Even the author who created Death Note's Sachiko Yagami seems to underestimate her.  If Tsugumi Ohba's words, in Death Note 13: How to Read, are anything to go by, then he's totally misunderstood the character that he's writing.  His description of her there includes adjectives like 'verbose', which simply do not translate into what we're reading on the page in the actual manga.

All of this was explored in more detail in part on of Last Yagami Standing.  Now here's the proof from the narrative.

Our first sighting of Sachiko Yagami, in the Death Note manga, comes as Light returns home after finding the shinigami notebook.  This supposedly verbose lady hears his key in the front door and calls out, "Light, is that you?"  Then hurries out to intercept him.  Not saying a word, just standing there smiling.  In fact the kanji in the background reads 'smile, smile'; her aspect glowing out in anticipation and pride.

It's obviously an important test result for her son, yet Sachiko doesn't gabble at him.  She radiates pride - anticipating that he's done well - but there's none of the verbosity that we would expect from her listing in How to Read.  Light couldn't care less. Just like the title of the chapter itself, he's apathetic with boredom. Yet his results stun even his mother, and look at her reaction.

I want you to imagine for just a moment what your own mother's reaction would be if that was you.  Your child has just ranked NUMBER ONE in the entire country for scholarly achievement.  Ok, he's being an obnoxious brat about it, but he's just ranked first in THE WHOLE NATION.  Yet, he patently wants no fuss about it.  He just wants to hand it over out of duty and get his mother out of his face.

And Sachiko lets him

Part Three:  More Than Just Light's Mother - the Humour and the Worry of Sachiko Yagami in Death Note coming soon.

Just a reminder about a Death Note event on Tumblr, which began yesterday and continues over the Christmas period to finish on December 26th 2015.

Death Note Ladies Appreciation Weeks looks to redress the balance in focus given to Death Note's women and girl characters.  Let's face it, the fandom really does relish its male personae over the female cohort.  Yet there are some extremely kick-ass and/or fascinating ladies in this universe.  Explore their stories in canon pics; elaborate upon them in fan-fiction and fan-art; discover that they even exist, if you blinked and missed their cameo.

This is the second year running for the Tumblr event for Death Note fans.  Anyone can join in. You just tag your update with #dn ladies appreciation and post away, preferably on the day scheduled for your yuri pairing and/or each individual female Death Note character's bespoke date:

For more details, check out our original head's up about the event; where you'll also find a slightly easier collage of Death Note women to test your knowledge of characters in the Death Note universe.  For answers to the much more difficult one posted at the top here, see below:

And if you're looking for inspiration and/or something to post on each day, then our sidebar has all of these ladies listed under Death Note News Categories - archives full of things about them!  Feel free to post links to what you will.

It's quite sobering to stop and consider the situations met head on by Death Note's grand matriarch, Sachiko Yagami.

What was great drama for us was fundamentally the story of her entire family's destruction.  Yet she is last seen standing strong, mothering in the ruins of shinigami boredom and all it wrought upon her home, kith and kin.  Pushing her traumatized daughter Sayu in her wheelchair through a park.

Seen from above, like a Death God watching; sharing its view with us - the voyeurs in a series of personal tragedies. Should the sympathetic perspective ever switch to that of Sachiko. But we were rapt.

We too watched only until we were bored. Or the instalments ended and there was no protagonist left to kill. Then like shinigami ourselves, we flew away to manga and anime pastures new.  Finding other sources of entertainment, leaving the character to continue on with her strolls in the park.  Caring, because what else was there for her to do?  Scream?  Sob?  Collapse under the grief and sorrow for the cards that life dealt her?

Frankly, she doesn't seem the sort.

Now we are told that Sachiko 'is Light's mother and as the wife of a policeman, she has been quietly supportive of Soichiro. Despite being an ordinary housewife, she fiercely upholds her trust in Soichiro and kept the family together during the most troubled times of the Kira case.'   Because you know, 'ordinary housewives' are generally distrustful of their husbands and live to scatter the family in times of trouble.  But at least she's not 'dutiful' anymore, a word which doesn't sit well in the Western mind, whatever the etymology.

