We've already introduced the two actors cast as Kira in Death Note the Musical, but here they both are in costume as Light Yagami.

While I've been off gallivanting again, there's been a lot of news coming out of the Death Note Musical camp.  Fortunately Logan was on the ball, noting it all and giving me the heads up when I returned.

Most of the cast has been revealed!

I'm going to go through them one by one, so we can have a good look, starting with a very familiar face.

Death Note fans already know all about Takeshi Kaga. He is the actor who plays Soichiro Yagami in the live action movies!  Therefore it feels only natural that he will bring the same hapless parent to life on stage.

But what do we really know about Takeshi Kaga?  Well, for a start, his name isn't Takeshi Kaga!

This well-known stage and movie actor was born Shigekatsu Katsuta, in his native Kanazawa, Japan, on October 12th 1950. He was already singing in a local boys choir aged seven, but didn't begin acting until he was an adult.

His talent quickly emerged though. He was snapped up by one of Japan's top theatrical groups Shiki Theatre Company, where he was soon cast in the leading roles of Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar and Tony in West Side Story. In short, there's a long history here which assures us that Kaga can sing, act and dance more than adequately for his part in the musical Death Note.

Though leaving Shiki in 1980, Kaga has returned to the stage several times during his long career, often in starring roles. He's played Jean Valjean in Les Misérables twice!  Once in 1987, then again in 1995, wherein he represented Japan in a 10th Anniversary performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. That latter show saw seventeen Valjeans from seventeen different countries appear one after the other!

He was Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, in a stage adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll & Hyde.  Here he worked with Frank Wildhorn, who is now producing Death Note the Musical.

Kaga has also starred in non-musical theatrical performances, including playing MacBeth in the eponymous Shakespearian play, and Cyrano in Cyrano de Bergerac.

Japan 2000: Takeshi Kaga as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables.

However, for the rest of the world (and indeed most of Japan), it wasn't the stage performances which made Takeshi Kaga so famous.  That was his appearances in movies and on television.

Let's be honest here. It wasn't all of them. They just kept his name out there and his face familiar. The real biggie was his casting as Chairman Kaga in the internationally syndicated Ryōri no Tetsujin, or Iron Chef, as it was known in the English speaking world, usually with each country's name tagged on the end.

This stylized cooking show pits top chefs against one another in a crazy cook-off, all presided over by Takeshi Kaga as the loud, flamboyant Chairman Kaga. It's all about as far away as the staid, sensible Soichiro Yagami as it's possible to get. Nevertheless those two are Kaga's biggest roles in most minds around the globe.

Here he is, as Chairman Kaga, getting very, very excited about food ingredients for each cook off:

For gamers and anime fans (that's us), Takeshi Kaga is best known for his voice acting. The former group heard him as Golbez in the Nintendo DS version of Final Fantasy IV, and Dissidia: Final Fantasy for the PSP.

He was the voice of Teridax in all the Lego related media for their Bionicle line (which is credited with saving the Lego Group from complete collapse and bankruptcy in the 1990s).

As an anime voice actor, Kaga appeared as Jirarudan in the second Pokémon movie Revelation Lugia - also singing the theme song Ware Wa Collector; Dr. Kiriko in Black Jack: The Two Doctors of Darkness; and Tokimune Shochikubai in Yukan Club, amongst many, many more roles.

But for Death Note fans, Takeshi Kaga's big moment for international fame came in 2006, when he was cast as Light's dad Soichiro Yagami in the first two Death Note live action movies.

Here he is during that tense final scene from Death Note 2: The Last Name (obviously full of spoilers for anyone who hasn't encountered Death Note before, which I'm assuming isn't any of us), as the stunned father of Kira unmasked:

For many fans of Death Note, those performances in Death Note (2006) and Death Note: The Last Name (2007) have already ensured that Takeshi Kaga wears the face of a live action Soichiro Yagami.

