A new Death Note reference book was issued by Shinigami Press on October 26th 2015.

Penned by Brad A. Yamaguchi, it's entitled Death Note: Unofficial Guide.

The clue being in the title, this isn't anything published by Tsugumi Ohba, Shueisha, Nippon, Viz Media nor any of the Death Note copyright holders. Nevertheless fair usage applies there - just as it does with our Death Note news site - and anyone can write about a subject.  It's all good.

Yamaguchi's guide to Death Note covers all media in which the story is told - including the 2015 Death Note television drama, hence very up-to-date.

Just about everything you ever wanted to know about Death Note is there.

Yamaguchi's Death Note guidebook contains 90 pages. Which are split between five sections, featuring information packed chapters - each with their own focus within the Death Note universe.  Delve even more deeply into the nitty-gritty of Death Note via all the sub-sections keeping things tidy.

The book's contents list is highly impressive.

Beginning with an introduction to Death Note, we get a summary of the story itself, plus much background and contextual information. Yamaguchi covers everything from conception to reception, then moves on to legacy too.

Each major character gets a chapter devoted to them in Part Two. For each one, we hear about how the individual was created; where they appeared in the story; how they were received by the readership/audience; and other links regarding them. References support every snippet told.

Another chapter highlights the supporting personae; further divided into those only known from one telling of the tale (for example, secondary characters seen only in a Death Note film). 

Part Three of Death Note: Unofficial Guide takes us through an in-depth examination of every manga chapter or anime episode.

Part Four does the same for each live action telling of the story - including the TV Death Note drama and all four Japanese movies - then moves onto associated novels, primarily Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Case, and Death Note original soundtracks too.

There's an especial chapter taking in New World - the Death Note finale - plus others dealing with real life murders associated with the show.  Part Four finishes with a close look at the story's author Tsugumi Ohba.

The final part of this guidebook for Death Note merely lists all references and sources for further information within the universe, franchise and genre.

All told, a fabulous resource and wonderful gift idea for Death Note fans, with an eye on Christmas just around the corner.   However, there is a strong reservation attached.

It doesn't take long in sitting down to read this unofficial Death Note guide to realise that Brad A. Yamaguchi didn't actually write the content. He merely copied it wholesale from Wikipedia and formatted as a real world book.

That doesn't make it any less informative and fascinating to read, but you could do that for free on-line.

Perhaps handy as a reference book for Death Note to carry with you, when there is no access to the internet. Or as an archive edition to record the information on Wikipedia on the day he copied it.  Yet otherwise nothing new here as concerns the Death Note fandom, and nothing that cannot already be found digitally.

Check out Brad A. Yamaguchi's Death Note: Unofficial Guide to complete your collection, or see what other Death Note guides are available through our store.

Fans in Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia are currently enjoying high definition airings of the Death Note TV drama courtesy of the GEM Channel.

The television network is the sparkly new collaboration between Sony Pictures Television (SPT) and Nippon Television (NTV). It includes exclusive shows from both companies portfolios, as well as a clutch of other programming too.

Eventually GEM will be beaming Death Note into South Korea, Taiwan and other Asia territories too, including China, which will surely go down well.

                     Read: 
                          * Chinese Cyber Authority Cracks Down on Death Note
                          * Death Note Fans in China Dodge the Censor

For the rest of us, there's a nice selection of images from the Death Note television drama, courtesy of NTV, highlighted on the GEM Channel Death Note show webpages.  Some of which are reproduced here, above and below.

In addition, there's a synopsis of the show, programming information (every Monday and Tuesday at 8pm (JKT) and 9pm (BKK)) and profiles on various cast members, including Yutaka Matsushige as Soichiro Yagami, Hinako Sano as Misa Amane, Kento Yamazaki as L, Mio Yuki as Near and Masataka Kubota in his award-winning performance as Light Yagami.

A nice touch there is the trivia end-piece on each actor, informing us for example that Yutaka Matsushige is one of the tallest actors in Japan (he's 6ft 2") and Mio Yuki's real name is Rina Kanno. She was launched into stardom after winning a HoriPro talent contest in 2012.

Meanwhile, there's an apology to make.  Much hecticness and chaos behind the scenes a few months ago at Death Note News meant that our analytical reviews of the last few episodes of the drama were never published. Nor indeed written, though much enjoyment was had in actually watching the show!

We intended to.  It's just that the write ups never made our To Do list, thus were overlooked and finally forgotten entirely.  They might never have appeared if one of our readers hadn't been on the ball. 

Grace Butler has given us the nudge (politely and very sweetly), hence those Death Note (2015) reviews are back on the list to do.  Thanks Grace!  And sorry to all who have been waiting on them.

In the meantime, here are the Death Note News analytical reviews of Death Note drama episodes so far.

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.

