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All the latest information about Death Note: reports, gossip, releases, analyses, speculation and discussion.

Death Note news articles

Death Note News Misa Gift Store Now Open

8/6/2016

57 Comments

 
Our endeavour to have a Death Note gifts shop to match every character at the heart of our Month of... events finally made it in BEFORE the deadline by a fair few days.

But only because Lua took care of it, and did so with aplomb.  Obrigado!

We have costumes, posters, eBay deals, figurines (some 1/6 life sized and really quite lovely), plus bags, body pillow and other miscellaneous goodies, with more coming in all the time.  No really. Lua's on that case too.

Please do look in.  All profits go towards the running of the site, though none came in to date!
Misa Amane Gift Store
Death Note gift ideas Misa Misa

Est. 2016 During

Misa Death Note Month
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Viz Media Turns 30 (Promises Goodies to Thank Fans) - Japanamerica Pop Culture Scholar Roland Kelts Contemplates the Impact of Three Decades of Viz

3/6/2016

3 Comments

 
Happy 30th Birthday Viz Media
This summer, Viz Media celebrates its 30th birthday firmly entrenched as North America's foremost exporter, and promoter, of Japanese manga and anime.

There will be no big party in the streets by all accounts.  Yet fans can look forward to special offers and goodies given out as a thank you for for thirty years of support. 

However, those deals currently announced are only available to indivduals attending anime conventions across the USA.  Kicking off on July 1st-4th 2016, at the Los Angeles Anime Expo, and continuing throughout the summer and autumn season.  More on all that when we know further.

What Did Viz Media Ever Do for Us Anyway?

The obvious response is that Viz Media brought us Death Note.  Game over and cause to party right there.

However, if we can broaden our horizons for just three seconds, an even greater boon may be discerned. If you're reading from a Western nation then you have a lot to thank the company for in how it's spent those decades. Viz Media is probably the reason that you're here, or have even heard of Death Note. 

Even if only indirectly, with Viz acting as the trend-setter company that inspired others elsewhere to follow its lead, bringing Japanese pop culture into your local stores.

It barely seems possible that a time existed when the words 'manga' and 'anime' weren't mainstream in the West.  That outside Japan and its immediate neighbouring states, only Eastern ex-pats, Japanese Cultural Studies students, and a scattering of literary sci-fi geeks in any nation could have told you with any certainty what such alien terms described.  Or even hazarded a decent guess.

Yet in 1986, when Seiji Horibuchi - a Japanese ex-pat from Shikoku, then living in San Francisco - mooted to friends the notion that he could interest Americans in manga, anime and other cultural mainstays from his homeland, most people laughed.  They didn't think readers in the US would go for that at all.

Though obviously the majority first had to ask him what manga and anime were, before getting on with the general amusement and cynicism. 

Three decades later, we can say with great certainty that he wiped the smile off their faces.  Seiji's efforts through Viz Media - the company he founded to make good his idea and his dream - not only made him extremely rich, it secured a place for manga, anime and all else attached in the American heart and throughout the Western world.
Seiji Horibuchi Founder of Viz Media

Viz Media founder Seiji Horibuchi

Roland Kelts Puts Viz Media's Achievements in Context

Japanamerica by Roland Kelts cover

Buy Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture
has Invaded by US
by Roland Kelts on Amazon US
Just in case you haven't already grasped the enormity of Viz Media's impact in the West, Roland Kelts is on hand to spell it out.

As an academic specialising in Japanese Cultural Studies, Kelts is an author; essayist; lecturer at Keio University, Tokyo (and the occasional TED Lecture too); journalist with regular articles and columns in such illustrious publications as Time Magazine, The New York Times, Newsweek Japan and The Guardian; and steering committee member of the Tokyo Think Tank Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation.

He also wrote the acclaimed JapanAmerica (see left), all about how Japanese manga, anime and other pop culture became so big in the USA.

In May 2016, his monthly editorial for The Japan Times was devoted to Viz Media's thirty years as the main instigator of that.

Entitled Viz's 30 Years Pack a Punch in the US (May 14th 2016), Kelts outlines how Seiji Horibuchi pulled it off - from unlikely beginnings in the 1980s through to the legacy left behind by the time he parted company with Viz Media to explore pastures new.

Comparing notes with modern day Chief Marketing Officer Brad Woods, Kelts explores how Viz Media played a key role in the changing face of manga interest and sales throughout the West; touches upon the ever-growing mainstream awareness of Japanese pop culture, and projects how that success may continue into the future.

