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Death Note news articles

On his 26th Birthday, We Ask Where was Mello Born?

14/12/2015

9 Comments

 
Dear Mello - Death Note anime Mello receives his childhood picture
It's Mello's 26th birthday today
Death Note fans know when Mello was born - December 13th 1989.  Today, had the larger than life, Mafioso character lived, he would have been celebrating his twenty-sixth birthday.

Instead he died at the wheel of a stolen lorry, clutching his rosary and taking Takada with him, their bodies consumed by the inferno (metaphorically as much as literally) and his fractured reputation consolidated as a Wammy House hero.  Illuminating so many clues with his  purpose driven suicidal stunt, that Near could denounce Kira on behalf of them all.  Mello died in Tokyo on January 26th 2010.  He'd just turned twenty-one.

All this we know about Mello's death. But where was Mihael Keehl born?

In Death Note Canon, Where Did Mello Come From?

Author Tsugumi Ohba never said where Mello's birth actually occurred, just when it did.  The earliest location for the Mafia boy was Winchester, England.  Mello was an orphan raised as L's successor at the Wammy House for Gifted and Talented Orphans.  Dodgy place that it was.  But those children were rounded up from across the globe.  Mello doesn't necessary need to be English to wind up in Winchester.

In short, the field is wide open for head canons galore and fan-fiction writers to run rampant in answering the question of Mello's birthplace for themselves.  Me included, though there was method and research behind my own designation of Yugoslavia for Mello's country of origin in the It Matters series.
Yugoslavian Mello banner from defunct Guns & Games Mangabullet article.

Banner originally created for a guest writer on MangaBullet's
Guns & Games. Probably put together by Spoiled-Kitten

Why my Canon Stated Mello Came from Yugoslavia

When I'm not here blathering on about Death Note, I'm a historian.  (To be fair, I'm still a historian here too, just not so obviously.)   Which means that I have research means, programs and the such like to provide me with data to play with during historical query. Or more pertinently here, genealogy.

I strive for  realism in my fan fiction, insofar as it's possible with killer notebooks, shinigami and genius orphan trafficking rings going on in the actual canon background.  So when it became imperative to reveal Mello's nationality, I took the clues at hand and interrogated them to see if clues to Mello's country of birth could be discerned.

Item one was to look at Mello's real name.  Historically, were there any Mihael Keehls anywhere in the world, as discerned via my genealogical databases?  YES!  And he lived in California.  True story.  Travelled there from New York, which he entered in 1870 by ship, then continued on west.  Not quite our Mihael Keehl, but a real one in existence once, and spookily in the right place.

Oh!  And a century earlier, there was another Mihael Keehl holed out in Sacramento, California.
Mihael Keehl Sacramento CA 1740-1782
However, US data isn't fabulous for working out surname (and first name) origins, particularly geographically, unless they happen to be First Natives of the Americas.  The USA is a nation of 'huddled masses', which fundamentally came from elsewhere.  Unfortunately no-one noted where Kern, California's Mihael Keehl came from, just where he caught the ship.  Britain.  But Mihael Keehl is not a natively British name.  Nor was he the only Keehl ever to emigrate to America.  The New York port records can give us a run down.
US Keehl surname place of origin
But they are just the Keehls who went to the USA.  Not those staying put wherever they were around the world.  Though before we leave the States, it was amusing to spot Mello in the phone book.  Kira and Near should have just looked there.
M Keehl California
Next up was to see where lots of Keehls congregated throughout history.  I had several choices there - Prussia, modern Germany (where it became Kohl),  the Netherlands, Hungary, Slovakia and the former Yugoslavia.  Blond hair and blue eyes points to a Germanic ethnicity for Mello, so the first three were strong contenders.  But where in the world is Michael most usually rendered Mihael?

One quick internet search later and my list is getting narrower - Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, but mostly from countries which formed part of the former Yugoslavia.  Which also featured on my surname list.

So could a native Yugoslav look like Mello?  I searched digital images with the tag 'blond' + 'male' + 'Yugoslav' and somewhere in the mix, I discovered Andrej Pejic (now Andreja Pejic, but still physically male at the time of my search).
Thereon, it was just a case of working out which former Yugoslavian country was the birthplace of Mello in my fan-fiction stories.  I checked out them all on Wikipedia and landed upon Croatia, because it has a sizeable Catholic population.  With all those rosaries, Mother Mary portraits, icons and the such, there's a case to be made for Mello's Catholicism.

And there you go, a credible place of origin for Death Note's Mello.   So where would you have had him born, in your head canon, on December 13th 1989, 26 years ago today?
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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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Plethora of New Death Note Mello/Matt Fan Fiction by MRSJeevas

30/11/2015

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When Death Note News began, it was primarily going to be a place to let people know what was happening with my  It Matters Series - fan-fiction about Mello and Matt - plus updates on Death Note, should any occur.

We didn't know then that Death Note was suddenly going to become major news, hitting its 10th anniversary and spawning a TV drama and two new movies.  The focus here shifted somewhat.

Nevertheless I should still let folk know when more of my fan-fiction stories about Mello and Matt are available to read.

There's been quite a bonanza of it recently, all due to readers responding to my Dollar a Drabble Pet Supplies Appeal.
Transgender sign for cat-callers

Random signage from MRSJeevas Death Note fan-fiction Cat Called
Since then, the kittens have a travel case so lovely that they doze in it all day in the house and enter it willingly for any journeys out. They've also been to the vets and had their first immunisations, plus flea and worm treatment, and an appointment made for them to be micro-chipped.  Two thirds of that was paid for in Mello and Matt fan-fiction commissions (give or take the couple about EHC members).  Thank you all!

(And this is still on-going.  There's still the neutering/spraying to happen, and the boa constrictor needs a larger vivarium. *sobs*)

I've also been really touched by how many people, in donating to the cause and providing me with a remit for their tale, wanted it set in my own Mello/Matt universe.  I didn't expect that.  I'll be honest and say that it made things a lot easier in terms of speedily getting these stories written and out.  But I anticipated all kinds of AUs and/or alternatives from the canon.  Not so much Matti!Canon, coupled with (so far) unanimous permission from all commissioning tales, for those stories to be shared with everyone else.

Lots of happy tears here.  Reading compliments and requests, feeling so honoured to be entrusted with long-treasured plot bunnies and witnessing readers of my work wanting to add their own chapter in my voice to the MelloxMatt Matti!canon.  Absolutely thank you all. 

Where to Read New Mello/Matt MRSJeevas Fan-Fiction

EHC Shadow Riso logo
Shadow Riso EHC symbol
EHC Shadow Riso Symbol
Shadow Riso EHC symbols, inspired by MRSJeevas One-Shot Laughter in the Darkness
These stories belong to those who bought them.  However, everyone so far asked that they be shared.  They are supposed to be drabbles (or one-shots), but since when was I able to be that succinct.  One is currently in the process of becoming a novella. 

