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Old Annals of Fear Audiobook Files Uploaded onto YouTube - MelloxMatt Fan-Fiction

28/8/2015

MelloxMatt Fan-fiction Annals of Fear II eBook by Matilda (MRSJeevas)

Our Death Note bookstore lists where to
read Annals of Fear on-line,
or download it as an eBook.

When I'm not scouring the cyberworld's media for news about Death Note to bring to you, then I'm usually writing fan-fiction set in its universe instead.

As anyone who can read a sidebar already knows.

Those who enjoy reading multi-chaptered Mello and Matt fan-fiction certainly know.

There's a whole forum of people, lured in by my It Matters series, then staying coz it's chatty, sociable and fun.

A real old school community of MelloxMatt fans (or vice versa, or separated out), occasionally even mentioning them, as we put the world to rights.

You're welcome to join us. The more the merrier.

Some of them have stuck around so long, that they can recall moments in my fan-fiction writing past, which I'd totally forgotten. Like the time I read chapters aloud from Annals of Fear, in a live chat filled with readers.

And how I said at the time that I could download the archived recordings to my hard-drive. So what was the likelihood that I still have them somewhere? Lurking away in a folder.

"Oh, I'd love to see them..." added a younger forumer, "I wasn't around for the MangaBullet days." Probably wasn' t even born. "It was already down by the time I found you. I missed out on it all."

"Yeah! It would be cool to relive the old days like that." An old friend PMed me later. "When I used to be your squealing fan-girl." Trolling. "Still am." Definitely trolling. Probably. "Reckon you could find them, if you looked hard enough?"

Like I ever throw anything away.

MRSJeevas Reads Annals of Fear Chapters 17-25
(Chat from Guns & Games Members)

Apologies in advance for whatever is on these Annals of Fear audio files. I haven't actually listened back to them. It's been four years, so I can't remember what was discussed in and between the readings.

Might be safe for granny; might be one long, sordid expletive fest. What can I say? Chaotic Neutral, according to all who know me.

Matti's Audiobook of Annals of Fear in Context

Back in 2011, while I was just starting to pen the opening chapters of Walls Came Tumbling Down, a group of my readers gathered in Livestream to hear me read aloud part of a previous novel.

It was my contribution to a Guns and Games gala day. Lodged within a full schedule of events, encompassing over 24 hours worth of Something Nice for Mello/Matt Fans to Enjoy.

The entire community was involved. Each member of that Mello and Matt fan-club - on the now defunct MangaBullet - bringing something to the table.

A Mello cosplayer streamed herself recreating his burn scar, using some substance which looked awfully realistic when it had dried on. MxM artists shared tips on capturing the characteristics of the couple in pen strokes and shading. Some writers held tutorials on how to make Mello and Matt live again in prose.

And I read stories.

Well, one story, and only in a smattering of chapters lifted from the middle.

Nevertheless, until I eventually get off my backside and fill in the blanks with recordings, it's the best you're going to get in terms of an audio version of Annals of Fear. But you never know. I get asked it often enough. Maybe one day I'll even turn up with the goods.

Guns and Games 200 members Mello and Matt thanks

Random Guns & Games picture
from 2011, found hidden on my hard-drive

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Original Cast Death Note Musical Show on TV

27/8/2015

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Did you miss out on the opportunity to see Death Note's theatrical stage-show during its inaugural run live in Japan?

Then dry your tears - HoriPro has just announced that it will be airing its musical on Japanese television this autumn.

Two Kiras and L - original Japanese Death Note Musical stars

Two Kiras and L - stars of the original Death Note Musical cast in Japan

Viewers will be able to watch two live performances of Death Note the Musical from the comfort of their own homes. Featuring the original cast, filmed in Tokyo, during dates which marked the international launch of Death Note as a stage adaptation.

Headed by Kenji Urai and Koike Teppei, as Light and L respectively, the company perform songs composed by Broadway's Frank Wildhorn, and produced by Kuriyama Tamiya.

Your first opportunity to watch the televised show will be on October 17th 2015, at 8pm.

The demanding role of Light Yagami, within a packed performance schedule, meant that it was divided between two actors. Playing Kira on alternative nights was Hayato Kakizawa, who will be in the lead role for the second Musical Death Note to hit Japan's television screens.

This production will be broadcast on November 7th 2015, at 6.30pm.

(NB There's a Tweet circulating, which has the Kira actors switched for these Death Note the Musical televised shows. I guess we find out in due time.)

It's hoped that those televised premier run recordings will gain even more significance over decades to come, as Death Note becomes established in theatres globally. The production has already been staged in South Korea to great critical acclaim.

Death Note Musical Promo with English Songs

In other news, there's a brand new theatrical trailer for this 2.5D Death Note live adaptation.

The promo features songs from the Death Note Musical in English, no doubt to render it more attractive to theatre companies and executives in the West. (Yes, we're all looking at you, America.)

Enjoy it while you wait for the show - be it on your television screen or on a theatrical stage, if or when it finally turns up in your own country.

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Cosplay Flasher Ryuk Exposes Himself to Worldwide Sneering and Censure

27/8/2015

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It seems that a gentleman in Kita-Ku, Sapporo has not been a credit to his mother.

Though he has been flashing what she gave him to unsuspecting ladies in the Tonden district of Japan's fourth largest city.

So far, so sad. But the truly bizarre element - and the part which makes it relevant here - is that he did this while cosplaying Ryuk.

That's right. A wannabe Ryuk revealed himself to a rightly disdainful woman, who promptly reported him to Sapporo's Kita-ku constabulary.

全身タイツ男が下半身露出きのう午前4時50分頃、札幌・北区屯田7条7丁目付近で、女性が下半身を露出した男を目撃しました。男は35~40歳位、やせ型、身長170~175cm位、黒色の全身タイツ、背中に黒色の羽のようなものがついていました。札幌北署 #不審者
— UHBニュース公式アカウント (@uhbnews_uhb) August 21, 2015

Man in Full Body Tights Exposes Himself

At 4.50 am yesterday morning, in 7-7 Tonden area of Kita-ku, Sapporo, a woman witnessed a man exposing his lower half. The man was around 35-40 years old, slim and roughly 170-175cm tall. He wore full body black tights and what appeared to be black feathered wings on his back. Sapporo Kita-ku Police #SuspiciousPerson
- UHBNews (Hokkaido news channel), August 21st 2015

Sapporo police are appealing for any information that will help their inquiries into the incident. (Or should that be APPLE-ing?)

I shouldn't laugh, but the notion of a Ryuk cosplayer exposing himself is so ridiculously pathetic that pointing and laughing seems the only recourse.

Though not, of course, for the lady who had to witness this. That really couldn't have been pleasant, and good fight her for reporting him. Too many incidents like this pass without any response at all, which allows idiots like our erstwhile Shinigami Ryuk flasher to continue without consequence.

Now it's not just police officers seeking to track this offender down.

Police Hunt Death Note Shinigami Flasher - and So Does Everyone Else

In choosing to don a Death God costume to flash at strangers, this dodgy individual now knows what exposure truly means. UHB's news report became an instant internet sensation.

Far from lurking in Tonden back-alleys - where his sordid actions might conceivably remain concealed - they're talking about him all over the city; and across the rest of Hokkaido, throughout Japan and around the world.

I'm sitting in Great Britain telling folk about his shameful actions.

Closer to home, you can be sure that everyone is watching out for a flasher in a shinigami costume, or indeed anyone cosplaying Ryuk, now or at any time in the past. If they seem to be the sort to act suspiciously, then a tip off to police could be coming any time soon.

His poor mother must be so proud.

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TV Death Note Episode 7: Babble, Beyond & Paradise Lost - One Notebook to Bind Them All

26/8/2015

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Near Watch is pretty much concluded. After episode 7 of television's Death Note drama, it's undoubtedly proved to be Mello Watch too. Though the jury is still out on Matt there as well.

Finally! Death Note live action Mello on our screens! Man and puppet!

We so called it. Back in my review of the very first episode of Death Note's TV drama, I wrote:

Is Near hearing voices? Are we witnessing a schizophrenic future L? Or is (s)he merely dissociating him/herself from the dodgier thoughts passing through consideration?
- Death Note News: Review of TV Death Note Episode 1

Watching and piecing together the clues from week to week, my SO and I have increasingly been talking about Near with Multiple Personality Disorder (though I understand that psychologists would prefer us to discuss this as Near's Dissociative Identity Disorder, because they renamed it again).

By episode seven, all speculation was confirmed as fact. We saw Near's persona physically switch into Mello. We witnessed a re-emerging Near beg Mello, "Don't come out."

Death Note's Near begs Mello not to come out

Thus paving the way for a million future Death Note memes on the subject of Mello coming out.

Death Note's Babel in the Tower: Multiple Voices Seeking to be Heard at the Same Time

There was a hint, in the scenes immediately prior to the great reveal, that split identities - or the divisive babble of too many voices simultaneously sounding - was going to factor into this story.

Our clue was in the pseudonym taken by Near: Babel.

Yotsuba Group discuss Babel in Death Note 2015

With all the Judeo-Christian imagery surrounding Near in this series, it's not too difficult to guess from whence they lifted this new moniker. Genesis 11:1-9 tells - within a Biblical context- the story of the City of Babel.

Its people decided to build a tower, those top reaches would allow them to climb into Heaven itself. God wasn't best pleased about this imminent invasion of human beings, so set out to thwart them.

Until then, everyone on Earth had been united. They spoke just one language and all understood each other. God did a bit of smiting, or cursing, whatever you call it, whereby their mother tongue suddenly splintered into all the various languages heard around the globe, then and since.

Hence Babel being the root of babble. Multiple voices. No-one able to understand the other.

Additionally, God 'scattered them abroad', so that none were congregated in the city anymore, but its population exiled all over the planet. The people divided from one into many.

And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language...
- Genesis 11:6

Oh look! Near and Mello are one! And possibly Matt makes three, though the evidence is tenuous and not yet confirmed by canon. But they can be - and are about to be - separate entities. Just like the people of Babel.

Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
- Genesis 11:7

Plus it doesn't hurt that Babel looks a bit like Babe L, as befits L's successor or, as Near is described in the TV adaptation of Death Note, 'consultant'.

Nor does the Babel imagery end there.