He's rather excited about how titles like Death Note are discussed as commonplace, particularly within the glittering circles of Hollywood studios executives, telling us that, 'in all the years I’ve watched manga and anime become mainstays in American homes, I’ve never seen a moment quite like this.'
More to the point, Kelts discusses the effect of such global popularity success on the domestic market in Japan. With its shrinking population population and declining consumerism, the business opportunities at home were always limited.  The injection of worldwide capital turned out to be very timely and very welcome for the overall prosperity of that island nation.

Not bad for a notion mooted by a San Francisco hippy, which turned out to be quite a fabulous one at that.  Happy 30th birthday, Viz Media; the celebrations may run worldwide.
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Manga Entertainment: Death Note Blu-Ray Anime Coming to UK in 2016!  (Meanwhile Viz Media Promotes Death Note: Omega Edition in Blogs & Illinois)

31/5/2016

6 Comments

 
Looks like the high definition, formatted blu-ray Death Note Omega Edition will be appearing in British stores later this year.

Manga Entertainment announced at MCM London Comic Con that Death Note blu-ray for the UK is on its way. The company has just secured the licence to distribute in that format to the Britons, and the description certainly matched that of Omega.

The news was simultaneously proclaimed on Twitter via its official account (see right), though fans at the convention found out first.

In both venues, the product spec was unveiled as being the entire run of thirty-seven Death Note anime episodes on blu-ray.  Included are the two re-cut movie length features Death Note Relight: Visions of a God and its sequel Relight: L's Successors.
Manga Entertainment: Death Note blu-ray Britain

Manga Entertainment: Death Note UK blu-ray
Announced on Twitter by @MangaUK, May 28th 2016
It's hard to imagine British distributors reinventing the wheel, when an English language blu-ray Death Note edition with that exact specification already exists as Omega. Available for US consumer viewers since March 1st 2016, created, packaged and promoted by Viz Media.

Talking of which, the Viz newsletter recently ran a piece reviewing precisely that Death Note blu-ray box set!

Urian Brown provides a pretty thorough synopsis of the story and what we may expect by revisiting its anime again in blu-ray.  The main event is earmarked once again as the unbelievable quality on display through blu-ray's famed high definition focus.  There's much talk of the detail in L's strawberry or Misa Amane's frills in his Viz blog entry - entitled Death Note: The Omega Edition with the tag-line Death Note finally gets the proper Blu-Ray treatment! (Viz, May 17th 2016).

Worth a read if you're wondering what all of the fuss is about.

Viz Media reps were also busy promoting its Omega Death Note blu-ray box set in Illinois last week.  The company had a booth at Anime Central 2016 convention, held from May 20th-22nd at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare and Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont. Fans stopping by to say hello could walk away clutching a free give-away Death Note poster.
Death Note Omega Blu-Ray Ryuk cover detail
Find Death Note Omega Edition in our own Death Note Anime Gift Store
- in fact, buy formatted blu-ray Death Note films from there too!

6 Comments

Watch Limited Edition English Blanc et Noir by Takeshi Obata Unpacked

29/5/2016

4 Comments

 

Takeshi Obata Blanc et Noir: Unpacking the English Language Ltd Edition Version
from Death Note News on Vimeo.

This eagerly anticipated collector's book of Takeshi Obata's artwork is out and Death Note News has one!

Takeshi Obata's glorious artbook Blanc et Noir has long been available in Japan.  But only since May 2016 has an 0fficial English translation been published in the West.

Viz Media have produced a limited edition 10,000 copies of this beautifully printed tome containing highly detailed drawings by Death Note's artistic creator. 

We first heard about it last August, but have had to wait until May 3rd 2016 before getting our hands on 132 pages of exquisitely rendered Takeshi Obata artwork.  And by 'we', we really do mean that, as you can see our copy being unpacked in the video above.

The overall verdict for those who don't want to sit through 25 mins worth of inarticulate gushing?

It's surprisingly good.  Much better than anyone without any art knowledge at all expected to unpack.  Whilst being the first to cry foul on any old tacky tat foisted upon Death Note fans, Obata's Blanc et Noir made the grade. It was enchantingly impressive.

It would have to be given a price tag like that.

Blanc et Noir English language copies are limited edition and bound to become collectors' items.  We're definitely going to be handling ours with care, while also taking a long hard look at the hitherto unsuspected detail in utterly familiar Death Note art.

There are some links (right) for anyone considering grabbing one for themselves.  Or else keep an eye on our Death Note book and manga store for further ways to find and buy it.
Blanc et Noir by Takesh Obata
Buy your own collectors' copy of Blanc et Noir in English at: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Alibris UK | Barnes & Noble US | Waterstones UK | WHSmith UK
4 Comments

Death Note News Wammy Gift Store Now Open!

