| Godzilla concept artist Shinji Nishikawa will be at California con Monsterpalooza, at the Pasadena Convention Center, from 22-24 April 2016. Why do we care? Other than he seems to be a lovely and rather talented gentleman? Because Shinji Nishikawa was also responsible for setting production on the Death Note anime back in 2006-2007. Our guess is that he'd much rather be asked about that, rather than all this Godzilla stuff he's become quite famous for in the meantime. So we're counting on you, Californians, to nip along, question him and report back on our behalf. If only to find out what 'setting production' is. Billed as a manga artist, illustrator and Godzilla series creature designer (with Death Note setting production strangely omitted), Shinji Nishikawa will be at Monsterpalooza taking fan requests for art, whilst sketching some original monsters too. More about the convention at Monsterpalooza's website; and check out their announcement re Shinji Nishikawa via the Monsterpalooza Facebook stream. |  |
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Not long ago, I watched a video by YouTuber Onision. In this video, Onision basically says that Light Yagami's mistake is not considering PREVENTING crime, as opposed to punishing criminals who've ALREADY done bad things. And by preventing crime, I mean writing for example, "Anyone who THINKS of committing a crime will be killed by the power of this notebook, before they get to actually fulfil their intentions." I disagree, because preventing crimes by killing anyone who intends to commit them makes deaths looks like coincidences or normal deaths. In other words, if you were to hear of the death of a certain person of which no one knows the intentions, it would've NEVER occurred to you there's someone out there "passing righteous judgement", which we all know is one of Light's ultimate goals, to make Kira famous and worshipped.
I think yes, because all that sentence written in Death Note needs in order to be applied is a strong willingness to kill, which is present in the example. But then again, that's just my wicked over-analysis and my own point-of-view to which you are free to reply. To post one too, please visit our submission page
Adam Wingard is known for his horror/suspense movies. Lots of blood and guts, a touch of the old slasher genre, with plenty of gratuitous violence, should the script allow him to ninja some in. Plus sex. And expletives. That's what we've come to expect from Adam Wingard, the man responsible for The Guest (2014), You're Next (2011) and segments of movies like V.H.S. and its sequel. Hence Death Note was already promising to be a little gorily adult themed in amongst his oeuvre.
What Roy Lee had to say merely places a smile on several Death Note News staff-members faces, coupled with a 'obviously seen Deadpool and decided to risk it then' comment or two. Meanwhile, editor Matti has already been trying to introduce Adam Wingard to the concept of filming the second arc too:
 Described as 'the most terrible ever user of a Death Note' Sakura Aoi, as played by Rina Kawaei Warner Bros Japan has announced another new character for its live action movie Death Note 2016 (working title), currently being filmed in Japan.
Sakura Aoi is one of the six people set to possess a fallen Death Note. However, in complete contrast to Light Yagami, she uses it utterly indiscriminately with no attempt at all at justification. This makes her - we are warned - the 'most terrible Death Note user' that we've seen yet. Bringing her to life on the silver screen is Rina Kawaei, formerly a singer in the Japanese idol girl band AKB48. On Warner's official Death Note 2016 website, she proclaims herself excited because this isn't any kind of role that she's played before. She's looking forward to the challenge. Moreover, she's thrilled because this is Death Note! Though finding that a slightly strange feeling, on account of her excitement being about a story wherein lots of people die. Oh, Rina! Hang out with us. No-one will think you strange amongst this readership. You're amongst friends and kindred spirits here!
For someone with an ego-centric, megalomaniac second self, Maru-Light is surprisingly succinct when talking about her non-psychopathic, ordinary New Jersey lady persona, "I started cosplaying in 2007 with Anda-Chan. We cosplayed Death Note together from 2008 - 2011. DN characters I've done include Light/Kira, L, Beyond Birthday, Mello & Matt." She's being too modest. You can view her Death Note gallery on DeviantART to see what I mean and judge for yourself. (And yeah, we go back years - I'd not refer to every Kira cosplayer as a genocidal, God complex ridden lunatic. That would be rude.)
Kira Cosplayer Maru-Light Explains the Fundamentals of Becoming Light Yagami
Any last tips for anyone reading, who wishes to create their Kira cosplay from scratch? MAKE-UP. Really, don't neglect your face! All the clothes and wigs in the world won't seal the final touch like make-up. In the end, I was using tape to change the shape of my facial features, I used female-to-male make-up techniques, I used eye-liner to make my eyes pop. Make-up is very important. Don't neglect it. I personally did bind as well. I won't advise binding for health reasons, but I didn't cosplay without strapping down my D-cups. Just make sure if you bind, bind carefully and be mindful of technique. It's easy to cause serious injury if you don't bind correctly.