Kiras Meeting in the Yotsuba Tower of Babel

The whole Yotsuba group could be seen as acting akin to the citizens of that Biblical city. They band together at the top of a Tower and, as a kind of collective Kira, they seek to steal for themselves that which habitually belongs to deity. Be that access into Heaven, or writing in a Shinigami's notebook.

Yotsuba Group's website prominently features their tower

The Yotsuba arc continues running parallel to the Tower of Babel tale, insofar as God (well, Light Yagami shorn of his Kira memories) sets out to divide and conquer them, thus snatching back divine power as his sole preserve.

Light doesn't change the Yotsuba executives' language. Despite the nice touch in 'Babel' (aka Near/Mello) asking for 'hush money'.

However L and Babel succeed in causing divisions amongst the group's mindset. When they are no longer working in accord, nor even in the same room, its a simple matter to confound their pseudo-divine plan.

Another Note: Beyond Birthday's Near Nod in Death Note (2015) Episode Seven

Of course, when we first saw that giant B appear upon the screen, none of us were thinking of Mello, Near, Babel nor anyone else inserted into the show.

In the Death Note universe, an Old English font letter B signifies L's original back-up: Beyond Birthday.

I thought we were jamming with L's second. We were, but not in the way that elicited so many gasps from those watching from my house.

Watari: There are three people known as the greatest detectives in the world. L, Eraldo Coil, and Marie Deneuve. Babel is ranked after the three of them.

Makimura: The fourth, then?

L: No, Coil and Deneuve are both me. So Babel is actually the second. Quite the troublesome one.
- Death Note Episode 7 (2015)

We were so being trolled by the writers of this television version of Death Note. Despite the fact that most of us, after our initial shock at seeing Beyond's B, had spent the rest of its occurrences assuming that Yotsuba's detective was Near.

The only major mystery being whether we were hearing Near or Mello, as the dominant personality at the time.

Yet when L introduced B as his second, Beyond's cameo suddenly felt like a distinct possibility again.

It was now common knowledge that the three great post war detectives, L, Eraldo Coil and Danuve were all actually the same person... L engaged in a war with the real Eraldo Coil, and the real Danuve, and emerged victorious, claiming their detective codes... in addition, L possessed many other detective codes... at least three digits worth.
- Mello, Another Note by Nisioisin, p43

He was B.
The second child in Wammy's House.
"If only I could see the death of the world," Beyond Birthday murmured, on August 19th at 6am, just as he woke up.
- Mello, Another Note by Nisioisin, p 95

NB This episode of television's Death Note drama was aired on August 16th 2015. The 19th was a Wednesday.

Beyond Birthday was L's
antagonist in the novel
Death Note: Another Note

He was B. B stood for Backup. For Babel - the second... OMG! Was Death Note's Beyond Birthday in this show after all?!!

I mean, how fabulous would that have been?!

The first child, A, was unable to handle the pressure of living up to L and took his own life, and the second child, Beyond Birthday, was brilliant and deviant.
B stood for Backup.
But B tried to surpass L, not become him.
Mello, Another Note by Nisiosin, p105

Alas, no. Near has not only merged with Mello, but absorbed Beyond Birthday's background too. It remains to be seen whether this includes his jam-loving, murderous self, as a separate persona.

However in that 'I know all about it. Deep down inside, you think you're better than L' line from episode two, we've already seen Mello accuse Near of something more commonly attributed to Beyond. Did 'deep down inside' hold a more significance than hitherto realised?

Dissociative Identity Disorder in Death Note

Ok, I'll call it - Near IS Beyond Birthday! And that's not all.

A could have been the original individual - the first child - whose personality fragmented into the rest, and is now lost beneath them all. Near is so named, as the persona most closely resembling A. Or its an acronym: Near Enough A's Replica.

I tell you, Matt's in there too. Probably Linda and all the Letters from L: Change the World as well. Given enough time, scope and energy, Near's going to turn out to be a walking Wammy's House; all Watari Letters contained within a single form.

Which probably accounts for the outstanding cleverness overall.

A Double Wammy in Death Note's Multiple Personality Plot Twists?

We should never forget the key point about Beyond Birthday - he looked like L. Enough to fool Naomi Misora into thinking she was dealing with the same man. Practically clones, L and Beyond, physically at least.

Beyond Birthday with Naomi Misora on the fly sheet of Another Note.
A version depicting Beyond Birthday close up adorns the German translation book-cover.

Have we yet discounted the hypothesis given in an earlier blog entry - that it's L with the multiple personalities? Near et al live solely within his head; with an option on Watari additionally being a dissociated fragment of L's own self.

It would explain why the detective's insistence upon a sterile home environment faded whenever he went outside to play tennis or watch Ichigo Berry in concert. That wasn't L. It was Mello or somebody wearing L's face.

Less L changing the world, than the world triggering a change in L.

Moreover, L's Dissociative Identity Disorder would fix an anomaly which has been niggling me since the very first episode. (I am a Death Note fan-fiction writer, finding plot-holes to credibly fill is what breathes life into our tales.) How could Wammy's House alter architecturally, depending upon whether L or Near sit on that staircase?

L and Watari at Wammy's House - Death Note Episode 1

Wammy's House: Watari opens the door, while L waits on the stairs

Wammy's House with Near and Mello in Death Note TV drama

Wammy's House: Near on the stairs, The Fall of the Rebel Angels replaces L's door

Maybe there is no Wammy's House in the physical world. It exists as a mind palace inside the psyche of a genius detective, acting as the gateway through which dissociated selves become dominant. No accident therefore why it appears as a hallway - the only room ever glimpsed in that house - devoid of creature comforts, stark and stripped, even when highly decorated. Its main purpose being as a place to leave or be received.

Its secondary purpose to be where personae stand by, acting as consultants in the near consciousness. Communicating fully with the self on public display, seeing upon their screens what that worldly self views with their own eyes.

L calls Near a bit of a personal consultant

L explains Near's relationship to himself. Watari had labelled them 'acquaintances'.

Which is why L and Near's respective monitors once displayed the same page of Kira suspects; why L was able to hear Mello speaking, though the camera showed that Near's lips were not moving. They were still in the House at that point. L discerned Mello coming to the fore within his own mind.

Hence the terrified look then, and the horror on L's face, when Watari informed him that Near had left the House.

Watari acts as a kind of internal gatekeeper, or an external carer, able to inform L when personae become dominant without his knowing that time had been missed.

Watari was telling him that he'd been usurped by Near. That Near had been dominant, while L unknowingly and unwittingly was shut down, losing time through being stashed somewhere within the unseen chambers of Wammy's House.

Worse still, that Near could act as a conduit, or else has a twin, a counterpoint to his own behaviour - so close in morality to L, that the latter doesn't always mind him coming to the fore - which can too easily flip to control them both. It might be Mello playing maverick with their case-load, and it's impossible to predict his moves or count on tracking them down later.

They couldn't even trust that he was always on their side, working with L and Near, rather than Kira.

Death Note's Near dismisses L's worries about Mello

Is that a Mafia-esque big, black chair, foreshadowing away, looming in the background? Last seen in the manga Rod Ross's LA penthouse suite.

They could lose the game simply because Mello played by different rules, or entered into another game entirely. And what would it cost, if Beyond Birthday was ever to wake to discern the death of the world from a Wammy House hallway window?

Oh! There's so much fun to be had speculating on the possibilities inherent in this new Death Note storyline! But I'd better return to what is, and not what might potentially be.

Creation of a Successor - L and Near's Michelangelo Moment in Death Note (2015)

As primary player in opposition to Kira, L demonstrated his ability to consider the whole team in episode seven of Death Note TV drama. If he was forced to forfeit his position, then it would be beneficial to assign a successor.

That way Kira wouldn't gain too much ground, while struggles for dominance divided and conquered those who might stand in his way.

L has already foreseen that his baton could soon need to be passed on. He cryptically tagged Near, placing him on stand-by as his choice for successor.

The way he did so owed a debt in imagery to Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam. Wherein God reaches out to touch Adam, gifting the spark of life to one made in His own image.

Death Note's Near takes L's jigsaw piece

Or, as L did it in Death Note (2015), gifting a jigsaw piece to the one who thinks most closely to himself.

All on the off-chance that L should (metaphorically of course) fatally place his own wrong piece in the battle against Kira. Then it would fall to his successor - 'It could be you, Near' - to finish the puzzle, and the war.

Near caught the implication loud and clear, with an expression further seeing significance in L leaving the scene, as soon as his piece was conveyed. It was a gesture laden with pathos. Inherently implying that L expected to die.

Though naturally Mello was looking in the opposite direction, when all consideration of L's successor pointed due Near.

He was probably too busy noticing that their surroundings still looked like a Mafia penthouse in Los Angeles.

Nor had it been explained, other than the room wasn't in Wammy's House ("You don't have to go back to the house?" L asked Near not two minutes previously). The furnishings weren't even remotely like those in the hotel, wherein we last saw Near lodged and within the depths of which L had his own hide-out.

Perhaps it would have been too blatant had they gone instead for the zebra striped suite from the other Mafia digs in the desert.

Though it begs the question that, if I'm right about where this scene takes place, then why are Near and L there?

Unless I'm also right in my wilder speculation that this room doesn't exist in the real world. It's L visiting a secondary self inside a place located inside his own psyche.

And that jigsaw piece passing hands is L acknowledging that he's losing his position as dominant personality amidst a multitude of others.

How this scene is more commonly seen

Light Changes L's Mind: Death Note Winners

Actually, we did watch L's mind wilfully changing, or at least his mindset concerning how winning and losing would be judged in this clash between himself and Kira.

In L's world-view, the challenge has been issued with Light as his opponent, regardless of how they spent episode seven double teaming against an external interloper. The Yotsuba group, headed by Higuchi as the current Death Note owning Kira, were never serious challengers in L's book. They existed as an opportunity to gather clues and ammunition for the proper battle of wills with Light.

But to play an effective game, both sides need to know the rules. Otherwise how could anyone be declared champion? It would be a hollow victory without the loser knowing themselves to be beaten.

Thus the conditions for winning were set out by Light and agreed by L.

Even if we learn how he kills people, if a comrade dies that's losing, in my opinion.
- Light Yagami, Death Note (2015), episode 7

A game-changing moment, which saw L immediately switching tactics to take down the Yotsuba group and its Kira with ease. But for him, this contained a fatal flaw.

