I'm not saying that to sound pretentious, I'm being sort of literal. The life of a “BJD” begins and ends as a piece of artwork that passes through the hands of a variety of artists before it is "complete" (though honestly, are they ever really complete? I don't really think so...) 
 
The fabulous thing about BJDs that makes them so attractive (imo) is their customizability. A BJD is a blank canvas with which to shell a character of your choosing. Heads, bodies, eyes, hair, face ups—all of it can be changed and customized at will to create the being you want.

This is a major piece of the hobby. There are those who spend years crafting the perfect doll detail by detail—making or commissioning other artisans to produce aesthetics, wardrobes, accessories, anything under the sun. Then there are those who are sort of addicted to making character after character after character (I don't know anyone like that... >.>; )

So let’s bring this back around. A bunch of fellow BJD-collectors were collaborating on a Death Note photo-story with their dolls. They had an L and a Mello—they didn’t have a Light.

However, I just happened to have a bored, blank, doll head sitting in a box on the shelf for about a year with no purpose. (We call that sort of thing an impulse-buy.) He was a bit of a happy-smiley mold, but he was the only proper head I had access to immediately, so I dug him out, painted him up and introduced him to the storyline as the Kira they’d been needing.

Considering the doll photo-story was sort of like a role-play done in still pictures (with dolls), it required me to dig in to the mentality of my new fave and start understanding what made Kira tick. How was I going to portray him, and all of his illustrious motivations, dynamics and ideals in the doll world? I didn’t want my resin child to just be an avatar of Light Yagami, I wanted him to actually be the character. I worked to try and achieve that. A little too hard.
 
The little monster went above and beyond.

By that point I was several years into the hobby and I’d built up my skills to a point where I was confident that I could go in and do drastic things to what was my most treasured doll. I “wiped” his face (read: removed the paint with a paint cleaner) and then I modded (modified) his sculpt.
 
A lot of the Kira-effect in Light’s doll photos came from creative camera angles. You know the ones, head down, eyes up, looking all sinister-egomaniacal. I wanted him to have that look naturally.

So with the use of a dremel (omg the horro!) I had to first drill his eyes open (this was as painful to accomplish as it sounds, considering he was my fave) and then sculpt a new eye shape with a resin modelling compound called Amazing Sculpt.

Then there was the filing, the sanding, the nervous breakdowns (because, yeah.) When those hurdles were cleared (and I got talked off the ledge), I repainted him, this time with a less manga-minimal approach.

KPop heart-throb Junsu collected the top prize for Death Note the Musical's Korean staging,
at a star-studded awards gala held in Seoul's National Theater this week.

Death Note's stage adaptation came first in the 2016 eDaily Culture Awards Best Musical category.  Kim Jun-Su accepted the award on behalf of the whole theatrical team behind Death Note, in his capacity as the actor who played L.

His speech was translated by Rilanna at JYJ3.net:

This is only the third ever outing for the eDaily Daily Culture Awards - the Korean Oscars, if you will.  At least a glittering, celebrity ridden event aiming to become the premier awards ceremony for performance art in Korea.  Befitting such lofty intentions, big names provided much of the razzmatazz pouring into the gala beneath the flashes and glare of paparazzi, TV cameras and press.

Some of the country's most popular artists - from music, screen and stage - walked the red carpet into the Haeorum Theater, part of Korea's National Theater in Seoul, on February 19th 2016.  They were in attendance then to witness Death Note the Musical grab its highest accolade yet. The top prize for a musical currently available in Korea.

Moreover, in accepting the trophy for Death Note, Kim Jun-Su's position as a theatrical actor - as opposed to a Korean pop idol courtesy of JYJ - is largely viewed as consolidated within the country.  No wonder then that Korean news reports most widely quote Junsu in saying, 'I am honored to be given such a grand prize. I want to share this glory with all the staff members and actors who starred in Death Note.'  It was a big moment for the L actor.  Worthy of cake.

The Redeemer Series began as a private passion project between myself and Andariel (Anda-Chan on DA) as we were entering into our own romantic relationship back in 2008. (We’re now engaged, living together and wedding planning).

We were cosplaying often as Light and Mello back then (and later L, B and Matt) and writing together became part of our raison d'etre. It was a full package deal, the writing feeding the cosplay and vise versa. We had a habit of telling our fellow DN friends about this huge fic we were working on, and they began asking us to read it, so after some thought we eventually relented and put Redeemer up on AFF.