As one-shots, they usually first appear in the relevant sub-forum at He Moves Me Differently:  Matti!Canon Mello/Matt One-Shots  Those with an account registered at the forum can subscribe at the top, in order to be notified of any post updates.

My stories eventually turn up in the library too.  That may be located on my MRSJeevas fan-fiction website, also called He Moves Me Differently.  It could be practically simultaneously.  It could be days later.  All depends on when I log into my ftp server and upload them there too.

However, I will link you directly here to the most recent additions, as posted onto the forum:
Big Sleep at the Speakeasy - commissioned by Amaryllis
~ Mello and Matt AU, set in the US in 1928.  A world wherein gangsters made the news and Al Capone ruled supreme... ish.

An LA Fantasy Tagged Matty - commissioned by Brokenboss
~ Drabble written about a time just prior to events in My Own Way, wherein Mello contemplates uncomfortable feelings concerning his lost friend.

Cat Called - commissioned by AquaCola
~ Five men in a car are harassing women on an American freeway. Yet the 'Blondie' they hail this time isn't precisely the lady they thought him to be.
 
Cat Called also spawned a playlist:
Bubbles, Storm Blown - commissioned by, well, Bubbles
~ It's a bad day and Bubbles doesn't anticipate it getting any better. But sometimes storm force winds can bring change.

Laughter in the Darkness - commissioned by Lua for Mistress9 with love
~ At a secret gathering of hackers in a Brazilian forest grove, an arrogant panellist boasts about the EHC.  Imagine his shock when they turn up.

A Moment of Genius - commissioned by Brokenboss
~ After a shaky start, it's been a nice day.  Then a couple of young mothers at the next table question Matt's genius.
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Mello Festival in Throckmorton?  Not Quite What Death Note Fans Might Be Imagining!

25/11/2015

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Mello Festival banner
Mello Festival.  Can you imagine it?

A bunch of cosplayers amalgamating in one place to create a sea of blond bobs and feathered leather coats.  Appreciative Mafiosi staging a mass event to honour their most famous son. Or the boy Himself organizing a convention whereby the world's chocolatiers meet together to display their best and favoured products.

Sadly none of the above, though the reality does look rather wonderful!
Mello Festival is a real thing.  It's a brand, new music festival being staged at Throckmorton Airfield, in Britain, during the 2016 May Bank Holiday weekend.  Its first headliners are The Levellers, The Blockheads (of Ian Dury and the.. fame) and Lemur.

Nothing here of more than passing interest for Death Note fans, though it does an almost unceasing source of amusing webpages and articles for those deliberating blurring the festival with the character.

Take, for example, the information page (screenshot on November 20th 2015):
Mello Festival location
There was you thinking that the best way to find Mello was to check for large chocolate orders in the vague vicinity, then follow the delivery van home.  Poor Near.  He just had to do an internet search and the address was right there.

And if only Kira had read that last part, he could have found Mello quickly, thus negating the entire second arc!

Though both parties might have been a little confused to find 'Mello - the biggest chilled festival' rather than Mello - the most incendiary firebrand to ever march out of Wammy's House (and surround himself with Cosa Nostra) in pursuit of detective prowess and megalomaniac serial killers.

Rather than this one.  Who was in LA.
Death Note's Mello eating chocolate

Death Note's Mello - NOT a chilled festival in Britain
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First Time Ever I Saw Your Face... Death Note Blogger Collates Initial Manga Appearance for Each Major Character

20/11/2015

 
You think you'd know how L looked in his first Death Note panel, or Light, or Ryuk.

If you're anything like me - self-proclaimed obsessive in my attention to detail, coupled with a great memory, thus believing I knew it all - then you'd be wrong.

I even guessed Mello's introduction incorrectly.  Got the scene, just not the shot.  Mine was the next one on.

For us prospective Death Note know-it-alls, Japanese blogger Kyoko Kikuchi has painstakingly trawled through the manga and sifted out all those first appearances for every main Death Note character.
It's actually more fascinating than it initially sounds.  I thought it would be a thing of passing interest, but I'm struck by how many times we meet individuals without ever seeing their face.  Takeshi Obata has his readership creep up on characters, like stalkers or shinigami.

Ryuk, Misa, Mello and Near are all introduced to their soon-to-be fan-base with their backs to the 'camera' peering into the panel.  L is turned towards us, but the top of his head is missing.  Too tall for his own scene.  Our perspective comes from above and focuses upon his groin area, albeit strategically shielded from view by the droop off his hand resting on his knee.
First appearance of Misa Amane in the Death Note manga

Misa Amane's first Death Note appearance
Death Note L's first appearance in the manga

How the Death Note world first met L
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.
Death Note manga Light's first appearance mirrored by Soichiro's first appearance

Like father, like son - our first sight of the Yagami men in Death Note manga panels
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.
First manga panel Matt Death Note

The fandom's first glimpse of Death Note's Matt

Death Note's Mello in Garfield the Movie?

18/10/2015

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Death Note News reader Mira has a question for us:
Is it true that there's a secret Death Note reference in Garfield the Movie? A nod to Mello, sneaked in by a set designer or something, because he was a fan?  I didn't believe it, but then my friend showed me the picture and it got me wondering. Thanks!
Let's see this picture please!  I asked via email, and the return had it attached.  It was indeed Mello in Garfield the Movie.  Unequivocally, without a doubt, Mello large and stark in the background of that big, orange cat.
Mello in Garfield the Movie
I doubt any of us are going to argue with that.  But the big question remains - is it OUR Mello?  Did a Death Note fan on the Garfield set ninja in a nod to the Mafioso bad boy Himself?

In truth, such things aren't as unlikely as they might appear.  Fans get everywhere, especially in the fandom of a franchise as long-lasting and globally popular as Death Note.

But in this instance, I'm not so sure. If it was a bit of graffiti on the wall of an alley, then maybe it would be more convincing. However, Mello's name here is quite prominently placed.  It's in eye-catching yellow and black, with lighting picking it out, and characters positioned so not to block its lettering. Practically framing it, in fact.

That suggests to me something quite fundamental to the story and no fan is going to get THAT past the director.

A quick meander over to IMDb confirms that there's a character called Christopher Mello, who will be the person actually referenced by the legend on the wall.  Actually that's him standing in the midst of the group of people holding the middle ground - facing us in the suit and tie - as played by Mark Christopher Lawrence.
Christopher Mello and Happy Chapman in Garfield the Movie
There's our fake Mello on the left. Or should I say the OTHER Mello, as he's quite legit in this particular scene.  Christopher Mello apparently being a television presenter in Garfield the Movie. Which will be why his name is so large and prominent upon the wall.

However, that picture has just embarrassingly tipped me off to the fact that I mistook Garfield in the initial image.  The feline is actually this black and white one in an orange jacket.

But at least I identified Mello!

