Anime actors Brad Swaile, Sergio Zamora and Kim Hasper are answering your questions backstage as we speak.  They ALL played Light Yagami, providing the voice for him in the English, Spanish (European) and German dubs of the Death Note anime respectively.

Each actor has a new profile page - which will later transform into their individual interviews conducted by all who sent in queries to be asked.  The buttons beneath their pictures below will take you to that seiyū's profile too.

To make life easier on all, we even translated the question form into English, Spanish and German.  Though any of those languages may be used to ask what you will of all three Light Yagami voice actors.

Death Note News writers and readers alike have been sharing their thoughts and research expertise on all things Yagami. Thus far, we've read profiles penned by us:

• Death Note Profile: Who is Light Yagami?
• Casting Kira: Light Yagami Actors Across the Globe

Philosophy:

• Nathaniel Overthinks Death Note #04: The Utilitarianism of Light Yagami
• The Concept of Kira: Can you Really say Light Yagami is the God of the New World? (Guest Post by Lua)

and Linguistics:

• Why is Light Yagami's Name Read as Yagami Tsuki? (Guest Post by Amaryllis)
  
• What's in a Name? The Reason Why Light Yagami is Called Kira in Death Note (Guest Post by Renchan)

In our aim to uncover the communities, forums, groups and other places where Light Yagami fans hang out - and to give such areas a little boost of publicity too - we had ComicVine's Light Yagami Forum respond, while also bigging up our own Pinterest Community Board for Kira fans.

Let us know if there are more out there!

We've had Kira cosplay galore!  In addition to the fabulous God of the New World above by Fausto the Endless (of whom more later in the month), the whole thing kicked off with Cayanna Carma as Light Yagami welcoming us to this event.

She returned later to answer questions about cosplaying Kira, as did Squad Six Cosplayers and Light Yagami.  We're still to hear from Maru-Light, whose insight is already in and queued waiting to be published.

There's been slightly less of a response from those penning Kira fan-fiction.  Matti gave it a go with Mu Amongst Fools; while the ubiquitous Maru-Light came clean on whatever happened to her co-authored Death Note novels The Redeemer Series.  Fascinating, even if you never read the books!

However, there may be more interest now that we've finally got our Death Note fan-fiction author questions up and running.  Will you be sharing your writing secrets there?

The lovely Tate Forkel started us off with the fan drawn Light Yagami artwork.  Arrowchild added her own to the Redeemer piece already mentioned above. But then nothing more.

Come on Kira artists!  We're all dying to see what you have created.  To a given value of 'dying' obviously; thought we'd better mention that, given the subject and circumstances.  You may be interested to note that you have also now got a series of questions aimed at uncovering your artistic know-how!

There's much more to come from whence all of this derived, so keep reading and don't forget that everything Light Yagami related this month is being archived for a permanent display: The C0llected Archives of Death Note News Month of Light Yagami.

And next month, Matsuda.  Are you ready?

We entered into the bizarre, but Zenful world of urbexing for a bit (that’s urban exploring for laymen), which roughly translated into avoiding-getting-arrested-while-exploring-abandoned-asylums-and-taking-photographs-of-urban-decay.

On one such excursion, while covered in roof soot at an abandoned Victorian Mental Institution in upstate New York, Anda whipped out a ring and popped the question—so we’re engaged now.

I guess you can say we’re flirting with wedding plans, which usually goes from “I want an awesome VICTORIAN wedding in a mansion” to “meh, lets just do pizza and call it a day.”

Think maybe we’ll do a court ceremony and blow the money on a trip to the Caribbean instead (which admittedly is one of our addictions and seems like a more responsible investment of funds, unless the wedding becomes the best Halloween Party Ever, in which case we can justify the expense.)

And besides, I have my heart set on a replica of Mina Harker’s red dress from Dracula as my wedding scrubs, so maybe I’ll get the dress, do a court ceremony, eat the pizza and then go to the Caribbean. Sounds like a plan.

ANYWAY, so we’re living together and still writing together. We used to pour all of our efforts into a Death Note fanfic tome called The Redeemer Series, but I just sent Matti an article longer than anyone wants to read about why we don’t write that anymore.

[Coming soon to a Death Note News near you - Matti]

Instead, we’ve been hard at work on an original series called Breaking Across Devotion, which we’re adamant we're going to publish; otherwise my purpose on this planet is pretty moot.  Write or bust, basically.

The “B-A-D” series is literally about rock stars and serial killers, and - to prove life weirdly imitates art - as of the last year+, Anda and I have been working in the music business, as a concert photographer and copywriter respectively.

It’s been a pretty incredible experience. We go to at least 4 shows a month, sometimes more, sometimes less. Anda shoots rock stars in the photo pit [Still Mello! - Matti]; I get to watch and sometimes write about it. Along the way we’ve met some of our hero bands including Black Veil Brides, Nothing More and Like a Storm. It’s nuts. We’ve covered bands like Slash and Myles Kennedy, Frank Iero & the Cellabration, Six A.M., Marilyn Manson, The Pretty Reckless, Breaking Benjamin, Motionless in White, and a ridiculous amount of others for Music Existence.

We’re hoping to expand our careers deeper into the industry, and maybe actually get paid for this stuff (imagine that, not working for free.)