From there the series seemed to generate an audience on its own. We rarely promoted The Redeemer Series much outside of our own DeviantArt accounts, and later, our own forum; but on the rare occasion I sought it out online to see if it had some presence, I often came across it on various Death Note fic rec lists, and even a listing on TV Tropes.com. (LOL)

It was fantastic to suddenly have an audience that didn’t just invest in reading our story, but reviewed and even joined our forum to chat all things Redeemer Series. We had fabulous artists doing fan art, we had an active Character Ask section, we were embroiled in discussion every day about the Death Note of our fic world, and we made some truly great and supportive friends (several of whom are still with us.)

So really, what happened?

Later on we had some of our nearest and dearest readers tell us that they could pinpoint just where the series started to fall apart. At some point in the fourth book, Sins of the Father, around the quarter mark, long after we reached what we felt was an apex in the finale of To Be or Not to Be and then cruised through a very alternative continuation supported largely by OCs in Our Time is Running Out, we started to lose momentum. 

We’d been writing about Death Note for five years. However, we were two writers (in my case a life-long writer) who sought to have real-world careers in writing, but were beginning to realize that we were spending all of our time writing about someone else’s work. It was fun, it was engaging, we loved it while it lasted, but we were beginning to long for something more and we weren’t getting any younger.

It wasn’t an immediate revelation. It came slowly as we pounded the keyboard to push through Sins of the Father. After all, we had two more huge books planned. We had enormous story arcs to cover! The nature of Kira’s God-ness was going to be explored in epic proportions! We were heading toward the End of Days!

Instead, what we were actually heading toward was the end of the Redeemer Series.

We were going to write a spinoff called I’m Not Okay (we were having a love affair with My Chemical Romance at the time). The spinoff centered on one of our OCs (his name was Adonais back then) with the Death Note characters as a peripheral presence. The idea was to tell Adonais’ origin story as a flashback novel, and lead into Sins, where he’d been coexisting as a Wammy’s student with the likes of L and Light. It was supposed to be a break for us, a way to get out and play with something new, and hopefully return to the Redeemer Series with renewed vigor. That was our plan.

But what happened was not according to plan.

Not long ago, we came across a blog post somewhere, belaboring our ‘underhandedness’ of ‘tricking’ our readers to read a book about an OC with promises of Death Note and then not delivering. “If they wanted to stop writing Death Note, just come clean and tell us, don’t trick us into reading about your OC.” That was the complaint, or something to that effect.

Let me say, it wasn’t that simple. If it was, we could have saved ourselves a lot of angst. After all, we weren’t lying to our readers; we were lying to ourselves.

Frankly, we weren’t ready to let go. It was a lesson we learned the hard way, writing I’m Not Okay. The more we wrote, the more that book began to do what it wanted apart from Death Note, but we kept trying to force the enduring intent that we were going to bring it all back around to the Redeemer Series. Slowly, our audience started to drop off, frustration began to show in reviews. The longer names like Kira and L and Mello were absent from the text, the less people stayed with us, and the more that happened, the more we began to wonder at what point did we have to accept the truth: that we’d moved on.

The readers that remained and invested honestly in our burgeoning original tale, weathered our indecisiveness, but started to agree that we needed to break it off. Not Okay was becoming its own thing, and to proceed without letting the book organically grow as itself, was proving a hindrance to the work and to our efforts. And clearly it was pissing off the people still holding out for L and Light to make an appearance.

So we decided to call it, and we removed I’m Not Okay from AFF and put the Redeemer Series on indefinite hiatus.

We squirrelled our new work off to our private forum where some of our long-term readers were keen to beta. From there, Pandora’s box syndrome kicked in and we realized there was a huge untapped OC cast with untapped potential just waiting to move in on our little story and blow it wide open.

Because all of this siphoned down from The Redeemer Series, there were initially some similarities between concepts we'd been exploring beyond canon when it came to characters like Beyond and L particularly. Those similarities eventually diluted until we can really just shout out to their original incarnates like a sentimental homage. 

However, as we planned the world of our new original universe, we realized there were still elements we'd incorporated in To Be and its compatriots that we wanted to explore and adapt. We began to pull some of these concepts back in, revisiting ideas we had for the Redeemer Series with new eyes as we constructed a world, while removed from Death Note, was not necessarily removed from our signature subjects.

Our explorations of madness and the asylum culture, our crazed characters who often speak in sing-song~ Our off-beat, anarchist, angst-ridden, pretty boys. That’s who we are as writers, and that’s what we have been building into our new work--The Breaking Across Devotion Series. Literally a tale about rock stars and serial killers. I’m not even kidding.

We made every attempt to spread the word about why the Redeemer books were coming down, but our reach is none too wide these days, and I know there are a great many readers out there who are angry and disappointed. Trust me, I get it and I’m sorry.

