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Another Kira Revealed! New Casting Eiichiro Funakoshi as Supreme Judge and Death Note Owner in Shinsuke Sato's Death Note: Light Up the NEW World 

7/6/2016

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Eiichiro Funakoshi cast as Kenichi Mikuriya in Death Note IV

Death Note movie still depicting Supreme Judge Kenichi Mikuriya played by Eiichiro Funakoshi.
Photograph courtesy of Warner Bros Japan
There seems to be a touch of the Mikami about this new Death Note character - a Kira aping Supreme Judge to be introduced in the fourth of the movies, out in Japan this October.

Eiichiro Funakoshi has been cast as Kenichi Mikuriya, one of the owners of a shinigami notebook in the movie Death Note: Light Up the NEW World.  He picks up his Death Note after six of them fall to Earth on Kozuki Night and chaos reigns a whole lot harder.

As a high-ranking judge, it might expected that Mikuriya would hand his notebook immediately over to the appropriate legal authority for them (in this case, Tsukuru Mishima and his Death Note Countermeasure Headquarters Special Team). However, the Supreme Judge as better ideas.  Rankled with the slow progress of the law, and with the occasional iniquity and unfairness of it too, Mikuriya determines the way forward to be embracing a more 'sophisticated' brand of arbitrating justice, i.e. him using the Death Note where the courtroom fails.

We can't help feeling that we've heard rhetoric like this before.  You know, from Light, L, every Wammy ever, Mikami...

And ok! Mikami was a mere prosecutor, not a Supreme Judge, nor was the lawyer technically a Death Note owner.  But the distinction would have been lost on any of those many thousand of names that old Teru over-dramatically scribbled into his own (borrowed/bequeathed) Death Note pages. We've had an L clone and a Kira imitator announced (plus the originals back in the forms of Misa and Matsuda), so why not Mikami. 

Now bigger and better and much, much darker. Deleting along with his forerunner and the best of them.

Death Note: Light Up the NEW World
will be out on October 29th 2016.
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Subtlety Beneath the Stereotype: Is There More to Misa Amane Than Meets the Eye?

4/6/2016

10 Comments

 
Misa Amane/Death Note.
Loud and over-emotional, Death Note's Misa-Misa appears not to have been blessed with much in the brain department.

Which is a shame, when she's up against the likes of Light, L and Kiyomi Takada and playing a deathly game as Second Kira. Yet she has one up on all of them, not to mention a splattering of NPA police officers and nearly all attendant Wammy House geniuses. Misa Amane survives. Moreover, she's never positively identified as Second Kira; let alone officially arrested, tried and punished for her crimes in mass murderer.

Which is more than Light Yagami manages.

Unlike both him and super-smart Teru Mikami, Misa contrives as well to be missing from the killing line-up in the Yellow Box Warehouse.

Though twice captured by Wammy detectives, and stalked by two others, she also sidesteps being murdered (directly or inadvertently) by them. Which again is more than can be said for top of her class Ms Grace herself, Kiyomi Takada, as well as usual suspects Yagami and Mikami, and their sometime stand-in Kyosuke Higuichi.

Alone of all the Kiras, Misa Amane gets to walk free at the end.

What happens next is all of her own doing, within her own control. Whether that's the dramatic suicide of the anime or the continuing on to world stardom as an actress and model, as per the live-action Death Note movies.

Not so stupid after all then.

Death Note's Misa Achieves Dividends When She Acts

Misa Amane with evidence to prove Higuichi is Kira

Misa Amane with evidence to prove Higuichi is Kira
Whether its in retribution, career, love, favours or contribution to the Kira case, Misa Amane rarely fails to achieve any goal for which she reaches.

Nobody who ever attacked her survives long enough to gloat in their assault. Her street assailant is taken out by a Death God (Gelus); her family's murderer is initially sentenced through due legal process then killed by Kira while in prison; Soichiro Yagami threatens her with a gun - he doesn't survive a Mafia bullet later on in the tale; her torturous captor L and his carer Watari are both slaughtered by a second shinigami Rem, again on Misa's behalf; Mello and Matt both stalk her, and they are killed within weeks by Kira and/or Kira supporters; while Takada tries to take Misa's man and ends up incinerated in a lorry.

Even Light Yagami, who exploited her constantly for years, finishes the epic crawling in sobbing indignity upon the floor, crying out for Misa in his death throes.

Not all of those were of Misa's doing, nor even at her instigation, but she's certainly left with nobody alive who so much at looked at her with ill intent.

Then you get her career. As anyone who has ever set out with a dream of fame and fortune may attest, it's not easy to achieve stardom, yet Misa Amane is utterly in demand for both acting roles and modelling assignments

In the Death Note live-action movies, Misa Amane's fame is ever-growing. By the fourth, Death Note: Light Up the NEW World - to be released in October 2016 - she is at the top of her career, a Japanese idol with a firm presence in the entertainment industry; a famous name known worldwide as an actress.

During the week that Misa's introduced into Death Note manga and anime, she's on the cover of Eighteen Magazine, apparently a popular journal for the Japanese fashionatas (presumably the youthful ones).

Misa-Misa set out for fame and fortune, and got it. On her terms too, as her demands that she not kiss the main romantic male lead in one of her movies demonstrates.

In fact, as the corporate arc unfolds, Misa's work on that film shoot close by Yotsuba Tower certainly helps with the rescue of Matsuda, then later the capture of Yotsuba Kira himself.

And let's not forget that it was Misa acting unilaterally that managed to force a confession from Higuichi. That was her contribution to the Kira case. No fuss; simply done; back within an hour or two with the evidence that the men had been searching for months to secure.

Not bad for someone supposedly without any wit or two brain cells to rub together.

Nor was that the only moment wherein Misa Amane proves more resourceful and calmly able to get what she wants than all else within the Death Note plot-line.

How Clever Misa Amane Outwits Both L and Light in the Hunt for Kira

Misa Amane tracking down Light Yagami

Misa Amane tracking down Light Yagami
Half a dozen chapters pass before L narrows down his hunt for Kira to a single major suspect - Light Yagami.

Misa Amane manages the same in about a week and that's only because a few days pass between the broadcast of her tapes and the proposed meeting in Otaka.

Even unto the moment of L's death and, in passing his legacy to his Wammy House successors, through to the end of Death Note - at the staging of the Yellow Box confrontation seven years on - none of the Wammys succeed in positively gaining a confession from Light that he was indeed Kira. Nor the smoking gun evidence that would convict him of the crimes enacted in that persona.