8/5/2016

1 Comment

 
Watari Gifts Death Note store
Everyone remembers going on a school trip to a museum or something and the mandatory stop by the gift shop at the end? No? Was it just me? I’ve seen collections of “I was thinking of you in [insert place here]” shirts when I was growing up; a tour doesn’t end without a gift shop to signal it.

So, to mark the end of an amazing month, a Wammy shop is now open!

You can find it here. There isn’t much yet (no shirts saying people thought of anyone but Watari during this months, tsk tsk), but there will be plenty to come.

Check back whenever you feel like searching for Wammy related stuff. Use the gift shop as an excuse to go through the Wammy posts again! Use the posts as an excuse to go into the gift shop. The shop is now open and you can come in at any time.

Watari Shop Now Open

Posted as Part of

Watari Month on Death Note News
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Selecta Visión Confirms Spanish Dub Death Note Blu-Ray Box Set - Catalán Too?

19/4/2016

1 Comment

 
Selecta Visión (Death Note distributors in Spain)
Hot on the heels of the Omega Edition hitting English language stores, there's a heads up that the Spanish dub Death Note anime is getting its own Blu-Ray formatting - available from July 6th 2016.

Death Note - Box 1 (Episodios 1 A 20) - Edición Coleccionista [Blu-ray], as the box set is entitled, apparently covers only the first twenty episodes of the anime. Presumably Box 2 will finish off with the remaining seventeen.

Selecta Visión - the anime's distributors in Spain - hinted at the fact to fans during their recent tenure at Japan Weekend (Selecta Visión Confirma Las Licencias de Death Note y Assassination Classroom, report by Víctor González Valle, Region PlayStation (Feb 14th 2016)).

However there's been no official announcement as yet, beyond vague references via Twitter.

Like that on March 24th, when a fan asked if Selecta Visión would make available a Catalán version of the Death Note anime, someone from the company responded that the new Blu-Ray edition would be in Catalán. 

Though representatives at the convention suggested that it would appear in May, retailers across the board have since attached a release date of July 6th 2016.  Moreover, their attendant information uniformly names the language as being Español, not Catalán, for this Blu-Ray Spanish Death Note dub. 

Beyond that, all that we know is that Death Note Edición Coleccionista will be spread over four discs with a total running time of 500 minutes.  No word on any special features, additions nor even cover art as yet. We'll keep you posted as soon as we know anything else at all.

See Blu-Ray Death Note - Box 1 (Episodios 1 A 20) - Edición Coleccionista on Amazon Spain.

1 Comment

Ten Years On - Business Still Brisk for Death Note Manga in North America

3/4/2016

4 Comments

 
Death Note Black Edition Volume 1
Death Note Black Edition Vol 1
- buy it on Amazon.com
It may be the tenth anniversary of its initial publication, yet manga editions of Death Note sales remain evergreen in the US, Canada and Mexico. 

In fact, this far down the line, Death Note manga volumes are still one of the Top 10 best-selling titles within the c0ntinent for the genre.  It pretty much seems lodged there; camped in all perpetuity.

That's according to ICv2 - the North American pop culture news magazine for retailers - reporting in the April 4th 2016 issue of Publishers Weekly.

While Death Note may lack the current mega-sales of latest releases like Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul and One-Punch Man, that's because they are new and trending fashionably. But that's more than made up for by the steady drip-drip of continued Death Note manga editions purchased throughout the last decade.

It even survived well during the overall manga slump in North America, which saw the trade in Japanese titles fall from a high of $210m in 2007 to a mere $65m by 2012.  The market had bounced back up to $75m by 2014 - mostly on the back of Tokyo Ghoul and One-Punch Man - with early figures suggesting that North American manga sales rose by another 13% again during 2015.

Yet even during the down days in manga consumerism, interest in Death Note there never really wavered.  ICv2 stated that it, along with Dragon Ball, went on 'selling well'.

So why should Death Note stand out so much amid all the rest?  ICv2 CEO Milton Griepp has an answer for that too.  "I think it all comes down to quality," He said, comparing Ohba and Obata's epic manga with iconic graphic novels of the West, like Alan Moore's Watchman or Batman: The Killing Joke. "Death Note is a good series."

And sometimes it really is as simple as that.

4 Comments

Death Note News Light Yagami Gift Store (Sort of) Open

26/2/2016

0 Comments

 
Death Note Light Yagami gift ideas collage

Matti Learns Dave McKean Makes This Collage Malarkey Look Too Easy

Death Note Light Yagami merchandise art
- created by Matti for Month of Kira -
in the WTF?!IsThatSupposedToBe Tradition
If you have no artistic talent, you might as well go surreal.

At least it gives folk something interesting to look at and wonder at the mindset that created such a collage.  Plus, of course, what the sweet actual they are looking at.