The Redeemer Series had a great long run. We had a lot of fun writing it, we had an amazing experience with the audience it garnered. We’re grateful and we thank you guys who latched on to it and enjoyed it so much. Redeemer itself is still public on AFF and won’t be going anywhere. It is undeniably, a Death Note fanfic.

However, I am going to echo what I’ve said repeatedly in statements about the series’ removal: that if you so happen to have downloaded copies of the novels, you are free to keep them for you own reading pleasure. Just please do not share them online, or post them for download, and please do not plagiarize them (have some humanity, I beg you).

Anda and I are hard at work on The Breaking Across Devotion Series (BAD for short) and are very active on our new forum, CocoaCoveredGods.

Anyone is free to join if they want to get in touch with us, want to ask us anything about Redeemer, or want to check out what still exists of the Redeemer Series content regarding the removed books, Character Asks, fan art, etc. And yes, there’s even a thread where we speak to the unsolved mysteries of the series and where future plans were heading, so what was left unfinished can at least have some closure. (Was Matt ever going to die as predicted? Short answer: no.)

We’re also open to betas of the new series. Since we’re planning to publish, it’s not open membership, but if you're interested, come over and let us get to know you, get to know us, and we’ll be more than happy to consider you as a beta. Chances are, if you enjoyed the Redeemer Series, what we’re doing now will be right up your alley. It’s just as dark, and twisted and saturated in atmosphere as books like To Be, Our Time and Sins were.

The three stars of the forthcoming Japanese movie sequel in the Death Note series have just been announced. Following on from Death Note, Death Note: the Last Name and L: Change the World, this latest film outing is tentatively called Death Note 2016.

It will feature three brand new characters to add to the canon dramatis personae:

Directed by Shinsuke Sato, the fourth in the Death Note trilogy (as was) is confirmed for theatrical release in Autumn 2016.  It is currently being filmed in Kobe - with one or two sneaky night shoots in the middle of Tokyo and occasional suburbs.  Moreover, there will be some international scenes, which will be filmed actually in the relevant foreign parts. 

Any tremors of excitement building over this out there?

Squad Six Cosplayers were at Ichibancon, one of the largest anime and manga conventions in North Carolina, USA.  There, in Events 4 room, we held our Death Note review panel - Resurrecting L - to mark the 10th anniversary since the manga's first chapter was published in Weekly Shonen Jump.

Since then, Ohba and Obata's story has become an institution, we hope we did it justice.

Ichibancon's Resurrecting L: Death Note 10th Anniversary panel happened on January 1st 2016, at 11pm.  We should have finished by midnight, but the buzz was awesome and we were having so much fun discussing the new media developments for Death Note.  We almost ran well over time!

Here's how it all played out.  But first the cosplay and, created from scratch, a dress for Misa Amane.

Each of Squad Six Cosplayers' Death Note panel members arrived for the event in full Death Note cosplay.  Every part of which had been created especially for Ichibancon during the run up to the convention. 

Founder Lara Sizemore opted to cosplay Misa Amane.  She explained, "I chose to do Misa's Last dress/suicide dress instead of her usual ensemble as sort of a nod to our title. It took me two weeks to complete the dress but I am very proud of it. The ribbons are all appliquéd on."  She makes it sound so easy.

As for the rest, they were in Death Note costume too!

If you wish to catch up with us in all our other projects and endeavours, please do join us on Tumblr and Facebook.

When it seems a new Kira has emerged from the ether, former SPK agents Hal Lidner and Anthony Rester approach Near to see what he's going to do about it. After all, he is the new L now and everyone knows that L takes on Kira.  Or does he? 

Well, yeah, as long as he accepts that his opponent really is Kira.  If not, then why take a Fool's Journey along the same old pathway, as directed by an imitator. Near's already taken those steps and learned those lessons. He's already in possession of that world.  As underscored and illustrated throughout this one-shot Death Note manga sequel by use of tarot imagery.

L's successor - now L - quite literally occupies The World in tarot.  He's created a whole world from the cards!

As Matsuda makes clear before we even glimpse Near, the current L is in a position of considerable power in this new post-Kira world.  Especially as regards understanding and information. 

The story takes place nine years after Light Yagami received a Death Note from the Shinigami Ryuk, and three years since his serial killing persona Kira was killed by the same. All of which was not only orchestrated and witnessed by Near, but he also obtained custody of said Death Note AND calls the shots on what details enter the public sphere.  There is some intelligence known for certain only to Near - like the whereabouts/Fate of that deadly notebook - which he expects others simply to take his word on trust.

Near not only has the keenest overview of this world as far as Kira concerns it, but he is able to determine all future aspects of Kira within it.  Light Yagami might once have thought himself God of This New World. But in reality, it turned out to be Near.

