Fans in Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia are currently enjoying high definition airings of the Death Note TV drama courtesy of the GEM Channel.

The television network is the sparkly new collaboration between Sony Pictures Television (SPT) and Nippon Television (NTV). It includes exclusive shows from both companies portfolios, as well as a clutch of other programming too.

Eventually GEM will be beaming Death Note into South Korea, Taiwan and other Asia territories too, including China, which will surely go down well.

                     Read: 
                          * Chinese Cyber Authority Cracks Down on Death Note
                          * Death Note Fans in China Dodge the Censor

For the rest of us, there's a nice selection of images from the Death Note television drama, courtesy of NTV, highlighted on the GEM Channel Death Note show webpages.  Some of which are reproduced here, above and below.

In addition, there's a synopsis of the show, programming information (every Monday and Tuesday at 8pm (JKT) and 9pm (BKK)) and profiles on various cast members, including Yutaka Matsushige as Soichiro Yagami, Hinako Sano as Misa Amane, Kento Yamazaki as L, Mio Yuki as Near and Masataka Kubota in his award-winning performance as Light Yagami.

A nice touch there is the trivia end-piece on each actor, informing us for example that Yutaka Matsushige is one of the tallest actors in Japan (he's 6ft 2") and Mio Yuki's real name is Rina Kanno. She was launched into stardom after winning a HoriPro talent contest in 2012.

Meanwhile, there's an apology to make.  Much hecticness and chaos behind the scenes a few months ago at Death Note News meant that our analytical reviews of the last few episodes of the drama were never published. Nor indeed written, though much enjoyment was had in actually watching the show!

We intended to.  It's just that the write ups never made our To Do list, thus were overlooked and finally forgotten entirely.  They might never have appeared if one of our readers hadn't been on the ball. 

Grace Butler has given us the nudge (politely and very sweetly), hence those Death Note (2015) reviews are back on the list to do.  Thanks Grace!  And sorry to all who have been waiting on them.

In the meantime, here are the Death Note News analytical reviews of Death Note drama episodes so far.

A free Apple Death Note game sounds like something involving Shinigami Ryuk, but in this case it's the phone not the fruit.

I don't know who Pracha Chanlekla is, but he/she/it appears to be a serial creator of fun software for iPhones.

Amongst the recent crop of which is a freely downloadable Death Note iPhone app. (also compatible with current iPad and iPod models).

2048 Death Note Logic and Puzzle Game doesn't appear to have been officially sanctioned.  But since when has that ever stopped any of us enjoying  anything within the extended fandom created Death Note franchise?

There's quite a stark introduction by the developer of his Death Note game for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Pracha Chanlekla describes the gameplay simply  as 'join the numbers and get to the 32768 tile'.  That's all. But sometimes simple is best.  After all, Mario merely runs around hitting golden coins and brick walls with his head, and Pac-Mac was fundamentally a blob on a grid, escaping other blobs, whilst snacking on more.

Is simple best here too?  The Apple device users amidst the Death Note News team got downloading the free Death Note app. to find out.

The consensus was that the game ran well enough, but it appeared a little light on content. It wasn't particularly well made (visually) and, as one colleague put it, the whole thing 'couldn't have taken more than an hour to cobble together'.

But then again, it's free!

It's always nice to spot a fellow fan and illustrator James Neish has been popping up recently enthusing about Death Note.

Filipino born and Canada based, the artist is making quite a name for himself in comics like Timeless and Hero. According to his Facebook page, he was commissioned to sketch Thor while at HalCon (Halifax Comic Convention) a fortnight ago. 

Meanwhile, I'm particularly loving the Sandman fan-art on his website.

The reason he's pinged on our radar is his sudden and very vocal love of the Death Note anime.  First of all, he celebrated Canada Day with an interview on Comics Coast to Coast, a podcast with Brian Dunaway and Joel Duggan. It's an hour long, highly enjoyable discussion of all things comic art and fandom orientated. 

From about the 18.35 minute mark, they start talking about anime, with James Neish's Death Note kudos kicking in around 19.00. 

"If you're not really an anime fan," Neish told his interviewers, "but you want to dip your toe in the water a bit, I recommend this series called Death Note."  He described it as 'horror', 'Sci-Fi' and 'smartly written'.  Dunaway instantly began searching for it on-line, then linked to the Viz Media page from his site.

Even more recently, out and proud James Neish turned up in the Gallery of Geek section of The Advocate - a digital magazine focusing on all things gay - where he showed off a great selection of his artwork.  Including plenty with a fond appreciation of the male physique, though unfortunately none Death Note related.

However, the accompanying interview with Brian Anderson (November 8th 2015) asked what geeky things are currently fueling his obsession.  Neish answered that he's been binge-watching Death Note.  So perhaps that professional fan-art is just around the corner!

Death Note actress Aya Hirano has left hospital after a successful operation to remove her tonsils.

This following a year in which engagements have been missed due to frequent hospital stays due to chronic tonsillitis, including a recent live performance of the anime White Album.

Best known to fans here as the voice of Misa Amane in the Japanese Death Note anime, Aya Hirano worried in her blog that illness and/or the procedure might irrevocably damage her voice.

Later she reassured readers that removing her troublesome tonsils can only improve it.

She seems now to be home and well, ready to pick up her career, starting with another live appearance at the Dai AQUAPLUS Matsuri event, on November 28th 2015, at Tokyo's Ryōgoku Kokugikan.

Hey guys,

I’ve been thinking about Ryuk lately. Behind all the smiles and goofiness there's some real darkness. We’re told that he dropped his Note into the human world because he was bored, but when you stop and think about just how much misery and pain was brought from his cure for boredom its quite sick.

Naomi Misora lost her fiancee, Misa Amane was driven to suicide, the demise of all our favourite former residents of Wammy’s house. It’s heartbreaking how much loss was brought on from Ryuk’s actions.

It seems like the blame should be placed on Light for it all, but it’s Ryuk. At the end he reminisces about his time on earth, but does he show any remorse? None at all.

There’s that theory that at the end the Shinigami we see is actually Light, now a Shinigami. I think that’s accurate, and it gets me thinking about how the Shinigami King (or whoever decides) chooses who is going to be a Shinigami. I think that the criteria is bringing a lot of death and doing it efficiently and without remorse, much like Light Yagami did.

So perhaps Ryuk was once a human on earth, a cold remorseless serial killer, maybe one who killed out of boredom. 

Platinum End - the new manga by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, Death Note's creators - launched today with its first chapter simultaneously appearing in Japanese and English translations on opposite sides of the Pacific.

Readers in Japan may find it serialized in Jump Square magazine's December 2015 issue 12 (Nov. 4th 2015), while English readers can download a digital version from Viz Media's Weekly Shonen Jump website.

Naturally a copy of the first chapter of Platinum End has been grabbed here, so we can see what it's all about and how the Death Note fandom might possibly receive this latest manga by Ohba and Obata.

However, sensible of spoilers, all thoughts in review of the chapter will be hidden behind a read more mask.