A theme park in Osaka will be taking day-trippers into the Death Note universe with L right alongside to ensure no-one gets themselves killed.

Because he was always so good at that...

Universal Jump Summer marks a collaboration between Weekly Shonen Jump and Universal Studios Japan.  Running throughout the summer months of 2016 at the latter's tourist attraction, the event will bring to life major characters from manga and anime.

That includes Death Note detective L, who'll be recruiting rookie investigators (that'll be you) to accompany him through a role-playing, puzzle-solving, live action game entitled Death Note: The Escape.  It will be built on the back of other Death Note themed Real Escape games, that have been running in cities around the world to mark the manga's 10th anniversary.

Additionally, the theme park will regularly host theatrical performances featuring another stalwart of the genre.  One Piece Premier Show 2016 tells a story especially written for the event.

Unfortunately, visitors to Universal Studios Japan will have to pay extra to enjoy either of these anime-based attractions.  However, their general admission price allows for free access to the third one - Dragon Ball Z: The Real 4-D.  Not too much further information there, other than our hero Goku will be fighting the evil Frieza.

Yeah, whatever.  Our lot will be with L, taking on the truly nefarious designs inherent in a locked door.  And if you don't think that's dangerous, then you seriously never read Another Note.  Hold on.  Ok, so our guide looks like L. Fine. But someone must have double-checked his jam eating propensity.

Haven't they?

Enjoy going beyond in the Universal Jump Summer 2016 Death Note Real Escape event.

It may be the tenth anniversary of its initial publication, yet manga editions of Death Note sales remain evergreen in the US, Canada and Mexico. 

In fact, this far down the line, Death Note manga volumes are still one of the Top 10 best-selling titles within the c0ntinent for the genre.  It pretty much seems lodged there; camped in all perpetuity.

That's according to ICv2 - the North American pop culture news magazine for retailers - reporting in the April 4th 2016 issue of Publishers Weekly.

While Death Note may lack the current mega-sales of latest releases like Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul and One-Punch Man, that's because they are new and trending fashionably. But that's more than made up for by the steady drip-drip of continued Death Note manga editions purchased throughout the last decade.

It even survived well during the overall manga slump in North America, which saw the trade in Japanese titles fall from a high of $210m in 2007 to a mere $65m by 2012.  The market had bounced back up to $75m by 2014 - mostly on the back of Tokyo Ghoul and One-Punch Man - with early figures suggesting that North American manga sales rose by another 13% again during 2015.

Yet even during the down days in manga consumerism, interest in Death Note there never really wavered.  ICv2 stated that it, along with Dragon Ball, went on 'selling well'.

So why should Death Note stand out so much amid all the rest?  ICv2 CEO Milton Griepp has an answer for that too.  "I think it all comes down to quality," He said, comparing Ohba and Obata's epic manga with iconic graphic novels of the West, like Alan Moore's Watchman or Batman: The Killing Joke. "Death Note is a good series."

And sometimes it really is as simple as that.

Moreover, Chapman contextualises Kira within the wider auspices of justice.  Making me happy, he also alights upon issues of human rights, which Light Yagami certainly never goes near.

Though he never elaborates upon the point, the columnist does demonstrate quite clearly how easily society will accept the wicked and insane, if the justification is presented gradually and enticingly enough.  In this regard using Kira apologists amongst the Death Note fandom as an example, rather than, say, Donald Trump's supporters.  Seen from a long view, their pro-Kira arguments are denigrated as 'commonly insane'.  Can't argue there!

His ultimate dismissal of Light Yagami as God - or Kira as a force of justice and good - pretty much serves as the Japanese populace turning its collective back upon such grandiose pretensions of divinity.   Or as Chapman puts it:

And though Chapman doesn't go so far as to say it, doesn't that make Matsuda our representative in the Death Note universe too?  The Everyman serves as spokesperson for the readership, as we get seduced by the rhetoric of Light Yagami and symbolizes our own slap in the face by reality, as Kira's descent into insanity becomes way too obvious to support.

Then we too, like Matsuda, get to retrace our own allegiances back through each worsening compromise to that first loosening of all common sense and good morals.