Finally, as a clincher, Garfield the Movie came out in 2004.  Mello wasn't introduced as a character in Death Note until July 4th 2005, when he appeared in the Japanese manga chapter Zero.

Your first instinct was correct, there is no secret Mello/Death Note reference in Garfield. Sadly. Though I did stumble across this on DeviantArt and thought you might get a buzz out of it!

Does anyone else have anything to add to what I've surmised for Mira?  Or maybe you disagree with me completely and wish to make a case for that actually being a Death Note Mello nod in the Garfield movie.  Please do comment below if you wish to jump in on this one.

In the meantime, thank you for your question, Mira. 

If anyone else has anything Death Note related to ask, then just contact us in the usual way or leave your query as a comment on any news item here.
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Vote for Mello/Matt Fan Fiction in Inkitt's Fandom Novel Length Writing Contest

9/10/2015

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Inkitt Fandom Competition
Fanfiction Novel Contest
on Inkitt
How would you like to help fan fiction about Mello and Matt win the top spot?

Not mine this time, but Rhiannon D'Averc's brilliant Kriminalist  in the running for Inkitt's Fandom completion.

The winner can expect assistance in publishing their original novel-length composition as a real world book. In addition, digital trophies will be awarded to those authors ranked first, second and third with their stories.

Those finishing in the topmost 10% will receive a cyber badge reflecting that achievement. Plus, you know, glory and greatness all round.

Recommending Kriminalist - Mello/Matt Fan Fiction Novel by Rhiannon D'Averc

MRSJeevas and Rhiannon D'Averc on Twitter
Reacting on Twitter
to reading Kriminalist
As Death Note fan fiction goes, the multi-chaptered Kriminalist is one of the long term classics in Mello and Matt fandom stories.

It takes place in an AU universe, wherein neither are killed but suffer the indignity of watching Near take down Kira in the Yellow Box warehouse.

After spending most of their young lives chasing L's killer, in order to become his acclaimed successor, they've lost. So what now?

While Mello freaks, Matt plans. A future is born in a brand new detective code to rival L's own. This time as a partnership, blooming in clues and cases, as well as deepening their dealings with each other.

Not your average romance, but one to delight those who ship Mello and Matt amidst the Death Note fraternity.

Here's how the author describes her MelloMatt fan fiction entry in the novel length (40,000 words plus) Fandom competition on Inkitt:

Kriminalist entry on Inkitt - MelloxMatt fan fiction
Kriminalist - MelloxMatt fan fiction entry on Inkitt (Screenshot October 9th 2015)
Kriminalist was recommended to me years ago. Waiting until the other night to read it was an error. I should have been in there when it was first mentioned.

This was one of those moments when I was half asleep and clicked on to the link 'just to see how it starts'.  Next thing I knew, it was several hours later - sleep now being a thing which happens to other people - and the whole novel was read. How could great writing like that be put down, until the tale was told?

How to Vote for Kriminalist on Inkitt

Mello and Matt Death Note
I'm not going to tell you how to vote - that's for your conscience to decide

But if you want to read Rhiannon D'Averc's Kriminalist, in this context, you will find the opening chapter here.

It's currently placed at number 166 - with two votes - being beaten by fan fiction novels based on Twilight, Naruto, Pokemon, Supernatural and One Piece, amongst very many more.

Mello and Matt are being beaten by Twilight. Twilight.  Edward/Bella are pwning Mello/Matt.  All I'm saying.

Kriminalist is currently the top ranked Death Note fan fiction novel in the Inkitt contest. It may even be the only one, as I'm yet to find more.

Good luck, Rhiannon, and thank you for writing a tremendous MelloxMatt novel length fan fiction tale.

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Raw Completed! Ghosting the Street - Mello & Matt Fan Fiction by MRSJeevas

1/10/2015

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Cover to Ghosting the Street Mello and Matt fan-fiction by MRSJeevas
Ghosting the Street cover art
Happy October!  For those of you here solely to keep up with the news about my fan fiction, there's a big bit of news for you to kick off the month.

The latest instalment in the It Matters series has just seen its epilogue posted on the He Moves Me Differently forum.

Ghosting the Street is the sequel to Walls Came Tumbling Down, though it takes place two years after that story finished. 

This time, the only walls truly crashing are those around Matt's psyche.

We finally get to discover the secrets he's been keeping all this time. And it might alter the way you view every novel which went before.

At the moment, the forum is the only place that you may read it. This is because the chapters are still very much in draft form. They have been posted still filled with typos, and very much missing Sarevya's expert touch.  If only to maintain continuity.

What happens now is me starting from the beginning, correcting glaring spelling mistakes, checking continuity, answering comments left upon each chapter, updating the website/timeline/wiki for each new element, then gathering the completed version together for publishing in all the usual places.

In short, this is your big moment to influence the content of the latest MRSJeevas Mello/Matt fan-fiction novel, merely by commenting on chapters before I've had chance to amend them.

Thanks to all who've provided such wonderful beta service thus far.

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How Would You Like to be an Extra in Death Note 2016? Recruitment Begins!

29/9/2015

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Mello and Matt Death Note 2016 extras
Extras for Death Note 2016 are currently being signed up by NTV and Warner Japan. Fancy giving it a go?

The live action movie only has a tentative working title at the moment. It will be the latest in the Japanese saga; a sequel to the previous films: Death Note (2006), Death Note: The Last Name (2006) and L: Change the World (2008).

Though the main cast has been assembled, their names remain strictly confidential.

However, we can now reveal precisely where filming will take place - mostly Kobe with some scenes shot in the middle of Tokyo, plus suburbs - and when - from early November 2015 through to the end of December.

Death Note 2016 extras may also expect:
  • provision for a friend or other travel companion;
  • food and drink supplied;
  • photography (still or video) strictly prohibited;
  • sharing details in blogs or any other medium also strictly prohibited;
  • 'strictly prohibited' means legal action taken and your backside dragged to court;
  • no stealing props or costumes;
  • applications accepted based on age, gender etc appropriate for each scene;
  • right to refuse an application retained with regard to the above;
  • shooting dates may be altered at the last minute due to weather conditions etc;
  • contacting the companies involved regarding your application is a no-no;
  • personal information provided in the form will not be shared with third parties.

These are all details given on the Death Note 2016 extra registration form.

For prosperity's sake, accept my screenshots of that form, as linked from the film's official website, captured on September 29th 2015.
So, are you signing up to be a Death Note 2016 extra?
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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

Mello Death Note

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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TV Death Note Episode 8: Chess Games, Watchfulness and Villainy in Yellow Pt 2

13/9/2015

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It turns out that I had way too much to say about this episode.  But I do love dissecting the symbolism and drifting off on a voyage of thematic discovery re Death Note.