He and/or the Death Note creators - Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata - choose to express that with use of the tarot, tarot cards and the Fool's Journey through the Major Arcana (though the latter is largely implied).   And by 'Near's world in tarot cards', I mean that quite explicitly.

When Hal Lidner and Anthony Rester enter Near's hub, it's to find themselves confronted by a wall of cards.  Superimposed against a view of the city, representing the world outside.

We see this urban sprawl first. It's a telescoping within from tower, as context and location, to room as specific spot wherein lurks the current L. But it also emphasizes the fact that we're seeing their environment/territory/universe.  At its centre, there's Near; architect and creator of the cityscape in cards.

In truth, these could be any old cards (though the minor arcana in tarot is the four suits of playing cards anyway).  However, it's made overt in the next clutch of panels that Near chose tarot with which to build his card tower's massive expanse.

After underscoring again that that Near knows everything (the panel after this states that he's 100% certain that a Death Note is involved in the latest killing spree by one labelled Kira via those denizens of the world wide web), he goes on to prioritize in importance the safety of his 'tarot card tower'.

The world he's constructed in the wake of the previous Kira tops that being introduced by this new one.

I have repeatedly used 'The World' in conjunction with Near in this Death Note manga special. This is no accidental over-usage of the words. The World is the last card of the tarot's major arcana. It's the final trump to play.  It's what there is to play for.

The World's meaning is to return to the beginning but, as the poet says, see it again for the first time.  Those in control of The World, or in a World state, recognize the signs for an environment in which they originally tramped through in all ignorance. Only this time they have the overview; experience from lesson's learned and teachers along the way; and incorporate within their own personalities the archetypes enacted by the previous arcana.

To enter The World is to complete the circle, thus finish the story.  Typically, the possessor of The World will ape the stance of The Fool from card zero. Only instead of blithely heading straight towards an unseen cliff-edge, they will note the abyss before them, smile knowingly and step right over it.  Then they fly.

It achieves a bird's eye view of everything below in manageable, surmountable, graspable miniature. All they survey, they know.  The World is their oyster; it belongs to them entirely.

Thus is Near situated here.  Warning Lidner and Rester not to 'knock over his tarot card tower' - The World he holds; built of all he mastered in the journey towards its construction - because that would indicate a brand, new world for the making.  But first, he has to double check.  Only then can he soar over his cliff-edge in complete (intellectual) ownership of all he surveys.

It has to be assumed that Near understands the symbolism and archetypes inherent in the tarot. At least, insofar as that's all we ever see from his decks, those of the major arcana.  Assuming that he hasn't just got a pack arranged precisely beside him at all times, then Near is seen picking a card at random in order to begin his contemplation of L.

As his Wammy predecessor on the original Kira case, L may be viewed as the original Fool.  The first one to undertake this journey, which Near then inherited. Therefore all cards in the tarot would pertain to L.

And to Near too, upon the same journey.  He and L together may take an overview through the way-makers and ponder the states learned, mastered and/or understood.  His insight isn't into one specific point, but them all.  If Near knew less about the tarot, then he might have opted for a single card, one which he knew intimately and/or triggered the pensive subject.

Moreover, because he inherited this case from L the original Fool, it's to L's mindset Near must return to identify the start.  There to recognize it most fully when it's viewed again from the end.  'What would L do?' pretty much delineates the boundaries of this quest; the rules of the game, determining failure or success; and what Near must consider most important of all in concluding the same right now.

If you like, L drew the lines in the sand to begin the battle.  Now Near has to return to where that was, in order to draw a line under the Kira case, so to end it.

It may be of interest to contemplate the other cards spread out around Near's Death (Light Yagami) and Fool (C-Kira) cards.  They don't actually seem all that random, when placed in conjunction with Near's known history; and the card he surveyed whilst holding the L puppet aloft might be surmised. 

First there's Strength, which is pretty much what it says on the packet.  That's the sheer endurance and brute force intellect required to survive The Wammy House for Gifted and Talented Orphans.  Followed by The Priestess - the inspiration for entering the quest, or reason to be upon that great Fool's Journey - aka Roger telling Near and Mello that L was dead and Kira was reigning unchecked. 

Both are already on the floor by the time Near picks out a card to contemplate with L.  Later panels show that to be The Hermit - the isolated light in the darkness, which both Near and Mello would have represented at that time.  In short, Near's own instance of inheriting L's Fool's quest, and bringing himself up to speed in following the clues rippling out from L's investigation. 

This is followed by The Star, which could be summarized as 'hope', i.e. when Near sourced the means to fully integrate himself into the Kira case.  Then Death - Kira - and The Fool - C-Kira. 