Misa Amane pulled that one off within the same aforementioned week.

Granted she had foreknowledge of the Death Note and the handy boon of shinigami eyes at her disposal; but L and the Wammys had the entire world's political, military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies, plus experts in every field and academic discipline, ready to do their bidding, and/or the Mafia. L could also call upon criminal expertise in the shape of Aiber the Conman and Wedy the top cat burglar.

Misa Amane didn't have any of that. Therefore it was perhaps quid pro quo on such scores.

Moreover, Misa not only located Light, tracked him down to his home and got a confession to being Kira out of him, she did it all without a) Light finding out who she was and b) L knowing of her existence until she began repeatedly to be seen with Light himself.

In fact, we could go as far as to say it was only her association with Light Yagami which put Misa in the frame as Second Kira. But then again, she was only there because she insisted upon being Light's girlfriend and being openly known as such in public. The latter orchestrated entirely by Misa herself in a succession of surprise meetings outside his home, at his university and wherever else she could insert herself into his presence.

Outgunned utterly by his enforced beau, Light had neither choice nor say in the matter.

Overly Attached Girlfriend Misa Amane: Is She Really So Dependent on Light?

Stereotyped throughout the Death Note fandom as the overly dependent girlfriend from Hell, that description seems only partially correct under analysis.

Misa certainly goes after and gets what she wants in the romantic stakes. Moreover, from the onset, she'll use every manipulative trick in the book to keep her man and ensure his romantic availability is retained for herself alone.

Who can forget the chilling statement that she will kill any other woman that Light dates? Basically laying it on the line at their first meeting that he gets her or nobody. Those are her terms.
Misa will kill Light's girlfriends
In this way - however exploitative, unfair and downright psychotic it is - Misa cannot easily be cast aside. She might present herself as utterly dependent upon Light, but in reality, it's the other way around. He cannot act in some quite key situations without her Shinigami eyes; or without the usage of her Death Note and the fact of her ownership of the same.

While ostensibly Light calls all the shots, Misa gets precisely what she requires at any given time.

She wants retribution for the killing of her family, she gets it; she wants to meet Kira, she engineers it; she demands to be Light Yagami's girlfriend, she gives him no choice in the matter; she wants him to move in with her, that occurs circa the beginning of the second arc; she decides it's time to get engaged, and Misa doesn't even bother to consult with Light on that one, she tells Kiyomi Takada first instead.

Financially, Misa was a woman of independent means for years before Light Yagami secured the Kira Task Force position to consider himself the same. She was the one with the money, the prestige, the social standing and the sole occupancy of an apartment. She bought her own furniture, clothes, make-up and every other possession with her own funds, including the phone and its network charges that she presents to Light and pays for on his behalf.

Even when Light gets a job and asks Misa to stop working as per social expectation, she could (and does in the Death Note movies) return to her career at any time.

Misa Amane as the Archetypal Anime Genki Girl

Misa glomping Light Yagami
In most fan imaginings, Misa-Misa is Death Note's very energetic answer to that stalwart of anime character archetypes - the Genki Girl. She shouts, screams, rushes about, glomps, squees and generally acts like the average three year old on a profusion of E numbers. Or, indeed, E.

There's plenty of scenes to throw into the mix in support of this designation. Yet look more closely. Shouldn't that be every scene?

In reality, Misa seems to switch Genki Girl on or off, or applies attributes to a precise level, depending upon the situation and who's watching. She's like someone who's read all about Genki Girl and figured that she can pull it off, so goes for it whenever the persona will cover a multitude of personal sins and/or throw people off the scent of her actual intelligence.

Take for example her meeting the Yagami women, whilst visiting Light at home. There Misa is the epitome of maturity; a demure Japanese lady full of politeness and decorum, give or take the length of her skirt. Yet outside, alone with Light on another occasion, she glomps him with all the enthusiastic screaming passion of the Genki Girl personified, now that his mother isn't watching.

Nor does she bamboozle Yotsuba Kira Hidechi with a steady stream of relentless words. Those she chooses are articulate and leading, with adequate gaps in between for him to speak enough to condemn himself.

Meanwhile, there's absolutely nothing of the motormouth, highly animated and over-emotional Genki Girl in Misa when she's detained by L as suspected Second Kira. To be fair, she's also in a full-body straitjacket, so none of that excessively expressive movement is physically able to be on show.

Yet you get the impression it wouldn't be either.

Hidden Reserves of Strength in Misa-Misa

Misa Anime in a straitjacket
That prolonged scene in a straitjacket, effectively being tortured into submission by L, tells a lot about Misa Amane's true strength of character.

With his arms handcuffed behind his back, Light plays the game in full knowledge of his Kira-hood for a week, then gives that contextual understanding up. Within three days, he's pleading, begging, demanding to be set free, sure that he's not Kira and adamant that he's going to say so repeatedly.

Meanwhile, Misa Amane remains silent and strapped upright to a board, blind-folded, devoid of human contact beyond an electronic voice communicating through a speaker. Not a single word uttered in condemnation nor defense. Nothing whatever to make it worth her torturers' time in detaining her.

When she eventually does feel herself cracking, she finally does speak, but only to ask Rem to kill her. The words enigmatic without context to those listening on. The remainder of her days tortuously attached in that position in a state of near sensory deprivation would have been passed without knowledge of Kira nor her part in the Death Note killings. Yet she still doesn't say much nor beg as Light Yagami did.

Coming to the conclusion that she's been abducted as per her fame, Misa intelligently attempts to humanise herself and make a deal with her abductor.

L eventually has to let her go for the sake of nothing incriminating being divulged to prove her role as Second Kira, nor to use as evidence against Light. How many others could have withstood so much under torture?  Most in that position would be agreeing, admitting or issuing confessions to all and sundry, just to make the torture stop.

Misa Amane: Worldly Wise and Self-Possessed of All her Assets and Skills

Misa Amane Death Note drama
Nobody is suggesting for one instant that Death Note's Misa Amane is some unsung genius (though an interesting case might be made for that). However she certainly isn't the dim-witted, unaware character so many make her out to be.

She has drive, intelligence and self-knowledge enough to ensure that she gets what she wants, through a considered application of the attributes and tools in her personal arsenal. She can definitely identify goals, pinpoint way and devise strategies to achieve them, then action those tactics with usually astounding results.