 There's less than 24 hours left! Have you got your questions in yet for our three Kira voice actors? Brad Swaile, Sergio Zamora and Kim Hasper are waiting to receive them, so get in quick! Deadline is midnight today, though that's been set right over on the Pacific coast timeline, so Europeans and those over in the East, you have slightly extra time. Use it wisely. Once the countdown clock - on the right hand sidebar - hits zero, the question forms will close. The Spanish and German translators will rush into action; and three Death Note anime seiyuu will hear a ping from their inbox. Just eighteen hours and 42 mins remaining, at the time of writing. To read profiles on each Light Yagami anime voice actor and find the form to ask a question (or ten), check out the links below. Every question form is identical, and posts to the same place. It's just that the one on Kim's page has been translated into German; on Sergio's, the form is in Spanish; and on Brad's, it's in English. Just like the Death Note dubs that each man did. So go ask Kira! 18 hours and 38 mins now... NB You can ask questions of any Light Yagami seiyuu from any of the forms, regardless of whose profile or language the form was in. Questions in English, German or Spanish are being translated appropriately for each actor on your behalf.
Six of the twenty-two actors who have played Light Yagami share their birthday with another in their rarefied group. Had the Death Note anime's German dub Kira Kim Hasper been born a day later, he would have made it a triple whammy for one date. To the untutored mind it seems like magic, or the greatest, weirdest coincidence imaginable. But it isn't magic, it's mathematics according to Richard Mak, and he's a bit like Near when it comes to the old calculations. Death Note Light Yagami Actors' Shared Birthday Phenomenon Take a look at this list of birthdays for Death Note actors in the role of Kira across various adaptations. Something remarkable soon comes to light:
So what you've got here is a well-known 'birthday problem'. If you're in a room with significantly less than 366 people, it turns out it's already very likely to have two people with the same birthday. For the sake of simplicity let's assume that February 29th doesn't exist, which shouldn't affect calculations too much, but also that somebody is equally likely to be born on every day of the year. The latter is obviously not true because there are certain times of year where more babies are born than others for various reasons, but it still shouldn't take away the basic argument here. Let's first think about the probability that *nobody* shares a birthday - after all, if you know the probability that nobody shares a birthday, you know the probability that at least two people share a birthday! Consider this:
There is one important thing to consider here: it is probably fair to assume that these people are fairly unrelated. Because of this, one pair of birthdays doesn't make another pair more or less likely. Considering there are 7 billion people in the world and these actors were picked from that number, there is nothing to connect their birthdays unless their parents knew each other and agreed to have a baby on the same date (which would be impressive in and of itself!)
Actually working out specific numbers is quite difficult. I took a quick look at my university's digital library and couldn't find any research papers on anything beyond the canonical birthday problem (i.e. purely looking at the probability of two people sharing a birthday). Nevertheless, the Kira Actors Birthday Phenomenon pings against a known mathematical problem, and the probability pans out.
The difficulty level on this Month of Kira crossword puzzle might be called cruel; bordering upon impossible. Hence we're offering a cash prize of ten whole pounds. That's probably a barrel full of dollars at today's inflation costs. At the very least, it's the price of a carefully bought, shiny, new manga. Which isn't a prize to be written off lightly. See what we did there? Soon as you've stopped chuckling to yourself, get solving your Kira crossword clues. How to be in for a Chance to Win the Cash Kira Crossword Prize You'll need to print off the grid, or copy it into GIMP or your own image manipulation software of choice. Photograph/screenshot the completed puzzle and send it to us via our Month of... content submission page - drop the file into the FileDrop or email us with a link to where it's lodged elsewhere on the world wide web. Hell, send it by carrier pigeon if you must! You have until this time next month, and the publication of our Touta Matsuda crossword, as your deadline. Then we'll whisk all correct entries around a hat and pull out the overall winner. Their tenner will wing its way to them forthwith via bank transfer or PayPal. Remember to include your email for riches notification, should you be our lucky winner. Everyone else, merely enjoy.  Shut up, Near. UPDATE: Finally, here they are - the answers to the Death Note Kira crossword puzzle posted above.
Would Kira have been Kira if he wasn't Japanese? What if he'd been Welsh? Or Somali? From Uzbekistan or France? Would an American Light Yagami have targeted criminals with such gusto? Would a Tibetan Kira's motivation have been the same? Death Note is a Japanese story, whatever its global appeal, and much of what occurs within it is infused with Japanese culture, morality and mores. Certain stances of etiquette, expectation and projected outcomes could only have happened in Japan. Would an Icelandic parent have stood by and let their home and family be subject to such surveillance? Could a Briton have been persuaded to volunteer themselves for torturous weeks of detention without charge? And would the perpetrators have been allowed to get away with it, if their victim actually agreed? My cynical self says yes. But that's by the by.  The Death Note really could have fallen anywhere in the world It's wrong to generalize based on national stereotypes, but intriguing to surmise the outcome had the Death Note fallen anywhere else in the world. Or how much Light Yagami's inherent Japaneseness affected the manner in which it was used; the motivation, thought processes and justifications that he passed through along the way; and the profile of those he killed, however vague their points of commonality may be.