It could be that Near is merely hunting through a tarot deck looking for the two that will illustrate his mind-set and direct his musing, discarding all others along the way.  Or it could be that he's spelling out the story thus far, in order to reach his conclusion.  Revisiting major markers on his own journey to this moment, so to recognize the reality of the situation in which he now finds himself.

Seeing The World for the cliff-edge it is, thus finding the courage to soar above it.

It is the prerogative of the enlightened Fool, at the end of their Journey, with all their lessons learned, situations enacted and archetypal states fully realised to return to the beginning and see it again with its truths revealed.  The Wise Fool in possession of The World gets to soar beyond with a smile on their faces, enjoying a bird's eye view of all the components which make up reality. 

In mastery of their dominion, those claiming The World in tarot cards may even dictate its reality to others (though such elevated, returning Fools in symbolic reality generally feel no need to; displays of power play like that not only appear trifling but meaningless too in the face of other Fools and other realities). 

Thus Near finishes his contemplation of The World by opting out of it.  But not before he's seen pronouncing his conclusion through an overview of everything, as represented by a whole wall of tarot cards, each carrying their own component towards the whole picture.

Viewed close up, Near seems to be symbolically revisiting a similar point on his own 'true' journey; contrasting this apparently easy conclusion with one which wasn't so simple to conclude.  Compare this frame with Near's previous derogation of Light Yagami's Kira.

Then we pull away for the long shot and know that Near truly has returned to the beginning and seen it for the first time. That he really has seen and accepted his truth in The World; that he is no mere successor to L, but L himself.  With the power to disdain lesser distractions that would teach him nothing new; to reject imprisonment inside an arena begun and delineated by some other Fool; to step away from The World, over the cliff top, and into new journeys bespoke to himself.

The Hermit's illumination, with Mello in hand (literally) to spark the courage for chaotic dismantlement, quickly escalated into Near knowing to pull down his own tarot card tower, and build the whole thing anew.  After all, Near now owned The World.

Incidentally, this gets quite poignant when you realise whom Near is addressing here.  That speech bubble for his unseen partner in discussion is L.  It's the style used whenever L speaks through a monitor - over a television screen or computer - alongside a letter upon a white background. Throughout this Death Note One-Shot Special, that was Near himself speaking publicly as L.

Or put another way, this is Nate River conversing with Near right at the point when he mentally and emotionally accepts that he is L.  When he steps free of The World as delineated by L. Lawliet and embarks upon new worlds of his own discovery, and journeys of his own destiny.

A final world compares the images of Near from the beginning and end of this Death Note One-Shot Special. The front cover artwork depicts him still very much a successor to L, continuing the ways of his idol until completion of that particular journey.  Near's own voice is overtly silenced, subsumed beneath a finger-puppet of L. Himself acting entirely as L's proxy.

We travel through the story, witnessing Near's final leap from Wammy heir to the L Code to one actually in possession of it, mentally as well as physically.  There is no Lawliet by the final depiction of Near, in the manga's closing artwork.  Though Near now looks more like L than ever before, and sits confidentially beneath a shining tag proclaiming the same - backwards, forwards and in black and white.

In terms of tarot, there are characteristics in the former which suggest that of The Sun tarot card.  Blazing far more keenly than The Hermit ever could, The Sun indicates those seeing their own being, environment and all anew.  They aren't necessarily illuminated, but ARE the illumination.  "Who are you?", asked The Fool of the Sun.  "I am you." The Sun replied.

It's the final stage before Judgement calls and, beyond that, The World.

There are fewer indicators that the last piece of artwork in Death Note's canon series depicts Near as archetype of The World.  Nor can we totally dismiss it.  There are no symbol creatures in each corner, but that central topmost circle could pass for a globe, and Near himself - L-esque as he appears - could arguably be perched with his back against a cliff-top; or at least the dark unknown.

Nevertheless it's a stretch, so we'll leave this here.

When K-Pop singer Hani nipped backstage at the Death Note Musical, she thought it would amount to just a perk of her celebrity.  Meeting the cast as a member of the rags to riches Korean girl band sensation EXID.  It turned out to be much more than that.

After exchanging a significant hello with L actor Kim Jun-su, the couple have just announced that they've been dating ever since.  Roll over Light Yagami!  This time it's L who gets the pop idol girlfriend!

She may come close to being L's intellectual equal as well.  A recent Korean television programme revealed that Hani classes as genius status, with an IQ of 145.  Though whether that holds true for L actor Junsu too is yet to be divulged.