Mostly Misa is fabulous at keeping herself under the radar by ensuring those around her think she's too stupid to understand much that is happening.

However, she proves time and again that she can read situations - and especially people - with a keen accuracy. She can be cute enough to sexually manipulate the men; childish enough to annoy or delight, but never be taken seriously enough for people not to scheme in her vicinity. She sees more than she ever lets on.

She can charm anyone, and uses that to great effect to get people waiting on her hand and foot.

However, when the occasion calls for it, Misa's intelligence shows all the above to be the veneer of an actress. Probably a psychopathic one at that, but certainly not the Genki Girl that she's studiously manufactured her self-image to be.

Do you agree?

Published as Part of

Death Note News Month of Misa
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Casting Misa Amane: Actresses Who Have Played Death Note's Misa-Misa

21/5/2016

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On a global scale, Misa-Misa has been dubbed, played and in some instances sung into life for the delight of Death Note audiences everywhere.

In honour of her monthly event on Death Note News, we have collected together the names of the twenty-one Misa Amane actresses from Death Note adaptations across the world. Who for you, amongst these ladies (and one gent), wore the face or spoke the voice of Misa the Second Kira?

Aya Hirano

Aya Hirano Misa Amane actress Death Note anime Japanese original
Voice Actress
(aka 平野 綾, Hirano Aya)
- Death Note anime Japanese original
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Japanese original
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Japanese original

Shannon Chan-Kent

Shannon Chan-Kent Misa Amane actress Death Note English dub
Voice Actress
- Death Note anime English dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God English dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors English dub

Ana Lúcia Menezes

Ana Lúcia Menezes Misa Amane actress Death Note Brazilian dub, pictured with L voice actor Sérgio Cantú
Voice Actress
(aka Ana Lúcia Grangeiro)
- Death Note anime Brazilian Portuguese dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Brazilian Portuguese dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Brazilian Portuguese dub
Pictured above with Sérgio Cantú, the actor who voiced L

Man Yi Ching

Man Yi Ching Misa Amane actress Death Note Cantonese dub
Voice Actress
(aka 程文意. Wong Zi Haan, Cing4 Man4 Ji3)
- Death Note anime Cantonese dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Cantonese dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Cantonese dub

Núria Trifol

Núria Trifol Misa Amane actress Spanish and Catalan Death Note dubs
Voice Actress
(aka Núria Trifol Segarra)
- Death Note anime Catalan AND Spanish dubs
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Catalan AND Spanish dubs
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Catalan AND Spanish dubs

Adrienne Warren

Singer Adrienne Warren Misa Amane actress Death Note the Musical
Musical Actress
- Death Note the Musical first read-through English Cast
Frank Wildhorn's NYC rehearsal

Margaret Qualley

Margaret Qualley Misa Amane actress Death Note US movie
Film Actress
- Death Note movie US

Charlyne Pestel

Charlyne Pestel Misa Amane actress Death Note French dub
Voice Actress
- Death Note anime French dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God French dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors French dub

Magdalena Turba

Magdalena Turba Misa Amane actress Death Note German dub
Voice Actress
- Death Note anime German dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God German dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors German dub

Borbála Csuha

Borbála Csuha Misa Amane actress Death Note Hungarian dub
Voice Actress
(aka Csuha Borbála, Csuha Bori, Bori Csuha)
- Death Note anime Hungarian dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Hungarian dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Hungarian dub

Germana Savo

Germana Savo Misa Amane actress Death Note Italian dub
Voice Actress
- Death Note anime Italian dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Italian dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Italian dub

Erika Toda

Erika Toda Misa Amane actress Death Note movies
Film Actress
(aka 戸田 恵梨香, Toda Erika)
- Death Note movie
- Death Note: The Last Name movie
- Death Note: Light Up the NEW World movie

Hinako Sano

Hinako Sano Misa Amane actress Death Note Television drama
Television Actress
(aka 佐野 ひなこ, Sano Hinako)
- Death Note TV drama

Fuka Yuzuki

Fuka Yuzuki Misa Amane actress Death Note the Musical Japan
Musical Actress
(aka 唯月 ふうか, Yuzuki Fuka, Fuuka Yuzuki, Yuzuki Fuuka)
- Death Note the Musical Japanese original cast member

Seo-Young Kim

Kim Seo-Young Misa Amane actress Death Note Korean dub
Voice Actress
(aka 김서영, Kim Seo-Young, Kim Seo-Yeong, Seo-Yeong Kim)
- Death Note anime Korean dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Korean dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Korean dub

Seo-Ah Jung

Seo-Ah Jung Misa Amane actress Death Note the Musical Korean dub
Musical Actress
(aka 정선아, Jung Seo-Ah, Seo-Ah Jung, Jung Seo Ah, Seo Ah Jung,
Jung Seon-Ah, Seon-Ah Jung, Jeong Seon Ah, Seon Ah Jeong,
Jeong Sun-Ah,  Sun-Ah Jeong, Jeong Sun Ah, Sun Ah Jeong,
Jung Sun-Ah, Sun-Ah Jung, Jung Sun Ah, Sun Ah Jung)

- Death Note the Musical Korean cast

Xiǎnhuì Lóng

Xiǎnhuì Lóng Misa Amane actress Death Note Mandarin dub
Voice Actress
(aka 龍顯蕙, Lóng Xiǎnhuì, Long Xianhui,
Xianhui Long, Lung4 Hin2 Wai6)

- Death Note anime Mandarin dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Mandarin dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Mandarin dub

Rebeca Gómez

Rebeca Gómez Misa Amane actress Death Note Mexican dub
Voice Actress
- Death Note anime Mexican dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Mexican dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Mexican dub

Radosław Popłonikowski

Radolaw Poplonikoski voiced Misa Amane in Death Note Polish dub
Voice Actor
(aka Popłonikowski Radosław, Radoslaw Poplonikowski)
- Death Note anime Polish dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Polish dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Polish dub
NB Polish dub was read by a single narrator

Catherine Gorokhovskaya

Catherine Gorokhovskaya Misa Amane actress Death Note Russian dub
Voice Actress
(aka Екатерина Гороховская)
- Death Note anime Russian dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Russian dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Russian dub

Hazel Hernan

Hazel Hernan Misa Amane actress Death Note Tagalog dub
Voice Actress
(aka Mary Hazel Hernan)
- Death Note anime Tagalog dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Tagalog dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Tagalog dub

Misa-Misa Actress Birthdays in the Death Note Calendar

We will also be adding the birthdays of all Misa Amane actresses to our On This Day in Death Note calendar.  However the best of our hardened researches have failed to produce the following facts:
  • Man Yi Ching - born June 18th, but where and in what year?
  • Núria Trifol - born in Barcelona, Spain, but when?
  • Magdalena Turba - born in Berlin, Germany during 1983, but on what date?
  • Germana Savo - where and on what date was she born?
  • Kim Seo-Young - born on January 19th 1977, but where?
  • Lóng Xiǎnhuì - born in Taiwan, but when and precisely where?
  • Rebeca Gómez - where and on what date was she born?
If you could make good our omissions, please do contact us with the info. and we'll update their entries forthwith.