A Fatal Flaw for L in new Death Note Drama

Death Note's L observing that Light thinks like Kira

Light couldn't have known that he spoke for Kira too.

But no matter that. L had already observed that Light and Kira's minds worked along the same lines. Light's thoughts would probably fit in with Kira's plans too. Their dual outlook aligning in this duel.

Nor was Light necessarily aware that his definition of winning was meaningful for L.

It was Kira who entered into the battle of wills with the detective, not Light. If he felt the challenge, then it was in reaction to L's actions now. His memories of the previous cerebral duelling had been wiped.

If L's pride hadn't been so intent upon recognition as the winner, then he wouldn't have altered his game-plan. Perhaps the outcome might have been different. As it was, allowing Light to influence strategy had immediate consequences.

He touched the Death Note. His memories flooded back. Himself as Kira returned. Just as planned.

Paradise Lost and Kira - Myself am Hell

There have always been shades of Milton's Paradise Lost running as an undercurrent through Death Note.

One day, I shall write a whole blog comparing the two, demonstrating how significantly Kira quotes Satan from Milton's epic verse.

To my mind, one of those moments comes in Light's classic line, 'I am Kira'. I can't help thinking of Satan in Paradise Lost screaming out, 'Myself am Hell!'

It's not word for word - nor even close - but their proclamations hold the same feeling for me. Not least because both are spoken as each anti-hero assumes their role by mentally and emotionally accepting its inevitability. Each against a background of isolation, as all relationships become merely instruments through which power may be gained or retained.

Light the bringer of L?

If this Death Note live action drama continues along tradition lines, then we can see another link between Milton's Satan and TV's Kira.

Each are now poised to duel with an avenging second. Be it Satan's clash with the Archangel Michael (Champion of El), or Kira's confrontation with Mello, aka Mihael Keehl (Champion of L).

The latter already long since viewed in kinship to St Michael. Ensured by Near's constant visual references to Giordano's The Fall of the Rebel Angels - showing Michael taking down Satan - whenever Mello's potential in play came to the fore.

Plus the obvious parallel in which Satan was Heaven's Light-Bringer, and Kira was Light. Ignorance is bliss they say. Light hated Kira. His own paradise lost in the knowledge that he is Kira.

The Return of the King: Kira Finds his Precious

However it wasn't Milton, but Tolkien brought to mind in Masataka Kubota's performance as a re-emerging Kira.

Watching this Kira clutch his Death Note prompted me to write 'Gollum' on my pad, then circle it several times as the sequence progressed. I really did expect him to start hissing, 'My Precious!'

Eat your heart out Andy Serkis! Kira has his Precious back!

The television adaptation of Death Note has pinged off Tolkien's Middle Earth saga several times already.

Not until Death Note 2015 have we heard that the notebook alters personalities to the bad. That using it invokes paranoia and feelings of dread, not to mention causing agony for those writing names. These are traits more commonly associated with the One Ring to Bind Them All in Tolkien's universe.

The emergence of a secondary personality - split from the owner's primary persona and seemingly built to serve the artefact - is another facet found in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Most notably in Gollum, whose conversations with his other self might have also inspired Mio Yuki's portrayal of Near and Mello in open discussion.

That Gollum with the Ring appears physically transformed is echoed in how TV Death Note's Kira can be discerned, distinct from Light, changed utterly.

In Death Note's Dark Prism Light Splits

Light Yagami denies being Kira

Light was actually being truthful then, when he emphatically told L that he wasn't Kira. At least in this version of Death Note.

There was none of that in the original manga Death Note, nor its anime, nor even the previous Japanese live-action adaptations. In all of those variants, Kira seemed less Light Yagami's split personality and more an alternative name for the same individual.

Light's nick-name, if you like.

Accepted and assumed during a period when Light's psyche stretched to embrace ownership of the Death Note. A label therefore for his supposed megalomania and increasingly apparent descent into madness. But still fundamentally a single self.

Only by integrating Tolkienesque themes, do we witness Light and Kira separated, as dissociated identities and possibly an emerging secondary self entirely.

By implication, the Death Note dividing his very soul.

Kira Identified in Split Personalities

Let's just say this: you will feel the fear and pain known only to humans who've used the notebook. And when it's your time to die, it will fall on me to write your name in my death note. Be warned any human who's used a death note can neither go to heaven nor hell for eternity... That's all.
- Ryuk, Death Note Anime, Episode 1

Maybe this soul-split is why those who use the Death Note are condemned to Mu when they die?

Complete souls are required to enter Heaven or Hell, at least as such things are understood by shinigami. Personae fragmenting from the same being dilutes the core identity enough that their passport into the afterlife is denied. With nowhere to go, they are lost to the void and formless. Nothingness ensues.

Moreover, this might explain why Death Note owners are identifiable by the lack of a name and date above their heads. It could be that shinigami eyes are confounded by the data being multiplied, as more than one person is present inside that head.

If so, then this has obvious implications for Near and Mello too.

How does one view the name and days of a puppet, or two in one personae?

Not least because shinigami eyes are twice used to read Mihael Keehl above Mello's head in the canon rendering. What will happen during those scenes in the story? Can Mello still be killed, as one self amongst multiples?

If so, how does that affect Near? Will he die too? Or will he seem to make like a gamer or a cat with apparently numerous lives to risk in battling Kira?

If not, then how might Kira react to the discovery that some - to all practical extent and purpose - possess immunity from the Death Note's deadly reach. And L's successors are amongst their number.

A new twist beckons, as the insertion of split personalities creates diverging plot-lines. It will be interesting to see how this pans out as the story progresses.

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Death Note Director Adam Wingard Tweets New Rule to Thwart Would Be Kiras

25/8/2015

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A bit of banter broke out on Twitter between Adam Wingard - director of the (eventually) forthcoming US live action Death Note film - and his friend The Dope Geek, after the former forgot it was James Gunn's birthday.

Apparently we have a new rule for the Death Note now!

@thedopegeek rule LXVII of the Death Note says that the director of the American Live action film cannot be written in the Death Note.
— Adam Wingard (@AdamWingard) August 6, 2015

I love that Wingard found the correct number for an additional Death Note rule. It shows that he's doing his homework at least.

Though I suppose he knows that the Death Note fandom hordes would descend with anal attention to detail, if he got something that fundamental wrong. Even for an off-the-cuff joke.

And for the record, yep. I had to look it up. -.-

However, I can confirm that rule LXVII of the Death Note is just as its US live action movie director stated:

@MRSJeevas @thedopegeek haha awesome.
— Adam Wingard (@AdamWingard) August 25, 2015

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Death Note Near's 21st Birthday & Variations

24/8/2015

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Near on the cover of the Death Note One-Shot Special

August 24th 2015 is Death Note Near's 21st birthday

According to the dates given in the anime, Death Note Near's 21st birthday will be celebrated today - both in its canon!universe and throughout the Near fandom too.

Created any Near cosplay, fan-art or fan-fiction to mark his milestone birthday? Leave links in the comments below, so that all might find them.

We know precisely what our new L looks like now - and what will happen to him this year - as Near was twenty-one when we revisited him in the Death Note One-Shot Special (Weekly Shonen Jump, 2008).

There he is above, as drawn in that 46 page manga tale, and again on its cover. An adult Near appearing slimmer and more gaunt, with L like bags under his eyes and white hair touching his shoulders.

Then again the manga dates would have him celebrating his 24th birthday today instead. The events told in the one-shot happened nearly three years ago.

They grow so fast...

Near aged 21 from the
Death Note One-Shot Special

Though I suppose it all depends who for you wears the face of Near, and which source you favour above all the rest as canon. It strikes me that stories can fix a character in space and time, stranding them in a certain aspect and at an unchanging age.

Forever eight, thirteen, or sixteen, seventeen or twenty-one.

As today is Near's birthday, here's a run through the different portrayals of him and how old they pertain to be today.

Near in the Death Note Manga

Born:     August 24th 1991
Age then:    13 before the time-slip; 17-18 after it; 21 in the one-shot
Age today:   24

Near in the Death Note Anime

Born:     August 24th 1994
Age then:    13 before the time-slip; 17-18 after it
Age today:   21

Near in the Death Note Live-Action Movie

Aka:            Next (L calls him Near in the film; the credits name him Next)
Born:     Not stated, but Near actor Narushi Fukuda was born in 2000
Age then:    8
Age today:   15

Near in the Death Note TV Drama

Born:     Not stated, but Near actress Mio Yuki was born in 1999
Age then:    16
Age today:   16

Which is the definitive Near for you? And will you be doing/producing anything to mark the day? Comment and let us know with links, if relevant, so that we may share in the glory.

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TV Death Note Episode 6: Torture and the Switch of a Personality Split - Pt 2

22/8/2015

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I waffled quite a lot concerning Near's possible split personality, hence split the blog entry too.

Part 1 of my Death Note (2015) analysis and review may be found over here. Now here's more about split personalities in the show, before I SERIOUSLY go off on one about torture.

Death Note (2015): Personality Shifts and Kira

Will these hands ne'er be clean?
Kira in Macbeth mode

The Wammys aren't the only ones subject to plural personalities inhabiting the same body.

Episode 6 in the Death Note television drama bore witness to both Kiras (Light and Misa) losing their memories concerning their murderous notebook usage. Less a split personality than a shifting of their own.

This deliberate amnesia wiped away all considerations of guilt and presumably layers of other emotion too. The TV adaptation of Death Note has flirted with a Tolkeinesque element of dread upon their artefact. Like wearing Bilbo's ring, writing in a shinigami's Death Note induces feelings of angst, pain and paranoia.

The accumulated effect of which must weigh heavily upon a psyche. Serial users experience the anguish verily ladled upon their minds and emotions, twisting their personalities beneath it as a coping mechanism.

Add too the stressful reality in which both have been living - Death Notes aside - with Misa's parental past rearing its ugly head, and L pursuing Light with a doggedness skittering into criminal obsession.

All this is what gets lifted from them, along with their memories, shinigami eyes and ability to see Death Gods loitering in their cells. Though they do then have to contend with being incarcerated and tortured without any context to explain their victimization.