What if the shinigami's notebook of death had landed in Syria? Would war crimes have factored much sooner in the programme than it occurred to Light to do so? Would Mexicans have taken on drug barons? Or those in the Niger Delta started on the profit-ridden oil polluters of fresh water - environmental evils trumping thuggish anti-social behaviour in the street? Callous corporations and white collar criminality could well come first in many an Industrialised, Capitalist nation. While localised gangs and small-time, blue collar crime would occupy erstwhile Kiras from other lands. How about your own? If the Death Note had dropped into your neighbourhood, how might Kira look then? And would (s)he act anything like Light Yagami? The discussion is open.  Anyone returning constantly to the Death Note News website today will have glimpsed hints that things weren't going well behind the scenes.
It all went pear-shaped with a little routine link checking found some leading the wrong way; coupled with the notion that it would be a lovely thing to have a countdown timer to the deadline for asking Light Yagami actors your questions. Exasperated by the fabulous idea to have a sidebar slider Highlighting Interesting Things, plus Stuff our Readers Want to Find Fast, with images. Who would have thought that three simple, five second tasks could cause so much code to explode? But we live and learn, with today being a particularly large curve for the latter, and normal service is now not only resumed, but greatly improved. We hope. And while we're here with site news, a persistent issue with Facebook has finally been fixed too. Until recently, all Death Note News articles linked on Facebook appeared stuck displaying an older news item's headline, though the URL itself was correct for whatever was being shared. Now all Facebook shared links should feature the related headline instead. Can I hear a cheer to cover the freaking hours spent pouring over code working out why and the forty seconds putting it right? Thank you. If anyone spots anything else going awry anywhere on the site, we'd be grateful if you don't mention it would give us the heads up. Half the time such things remain broken simply because no-one here knows there's a problem. Thanks in advance for any feedback and tip offs.  Flavio Aquilone in Action as Kira in the Death Note Italian Dub Anime
 Nell knows what she's talking about. She makes a living from her art in her native Mexico. Her portrait of Light Yagami (above) was lifted from her DeviantART portfolio. Later (non-Death Note related) portraits netted first place prizes art competitions like the Photoshop User Awards (2008) - Illustration category and Royal Flush magazine's Portrait Illustration Contest (2008). More recently, Nell was short-listed for the Share One Planet Worldwide Illustration Contest Award. You can find more of her art on her website. Be prepared to sit there going, 'Wow!' for the next few minutes, as you peruse its gallery. We did. Nell Fallcard on Portraying Light Yagami in Traditional Art  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 used a reference of a guy I found attractive back in the day for the piece, he stumbled upon it and now we are good friends! Going to massacre his sassy ass in Smash Bros this Sunday. :D How would you go about creating a Kira drawing? Find references, get a basic sketch for composition and values, then render out! What attributes, clothing and/or scenarios, do you feel are essential to include in Light Yagami artwork? The K-pop boy band member hair and the red eyes are a must. Is there more to recreating Kira visually than the outfit? (Expression/stance/slogan etc.) His personality has to come across, so get a pose / body language that fits it! What, in your professional opinion, are fundamental tips/advice in producing art that's recognisably Kira? Using references is an absolute must in order not to get lost. What are the common noob errors made in drawing Light Yagami? Not using references! :'D The general public tend to think anything that comes from your head has more value than anything you copy, and they are right to an extent. But if you are in your early stages as an artist, your mission is to be able to get your fundamentals right before jumping into relying entirely on the contents of your mind. Professional artists usually do a mixture of both: they look for references and they change them in their head to come up with their own creations. Any last tips for anyone reading, who wishes to start creating Kira artwork? Nowadays there are tutorials for everything (what a beautiful time to be alive!), you just need to put the hours of work. So get yourself into training everyday and you will eventually be able to create anything you imagine!
 Only generally related to Death Note this, Squad Six Cosplayers' Lara has given us the heads up that she'll be part of an ensemble costuming quartet hosting a panel at Triad Anime Convention this March. Sewing, and Props, and Wigs... Oh My! is an all-encompassing cosplay advisory gig, with freely available tips on just about anything you ever wanted to know about dressing up as your favourite manga/anime character, plus a few things you didn't know to ask.
However, it is worth mentioning the panel here, because there are at least two known Death Note cosplayers on it. Hence attendee questions in that direction are likely to be more than adequately answered. Lara will also be joining the rest of Squad Six Cosplayers the following night for Blasting Off Again! Team Rocket panel, celebrating two decades of Pokémon. |
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