Thank you in advance!
Misa Amane actresses compiled by Lua Cruz and Matti

Posted as Part of

Misa Amane Month Death Note News
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Movie Matsuda is Back! Sota Aoyama to Reprise his Role as Tōta Matsuda in 2016 Death Note: Light Up the NEW World Live-Action Film

19/5/2016

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Tōta Matsuda actor Sota Aoyama in Death Note: Light Up the NEW World
Warner Bros Japan has confirmed that Sota Aoyama will return to play Tōta Matsuda in the latest live-action Death Note movie, due for release in October 2016.

This will be considered fantastic news by many fans, for whom he IS Matsuda in any live-action capacity.

Aoyama last wore the face of that young, irrepressibly enthusiastic and famously foolish police officer ten years ago, featuring in the cast of Death Note (2006) and Death Note: The Last Name (2006). 

The role also earned him a place in the spotlight starring in Spin-Off Matsuda - a movie short, little known outside Japan, released in conjunction with L: Change the World (2008).

It seems that this live action Matsuda is a glutton for punishment, as a decade on from all that trauma, he's pictured apparently back on the Kira Task Force taking on another six Death Note owners scattered across the world.

Though his presence could also be in a mere advisory/consultancy role.  It's impossible to tell from a couple of still photographs, issued as teasers without context (see below).

The news that Sota Aoyama is reprising his Death Note acting role comes on the back of two other announcements, similarly regarding actors familiar from the first movies.  Erika Toda is also on her way back - signing up to return to her role as Misa Amane - while Shidou Nakamura will be voicing the newer, darker, scarier CGI shingami Ryuk. All in glorious continuity of those earlier, decade old Death Note films.

Death Gods aside, Matsuda constitutes the only remaining person privy to insider information about Kira the first time around and able to share it now. It can be presumed that Ryuk won't be taking sides, finding it more amusing (and diverting) to observe the action as entertainment from the sidelines.

While in the movie timeline, Misa's memories of the whole Kira case (give or take her love for Light Yagami) were wiped at the end of the last main instalment.

Sota Aoyama's Matsuda in Death Note (2016) Movie Stills

Death Note Counter Measure Headquarters Special Team Death Note Light Up the NEW World 2016
Sota Aoyama's Tōta Matsuda is seen amongst those watching Wammy detective Ryūzaki (Sousuke Ikematsu) highlight something seemingly perturbing on a computer screen.  Also looking on, wearing varying expressions of shock and concern, are police Kira archivist, investigator and expert Tsukuru Mishima (Masahiro Higashide) and his colleague within the Death Note Countermeasure Headquarters Special Team, Shō Nanase (Mina Fujii).  Plus two others - anybody recognize the gentlemen flanking this ensemble?
Death Note Counter Measure Headquarters Special Team
Mind you, the Japanese National Police Agency's Death Note Countermeasure Headquarters Special Team seems rather more populous than its counterpart from a decade earlier, the Kira Task Force.   The new base doesn't look too shabby either, as the two pictures below may attest.  Still in that Death Note de rigour colour scheme of monochrome with a touch of red, so beloved of every version ever.
Death Note Countermeasure Headquarters Special Team
Death Note 2016 Task Force HQ desk Tsukuru Mishima
Someone's desk.  In shades of black, white and just a hint of orangey-red.  Probably belonging to one of the pair here getting all testosterone-y with each other - Ryūzaki and Tsukuru Mishima.  Actually, undoubtedly so, as one of the pictures above shows Mishima standing behind that desk, as he almost is here too.
Ryūzaki and Tsukuru Mishima Death Note Light Up the NEW World 2016 movie still
These movies stills from Death Note: Light Up the NEW World were sanctioned by Warner Bros Japan, but made it into the public eye via an intrepid Death Note fan and writer for Natalie.mu, who 'sneaked' onto set - in an undisclosed Japanese location - on May 18th 2016 and witnessed the above scenes being filmed.  In addition to managing a quick interview about the movie and their roles from the two actors seen sizing each other up in character above, Sousuke Ikematsu and Masahiro Higashide. 

Read more about that here:  映画「デスノート」対策本部に潜入、東出昌大と池松壮亮がプレッシャー語る (Natalie, May 18th 2016)  If, of course, you read Japanese or can stand Google Translate's attempt at a native transcription.  Otherwise one of our Japanese translators will hopefully be along soon to tell us all about it.
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New Trailer for Death Note: Light Up the New World!

27/4/2016

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Warner Bros Japan have released a thirty-second teaser for its upcoming movie -the erstwhile Death Note 2016 trailer, now officially renamed Death Note: Light Up the New World.

The segment depicts one of the new - and purportedly worse ever - Death Note owner Sakura Aoi (Rina Kawaei) in the midst of a mass killing spree.  She has no ideological background, just the will to kill.  She tells Ryuk, "I will show more interesting things than Kira did."   He finally answers, "After all, humans are so interesting!"

Death Note: Light Up the World Trailer


Sensu Death Bonus Gift with Advance Ticket Sales in Japan

Early bird purchasers of tickets to see Death Note: Light Up the New World can look forward to receiving a limited edition sensu in thanks.

The Death Note sensu is not apparently mooted for general release.  It will just be available for advance movie ticket holders in Japan.

A sensu is a folding fan, one of Japan's traditional crafts.  This version - pictured in the Warner Bros advertisement (right) - has been labelled Sensu Death. Each panel replicates the cover of a shinigami notebook.

Death Note: Light Up the World is the fourth in the live-action movie series. Directed by Shinsuke Sato, it goes on general release in Japan on October 29th 2016.