Misa-Misa and the Light Lost to Kira

Misa's personality barely seems altered for the supposed loss of her preternatural dread. She simply switches focus in her verbal bids for freedom, assuming now that her captor is a stalker rather than an investigator in the Kira case.

For Light, the change in personality is much more dramatic.

It's testimony to the talent of actor Masataka Kubota that we can view, as a physical shifting, the stripping of Kira from Light. More impressive still, when you realise that most of it occurred with the camera in extreme close up, showing just his facial expressions and drooping/lifting head.

Kira	Still Kira

Kira's memories are wiped from Light Yagami in Death Note 2015

Head bowed as his memories are wiped

Light

Not any more - Light seems visibly
stunned by L's question

Light's been referring to Kira in the third person since the earliest episodes. Seeing the change in his visage and eyes, shorn of Death Note related memories, perhaps he was onto something after all.

Then again, dehumanizing or treating the killer within as a separate entity is what allows terrible things to be enacted upon a person without much protest from onlookers.

A much more subtle series of split personalities were on show in TV live-action Death Note episode 6 - the horrifically realistic vision of ordinarily upstanding people turning a blind eye to torture.

Fear, peer pressure, anxiety about appearing stupid or an unwillingness to stick one's head over the parapet regularly combine to create a kind of mass personality splintering. Individuals, communities or whole populations can be persuaded to set aside otherwise extant morality and common sense, as long as the victim and/or their circumstances can be presented as an exception to the norm.

Hence Holocausts occur; or other genocides, wars, lynching, the vilification of individuals and groups, and any other occasion when the loudest voice is saying words like 'subhuman' and suggesting a relaxing of rights, laws and rules as the only way forward.

In the torturing of Misa and Light, Death Note describes this phenomenon with aplomb. It's one of the aspects which first drew me to the story.

Did Somebody Call Amnesty International?

Death Note Ryuk and Kira discuss torture in Japan

Sorry, Light, your assumptions are naive. According to AI and other human rights groups, torture under interrogation by police is endemic in Japan.

Fair warning: I'm an Amnesty International Urgent Cases activist (hence the Amnesty banner on my Death Note fan-fiction website). I was also an organizer for Holocaust Memorial Day events for years, after gaining my Honours Degree as a Historian specializing in the Porajmos.

Let's just say that I know a thing or two about how human rights and torture work in real situations. It colours somewhat my perception of these scenes in Death Note.

Realism in Death Note's Torture Scenes

Misa bound and illegally detained in Death Note

Illegally detained Misa bound and tortured in TV's Death Note (2015)

Death Note pulled no punches in its scenes of torture during the interrogations of Misa and Light. We'd seen such things in the manga and anime, but there's something more immediate a little more disturbing when it's live action drama.

Nor did it seem particularly gratuitous to me. Though I did note that it was only the female Kira (Misa) who ended up scantily clad and arrayed in tight bodily restraints. Male Kira Light Yagami was allowed to keep most of his clothes on, while held in 'only' handcuffs.

Not that such physical restrictions, worn day in day out for over two weeks, would be particularly pleasant to endure.

The prolonged use of restraints causes extreme discomfort, pain, and in some cases lasting damage... Furthermore, because prisoners in Japan are kept in restraints for prolonged periods of time, they are forced to eat and use the toilet while restrained. These functions cannot be done in a dignified fashion in the restraints. This amounts to degrading treatment, also prohibited under Article 7 of the ICCPR.
- Prison Conditions in Japan (PDF) pp 80-81, Human Rights Watch Asia (1995)

... his hands were bound with leather handcuffs... He sat all day long in the cross-legged position. The "protection cell" had no windows, and it had fluorescent lights... He ate his food in what he described as "dog" fashion, lying on the floor and picking it up off the plate with his mouth... The former prisoner reported that he suffers from back pain to this day, the fact he attributes to the month spent in restraints.
- Ibid p 36

Image: Light Yagami tortured in a Japanese police cell

Aizawa with Light's meal - Torture scenes in Death Note

I've been impressed by the reasonably realistic elements on display in Death Note's depiction of judicial torture in Japan. You just don't expect that with manga, anime nor the live-action versions bouncing off them.

The quotations above described real life complaints from prisoners tortured in Japanese detention facilities. Yet they could equally have pertained to scenes in episode six of Death Note's television adaptation.

Nor were these the only bits which echoed the true life experiences of Japan's tortured detainees.

... prison officials have been known to use physical and psychological intimidation to enforce discipline or elicit confessions. The government sometimes restricts human rights groups’ access to prisons...

The National Police Agency is under civilian control and is highly disciplined, though reports of human rights abuses committed by police persist. While arbitrary arrest and imprisonment are not practiced, there is potential for abuse due to a law that allows the police to detain suspects for up to 23 days without charge in order to extract confessions.
- Japan - Freedom in the World, Freedom House Report 2009

Daiyo Kangoku in Death Note: Japanese Police Extracting Confessions by Torture

Death Note (2015) Chief Superintendent Goda

Chief Superintendent Goda sanctions the torture of Misa Amane in Death Note

It feels like fiction how Misa and Light are dramatically detained in Death Note's episode six. Indeed it should be fictitious.

But we have to wonder to what extent Ohba and/or Obata were making a point in the way that their story aped the truth of what is permissible for Japan's police-force. After all, the television version of Death Note merely followed the canon telling of torture by Japanese law enforcement officers.

And that canon story - or something similar - could be occurring in a Japanese interrogation cell right now.

The daiyo kangoku system, which allows police to detain suspects for up to 23 days prior to charge, continued to facilitate torture and other ill-treatment to extract confessions during interrogation. Despite recommendations from international bodies, no steps were taken to abolish or reform the system in line with international standards.
- Amnesty International Annual Report 2014/15 - Japan

Far from being fiction, Death Note's telling didn't go far enough in showing the degradation potentially awaiting detainees arrested by police in Japan. A real world Misa and Light could be kept:

in solitary confinement;
handcuffed or subjected to other body restraints;
without access to legal counsel (attorney/lawyer);
without access to family, friends, witnesses etc;
ignorant of information/evidence/developments regarding their case;
under constant surveillance;
forced to go to the toilet restrained, watched and unable to wipe/clean themselves;
eating their meals from bowls on the floor;
deprived of sleep;
verbally and physically intimidated;
in receipt of death threats;
told constantly to confess;
for days/weeks on end;

Just as depicted in Death Note - but with viewer sensibilities spared the spectacle of Light eating meals with his hands still cuffed, or the humiliation of Misa made to publicly pass water - and all in contravention of international human rights laws.

If the presence of a defense counsel were to be required for an interrogation, it would be difficult to perform the interrogation promptly and sufficiently within the limit ed period of custody.
- Government of Japan, official response to issues raised by the UN Committee Against Torture p9, July 2011

In addition to a fairly realistic portrayal of how daiyo kangoku may be abused, Death Note also highlights facets of torture which may only be fully understood within the context of Japanese culture.

Like why police officers are pressured to gain a signature upon a prisoner's statement, even if the result is forced confessions - fabricated or otherwise - signed simply to make the torturous interrogation stop.

The Importance of Confession in Japan

Death Note's Light Yagami in solitary confinement

Day Five for Light Yagami at the mercy of Japanese interrogators in Death Note

When arrested, aged just 20, (Sakurai) was treated like a guilty criminal, he says. "They interrogated me day and night, telling me to confess. After five days, I had no mental strength left so I gave up and confessed."

"It may be difficult for people to understand, but being denounced repeatedly - it is harder than you think."

- Shoji Sakurai, acquitted after serving 29 years in prison for a murder to which he confessed but didn't commit

Certain restrictions upon the police, imposed by the Japanese people after World War Two, has unforetold expression in the modern day. Not least in the huge emphasis placed upon confession, as a sure-fire way to secure a conviction in a court of law.

That historical abuse of police power in wartime saw the agency stripped of the right to legally investigate or interrogate, using methods taken for granted globally by other police forces. For a start, Japanese officers may not listen in on private 'phone calls or stake out properties undercover.

(This may be why it's American FBI agents who L drafted in to follow Light and other Kira suspects. Soichiro and his squad aren't permitted to do the same.)

By limiting police intrusiveness, even in the pursuit of evidence, Japan's post-war civilian population unwittingly paved the way for an undue emphasis placed upon confessions. A statement of guilt is often all that investigators may legally present to a judge.

The importance of confession being that the vast majority of Japanese convictions rests upon one.

In fact, for the two and a half centuries of Japan's Tokugawa era (1600-1868), a confession had to be extracted before any alleged criminal could be found guilty. It was seen as the most reliable evidence around, a notion still firmly imprinted upon the general Japanese mindset.

Light Yagami looks at his father pre-detention in Death Note

Committing himself to voluntary detention, Light looks to his father

Others have pointed to traditional elements in Japanese culture to account for the value placed upon confessions.

Practically enshrined in the national psyche is the vilification of personal shame above all else; whilst truth, respect for authority figures and diffidence to one's family - particularly parents and other elders - are elevated as fundamental to the Japanese character.

Confessing to crimes avoids the shame inherent of denying them, only to be found out later. Historically, people really did spill their every misdemeanour for the asking, though we only have the testimony of those doing the asking - and punishing - here.

Which is why Death Note sees L, in constant repetition, challenging Light to confess that he is Kira.

Truth will out and, if not, then its not just the individual shamed. Everyone will be blaming the parents, who couldn't possibly have raised their child with correct and proper values.

A facet which has been blamed for the phenomenon of false confessions willingly produced by those unable to prove their innocence.

Parental Shame and Japan's Judicial Torture

Mogi expresses an attitude which would be all too prevalent
in Japanese society - and which drives Light's actions here, not to
mention those detaining him

Human rights campaigners have pointed to consideration of parents as a key component in the extraction of false confessions.

It's something which police interrogators can use against those being reticent in signing a document bound to be central in their own conviction.

Individuals are prompted to think about their families, and the deep shame felt by Mum and Dad, as their off-spring repeatedly denies culpability in criminal behaviour. How the family name is being brought further into disrepute the longer this drags on.

It is too much to bear when I think about what went through his mind [when he confessed] - how he was longing for evidence of his innocence but he had to give up.

The saddest thing is I as a parent even doubted his innocence.