The panel caption is now worded, 'when Soichiro had his doubts about his decisions in the Kira's case (sic), Sachiko was at his side, urging him to see it to the end.'  Which makes her sound a bit bad-ass and the rock in the family.   Until you put the panel into context, then you have to wonder if there was a touch of psychopathy there for Light to inherit.  Soichiro has, after all, just announced to his family that he's prepared to die to bring this evil to justice.

Which is all very well and noble for society at large, but not much good to her.  Nevertheless, Sachiko pretty much says, 'Yeah, go on, martyr yourself for the cause then.  I support your decision to die a hero.'   Like one of those fabled wives of Sparta, who purportedly told their spouses to return with their shield (victorious) or upon it (dead). 

Supportive, dutiful or 'as long as you get from under my feet and stop whining, dear'.  Apparently the former, given the emphasis placed upon her support of husband Soichiro Yagami in both translations of the original Japanese penned by Death Note author Tsugumi Ohba.

There are also some small differences in the personal data between my own copy of How to Read, and that found elsewhere on-line.

Sachiko's birthday - October 10th 1962 - and the blankness of her death day (because she didn't die; she survived Death Note) remain the same.  As does her blood type, liking for TV drama (the reproduction adds 'serials') and dislike of salesmen.   Perhaps some hint of a story lies in that last entry.  It does to any self-respecting fan-fiction writer anyway.  Leave it with me.

My version says that she's 5' 2" in height and weighs 110lbs.  The other 158cm/50kg. Same thing, different units of measurement.  (And for the benefit of any British reading, that's 7 stone 86lbs, on the off-chance that anyone cares for such things.)  So far so pretty standard, but then we get to the personality chart and the wording changes significantly.

Both are agreed on 'intelligence' and 'creativity'.  The above version's 'willingness to act' aligns with mine own 'initiative'.  Then this alternative translation has 'motivation', where my copy of How to Read states 'emotional strength'.  Two rather different concepts. In all so far, Sachiko ranks rather low.  She does just a little better in the next point charted. 'Social life' says that recreated above.  My book goes for 'social skills'.  Same ball-park, different sport.  Finally there's the section in which Sachiko Yagami actually excels.  Above it lists 'housewifeness'.  Whatever that is.  In my Shonen Jump Advanced published edition, that reads 'verbosity'.

Verbosity.  An excess of words; long-windedness; the propensity to never shut up.  Describing the Queen of Understatement in Death Note.

Maybe something got lost in translation - twice - because nothing thus told matches the personality exhibited in the manga panels (nor anime scenes) themselves.  Therein a very underrated, quietly fabulous Sachiko Yagami emerges.

Go to Part Two:  Meeting the Subtly Stated Sachiko Yagami

Can you think of any Death Note manga panel that more perfectly encapsulates the whole damn story? 

Once again I go back to the wise and venerable Ohba in search of answers and once again he disappoints. In an interview he was asked, “Did L have any friends?”  We are told, “No. When he told Light that Light was his first friend, it was a lie. L could never have a friend, as he found humans to be a very cunning species.”

I find this a very disappointing answer, as it removes the ambiguity from the relationship that makes it so compelling.

As humans, we find uncertainty far more interesting than simply being told the answer. It’s why the ending of Inception - where we don’t know if the protagonist is in a dream world or not - is so frequently discussed. We don’t like being told all the answers. Characters like Hamlet stay with us because we don’t know whether or not he’s mad; that’s what makes him interesting. It allows us to continue engaging with our favourite series after we’ve watched them.

The series that captures this best is the original Death Note manga and anime. Sometimes I wonder if Ohba (like George Lucas) actually understands what made his series so brilliant.

I also wonder if this is what makes the Yotsuba slightly less popular than earlier parts of the series - because it removed the cat and mouse aspect of their relationship. With Light no longer an evil monster, we’re deprived of seeing him monologue about how he’s going to become 'God of the New World', as well as amazing scenes like the death of Lind. L Tailor.