Meanwhile, I was featured as the face of an album for New Jersey band A Midnight Tragedy, as well as in one of their music videos - where I definitely proved to myself that I can’t act for nothing, but I still enjoy getting covered in make-up and blood. So it was a lot of fun.  (See pic below right from the video shoot.)

Right now Anda and I are planning our first trip to London in the spring. Gonna hit up all the Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes haunts, because we’re morbid, and maybe even track Matti down for some tea. [Kettle's on - Matti] Definitely looking forward to it, since we’ve been writing about it forever, but have yet to get the full experience.

As for Death Note, every now and then I really miss it. I itch to cosplay Kira and L again, but then I realize my wigs have gone the way of the dodo and I’m just not in the mood to duct tape my boobs down anymore. I still miss writing about them too, but my heart’s moved into another creative universe and I’m committed to seeing it through.

For now, Anda’s in the kitchen cutting onions for soup and has managed to burn even my eyes here in the next room. So I’m going to cut this short, and when my ability to see comes back, I’m going to binge some episodes of Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

As many of you already know, there's a thriving Kira Pinterest Board - run by Death Note News - which you may join and post your Light Yagami goodies to the world.  It's open to the entire Death Note fandom, though you'll need us to invite you in before you can pin.

No real rules there.  As long as it's on topic, then you may instantly pin Kira art; cosplay pics; fan-fiction links; commentaries; screen-shots; merchandise; links to your own group or community; photographs of your Kira crafts; or whatever else morally, ethically, musingly or amusingly takes your fancy to do so.

It's like our Death Note Month of Light Yagami every day!

If you follow the Pinterest Light Yagami Death Note News Board, you should eventually get an invitation from one of us anyway.  All a matter of due course and the admin being on the ball.

However, if you want to speed things up, either comment before with your Pinterest name and/or a link to your profile, or else post the same privately via the form on our Contact Page.  The first person to pick it up will rush in and get you instantly up and running.

Incidentally, it's not just Kira Pinterest Boards that we're hosting for the community. We have a growing number of other Death Note character boards, not to mention many other categories of Death Note boards on Pinterest too.  You can hop onto the majority of them as contributors - and/or all boards as followers or folk merely breezing through, passing a moment or two looking at the pretties (then wondering where the last hour went).

Same drill as before, if you want an invitation to any Death Note News Community Pinterest Board.

The clue's in the title.  It's all about Kira, Light Yagami, Raito, Tsuki, or whatever other name the eldest offspring of Soichiro and Sachiko goes by these days.  Gami.  God.  Nothing.

Our Light Yagami Death Note Month of.. - as with any others forthcoming in the series - encourages everyone reading to share their own expertise, talent, know-how, opinions or whatever else they have on topic to send in.  We'll be posting all the anticipated artwork, fandom links, character analyses, recipes, stories, event heads up and Kira forum promotions that you send us, probably as they come in; while also creating lots of Kira-inspired content ourselves.

This doesn't replace the more general content of Death Note News articles, but runs alongside, in addition to all the rest.

Squad Six Cosplayers were at Ichibancon, one of the largest anime and manga conventions in North Carolina, USA.  There, in Events 4 room, we held our Death Note review panel - Resurrecting L - to mark the 10th anniversary since the manga's first chapter was published in Weekly Shonen Jump.

Since then, Ohba and Obata's story has become an institution, we hope we did it justice.

Ichibancon's Resurrecting L: Death Note 10th Anniversary panel happened on January 1st 2016, at 11pm.  We should have finished by midnight, but the buzz was awesome and we were having so much fun discussing the new media developments for Death Note.  We almost ran well over time!

Here's how it all played out.  But first the cosplay and, created from scratch, a dress for Misa Amane.

Each of Squad Six Cosplayers' Death Note panel members arrived for the event in full Death Note cosplay.  Every part of which had been created especially for Ichibancon during the run up to the convention. 

Founder Lara Sizemore opted to cosplay Misa Amane.  She explained, "I chose to do Misa's Last dress/suicide dress instead of her usual ensemble as sort of a nod to our title. It took me two weeks to complete the dress but I am very proud of it. The ribbons are all appliquéd on."  She makes it sound so easy.

As for the rest, they were in Death Note costume too!

If you wish to catch up with us in all our other projects and endeavours, please do join us on Tumblr and Facebook.

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!

However, then Britain's most insidious tabloid actually reproduced the Tweeted photographs of the young Tory campaigner, so that we could gasp in shock and outrage at someone in suspenders daring to express an opinion regarding politics.  Instead, every undiscerning Death Note fan out there (i.e. those daft enough to read the Daily Mail) and the folk catching it on social media later all frowned in abject familiarity.

Ms Muttik was wearing Misa Amane cosplay.  She was even holding Misa-Misa's replica Death Note.  The clues were there.  In a secondary cited picture, she's even got shinigami eyes, hopefully courtesy of contact lenses.

Thus raising a much more pertinent question - the British Conservative Party have a Death Note?  And a second Kira to wield it on their side?!

There's a lot of work to be done, if Squad Six Cosplayers are going to be ready to take the stage at Ichibancon - one of North Carolina's largest anime conventions - at midnight on January 1st 2016.  It's not only our Death Note panel in which we are performing, but out and about too.  On show just by being there, because we will be in full cosplay.

And those costumes need to be designed and made ahead of time.  We have a reputation to uphold.  It's not good enough merely to have those clothes fitting properly, we have to become the characters in our Death Note cosplay.  But in that, we've elicited a little help.

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.