- Father of a 19 year old Meiji University student, whose son was compelled to make a false confession out of parental consideration

Naturally, as detainees may be held for weeks incommunicado, it's easy for interrogators to withhold information. Particularly that pertaining to evidence that points towards their subject's innocence.

The prevailing ethos is that its better to tell prisoners nothing, lest the 'lesser' proof of innocence be superseded by better evidence. Like a confession.

We see this too in episode six of Death Note's TV drama. Wherein Light crawls on his cell floor begging to know if Kira has killed again during his own incarceration. L's intractability in refusing to impart such knowledge moves Aizawa to compassion.

The police officer's whisper that 'it's alright' is instantly deemed detrimental to L's tactics. The overt torture of Light - isolated; bound; scrutinized 24/7; his sense of time forcibly confused; kept ignorant of news in his case, and without counsel but for that telling him that he's guilty, confess and be done - was over at that moment.

It's no accident that what followed involved Light's father and the belief that he would confess to Soichiro alone, if imminent death - murder to assuage parental shame - threatened that truth would be taken to the grave.

Soichiro Yagami threats to shoot Light in Death Note

Shamed Soichiro would rather his son be dead than he sully the Yagami family name

What may be less obvious, to many watching the show, is why an upstanding citizen like Soichiro Yagami would countenance the torture of anyone, let alone his own son?

Indeed, how the rest of his team could continue to comply with L's edicts.

Complicity in the Torture of Death Note's Kira

Aizawa challenges L re Torture in Death Note

Protestations were issued by most members of the Kira Countermeasures squad - well versed in human rights principles and able to spot when interrogations had gone too far - but each quickly backed down again.

The entire squad conveying tacit approval, even when the majority couldn't watch the torture in action. All but Aizawa left Light alone with L, no longer witnesses to his plight.

That's how most remain complicit in on-going human rights abuses in reality around the world - by their silence, looking the other way, keeping themselves ignorant and generally acting in denial of their own ability to intervene. Aped powerlessness and not getting involved are the most subtle forms of approval.

Also the most prevalent way in which people demonstrate complicity in torture.

After all, you know that torture exists in the world. What have you done about it? Today? Yesterday? At any time in your life? If something, then thank you so much. If nothing, then what excuses do you give yourself?

Those are likely to be akin to the kind of excuses within the minds of the Japanese police officers watching Misa, then Light, tortured in Death Note. Though they scream, shout, stamp around and shake their heads going, 'No, this is wrong' (then finally half of them walk out), they don't actually DO anything about it.

Even Aizawa's quiet rebellion, regarding the embargo on information for Light, doesn't precisely constitute stopping it. Though that was coincidentally the end result.

Any one of those present could have physically over-powered L. Instead they attempted to reason with him, then backed down at the first counterpoint raised by the Wammy detective. Like he had the right to do what he did, even as a foreigner torturing Japanese citizens upon Japanese ground.

But people can be talked into complying with anything, if no-one else joins in the stand, and a clever speaker reassures them that everything is alright.

L appears to be enjoying torturing Light...

If all else fails, then torturers like L can always fall back upon that old fail-safe - fear. Governments do it all the time, as do newspaper editors, civic leaders, parents, whole religions are founded upon it. Fear remains the best way to control individuals, groups, communities and populations alike.

Terry Pratchett observed, in one of his DiscWorld books, that the fundamental question plaguing humanity most of the time is, 'Am I going to get in trouble for this?'

Rather tongue in cheek, but it lies at the heart of why so many - knowing torture to be wrong - fail to act when faced with even the threat of danger to their own self. Or the notion that someone somewhere will tell them off for acting rationally and morally.

Mogi demands L stop torturing Misa. L responds, "Would you prefer to conduct the interrogation yourself, in the same room?" And Mogi's reservations are instantly silenced.

L's threat doesn't even make sense. Why should him desisting his torture equate a police officer thrown alone into a room with the scary Kira suspect?

But it sounded like danger, delivered in a reasonable tone which implied that was the only way it could be. Thus fear did the rest.

Did L Have the Right to Torture Light and Misa?

No. He didn't.

Not by Japanese law - he's not a Japanese police officer, nor has he taken an oath of legal service under any Japanese code of practice. In short, the government and people of Japan had not handed him a mandate to act, and even if they had, a new law would have needed to be passed to allow him to behave quite like this.

Not under international law - Light and Misa were born with certain rights, immutable and without exception. That includes the right not to be tortured.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 5:

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Not even Kira.

Why Can't Death Note Kira Suspects Be Judged Under the Law?

They can and should be.

When early protests are sounded, amongst officers seeing how Misa is being held - full body restraints and a blindfold, whilst forced to stand throughout her incarceration; under 24/7 surveillance (without even the uncertain dignity afforded by a female guard doing the watching); subject to verbal intimidation; without counsel nor formal charges levied against - L is unsympathetic.

He disdains all suggestion that Misa is bereft of her human rights, seeming almost bored as he irritably explains the situation to those witnessing it.

Death Note's L denies Misa her human rights

"The ability to kill people just by looking at their face cannot be judged under the law," L tells the law-enforcers, apparently quite convincingly too, as all of their complaints simply melt away.

Do you agree with his standpoint? Actually it doesn't matter whether you do or don't, nor if the the Kira Countermeasures squad are persuaded to this point of view as they seem.

(Though they, at least, were in an immediate position to assess the situation and intervene. You'd have to discover it was a thing, then start bombarding influential people with letters, including Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, Minister for Justice Yoko Kamikawa, National Police Agency Commissioner-General Tsuyoshi Yoneda and - fictional - Chief Superintendent Goda, plus your ambassador to Japan and the Japanese ambassador to your country. Those are the ones with the clout to save Misa, and the regard for public and/or international opinion, which means they can be pressured into doing so.)

Regardless of L's persuasive qualities, your opinion, the Kira team's cowardice or the (usually secret) commands coming down the hierarchy from the highest levels, a fundamental fact remains the same:

Misa retains the right to be judged under law, shinigami eyes or not.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

- The birthright of all human beings born on the planet, hence the word 'universal' in the title. Enshrined by Japan's government, publicized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and here's a version in Japanese.

Article 6:

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7:

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8:

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9:

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Light suffers 14 days arbitrary incarceration, isolated, cuffed and without charge

Article 10:

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11:

(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12:

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

In short, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - and its counterparts found in the Japanese Constitution and other laws - exist to protect people like Misa and Light from the likes of L.

Unfortunately, there were no police officers around courageous enough to enforce it. A state which undoubtedly has its echoes in real life Japanese interrogation cells.

L disappointed that Light's torture will cease

I really have gone on enough in this blog entry. That's what happens when two passions collide in circumstances of great scrutiny, and I know way too much about both.

I hope it was informative, and/or entertaining, at least.

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Death Note Music Showcased in Costa Rica

22/8/2015

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Get Death Note's original
soundtrack album on CD

Live music from Death Note OSTs will be performed tonight in a concert extravaganza to kick off the season at the University of Costa Rica.

The anime's tunes are included in Game of Choir, which features an array of popular soundtracks made famous through the worlds game, stage and screen.

Final Fantasy, Skyrim, Lord of the Rings and Super Smash Bros are also on the musical agenda - with highlights from their original scores played live by Coro Universitario UCR Sede Atlántica and Zukia Band.

Running from August 22nd-30th 2015, (5pm and/or 6pm, depending on the date) Game of Choir signals the beginning of UCR's 2015 concert schedule. Tickets cost ₡6,000, available by calling 2511-4165.

Check out more Death Note music

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

21/8/2015

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Squad Six Cosplayer Lara Sizemore Death Note Misa

Misa Death Note cosplayer
Lara Sizemore at Ichibancon 7

Nowhere is this more true than in anime related cosplay, wherein its much more than a mile spent traipsing in another's footwear. It's probably several, and not just the shoes either.

All day spent in character at conventions, or clambering into awkward places to position oneself for photographs - after minutely studying the manga or anime for clues on how to appear recognizably convincing - can certainly provide insights into the persona being aped.

So much so that you have to ask yourself - if it happens to me, then it certainly has to have been experienced by the original character too.

The old adage states that none may be understood, until a mile has been walked in their shoes.

Ryuk Cosplayer in Pittsburg Comicon 2008

Ryuk Death Note cosplayer at
Pittsburgh Comicon 2008.
Photograph by Jim Reynolds

Blinding Detail in Death Note Matt Cosplay

blAIRbender cosplays Matt

Like the anecdote shared by a friend, blAIRbender, following her quest to create a cosplay for Death Note's Matt that was exact in every detail.

Many hours were spent scrutinizing images from the manga; sourcing and moulding materials; then engaged in painstaking assembly. Finally she held a perfect replica of Matt's goggles. It was only when she came to wear them - particularly over several hours - that she realized Matt must spend a lot of time demisting said goggles. The slightest hint of perspiration saw the lenses fogged from edge to edge.

As far as goggle fog goes, it takes about two to five minutes after putting them on initially, depending on how warm you are at the time and the room temperature. After that, they are constantly foggy on the inside. They will fog in all weather conditions. My dad recently mentioned that there is a spray that exists that would prevent fogging, but I haven't looked into it any further.
~ blAIRbender, Matt Cosplayer, in conversation with Death Note News

Also his peripheral vision was non-existent.

God knows why he favoured that sidewards look, while keeping Takada under surveillance. Misdirecting her gun-toting louts into thinking he could see them too?

Though it would explain how Matt was able to miss all of those wide escape routes in the spaces between encircling cars. For want of opaque side panels on fashionable googles, thus fatally assuming that he was surrounded.

Matt regretted choosing solid sides on goggles
that mist up at inconvenient times

Matt's side blinding googles meant he missed
escape routes opening up to his right

Mello Cosplayers Concentrate on Chocolate

There's also the friend cosplaying Mello, who emerged smug and filled with insights from a taxing day at an anime/manga convention.

Though it had been fun, the organizers hadn't quite got the hang of crowd control - bottlenecks formed wherever the flow beached (regularly); heavy-handed security unsympathetically carried out long-winded checks at every juncture; rooms not allocated with any apparent common sense - and the venue became increasingly hot and stuffy.

Moreover, food vendors were not spread out, resulting reputedly Hellish conditions, as people crammed into a single section of the arena looking to dine. Each of them subject to long waits in queues for food, tables or simply somewhere to sit. Over-heating, factitious, shouted at by security.