You should read part one of my discussion about episode 8 in Death Note's TV drama before carrying on here. This is merely a continuation of that.
Death Note Episode 8 Watari brings cake for Near

Watari was delighted to prove that Near's favourite cake was not a lie

Yellow for Nobility and Courage in Japan

The colour yellow seemed to be everywhere in Death Note's episode eight. Particularly in the vicinity of the hapless Kudagawa and/or providing hints towards the emergence of Mello.

Previously, I was speculating that yellow, in television Death Note's colour themes, had something to do with thuggery or violence.

However, there was a very poignant moment with the colour yellow, seemingly teeming with significance, which fell back upon the traditional meaning of yellow in Japanese culture.  Namely the hue of courage or nobility.
Near with yellow jigsaw piece for L (Death Note 2015)
This was the moment when Near handed L a yellow jigsaw piece and suggested they might add the final bit of the puzzle together.  And L slotted it perfectly into the partially completed jigsaw on the floor.

It was all in stark contrast to the mirror scene in episode seven, when L distractly tried to force a piece into the wrong position on a white jigsaw.

Then handed Near the errant jigsaw piece with dire warnings that it might not be himself to insert the last one.  Maybe it would be Near.
Near takes white jigsaw piece Death Note 2015
White is the colour of purity and spirituality.  Yellow is the hue of majesty and bravery.  The photography and direction of both scenes were extremely similar, but bathed in light to match the colours on the jigsaw.

Though they sat in the same relative positions, L faced Near the first time around. He sat sidewards on the second, wherein the personality could well have been Mello.  Or Near under internal barrage from Mello's scathing tones.
Near and L Death Note TV episode 7
Near/Mello and L Death Note TV episode 8
Plus the emotions of the major players were at odds.

In the first instance, receipt of the jigsaw piece caused consternation in a hitherto jubilant Near.  It triggered Mello into momentarily coming out, both personae swinging back and forth in domination of their body.

Meanwhile, a despondent L merely left.

In the second, a watchful Near purportedly had control of their body after earlier taking it back from Mello.  Near seemed quite pensive, until L took the jigsaw piece. 

Meanwhile, a determined L simply sat back down.  Then fitted the piece into the puzzle.
Death Note Yellow Jigsaw

Death Note's L and Near Jigsaw Dialogue

To my mind, a whole sub-current in unspoken conversation was going on here. 

In the first iteration, L was unsure if Near (and/or Mello) were even on side regarding the Kira case.  They'd joined in with the whole Babel thing, but then so had Light. 

Previously Near had left Wammy's House without sanction and proceeded to hack L's computer and interfere with his investigation vis-a-vis handing information to the errant Kira Countermeasures police team.

Right now, Near was sitting back in a position of purity, innocence or spirituality. Chaotic neutral at best, but certainly not fully signed up as L's successor in anything, let alone the battle with Light Yagami.

L handed over the white jigsaw piece as a challenge. Pretty much saying, "Who's side are you on, Near?"
White jigsaw Near and Mello in Death Note episode 7

Episode 7: Left alone with the uncompleted white jigsaw
We'd seen that yellow jigsaw previously in episode eight. It was after Near/Mello had been off breaking and entering, then murdering folk, then had popped back to enjoy an afternoon with L and Watari.

The former NOT playing jigsaw puzzles with his younger foster ward.  The latter baking Near's favourite cakes as a lovely treat.

Near anxiously queries L's safety with Mr Wammy, who doesn't do much to alleviate their concern.  Mello, as puppet, gleefully concludes that L is prepared to die to 'finish Kira'.  Near tells him to shut up with such talk.

Thus we get a long shot, the mirror of that above, but with Near and Mello turned 90 degrees from their prior position.

Their allegiance appears already cast with L, if the evidence of the puzzle board is to be believed. Even Mello has his sights set firmly on (the) board.
Picture

Episode 8: Left alone with the uniquely completed yellow jigsaw
Internal decision made, all that is left now is to inform L that they will become his successors in the Kira case, if circumstances require it.  Hence the undue significance placed upon Near (or was that Mello; it works best as a combination of the two) handing over that yellow jigsaw piece.

Yellow for courage and/or nobility. 

And note that we're not yet over the hidden chess-piece symbolism either. Near's come from a position of white - spirituality, priesthood, monks - and he's now sitting in L's gigantic chessboard room, occupying the Bishop spot.

Moreover, look at how prominently L's White Queen pillar is displayed, along with all that lighting picking out Near/Mello, in the instant immediately prior to the yellow jigsaw piece being handed over.
Near and the White Queen in Death Note
Near and Mello may play black or white in this particular, or indeed any, game of chess. But right now they are firmly aligned with the White Queen, in whose defence L is prepared to become over-shadowed. 

In short, the second iteration of this scene is a continuance of the first.  "Who's side are you on, Near?"  "Yours, L."

Death Note: Not the Ayes But The Eyes Have It

Light's strategy, early on in episode eight, surrounded setting up matters so that Misa acquired shinigami eyes. 

It didn't quite work out like that, but it set up an on-going theme involving eyes and watchfulness per se, which ran throughout this entire chapter in television's Death Note story-telling.

Here are a few such recurrences:
TV Death Note Watari talking about L

Mr Wammy getting sentimental about 'that sparkle in (L's) eyes' when
his ward solves serial killer cases without clues
Death Note Wammy watching over L

Watari again vowing to 'watch over L for as long as (he) lives'.
Note only L, not any other Wammy kid. (Poor Mello, Matt and Near.)
2015 Death Note L advises not to avert our eyes

Aligning centre-right of the White Queen, L tells Soichiro'not to avert
(his) eyes' from whatever follows (plus a demonstration of the same)
Mr Wammy witnessing L and Light fight

Mr Wammy again explaining that the cameras in the
YELLOW box warehouse are so they can all 'bear witness'
Death Note Higuchi killed

L pointing out to Light that, even under surveillance,
Kira could kill 'with everyone watching you'
L on camera at the Yellow Box

'What follows has no bearing on the investigation' L tells Soichiro,
before pointedly averting his eyes and ending the camera feed
through which everyone was watching
Picture

All through the Yellow Box scenes, uplighting has us focusing
upon each actor's eyes; then we were treated to crazy Kira eyes, as he got the news...
Television Death Note Mikami shinigami eyes

... that Mikami had used his new shinigami eyes to get L's
name, at the exact moment that L averted HIS eyes. Did Soichiro get the hint?
Death Note Light's Watch

Thus we end the episode as we began, focusing upon Light's watch.
Only this time, L had pulled off the most delightful twist. Circumventing Near's trick from the Yellow Box scene in canon - swapping the Death Note for a fake, thus surviving.

Thus giving all us old timers watching something unanticipated to enjoy.  No-one's averting their eyes here, I can tell you.  It's aye all round!

L: Is this a Death Note I See Before Me?

I am in blood
Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er.
~ MacBeth (Act 3, Scene 4), William Shakespeare
There was a bit, quite early on, wherein Light bent over his Death Note was attempting to justify his use of it.  He said something which seemed to me to paraphrase MacBeth's famous line, quoted above from his eponymous play by William Shakespeare.

