Lancaster Public Library, in Lancaster County, PA, has just announced a series of open discussions on the 'Best Books You Never Read' - and Death Note made the grade.

The manga is up there with works by William Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, Agatha Christie, John Milton, JD Salinger and... wow! You're discussing Abelard and Heloise! If I wasn't half way across the world, I'd be joining you.

The Death Note Open Book Discussion will take place on September 17th 2014, at 4pm. The venue is Ephrata Public Library, in Ephrata.  Insofar as I can ascertain, it's a free event, though it is geared towards 13-18 year olds.

If anyone does attend, could you please point out that they've spelt Ohba wrong? Thanks!

It's been a while since I last opened the Death Note manga. I know the story intimately, so there's usually no need. But recently I thought it might be nice to see if all is quite how I remembered it.

It wasn't.

In the very first pages, I spotted something which I've missed every single time I've read Death Note. The Shinigami Ryuk may have been more deeply involved in initiating events than I'd previously suspected.

I've always read that as the fourth wall intruding. The unseen narrator foreshadowing events to come. But what if it isn't?  What if these are actually Ryuk's thoughts, and he's kicked off a proper bit of Fated destiny between Light Yagami and L?  (Presuming, of course, that those two gentlemen are the aforementioned 'chosen ones'.)

Until now, the story of Death Note seemed much more random than that. Ryuk's role largely involving dropping a spare notebook, then turning up five days later to act as an observer. He couldn't predict ahead of time who would pick up the Death Note and whether they would use it. There had certainly been no hint that he'd brought L into the frame.

However, we know very well that the Death Note can be used to control actions. What if Ryuk had written in his own notebook the following words:

'The number one student in Japan will find the Death Note and the number one detective in the world will be involved in the case.' 

He could even have written in the deaths of all concerned, as he has the Shinigami eyes and knows when the fatal moments will occur.  All he had to do was fill in a few details.

What do you think?  Did Ryuk select Light and L specifically as his 'two chosen ones', thus driving the entire story arc?  Or are we merely reading the fourth wall narrator foreshadowing events there?

Lawliet is being made by Power On Films, a production company based in California, USA. The Death Note inspired movie constitutes its only offering to date.

Both appear to be the brainchild of Ryuk voice actor Ricardo Arechiga, who is billed as writer and director of Lawliet, as well as its cinematographer. His name is down as producer too, though that's a task he'll be sharing with fellow up-and-coming filmmaker Kazuki Abika.

Fans they may be (and aren't we all?), yet there is genuine talent behind this particular collaboration. From their self-penned biographies on IMDb, we learn that Rico and Kazuki are students.  Rico won an excellence award from his Theater Arts class in his final year at High School, while Kazuki is currently attending New York University for Tisch School of the Arts. He is majoring in Film and Television.

They are still teenagers - Rico turns 20 in September and Kazuki in December - but have gained plenty of experience in all aspects of film-making.

Not only from their courses either.  Kazuki has already produced several movie shorts and documentaries (there are seven listed on IMDb, including Lawliet), which has led to some recognition within the Indy Mogul internet-based independent movie-making community.  Meanwhile Rico has established himself, along with L actor Ray Evangelista, as the YouTube channel duo Rico and Ray.

... that the Death Note anime is on Netflix and Hulu now.

And also that I'm going to be AFK for a week starting Friday, so there will be some delay in answering comments. <3

Norma Editorial has announced a brand new run of the Death Note manga in Spanish.

The first two tankoubon volumes will be released for the XX Salón del Manga de Barcelona in October, with the remaining ten coming out monthly thereon.

It's already been announced that Takeshi Obata will be at the convention, so he'll be on hand to sign a few!

Also greatly rumored is the fact that How to Read (Death Note 13) will also be released at the same time, along with Another Note and L: Change the World. Spanish translations for all three have been promised since 2009 - and nearly made it for the last Salón - but time constraints have always seen them moved further down the priority queue.

Hopefully the presence of Mr Obata has shifted them right back up it again for our Spanish brethren!

Definitely on the cards are translations of another manga illustrated by Takeshi Obata.  The first two volumes of Blue Dragon will be available at the comic con, with the rest again following monthly.

Adrián Lavado, a writer with the Spanish e-magazine eCartelera, has gone one further than that. He wrote that Shane Black 'hacer una historia de venganza en vez de justicia y eliminar a los personajes conocidos como shinigami.' (Shane Black 'wanted a story about revenge, rather than justice, and to eliminate the shinigamis.')

