News about Death Note

Death Note Manga Store Fully Updated on Death Note News

18/1/2016

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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Platinum End Chapters Hit the Comic Stands - New Manga by Death Note Creators Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata

4/11/2015

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Platinum End English version chapter 1 page 1 and cover

Platinum End begins - chapter 1, page 1, and front cover of the English version

Platinum End - the new manga by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, Death Note's creators - launched today with its first chapter simultaneously appearing in Japanese and English translations on opposite sides of the Pacific.

Readers in Japan may find it serialized in Jump Square magazine's December 2015 issue 12 (Nov. 4th 2015), while English readers can download a digital version from Viz Media's Weekly Shonen Jump website.

Platinum End first chapter cover Jump Square Issue 12 Nov 4th 2015

Jump Square Issue 12 front cover and contents for introduction of Platinum End

Naturally a copy of the first chapter of Platinum End has been grabbed here, so we can see what it's all about and how the Death Note fandom might possibly receive this latest manga by Ohba and Obata.

However, sensible of spoilers, all thoughts in review of the chapter will be hidden behind a read more mask.

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Death Note Creators' First Artwork and More Details Announced for Platinum End

2/10/2015

Platinum End artwork released by Jump SQ

Jump SQ have Tweeted a preview of the Platinum End artwork to adorn its 8th anniversary edition centrefold.

The third collaboration between author Tsugumi Ohba and artist Takeshi Obata - which began with Death Note - appears to be about a suicidal human visited by an angel.

Platinum End follows the fortunes of Mirai Kakehashi, a young boy without any 'hope in living'. The fact that an angel also features prominently in the story would suggest that Heavenly forces have his back. Presumably to help on a quest to acquire some aforementioned hope.

Find more information about the release and publication of Ohba and Obata's new manga in last week's piece announcing it.

And in the meantime, help me work out why translators are suddenly calling Takeshi Ken Obata. Has he gone and changed his first name? Or has some strange algorithm tweak left Takeshi lost in translation?

Platinum End - New Angelic Collaboration Between Death Note's Ohba and Obata!

24/9/2015

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Platinum End Announcement in Weekly Shonen Jump

Platinum End manga announcement
in Weekly Shonen Jump No 44

This should be of interest to Death Note fans - Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata are teaming up again, and the bare hint from the tag-line implies the plot will be right up our alley.

PLATINUM END
This is the story of a human and an angel.

Well, we all seemed quite taken last time, when it was a human and a shinigami!

The announcement will appear in the next edition of Weekly Shonen Jump, issue 44, due out on September 28th 2015. It will be followed by a Platinum End première feature the following week, in the October 5th Weekly Shonen Jump No 45.

However, it will be another Shueisha title - Jump Square - wherein the actual serialisation will begin.

Our Death Note creators' brand new manga Platinum End launches on November 4th 2015, dated the Jump SQ December 2015 edition - thus is the way of the world.

Tsugumi Ohba: Angels and Humans

Angels featured subtly in Death Note too

I don't know about you, but I'm quite excited about this! Given Ohba's propensity to mess around with angels - vis-a-vis Light's lifting of Lucifer quotations from Paradise Lost and Mello's alignment (made explicit in the recent televised Death Note drama) with the archangel Michael - I feel that the groundwork has already been forged. And that was quite fabulous.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Please do leave your comments below in the usual manner, but I'm also going to insert a poll about this. Mostly because I've only just noticed I've got a pre-coded poll module that I can insert, and I want to find out what it does.

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Takeshi Obata Draws Bakuman (& Death Note)

2/9/2015

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This is an old news item, but it's been taking up space in my 'Death Note News stories' folder. Despite only tenuously having anything to do with our story.

Death Note mangaka Takeshi Obata was featured in a Shonen Jump special video, which showed the artists behind four of their most successful series creating their characters from scratch on a pad.

Obata was included, of course, though he opted to draw the main characters from Bakuman rather than those from his earlier run-away success with Death Note.