Instead, Chapman sees in Matsuda a proxy for Tsugumi Ohba's own secret views on the matter, which itself makes fascinating reading and compelling food for thought.   It's definitely worth the time to check it out.

It's not just the Panel itself that needs to be organised.  We are cosplayers - reasonably professional ones at that, insofar as these things can be measured with oodles of fun thrown in as the main event - therefore we need to look the part.  Act it too.  As well as physique allows, Squad Six Cosplayers must take the stage as near clones to those characters we choose to inhabit for a night.

That in mind, Lara has spent the holidays working on her Death Note Misa costume.  She cosplayed the character before, hence knows that her old wig is not up to scratch.  One should not have to redo those derpy pigtails ten times an hour!

This year then, she will be entering Ichibancon with a thicker, better quality Misa Misa wig; totally replacing the old with something new.  It was expensive, but worth it.  Here's your sneak preview of the hairy part of Lara's Misa Death Note cosplay, as it was restyled to match Second Kira's locks.

Meanwhile, it's crunch time here with just a couple of days to go and all hands to the deck to make our anime con panel run smoothly.  Wish us luck!  And if you are attending 2016 Ichibancon 7, we'll see you there!

Squad Six Cosplayers will be hosting Resurrecting L - Death Note 10th Anniversary Panel at Ichibancon 2016, January 1st 11pm-midnight, in Events 4.

It's been a fraught few days with technical issues, mostly surrounding internet access, but that's all over now. We're plugged in and raring to go with the first major bit of news being that Ichibancon has just released its official schedule.  We're on it of course, but there's a surprise attached. Squad Six Cosplayers' Death Note panel - Resurrecting L: Death Note 10th Anniversary - has been bumped up an hour.

We're now on at 11pm, instead of midnight, on January 1st 2016.  Same venue, same room, just a different time.  A fine excuse to redesign the poster advertising our Death Note appreciation panel.  Though a frantic scramble to alert all who have already promoted it for us.

Next up is the flyer that everyone will receive as they walk into the panel.  You get to see it before they do!  It's a four page flyer, folded concertina style. In the box, on the inner page, is where a piece of candy will be placed for the guests to enjoy as we present. We'll also have candy and Death Note themed prizes throughout the presentation.  L eat your heart out!  We're resurrecting him indeed.

Are you loving the Death Note Christmas gift shop gif that's over there on the sidebar being all festive?  Wonderful, isn't it? 

Orangepunch created it for us and it's been gently snowing away in that corner, calling people in to remember that seasonal Death Note decorations do exist and all that.

Whilst also reminding me that I never did get around to finishing half of the stores that it's inviting people in to visit.  Plus some of them went up with way too big images attached to every pretty product, rendering them too long to load for the average sense of patience to withstand.  If it doesn't crash the prospective buyers internet first. 

What can I say, I was young and foolish, followed by forgetful and lazy.  Swiftly introducing, 'Oh no! All of that should have been fixed months ago!' *cue pulling an all-nighter* into the bargain.  One unfathomably long night later, we have a much improved Death Note Gift Emporium (though granted, that might have been more useful a few weeks ago BEFORE you bought all your Xmas presents), plus some new departments entirely.

You will still find flaws in there (size of pics in DVDs and books pages, we're all looking at you), but I also found something quite intriguing to bring to the table.  Plus some gossip.

First let me run you through what's changed and sparkly new in our Death Note shopping area, plus a 'to do' list of what's coming up, so you can check if the issue you've found is already known.  If not, then naturally we'd be very grateful to get the heads up. 

The front page (screenshot above) got a redesign.  The thumbnails were all much reduced in size, in order to boost the speed at which the page loads.  Hopefully it is much more navigable now.

In addition, every Death Note merchandise page has been reconfigured with funky tabs - making finding things at a glance much easier and again dropping that load time a lot!  Check them out in any department clicked below.

GOSSIP STOP!  In filling up those cyber shelves, I found several new Death Note tribute tracks by other artists, including two available for pre-order on release dates later this month or January.  They are both in our gift store now, but I will be hunting down the musicians and featuring them as separate Death Note News reports.  Death Note's 10th anniversary, TV drama or upcoming movies, appear to have inspired a veritable flood of them!  Happy days.