In addition, Indonesian cinema chain CGV Blitz announced on Facebook (see below) that it too will be showing the movie.  Though no date was given for the Death Note movie opening night in Indonesia.
Death Note Sensu - early bird free gift for Death Note: Light Up the World ticket buyers in Japan
Facebook: CGV Blitz to show Death Note movie in Indonesia
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Light Up the New World - Death Note 2016 Gains an Official Title for Release

22/4/2016

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Ready to know the name of the movie that we're all going to see in October 2016?  (Or as close as it may be coherently located within our own neck of the globe.)  Ready?  *Drum-roll*  Death Note: Light Up the NEW World.

Until now, this Shinsuke Sato directed Death Note movie has gloried under the working moniker of Death Note 2016.  We always knew it would change with the only bets being about how bad that final title might be, for this live-action sequel to the earlier trilogy of Japanese movies.  All things considered, Death Note: Light Up the New World isn't too bad.  Not when compared to some that we'd contemplated here ourselves.

Perhaps a little cheesy, with the strong potential for disappointment, as we doubt very much that we'll see much of Light Yagami beyond reference or the occasional flashback.  Probably just the former.

Warner Bros Japan announced the film's final and official retitle with a poster featuring its three main cast-members:
Death Note: Light Up the New World first poster
This poster announcing a name-change for Death Note 2016, first appeared in the Japanese press on April 8th 2015, trickling out across the world thereon.

It depicts new characters Yugi Shion, Tsukuru Mishima and Ryūzaki perched on chairs above a scattering of six death notes, topped by that fruity shinigami favourite - a shiny, new, red apple.

(Be still your immortal beating heart, Ryuk.  If we put together to get you a whole basket of the stuff, would you go and be bored somewhere else instead?  Like another planet or plane of existence entirely, please. A few Granny Smiths really aren't worth the wanton destruction of humanity, with a theatre of war on a global scale enacted in genocide; forced rendering of all our civil and human rights; terror; and enslavement.  Do it for oil, like everybody else.)

Reflected within the polished floor-tiles, we see the faded, pixelating visages of their predecessors - Light Yagami and L - both deceased with ten years standing between their stories told in the first movies, and the present day recounted in this.

Death Note: Light Up the New World will open in Japanese cinemas on October 29th 2016.
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Death Note 2016: Shinigami Ryuk Gets a Scary Facelift, and Shidou Nakamura is Back to Voice Him!

15/4/2016

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Ryuk Death Note 2016
A new still released for Death Note 2016 reveals the terrifying face of Ryuk - re-imagined for this latest movie.  It's all the shinigami as we know and love him, but darker, sharper and somehow much more gritty.

Death Note's creators did say that this would be the darkest iteration of the on-going story yet.

Further news to make fans cheer is today's announcement that original Ryuk voice actor Shidou Nakamura has signed on to provide the voice for this version too. Nakamura's tones are familiar to the Death Note fandom from the anime through to the earlier movies in the series: Death Note; Death Note II: The Last Name; and L: Change the World.  Jun Fukushima took over for the TV drama.

All 0f this follows the previous news that Erika Todd will be returning to play Misa Amane ten years on.
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Death Note Profile:  Who is Quillsh Wammy?

8/4/2016

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Mr Wammy (Shunji Fujimura) -  Death Note live-action movies (Japan)

Mr Wammy as played by Shunji Fujimura
in live-action Death Note films
Watari - aka Quillsh Wammy - is L's 'handler' in Death Note.  He is also the founder of the Wammy chain of orphanages, including The Wammy House for Gifted and Talented Orphans.

Also known as Wammy's House, this was the institution which raised L, Near, Mello, Matt, Beyond Birthday, Linda et al.  It is located in Winchester, England.


We first meet Mr Wammy under his guise as Watari, an anonymous figure clad from head to toe in a black leather trench coat complete with Fedora hat.  He infiltrated a meeting of Interpol, wherein representatives of the world's law enforcement agencies had convened to discuss the Kira case. Watari was carrying a laptop from which emerged the electronic voice of L to address them all.

Later, as the Kira Task Force are invited to meet L and vetted by the same, Watari appears again, this time in the suited guise of his actual self - Quillsh Wammy, benefactor of the Wammy Group chain of orphanages and the man who trained L to become a detective.

He now facilitates his ward in his work solving crimes, acting as a handler, spokesperson or kind of butler.  Noted mostly for organizing logistics of manoeuvres ordered by L; transferring the funds to pay for the same; and bringing copious amounts of cakes, sweets and other sugary things for L to consume whilst puzzling over his cases.

Elsewhere, it transpires that Wammy is a crack marksmanship, as well as highly skilled in espionage.  He made his considerable wealth as an inventor.

Killed in the line of duty, during the fight against Kira, Quillsh Wammy is remembered as a 'great man' by members of the Task Force, lauded as the same by newspaper obituaries around the world.

Yet there is a darkness that hides beneath the surface of this seemingly amenable, altruistic man.  As author Tsugumi Ohba put it, 'He's a guy who cultivates detectives for fun. That's kind of terrible, isn't it?' (How to Read: Death Note 13, pg 27).  Well, in anybody's language, that's child trafficking and rendition, at the very least.

The Names of Quillsh Wammy

Death Note's Watari is alternatively known as:
キルシュ・ワイミー
Quillsh Wammy
Quillish Wammy
Kirushu Waimī
Kirsch-Waimi

Mr Wammy
ワタリ
Watari
W
渡
真名
Wye Me
Originally, Ohba meant to call this character Shadow, as in L's shadow - a moniker with more than one inferred meaning, which fan-fiction writers would have had great fun exploring.  However Death Note's editor pooh-poohed the name, telling Ohba, 'No, no! Anything but that!'  Hence the author coming up with Watari, which he explained meant 'handler' in Japanese.

Watari's Vital Statistics

Watari Death Note anime
Hair Colour:
Grey


Height:
5' 7" (170.18cm)
Eye Colour:
Blue


Weight:
8 stone (112lbs; 50.8kg)
Occupation:
Inventor; L spokesperson; benefactor of orphanages; collector of orphans; educator

Relationship Status:
Unknown, presumed single

Key Dates for Watari

May 1st 1933:
Quillsh Wammy born
Manga
May 1st 1936:
Quillsh Wammy born
Anime
November 5th 2004:
Quillsh Wammy killed
Manga
November 5th 2007:
Quillsh Wammy killed
Anime

The Auguries of Quillsh Wammy

Taurus
Born on May 1st, astrologically Quillsh Wammy is Taurus
Rooster
Wammy's birth date of May 1st 1933 (manga) also factors into Shēngxiào. He is a Rooster in the Chinese Zodiac
Rat
However, the time-slip of the anime would have him born in 1936 instead. That means that now in the Chinese Zodiac Watari is a Rat
Blood Type B
How to Read: Death Note 13 reveals that Quillsh Wammy's blood group is B

A Versatile Fixer - The Personality of Quillsh Wammy

Death Note 13: How to Read gives us an insight into the character of Quillsh Wammy, at least insofar as his author saw him.