All this spoken whilst staring down at his clawed fingers in a 'will these hand ne'er be clean?' kind of way.

I wish I could find where I wrote about that, because it was very much mirrored by L's feigned first usage of his own Death Note.  Only with the hooked hands bit substituted for a 'is this a dagger I see before me?' sort of pen-holding stance.

Same MacBeth quote in modern form though.
Death Note's L as MacBeth

Most people stop holding a pen like that when they're five, L...
Oh!  And he had a Tolkeinesque moment too - with L practically recasting himself as Samwise right at the instant when the hobbit realises his best friend Frodo can't escape the fatal pull towards using the Ring.
L accusing Light of losing to the allure

L as Samwise Gamgee in another Lord of the Rings inspired scene in Death Note
All in all, it's (patently) left me fascinated, and I can't wait to catch up with the three remaining episodes.  Though writing their analyses in blog entries might take longer.
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TV Death Note Episode 8: Chess Games, Watchfulness and Villainy in Yellow  Pt 1

12/9/2015

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Yes, I know I'm lagging behind the whole world here.  I'm on it. I'm on it.

We're up to episode eight of the Death Note live-action television adaptation, wherein Light has his memories back; Kira has his Death Note in his Golem-esque clutches; and the Wammys are pursuing new leads, whilst telling everyone to witness, watch and don't avert their eyes.

Don't blink. Whatever you do. Don't blink.  And now, how about a nice game of chess?  White moves first...

Great Acting in Death Note TV Drama

Shugo Oshinari as Teru Mikami in Death Note 2015
Teru Mikami in
Death Note (2015)
I know I've said it before, but I think it's worth the reiteration.  There are some truly wonderful performances from the actors in Death Note (2015).

After this episode, we were discussing Shugo Oshinari's portrayal of Teru Mikami. He seems born to play him!

Fitting the role so perfectly that I can't imagine anyone else doing so. 

Even physically, there's a resemblance between the actor and the manga/anime depiction of Mikami.  It makes you wonder if the cast were chosen as much for their looks in comparison to the characters, as anything else. Or if the actors are just so good, that they draw that likeness down onto themselves.

Then there's Matsuda. Anyone else feel like Gouki Maeda has brought our bubbly hero Tota to life so completely, that it appears nothing short of preternatural?

I could highlight several more fabulous actors from this series, but those pair are the current stand-outs from Death Note episode eight.

Light Up Kira in his Shinigami Gaze

Talking about great Death Note actors, some are perennial and none more so than Masataka Kubota as Kira.  He can eject Light with a look; bring Kira slithering in on a glance.

Light Yagami quite notably never got the shinigami eyes. But that isn't to say that the Death God can't been seen in his gaze.

As Light, he can seem quite wide-eyed and innocent, self-effacing even, nevertheless able to focus straight on. Head high, facing the world, though internally he may be scheming.
Light Yagami in Death Note TV live action drama 2015
Then see him turn to Kira in a sudden sidewards shifting of his vision.  Like the killer stands alongside him, stepping in.
TV Death Note Light becomes Kira
From now on, that stare will rarely meet any sight head on. Kira's gaze slides like a snake has control of each orb, weaving, winding, coiling in their sockets, taking his head on a nodding, sinking, roller-coaster orbit too.

Just as it always will, when Kira presence is known.
Kira looks at L in Death Note episode 8
Kira in Death Note 2015 television live action
In the sequence above, Light - as Kira - is captured in stills taken from the midst of a sweeping gaze. The second part with L following hard on the first in his room, as a continuation of the same internal dialogue.

His sidewards glance from the initial couplet carrying straight into that smug perusal of L. Then onwards; his vision moving across the floor, defocusing upon a spot beside him and up finally in smirking contemplation.

Shifting, sliding, crooked; just like Light's suddenly hooked index finger in the second of the four images, snapped at the instant that Kira fully comes to the fore.

Or Light Yagami gets a plan worked out to fruition. Which is pretty much the same thing.
Death Note Kira Just as Planned
But there's much more to see here, and I'm having fun revisiting my Uni housemate's Film Studies degree (which I might as well have added to my own CV, the amount of times I was in the actual study part of it...).

So let's head on into the nitty-gritty.

TV Death Note's Kira on the Left Hand Path

Look again at those four screenshot images and note how often Light and/or his Kira persona are filmed on the left hand side of the frame. Even in close up, you get a lot of background scenery seen on the right.

In fact, his Kira gaze first looks left, then settles into whichever way it'll slither.

All over the world, the left has historically been denigrated as a cultural no-no. Some societies reserve the left hand for unsavoury necessities, like using it for cleaning oneself after using the toilet. Others have considered left handed folk to be luckless, awkward, stupid or downright criminal.

Language too, on a global scale, routinely disdains the left - 'the left hand path' is used in Abrahamic religions (and some Pagan ones) to describe selfish, sinful or destructive practices in worship and/or magic; from ancient Mesopotamia, through the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, and into modern times, 'left' has been inserted into phrases meaning evil, wrong or otherwise not quite what should be done.

Nor is Japan exempt from this left disdaining social etiquette.

It's considered impolite - and bad luck - to eat with your chopsticks in your left hand there. The majority of left-handed children are still forced to use their right hands to write.

However, given the prevalence of Christian imagery in this adaptation of Death Note (and indeed the original too), it's worth noting that the Archangel Gabriel sat at God's left hand. And he was the Angel of Judgement.

Judgement Incarnate or possibly Satanic (in the traditional modern sense) evil doer?  You decide.

Though I will say that imagery in previous episodes has suggested Light aligning more with Lucifer the Light Bringer, than Gabriel the Bringer of Life from the baby spirit banks of Sheol.  I haven't seen Kira raise a trumpet to his lips once.

'We All Fall Down Like Toy Soldiers'

Noticing what's in the background is generally quite worthwhile in Death Note's television adaptation.  There's no exception here.

While Light ponders strategy, we clearly see his troops lined up against the wall behind him.  Symbolically, at least, in the form of toy soldiers. 
Light Yagami's toy soldiers
We're meant to spot them. They fill half of the screen, in perfect clarity, vividly green against a white background.  Apparently green means 'freshness; eternal life; youthfulness' in Japan's colour coding.  Innocent then, in the prime of their lives, individually placed so each stands out.

Yet overlooked, thus dominated by the antlered head of a Japanese Kirin - as already discussed in my review of episode two - positioned like Light to the left.  
This mythological being is representative of vengeful judgement and justice. Its placement making it almost seem like a sheepdog herding those toy soldiers into their orderly rows. Like sheep corralled into the fold.

And below there is a human skeleton, not unlike Rem in aspect, standing slightly off the ground, aping Misa's stance whilst captured by L and the Japanese police. It's flanked by the skeletal reproductions of two dinosaurs - both extinct.