The masterpiece you're currently enjoying (left) is entitled Matti Learns That Dave McKean Makes This Stuff Look Too Easy.

Alternatively known as Thumbnail for a Kira Gift Shop on Death Note News.

We needed something to adorn the slidey 'heads up' thing over to your right.  But mostly what we need is an artist actually on the staff.

The situation is thus:  We're coming to the end of Death Note Month of Light Yagami. This means that we're systematically checking all of the inboxes to ensure that no-one's submission got missed, and that everyone as yet unpublished is in our big planning grid somewhere.

That done, it was a return to the start, back to that big list made of possible content, when we thought hardly anyway would join in. Ha!
Anything missed?  Any great ideas sizzling away on a back-burner, in danger of becoming charcoal, because no-one's checked that list since we wrote it?  (Being too busy organizing, liaising, coding, formatting, chasing and all other manner of orchestrating e-mails zooming back and forth, coz folk beautifully, fabulously and brilliantly did join in.  In absolute droves.)

Finds a whole article written in advance, and promptly forgotten about; has a frightened little gasp over the short list pertaining to Light Yagami's birthday on the 28th.

Never did source an astrologer to tell us about the propensity of Pisceans to become Kira; nor anyone to explain why it matters that his Light Yagami's blood group is A; nor whether the Fire Tiger of the Death Note manga birth year for Kira, or Earth Snake of the anime, best suits Light's personality as described in the Chinese Zodiac.  If anyone actually knows any of this stuff - or related charts, no-one mentioned Indian astrology yet! - then you have two days to jot your knowledge down and rush it to us in time for Kira's birthday on February 28th.

Pretty much guaranteed to ninja yourself into our already chock-a-block publishing grid for Light Yagami month though!

Then there it was, a faded, pencilled little note - create a gift store for Kira on Death Note News.  It would tie in nicely and we have a freaking website to pay for!  If we could just start remembering to populate (and promote) our Death Note Gifts area (tick), we might get a dribble of commission in to put aside towards hosting costs (He Moves Me Differently, not really here); domain name retention (here); Kira crossword prizes etc.

So when things get tough, we wouldn't have to resort to desperate measures, like launching an appeal replete with photographs of the wide-eyed, cute, beseeching faces of our two kittens and boa constrictor.

(Incidentally, and remarkably, that worked!  Yow and Jiji are currently nowhere to be seen, out playing without risk of our kittens creating more kittens; plus they got their travel home, all their inoculations and insurance to cover them at their friendly, lovely vet. Tinkerbell is having a vivarium built especially for her. Until about two days ago, I'd have said she's the happiest boa constrictor alive. Then she got mites.  This is not a great learning curve, but we're winning nontheless. No infestation of snake eating mini-spiders noms Tink on OUR watch. And yes, Anonysnake did raise Anonymous to help haX0r said mites.  Two Anons anyway.  No more about that here.  This is a Death Note news site!  If you want to keep up with kitten/boa gossip, follow them on Twitter like normal people.)
Anyway, utterly side-tracked.  Have a reject Death Note Kira merchandise thumbnail to get us back on track.

I nearly went with this. It seemed to me to have possibilities, which in the hands of a real artist might have been teased out.  Then again, it wouldn't have got to this stage with a real artist.

There would have been art.

Much waffling later, we arrive at the point.  Bulleted recap for TL;DR:
  • Death Note News staff are great at researching, writing and generally enjoying discovering and sharing all things Death Note.
  • We're universally rubbish at creating and/or maintaining the stores that might (eventually) pay for the means to do the sharing bit.
  • Death Note Month of Kira was supposed to have a gift filled store attached (tied in to incentivise us more than you);
  • We forgot.
BIG DRUM-ROLL! 
  • Then remembered three days before the end of the event;
  • And a Death Note Light Yagami Gift Store now exists with some stuff in it!  Go and see!  Gape and wonder!  Count all the things you already have and what you wish to buy for Matti as a present.  *a-hem*
Death Note Kira fan gift ideas - Death Note News
LIGHT YAGAMI SHOP - THE SEQUEL!
  • There will be more items there soon.  Assuming that we spend more time adding Kira gift ideas, than we do writing long rambling blog-like articles and/or creating bizarre collages from images of Light Yagami merchandise.

Babbled and purveyed
as part of

Light Yagami Month - Death Note News
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Keep Calm Meme: New Mexican Death Note Manga, Panini Turn Kira on Twitter

6/2/2016

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'Keep Calm and Tell Me Your Real Name' is how Panini México nudged its manga reading public; the slogan encased within artwork lifted from a Shinigami's notebook and written in familiar spidery Death Note font.