Hani's mom seems to be quite quick off the mark too.  Having heard on the grapevine that Junsu quite fancied her celebrity daughter, Hani's mother bought tickets for the theatrical production of Death Note, and ensured that the couple met backstage through Hani's connections.  Or as the singer put it,

And how did Mom know?  Apparently she's a massive Junsu fan in her own right and sings his songs constantly.  Hence keeping up with his press comments.

Korean pop gossip fans are currently ooohing over the news that it's been Junsu doing all the running, hunting her down after that first chance meeting at the Death Note Musical, enamoured of her 'beauty inside'.  Though presumably Hani's beauty outside hasn't hurt her case much either.

As Hani has spent the autumn busy with EXID promoting Hot Pink, Junsu has been turning up at various junctures on the schedule, picking his celebrity girlfriend up in his Aston Martin 007.   The pair would then retire to his house - he's currently bunking up with his manager - where they could get to know each other without the glare of paparazzi and fans in their faces.

Nevertheless, that's not always been a successful policy.  Korean Media Despatch photographers caught the couple shopping in the run up to Christmas, and delighted in revealing the pairing in their January 1st 2016 edition.

Since then, KPop Fighting and other media sources have also run with the story.  Including now us.

Near (no pun intended) the beginning of Death Note, L famously proclaims “I am justice”, which is funny because he has no such interest in justice.

It’s always been an amusing quirk that the character who heads the task force wasn’t pursing the world’s most prolific serial killer for moral reasons, but rather for his own amusement. In fact, there seems to be a massive juxtaposition between the L at the start of Death Note, and the L we see when the task force finally meets him in person.

Partially I think this is because Ohba didn’t fully know what he wanted to do with the character at the start of the series. The early L looks composed, almost handsome when we see his face. He talks about how Kira is evil to the International Criminal Police Organization with deep passion and seems to truly believe it. However, in the Death Note One Shot L tells the children of Wammy House, “It’s not a sense of justice. Figuring out cases is my hobby. If you measured good and evil by current laws, I would be responsible for many crimes.”

This is true - very early on into the series, an L who views Kira as evil is clearly a hypocrite. He lets Lind. L Tailor die to prove Kira can kill without being there in person. He attempts to let the Yotsuba Group kill criminals in order to prove their guilt and is willing to let a criminal possibly die to test the '13 day Rule'.

Whether or not you agree with these actions is moot, he’s prepared to kill criminals to catch a man who kills criminals. This is morally self-defeating in the worst way possible. The most consistent look at L (at least from the manga and anime) is one who, while not completely without redeeming features, isn’t concerned with higher values.

Once again I go back to the wise and venerable Ohba in search of answers and once again he disappoints. In an interview he was asked, “Did L have any friends?”  We are told, “No. When he told Light that Light was his first friend, it was a lie. L could never have a friend, as he found humans to be a very cunning species.”

I find this a very disappointing answer, as it removes the ambiguity from the relationship that makes it so compelling.

As humans, we find uncertainty far more interesting than simply being told the answer. It’s why the ending of Inception - where we don’t know if the protagonist is in a dream world or not - is so frequently discussed. We don’t like being told all the answers. Characters like Hamlet stay with us because we don’t know whether or not he’s mad; that’s what makes him interesting. It allows us to continue engaging with our favourite series after we’ve watched them.

The series that captures this best is the original Death Note manga and anime. Sometimes I wonder if Ohba (like George Lucas) actually understands what made his series so brilliant.

I also wonder if this is what makes the Yotsuba slightly less popular than earlier parts of the series - because it removed the cat and mouse aspect of their relationship. With Light no longer an evil monster, we’re deprived of seeing him monologue about how he’s going to become 'God of the New World', as well as amazing scenes like the death of Lind. L Tailor.

I’m of the opinion that the author can’t determine every reading of their work. They can give their interpretation, but it’s not the only one that’s valid. A work connects and engages with its reader on an individual level, and everyone takes something different away from it.

With that in mind I want to give a brief overview of how I interpret their relationship. I reject the homosexual readings of the series. This isn’t because it bothers me in anyway (one of my favourite TV shows is Hannibal, which has extremely obvious homoerotic undertones) but simply because I view Light as asexual. To me, Light represents a single minded determination towards one goal.

That’s not to say there isn’t some platonic admiration in their relationship, probably even a perverse friendship.

Light clearly has some respect for L. He’s actually angry when he sees Near wearing his mask, “You are far inferior to L. You have no right to be wearing a mask of L”. The last thing Light sees in the anime is L standing over him, a powerful physical representation of the influence L has over Light.

Light is shown throughout the series to be someone who had spent a solitary seventeen years of life. He seems detached from his friends and never once in the series shows interest in someone outside his family, unless it benefits his goals (such as in the instances of Misa and Takeda) with one exception - L.