Fans hoping to find an exciting new limited edition Blu-Ray Death Note box set in their Christmas stocking this year are about to be disappointed.  Death Note: The Omega Edition was due for release on December 1st 2015. It's now been put back until March 1st 2016 with no explanation as to why.

Details of this rather expansive Death Note Blu-Ray collection were recounted a couple of weeks ago. However, we managed to completely overlook the fact that a second Death Note box set in Blu-Ray format was also coming out the same day.

There's a poignant, sick scene in the anime Death Parade, which might include an extra-curricular glimpse of Light Yagami.

Fandom noted and not confirmed by the show's creators. But with enough there to make us all wonder if it could actually be a thing.

Death Parade takes place in a strange outpost of the Afterlife.

Individuals dying at the exact same time may find themselves in bars, where they are forced to participate in games to determine their everlasting Fate. Arbiters doubling as bartenders judge the outcome.

In episode 11, Memento Mori, a character named Mayu is given the option of condemning a complete stranger to eternity in the Void. If she complies, then she may retrieve her lover Harada's soul, that he might regain it and they can continue on together.

But look  at the stranger...

That Mayu does in fact send this Kira lookalike Death Parade stranger into the Void is actually consistent with the canon Death Note storyline.

According to Ryuk - and indeed Death Note Rule 2.3 - no-one owning and using a Shinigami's notebook may continue on to Heaven or Hell upon their own demise. Instead the like of Light Yagami will end up in Mu (Nothingness).

Which sounds very much akin to Death Parade's Void, or even the bars themselves.  Those hospitalities end up acting like reception rooms for those about to be lost to that infinite nothingness. It's a rare soul who manages to escape that eventuality, no matter how many games they play.

Not even Mayu and Harada really get away. 

Could a post-Death Note Kira be sitting in a bar, as a final addendum to his own story?  Not such an unlikely proposition as you might think, when you factor in that Death Parade is produced by Madhouse. 

Madhouse was also behind the production of Death Note as an anime, adapted from the manga.

It's a company for which Nippon TV owns a 95% share.  NTV recently utilized its own rights to the story and characters. It was behind the live-action Death Note (2015) television drama.

Hold on, it gets weirder - or more inclined towards an in-joke, if that really is canon Kira in the Afterlife.

Look again more closely at what is being said at the time that the lookalike Light Yagami is shown in Death Parade.  Harada may only live if Kira dies. So who do we (or, to be fair, Mayu) choose to survive this storyline?

It may illuminate or amuse you to note that Light and Harada are both voiced, in their respective anime, by Mamoru Miyano.

The voice actor would struggle to bring Harada audibly to life, if recording lines for Kira was a current pre-occupation of his career.  One would imagine that he'd be pushed for time, taking on such a main role.

So yeah, Harada's unmuted anime soul really was quite dependent upon Light being lost to the Void.

Or a random stranger, whomever he might be.

Death Note will be the main attraction for GEM - a brand, new television channel launched across Asia on October 1st 2015.

GEM marks a collaboration between Nippon TV (NTV) and Sony Pictures Television (SPT), each of which are bringing their biggest shows to air to Asian audiences.

NTV chose its television Death Note drama, recently broadcast in Japan and streamed on-line around the world, to act as its flagship for GEM's launch. Also on offer to viewers is another drama entitled Angel Heart; season two of Hanasaki Mai Speaks Out; and a Chinese romance series called Lady & Liar.

A hallmark of the channel will be its emphasis upon Asian content.

At a press conference to announce GEM's opening content, NTV's International Business Development divisional President Yukiko Kimishima told reporters:

So, do you reckon Asia is going to like Death Note?  Wry smile. 

Though I suppose there might be the odd one or two who haven't heard of it. Under their rock. And perhaps a handful more who never saw Death Note's 2015 TV dramatisation. They're all in for a treat.

Only tenuously Death Note related, it's all about Bakuman in their creators' world this week.

While we might consider Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata in terms of OUR manga, they have collaborated much more recently than that on the semi-autobiographical Bakuman.

It's a series which chronicles the rise of an author and writer within the manga industry.

The current edition of Weekly Shonen Jump (September 21st 2015) includes the first in a special two-parter prequel to the main Bakuman chapters.

It tells what happened with main characters Moritaka Mashiro - pen name Saikō - and Akito Takagi - later known as Shūjin - before the pair joined forces to produce a wildly popular manga series. Like, you know, Ohba and Obata did in real life with Death Note.

Spanning 23 chapters, the first part of this Bakuman prequel has boosted the manga magazine to a hefty 315 pages!  Featured as an added bonus is a full colour Bakuman centrespread.

The original Bakuman manga ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2008-2012.  Those chapters were collected into twenty volumes published by Shueisha, which have sold over 15 million copies worldwide. An anime based upon the story was televised over three seasons, aired in Japanese television between 2010-2013.