My Mello cosplayer informed me that she was the only person in her group not losing focus and fainting with hunger.

She was the one with a bar of chocolate to hand, which kept the energy levels raised nicely.

Maybe that's why Mello risks all to ensure he has his confectionery to hand (fifteen boxes at least)? Perhaps he's prone to bouts of low blood sugar. The Mafia would be terrible company within which to loose concentration, or collapse in a heap on the floor.

Or he's worked out the advantage in always having food to hand, when you never know what meals will be delayed and what leadership opportunities could arise on a bite of chocolate.

Chocolate helps you keep your head, while
all about you people are losing theirs

Risk Assessment for Rosaries in Mello Cosplay

Mello's rosary was caught on his handcuffs again

Best one I heard is a little too risque to share here. Let's just say the cosplay didn't end with bedtime, but did scream to a sudden halt shortly thereon.

Instead I'll mention the friend of a friend who ended up in an emergency room, due to the crucifix - on the end of her cosplay Mello rosary - swinging up to nearly take her eye out, after it got caught on the furry costume of a tall man in front. A strange combination of her shrieking, him stopping dead and a sudden crowd surge from behind did the rest.

Such things must occur to Mello too, though I can't help thinking that when they do, somebody could well end up dead.

You'd be amazed on what a rosary can get stuck on, trapped inside or otherwise threaten to garrotte its wearer in any number of inventive ways.

Unless you habitually cosplay Death Note's Mello, in which case none of the above even counts as news anymore. You've been there; not only got the t-shirt but also the thread burn scar on the back of your neck.

Nor do you have any patience with those who blithely state that the rosary should have snapped.

You also have snapping rosary stories. Plus a plentiful supply of 'nearly snapped Mello cosplay rosary' scares to add into the general mix.

Don't Misa-Misa the Sunscreen!

Misa Amane always looks stylish, with her fashionable togs revealing random bits of her body to the rays of the sun.

So what would happen if she'd forgotten to apply the sunscreen before she went out? Misa cosplayer Ayane Maro found out, when she did just that at Tokyo's Comic Market.

今日は暑い中ありがとうございました！あしたのミサミサナースも撮ってやってください♡ あと日焼け跡のやつRTやばすぎだから□□□□ まじ自分の名前デスノートに書きたい□□□□ pic.twitter.com/4AYkhrVrLC
— 麻呂あやね@サッカー至上主義 (@aru_nico) August 14, 2015

The full story (with pics) is told in Tweets above from the lady herself, or check out a version in English by Brian Ashcraft (Cosplayer Forgets Something Very Important (Kotaku, August 17th 2015)).

Got any Death Note cosplay tales of your own? Or facets unknown about your character until you donned their clothes?

Comment and let us know about them! Such things are the fodder of fan fiction, entertaining in their own right and might even tip off new cosplayers in the Death Note community, before they make the same errors common to all who preceded them.

In the meantime, there's a collection of cosplay Death Note items available on our website for those perfecting or putting their costume together.

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Peerskill Tweens & Teens: Watch Anime at New York Death Note Event - August 25th 2015

21/8/2015

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A little local news for young US Death Note fans in the NY metropolitan area.

The Field Library in Peerskill will open its doors to a Teen and Tween Anime Manga Club event for Death Note devotees.

All will be gathering to watch the anime (with snacks!) on August 25th 2015, from 3.30pm-5.30pm.

Join them at the library - located at 4 Nelson Avenue - but first book yourself a place by calling (914) 737-0010 or emailing eanastasi@wlsmail.org.

Peerskill Anime Manga Club Death Note poster August 25th 2015

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US Death Note Live Action Movie Remake Gets a Release Date (Wingard Still to Direct)

20/8/2015

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April 14th 2017 Death Note US Remake release date?

The long awaited Death Note US live action movie will be on our screens from April 14th 2017.

At least that's what we're being told over on KPopStarz.

However, the same article - by Miguel Abesamis ('Death Note' Hollywood Remake Gets A Director; Adaptation Slated For An April 14, 2017 Release (August 18th 2015)) - also quotes Warner Bros stating that no release date has yet been decided.

Moreover, Abesamis's stated source (The American Adaptation of Death Note Has Its Director, IGN, April 28th 2015) doesn't mention a date at all.

I guess it's more of the 'wait and see what rumour comes next' ethos, in which we Death Note fans are very well versed.

What each report (and all my latest information besides) has in common is that Adam Wingard is most definitely still poised to sit in the director's chair. What Abesamis additionally adds to the general slush of gossip is that Wingard will switch to Death Note after he's finished with The Woods.

That does not bring us to an actual date though.

I suspect that whichever editor produced the headline misread something fundamental. Abesamis's article also discusses a Hollywood adaptation of Ghost in the Shell, which - one of his previous reports tells us - is due for release on April 14th 2017.

Or maybe none of them are coming then. He just likes the date.

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TV Death Note Episode 6: Torture and the Switch of a Personality Split - Pt 1

18/8/2015

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Image: Near/Mello Death Note TV drama 2015

Still Near? Mello? Matt? The scene and stance contain elements of them all

Are we watching Near turn into Mello? Or maybe we just glimpsed Matt? Or have we missed the point entirely in our house?

Whatever else occurs in a Death Note television drama episode, first and foremost we're watching for Mello here. Mello/Matt's the community whence my partner and I met, moved in and now sit together watching this show.

Which pretty much puts us on Near Watch, give or take a puppet, as we're now quite convinced that multiple personalities is a factor in this character. (S)he's both Near and Mello.

And may now be Matt too.

Near's Split Personality in Death Note (2015)

Near's character has been slowly and subtly changing over the past three episodes.

From a base-line of a clever, serene white-clad figure clutching a Mello puppet, we saw the human and dummy's voices merge (episode 4); then Near leave the house (episode 5) - apparently alarming news for Watari and L - still with a puppet, but one which now sat mute, and the white attire now bisected by grey pinafore trousers.

In episode 6, that transformation is so far advanced that the puppet has gone entirely. The previously unsmiling Near has now donned an elfin smirk.

That white mop of hair seems messier, more akin to a fringe at the front, slightly longer at the back. The lighting has lessened the white, making his/her barnet appear almost blond, maybe rosy in some scenes.

The grey pinafore, seen in shade, seems darker, closing in on black.

Some kind of personality shift has taken place rendering the character much further away from Near, as he's known from the manga and anime. The toys have gone and, by the end of the episode, (s)he has even stopped twirling a lock of hair.

So let's assume that Near has multiple personalities. Mello has previously existed as a suppressed persona projected onto a puppet by Near's ventriloquism. Heard in the real world, as L responded to Mello's voice in episode 2.

Episode 5 signified the start of the personae changing places. In episode 6, I believe that we're seeing that process gather pace.

Live Action Matt in Death Note TV Drama?

At first sight of Near, my knee-jerk reaction was to turn to my partner and gasp, "So Near's Matt as well now?" After all, we were viewing a character with a Puckish smirk, who was crowing after having successfully hacked L, undetected for weeks.

My partner wasn't at all convinced, pointing out the chair upon which this character was perched. Big, ornate, red chair screams Mello from the rafters.

I was reminded that Matt's never been as embraced in canon, as he was by the fandom. The producers probably never considered him important enough to add into the Near/Mello mix.

Flailing around for extra evidence, I alighted on the fact that the camera - towards which a desolate L peers as he realises he's been hacked - bore the codemark F1.3.

Three in one! The third in the first (Matt in Near)! Woot! Game over!

I seemed to be convincing nobody with this line of argument.

Nevertheless, that initial shot still seems to me to have elements of the first three Wammy kids. Near's still apparent in the white under-shirt and twirled hair; Mello's in the smirk, chair and dark clothes creeping over the top; Matt's in the redness (yes, I know red hair is a fan insertion) and the computer, particularly its usage in hacking.

But the snigger at the end - sans lock twisting - was pure Mello.

Death Note Drama's Live Action Mello

I'm expecting Near to transform even more fully into Mello as the plot gathers pace. Thus presumably Mello was the figure seen in the scenes flashing over the closing credits, as teasers for episode 7.

A hand up to his mouth - not seen in any previous Near mannerism - is half cut off by the bottom of the screen. What's the chance that a wider shot will reveal that it grasps a chocolate bar?

Is that you, Mello? Stop cosplaying Near at once.

And this is how the television adaptation of Death Note will get us through the Mafia!Mello part of the story. Which - if it continues to run this parallel to the canon tale - will be coming up quite soon.

In short, WE'RE ABOUT TO SEE A LIVE ACTION MELLO IN THIS DEATH NOTE TV DRAMA! At least that's the conclusion in this house.

On that excitement, I'm going to pause here and look at the rest of the episode in a separate blog entry. I've waffled enough in this one.

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Chinese Death Note Fans Dodge the Censor

17/8/2015

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Coincidence or not, there seems to have been quite a run on news reports about Death Note fans in China just recently.

More specifically about how Chinese fans of Death Note and other banned media
access their favourite manga/anime, despite state censorship of the same in their country.

Chinese Twitter and Torrents - Death Note Fans Evade State Censorship in China

First up was an article for Forbes by Lauren Orsini - a writer who focuses upon fandom and fan phenomena around the world - entitled How Fans Embrace Japanese Cartoons Over the Great Firewall of China (Forbes, July 10th 2015).

Prompted by the previous month's blacklisting of 38 Japanese anime/manga in China, as per a directive issued by its Ministry of Culture, Orsini's piece investigated how fans still manage to gain access to all that was banned.

Not to mention staging anime conventions (100,000 attendees last year) and enjoying a thriving cosplay culture. There is no prohibition in place for cosplay.

It seems that Sina Weibo - China's answer to Twitter - is a key source of information on where to locate Japanese entertainment, either on-line or in one of the many Anime Viewing Clubs now springing up everywhere. There are also forums dedicated to keeping fans informed, many of which have been around for over a decade.

It's mostly Chinese dubbed anime which is being wiped from the nation's easily accessed web channels. But the Japanese language is so close to Chinese, that many fans simply find a 'raw' (undubbed) version streamed in a plethora of places online, and watch them instead.

Otherwise, it's BitTorrent to download Japanese anime or manga, like Death Note, which has a huge fanbase in China.