Takeshi Obata's segment begins at 4.20. Also featured are Tite Kubo (Bleach), Masahi Kishimoto (Naruto) and Eiichiro Oda (One Piece).

It was uploaded on July 29th 2013.

Watch Artist Takeshi Obata Ink Manga Page

Also available on YouTube is a far more leisurely view of Obata drawing a page from Bakuman, back in April 2013.

Filmed in real time, the footage will be of particular interest to those wanting to know what goes into a mangaka's work, maybe to become one themselves.

It takes Takeshi Obata half an hour to ink the previously sketched manga artwork for this page.

It seems wrong in a Death Note blog to skip any examples of Takeshi Obata drawing our characters. Hence I've found a couple of moments for you.

Takeshi Obata Draws Ryuk from Death Note

This footage is from 2012, when Obata attended Lucca Comics and Games in Tuscany. He's beginning to sketch Ryuk. Unfortunately all fan filming and photography was banned, hence this is a very short clip.

Takeshi Obata Sketches Death Note in NY

We've already featured a clip of Obata drawing Ryuk and L at New York Comic-Con in 2014. But here it is again.

Death Note News covered Obata's US visit far more extensively at the time. Read more about it:

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TV Live Action Death Note Cast Revealed - Near Played by an ACTRESS

1/6/2015

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More information has begun trickling out about the Death Note television drama scheduled to begin airing in Japan from July 2015.

Weekly Shonen Jump (issue 26, May 25th 2015) ran with a promo page, in this latest edition, announcing who's been cast in the three main roles. This has raised more than a few eyebrows.

Not the characters in the frame - Nihon TV, the company behind the television Death Note adaption, already revealed that Light, L and Near comprise the core canon personae - but which actors have landed those plum parts.

Or more specifically, the ATTRIBUTES of those actors.

(l-r) Kento Yamazaki as L, Masataka Kubota as Light
and actress Mio Yūki as Near.

Death Note TV promo page in Weekly Shonen Jump

Death Note TV drama cast
Weekly Shonen Jump No 26

In short, Kira's too old; L's too associated with romantic comedies; and Near's too female. Oh! And they're messing about with the story again.

Kubota Masataka Cast as Death Note TV's Kira

Kubota Masataka will star as Light Yagami, a high school teenager. Yet the actor is twenty-six years old. Mind you a glance at the even more recently released photograph above shows him to be quite baby-faced.

A few disgruntled whispers and quibbles have sounded across the Death Note blogsphere and fandom forums, but nothing too loud. He appears to be passing muster at the moment, with all due judgement reserved until we see actually see him acting in the role.

Those who are familiar with his work - especially his performances as Yuto Kuronaga in the movie series Gachiban or as the troubled Shinji in N no Tame ni - are quick to reassure the rest of us that Kubota will make a credible Kira. Maybe even an exciting one.

Personally I'm wondering about the assumption that he'll be playing Light as a student.

Death Note didn't end with Mr Yagami Jr's graduation. He was twenty-four by the time he was head to head with Near in the Yellow Box. Suddenly his actor's age seems not only in accord with his characterisation, but a big clue as to his role within the Death Note television adaptation.

Proposed Plotline of Death Note TV Drama

I think Kira will only be there in flashbacks. I still think this is fundamentally going to be Near's story, continuing pretty much from where the usual canon Death Note tellings fall off.

There's nothing in the latest round of information to contradict my previous musings regarding plot here.

The show's producer has already said that, while the television adaptation of Death Note will ping off the original canon tale, it's a 'totally different story'. NTV want to create a drama which even old school fans will be able to watch without knowing what happens next.

Worst case scenario is that they start from the same place as the manga, but reinvent the story along another tangent like Ohba's version never existed. If it doesn't mesh, then the fandom refuses to make it canon. (We're all looking at you, live action movies.)

To my mind, the wide open gap left by Mello not appearing on the cast list precludes that. Surely he would appear in a retelling that includes Near? Even if it's only as a young girl. (Still looking at you, Death Note film trilogy.)

