics playing out not as you would wish.

I mean, people can get killed there with the latter signing their name on scraps of paper.  Directives to bomb and bills to suspend indifferently yet another civil liberty.  It could be you. And anyway, foreign victims over there shouldn't be nameless, unavenged. We're all brothers and sisters in this world.

Politicians are the actual Kiras of the Real World.  Writing in their notebooks of death. Thus we should do that too.  Practically obligatory.  Self-defence. Poetic justice. 

But it's all a matter of scale and we're in Yagami country now, as regards to our moral compass.
Death Note Light Yagami - if someone actually dies, does that make me a murder?
How far did you get in your mental musings, before you found yourself skirting a little too close to becoming Kira?  Scary, isn't it?  When there but for the Grace of no shinigami, bored and visiting to enable us, we might all be Kira next.

Incidentally, I do see a rotten world and take names, write them down to make it better. Because sometimes urgent action needs to be taken.  I've been doing it for years, and you can too.  Better to light a candle in the world than curse the darkness.  Better Light, than Kira.

Though trust me, there are times when I wish that the letters I penned where written on pages from a shinigami notebook.  No better than Light in the end; just a human being, that's all, in want of peace and a world as beautiful as it can be.  Which is what causes that endless craving for action when things go wrong - somebody to just do something - and what makes Death Note such an attractive and intriguing concept.

What do you reckon?  All secretly seething with the inherent instinct of a Kira?  Or was Light Yagami somehow special, insane or burdened with a flawed sort of personality?  Over to you.

More Month of Kira Philosophy

  • Nathaniel Overthinks Death Note #04: The Utilitarianism of Light Yagami
  • The Concept of Kira: Can you Really say Light Yagami is the God of the New World? (Guest Post by Lua)
  • The Unattainable Perfect World - Excerpt from an Essay about Kantian Ethics and Kira by Andrew Capuano

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More Month of Kira Discussion & Debate

  • What If Light Yagami Wasn't Japanese? What Would Death Note Look Like Then?
  • Did Kira Fail by Punishing not Preventing Crime? Leila Lawliet M Thinks Not
  • Light Yagami - Hero or Villain? Analysis and Discussion (Guest Video by Riconius)
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What Does It Mean That Light Yagami is Blood Type A?

28/2/2016

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Here in the West, it's been quite a mystery why Japanese anime and manga profiles invariably list the blood type for characters and actors alike.

Half of us over in Europe couldn't tell you our own blood group, let know know why we need to know yours.

Today is Light Yagami's 30th birthday. To mark the date, we embarked on a mission to find out why Kira's blood was so important to his destiny. Other than the fact it was killing him at the end there; you know, leaking in great puddles on the floor like that.

It seems that to the Japanese, blood groups are all about destiny, insofar as such things are driven by the personality.

Asian Blood Type Personae: What They Do in Lieu of Star-Signs in the East

Each blood type is associated with a list of character attributes; in much the same way as those in the West might ask for a star-sign, in order to quickly gain insight into a new associate's general complexion.

Here traits of psyche, in all their virtues and flaws, are said to be clustered around certain dates of birth here; grouped into categories headed by the twelve signs of the zodiac; then randomly applied to all born under their auspices. 

Virgos are tidy to the point of OCD; Scorpios will stab you in the dark; Cancerians are delicate, little flowers to be nurtured lest they cry; Librans are indecisive; Sagittarians are sporty; Leos are Kings and Queens of their lives, and yours; and Aquarians are dawning a New Age, where we'll all run around with flowers in our hair, letting the sunshine in.

You know the sort of thing, stereotypes all. Nevertheless a kind of cultural short-hand for how anyone might act in any given situation; widely believed and relied upon, even against any data to the contrary, with no more empirical evidence than knowing a person's birthday. 

Probably sounds a little mad to someone watching from Japan.
Yagami Light Blood Type A personality
Where they do precisely the same thing, except the categorizing there happens around blood types.  Group A are respectable stick-in-the-muds; Bs are passionate go-getters, who'll led us all into chaos and disaster; Os may be a bit flighty, but are great at splashing a bit of paint onto a canvas for display etc etc.

Just as Western tabloids and TV magazine programmes run horoscopes - describing the immediate future, as deemed accurate for all born between two month-straddling dates x 12 - their Japanese counterparts do the same for blood types. 