All this is a summary of the fascinating fine detail in Orsini's article. I recommend that you check it out for more information and photographs.

Why Does the Chinese Government Hate Death Note ? An Anime Historian Spells it Out

Next up was Manga Series Banned in China, a radio broadcast from the BBC World Service - initially aired on July 25th 2015, at 17.32; since repeated several times over varying hours.

BBC Trending's Mike Wendling played host to Lulu Ning (who became a Death Note fan whilst still a student in China), Kerry Allen (China Analyst with BBC Monitoring) and Dr Jonathan Clements (author of The History of Anime amongst other related books).

The chat about Death Note censorship in China begins at 2.15 mins and ends around 8.37. Yet manages to cram a lot of informative insight during that short span.

Ning merely contextualized the popularity of Death Note for Chinese fans. Her brother introduced her to the anime, and it quickly became a talking point amongst her friends. It felt very different to the normal fare on offer, particularly because it discussed death - a topic avoided so often in mainstream society, that it almost felt taboo.

The picture was broadened by Allen, who explained why China banned certain anime and manga on June 8th 2015 - the official line was that these stories were too violent or pornographic.

However the restriction had not been received meekly by fans of the 'wildly popular' Death Note.

Image: Luo Shugang China's Minister for Culture

China's Culture Minister Luo Shugang

On Sina, 33,000 of them had passed on news about the ban - itself a form of protest - while another 4,000 openly commented in disparaging terms about it. She quoted one Chinese fan, who railed against his government as acting in 'fear of youth violence' and using censorship to '(promote) Communist cartoons)'.

Yet the hashtag #DeathNote goes on with 10,000 people currently using it.

Image: Anime A History by Jonathan Clements

Anime: A History - one of Jonathan Clements's books on the subject

Finally we heard from Clements - an historian penning books on many aspects of East Asia besides anime - who qualified all the statistics and subjective experience before into an on-going time-line.

He described how this latest suppression of Death Note and other manga is indicative of a much wider trade war with Japan. Which hits the hearts and minds of Chinese citizens, simply because the stakes are so high on both sides.

For the Japanese, the goal is simple - there are 1.3 billion consumers in China, with a language and culture close enough for entertainment exports from Japan to be quite easily embraced. Breaking that market would be highly profitable.

Moreover, there's a precedent for how popular Japanese anime may be in China. Back in 2004, a survey found that six of China's top ten cartoons were actually Japanese imports.

This downright freaked the Chinese authorities out.

They saw only the possible undermining of their Communism ideals, with Death Note one of the greatest culprits of all.

Chinese television has little in the way of detective stories, because officials want to promote the notion that China has a low crime rate. Death Note is not only swamped with detectives, but it seems to validate the criminal. At least in the early stages, wherein Light is such a sympathetic character.

It's a tale which hinges upon supernatural and/or superstitious elements, both of which are suppressed in China. They are elements which could encourage religion, also not part of the Chinese Communist Manifesto.

Moreover, Death Note is viewed as pandering to a feeling of 'entitlement' amongst the youth of China. It's fundamentally a 'teenage power trip', whereby Light Yagami takes on all authority because he can. You have to wade through dozens of episodes before he seems to attract any kind of comeuppance.

Again not themes embraced by China's ruling officials.

They all had much more to say than I've crammed in here, so that segment of the broadcast is worth a quick listen.

The Anime Encyclopedia by Jonathan Clements

schoolgirl Milky Crisis by Jonathan Clements

More books about anime by Jonathan Clements: The Anime Encyclopedia and Schoolgirl Milky Crisis - Adventures in the Anime and Manga Trade.

China's Death Note Ban Seeks to Restrict Casual Access

Two days later, BBC Trending followed through with an editorial (kerry Allen and colleague Barney Rowntree) and blog (Mike Wendling), which expanded upon many of the themes touched upon in their programme.

It was (snappily) entitled Japanese comics that are too racy for Chinese censors... but still popular online (July 27th 2015) and featured much more from Dr Jonathan Clements, as well as examples of some of the comments being posted onto Sina Weibo.

An extra snippet that I found particularly interesting came from Clements:

The issue with a lot of Chinese censorship isn't about a blanket ban that keeps 100% of material out. It's about making life as difficult as possible for people who actually want it. A ban like this is about restricting casual access. (Dr J Clements, BBC Trending, July 27th 2015)

And there we have it, as I've discovered that the other blogs and articles I'd got prepared were basically reporting upon or rehashing the BBC commentary.

Pretty much like this one really!

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TV Death Note Episode 5: Symbolism, Style and Split Personalities - Plus Mello Nearly

16/8/2015

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Did I just see Mello in a live action Death Note drama? I think I just saw Mello!

I can't be sure, though you'd think you'd spot that smirk coming a mile off, or at least hear chocolate snapping with all the danger trigger signals more generally associated with a tiger prowling or a T-Rex taking out Tokyo.

Nevertheless, I think I just glimpsed Death Note's most dynamic character in shades a little lighter than his usual Mafioso black. Take a look for yourself.

Near and Mello in Death Note 2015 Episode 5

Is that you, Mello? Can you see him too?

No! I'm not talking about the puppet. That's patently a version of Mello, but not a human actor walking, talking, breathing life into Mello. I'm thinking less wooden here. I'm nodding meaningfully towards the individual who - I grant you - looks a lot like Near.

(S)he's going to turn out to be Mello in disguise over the next few episodes. You mark my words.

Notice how the Mello puppet was mute? Spot how Near was OUTSIDE without an escort? See the grey clothing settling over the spotless white. That's going to be significant. That's Near's 'innocent' morality turning murky with the influx of Mello. Because the great guess in our house is that Near and Mello are one and the same this time.

Potentially Pairing Mello & Near in Death Note

Image: Death Note 13: How to Read bookcover

Death Note 13: How to Read
full of loads of disturbing trivia

Death Note 13: How to Read revealed that Tsugumi Ohba contemplated making Mello and Near twins. Death Note's writer never said if they'd be identical or fraternal.

If the former, then Mello and Near would have looked the same.

Moreover, Takeshi Obata mentioned that his initial drawings of the pair got mixed up somewhere en route to Ohba. The image sketched as Mello actually began Near and vice versa.

It's a story which has had the fandom on both sides staring long and hard into space over many a year in the interim. Imagining a Mello that looked like Near; or a Near with Mello's features.

Now we don't have to picture how that would be. Because all indicators are pointing due Multiple Personality Disorder. Near has been the dominant persona until now, but the morphing into Mello has already begun.

And if I'm wrong, then I deserve all I get from the Near fandom, and the utter disdain of my very own Mello/Matt community. But I'm not wrong. I can practically hear the chocolate snap just beneath the surface, (re)drawing Near.

Let's follow this one through.

What's the Significance of Near Going Outside?

I'm can't imagine any circumstance in childhood, wherein my brother would look quite so startled as L, if informed by our Dad that I'd left the house. (He'd more likely be shocked now. After all, my computer is indoors.)

Yet when Near goes out to play in the park, the very fact of it seriously disturbs the folk back home. Just look how Mr Wammy breaks the news and L's silently fearful expression in reaction.

Death Note (2015) L hears 'Near has left the house'

L (Death Note TV drama) wary hearing Near has left the house

L doesn't say a word. It's Wammy speaking throughout. Starting with a huge sigh close to the door, striding across the room with shoulders stooped and head bent, the very aspect of one readily to impart something unsavoury.

"L." He curtly begins. "Unpleasant news." Then the barest pause before, "Near has left the house."

Immediately, L's head shoots up, his eyes already swivelling sidewards to stare at Watari while the words are still spilling out. Is he scared or is that disdain? Whatever we're seeing, that look lasts for long seconds in mute regard, until the end of the scene.

The whole exchange couldn't be more laden with significance, if someone stuck a neon light above L's head flashing on and off pink with the word 'SIGNIFICANT'. What is less explicit is why.

It could be L's inconsistent horror of the dangerously dirty outside.

This is a man who lives in a place so sterile that all who visit have to suffer disinfection at the gate.

Yet L played tennis last week and attended a concert in this episode without any apparent trauma at all. Strange, and a little jarring.

Personally I think there's significance because Near never goes outside, but Mello does. Wammy is basically telling L that Mello is the dominant personality now.

Disinfecting Kira at L's entrance

Message from a Split Identity in Death Note

Death Note television drama episode 5 is heavier than usual on the symbolism - as we'll come back to later on - and none more so than Near's parkland scene.

Unless, of course, I'm reading way too much into it. See what you think.

The sequence opens upon a huge screen bearing the legends: 'New revelation - there are two Kiras!' and 'A message from the second Kira to the real Kira'.

Image: Death Note (2015) Two Kiras breaking news bulletin

Then that breaking news story becomes pretty much incidental. We know about it already, but its a feight in misdirection, cluing us in to a similar tale hidden in plain view.

For as the message from the second to the first begins, the camera pans from the back of puppet Mello's head to the figure holding it. This 'second' (according to the Wammy House rankings) is mute, not even its limited body language to convey. The puppet's face is turned away. It does not move, utterly inanimate.

Instead its Near's voice which drowns out the newscaster's speech. Or at least the individual who looks like Near and is holding the toy.

Yet not playing with it, as Near is wont to do, hence the seeming emptiness of the previously highly animate doll. Nor is this person twirling a lock of hair, wearing all white or anything else that's previously been a quirk or hallmark of the Wammy House number one.

And this is the person who speaks over the second's message to the first. Because, to my mind, he IS the second (Wammy, persona, whichever you want to call) with his own message to express.

You can practically see the handover taking place between two personae in one form. Though if this is a split personality, as I highly suspect, then the switch seems more like a slow merging from one to the other, than an instant transformation.

It's not a conversation between Near and Mello, as the people of the world think. It's more a struggle for dominance between their twin personalities, currently running parallel - neither quite one nor the other - though I believe that Mello has a slight advantage.

The camera pans in closer and closer, as the commentary plays out. Making it clear that we should be paying attention to what's being said. Closer still, focusing upon the head or mind, like we're poised to enter inside.

Then this Near does what the earlier incarnations rarely did - looks directly at the puppet, whilst addressing it. Quite fondly in fact, aping that Christian scene so beloved by Near above the Wammy House stairs, complete with clusters of people congregating close by, and a foreground grouping of three children.