The above led to irreconcilable differences between the director and Warner Bros., which ultimately resulted in a parting of ways.

This half chimes with what Shane Black told Long Beach Comic Con back in October 2011. Then he revealed long-running disagreements over the direction of the Death Note story.  He wanted an adaptation that was faithful to the manga, but Warner Bros. kept pushing for one that was morally black and white, with Kira more the flawed anti-hero than anyone who could be considered 'evil'. 

Every one of Yagami's actions had to be justified within the pursuit of justice; and the 'demon' shinigamis had to go.  It was Shane who fought for none of that to happen.

My reading of the situation is that Lavado has switched the views of Shane Black and Warner Bros.  What do you think?

 - And muchas gracias to Álvaro for alerting me to the Spanish language report.

Look above at the navigation bar, people!  Where Drew Nelson's interview used to be, we have a whole new section on the Death Note News site.

Death Note Interviews isn't old enough to be in its infancy. You're actually here witnessing its birth!

And begin is a singer, who's no stranger to kick-starting a buzz that keeps the whole place bouncing. Fresh from spots in several German music festivals - and a plethora of other venues too - Asuka Actionstar stopped by to talk Death Note, Kira, moral ambiguity, Misa, Mello, dark romance, Goethe, 'coincidence' and L.

This isn't entirely as random as it may seem. Long time readers of Death Note News will recall a previous blog entry, wherein it was reported that Post-Hardcore rockers No Need to Stay have released a single inspired by, and devoted to, the twisted mind of Light Yagami. It caused a frenzy of comments at the time. Vocalist and song-writer Asuka was kind enough to pop in then to answer them.

I'm nothing if not opportunist, so leapt on him faster than you can say Matt in a Camaro with an invitation to be interviewed for Death Note News.

Bless him! He said yes! And it would have happened within a week or two of that initial post, but for the fact that No Need to Stay's own light suddenly rose to blinding proportions within their native Germany's metal scene. What with them dashing from studio sessions to photo shoots, then into concerts, signings and mysterious meetings (which left Asuka as excited as he was close-lipped), the band's interview with us never quite occurred.

But frankly, who can blame them for that?  I know where I'd be if I was him!

Imagine my surprise then, when I received an e-mail informing me that he's got a spare moment. He hadn't forgotten us and he can do the interview now. If the offer's still there, and all. Yep, Asuka, it really is.

And now you get to see it too.  Enjoy the brand new Death Note Interviews area - which I intend to fill up quite nicely over time with more of the same - and especially savour our wonderful latest addition.  Ladies and gentlemen, Shinigami, Wammy kids, cutesy J-Poppers and LA hoods, I give you Asuka from No Need to Stay!  (The rising star who never forgot us.)

It's song we've all heard a million times, but with the lyrics in Japanese. I can sing along to it, despite not otherwise having a word of the language.

Thanks to a fabulous band named The Kira Justice (guess what inspired their name!), English speaking Death Note fans now get to experience that familiar tune in our own language.

Did you enjoy that?  Your very own English Dub Death Note theme mp3 may be downloaded for free from The Kira Justice's Facebook page.

Hayato Kakizawa and Kenji Urai give us the victory sign, as they both turn up at the Death Note Musical rehearsals.

The actors will both be playing the role of Light Yagami in the stage show, though obviously not at the same time, as that would be silly.  The picture was posted by a new official Twitter account for the musical. Follow them on @dnmusical.

Death Note the Musical will begin its run from April 2015, at the Nissei Theater in Tokyo, before moving on to South Korea.

Polandball, Countryball, whatever your favoured name for the meme, it's just run with a bit of a Death Note theme.

Reworked as Debt Note, the comic tells the story of what occurs when Polandball finds a dark notebook on the floor. Whichever country's name is written in the book will be hit with crippling national debt within forty seconds.

What happens next will be very familiar to Death Note fans!  And highly amusing too.

For those not in the loop, Polandball (or Countryball) is a community created internet comic, known for its biting satirical commentary upon real world events. Or, you know, just playing to national stereotypes for the lulz. 

It occasionally has to fight off blatant take-over bids from right-wing extremists, who would prefer the 'lulz' to be more Nazi propagandist their nature. But the meme has largely outgrown those dodgy infiltrations.  The backlash tends to come, in overwhelming numbers from the rest of the community, not necessarily because of opposing politics, but that any group is trying to steal their comic universe.

Each nation is depicted as a ball, resplendent in their flag and maybe other identifying accessories - beret for the French, monocle for the Brits etc.  Here is Debt Note.