Knowing the scientific classification of the contents of your veins is not only useful for blood transfusions.  It can also predict the shape of your day, not to mention being forewarned regarding your compatibility with potential love partners.

A Blood Type Personality in Death Note's Light Yagami

Young Light Yagami foresees his own Fate
So where does Kira fit into all this?  Very well actually.

But then it's quite a thing for mangaka to link their characters with blood group types, and to ensure that their personalities fit that classification precisely.  So widespread, there's a TV Trope entry calling them out on it. So Kira really should match his type here.

Tsugumi Ohba reveals, in Death Note 13: How to Read, that Kira's blood type was A.  It could probably have been guessed anyway.  Apparently the A blood group is the most prevalent in Japan. Hence Light Yagami's personality should be pretty common amongst the Japanese.  Quite worrying that.

However, no list of attributes associated with blood type A people has so far mentioned 'global slaughter on a massive scale' nor yet 'become God'.  It may mean that Kira is atypical amidst his inherited antigenic kin.

Instead Light Yagami's A blood type personality should be:
  • Outwardly calm/inwardly anxious;
  • reliable;
  • loyal;
  • patient;
  • fastidious;
  • obsessive;
  • punctual;
  • polite;
  • quiet;
  • holding themselves to impossibly high standards;
  • perfectionists;
  • earnest;
  • strict;
  • responsible;
  • mature;
  • finicky;
  • conscientious;
  • stubborn;
  • trustworthy;
  • self-conscious;
  • introverted;
  • conservative;
  • sensible;
  • uptight;
  • reserved;
  • unsocial;
  • cynical;
  • sceptical;
  • tense;
  • prone to stress and stress-related stomach problems;
  • stress weakened immune systems render them often ill
Sound like a Kira you know?  How about others with this blood type personality, whose names you might recognize?  Famous Blood Type A people include:  George HW Bush; Adolf Hitler; Richard Nixon; OJ Simpson; Light Yagami; and Britney Spears.

I can't help feeling a little sorry for Ms Spears there.  Or nervous.  I dunno.

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Yagami Raito - Death Note Fan-Art by PresaBranca for Month of Kira

28/2/2016

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Yagami Raito by PresaBranca - Light Yagami fan-art on Death Note News
"Art keeps me alive," declares Bruno Abreu, visual artist and art student based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  He adds sadly, "I have no money, so I can't be a real artist. But I do like to read about it!"  And the whole world weeps.
He is the immense talent behind the artwork reproduced with permission above.  Entitled Yagami Raito, his Death Note art was originally uploaded to DeviantART, where Abreu holds an account under the moniker PresaBranca.  He works with a variety of materials and media, creating quite a distinctive style for himself, as exhibited in this fan-art depiction of Raito Yagami.

It seems a crying shame that only Rio's rich seem to be able to making a living professionally as artists. When skill like Bruno Abreu's lies wasted behind a lesser, dead-end job.  For it must be lesser, if he cannot draw.  And dead-end by default, when art keeps him alive. 

Cheer him on - and help him breath life through paint on the page - by following him at the aforementioned DA account, or onto his website. Wherein you'll discover there's art left free there for you to download.  Epic artist!  Let's keep him.

Month of Yagami Raito Artists

Nell Fallcard Light Yagami art thumb
Award-winning Mexican Artist Nell Fallcard Tells All About Drawing Light Yagami
Lei K Light Yagami art thumb
Depicting the Darker
Shades of Light Yagami with
Graphite Pencil Artist Lei K

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Month of Yagami
Raito Art

Tate Forkel Raito Yagami artwork thumb
Death Note Kira
- Fan Art by Tate Forkel
ProcerDeCrepusculum Yagami Raito art on Death Note News
Light Yagami: Descent of a Savior - Kira Fan Art by ProcerDeCrepusculum
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On This Day in Death Note: February 28th

28/2/2016

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February 28th 1986 - Light Yagami born in Japan Death Note

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Japanese Movie Death Note 2016 Features on a BRITISH Film Magazine Cover

27/2/2016

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Giving hope to all of us global audience types, that Death Note 2016 will quickly migrate from Japan to our own screens, is a rather random movie magazine cover from Great Britain. 

Dominated by a mostly monochromatic photograph, the front of Screen International's special February 11th 2016 edition features next generation L clone Ryuzaki (Sousuke Ikematsu), in what appears to be a pristine prison cell.  He is slumped on a closed-lid toilet seat, wearing a hyottoko mask - as previously donned by his genetic forebear L in the first two Death Note movies, when the detective sought to conceal his own identity from Misa Amane.