I’m of the opinion that the author can’t determine every reading of their work. They can give their interpretation, but it’s not the only one that’s valid. A work connects and engages with its reader on an individual level, and everyone takes something different away from it.

With that in mind I want to give a brief overview of how I interpret their relationship. I reject the homosexual readings of the series. This isn’t because it bothers me in anyway (one of my favourite TV shows is Hannibal, which has extremely obvious homoerotic undertones) but simply because I view Light as asexual. To me, Light represents a single minded determination towards one goal.

That’s not to say there isn’t some platonic admiration in their relationship, probably even a perverse friendship.

Light clearly has some respect for L. He’s actually angry when he sees Near wearing his mask, “You are far inferior to L. You have no right to be wearing a mask of L”. The last thing Light sees in the anime is L standing over him, a powerful physical representation of the influence L has over Light.

Light is shown throughout the series to be someone who had spent a solitary seventeen years of life. He seems detached from his friends and never once in the series shows interest in someone outside his family, unless it benefits his goals (such as in the instances of Misa and Takeda) with one exception - L.

Light is someone who has been deprived of an intellectual equal his entire life. The existence of L, someone who can keep up with him would be extremely significant to him; some form of validation that he isn’t alone.

On a purely mental level Light has probably understood that there are people as smart as him out there, but I doubt he truly comprehended it before he met L. To Light, I think he viewed L as the perfect obstacle towards his ascension to 'God of the New World'.

Light wanted a challenge, something to make his success more satisfying. L provided that.

Did L view Light as a friend?  It’s hard to say. It’s probably wise to differentiate between the manga and anime at this point. In the anime it seems to imply some form of affection towards Light, mostly during the scene where L washes Light’s feet, a fairly homoerotic action.

Outside of that?  Well, L is a liar and it seems probable that his comments about being Light’s 'friend' were designed to throw him off guard.  But that doesn’t preclude there being some truth in them as well.

A lot of what I have said about Light probably applies to L. This was undoubtedly L’s toughest case, he did lose after all. Like Light, he probably had met few people as intelligent as himself, and never interacted with them on the level he interacted with Light (Near never spoke personally to L).

One of the strongest arguments in favour of their platonic (or romantic) attraction is that other versions of the story portray as it as such. In the drama they have a heart to heart where they basically scream their love for one another (whilst trying to murder each other no less). In the musical there is a similar ending I hear (though it’s more from L than Light).

*  Disclaimer: No respected psychiatrist or psychologist has used the term sociopath or psychopath in many years. I just like it.

Light  and Soichiro Yagami are both first viewed head on, but from a few feet away, framed by their environment and with the reader positioned above left. Father and son are each sitting behind desks - one at school, the other at Interpol - with their arms crossed before them.  They are in rows, surrounded by others all seated the same, facing towards a single frontal focus point.

Even the shapes of things on their tables mirror, in polar opposite colours, objects on the surface before the other. 

A microphone bisects our view of Soichiro's  desk.  A pen apes its short straight line and direction on that of his son.  What is that black rectangle in front of Light Yagami?  Is it a pencil case with a white pattern upon it?   Its contours and colour is mimicked in the white name-plate identifying his father and colleague as representatives of Japan.  Complete with their nation's flag - seen without hues as fundamentally a white square with a black sun.

Practically Ying Yang - black with white for Light; white with black for Soirchiro.

See what I mean?  Much more to look into, while inspecting the first Death Note manga panels for major characters, than might be supposed.  Perhaps hidden bits of sub-plot in where Tsugumi Ohba directed, or Takeshi Obata just draw, correlations between certain individuals.

As Neil Gaiman wrote in Sandman (and I'm fond of repeating to readers of my fan fiction) - Always trust the story, never the storyteller.  There's always more to see in the subtleties and the little things, the links and what's left out. 