I am Alexhliel, and most of you will recognize that name from MB or Deviant Art. Otherwise I am known as ShinigamiMailJeevas. I guess that kind of confuses people, but by the time I started to make a name as Shinigami the other accounts had already been created and had my work on them. And well, I was not about to pay to change the old name.

I might also have to tell you that my mind goes in about a thousand directions at once so if things seem a bit jumbled here, they probably are :D

So, about me and what I have been up too. Not much to be honest. My life still revolves around “work days” and “days off” and I am still trying to move out of my state. At this point I am going to accept the fact that I either need to win the lotto or deal with being up to my eyeballs in debt—or I'm never going to leave.

I don’t have much to tell about how things have been going other than that. Everything is sort of just the same as it has been. Crappy health. Still struggling with weight. And would generally be happier becoming a hermit with my Mello, MelMat, with internet access so I can buy and watch my anime online. >_> That makes my life sound so boring.

While I miss the MangaBullet community, I am happy that there is at least a few small places we can gather again. I can be a bit of a lurker, mainly because I don’t do well in social situations and come across a bit cold and awkward. Though people who know me personally know I can be...a bit of a dork.

Example: I sent this to my lovely Mello on Valentine's Day.

Recently I have been into watching anime more than anything else. I finally finished watching Gintama after a few years of waiting for the subtitles to catch up. It is, and has remained, my favorite anime. Don't get me wrong, I love Death Note and my OTP will always be Mello/Matt. But my favorite anime is Gintama. That is an absolutely insane anime. It has comedy, samurai, aliens, slice of life, great fight scenes and is just generally awesome. I would also like to mention my second favorite anime is Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin), though the manga for that is much more involved and doesn’t have the unwanted bonus of animators trying to add more romantic undertones. The soundtrack for both are well worth buying as well.

Randomly, has anyone seen the show The Walking Dead?

I love zombies (not enough to, you know, meet them personally) and this show is freaking epic. Its the rare kind that gets better every season instead of backtracking. Even if you are not a fan of zombies, you will like this. Unless you cant handle a little gore...then you might not want to watch it.

But this is what I have been caught up on recently when not writing.

As for fanfiction, I am still very much attached to Death Note. The M's have forever engrained themselves in my brain and wont be leaving anytime soon. I am currently flopping back and forth between more than five multi-chaptered stories. Zombies, the crazy house, werewolves, Stargate crossover (I know, bad bad me with the cross over...but I'm only using the universe not the characters. Heh) and Mello as FBI. I have my plate full and cant seem to focus on just one of them to finish.

On top of that my mind has been going over the ideas I have for novels I hope to get published. Including turning “Radio Nowhere”, my zombie fic, into original work at some point. So I am a bit crazed right now.

Look out world, you will soon be flooded with what I call horror novels :D

The only thing other than my Mello that keeps me sane during all this is.....music! It is my secret weapon when writing. A simple word or phrase can change my mood, and in turn my stories, so easily it is almost scarey. I however, can't write without it.

Anyone can skip this part if you really are not into music. I will just ramble on about a few bands that have really impressed me this year by having me buy the entire album. When it comes to music I am rather picky, and even when I say I love a band generally I will only like a few songs per album. These bands I bought the entire albums, not a single song disliked. And for me that is a feat.

Lacuna Coil. That bands last two albums have been pure genius. And the most recent one has spawned two multi chapter death Note fic ideas. Neither of them are warm and fluffy either.

Starset— their sound is described a “cinematic rock”, and I guess it is. The way the music melds with their vocals really just make me want to close my eyes and feel the songs. Not quite sure what I want to write to them just yet but it wont be anything fluffy.

One last band I have to praise is Digital Daggers. They did a “reimaginations” EP, which was basically a cover EP of older and well known songs. On it was “Aquarius”. You know the original, “Age of Aquarius” by The 5th Dimension? I rather dislike the original, and was about to skip over it, but I love digital Daggers so I gave it a shot. I am so glad I did. The melody is hauntingly beautiful. This song spawned a rather unique Death Note idea-but that is all I will say at this time.

Well now all of that is out of the way, I guess it is time to close this. It's been fun :)

I mainly reside on my Fanfiction.net account “ShinigamiMailJeevas” but should something happen to that I also have an account of the same name on Archive of our Own. I am just too lazy to deal with HTML codes to update....

• Fanfiction: ShinigamiMailJeevas
  
• AO3: ShinigamiMailJeevas
  
• DeviantArt (not really here anymore but I left my artwork up): Alexhliel