The legend slanted on the floor is in English and reads, 'The new saga begins.'  Whilst a larger one, in the familiar Death Note font and a more than familiar first rule, floats alongside the actor telling us, 'Death Note.  The human whose name is written in this note shall die.'  The implication is clear. L's biologically cloned successor isn't going to make it to the closing credits either.

Though none of us believe it. The danger point is too blatant and too premature.
Screen International Death Note cover Feb 11th 2016

Screen International Death Note cover,
as Tweeted by Warner Bros Japan
Berlin Film Festival Screen International Death Note cover, as distributed at Berlin Film Festival

Berlin Film Festival Screen International
Death Note cover, as distributed on the day
This wasn't a British magazine found generally upon the shelves of newsagents.  It was a private marketing magazine circulating at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival.  Only 10k were ever printed and they were distributed to attendees of the opening day on February 11th 2016.

The clue to why lies in the logo of Death Note 2016 copyright holders Nippon TV prominently displayed in the bottom right hand corner, alongside details for enquiring about world sales.  Ryuzaki may look slumped, but that merely serves to turn his whole body towards the lower logo and its missives.  His bulging hyottoko eyes are trained upon it.  The floor legend leads the eye straight into said inquiry details for the international distribution of Death Note 2106.

After all was is a marketing fly cover (wrapped around the film magazine's actual cover), which must have knocked NTV back a pretty penny! Therefore knowing that a representative was waiting - at booth 111 of the European Film Market in Martin Gropius Bau - was the actual point. 

Now all we need to know is whether anyone from our own respective countries nipped on over to stand 111, and if a deal was struck.

Incidentally, Screen International has its Feb 11th 2016 Death Note Berlin Film Festival cover - plus contents - online for us all to read.
Death Note actress Rina Kawaei on set as Sakura Aoi
In other related news, new casting Rina Kawaei has been Tweeting herself (February 24th 2016) on set, during filming of Death Note.  She was basically telling her fans that she was playing Sakura Aoi, and it had just been publicly announced by the studio.

While four days previously, on February 20th, her actor colleague Masaki Suda celebrated his 23rd birthday.  He was surprised at his desk, while performing his role as hacker and Kira worshipper Yūgi Shion, with something which obviously delighted him.  Unfortunately we can't get a decent enough translation to find out what!  Paper lanterns, perchance?
Yūgi Shion actor Masaki Suda celebrates 23rd birthday on Death Note set

Death Note 2016 movie, official Twitter (Feb 20th 2016)
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Gallery of Kira Cosplay by Fausto the Endless, and Also of L

27/2/2016

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One of Russia's most remarkable anime cosplayers has allowed Death Note News to republish
stunning photographs from her Death Note cosplay gallery.
We've already glimpsed Fausto the Endless once, illustrating the introductory header in our mid-event round up for Month of Kira art and articles.  Here's another image from that same shoot.  There will soon be a whole lot more from her portfolio, which make this one look quite prosaic in comparison.

Fausto-the-Endless Cosplays Kira - Wing of Death

Kira - Wing of Death (Note) Cosplay by Fausto-the-Endless
(Photograph courtesy of Fausto-The-Endless, DeviantART)
Poor Fausto the Endless really wanted to join in further by filling in the questionnaire prepared for Light Yagami cosplayers. But time wasn't on our side.

Hopefully we'll get the chance to grab her again for advice on costuming as Kira. Not to mention sharing cosplay staging tips, given those elaborate recreations of famous Death Note scenes that adorn her environment.

The God of the New World
- Fausto the Endless Kira Cosplay

Fausto-the-Endless - The God of the New World Death Note Light Yagami cosplay
(Photograph courtesy of FaustoTheEndless, WorldCosplay.net)
There will be plenty of opportunity forthcoming in one of our later Death Note Month of... events.  It would be particularly appropriate, to invite further input from Fausto the Endless, when we get around to hosting Month of L.

Take a good, hard look at these amazing pictures from her cosplayed Death Note scenes. Captured here in handcuffs, depicting Death Note during L's bout of demonstrating dodgy detention techniques and a wanton disregard for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But how many separate cosplayers do you count?