Therefore it's no great leap to imagine him reprising the same role in the Death Note stage show. In fact, it feels only fitting.  Do the rest of you agree?  Over to you.

Teppei Koike will be performing the role of L in Death Note the Musical, it was revealed today. The production's official Twitter also put out the above image of Teppei as L.

The 28 year old is best known as one half of the singer-songwriting duo WaT, along with his extremely close friend Eiji Wentz.  In addition to albums and singles, Teppei and Eiji also host a variety show called Ame ni mo makezu! (Fuji Terebi).

As an actor, Teppei played Hideki Ogata in the Japanese television drama Dragon Zakura. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Ijyuuin in another drama, Iryu. 

Hayato Kakizawa and Kenji Urai give us the victory sign, as they both turn up at the Death Note Musical rehearsals.

The actors will both be playing the role of Light Yagami in the stage show, though obviously not at the same time, as that would be silly.  The picture was posted by a new official Twitter account for the musical. Follow them on @dnmusical.

Death Note the Musical will begin its run from April 2015, at the Nissei Theater in Tokyo, before moving on to South Korea.

Above is the newly released poster advertising the stage-show musical of Death Note.  The rumours were correct the other day, Kira will be played by Kenji Urai and Hayato Kakizawa.

Tickets are now being sold for Musical Death Note.

Though Hayato Kakizawa is billed everywhere as an actor in musicals, it's a little harder to track down which ones. I've found four recent live action movies (Kaiji 2, Akko-Chan: The Movie, Koi and Bad Boys J: The Movie), but none which involve hearing his tonsils vibrate to the big notes.

He does seem to have the dancing part covered though. Hayato Kakizawa portrayed Romeo in a 2013 Toyko ballet performance of Romeo and Juliet. 

Hold on!  Victory!  I've found him in the title role of Melchior in a 2009 musical production of Spring Awakening. Does THIS scream possible Kira to you?

As always, you'll get more when I've got it.  Enjoy!

Andy Kelso isn't your obvious Light Yagami. Cute as he is, he's way too old to play a schoolboy in the Death Note stage show.

Nevertheless, the NYC actor was the one chosen to act the part of our favourite teen megalomaniac, in the first read through of Frank Wildhorn's Death Note: The Musical.

The show has been written in English, but will be translated into Japanese and Korean ahead of their world premiers in 2015.

The cast arrayed in New York, on April 14th 2014, will not be those performing in the actual Death Note theatre show. They were just there as part of a workshop to see how the script works as a physical performance.

We do know who they are though:

• Andy Kelso played Light Yagami
• Drew Gehling played L
• Robert Cuccioli played Soichiro
• Adrienne Warren played Misa
• Eric Anderson played Ryuk
• Jackie Burns played Rem
• Deborah Lew played Toko

 
Supporting cast members were: Alysha Deslorieux, Sean Jenness, Sara King, Dan Kohler, Adam Pribila, Rashidra Scott, Sara Sheperd and Jason Wooten.

Two things spring to mind. The first is 'who's Toko?' and the second is the Musical will only cover the opening arc of the story. Unless it retells it completely. I see no Mello, Near, Hal et al in that character list.

Any thoughts out there?

Now the dust appears to have finally settled on the Death Note bonanza, I thought it would be useful to have a quick check through all that was on offer.

Death Note's 10th Anniversary was celebrated, with much hype, on March 3rd 2014. The fandom received the following goodies and event notifications:

• Death Note Real Escape Game. This is what the much-vaunted website counted down towards. But it's only available in two Japanese cities.
• Online Mini-Story. Playing out over Facebook and on the website, this was just a promotional event for the above. It didn't affect the canon.
• Reissue of the Death Note Manga. 10th Anniversary editions of all seven volumes will be in the shops on March 18th 2014.
• Digital Death Note Manga. Two online (and downloadable) versions of the full story are available. One is in full colour from start to finish.
• Death Note Facebook page launched. This social networking portal is in Japanese. It keeps folk abreast of all new developments in the Death Note franchise.
• Smartphone App for Death Note fans. Play the Real Escape Game on the move.
• Death Note as a Musical Stageshow. Now Kira et all really will be all singing and dancing.