Though given that said readership is Spanish speaking, the legend actually read, 'Mantén la Calma y Dime Tu Nombre Verdadero'. *

Posted on social media - like Twitter, alongside the hashtag #SoyPanini, on February 4th 2016 - the meme was a bit of marketing.  A reminder that Panini Comics México will be reprinting volumes of Death Note manga.

The Mexican Death Note Panini Editions are due for release sometime this month, though even the individual posting their Tweets wasn't sure of the exact date.

Won't it be a lovely surprise when they appear on bookshelves in a Mexican manga store near you? 

Assuming, of course, that you live in México.  Mantén la calma, amigos!

(*With thanks to Lua, for the translation!)


Panini Mexico market Death Note manga with Keep Calm Meme

Panini México market Death Note manga with Keep Calm Meme
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It's Here! Limited Edition, 10,000 Run of Takeshi Obata's Blanc et Noir in English Just Became Available for Pre-order!

28/1/2016

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It's finally out! Takeshi Obata's book of artwork - Blanc et Noir - in the English language!

We've been promised this by Viz Media for quite some time. Now it's actually upon us - in a limited edition run of only 10,000 copies available for pre-order. 

That's just 10,000 editions of Blanc et Noir to serve the entire English speaking world.  Expect a rush on.

Takeshi Obata's art book is officially out on May 3rd 2016. But early bird buyers can snatch a copy now - or at least a guarantee that they'll eventually own one - via retailers like Amazon.

This special edition print of Blanc et Noir: Takeshi Obata Illustrations includes three laminated double-sized posters alongside 132 pages of exquisitely illustrated Obata artwork - the vast majority of which is Death Note, including several of the posters.

These are the kind of full colour, highly detailed pieces that the mangaka would have pulled off, if he'd had infinite time to dedicate to each panel. It's a glimpse of Death Note as it could have been, if it was literally Takeshi Obata's life work.

The artist himself chats for a further twelve pages in explanatory commentary about his pics; ten shares his expertise in a How to Draw tutorial.

I do want. It's beyond 'sell my granny' territory. For this you can have my entire extended family, the missus and both of my kittens too. Gimme!

And naturally, we've already shoved it into the reference section of the Death Note News books and manga shop.
Blanc et Noir: Takeshi Obata Illustrations

Cover of this limited print, Death Note rarity the
Takeshi Obata illustrated Blanc et Noir art book
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Death Note Manga Store Fully Updated on Death Note News

18/1/2016

1 Comment

 
Death Note Book Shop on Death Note News
Sales of Death Note literature on Death Note News
(Screenshot January 18th 2016)
So you think you've read (and probably own) every book about Death Note? Check out our store, you might be surprised.

We certainly have been.  During a whole weekend of hunting down errant manga and other literary Death Note works, there were tomes we'd never heard of, let alone read.

And coming from a gang of such Death Note obsessives, that's quite saying something.

For example, did you know about L: File Number 15?  A canon book of short Death Note cartoons created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata.  Half of our team did not.

Or what about Notes of Reasoning, the Chinese novel by Zao An Xia Tian? Which may or not not be a canon work taking the Death Note universe and adapting it to a Chinese setting.  Or it may be an elaborate and published piece of fan-fiction.  We don't know. None of us speak Chinese.

How about the hardback special editions of Death Note manga that exist out there in the English language?  Some of those even took us by surprise, missing our radar entirely.

As you may have surmised, this weekend has been a time of skipping interesting things and putting our nose to the grind of finding, collating, formatting and arranging  Death Note books everywhere, in various languages, across the board of genres.

All now beautifully arrayed in the Death Note News book shop.

It's worth nipping inside, if only to discover what you may have missing from your own library collection.  But also to purchase a volume or two to help with the costs of running this website.  Enjoy!  And if you buy, thank you.

In addition the anime/movie Death Note store has been tidied up, hence will be easier to open, load and navigate.  While the music merchandise has had one or two updates too.


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School Judgment: Gakkyu Hotei Manga Volumes Launched February 2016, Co-Created by Death Note Artist Takeshi Obata

15/1/2016

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Viz Media has announced a February 2nd 2016 publication date for the first volume in its collection of School Judgment: Gakkyu Hotei manga chapters.

The series has been running in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine since December 2014.  Penned by Nobuaki Enoki, it features artwork by Death Note creator Takeshi Obata.

School Judgment: Gakkyu Hotei's (improbable) storyline takes place within the walls of Tenbin Elementary School, where crimes, misdemeanours and quarrels occur on a regular basis - and their resolution by-passes all teachers and education authorities.

Instead, the country's top lawyers are drafted in to settle matters via frequently tense courtroom battles.  Said lawyers just happening to be fellow students at said secondary school.

Because that's the way this manga rumbles, and why not?