FaustotheEndless Cosplays
Death Note - Antagonism

Fausto-the-Endless Light Yagami and L cosplay
(Photograph courtesy of FaustoTheEndless, WorldCosplay.net)
Just the one. But that one is brilliant.  The wonder of modern technology allowing us to see Fausto the Endless in costume as BOTH Light Yagami and L simultaneously. Be honest here, even knowing that, can YOU tell that the Death Note characters are cosplayed by the same talented lady?

Death Note - The Mightiness of Kira
Cosplay by FaustotheEndless

Light Yagami cosplay FaustoTheEndless Death Note The Mightiness of Kira
(Photograph courtesy of FaustoTheEndless, WorldCosplay.net)
Though granted she elicited some help from her friends for this reproduction of Death Note manga cover art in cosplay.  The red-shrouded figures of death are played by Milana Tepesh, Yuna Kairi and Luka - members of Russia's WTF Cosband, which is headed by Fausto the Endless herself.

You can read more about how they pulled off such intricately cosplayed Death Note images, in a September 2014 report on DeviantART about their photoshoot.

Otherwise, catch up with Fausto and her WTF Cosband on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Ask; or, if you speak Russian, Fausto The Endless on VK and WTF Cosband's Official Page there too.  All of those locations show more Death Note cosplay pictures from the collective not shown above, in addition to those from all their other costumed endeavours. 

Colour us impressed.

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Japan Picks Kira: Most Popular Role in Miyano Mamoru's Thirteen Year Career

27/2/2016

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Japanese Death Note Kira Seiyu Miyano Mamoru
(Report by Orangepunch)

Once again the Japanese have proven their propensity to fall en masse into worshipping Kira.  Only this time it's reality, not manga, and a good deal better justified. 

'You are Kira, aren't you?'  Fans reaffirmed to Miyano Mamoru, returning Death Note's Light Yagami top-ranked - by a Godlike margin - in a Goo Ranking poll to uncover anime voice actor's most popular ever role.

With Miyano's career spanning from 1990 to now, a hefty number of performances were incorporated onto a list presented to fans.

Each person could choose just one as their favourite.

Miyano Mamoru - Japan's Star Seiyu

That must have been a hard, nigh impossible task, given that Miyano has long been the leading voice behind some of anime's best known characters.

With so many of the genre's most successful shows glittering across his resume, it's not like Kira is the only role for which he's known.  He's the seiyu for Tamaki Suoh in Ouran High School Host Club; Vampire Knight's Zero Kiryuu; and Rin Matsuoka in Free!, plus several dozen other equally prominent parts.

Yet Kira slaughtered all rivals to net over a quarter of all votes.  His nearest competitor - Setsuna from Mobile Suit Gundam 00 - attracted a mere 6.4% of the fans to favour him into second place. 

While Light Yagami held aloft his own percentage, a mighty 26.2%.

[Which means 73.8% of the voting anime fandom hated him, or at least favoured someone else ~ Matti]

[Stop pretending to know math;  by your logic 93% 'hated' 2nd place Setsuna - context and comparison validify the win ~ Orangepunch]

From LA to Tokyo: Everyone Loves All Singing, All Dancing Light Yagami Actor Miyano Mamoru - Particularly Men 'Newly Feminized' at Festivals by his Tunes

There's a rather awkwardly written report in The Japan News this week, which seems to lose something in translation of the nuances needed for clarification.  We think.

Since wrapping up his stint as Kira, Miyano Mamoru has gone on to do more than merely voice most of the anime characters worth watching.  He's also become a pop star, whose latest single release How Close You Are came out on January 27th 2016.  It includes the closing credits song Ajin: Demi-Human, from the eponymous anime, wherein Miyano naturally plays the lead.

He's rather proud of this latter recording, as it was written for him by film music composer Jim Nakamura and Hollywood music producer C.J.Vanston.  Miyano's excitement is palpable, as he relates to reporters Makoto Tanaka and Yomiuri Shimbun, how he was invited to the duo's LA studios to receive and sing his song.  His first recording session as a singer overseas.

Miyano Mamoru seems more pleased with that track.  Ajin: Demi-Human is lingered over for several paragraphs, and called a treasure. The CD's main track barely gets a mention in passing.