These next two kick start a whole new category in Death Note memorabilia - collections based on merchandise for Death Note characters.  I'm sure that most people choosing which characters to begin would have gone for Light and L.  But I know my readership.

Anyone want to prod us towards which character to compile a collection for next?   If there's no broad hints in any other direction, we'll default to Light Yagami and work through the series from there.  Though I'm half tempted to be perverse and go Sachiko Yagami instead!  Reckon there would be anything out there to buy in honour of Light's mother?

But this brings us nicely to the salient question with which I led.

I know where my money is.  In fact, I've written twelve novels of Mello/Matt fan-fiction spelling it out - and one of them initially ran with the working title Cyberpunk.  Another had titles lifted from several Cyberpunk dictionaries and cultural references.  Matt in my universe ended up with a motorbike once, but we've barely seen it since.

Maybe that's because I've missed a trick.  In conjunction with most of the Death Note Matt fandom, I missed what was in plain sight, because I never thought to look certain things up.

Matt's gift shop was looking a bit sparse.  Mello's was jam packed.  I felt bad.  So I thought it would be a nice idea to hunt for that habitual Matt costume for Death Note cosplayers to buy, love and cherish.  After all, its probably the most ubiquitously seen, ordinary collection of clothes on any Death Note character. You could grab half the items in any given mainstream clothes shop.

Or could you?  It's harder than it looks, this cosplay malarkey.   I started with the gloves.  How do you search for those?  They're quite distinctive.  Racing gloves? Long, black gloves for men?   Finally, I found them.  They are officially known - in non-Death Note circles - as motorcyclist's gauntlet gloves,  or motorbike racing gauntlet gloves.

Next I went for the goggles.  Bog standard cyberpunk, I thought, with an option on steampunk, if that outfitting genre fell short.  Close, but no cigar.  Yet I was finding something similar, if not precise, in a whole new class of goggle sporting necessities.  Necessary, that is, if you happen to be a motorbike racer.  Like those wearing the gloves too.

Shoved some stripy, long-sleeved tops in and off into the jeans department.  Mmmm, several billion here, what to search in order to narrow this down?  Ribbed jeans?  Denim with circles around them? 

Turns out that there are some jeans created specifically with patchwork patterns surrounding each leg - just like Matt's wears in fact.  They're made especially for bikers.  Apparently it improves their saddle grip upon the seat.  Saves them slipping about, as ordinary jeans might.

So goggles, gloves and jeans all point due Matt the motorbike rider, with a strong nudge towards racing them too.  You going for that in your head canon?  Fan fiction writers, is that why he's beside a bike the first time we see him, and why Mello acquires one only after Matt's on the scene?  Death Note fan artists, what motorcycle does Mail Jeevas ride?  If this releases the throttle on anybody's muse, let me link the results, or show them  off here.

Or are you just going 'cyberpunk geek' like me, and dismissing this out of hand?  I'd be fascinated with your thoughts!

How would you like to celebrate New Year with Death Note?  Lara Sizemore from Squad Six Cosplayers has been in touch to announce that attendees at North Carolina's Ichibancon anime convention can do just that.

Squad Six Cosplayers are celebrating ten years of Death Note with a panel hosted at Ichibancon 2016.  Resurrecting L: Death Note 10th Anniversary Panel will take a look back over the whole series, review its updates, chuck around some Death Note related trivia and much more for the fandom to enjoy.

Squad Six Cosplayers are a well-known collective upon the US Eastern board anime circuit.  They've been around since 2003 and create all their own costumes from scratch. Their signature panel is Undercover with Kuroshitsuji, which also provides much inspiration for their most famous cosplay. The group ensure that their Kuroshitsuji cosplay is high on historical accuracy, which is fabulous for a qualified historian like myself to hear!

And now they're turning their attention to Death Note.  Happy days.

Ichibancon 2016 will be held at the Embassy Suites Hotel Concord, in Concord, North Carolina, USA, between December 31st-January 3rd 2016.  Resurrecting L: Death Note 10th Anniversary Panel will happen in the convention's Events 4 room, at midnight on January 1st 2016.

At 10.30pm GMT, the countdown timer came to a close on an official website normally devoted to Warner Bros. Death Note movies in Japan.