The older man scores highly for versatility, talent, initiative/willingness to act, motivation and emotional strength.  Not far behind are his only slightly lesser scores for creativity, social skills and intelligence.  That he doesn't reach the topmost figure for creativity is a little surprising, given that Wammy made his fortune as an inventor.  The ultimate creator, one might think, this side of actual divinity.

We do get a hint of the kind of things that Wammy invented, when he turns up in the Death Note manga with belts containing panic buttons.  Not exactly Bond's Q, but in the ballpark.

As befits a man whose wealth and life has become devoted to raising children, his pet hate is 'dirty rooms'.  Presumably plenty of those at Wammy's House. I can't quite see the like of Beyond Birthday, Mello and Near running around with a duster.

This is an attribute taken to extreme levels in the Death Note TV drama, wherein guests are sprayed with disinfection at the door.  The interior of L's headquarters is kept pristine in its cleanliness, with Watari hurrying in to exchange L's shirt should a mere splash of food stain hit upon it.  In most tellings of the Death Note story, it's also inferred that Wammy is a fabulous cook.  At least there doesn't seem to be any travelling caterer providing all that confectionery for L that his handler regularly delivers.

Though it's nowhere stated that Wammy is an Englishman, it's implied in the location of his main orphanage for the training of gifted and talented orphans - Winchester, in England.  A further clue is given in his most favourite thing in the world - Earl Grey tea.

It's never truly explained how Watari managed to become such a crack marksman either.  His sharp-shooting is such that, in the Death Note manga and anime alike, he's able to fire a bullet which blasts a gun from the hand of Yotsuba's Kyosuke Higuchi, far below him on the ground. Wammy himself hovering over the scene in a helicopter at the time.

Nor do we learn where Quillsh Wammy acquired such skill in espionage, though he puts that to good use in Death Note, infiltrating various organizations to gain or deliver information.  Not least a gathering of Interpol.

Nevertheless he passed on all this knowledge, and the thinking/morality behind it, to the children in his care.   Maybe more clues to Watari's character reside in those he raised - how they turned out and what became of them.

Complete List of Wammy Kids in Death Note Canon

Genius children taken from wherever they lived around the world and installed in Wammy's House, Winchester.  Here their 'special talents' were cultivated with a top class education, whereupon they were sent back out into the world to put those skills into practice.  All of these individuals were nurtured by Wammy - or at least had their upbringing and training overseen remotely by him, as warden Roger Ruvie took orders from above.
Wammy A
A
- Name Unknown

Committed suicide at Wammy's House
(Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Case)
Wammy E
E
- Name Unknown

Shown on L's call/mailing list
(L: Change the World)
Wammy Kid J
J
- Name Unknown

Appears only as character in
a DS Death Note game.
(L: The Prologue to Death Note)
Picture
M
- Mello (Mihael Keehl)

Joined the Mafia in a bid to catch Kira and succeed to the L title before Near did. When unsuccessful, he gave his life to help Near defeat Kira.
(Death Note manga/anime)
Wammy kid Matt (Mail Jeevas) Death Note
Letter Unknown
- Matt (Mail Jeevas)

Third ranked Wammy kid at the time of L's death. Matt ultimately stepped into the Kira case at the behest of Mello. He was gunned down and killed by Kira supporters.
(Death Note manga/anime)
Wammy R
R
- Name Unknown
Shown on L's call/mailing list. However the name is faded out to grey, implying that R is dead. (B's is the same hue.)
(L: Change the World)
Wammy kid V
V
- Name Unknown
Shown on L's call/mailing list. However the name is faded out to grey, implying that V is dead. (B's is the same hue.)
(L: Change the World)
Wammy Z
Z
- Name Unknown
Assisted L in the Detective Wars bio-terror case.
(Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases)
Beyond Birthday - Death Note
B
- Beyond Birthday

Tried to lure L out with a series of grisly murders in Los Angeles; impersonated L for Naomi Misora, before setting fire to himself in a failed suicide attempt; imprisoned in LA, where he suffered a heart-attack and died (presumably killed by Kira) on January 21st 2004.
(Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases)
Wammy kid F (Kazuki Namioka)
F
- Name unknown

Rescued Near from a remote village, where all were dying in a deliberate epidemic, and sent him to L. F was killed in Thailand when a US helicopter shoots down his trunk. However F was already infected with a deadly virus.
(L: Change the World)
Kimiko Kujo L Change the World
K
- Kimiko Kujo

Scientist - unleashed a deadly virus in her own bid to 'change the world' by wiping out its human population.
(L: Change the World)
Near Death Note
N
- Near (Nate River)

Mathematical genius, who de facto succeeded L at age twelve, when the latter was killed by Rem/Kira.  With clues provided by Mello's martyrdom to the cause, Near was able to finally defeat Kira in the name of himself, Mello and L, ergo Wammy's House.
(Death Note manga/anime)
Wammy P
P
- Name Unknown
Shown on L's call/mailing list
(L: Change the World)
Ryūzaki Wammy kid Death Note 2016
Letter Unknown
- Ryūzaki

Cloned from L's DNA and raised at Wammy's House as L's true successor.
(Death Note 2016)
Wammy X
X
- Name Unknown

Assisted L in the Detective Wars bio-terror case.
(Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases)
Death Note Relight: Wammy kids
Random Wammy kids
as seen in Death Note: Relight (above)
and Death Note manga (left)
Wammy D
D
- Name Unknown

Shown on L's call/mailing list
(L: Change the World)
Wammy Kid G
G
- Name Unknown

Shown on L's call/mailing list
(L: Change the World)
Wammy L Death Note
L
- L Lawliet

Apparently the prototype 'special talent' Wammy orphan, for whom all the rest were raised as back-ups or successors.

At eight years old, L could beat up the other orphans in Wammy's House. He also discovered the delight in solving true crime cases, and thwarted the Winchester Mad Bomber. Beyond that he made his name as not only the world's greatest detective but, under pseudonyms, the 2nd and 3rd ranked too. 