I'm still going with Near's memories of Light and L requiring actors for those parts. He's just not having flashbacks involving Mello. Obviously therapy is helping him there then.

Anyway, back to the Death Note TV casting news and gossip.

Kento Yamazaki as L in Television Death Note

Kento Yamazaki has been cast as L. At twenty years old, the actor is five years younger than L was during events told in the main Death Note story.

Unless I'm seriously reading too much into this, then flashback scenes could be facilitated here too. Assuming that Near spent most of his childhood at Wammy's House, then five years prior to the Kira case sounds about right for him to have shared those corridors with L.

Insofar as I can recall, there are no recorded canon incidences of Near and Lawliet being in the same place at the same time. But they were both raised at the orphanage. That a seven year old Near met a twenty year old L there doesn't seem beyond the realms of possibility to me.

What most in the fandom are discussing isn't Kento's age, but his acting credits to date. Those in the know usually expect him to turn up in romantic comedies.

There's a lot you can say about L, but 'romantic' and 'comic' aren't generally in the top ten associations. Nor perhaps the top fifty. Unless it's Light/L slash fan-fiction, or people mistaking cocoon bondage of an abducted woman for perfectly acceptable courting rituals in the case of L and Misa.

Though I suppose that L's quirky nature - eating habits, dry one-liners and posture - can be quite funny on occasion.

The feeling I'm getting out there is that Kento's roles are normally a little too light-weight and insipid to feasibly pull off L. He's the mushy High School love interest on the other end of Hibino's first kiss in Kyō; while, in Another's Koichi, his character's on-off-will-they-won't-they High School flirtation with Mei Misaki was half of the storyline's main appeal.

However, the other half was all about curses, supernatural happenings, dark pasts and people dying in solution of a mystery. Much like Death Note then. If Kento can pull that off, then maybe he will make a decent L too. And embrace this as his big chance to step aside from the stereotyping inherent in his roles thus far.

Either way, it won't really matter what he does. He's not Ken'ichi Matsuyama and, as far as most of the Death Note fandom is concerned, that's game over before he's even begun. Poor love.

And Near is a Girl...

Sixteen year old Mio Yūki has been cast to play Near in the live action television Death Note drama.

He was around 17-18 years old during his confrontation with Light during the manga's grand finale. Sixteen plays straight into my theory that this TV adaptation of Death Note picks up where the rest stop. Hence my glee now, and my utter embarrassment when you all hold it against me later.

But, of course, nobody is talking about Mio Yūki's AGE.

Not when you've got the much more eye-widening, finger pointing, WTFness of her GENDER to take into consideration.

Everything else is present and correct. There's Near's hair - colour, style and finger twirling a lock - exactly right. Pyjamas - baggy, white, buttoned - all as expected. Only with the unexpected addition of chest bumps - two thereof - curving the cut of said pyjamas.

So Near's now female then.

Unstintingly without explanation, the Death Note television show has given him a sex change - performed by the simple expediency of casting a teen actress to play him. Perhaps they took one look at Kento's track record and thought, "Ooops! Where can we ninja a High School love interest into this story?!"

I'll just pause to let the implications of that settle into your imagination. A retelling of Death Note straight from the pages of L/Near fan-fiction about to become canon.

Sorry, I'm from the Mello/Matt gang and we're in bits. We're returning all that Near fans hurled our way, when the live action movies did precisely this to Mello. At least you lot got to keep the general look, all we retained was the IQ and the bob.

In fact, glancing around the rest of the Death Note blogosphere, the main reaction is that of amusement coupled with looking on in wry interest to see where the show's makers are taking this. There's not really anything in Near's canon story which hinges upon his gender - he could take down Kira as a boy or a girl - so the only real worries on that score are what could be added instead.

And just in case anyone's missing plot-lines to worry about, Mello's fandom can be relied upon to churn them out at a rate of knots. You're very welcome.

If you ask nicely, we might even provide the popcorn to nom, as you watch High School Near in first crush mode receive her awakening kiss in the arms of dreamy L. Then spend the rest of the series dripping IQ points, going 'squee' and generally being someone pretty to stand in the background, making L look good. Before greeting him with a cheer and a lingering kawaii embrace for the finale's closing scene.