I caught the moment in .gif form above, but wasn't filming widely enough to capture the message that ultimately popped up.  (Nor did I start soon enough. I was sooo going to have this counting down for 40 seconds...)

Here's a still of the final screen:

And a translation from the wonderful Amaryllis:

Which is a little strange, as said Death Note television drama had finished airing several hours before, and I'd already blogged about the announcement.

Did somebody mess their timings up?

As expected, the website was counting down to telling us about a new Death Note film, set within the Japanese live action movie universe, due for release in 2016.  See earlier blog entry for more details.

It's funny, coming back here after the news that the 10 year anniversary of Death Note was this year. Its been so long, and yet, it seems so short too. All those years, and friends and memories. It's amazing. The good and the bad. I'd probably change a few things but for the most part, it's a part of who I am. 

I remember starting the Guns and Games club on MangaBullet, and watching it grow and grow. Watching all the community come together slowly and seeing people make bonds with each other. My little team made sure that there was always something happening, that the club was in good hands, and that the love of DN and Matt and Mello stayed strong. 

I was sad when I wasn't able to keep up my duties as founder, so I handed the reigns over to Matti and Silvia who took wonderful care of my baby. If I could renew the club somehow, I would. I thought about doing it on Anipan, but I think things weren't that great with the site? 

Anyway. 

It's a nice thing to reminisce about and actually, this day that I'm writing this entry, I finally completed my DN collection. I bought the 7th volume of Death Note. I skipped it for some reason, and while comic book shopping, I decided to finally buy it. To have the collection. 

Ten Years, and One Full Collection.

Mmmm, currently, I'm on several websites and I do try to stay social! My job hours don't really allow for constant connection, so I'm usually lurking around in the early hours, or late hours. Which really bothers me because I used to spend so much time online before!

On my website, I do try to keep up with little journals and my artwork. I'd like to draw more! It's been ages since I've had a long day to sit and have a good draw.  Anyway! I would love love to sit and chat with people, even if its through email! just let me know ahaha. 

But mostly, on the sites you can find me on, I'm usually crying over the wasted potential of Supernatural, and the unexpected tear your heart out slice-of-life anime, Free! (but come on, plot and fan-service aimed at females? sign me UP, cause hot damn those muscles. Sports anime man. That came out of nowhere and hit me right in the feels.) 

Oh and a few side projects I've been doing these past years, was an English text-to-text transcript of Death Note: Another Note and I have been slowly...very slowly.............doing the same for Death Note: L Save the WorLd. Mostly because I don't think there's any pdf available for it still. ^^ People still ask for DN:AN, so I can only imagine that the second novel is still unavailable for online reading. But since everything is online, I can only wonder. 

Please don't be afraid to contact me on any of these sites! I'm always around ^^ 

Take care everyone! It was a pleasure to be your president while I was able to /bows

If you'd like to feature in Focus on a Fan, then please let me know via the contact form on this site.

It would be great to know where we can find the old gang!

Death Note gamers will now be able to pit their wits against a series of puzzles and ciphers, in a new Smartphone App game released by Shueisha.

The first part of Death Note Shinsekai e no Izanai (Death Note Invitation to a New World) launched on April 12th 2014 for devices running iOS or Android. With the second, third and fourth parts coming in staggered releases at the end of April, middle of May and the end of that month respectively.

The Death Note Smartphone App is currently only available in Japanese.

Players will find themselves inside a locked room, from which they need to escape. This involves following clues, deactivating/bypassing traps and solving puzzles in order to unlock the door.

It's been created as part of Death Note's 10th Anniversary celebrations. Anyone downloading it as we speak?

Lucky Death Note fans in Japan will be able to buy the re-issued manga from today.

Shueisha have published these versions to tie in with the 10th Anniversary of Death Note first appearing in Shonen Jump. But other than the the novelty value, there's nothing much to recommend it.

The story told is precisely the same as other editions of the Death Note manga. There are no new chapters nor tweaks in the original story.

However, each volume - which will be released monthly - will come with a bespoke character card.

They'll add up to seven overall. When placed side by side, those cards create a long mini-poster. The same effect will be achieved by lining up the front covers of the manga volumes too.

In addition, these volumes are available in eBook form, as well as the usual paper editions.

Anyone tempted?