There was quite a lot there, particularly for fans in Death Note's home country Japan.  Yet I can't help concluding that there was a lot of fuss over really not very much at all.

What do you think?

American playwright Ivan Menchell has been announced as the scriptwriter for Death Note the Musical.

This is hardly shock news. He habitually works with composer Frank Wildhorn and lyricist Jack Murphy, both of whom were on board with the project last month.

The trio have collaborated on the Broadway productions of Bonnie & Clyde and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The former, at least, holds potential for working out how his Death Note script might look.

Bonnie and Clyde were real world criminals/folk heroes/psychopathic robbers (depending upon your point of view), who were the scourge of Texas law enforcement agencies during the Great Depression. The lovers basically went on a murder spree, holding up anything with money that they could stick their guns into, as an alternative to crippling poverty in the American south.

Dark and dramatic enough for Light Yagami? Possibly. Let's listen to a song from the Broadway show to find out:

Not sure how helpful that will be. The music is Frank Wildhorn, but the lyrics are Don Black on that track! I failed on giving us any insight into Jack Murphy OR Ivan Menchell.

Moving swiftly on...

A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, you may be more familiar with Ivan Menchell's television work. He was both writer and producer on episodes of CBS's The Nanny and Fox's Time of your Life.

Ivan Menchell's scriptwriting credentials will also be exhibited in the upcoming Adam Sandler movie Blended. That will hit the silver screens in March 2014.

Do we think that the musical Death Note script is in safe hands?  You may follow Ivan on Twitter at @TheIvanMenchell to keep in with the gossip.

Also announced this week is precisely when and where the premier of Death Note the Musical will take place. In April 2015, it will launch at the Nissay Theater in Tokyo, Japan.

After a two month run, the Death Note stage show will move to South Korea, where it'll be performed at the LG Arts Center, in Seoul, duing July and August of the same year.

Anybody hoping to see it?

By now the whole Death Note fandom is agog at the notion that something new is coming. But what is it?

The first hint was posted in Shueisha's Jump Remix of the Death Note manga. In the fifth edition, an advertisement was posted on the underside of the fly cover. It stated that there was a 'special project' coming soon to mark Death Note's 10th Anniversary.

That was followed up quite sharply by the appearance of an intriguing website.

The site displayed a countdown towards March 3rd 2014 - the same date heralded in the manga advert as the launch date of the 'special project'. The Death Note website featured a familiar black notebook, with the legend warning us that ' 'If you touch this note, your memory will revive''.

Naturally every Death Note fan in the known universe touched it. It would take more than the cautionary tale exhibited by Raito Yagami to see us off.

Yet all we got for our troubles was an image of Ryuk flashing into view. All...

Mmm... so what it's all about?  The main buzz on the internet seems to be that a new edition of the original manga will be issued. But that's been done several times during the intervening ten years. It's already happening with the Jump Remix right now.

Others have guessed that the Death Note anime will be remade. Does it really warrant that? The extant one isn't very old, and it's hardly dated. It's just about perfect as it is.

Could it be a new story being written as we muse in anxious anticipation? Perhaps a stand-alone tale updating us on the fortunes of those left alive, or following through on ambiguous clues that Light himself is now a shinigami. Maybe even a whole follow on series, wherein another person picks up a Death Note and Near scrambles a squad to hunt that new Kira down.

Or another live action movie following another tangent not covered in canon?

The most potentially disappointing scenario I've heard is that it's merely a countdown to an official announcement of Death Note the Musical. But we already know about that. It wouldn't be any surprise at all.

How about you? Have you any major guesses that haven't already been covered here? There's surely little that it could be!