Chapter one - thus volume one - opens with a murder in the school, with Tenbin Elementary pupil Tento accused of being the killer.  Can his classmates get him off?  Wild, young attorney Abaku Inugami gives it his best shot.

February 2nd will see the launch of Takeshi Obata's School Judgment: Gakkyu Hotei in both paper and digital form.

It's already available for pre-order on Amazon US (along with the second volume too!), plus Amazon UK.

As well as the print version appearing in bookshops, the manga's first volume can be read via the Viz Media app, Kobo, Kindle, Nook, iBooks, comiXology and Google Play.

All are published under the Shonen Jump Imprint and the recommended retail price is currently $9.99 (US), $12.99 (CAN) or £6.99 (GB).
School Judgement: Gakkyu Hotei manga volume 1
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Panini Comics Mexico Death Note Manga Republished in New Volumes

10/1/2016

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Panini Manga Mexico Death Note manga 2016
Panini Comics in Mexico previously stated that it would never reprint any volume of manga already been issued in the country.  But Death Note just changed all that.

In a surprise announcement on Christmas Eve, the company had a festive gift for Death Note fans:  the whole manga series reprinted and repackaged as brand, new editions.

Panini's Mexican Death Note manga will appear on bookstore shelves in February 2016.

News came via social media.  On December 24th, 2015,  the climbdown was acknowledged and shrugged away; their Facebook message read, 'Sí, habíamos dicho que no habría series previamente editadas en México en el corto plazo, pero el fandom habló y no podemos dejar de escuchar - ¡#FelizNavidadATodos!'

Roughly translated: Yes, we know we said we'd never publish a manga series which is already available in Mexico, but the fandom spoke and we have listened.  Happy Christmas everyone!
Meanwhile, over on Twitter, no mention was made until Christmas Day proper, when someone still at work Tweeted, '¡Oficial! El TPB de #HitGirl llega en enero y #DeathNote regresa a México en febrero de 2016 ¡#FelizNavidadATodos!'   (Another general translation - 'It's official!  The TPB (trade paperback - or manga, to the likes of you and me) of Hit Girl is coming in January and Death Note returns to Mexico in February 2016.  Merry Christmas all!')

Then continued on earning their overtime in reTweeting the excitement of Death Note fans in reaction to it all.
Before nipping back a few hours later to make the announcement again on Twitter, this time heralded by the joyous slogan, '¡Ustedes los pidieron, los tenemos!' (Vaguely - You have ordered them; we have them!)

Possibly because across Facebook and Twitter alike, suspicious Mexican manga readers were cropping up between the gleeful responses left, right and centre, querying the U-turn in Panini's reissue policy.

Staff now spending their holiday fielding questions along the lines of 'who requested it?', 'what's wrong with the existing Death Note Mexican manga editions, still in print, published by Editorial VID?' and 'whatever happened to 'will not publish anything already published as manga in Mexico?'

In short, more than a few Latino Death Note fans wryly pondering this unexpected inducement to purchase a whole new collection of the same, old story - beloved as it is - and how much this change of heart relates to the fact of a US live action movie coming out later in the year.

After all, Panini Comics won't cash in anywhere on perfectly serviceable extant Death Note manga printed in Mexico by Editorial VID. 
Panini Comics Mexico Death Note Xmas day retweets

Panini Comics Mexico retweeting
Death Note fans Regina Phalange and Cinthia Karine
on Xmas Day 2105
To their credit, Panini staff didn't ignore such pointed queries, spending the Christmas period addressing comments amassing Facebook and Twitter.  The policy of no competing reprints was only ever a 'short or medium term' one, and Death Note is their most requested manga volume set in Mexico.  That latter reasoning repeated time and time again.

Its very popularity means that Panini Comics Mexico can make an exception for Death Note.  It's only a short manga series, already concluded and extremely well known.  No hassle really to reproduce and market.  It's all for the fans. The fans want it.  We're just here to deliver, was the general essence of Panini's response across the board.

So you see, nothing to do with the potential of a nice little earner later in 2016, when the franchise explodes under the glitz and frenzy of a Hollywood movie set to propel Death Note's popularity into the stratosphere.  In theory. It's Mexican manga collection coming out now is just a big coincidence; rewarding fans with what they want for Christmas.

Panini Comic Mexico's manga Death Note volumes will be on sale in February 2016, priced at MXN 75,00 each.
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Is Matt a Biker?  And Other Tales from the Death Note Store

9/12/2015

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Screenshot - Death Note Gifts at Death Note News 9th Dec 2015
Screenshot of the current homepage for our Death Note Gift shop
Are you loving the Death Note Christmas gift shop gif that's over there on the sidebar being all festive?  Wonderful, isn't it? 