However, this is all just cute and feel good update stuff, which has veered quite far from Death Note now.  What did get our interest, becoming the cause of more than one puzzled look  here this afternoon, is right back up the top in the article's second paragraph.
To his surprise, Miyano was loudly cheered by male members of the audience when he performed in a large-scale music festival last year. “After the event, many men made such positive comments to me as, ‘I found myself shouting’ and ‘I feel like I’m a feminized man.’ I was very happy,” Miyano said.
He told me about this experience as if he were whispering something confidential to me. I, a middle-aged man, was also instantly captivated by him.
~ Everyone loves Miyano: Voice actor dances, sings and fascinates, Makoto Tanaka and Yomiuri Shimbun, The Japan News, February 25th 2016

We're all dying to know how that was originally phrased in Japanese (assuming that the exchange didn't occur in English, as repeated for us.)  The passage reads like it's ladden with subtle tells of the nudge-nudge-wink-wink kind, without really delivering on what's being implied. Or remains blatant, just as penned.

"I didn't know Miyano Mamoru was gay!" One unnamed columnist commented here.  But her pseudo gaydar seems faulty on this occasion, according to another writer with his own instinct for the same very finely tuned indeed.  He considered the wording to be quite blatantly stating that Miyano is your archetypal, highly fashionable Tokyo Metrosexual, and no-one should be reading anything past the 'cute' part.

Maybe he's just in touch with his amina with nothing more to read into it, nor nudged between the lines.  Just a Japanese statement missing its cultural anchor now it's drifted into English waters.

It's not like anyone here cares who excites and enchants Miyano Mamoru - at home or in the press - as long as everyone's happy and consent is carried in the love.  However, we do love a puzzle to ponder; even if its just an ambiguously worded sentiment, eliciting ever wilder interpretations from minds grown over-tired and silly.

Bless him. We all love him too.  Who wouldn't?

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Depicting the Darker Shades of Light Yagami with Graphite Pencil Artist Lei K 

26/2/2016

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Lei K draws upon her own experience to outline - via the Month of Kira artist questionnaire - how budding Death Note fan-artists might tackle a portrait of Light Yagami. Just like her own, reproduced below.
Lei K - Light art on Death Note News Month of Kira
Lei K's Light is just one of the many pieces of artwork on display in her gallery on DeviantART.  She's an artist from Nānākuli, on the Island of O'ahu, Hawaii, who specialises in graphite pencil art.  Her Light Yagami portrait was completed in May 2014, using graphite, charcoal and colour pencils.

To see more of her most up-to-date artwork, including another showing of her pencil drawn Kira, you really need to visit her website - La808Lei. 
Wherein you can view Lei K's works in progress; completed art in varying media; and, oh bless you!, a link back to Death Note News!  Not to mention social media links to keep up with all that's new from this talented lady's studio, and opportunities to purchase selected artwork from her gallery.

Low-Down on Drawing Light Yagami with Nānākuli Graphite Pencil Artist Lei K

Do you/have you created Kira art now or in the past?
Yes - in the past

Any anecdotes about your experiences as a Light Yagami artist?
I developed a strong appetite for potato chips, preferably Sour Cream and Onions.

How would you go about creating a Kira drawing/sculpture?
Find good references of Light. What I like to do is use the anime itself as a good reference for a Light. Also it's good to know what mood you want to give off in the drawing. It'll make it more visually appealing.

What attributes, clothing and/or scenarios, do you feel are essential to include in Light Yagami artwork?
His red eyes. I normally work with graphite pencils, but this time I added charcoal pencils into the mix. I wanted darker tones, so those red eyes could stand out. I also wanted the tone dark to give the drawing a dark vibe. Of course I had to have the smirk smile of his and the Death Note.

Is there more to recreating Kira visually than the outfit? (Expression/stance/slogan etc.)
Yes there is. I don't really want to quote another artist, but in this case it's the best answer I can give. Get his personality. It has to come across no matter what. Also get Kira expression right...either it's him writing names in the Death Note, doing the evil laugh or even eating a bag of potato chips. Having his expression right helps recreating Kira visually.

What, in your professional opinion, are fundamental tips/advice in producing art that's recognisably Kira?
Use good references and have them at a decent size. The larger the better, so you could zoom in on certain details. Also get all the references you might need beforehand. It's better to have references before you start, so they are ready for you to use while you are drawing. It’s a huge time saver.