Light is someone who has been deprived of an intellectual equal his entire life. The existence of L, someone who can keep up with him would be extremely significant to him; some form of validation that he isn’t alone.

On a purely mental level Light has probably understood that there are people as smart as him out there, but I doubt he truly comprehended it before he met L. To Light, I think he viewed L as the perfect obstacle towards his ascension to 'God of the New World'.

Light wanted a challenge, something to make his success more satisfying. L provided that.

Did L view Light as a friend?  It’s hard to say. It’s probably wise to differentiate between the manga and anime at this point. In the anime it seems to imply some form of affection towards Light, mostly during the scene where L washes Light’s feet, a fairly homoerotic action.

Outside of that?  Well, L is a liar and it seems probable that his comments about being Light’s 'friend' were designed to throw him off guard.  But that doesn’t preclude there being some truth in them as well.

A lot of what I have said about Light probably applies to L. This was undoubtedly L’s toughest case, he did lose after all. Like Light, he probably had met few people as intelligent as himself, and never interacted with them on the level he interacted with Light (Near never spoke personally to L).

One of the strongest arguments in favour of their platonic (or romantic) attraction is that other versions of the story portray as it as such. In the drama they have a heart to heart where they basically scream their love for one another (whilst trying to murder each other no less). In the musical there is a similar ending I hear (though it’s more from L than Light).

*  Disclaimer: No respected psychiatrist or psychologist has used the term sociopath or psychopath in many years. I just like it.

Remember three years ago, when none of us could get Gangnam Style out of our heads?  Well Death Note fans are in for another bout of that. 

How can we help it upon placing Psy, after hearing that he's bringing Death Note actor Xia in on his long-awaited Gangnam Style follow up Dream.

Xia, aka Kim Junsu, played L in the Korean version of Death Note the Musical. Which is how this collaboration came about.

Psy went to see the Death Note Musical, and decided there and then that Junsu was the man to sing with him on Dream.  As he revealed to fans on Psy Little Television  - an app broadcast by Napper V - on November 25th 2015.

Dream is described as a 'sad song' (so not at all like Gangnam Style really) dedicated to KPop performer, musician, producer and Ghost Nation radio DJ Shin Hae-Chul. He was the man who brought techno music to Korea, and who died in October 2014 due to medical malpractice.

Psy claimed that Xia's 'heartfelt' performances as L, in Death Note's 'heart-breaking scenes', made him the perfect choice to add vocals to Psy's homage to Shin Hae-Chul.  "The song is full of sadness," Psy wrote about Dream. "And I thought long and hard about who could convey that." 

Dream will be released on December 1st 2015.  Psy will debut it at the MNET Asian Music Awards staged the following day, though it's uncertain whether Xia will be joining him.

Light  and Soichiro Yagami are both first viewed head on, but from a few feet away, framed by their environment and with the reader positioned above left. Father and son are each sitting behind desks - one at school, the other at Interpol - with their arms crossed before them.  They are in rows, surrounded by others all seated the same, facing towards a single frontal focus point.

Even the shapes of things on their tables mirror, in polar opposite colours, objects on the surface before the other. 

A microphone bisects our view of Soichiro's  desk.  A pen apes its short straight line and direction on that of his son.  What is that black rectangle in front of Light Yagami?  Is it a pencil case with a white pattern upon it?   Its contours and colour is mimicked in the white name-plate identifying his father and colleague as representatives of Japan.  Complete with their nation's flag - seen without hues as fundamentally a white square with a black sun.

Practically Ying Yang - black with white for Light; white with black for Soirchiro.

See what I mean?  Much more to look into, while inspecting the first Death Note manga panels for major characters, than might be supposed.  Perhaps hidden bits of sub-plot in where Tsugumi Ohba directed, or Takeshi Obata just draw, correlations between certain individuals.

As Neil Gaiman wrote in Sandman (and I'm fond of repeating to readers of my fan fiction) - Always trust the story, never the storyteller.  There's always more to see in the subtleties and the little things, the links and what's left out. 

And today I learned that artists are just as bad.

Discover more first sightings in the manga of Death Note personae in Kyoko Kikuchi's Death Note blog. Then keep on reading, because also found and ready for the analysing are the panels wherein we see each character's face for the first time.  Plus, if they survived the time jump, then Kyoko also digs out the picture introducing us to that individual's older self in the second arc.

We could be here for hours.

However, the collection did miss out Matt's first Death Note manga appearance, in chapter 83, page 10.  Let me make good that omission.  And oh!  Look!  Just like Mello, Near, L, Ryuk and Misa, he's looking away with his face concealed.  Interesting.

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.