Does anyone know what purple creature features prominently in that bottom corner?  It's staring straight at Light. 

Possibly a mythological Japanese totem for luck or protection?  Most of those pertaining to Light generally fall into that category, unless they're representing Kira in murderous reckoning.  It looks like a horse to me. Please do shout up, if you can identify it.

Now keep your attention on Light's carefully placed pawns - those plastic troops - as he switches persona more noticeably into Kira.
Kira's toy soldiers Death Note 2015
He fades in. They fade out.  Still commanding half of the screen, but utterly out of focus. Kira's looking away and our eyes naturally follows his direction.

No-one cares now what happens to the once vivid and innocent, penned and ignored toy soldiers. Losing their individuality as they fade from view. Just pieces to be played on Kira's personal battlefield. Deployed in dialogue, and already moving out of sight. Out of mind to follow suit quite swiftly.

Like any other war really.

White Knight L Upon a Death Note Chessboard

Of course, if you're going to create a combat driven gaming board of your surroundings, then nobody does it better than L. 

His entire inner sanctum seems fashioned upon a gigantic Wammy House chessboard - a game which was invented to equate a theatre of war, requiring tactical moves not unlike those found upon real life battle-fields.
L and Light chessboard imagery in Death Note 2015
I know it's been highlighted before, but look at that colour scheme and ceiling squares. Everything square or rectangular really, even the paper that L is holding up.  The whole theme suggestive of a chequered board in chess.

Kira's biggest problem being the white knight sitting one step before him and two beside.  That's an L shape and knight can own any piece from there, not least the black king currently held in check.

And is that a giant white king chess-piece looming alongside Light?  Bit dangerous.  It can only move one square, but that's enough to take him completely should he get too close.

Luckily it's only a pillar.  Randomly ornate in a room full of squares, mostly  in black and white with a nice blue border.  (Cloudlike patterns for blue sky thinking.) 

See the double row of identical shirts, white pawns awaiting play upon their white squares.  With an option on snakes and ladders, as an option at the back.
Picture
No, no, I'm sorry, I'm a noob.  Double row, stacked squares - bricks in a castle, spiral staircase leading up into the tower. Besieged by a darker ladder with the potential to breach.  Sky above.  Placed in a corner of the chessboard, precisely where one would expect to find a white side's rook.

(Black rook sits opposite. The entrance way into the room, all dark steel cages and stairs to descend within.)

The pawns are the white computer chairs standing all in a row.  Presumably that's a bishop disguised as a triangle shaped meditation tent over to the side. Spiritual and triangular to imply diagonal.

Ignore the flowing curves of L's desk.  A little fancy, but still L shaped. Positioning the White Knight, who has so often got his feet up; astride his table - equine in its stead - as befits a rider.

That L is the White Knight in a giant chessboard also accounts for his choice of lucky ring.  The horseshoe signet which had me so befuddled back at the beginning of Death Note's television series run, when I thought it was actually a crescent moon.

Perhaps this explains too the purple horselike creature surveying Kira in that last picture from his own room.  Black gets a knight too, though I'm not sure purple counts as black.

Nevertheless, Light's better off now than he was two episodes back, when white captured the black queen and took her clean off the table.   A move which forced black king Kira to play repeatedly in check, relying upon stalemate to remain in the game.
Misa captured in Death Note TV 2015

White Knight takes Black Queen
Light imprisoned in Death Note TV 2015

CHECK!
Kira captured in TV Death Note 2015

CHECK!
A desperate recourse to hope that he lasted long enough to win freedom by default.  But it all worked out as planned.

At least he's got a queen.  Stop looking at Near, no white queen there despite the actress playing them.   Weren't you paying attention last week with the Tower of Babel and all?  Or the week before that, with Near positioned up above in surveillance from a camera?  Or a few weeks back with that big, red monument beckoning them on to the field of play. 

Dude's playing rook right now.

Meanwhile L's having to pretend white has a queen too. Played psychologically - to be subtly intimidating, standing right alongside him - and introduced by dint of installing a suitably regal chess-piece pillar halfway across the board.
L's white queen pillar in Death Note 2015

The white queen was a pillar of strength for L, and difficult to remove from play

Divergent Plotline for Death Note (2015)

Just when I thought that television's Death Note plot was firmly back in the canon groove, it goes and changes things around again.

The glee in this household was palpable.  After years of knowing the same old story inside and out, it's wonderfully exciting to have something new to enjoy within the same broad contours of this fascinating, familiar tale.

So Misa goes into the forest to collect her Death Note, finds it, digs it up and reads the title. All in red, like a woman on the brink of powerful ascension, as per long established colour coding in imagery for this Death Note television adaptation.  Power right there in her grasp, with all due regard to those scarlet fingernails, which with she raked a manicured touch right across the cellophane.

Then in lieu of regaining her memories, she gets smacked around the head with a spade instead.

Talk about shock!  And good fight with this show's propensity to surprise.  Now us old timers can watch without knowing what is about to happen next.

And It was All Yellow - Colour Coding Villainy & Violence in Death Note Television Show

Death Note TV show Yudagawa
Meet Mikami's new friend Hiroki Yudagawa.  Misa's assailant in the woods; temporary conveyor of the Death Note; quickly sought and identified by L; and an unwelcome distraction for Light.

Yudagawa was brought to us today by the colour yellow.

I'm not kidding.  Look, it follows him around.
Mikami and Yudagawa in tv's Death Note 2015
Death Note Light and Matsuda in Yudagawa's house
He was yellow, Light.  Everything about him yellow, from the random hook on his front door to the children's slide outside his house and about a trillion other things besides.

Including the fact that Near is part way through completion of a plain yellow jigsaw (in place of the usual white one), whilst discussing Yudagawa with L.

You'd think it was just his colour, but then yellow crops up again and again.  Like in the childhood bullying scene reminisced by Mikami, wherein a much more junior thug was indeed wearing yellow.
School bullies in Death Note drama 2015
Hence yellow is slowly being introduced as the Death Note TV series hue of violence.  It's the colour associated with villainy of a much more bog standard level than hitherto encountered in murderous notebook owners, or authority figures advocating torture, and proclaimed geniuses applying the same in blatant disregard of its ineffectiveness as a vehicle for truth.

Yellow applies to the kind of physical violence you'd find in any dodgy pub on a Friday night. Plus the sort of villains who might live in your street.

Like Near.

They Call Me Mello Yellow (Quite Rightly)

Death Note episode 8 Wammy's kids
Soft glow illuminating from Wammy's desk, drawing the eye at the centre of the screen. Casting yellow shadows that bounce from the white and fade into black, showing us Near, sitting there staring back.

Except its not Near, is it?   And I think we all know whose persona watches from the sidelines there.