What are the common noob errors made in drawing/modelling Light Yagami?
Not getting the details of Light right...like his eyes, hair, clothes, expression, etc. Having a reference from the anime, manga or even action figure is a great way to make sure you have the right details of Light.
Detail from 'Light Yagami' by Lei K - Death Note News
Any last tips for anyone reading, who wishes to start creating Kira artwork?
Draw what moves you. If it's a certain scene, emotion or you have a feeling to just draw Light...than draw him. When that creative mood hits act upon it. If you don't...it'll nag you until you do. Also you don't have to draw exactly how Light looks in the anime. As long you have his details right, you can do your own style of Light. That would make your artwork stand out more, because it’ll have your own personal touch to it.

Creating something is better than creating nothing.

Artists!

Would you like to have a go at answering these questions on your own behalf?

If you are a Death Note artist - or indeed an artist per se - and you're willing to share your tips, thoughts and advice with the fandom, then visit our fan-artist's questionnaire page to fill in the form.

Thank you in advance!

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Death Note News Light Yagami Gift Store (Sort of) Open

26/2/2016

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Death Note Light Yagami gift ideas collage

Matti Learns Dave McKean Makes This Collage Malarkey Look Too Easy

Death Note Light Yagami merchandise art
- created by Matti for Month of Kira -
in the WTF?!IsThatSupposedToBe Tradition
If you have no artistic talent, you might as well go surreal.

At least it gives folk something interesting to look at and wonder at the mindset that created such a collage.  Plus, of course, what the sweet actual they are looking at.

The masterpiece you're currently enjoying (left) is entitled Matti Learns That Dave McKean Makes This Stuff Look Too Easy.

Alternatively known as Thumbnail for a Kira Gift Shop on Death Note News.

We needed something to adorn the slidey 'heads up' thing over to your right.  But mostly what we need is an artist actually on the staff.

The situation is thus:  We're coming to the end of Death Note Month of Light Yagami. This means that we're systematically checking all of the inboxes to ensure that no-one's submission got missed, and that everyone as yet unpublished is in our big planning grid somewhere.

That done, it was a return to the start, back to that big list made of possible content, when we thought hardly anyway would join in. Ha!
Anything missed?  Any great ideas sizzling away on a back-burner, in danger of becoming charcoal, because no-one's checked that list since we wrote it?  (Being too busy organizing, liaising, coding, formatting, chasing and all other manner of orchestrating e-mails zooming back and forth, coz folk beautifully, fabulously and brilliantly did join in.  In absolute droves.)

Finds a whole article written in advance, and promptly forgotten about; has a frightened little gasp over the short list pertaining to Light Yagami's birthday on the 28th.

Never did source an astrologer to tell us about the propensity of Pisceans to become Kira; nor anyone to explain why it matters that his Light Yagami's blood group is A; nor whether the Fire Tiger of the Death Note manga birth year for Kira, or Earth Snake of the anime, best suits Light's personality as described in the Chinese Zodiac.  If anyone actually knows any of this stuff - or related charts, no-one mentioned Indian astrology yet! - then you have two days to jot your knowledge down and rush it to us in time for Kira's birthday on February 28th.

Pretty much guaranteed to ninja yourself into our already chock-a-block publishing grid for Light Yagami month though!

Then there it was, a faded, pencilled little note - create a gift store for Kira on Death Note News.  It would tie in nicely and we have a freaking website to pay for!  If we could just start remembering to populate (and promote) our Death Note Gifts area (tick), we might get a dribble of commission in to put aside towards hosting costs (He Moves Me Differently, not really here); domain name retention (here); Kira crossword prizes etc.

So when things get tough, we wouldn't have to resort to desperate measures, like launching an appeal replete with photographs of the wide-eyed, cute, beseeching faces of our two kittens and boa constrictor.

(Incidentally, and remarkably, that worked!  Yow and Jiji are currently nowhere to be seen, out playing without risk of our kittens creating more kittens; plus they got their travel home, all their inoculations and insurance to cover them at their friendly, lovely vet. Tinkerbell is having a vivarium built especially for her. Until about two days ago, I'd have said she's the happiest boa constrictor alive. Then she got mites.  This is not a great learning curve, but we're winning nontheless. No infestation of snake eating mini-spiders noms Tink on OUR watch. And yes, Anonysnake did raise Anonymous to help haX0r said mites.  Two Anons anyway.  No more about that here.  This is a Death Note news site!  If you want to keep up with kitten/boa gossip, follow them on Twitter like normal people.)
Anyway, utterly side-tracked.  Have a reject Death Note Kira merchandise thumbnail to get us back on track.