The adaptation part of it being the omission of chapter 25, thus negating any need for Mello to give up his studies - and thus no casting necessary, as he's still in Winchester doing his PhD - or Near to exhibit possession of a single brain cell. After all, it'll be L leading the showdown in the Yellow Box now. Near just has to keep him in good home baking long enough to get there.

Salted, sweet or buttered? I'm talking about your popcorn.

The worst of this is that the more I consider it, the more convinced I become that I'm not even joking. And if that's how it plays out, then sod the popcorn, our chocolate bars will be down on the table too.

It would be a travesty. Not merely for Near, but for womanhood and a world in which the most ridiculous scenario, we can concoct in advance for hilarity's sake, turns out to be the cynical truth.

Watching on with interest to see how you play it, Yūki. I hope they really did give you Near, and that my theory about the continuation of Death Note post-Kira transpires to be the correct one.

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New Death Note TV Adaptation Will Focus Upon Near (We Think...)

21/4/2015

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Everyone here assumed that the new Death Note television telling would merely dramatize what went before.

We cheered when it was announced that Near would be cast. That meant that the second arc would be included too. We'd finally get a live action Mello strutting his rock star persona, Mafia dark and angry, across our screens.

But it seems that our original presumption was incorrect. This isn't the same story at all.

The TV Death Note series will be a brand new storyline, which we now believe will continue where the last one left off. In short, Near versus some new Kira out in the wilds.

Maybe Ryuk got bored and just threw another stolen Death Note at a random Japanese teenager. Or the extant Death Notes - that Near had burned - weren't quite as incinerated as he was led to believe.

Though there's also the semi-alternative plot-line that exists as canon, via the novelisation L: Change the World, wherein a young Thai Near survived the Kira case. There's a strong possibility that the Death Note television show will continue from here instead.

In which case, how old IS little Narushi Fukuda now? And will he be back to reprise his role as Near?

Narushi Fukuda as Near L Change the World

"Near: Change The World" by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia

I've just checked. Narushi was born on January 7th 2000, which makes him fifteen now. Perfect for a Death Note era Near?

Death Note Television Show

With announcements trickling through bit by bit, and speculation running rife through the fandom, it's worth recapping all that we know for certain right now:

The television Death Note adaptation was announced via a single forthcoming event strip in Weekly Shonen Jump (April 20th 2015, no 21). It was inserted into that edition's chapter of Gakkyū Hōtei - wherein Takeshi Obata is the artist.

Death Note TV show announcement Weekly Shonen Jump

Weekly Shonen Jump Announcement re Death Note

Death Note's TV drama will air on NTV, premiere in July 2015. It will run on Sundays.
There will be a brand new cast and storyline. Not a rehash of the manga/movies/novels, as revealed in Japan's AnimeAnime.
According to iDigitalTimes, Tatsuya Fujiwara and Kenichi Matsuyama will not be reprising their roles from the Death Note movies.
The NTV official announcement featured Ryuk. His thought bubbles read: 'A serialized drama...' 'Interesting...'

Ryuk Death Note TV adaptation announcement

Ryuk featured on the NTV official announcement

An official website and Twitter feed has been launched to keep fans up to date. The former has a central panel making it clear that Kira, L and Near will be cast. But no further details as yet.

NTV Death Note drama website cast panel

And that's all folks. Any thoughts?

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RKD-EK9 - One Shot Takeshi Obata Art in English Weekly Shonen Jump (Dec 29th 2014)

9/1/2015

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Image: Weekly Shonen Jump 05-05 December 29th 2014

Takeshi Obata's artwork on the
cover of Weekly Shonen Jump
(Dec 29th 2014)

Sorry, sorry, I'm a week late with this news, but what can I say? There were parties to be had and hangovers to survive.

In the meantime, the English language version of Weekly Shonen Jump has been having a field day with Death Note related items. By which we mostly mean 'things drawn by the same bloke who drew Death Note'.