Could he have had much more confidence in his own abilities?  L would quite happily instruct world leaders, decision makers, law enforcement agencies and other powerful people the world over, and feel himself entitled through dint of superior intellect to do that.

It's often played bordering upon arrogance.  Criminal arrogance at that, when we factor in his propensity to order the televised death of one prisoner (Lind L Taylor) and torture of others (Light Yagami and Misa Amane). 

Also in Another Note, Mello implies that L was responsible for the demise of several private investigators - not only the trio named, but hundreds casually collated as a number - as he took their detective codes.  Am I the only one who read that as physical killing?  Or otherwise causing to stop breathing?

Add eleven years more to that mindset and I can see only one of two options - either L's confidence crumbled under the rigours of life and perspective, or it grew into yet more terrible proportions.  There was always little difference between himself and Kira, with regard to their worldly outlook and serial killer tendencies, which is what made the battle between them so intriguing.

If your head canon allows for Kenichi Matsuyama to remain as L for the rest of his life, then we can imagine how the Death Note detective might age.  At least until thirty years old, because that's how old Kenichi is now.  Just watch the actor age, then extrapolate six years more.

Assuming that L's survival meant that he beat Kira, then the world would be his oyster - even more so than at 25, when he could command Interpol and Japanese police officers for the asking.

Yet success in that case couldn't have been easy.  I'm not talking about the clash of minds itself, as L appeared to be thoroughly enjoying that, right up until Kira cheated via deployment of a suicidal shinigami.  I'm talking about the terrible cost of succeeding in such circumstances. 

L would have had a taste of meeting a mind akin to his own.  Then losing it.  What happens after that?

Victory might feel rather hollow without the thrill of psychological battle and a strange kind of kinship.  It could leave him regretting emerging quite so triumphant, and that's a potential dent in his confidence.  If nothing else came along quickly to fill the void, then life might seem to have lost its sparkle.  Demotivating L to the point of potentially throwing in the towel on his detective career.

All kind of directions open up then.  He might take refuge in simplicity.  Becoming a doorman like Christopher Langan - US man estimated to have an IQ as high as 210, thus too clever to tie up his time doing a job that denied him time to think upon his own current interests.

L might sink under cynicism.  Seeking something and finding nothing to the point when the pressure causes his psyche to collapse under its own negative perceptions.  Whole plot bunnies here in L becoming a parody of Beyond Birthday's own dark parody of L himself.

Or he could strike off in another avenue of inquiry and become a brilliant scientist, theologian, philosopher or emulate Wammy as an inventor.  Any number of possibilities here, limited only by his imagination, as delineated by the fan fiction writer.

But whichever way he turns, trouble is being stored up in the background.

It's one thing telling a bunch of 12-14 year olds that they're being trained and competing to become L's heir and successor, but what happens when they're 22-24?

Particularly when they have the intellect to potentially hold the L title in their own right.

We have a precedent in reaching adulthood as a Wammy kid, being told that your only reason to be is to wait in line as L's back up.  Beyond Birthday turned serial killer in an attempt to lure L out.   A took his own life.

So what of those remaining at Wammy's House in this alternative Death Note universe, wherein L didn't die and therefore Near, Mello and Matt emerged to take over the Kira case? 

It ended badly for A and Beyond Birthday, but they were both working alone.   Near and Mello have already shown that they can 'surpass L', if they join forces.  They just have to mature enough to put aside their manufactured rivalry as a distraction from their own enforced position on the detective code conveyor belt.  Mello and Matt have already proven that they can work together.

Whether singly, in pairs, groups or en masse, surely L is going to suffer an onslaught of grown up Wammy kids rebelling against their childhood rendition and expected adult position; stepping out of the fold, or else buying into it and seeking him out with the succession in mind.  Regardless of whether their predecessor still occupies the position into which they've been raised to succeed.

After  all, L's own benchmark was to take the code, no matter what and - if the implications in Another Note hold true - those Wammy heirs have been tutored from childhood to consider cheating and/or murder a valid avenue to winning.  The back up(s) are coming to bite him in the precedent.

Those are my musings.  What do you think L and his world would look like, if he had lived long enough to celebrate his 36th birthday today?

Unfortunately without subtitles, here is how Masataka Kubota received his Best Actor Award for Light Yagami in Death Note 2015 television drama.

If anyone would like to proffer a translation - or the general gist in summary - we'd all be very grateful. 

Japanese readers may also enjoy Walker Plus's interview with Masataka Kubota upon winning Best Actor for playing Light Yagami. No-one else will, as the translation programs absolutely scramble it beyond all comprehension. Yes, we'd love to know what he said there too.  Thank you in advance.