Orangepunch created it for us and it's been gently snowing away in that corner, calling people in to remember that seasonal Death Note decorations do exist and all that.

Whilst also reminding me that I never did get around to finishing half of the stores that it's inviting people in to visit.  Plus some of them went up with way too big images attached to every pretty product, rendering them too long to load for the average sense of patience to withstand.  If it doesn't crash the prospective buyers internet first. 

What can I say, I was young and foolish, followed by forgetful and lazy.  Swiftly introducing, 'Oh no! All of that should have been fixed months ago!' *cue pulling an all-nighter* into the bargain.  One unfathomably long night later, we have a much improved Death Note Gift Emporium (though granted, that might have been more useful a few weeks ago BEFORE you bought all your Xmas presents), plus some new departments entirely.

You will still find flaws in there (size of pics in DVDs and books pages, we're all looking at you), but I also found something quite intriguing to bring to the table.  Plus some gossip.

What's New in Death Note Gifts?

First let me run you through what's changed and sparkly new in our Death Note shopping area, plus a 'to do' list of what's coming up, so you can check if the issue you've found is already known.  If not, then naturally we'd be very grateful to get the heads up. 

The front page (screenshot above) got a redesign.  The thumbnails were all much reduced in size, in order to boost the speed at which the page loads.  Hopefully it is much more navigable now.

In addition, every Death Note merchandise page has been reconfigured with funky tabs - making finding things at a glance much easier and again dropping that load time a lot!  Check them out in any department clicked below.

Death Note Decorations & Party Stuff

Death Note L Reindeer Nendroid
Our Christmas Death Note store has been checked over and generally spruced up.  Looking nice for the influx of customers following Orangepunch's nice, new banner.

But nothing much has been added nor taken away from what was in there last year.  That's not through want of looking.  There simply was nothing to put in and all the links were good.

Job done!
Visit Death Note Christmas Gifts

Death Note OSTs & Other Musical Things

CDs Death Note Songs
Completely revamped!  Every bit of music for Death Note that could be found - digitally or on CD - is in there; all of the images are nicely resized; and extra tabs have been added to take in new categories.

It looks lovely!  All that's needed are extra outlets to link in to give you all a bit of choice in your purveyors of fine Death Note musical gifts. 

Meander in here for soundtracks from Death Note live-action movies or anime,  in addition to sheet music, other artists paying homage to Death Note, musical parodies and the like.
Visit Death Note Music Store
GOSSIP STOP!  In filling up those cyber shelves, I found several new Death Note tribute tracks by other artists, including two available for pre-order on release dates later this month or January.  They are both in our gift store now, but I will be hunting down the musicians and featuring them as separate Death Note News reports.  Death Note's 10th anniversary, TV drama or upcoming movies, appear to have inspired a veritable flood of them!  Happy days.

Death Note Cosplay & Costume Accessories

Store to buy Death Note cosplay
We've updated the selection of complete Death Note costumes to buy here - Misa's wardrobe really expanded.  In addition to the above, you can see what's on offer in cosplay Death Note wigs, replica notebooks, props etc.

The images here have been cut down. Each clothes rail should load immediately on all but the most ancient of potato-run connections. 

To do: 1, Updates in other sections; 2 More places to buy Death Note cosplay items.
Visit Death Note Costume Store

Death Note Manga & Other Books

Books Death Note manga store
The literary Death Note gift shop hasn't yet been touched.  It's on the agenda for today.  This is where you'll find all your manga, Death Note novels, guides, reference books, Death Note movie tie-ins and fun, coffee table type volumes. 

To Do:  1, Reduce image size to make loading quicker; 2, Check for updates since last Spring, when it was filled with the latest Death Note literature; 3, Increase the variety of outlets for choice.
Visit Death Note Bookstore

Death Note Anime, Movies and Other DVDs

DVDs Death Note anime to buy
Our video Death Note gift area also hasn't been looked at yet.  It will hopefully happen tomorrow.  Here you can peruse anime, box sets, Death Note live-action films and whatever else exists to watch.

To Do:  1, Reduce the size of images; 2, Update whatever may have been missed from Spring 2015 until now; 3, Add in more outlets for options on where to buy.
Visit Death Note Anime and Movies

Brand New Character Collections for Death Note Gift Ideas

These next two kick start a whole new category in Death Note memorabilia - collections based on merchandise for Death Note characters.  I'm sure that most people choosing which characters to begin would have gone for Light and L.  But I know my readership.

Death Note Mello Merchandise

Gifts Mello Death Note
All the gift ideas for Death Note Mello fans - collectibles, t-shirts, figurines, magnets, pins/buttons/badges (depending where you live), cosplay Mello outfits, custom jackets, and things to stick on your wall (from posters through to fine art in a nice frame).