Though there are a couple of items less tenuously linked.

The first big news concerns the one-shot RKD-EK9, which Death Note artist Takeshi Obata created with NisiOisiN. There's a double connection here for our fandom, as this was the author of Another Note.

RKD-EK9 was announced in October 2014 and it's already been published in a December edition of the Japanese Weekly Shonen Jump. For English readers, it constituted a special dual chapter stop-gap publication of the US Weekly Shonen Jump - issue No. 05-05 - which came out on December 29th 2014.

Just around the time that I was opening my first bottle of wine.

Takeshi Obata has also teamed up with writer Nobuaki Enoki to produce a new manga serial of Gakkyū Hōtei for Weekly Shonen Jump.

We gave you the heads up about this in November, when it was due to begin its run in the Japanese edition of the respected manga magazine. But English readers get to discover the delights too. The publishers have promised that all stories will be released in the US on the same day as in Japan.

Obviously give or take RKD-EK9...

Image: Takeshi Obata's artwork in RKD-EK9

Takeshi Obata's artwork in manga one shot RKD-EK9

This means that I'm woefully behind on telling you that the slightly renamed Gakkyu Hotei: School Judgment is running in the US version of Weekly Shonen Jump.

It actually began on December 1st 2014 (issue No. 1). By the manga's very nature as a serial, Gakkyu Hotei continued on through every edition thereon, and will do until the tale is told. Though the special edition on the 29th didn't feature a chapter. All of the serials paused for that one.

Image: Gakkyu Hotei in Weekly Shonen Jump

Takeshi Obata's artwork in Gakkyu Hotei: School Judgment

I did promise some actual Death Note news rather than just what its artist is up to now.

Weekly Shonen Jump has also featured work from a second Death Note artist. Didn't know there was another? You obviously haven't factored in the fan art of a lady named Sara E.

A week later, there was more Obata fan art. This time from Toshiyaka M. recreating Bakuman's The Detective Trap. No, not Kira. Totally different story.

Finally Weekly Shonen Jump also ran with a feature about the release of the new box set - Death Note: The Complete Series.

But you already knew about that, as I actually managed to report it in a timely fashion, a month before Shonen Jump did. And shoved the actual product in our Death Note box set section of the website.

And there you are - all up to date with all things Death Note related from Weekly Shonen Jump. Well, recent things anyway. We'd be here all day if I had to return to the start.

Image: Weekly Shonen Jump cover for December 1st 2014 Issue No 1

Takeshi Obata's cover art
for Weekly Shonen Jump
(December 1st 2014)

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Tsugumi Ohba's Skip! Yamada-kun - Jump Meets Girl One-Shot by Death Note Writer

28/11/2014

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Back in April, we had the heads up that Death Note author Tsugumi Ohba was writing manga again.

The genre couldn't have been more different from the dark Gothicism of Death Note. Skip! Yamada-kun was a romantic one-shot aimed at the prepubescent female manga market.

Ever wonder what happened to that?

The denizens of Reddit did, and they found it too.

Death Note News reader dfrt67uhg gave us a heads up on their quest to find Skip! Yamada-kun online. You may have already seen this, but as the alert was buried in the comments to an unrelated article, I figured it would be much more visible here.

Naturally much thanks are extended here to dfrt67uhg for thinking of us.

Weekly Young Jump May 8th 2014

Tsugumi Ohba's Time-Travel One-Shot

Tsugumi Obha's Skip! Yamada-kun one shot was duly published in the May 8th 2014 edition of Weekly Young Jump No. 23.

The front cover is reproduced left.

Skip! Yamada-kun tells of a junior high school boy - the eponymous Yamada - who dreamed of a better life. There was nothing majorly wrong with the one he'd got, Yamada was just sick of things like going to school, doing homework etc.

Like most kids then.

Unlike most kids, Yamada-kun learns that he has the ability to jump through time. Thus begins a juvenile time-traveling hunt for the perfect life. Will he find it?

