News about Death Note

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

21/5/2016

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

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

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

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

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

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

Musical Actress
- Death Note the Musical first read-through English Cast
Frank Wildhorn's NYC rehearsal

Margaret Qualley

Film Actress
- Death Note movie US

Charlyne Pestel

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fuka Yuzuki

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Death Note Movie Makers Gearing Up for Filming

6/2/2016

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We have two Death Note films coming this year. The proof is in the Tweeting.
(Incidentally the actual date for Japan's Death Note 2016 movie release is September 13th 2016, according to IMDb.)

Japanese movie Death Note 2016 starts filming

'Death Note 2016 begins! Thank you' reads this Tweet
from the official Japanese Warner Bros account
on January 6th 2016 - presumably referring to filming

Meanwhile, over on the official Death Note 2016 website:

The recently announced stars of Death Note 2016 - Sōsuke Ikematsu, Masahiro Higashide and Masaki Suda - have been commenting on their new roles.

Masahiro, who is playing Death Note researcher and investigator Tsukuru Mishima, notes that he's grown up knowing this story. Therefore it's difficult not to be influenced by what has gone before; nor to avoid the pressure in getting it right.

He views the latest story as a three-way, intertwined battle between geniuses. He is enjoying making the movie and hopes that we enjoy watching it, including those discovering the story for the first time now.

'New L' Sōsuke - aka Ryūzaki - is also feeling the pressure: to live up to the legacy left by Ken'ichi Matsuyama in the earlier movies. He feels excited about filming and notes that every day the cast are directed in exceeding the standard of the day before.

This new Death Note story, he feels, contains the central message that human beings are weak and foolish creatures.

Masaki equally remembers when he was in the audience watching earlier Death Note live-action films. That makes it all the more thrilling to be starring in one now.

He sees in his own legacy a hint of Mello and Near in the original manga, insofar as his cyber-terrorist Kira worshipper character Yūgi Shion - plus the parts played by the other two - represent the successors, heirs or children of Light and L. This is the movie equivalent of a Death Note second arc.

He hopes that their 'second half' story will surpass expectations laid down by the first wave of Japanese live-action Death Note movies ten years ago.

Personally they would have had my (tentative) vote straight out, if they'd just HAD Mello in one of these live-action movies. And I don't mean disguised as a young schoolgirl. We're all looking at you, L: Change the World and Maki.

Reading Death Note Adam Wingard Director

US live action Death Note director Adam Wingard,
re-reading the Black Edition,
as per his Tweet on December 10th 2015

Adam followed his with this Tweet, also dated December 10th 2015:

Death Note director Adam Wingard Black Edition luggage Tweet Dec 10th 2015

The complete Black Edition Death Note, as read by Adam Wingard,
is available in our Death Note Books and Manga Store

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Death Note Event Reminder: Death Note Ladies Appreciation Weeks on Tumblr

14/12/2015

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Can you name these Death Note female characters? (Answers at the end)

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:

Week One
December 13th: Misa/Takada
                                Halle/Misa
December 14th: Naomi/Halle
                                Halle/Takada
December 15th: Misa/Sayu
                                Rem/Misa
December 16th: Wedy/Naomi
                               Wedy/Misa
December 17th: Sayu/Yuri
                                Yuri/Misa
December 18th: Sachiko Yagami/Eriko Aizawa
                                Sachiko Yagami/Mrs. Mikami
December 19th: WILD CARD (Any yuri Death Note pairing)

Week Two
December 20th: Halle
                                Wedy
December 21st: Naomi
                                Takada
December 22nd: Sachiko
                                 Sayu
December 23rd: Misa
                                Rem
December 24th: Yuri
                                Shoko Himura (from Death Note TV drama)
December 25th: Shiori Akino
                               Maki Nikaido
December 26th: WILD CARD (Any Death Note lady)

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:

Characters from Death Note who are female

Clockwise ( l-r from top):
Wammy's House aide and two female Wammy kids; Dr Kimiko Kujo; Sayu Yagami; Yumi Aizawa; Akiko Himura; Nori (Misa's friend); Unnamed Kira Worshipper; Yuri; Ami Hamazaki; and Shiori Akino

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.

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Death Note DVDs from Around the World

8/10/2014

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I've been working hard in the Death Note News store again, this time in the DVD section.

The first up-date being that we now have a DVD section.

All of the world's Death Note anime and live action movies have been corralled into one place. Every edition, collection, cover, package and box set within the Death Note franchise will be in there.

At least that was the plan. With the best part of two whole days occupied in reproducing pictures and hunting internationally for the links, I've still not come close to collecting them all. It'll happen. But for now, I think it's best to say that a mammoth undertaking created a great beginning, and the rest will follow in good time.

Let's break this down. We have an anime series and three live action movies. Even accounting for new voice-over dubs, employing actors to deliver dialogue translated into various languages, that shouldn't leave much scope for reproducing Death Note DVDs. Fundamentally, that's four items of content - or two box sets, one for anime and one for live action - which could be recycled around the world for each new language to be dubbed onto them.

You really would be amazed.

I've come to the conclusion that every Death Note DVD copyright holder has done nothing over the past ten years but reissue them. Constantly. Rebranding, repackaging, reformatting, adding features, chopping the content up into different slices, slapping a new cover on the front, importing versions from other countries and most of all introducing yet another version into the market.

Except India.

Apparently no moving pictures in any format has made it into India yet. Though they're certainly running rampant with the manga and novels. More versions there than you could possibly imagine. It was quite startling to move from country to country - each time staring in grim determination at another plethora of choices for your Death Note movie and anime viewing pleasure - only to arrive at the nothingness of India. Mu for Death Note anime fans.

Which did leave me pondering. I've made a note to find out why. I'll let you know as soon as I do.

Elsewhere in the world, international Death Note DVDs being made available for domestic fans continues unabated across the globe. We've obviously a great source of income with an insatiable appetite for completing collections, even if the only difference is a new pretty picture.

This fervour to feed us stuff can too easily invoke the maxim 'more haste less speed'. There's a lovely French Death Note trilogy which might tempt more US buyers, if volume one was stocked alongside two and three. I wonder if the supplier has even noticed. Probably not, as they'd have rushed to get it listed.

It's quite interesting to note what's been imported where. Not to mention bewildering and, at times, amusing. For example, Italy has a German version of an American Death Note box set. Nice and cosmopolitan there, everyone sharing and common sense prevailing. Until you notice that Germany doesn't get the German version. They're stuck with the original US one.

On the bright side, our beautiful new Death Note DVD section now reveals all such wonderful weirdness - allowing the German fandom to go shopping in Italy, and everyone else to uncover where common sense hid Death Note DVDs destined for our shelves.

Enjoy! And keep checking back, wishing me luck and watching it grow, as I hunt down every last variation to pin into the ultimate Death Note anime and movie collection. As always, I would appreciate your feedback in terms of navigability, look of the thing and anything that I messed up while adding links at 4.30 in the morning.

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Takeshi Kaga to Reprise his Role as Kira's Dad in Death Note the Musical

23/9/2014

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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.

Soichiro Yagami played by Takeshi Kaga

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.