Even a fabulous piece of Mello bathroom decor.  I kid you not.

As in you will find all of this when our Death Note character Mello gift-shop is actually completed.  It's mostly done.  Still some rogue Mello phone cases to round up and slap within.

I'm giving myself a deadline of December 13th. For obvious reasons.
Visit Death Note Mello Emporium

Death Note Matt Gifts & Memorabilia

Gifts Matt Death Note
All  of the above - insofar as it exists - but as Matt Jeevas gifts, instead of Mello.  The main issue being that there are far fewer items of Matt memorabilia.

I can only assume the average manufacturer and/or retailer of exquisite Death Note souvenirs doesn't know a grand money-making scheme, when it grins at them from behind silver-orange goggles.

To a given value of finished - we've corralled the pretty Matt goodies from a single store into our own - the Death Note Matt gift store is done.  We just have to pad it out a bit with extra keepsakes sourced from other locations.
Visit our Death Note Matt Mercantile
Anyone want to prod us towards which character to compile a collection for next?   If there's no broad hints in any other direction, we'll default to Light Yagami and work through the series from there.  Though I'm half tempted to be perverse and go Sachiko Yagami instead!  Reckon there would be anything out there to buy in honour of Light's mother?

But this brings us nicely to the salient question with which I led.

Is Death Note's Matt a Motorcycle Enthusiast?  Or Just a Punk?

Matt in Death Note anime

In manga and anime, we only ever see Matt driving a car, but is that his transport of choice?
I know where my money is.  In fact, I've written twelve novels of Mello/Matt fan-fiction spelling it out - and one of them initially ran with the working title Cyberpunk.  Another had titles lifted from several Cyberpunk dictionaries and cultural references.  Matt in my universe ended up with a motorbike once, but we've barely seen it since.

Maybe that's because I've missed a trick.  In conjunction with most of the Death Note Matt fandom, I missed what was in plain sight, because I never thought to look certain things up.

Matt's gift shop was looking a bit sparse.  Mello's was jam packed.  I felt bad.  So I thought it would be a nice idea to hunt for that habitual Matt costume for Death Note cosplayers to buy, love and cherish.  After all, its probably the most ubiquitously seen, ordinary collection of clothes on any Death Note character. You could grab half the items in any given mainstream clothes shop.

Or could you?  It's harder than it looks, this cosplay malarkey.   I started with the gloves.  How do you search for those?  They're quite distinctive.  Racing gloves? Long, black gloves for men?   Finally, I found them.  They are officially known - in non-Death Note circles - as motorcyclist's gauntlet gloves,  or motorbike racing gauntlet gloves.

Next I went for the goggles.  Bog standard cyberpunk, I thought, with an option on steampunk, if that outfitting genre fell short.  Close, but no cigar.  Yet I was finding something similar, if not precise, in a whole new class of goggle sporting necessities.  Necessary, that is, if you happen to be a motorbike racer.  Like those wearing the gloves too.

Shoved some stripy, long-sleeved tops in and off into the jeans department.  Mmmm, several billion here, what to search in order to narrow this down?  Ribbed jeans?  Denim with circles around them? 

Turns out that there are some jeans created specifically with patchwork patterns surrounding each leg - just like Matt's wears in fact.  They're made especially for bikers.  Apparently it improves their saddle grip upon the seat.  Saves them slipping about, as ordinary jeans might.
Matt and Mello in Death Note manga

Mello checking the manual to ensure that he is legally able to ride Matt's motorbike... possibly
So goggles, gloves and jeans all point due Matt the motorbike rider, with a strong nudge towards racing them too.  You going for that in your head canon?  Fan fiction writers, is that why he's beside a bike the first time we see him, and why Mello acquires one only after Matt's on the scene?  Death Note fan artists, what motorcycle does Mail Jeevas ride?  If this releases the throttle on anybody's muse, let me link the results, or show them  off here.

Or are you just going 'cyberpunk geek' like me, and dismissing this out of hand?  I'd be fascinated with your thoughts!
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New Death Note Book Review: Death Note: Unofficial Guide by Brad A. Yamaguchi

18/11/2015

2 Comments

 
Brad A. Yamaguchi's Death Note: An Unofficial Guide
Death Note: Unofficial
Guide
by Brad A. Yamaguchi
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.

What's in Brad A. Yamaguchi's Unofficial Death Note Guide?

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.
Contents pages for Death Note: Unofficial Guide by Brad A. Yamaguichi:

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.

Death Note Guidebook Simply Reproduces Wikipedia Pages!

Death Note: Unofficial Guide by Brad Yamaguchi page one
Page Two of Brad Yamaguchi's Death Note: Unofficial Guide
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.
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