Viz Media and Media Blasters reproduced English language versions of the manga and anime respectively, primarily for North American audiences.

A live action Bakuman movie is due to be released on October 3rd 2015, hence the two part prequel beginning in Weekly Shonen Jump this week. It acts as a tie-in special event and incidentally helps boost publicity for the film.

In the story, Muto Ashirogi's third manga is entitled PCP -Kanzen Hanzaitō- (trans. PCP - Perfect Crime Party). Now that fictional manga is due for release as a real world novel.

It will bear Ashirogi's name as the first author, though his co-author Sei Hatsuno (HaruChika) probably did much of the work here.

Another blatant tie-in, the novel will hit bookshelves on October 2nd 2015, one day ahead on the Bakuman movie.

A new live-action Bakuman film means an original soundtrack to accompany it. For fans of Takeshi Obata's art, this is an unexpected avenue in which to discover some.

Obata has created the artwork for the Bakuman CD soundtrack, including that for a CD single Shin Takarajima (pictured above) lifted from the OST. Due to be released in a limited edition format, the song has been recorded by rock band Sakanaction and features in the movie.

A DVD of the Bakuman OST is also scheduled.

Anyone else got an answer for Emily, or something to add to mine?  Please do comment with your thoughts/knowledge.

And if any other reader has a question for us all, then just ask!  There are plenty of ways to contact me, or simply leave a comment on any blog entry and I'll pick it up from there.

Thank you for this one, Emily!

Meanwhile to check out the Death Note DVDs which currently do exist, our store is a great place to begin.

Death Note is being seen as one of two big Japanese anime testing the ground internationally in a potentially lucrative revenue stream for entertainment groups. The other is Naruto.

Both have been recently adapted for live performances - or 2.5-D, as its known in Japan - which might just as easily be transferred across borders, changed to suit audiences in various nations.

Death Note the Musical has already been staged in South Korea, picking up there before the inaugural Japanese performance had even completed its theatrical run. Its producers - particularly HoriPro, which owns the rights to the Death Note stage-show - hope that other countries will be swift to purchase the script and score, in order to translate both for their own productions.

HoriPro deliberately hired a well-known American Broadway composer - Frank Wildhorn - so that eventual sales to the US might be smoothed. Versions of the show's keynote songs were available on-line in English before they'd even been recorded in Japanese.

HoriPro is part of the 2.5 Dimensional Musical Association - a Japanese entertainment industry conglomerate, formed in 2014 specifically to lead global exportation of anime related live events or stage adaptations.

Another founding member of the group, Nelke, has already seen its theatrical production of Naruto staged in Macau, Malaysia and Singapore.  Both have their eye on the West, where securing Death Note or Naruto 2.5-D deals could prove extremely profitable for the companies involved.

Though we haven't yet been made privy to the takings from those stagings, an idea of the bottom line can be gleaned from reports that Tenimyu (also owned by Nelke) recently sold its 2 millionth ticket for a run of successful 2.5 dimensional performances in Japan alone. This in a country which doesn't promote longevity in theatrical productions, as occurs in London's West End or New York's Broadway.

Promoting interest in either of those locations could ensure riches for the companies involved for years to come.

And to ensure at least some consideration from foreign theatre-goers, Tenimyu productions offered spectacles which provided sub-titles in four different languages - English, French, Chinese and Korean - that the buzz around the show might be conveyed home on the lips of those who watched it.

In addition to the huge bank balances primed to be boosted on the global entertainment market, there's another powerful incentive for Japanese exporters - unlike anime, manga and other material formats, it's difficult for live performances to be conveyed wholesale into the homes of potential customers free of charge.

You can't download on-line a stage production like you could anime episodes, nor scantilate copies of it, as so many do with manga.  For the entertainment moguls of Japan, rights to their musicals feels almost pirate proof.

I'll admit that this one surprised me a little. Purporting to be the 'largest online streaming site' for anime in Japan, D Animestore has just announced its latest acquisition - Death Note.

Surely that should have been the first title on the list?  IS there any other anime out there?

Oh well! If you're in Japan and you've lived under a rock since 2003, then I recommend taking your 400 yen to the D Animestore and finding out what the fuss has been about for the past decade. 

I quite liked Death Note.  A personal favourite in fact...

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?

Viz Media is poised to release the whole Death Note anime series in Blu-Ray format.

Remarkably this has never been done before, despite the 15 trillion billion versions of the anime out there, including all of the ones with no discernible difference from those which went before. Except maybe a tweak in the colouring of the cover or something daft.

The live action Death Note movies got the Blu-Ray treatment, but not the anime.

Reps from Viz Media made the announcement during their Anime Expo 2015 panel, on July 2nd at the Los Angeles Convention Center. However, they didn't tag a release date onto the end of that.

Watch this space. As soon as I know, so will you.