Lamp like a spotlight, picking out just one figure to be fully lit in this scene: the Mello marionette.  Glow bouncing blond like a halo around the top of its head; its shadow reaching out in the pool of yellow light before it.

Near hasn't twirled a single lock in ages.  The same lamplight shades that white hair in hues of blond and grey. The puppet lies abandoned a few feet away.  To my mind, that's already Mello staring back at us.

So does yellow also mean Mello in this show's internal colour coding?  He'd certainly factor into the Man of Violence designation, vis-a-vis the Mafia. 

Not to mention the more obvious link with the colour of his hair.
Near with Mello Death Note

Except when he's Mello

So We're Going to Ignore Murder in Death Note Then?

We've already had a definite glimpse of Mello in episode eight of Death Note (2015) and there was certainly much violence involved, and a profusion of the colour yellow. 

It makes the scene above downright weird.

Basically we have to accept that Wammy and L are blithely welcoming Near into their midst - introducing them to high-ranking police officers as L's highly intelligent 'right hand man' (despite looking like a child) - and calmly hanging out playing jigsaws. 

All without mentioning this:
Death Note Kudagawa killed by Mello
I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that my parents would have freaked.  I think I would have at least been grounded. 

What I'm 100% certain about is that my Mum and Dad would not have plonked me in front of the Meditation Tent equivalent of a naughty step, then not mentioned the sodding great corpse I created with my own bare hands, while helping me complete pretty puzzles and complimenting me in front of their friends.

But then again, my parents aren't child traffickers in pursuit of detective dollars (unlike Watari) nor enthusiastic torturers (like, say, L).  So perhaps this behaviour is normal in Wammy circles.  The evidence seems to point towards as much (yes, we're all looking at you, Beyond Birthday).

Nevertheless, let's just review what the Wammy House massive are overlooking in their child today:

First their little cherub broke into the home of a known violent assailant.
Picture
With inevitable results, when their ward was violently assaulted. Thus accounting for the split lip sported in later scenes. (Then mysteriously healing in order to disappear for scenes set just hours later.)
Picture
However, this triggered some kind of honour code within the mindset of the emerging Mello persona.  No longer smirking from a puppet's face, Mello sneered, "You've done it now." 

And whatever showed upon his expression - turned away from the camera, thus hidden to us - was enough to cause panic to pass across a grown thug's face.

Mello continued, "Remember, you're the one who laid a hand on me first."  Thus proving that he was raised right, in the correct and sane values that it's ok to commit cold-blooded murder, as long as they hit you first.
Death Note Mello emerging
Death Note live action Mello fighting back
Mello and/or Near - in the pursuit of evidence to support their theory that viciously killed Kudagawa was in receipt of the missing Death Note - then completely trashed the place.
Near and Mello Death Note drama
Before calling home to report upon their investigative breaking, entering and criminal damage;' 'fess up to murder; and get invited around for a nice evening eating cake and doing jigsaws.

Kids today, eh?!
Death Note Near confessing to murder

Near had read about remorse once in a book, but didn't see
how it pertained to the situation in hand.

Shedding Light on Community Policing in Death Note's Japan

Imagine the scene. A young lady has been viciously attacked.  A police officer arrives in her hospital room to take her statement.

Just on it, her boyfriend turns up.  He gabbles stuff about them being friends and asks the constable to go away, so that the couple could talk. 

The officer does not know if this is actually the assailant, as he has no verification nor yet a statement. But he is aware that there's a dangerous woman battering thug out there in his city today.  He needs information fast, so the next female digging in woods might do so without a spade across the head.

So the policeman says, "Yes, no trouble. I'll just leave you to it and take yet more time out of my busy schedule to come back at a time more convenient you to, Mr Random Stranger."  Or words to that effect.

Actually, you don't need to imagine it.  That's precisely what happened in Death Note this week, and the police officer wasn't even being sarcastic in his polite agreement before leaving.

Bizarre.
Death Note TV drama Misa, Light and police officer

"Sorry, Ms Amane, I know you're concussed and confused, but I'm going to leave you to this
strange man for the asking. I'm sure he won't turn out to be a homicidal maniac. "
"That's quite alright, officer."

Dodgy Scriptwriting and Police Procedure in Death Note Television Drama (2015)

Yet not even close to being the most bizarre moment.

That's when the Kira Countermeasures task force hears about the attack upon Misa, and L basically hacks the city's CCTV cameras to find out who did it.

Armed with a name and address, the assembled police officers pretty much discuss whether they can be bothered to investigate further.  The conclusion being that they're too busy with the (largely stagnant) Kira case to nip over and arrest the spade-wielding psycho.

Not even with all that circumstantial evidence linking Kudagawa WITH the Kira case.  Nor does anybody check with head office that Misa's assault is on somebody's else's desk as a case file. 

After all the police officer originally tasked with collecting her statement was too busy being polite to actually do his job. (See above.)
New Death Note episode 8 Misa, Light and police officer
So far, so sadly indicative of many police force attitudes around the world. 

Though perhaps not the message that Death Note's scriptwriter and director intended to convey in this scene.  That would have been - show the caring, supportive presence of nice law enforcement agencies, then get him the Hell out of here ASAP, so we can move the plot along with an anxious exchange of words between Misa and Light.

THEN the bizarrest moment of all kicks in. 

Matsuda decides that actually, he CAN be moved to check out the assailant. But he would like to take his boss's son along with him, perhaps for work experience or something. 

Moreover, Mogi supports Matsuda's suggestion.  Telling their gaffer that Matsuda is so crap at his job that he can only be trusted to investigate if Light is with him.
Death Note Matsuda taking Light on work experience
In lieu of, say, any trained police officer, who's sworn an oath to uphold the law and thus given a mandate by the people of Japan, to act on their behalf in the protection of civilians, pursuit of criminals and preservation of the peace.

After all, the victim was Light's girlfriend, so taking him into the home of her supposed assailant is fine.  I mean, what could possibly go wrong there?  It's not like there's any potential for an emotional reaction, like avenging his missus with swift and bloody retribution, and/or leaving something nasty inside Kudagawa's home.

Plus you know, getting a warrant to search the property is too much paperwork.  So Matsuda will just call the suspect's landlady instead and get her to open his front door. 
Death Note's Matsuda, Light and landlady in Death Note television show 2015

... surely a consideration before they entered a citizen's home?
Anyhow, much waffling done and much more to continue, so I'm going to call this another two parter.  Be back soon with the other half.
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Live Action Mello in Death Note Drama at Last!

1/9/2015

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Consider this a preview: we are finally going to see Mello as a live action Death Note actor.  Mio Yuki switches clothes and character to bring the Mafioso bad boy to life.

As spammed all over Twitter - glimpsed in episode nine, already aired in Japan - here's our first look at a fully realised Death Note Mello live action persona.
Mello in Death Note TV Drama
Image: Mio Yuki as Mello in Death Note 2015
Live action Mello in new Death Note drama
Mello live action Death Note TV Drama episode 9
TV Death Note Mello live action
Death Note TV Mello live action




I have to say that I'm quite excited about this.  Though I am wondering how it will play out if Mello gets burned, then switches back to Near. Will we experience the surreal sight of Near with Mello's burn scar?