That would be telling. No, it really would be telling, as I speak no Japanese and this story hasn't been translated into English yet. Therefore I have absolutely no idea what happens next.

Hence potential misidentifications running wild in my reading.

Death Note's Near in
Skip! Yamada-kun?

Being a light-weight, romantic one-shot, this manga probably doesn't hold much interest for Death Note fans beyond the fact of its author.

But flicking through, I did spot a familiar face.

So that's what Near did post-Kira! He became a teacher for Yamada-kun!

At least that what it looks like to me. I'm possibly wrong. Like I said, I have no Japanese, so I'm missing all the context in the captions and dialogue.

But if you are much more educated than me, a lovely Redditor has created a way for you to resolve all mysteries for yourself.

Read Skip! Yamada-kun Online

It all began when forum member Ramfield asked r/manga if anyone had found the Skip! Yamada-kun manga by Tsugumi Ohba.

There was some discussion, but no joy in anyone actually reading it, until Redditor 891st jumped in with a tremendous offer. 891st had the raw Japanese manga one-shot from its publication in Weekly Young Jump. (S)he was willing to scan it for everyone else to view it too.

Equal to their word, the OP delivered. All 55 pages of it! You may read the result on Imgur, also embedded below.

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Gakkyū Hōtei Manga Relaunch to be Drawn by Death Note's Artist Takeshi Obata

11/11/2014

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Gakkyū Hōtei Dec 2014 Weekly Shonen Jump

Gakkyū Hōtei is coming back.

Shuiesha announced that Nobuaki Enoki's 'shocking court mystery' manga will feature throughout 2015, as a Weekly Shonen Jump serial, beginning with the January publication (due in December 2014).

So far, so utterly relevant within the remit of this blog. Until you notice that Takeshi Obata is the artist brought on board for the project. Shuiesha will be hoping that Death Note's own visionary will be able to reprise his magic for this title too.

Previously, Gakkyū Hōtei's artwork was drawn by its author Enoki. The story, formatted as a Smartphone app, ran as part of Jump Live.

'Gakkyū Hōtei' translates as School Investigation Court. Each of the manga's chapters will highlight another elementary school offender, as they go to trial.

It's a kind of Ace Attorney meets Grade School because... well, why not? High School students being judgmental is hardly anything new (it sets them up for adulthood, where being opinionated comes as standard, though we have to be more subtle about finger pointing and kicking people out of our gangs).

Though I'm still unsure about how legally binding these School Tribunals are, nor am I 100% on the nature of the crimes under consideration.

If it's mass murder via a supernatural note book, then Obata has this one totally in the bag. Whatever it is, I'm sure he'll cope.

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Takeshi Obata - US Schedule October 2014

6/10/2014

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For the first time ever, Death Note manga artist Takeshi Obata will be making public appearances in the USA. So where might you be able to catch him?

All of Takeshi Obata's US appearances will be in New York City. When and where is listed below.

Thursday October 9th 2014

6pm-6.45pm - New York Comic Con, Room 1A10, Javits Convention Center. Takeshi will be part of Viz Media's panel: The Future of Shonen Jump. The rest of the panel is made up of Weekly Shonen Jump's US editors, all discussing what people can expect from the publication in the future.

7.30pm - New York Comic Con, Javits Convention Center.
During the evening, Takeshi will be stationed at a table ready to autograph an exclusive signing board. Please note that this involves a strict ticket system.

You will NEED to visit the Viz Media booth (#1944) at 1pm or 4.30pm - no queuing until 15 mins prior to each slot - wherein you'll be given tickets and your shikishi signing board on a first come, first served basis. Sounds like a bit of a mission, so good luck!

Friday October 10th 2014

5pm-5.45pm - New York Comic Con, Room 1A10, Javits Convention Center. Takeshi will star in his own panel entltled Weekly Shonen Jump Presents: Takeshi Obata, Artist for Death Note and All You Need Is Kill. Joined by his editor Koji Yoshida, the discussion will be about how Takeshi began as an artist in the manga industry, and his long history as one of its most respected talents.