He was killed during the Kira case.
Linda Death Note
Letter Unknown
- Linda

Became a successful artist. During the Kira case, she drew images of Near and Mello for the Japanese Task Force.
(Death Note manga/anime)
Picture
Q
- Name Unknown
Shown on L's call/mailing list
(L: Change the World)
Wammy kid T
T
- Name Unknown
Shown on L's call/mailing list. However the name is faded out to grey, implying that T is dead. (B's is the same hue.)
(L: Change the World)
Wammy Y
Y
- Name Unknown
Assisted L in the Detective Wars bio-terror case.
(Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases)
Wammy children Death Note manga
Each skilled Wammy kid set loose on the world was assigned a letter by Watari.   In L: Change the World, it's stated that this only occurs with the greatest, most intelligent of the Wammy's House outcrop.  Kujo is according stunned to belatedly realise that she was afforded the letter K.

Dotted across various adaptations of canon, we've practically got the entire alphabet in Wammy Letters.  With Watari himself indicated by the Letter W, only H, I, O, S and U are missing.  However, some known Wammy alumni never divulge their letters.  We don't, for example, know which Matt was assigned, despite him being third in the Wammy House rankings.  Nor yet do we know which letter Ryūzaki will take in the forthcoming movie Death Note 2016, assuming that he takes one at all.

Meanwhile, by the end of the manga/anime Death Note stories, Near interchangeably uses both N and L.  The latter earned post-Kira.  Thus giving an insight into the fact that letters can be taken from their peers by successful rivals/successors from the same Institution.  This is a system that Wammy himself must have set up.

Along with a code of ethics that apparently accounts for serial killers, abductors, biomedical scientists bent on mass destruction and the propensity of Wammy graduates to think it proper to die - or be killed - for want of a puzzle's solution. 

The Faces of Watari

Watari Death Note manga

Quillsh Wammy Death Note manga
Watari Death Note anime

Quillsh Wammy Death Note anime
Wammy Death Note DS game

Quillsh Wammy Death Note Nintendo game
Watari Death Note Relight

Quillsh Wammy Death Note: Relight


Posted as Part of

Month of Watari Death Note News
Watari Death Note movies

Quillsh Wammy Death Note live-action movies
Watari Death Note TV 2015

Quillsh Wammy Death Note TV drama
Read More
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Film Still of Yūgi Shion Released from Death Note 2016 Live-Action Movie

5/4/2016

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Warner Bros. Japan has made public another movie photograph from Death Note 2016.  This time featuring Light Yagami-wannabe Yūgi Shion played by Masaki Suda.  As with all the others, there's no actual context to it, just to keep us all guessing what is going on.
Death Note News Masaki Suda as Yūgi Shion
Yūgi Shion is a cyber-savvy hacker, state-sponsored (new information there!) yet on the trail of Death Notes as they fall across the globe.  Kira was his hero and he wants to complete the erstwhile God/Murderer's mission as best he can.  For the moment, that apparently involves messing electronically with officers from the Death Note Counter Measure Headquarters Special Team, as they go about their investigation.
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Death Note 2016: New Pics of Ryūzaki Released from Live-Action Movie

1/4/2016

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Affording an intriguing glimpse into the persona of Ryūzaki (Sousuke Ikematsu), two more picture stills
have been made public from the filming of Japanese live-action movie Death Note 2016.

2016 Death Note Ryūzaki (Sousuke Ikematsu)
Sousuke Ikematsu as Ryūzaki in Death Note 2016 live action movie
We already knew that Sousuke Ikematsu's character Ryūzaki was created genetically from the DNA left behind by L for this purpose during his own lifetime.  (The scientists here are straining at the bit to discuss that titbit in due course!)  Today's information adds just that Ryūzaki was raised at Wammy's House.

It seems the regime there went a step further even than the scenario warned by Beyond Birthday (and Mello) in Another Note.  The notion of a 'back-up' not so much a brainwashed boy, as an actual clone.

So did they keep DNA of them all?  Will the next baby squalling from a test-tube be Mello or Matt?

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Shō Nanase: Death Note 2016 New Character Revealed - Only Female Investigator on the Death Note Counter Measure Headquarters Special Team

31/3/2016

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Shō Nanase (Mina Fujii) Death Note 2016
Mina Fujii has joined the cast of Death Note 2016 - live-action Japanese movie - currently being filmed in Japan.

She will play Shō Nanase, a member of the Death Note Counter Measure Headquarters Special Team, serving under Tsukuru Mishima.

As yet, she constitutes the only female member of the investigative team to date, fulfilling a role akin to Shoko Himura in the TV drama or the SPK's Hal Lidner in the manga/anime.  If only as the token woman in the squad.

Though known as a Japanese actress, Mina Fujii was actually born in San Diego, California, USA, on July 15th 1988.  However, she was with her parents back in Japan by the age of seven, when she featured in the 2005 movie Simsons.

By the age of nine, when she was in the 2007 Fuji TV drama Broccoli and the film The Signs of Love, Mina was already becoming a household name in the Japanese entertainment industry. Since then, she has barely stepped out of the limelight, appearing in movie and television shows practically every year of her life.

In Japan, she is most well-known for he role as Aoi Asada in the television drama Bloody Monday. While Koreans tend to cite her appearance in the music video for KPop band TVXQ's Why Did I Fall in Love with You?

Mina Fujii speaks fluent Korean, in addition to Japanese and English.

Most recently, she has hit Japanese small screens in the reality TV show We Got Married Global, alongside Lee Hongki - KPop singer with the band F.T.Island.  It was only a virtual marriage for television. Nothing binding in real life.

At this time, nothing else is known about Mina Fujii's role in Death Note as Shō Nanase.
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Tsukuru Mishima: New Photographs from the Set of Death Note 2016

31/3/2016

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A couple of officially released stills from the Japanese live action Death Note 2016 have been circulating about the internet.

They depict actor Masahiro Higashide in his role as Tsukuru Mishima, main investigator with the Death Note Counter Measure Headquarters Special Team.

This was a sub-set of the Japanese law enforcement authority that was created by Soichiro Yagami in the aftermath of events shown in the previous movies.  Following his death - sometime during the intervening years - Mishima took the lead.

His character is known as such an expert on all things related to Shinigami notebooks that his nickname on the force is Death Note Otaku.  How many of us have previously claimed that particular accolade as our own? 

While we have no context for the pictures, we do know that six Death Notes will be falling on the Earth in this next movie.  Presumably that accounts for the grim expression worn by their chief researcher, investigator and all round know it all.

