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!

Death Note will be the main attraction for GEM - a brand, new television channel launched across Asia on October 1st 2015.

GEM marks a collaboration between Nippon TV (NTV) and Sony Pictures Television (SPT), each of which are bringing their biggest shows to air to Asian audiences.

NTV chose its television Death Note drama, recently broadcast in Japan and streamed on-line around the world, to act as its flagship for GEM's launch. Also on offer to viewers is another drama entitled Angel Heart; season two of Hanasaki Mai Speaks Out; and a Chinese romance series called Lady & Liar.

A hallmark of the channel will be its emphasis upon Asian content.

At a press conference to announce GEM's opening content, NTV's International Business Development divisional President Yukiko Kimishima told reporters:

So, do you reckon Asia is going to like Death Note?  Wry smile. 

Though I suppose there might be the odd one or two who haven't heard of it. Under their rock. And perhaps a handful more who never saw Death Note's 2015 TV dramatisation. They're all in for a treat.

MIPCOM - the world's entertainment content market - will be held at the Palais de Festival in Cannes this October, and Death Note will be there.

Nippon TV will be showing their live action television drama Death Note to international media industry executives, in the hope that one or more will snap it up.

If successful, then Death Note (2015) may be subtitled or dubbed for native viewers in other countries.

NTV will also be taking Matsuko-Roid - a show wherein a cross-dresser presenter and his android companion explore a future where robots have become mainstream in society - and The Kindergarten - a mix between a game show and reality TV, wherein young children are filmed completing quizzes, reacting to the appearance of monsters and confessing all on-camera.

But mostly the broadcasting corporation is pinning its international syndication hopes upon Death Note.

Confidence is already running high that the show will be picked up in the USA and Europe. A press release from NTV stated that the company were inundated with expressions of interest from television companies worldwide, as soon as their dramatic live action Death Note series was announced in June.

One buyer from Italy seemed especially keen.  Hence it may turn up on terrestrial television there sooner rather than later.

MIPCOM runs from October 5th-8th 2015.

More manga will be coming to India, Viz Media top exec. Kevin Hamric confirmed during his recent talk at Hyderabad Comic Con.

Anime like Death Note has made it possible, simply by proving to be so popular.

Japanese manga and anime has struggled to make much headway into the vast Indian market.  Despite a growing number of aficionados, like those packing out Hitex Exhibiton, September 12-13, for Comic Con Hyderabad 2015. 

Not to mention those thronging into Bangalore Comic Con last April, or the hordes expected to descend upon Mumbai Film & Comics Convention and Comic Con Delhi, both in December 2015.

The fact that so many events are now teeming with Indian fans of anime and manga is only the visual face of how the genre is gathering pace in the country. But it's been slow going.

Two factors have been credited with making such headway as exists.

The first being first day guest speaker at the Hyderabad gathering - Kevin Hamric, Senior Director of Sales and  Marketing at Viz Media.  He might be merely the human face for a company increasingly making manga available in India, but he's quite a active one. 

Returning time and time again to the sub-continent determined to make manga appear approachable to Indian readers.

His session at Comic Con Hyderabad was described in the schedule as 'get a behind the scenes look in to your favourite anime & manga series', then went on to name-check Death Note, amongst the other usual suspects - Naruto, Bleach and Dragon Ball Z.

These are the fore-runners forging a route into the Indian entertainment industry on behalf of all other Japanese manga to follow.

Hamric himself highlighted the second major factor, in an interview with Hans India newspaper (We are Bringing More of Manga to India: Kevin Hamric, Sept 14th 2015).

“One of the reasons why there are more takers to manga is because, most of the time when these animes were screened on TV, it was dubbed in Hindi and even Telugu. This helped a lot.”

In short, more manga is now being introduced to the country - plus being printed there, as demand grows to justify it - because Hindi dubbed Death Note et al made the genre popular enough.  Through the anime laying the groundwork, Hamric was able to build a market for manga too.

Thus does the Death Note fandom grow, and all others too, eventually.

Death Note is being seen as one of two big Japanese anime testing the ground internationally in a potentially lucrative revenue stream for entertainment groups. The other is Naruto.

Both have been recently adapted for live performances - or 2.5-D, as its known in Japan - which might just as easily be transferred across borders, changed to suit audiences in various nations.

Death Note the Musical has already been staged in South Korea, picking up there before the inaugural Japanese performance had even completed its theatrical run. Its producers - particularly HoriPro, which owns the rights to the Death Note stage-show - hope that other countries will be swift to purchase the script and score, in order to translate both for their own productions.

HoriPro deliberately hired a well-known American Broadway composer - Frank Wildhorn - so that eventual sales to the US might be smoothed. Versions of the show's keynote songs were available on-line in English before they'd even been recorded in Japanese.

HoriPro is part of the 2.5 Dimensional Musical Association - a Japanese entertainment industry conglomerate, formed in 2014 specifically to lead global exportation of anime related live events or stage adaptations.

Another founding member of the group, Nelke, has already seen its theatrical production of Naruto staged in Macau, Malaysia and Singapore.  Both have their eye on the West, where securing Death Note or Naruto 2.5-D deals could prove extremely profitable for the companies involved.

Though we haven't yet been made privy to the takings from those stagings, an idea of the bottom line can be gleaned from reports that Tenimyu (also owned by Nelke) recently sold its 2 millionth ticket for a run of successful 2.5 dimensional performances in Japan alone. This in a country which doesn't promote longevity in theatrical productions, as occurs in London's West End or New York's Broadway.

Promoting interest in either of those locations could ensure riches for the companies involved for years to come.

And to ensure at least some consideration from foreign theatre-goers, Tenimyu productions offered spectacles which provided sub-titles in four different languages - English, French, Chinese and Korean - that the buzz around the show might be conveyed home on the lips of those who watched it.

In addition to the huge bank balances primed to be boosted on the global entertainment market, there's another powerful incentive for Japanese exporters - unlike anime, manga and other material formats, it's difficult for live performances to be conveyed wholesale into the homes of potential customers free of charge.

You can't download on-line a stage production like you could anime episodes, nor scantilate copies of it, as so many do with manga.  For the entertainment moguls of Japan, rights to their musicals feels almost pirate proof.