Though this particular dummy Messiah sits listlessly still.

Unnamed and unmoved until that second. Only belatedly given clunky expression in the eyes, that suddenly turn upwards to the left.

If this was Wammy's House, then the puppet would be looking directly at that painting, as Near so often ended each scene doing.

For the first time ever, the puppet's operation can be clumsily discerned. Near usually makes it seem so effortless. This seems like a parody to me.

But the puppet is empty. Mello is inside the body and Near is simply fading from view.

Wammy's House Stained Glass window from Death Note episode 1

Near's stained glass window at Wammy's House
from the end of Death Note episode 1

Three in One? Multiple People Grouping Near

Three children in Death Note Episode 5 (2015)

Before any of that, there was a long shot and childish dialogue, which yet may hold some especial significance.

All those people watching the exchange between two Kiras on the screen seem themselves uncommonly grouped. Each gathered into sets of three. Except Near, who seemingly sits alone. Even the trees in the background were planted in a clump.

Visually, its just another clue to complement the two Kiras broadcast heard over the top. We are being nudged to note that all present belong to a collective. Thus - I'm certain will transpire - Near too constitutes a group, albeit one wherein its harder to count heads than the rest.

Three perchance? I cut one lady off with my screen-shot, but there are three to the side. Three behind. Three in front.

Nor can I help but see Matt, Near and Mello respectively alluded to in the three children at the fore there. But that might just be me.

Anyone else see what I'm seeing? Symbolically, not actually. Nope, just me then.

It's these three who discuss what they're seeing, as an introductory commentary over our first proper view of Mello(?) arrving. Or Near on the brink of departure. The grey suitcase prop works as a visual clue for both.

"Who's Kira?" asks the boy I'm calling Matt. The girlish Near counterpart replies, "Dunno." Because identities are difficult to perceive, when not all might be as it seems. Then we hear the news anchor for a final time reading the words of the second, "Therefore, I will cancel L's press conference."

In short, nobody knows who Kira is these days, nor how many Kiras there might turn out to be. And L is no longer required to appear in public. All anyone grasps for certain is that the second is speaking.

As does the person on the bench. With the symbolism of the scene stating - here are three personalities grouped as one, and it's the one ranked second now being so publicly heard.

Near walking away in 2015 Death Note drama

So Mello now that we've even lost the puppet.
White clad and walking towards the red - Death Note
colour code for ascendancy in the field of play

Colour Coding the Three in One and Death Note

Speak to me ordinarily about the Three-in-One and its not Death Note's Near and possible multiple personalities that comes to mind. I'm a Pagan and a Celt, my mind is with the Triple Goddess.

A relevance only in the fact that the Celtic Three-in-One can identified in the tales of bards by the colours worn in each aspect. White for the Maiden; red for the Mother; black for the Crone.

Not something I should comfortably be considering within the context of a Japanese television dramatization of Death Note. Japan is a long way from Western Europe, where those story-telling traditions hold sway.

Light, L and Soichiro in black, white and red

Black clad Kira, the master of his game; white L slipping back to first base; and Soichiro in red in the middle
keeping the peace. Each a point on the Wheel of Fortune still turning.

Yet it's patently there too. Not even subtly so. Downright laid on with a trowel, all those instances where white, red and black combine to indicate the undercurrents in a plot-line. In this episode, it was applied so ubiquitously and heavily that it sometimes seemed like style over substance.

Though such overplay did allow us to watch the shift in power between the two Kiras. Watch Misa slip from mistress of her scene through to the mirror image shot at the end, wherein Light has taken it all.

She shouldn't have gone from black to white. It's too late then to go back to red. Not when Light's completely in black.

Romance in Hues of Black, Red and White

I thought perhaps the director worried that the plot was skirting so close to canon, that we'd all be bored by the familiarity in episode five. Except for the Near segment, there were hardly any twists to stop us settling down secure in the knowledge that we know all that's coming next.

Someone warn Mikami! As he pledges his support on-line for both Kiras,
his black suit, white shirt and red tie bask in a rosy kind of quite literal foreshadowing.

So we got arty shots with aplomb, in shades of white, red and black. So many that I had to look it up, just to see if each colour had any special meaning in Japanese culture too.

Bizarrely enough, the symbolism behind each hue seems to follow fairly precisely that inherent in my own ancient British legends. Shades of the Three-in-One underwriting Kira and L's battles for sovereignty too.

Like Living in a Chessboard, L and Light Make Their Moves in Black and White

Japanese Symbolism in White, Red & Black

The television Death Note drama seems to rely quite consistently upon its stylistic colour coding, in order to depict the challenges between protagonists, antagonists and all respective hangers on.

However, those colours don't always mean the same thing. It all depends upon who is donning them, or otherwise saturated in the hue, and what's being linked with those around them.

As a rule of thumb, these are the colour meanings in Japan:

White: Intellect; cold calculation; rationality; divinity; sacred (angelic/Godliness); isolation; snow; impersonal; incorruptible; cleanliness; purity; sterile. However, it's also the colour worn by health professionals, so may simply be a uniform on some.

White and Red: Seen in Japan as the colours worn when one is in love. Or else celebrating in pure happiness. However, it may also have a religious connotation, implying a wish to reach to the Gods and/or dedicate your life to deity.

Red: As in so many cultures around the world, this is the shade of fire, passion, danger, losing oneself to powerful emotions, sensuality, vitality, activity, energy, zest or strength, violence, aggression and blood.

At home with Rem and Misa, in all the shades of red, white and black

Black: Mystery; power; 'evil'; emptiness; the void or abyss; madness; mourning; sexuality; depth; unhappiness; remorse; sadness; fury; fear. Unless worn as formal attire - as in a 'black tie' dinner - wherein it denotes sophistication, elegance and/or class; or as a fashionable item - as in a 'little black dress' - which might just mean stylish.

Black and White: Traditionally the colours worn to funerals and left as memento mori. Signifies loss. Unless they're worn as opposing colours - as in L in white and Light in black - in which case we're looking at challenge; battle; the yin-yang; a nice game of chess. Or in a temple, as some areas in the Shinto religion are set aside in black and white, dedicated to the kami - Gods or spirits come from Heaven or the sea.

Let's see how informative that is, as we continue on through the artistically shot future scenes in TV's Death Note. Shout up if you spot those colours being used symbolically.

And especially if 'Near' turns up in black or red, snatching a chocolate bar to prove me right. I'm going to look really daft after all that if I'm wrong.

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Death Note News Site Index - Navigation FTW!

15/8/2015

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Brand new site index on
Death Note News

Today, I set out to write three blog entries to post over the next few days, and to finish a chapter of Ghosting the Street.

What I actually did was spend half the morning lost in a labyrinth of Google.

(Remind me NEVER to answer their prompting to complete my Webmaster configuration. Now I recall why it was left it hanging uncompleted in the first place. It's still not fully done.)

Somewhere in that midden, it was suggested to me - via some otherwise incomprehensible tutorial - that Death Note News readers would love a site index. You would consider it a great kindness if I created one, as it would prove to be very helpful.

Hence the rest of the morning and the entire afternoon disappeared under a feverish hunting down of every page and link on our website.

Until at last I can finally unveil - *drumroll; fireworks; dancing people hi-kicking in perfect symmetry* - your SITE INDEX! Tra-la-laaaaa!

Anything for you. You're welcome.

Feel free to start bouncing around with abject joy any time you soon.

You'd have preferred the blogs and fan-fiction, wouldn't you? -.-

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Death Note news articles

MRSJeevas Reads Annals of Fear Chapters 17-25 (Chat from Guns & Games Members)

Matti's Audiobook of Annals of Fear in Context

Death Note Musical Promo with English Songs

Police Hunt Death Note Shinigami Flasher - and So Does Everyone Else

Death Note's Babel in the Tower: Multiple Voices Seeking to be Heard at the Same Time

Kiras Meeting in the Yotsuba Tower of Babel

Another Note: Beyond Birthday's Near Nod in Death Note (2015) Episode Seven

Dissociative Identity Disorder in Death Note

A Double Wammy in Death Note's Multiple Personality Plot Twists?

Creation of a Successor - L and Near's Michelangelo Moment in Death Note (2015)

Light Changes L's Mind: Death Note Winners

A Fatal Flaw for L in new Death Note Drama

Paradise Lost and Kira - Myself am Hell

The Return of the King: Kira Finds his Precious

In Death Note's Dark Prism Light Splits

Kira Identified in Split Personalities

Near in the Death Note Manga

Near in the Death Note Anime

Near in the Death Note Live-Action Movie

Near in the Death Note TV Drama

Death Note (2015): Personality Shifts and Kira

Misa-Misa and the Light Lost to Kira

Did Somebody Call Amnesty International?

Realism in Death Note's Torture Scenes

Daiyo Kangoku in Death Note: Japanese Police Extracting Confessions by Torture

The Importance of Confession in Japan

Parental Shame and Japan's Judicial Torture

Complicity in the Torture of Death Note's Kira

Did L Have the Right to Torture Light and Misa?

Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 5:

Why Can't Death Note Kira Suspects Be Judged Under the Law?

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 6:

Article 7:

﻿Article 8:﻿

﻿Article 9:﻿

Article 10:

Article 11:

Article 12:

Blinding Detail in Death Note Matt Cosplay

Mello Cosplayers Concentrate on Chocolate

Risk Assessment for Rosaries in Mello Cosplay

Don't Misa-Misa the Sunscreen!

Near's Split Personality in Death Note (2015)

Live Action Matt in Death Note TV Drama?

Death Note Drama's Live Action Mello

Chinese Twitter and Torrents - Death Note Fans Evade State Censorship in China

Why Does the Chinese Government Hate Death Note ? An Anime Historian Spells it Out

China's Death Note Ban Seeks to Restrict Casual Access

Potentially Pairing Mello & Near in Death Note

What's the Significance of Near Going Outside?

Message from a Split Identity in Death Note

Three in One? Multiple People Grouping Near

Colour Coding the Three in One and Death Note

Romance in Hues of Black, Red and White

Like Living in a Chessboard, L and Light Make Their Moves in Black and White

Japanese Symbolism in White, Red & Black

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MRSJeevas Reads Annals of Fear Chapters 17-25
(Chat from Guns & Games Members)

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