Perhaps in the image below, he has found some kind of lead revealing the enormity of the task ahead, or else demonstrating the horrors that one or more Death Note owners are set to unleash.

Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata have intimated that this will be the darkest Death Note story yet, one which puts firmly in the shade that surrounding Light Yagami.

Death Note 2016 (working title) will be released in Japanese theatres on October 29th 2016, just in time for Halloween.  There is no word as yet about the live-action movie being subbed or dubbed for foreign audiences. Though we can assume that will be a thing, given time and patience.

Any thoughts on it at this juncture?


Images courtesy of Warner Brothers Japan.
Death Note 2016 Masahiro Higashide Tsukuru Mishima
Masahiro Higashide in his role as Tsukuru Mishima Death Note 2016
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Erika Toda: Original Movie Misa Amane Reprising Role in Death Note 2016 Sequel

10/3/2016

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Erika Toda - Misa Amane in Death Note live action movies

In addition to the announcement about Erika Toda returning as Misa Amane, the official Twitter stream for Death Note 2016 has provided us with an actual release date - October 29th 2016.
Erika Toda was the actress who brought Misa Amane to life in the original live action Death Note films.  Now she's back for the encore.

Glorying under the working title of Death Note 2016, the fourth in the Warner Bros. Japan Death Note movies takes place ten years after the clash between Light and L, which proved so fatal for them both.

But not for Misa, who merely lost her memories after renouncing ownership of her Death Note. 

A decade on, she's working as a top-ranked actress, still mourning the loss of Light Yagami, but with no conscious insight into the preternatural events that led to his demise.  As six new Death Notes fall upon the Earth, Misa Amane's memories will become key for those chasing and using them.

Erika Toda was just seventeen years old when she played Misa-Misa the first time around.  She's a stately twenty-seven now, likely to become the grand matriarch of Kiras everywhere.

Her casting has been met with much excitement in Japan, where her role was highly praised in 2006 and continued on into 'legendary status' since.

Here's a fan-made compilation showing Erika in action as Misa Amane:
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Japanese Movie Death Note 2016 Features on a BRITISH Film Magazine Cover

27/2/2016

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Giving hope to all of us global audience types, that Death Note 2016 will quickly migrate from Japan to our own screens, is a rather random movie magazine cover from Great Britain. 

Dominated by a mostly monochromatic photograph, the front of Screen International's special February 11th 2016 edition features next generation L clone Ryuzaki (Sousuke Ikematsu), in what appears to be a pristine prison cell.  He is slumped on a closed-lid toilet seat, wearing a hyottoko mask - as previously donned by his genetic forebear L in the first two Death Note movies, when the detective sought to conceal his own identity from Misa Amane.

The legend slanted on the floor is in English and reads, 'The new saga begins.'  Whilst a larger one, in the familiar Death Note font and a more than familiar first rule, floats alongside the actor telling us, 'Death Note.  The human whose name is written in this note shall die.'  The implication is clear. L's biologically cloned successor isn't going to make it to the closing credits either.

Though none of us believe it. The danger point is too blatant and too premature.
Screen International Death Note cover Feb 11th 2016

Screen International Death Note cover,
as Tweeted by Warner Bros Japan
Berlin Film Festival Screen International Death Note cover, as distributed at Berlin Film Festival

Berlin Film Festival Screen International
Death Note
cover, as distributed on the day
This wasn't a British magazine found generally upon the shelves of newsagents.  It was a private marketing magazine circulating at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival.  Only 10k were ever printed and they were distributed to attendees of the opening day on February 11th 2016.

The clue to why lies in the logo of Death Note 2016 copyright holders Nippon TV prominently displayed in the bottom right hand corner, alongside details for enquiring about world sales.  Ryuzaki may look slumped, but that merely serves to turn his whole body towards the lower logo and its missives.  His bulging hyottoko eyes are trained upon it.  The floor legend leads the eye straight into said inquiry details for the international distribution of Death Note 2106.

After all was is a marketing fly cover (wrapped around the film magazine's actual cover), which must have knocked NTV back a pretty penny! Therefore knowing that a representative was waiting - at booth 111 of the European Film Market in Martin Gropius Bau - was the actual point. 

Now all we need to know is whether anyone from our own respective countries nipped on over to stand 111, and if a deal was struck.

Incidentally, Screen International has its Feb 11th 2016 Death Note Berlin Film Festival cover - plus contents - online for us all to read.
Death Note actress Rina Kawaei on set as Sakura Aoi
In other related news, new casting Rina Kawaei has been Tweeting herself (February 24th 2016) on set, during filming of Death Note.  She was basically telling her fans that she was playing Sakura Aoi, and it had just been publicly announced by the studio.

While four days previously, on February 20th, her actor colleague Masaki Suda celebrated his 23rd birthday.  He was surprised at his desk, while performing his role as hacker and Kira worshipper Yūgi Shion, with something which obviously delighted him.  Unfortunately we can't get a decent enough translation to find out what!  Paper lanterns, perchance?
Yūgi Shion actor Masaki Suda celebrates 23rd birthday on Death Note set

Death Note 2016 movie, official Twitter (Feb 20th 2016)
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Death Note 2016: Movie Makers Reveal the Most Dangerous Death Note User Ever; JPop Idol Rina Kawaei to Play One of the Six New Kiras

24/2/2016

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2016 Death Note's Sakura Aoi (Rina Kawaei)

Described as 'the most terrible ever user of a Death Note'
Sakura Aoi, as played by Rina Kawaei
Warner Bros Japan has announced another new character for its live action movie Death Note 2016 (working title), currently being filmed in Japan.

Sakura Aoi is one of the six people set to possess a fallen Death Note.  However, in complete contrast to Light Yagami, she uses it utterly indiscriminately with no attempt at all at justification.  This makes her - we are warned - the 'most terrible Death Note user' that we've seen yet.

Bringing her to life on the silver screen is Rina Kawaei, formerly a singer in the Japanese idol girl band AKB48.  On Warner's official Death Note 2016 website, she proclaims herself excited because this isn't any kind of role that she's played before.  She's looking forward to the challenge.

Moreover, she's thrilled because this is Death Note! Though finding that a slightly strange feeling, on account of her excitement being about a story wherein lots of people die.  Oh, Rina!  Hang out with us. No-one will think you strange amongst this readership.  You're amongst friends and kindred spirits here! 
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