8.30pm-9.30pm - Kinokuniya Book Store, 1073, Avenue of the Americas.
Takeshi Obata signing session as part of New York Super Week. You will need to secure a (free) Super Week ticket in advance, available here.

All ticket holders will receive an already autographed shikishi signing board. Takeshi will only additionally sign that board OR books purchased - at the time - from the store itself.

Saturday October 11th 2014

6pm-7pm - Barnes & Noble, Tribeca, 97 Warren St.
Takeshi Obata autograph session for New York Super Week. Different venue, but otherwise the same set up as at Kinokuniya. Please read that and be prepared!

That's all so far, though this will be updated if extra US Takeshi Obata events do pop up. In the meantime, discover more about Obata himself and skim through the latest Takeshi Obata news, so you will feel all knowledgeable and up-to-date about Death Note's artist before you're face to face with him.

And if you do meet him, please, please do report back here. We're all living vicariously through you!

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Takeshi Obata and Nisio Isin One-Shot Reunion

3/10/2014

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RKD-EK9, a one-shot manga, will feature in the December 2014 edition of Jump Square. The duo behind it are both well known to the Death Note fandom.

Takeshi Obata famously illustrated Death Note too, while Nisio Isin (aka
NisiOisiN), penned the spin off novel Another Note.

As yet, there are no further details about RKD-EK9. I guess we'll find out more when the issue reaches our stores on November 4th 2014.

(With thanks to Logan for the heads up here.)

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Takeshi Obata Adapting All You Need is Kill Graphic Novel and Shonen Jump Serial

10/3/2014

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We know him best as the artist behind Death Note, but Takeshi Obata has now taken on another project about a young man trying to outwit his adversaries.
There's a supernatural element too. However Keiji Kiriya is not armed with a Death Note. He's got a gun.

Weekly Shonen Jump Takeshi Obata All You Need is Kill

Obata has teamed up with Ryōsuke Takeuchi (storyboards) and Yoshitoshi ABe (character development) in order to recreate Sci-Fi novella All You Need is Kill as a graphic novel.

Hiroshi Sakurazaka's 2004 novel focuses upon the tale of a military man trapped in a time loop.

Aliens are invading the Earth and Keiji Kiriya was just one soldier sent on a suicide mission to stop them. He was duly killed within seconds, but that was not the end of his story.

He awoke just minutes later to find that time had rewound until the day before his fatal mission.

He's sent straight back out again, in full knowledge that this will be the end of his life. But once again, his death is followed by resurrection on the eve of his deployment.

Each time it occurs, Keiji grows a little wiser and much more cunning in how he meets the alien Mimics.

So will he eventually be able to defeat them? There seems to be little choice but to keep on trying. After all, the time loop is not going to stop thrusting him into his Fate.

All You Need is Kill was nominated for a Seuin Award (Japan's equivalent of the Nebula Awards) when it was first published.

It rose to even greater international prominence in 2010, when Warner Bros optioned it for film adaptation under the title Edge of Tomorrow. Starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, the movie is due for release in June 2014.

All You Need is Kill (Novel)

All You Need is Kill (Graphic Novel)

Takeshi Obata's version of All You Need is Kill began serialization in Shonen Jump magazine in January 2014.

He ultimately aims to release the full collection of chapters as a complete graphic novel.

However, we might question why that is necessary, when Sakurazaka has himself adapted his short story into this same format. The author enlisted the help of Nick Mamatas (adaptor) and Lee Ferguson (illustrator) to produce his All You Need is Kill graphic novel.

It's due for release in May 2014.

Once Obata's graphic adaptation hits the markets too, that's bound to spark some confusion amongst fans of the genre.

It's effectively two books, telling the same story, using the same illustrative device, published in the same year.

But then, with Tom Cruise and a Hollywood block-buster on board to promote the work, there's patently going to be a lot of money in the franchise. Fans will be hungry for more merchandise.

Perhaps there's room for both graphic novels after all.

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Round Up of all the Death Note 10th Anniversary Announcements

4/3/2014

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

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

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

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

What do you think?

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