And today I learned that artists are just as bad.

Discover more first sightings in the manga of Death Note personae in Kyoko Kikuchi's Death Note blog. Then keep on reading, because also found and ready for the analysing are the panels wherein we see each character's face for the first time.  Plus, if they survived the time jump, then Kyoko also digs out the picture introducing us to that individual's older self in the second arc.

We could be here for hours.

However, the collection did miss out Matt's first Death Note manga appearance, in chapter 83, page 10.  Let me make good that omission.  And oh!  Look!  Just like Mello, Near, L, Ryuk and Misa, he's looking away with his face concealed.  Interesting.

An English language version of Platinum End - the new manga by Death Note writer Tsugumi Ohba and artist Takeshi Obata - will be released in the US, Viz Media have announced.

Not only that, but it will keep pace with the Japanese Jump SQ serialisation of the manga.

The US Platinum End manga series will run in Viz Media's digital Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, matching each new edition with English translations available on-line at the same time.

However, chapters are going to be individually published, with readers paying 99c a time to follow the unfolding tale.

Platinum End appears to be closer to Death Note's plot than the creative duo's interim collaboration Bakuman. 

Ohba and Obata's new manga follows the fortunes of a boy named Mirai Kakehashi, who 'does not seek hope in order to keep on living'.  While Light Yagami's worldly frustrations found vent in a shinigami's deadly notebook, we don't yet know what happens to Mirai.

But a supernatural entity is also lurking, as may be assumed by the tale being about 'a human and an angel'.

How that encounter plays out is yet to be seen.

Takeshi Obata had only just finished working on Hikaru no Go, when he received the call to say he'd been hired as Death Note's artist.  Working with author Yumi Hotta, the manga ran to 23 volumes and inevitably spawned an anime adaptation.  Including a version dubbed into English.

Now Viz Media has made its Hikaru no Go English dub anime available on-line, as free viewing on its own Neon Alley, plus Hulu.  Previously it could only be legally seen on DVD.

Hikaru no Go tells the story of a Japanese six grader, who finds an old, bloodstained Go board and is possessed by the ghost of an ancient game-master. The phantom Fujiwara-no-Sai cannot rest until he's played the Divine Move.

Much top class competitive playing commences against players who have devoted their entire existence to being the best Go strategist around. Can a mere High School boy beat them all?

This should be of interest to Death Note fans - Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata are teaming up again, and the bare hint from the tag-line implies the plot will be right up our alley.

Well, we all seemed quite taken last time, when it was a human and a shinigami!

The announcement will appear in the next edition of Weekly Shonen Jump, issue 44, due out on September 28th 2015.  It will be followed by a Platinum End première feature the following week, in the October 5th Weekly Shonen Jump No 45.

However, it will be another Shueisha title - Jump Square - wherein the actual serialisation will begin.

Our Death Note creators' brand new manga Platinum End launches on November 4th 2015, dated the Jump SQ December 2015 edition - thus is the way of the world.

I don't know about you, but I'm quite excited about this! Given Ohba's propensity to mess around with angels - vis-a-vis Light's lifting of Lucifer quotations from Paradise Lost and Mello's alignment (made explicit in the recent televised Death Note drama) with the archangel Michael - I feel that the groundwork has already been forged.  And that was quite fabulous.

What are your thoughts on the matter?  Please do leave your comments below in the usual manner, but I'm also going to insert a poll about this.  Mostly because I've only just noticed I've got a pre-coded poll module that I can insert, and I want to find out what it does.

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.

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.

This particular telling of the story has spent six weeks in the charts, creeping up into the top ten.  That's a fearsome amount of volumes shifted in stores across the USA.

Naturally, it's right here too, in the manga section of Death Note News merchandise. (Just skip past the colourful versions to find the black ones.)  But I'll reproduce that entry here for your convenience and pleasure. :)

The big question now is why that edition, above all others, continues to soar ahead?   Do you think it's the better design and story-telling?  And if so, why?

It's because it's black, isn't it?