I nearly went with this. It seemed to me to have possibilities, which in the hands of a real artist might have been teased out.  Then again, it wouldn't have got to this stage with a real artist.

There would have been art.

Much waffling later, we arrive at the point.  Bulleted recap for TL;DR:
  • Death Note News staff are great at researching, writing and generally enjoying discovering and sharing all things Death Note.
  • We're universally rubbish at creating and/or maintaining the stores that might (eventually) pay for the means to do the sharing bit.
  • Death Note Month of Kira was supposed to have a gift filled store attached (tied in to incentivise us more than you);
  • We forgot.
BIG DRUM-ROLL! 
  • Then remembered three days before the end of the event;
  • And a Death Note Light Yagami Gift Store now exists with some stuff in it!  Go and see!  Gape and wonder!  Count all the things you already have and what you wish to buy for Matti as a present.  *a-hem*
Death Note Kira fan gift ideas - Death Note News
LIGHT YAGAMI SHOP - THE SEQUEL!
  • There will be more items there soon.  Assuming that we spend more time adding Kira gift ideas, than we do writing long rambling blog-like articles and/or creating bizarre collages from images of Light Yagami merchandise.

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Death Note Nets Best Musical at the Korean 2016 eDaily Culture Awards

25/2/2016

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KPop heart-throb Junsu collected the top prize for Death Note the Musical's Korean staging,
at a star-studded awards gala held in Seoul's National Theater this week.
Jun-Su Kim L Death Note Musical Best Musical at eDaily Culture Awards Feb 2016
L actor Kim Jun-su - Death Note Musical - Best Musical at eDaily Culture Awards Feb 19th 2016
Death Note's stage adaptation came first in the 2016 eDaily Culture Awards Best Musical category.  Kim Jun-Su accepted the award on behalf of the whole theatrical team behind Death Note, in his capacity as the actor who played L.

His speech was translated by Rilanna at JYJ3.net:

pic.twitter.com/UHF2rNeI9V

— 두부둡맘 (@DOOB_2) February 19, 2016
Kim Junsu began to speak with, “I would like convey words of thanks on behalf of the performance cast and production crew of 100 people”. Continuing, he also said, “‘Death Note’ had its first cultivation in Korea when it hit the stage last summer; and I am grateful that this award has more meaning, as much as it was C-JeS Culture’s first debut work,” and, “I am thankful to Baek Chang-joo who had helped the work go up, in the one word that I only want to do it, and to have been directed by Japan’s Kuriyama Tamiya who undertook the directing of its Korean version”.

Adding, he completed his thoughts, “Teamwork between the actors was important to proceed as a one-cast with my previous installment of 57 performances. I shall share this pleasure with actors & actresses Hong Kwang-ho, Park Hye-na, Kang Hong-seok, and Jung Sun-ah; who created the stage together with me. I am accepting this award with praise and encouragement for C-JeS Culture and I promise that I shall go forward in creating a better work in the future ahead”.
~ JYJ3.Net, [NEWS] 160219 3rd eDaily Culture Awards: Musical ‘Death Note’ seized top prize in Musical category… Kim Junsu “Will repay you with a better work” by Rilanna (Feb 19th 2016)
This is only the third ever outing for the eDaily Daily Culture Awards - the Korean Oscars, if you will.  At least a glittering, celebrity ridden event aiming to become the premier awards ceremony for performance art in Korea.  Befitting such lofty intentions, big names provided much of the razzmatazz pouring into the gala beneath the flashes and glare of paparazzi, TV cameras and press.
Some of the country's most popular artists - from music, screen and stage - walked the red carpet into the Haeorum Theater, part of Korea's National Theater in Seoul, on February 19th 2016.  They were in attendance then to witness Death Note the Musical grab its highest accolade yet. The top prize for a musical currently available in Korea.

Moreover, in accepting the trophy for Death Note, Kim Jun-Su's position as a theatrical actor - as opposed to a Korean pop idol courtesy of JYJ - is largely viewed as consolidated within the country.  No wonder then that Korean news reports most widely quote Junsu in saying, 'I am honored to be given such a grand prize. I want to share this glory with all the staff members and actors who starred in Death Note.'  It was a big moment for the L actor.  Worthy of cake.
L actor Junsu Death Note Best Musical eDaily Culture Awards Feb 19th 2016 - Photo: @Ac_dog

Photograph courtesy of @Ac_dog
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