What's your take on it all?
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Old Annals of Fear Audiobook Files Uploaded onto YouTube - MelloxMatt Fan-Fiction

28/8/2015

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MelloxMatt Fan-fiction Annals of Fear II eBook by Matilda (MRSJeevas)

Our Death Note bookstore lists where to
read Annals of Fear on-line,
or download it as an eBook.
When I'm not scouring the cyberworld's media for news about Death Note to bring to you, then I'm usually writing fan-fiction set in its universe instead.

As anyone who can read a sidebar already knows.

Those who enjoy reading multi-chaptered Mello and Matt fan-fiction certainly know. 

There's a whole forum of people, lured in by my It Matters series, then staying coz it's chatty, sociable and fun.
A real old school community of MelloxMatt fans (or vice versa, or separated out), occasionally even mentioning them, as we put the world to rights.

You're welcome to join us. The more the merrier.

Some of them have stuck around so long, that they can recall moments in my fan-fiction writing past, which I'd totally forgotten.  Like the time I read chapters aloud from Annals of Fear, in a live chat filled with readers.

And how I said at the time that I could download the archived recordings to my hard-drive.  So what was the likelihood that I still have them somewhere?  Lurking away in a folder.

"Oh, I'd love to see them..." added a younger forumer, "I wasn't around for the MangaBullet days."  Probably wasn' t even born. "It was already down by the time I found you.  I missed out on it all." 

"Yeah! It would be cool to relive the old days like that."  An old friend PMed me later.  "When I used to be your squealing fan-girl."  Trolling.  "Still am." Definitely trolling. Probably. "Reckon you could find them, if you looked hard enough?"

Like I ever throw anything away.

MRSJeevas Reads Annals of Fear Chapters 17-25
(Chat from Guns & Games Members)

Apologies in advance for whatever is on these Annals of Fear audio files. I haven't actually listened back to them.  It's been four years, so I can't remember what was discussed in and between the readings.

Might be safe for granny; might be one long, sordid expletive fest.  What can I say?  Chaotic Neutral, according to all who know me.

Matti's Audiobook of Annals of Fear in Context

Back in 2011, while I was just starting to pen the opening chapters of Walls Came Tumbling Down, a group of my readers gathered in Livestream to hear me read aloud part of a previous novel.

It was my contribution to a Guns and Games gala day. Lodged within a full schedule of events, encompassing over 24 hours worth of Something Nice for Mello/Matt Fans to Enjoy. 

The entire community was involved. Each member of that Mello and Matt fan-club - on the now defunct MangaBullet - bringing something to the table.

A Mello cosplayer streamed herself recreating his burn scar, using some substance which looked awfully realistic when it had dried on.  MxM artists shared tips on capturing the characteristics of the couple in pen strokes and shading. Some writers held tutorials on how to make Mello and Matt live again in prose.

And I read stories. 

Well, one story, and only in a smattering of chapters lifted from the middle. 

Nevertheless, until I eventually get off my backside and fill in the blanks with recordings, it's the best you're going to get in terms of an audio version of Annals of Fear.  But you never know.  I get asked it often enough. Maybe one day I'll even turn up with the goods.
Guns and Games 200 members Mello and Matt thanks

Random Guns & Games picture
from 2011, found hidden on my hard-drive
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TV Death Note Episode 7: Babble, Beyond & Paradise Lost - One Notebook to Bind Them All

26/8/2015

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Near about to turn into Mello
Near Watch is pretty much concluded. After episode 7 of television's Death Note drama, it's undoubtedly proved to be Mello Watch too. Though the jury is still out on Matt there as well.
Live action Mello in Death Note 2015

Finally! Death Note live action Mello on our screens! Man and puppet!
Death Note Mello live-action actor
We so called it.  Back in my review of the very first episode of Death Note's TV drama, I wrote:
Is Near hearing voices?  Are we witnessing a schizophrenic future L?  Or is (s)he merely dissociating him/herself from the dodgier thoughts passing through consideration?
- Death Note News: Review of TV Death Note Episode 1
Watching and piecing together the clues from week to week, my SO and I have increasingly been talking about Near with Multiple Personality Disorder (though I understand that psychologists would prefer us to discuss this as Near's Dissociative Identity Disorder, because they renamed it again).

By episode seven, all speculation was confirmed as fact. We saw Near's persona physically switch into Mello.  We witnessed a re-emerging Near beg Mello, "Don't come out."
Death Note's Near begs Mello not to come out
Thus paving the way for a million future Death Note memes on the subject of Mello coming out.

Death Note's Babel in the Tower:  Multiple Voices Seeking to be Heard at the Same Time

There was a hint, in the scenes immediately prior to the great reveal, that split identities - or the divisive babble of too many voices simultaneously sounding - was going to factor into this story.

Our clue was in the pseudonym taken by Near: Babel.
Yotsuba Group discuss Babel in Death Note 2015
Death Note's Babel asks for hush money
With all the Judeo-Christian imagery surrounding Near in this series, it's not too difficult to guess from whence they lifted this new moniker.  Genesis 11:1-9 tells - within a Biblical context- the story of the City of Babel.

Its people decided to build a tower, those top reaches would allow them to climb into Heaven itself. God wasn't best pleased about this imminent invasion of human beings, so set out to thwart them. 

Until then, everyone on Earth had been united. They spoke just one language and all understood each other. God did a bit of smiting, or cursing, whatever you call it, whereby their mother tongue suddenly splintered into all the various languages heard around the globe, then and since.

Hence Babel being the root of babble. Multiple voices. No-one able to understand the other.

Additionally, God 'scattered them abroad', so that none were congregated in the city anymore, but its population exiled all over the planet.  The people divided from one into many.
And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language...
- Genesis 11:6
Oh look! Near and Mello are one! And possibly Matt makes three, though the evidence is tenuous and not yet confirmed by canon. But they can be - and are about to be - separate entities.  Just like the people of Babel.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
- Genesis 11:7
Plus it doesn't hurt that Babel looks a bit like Babe L, as befits L's successor or, as Near is described in the TV adaptation of Death Note, 'consultant'.

Nor does the Babel imagery end there.

Kiras Meeting in the Yotsuba Tower of Babel

The whole Yotsuba group could be seen as acting akin to the citizens of that Biblical city.  They band together at the top of a Tower and, as a kind of collective Kira, they seek to steal for themselves that which habitually belongs to deity.  Be that access into Heaven, or writing in a Shinigami's notebook.
Death Note Yotsuba website

Yotsuba Group's website prominently features their tower
The Yotsuba arc continues running parallel to the Tower of Babel tale, insofar as God (well, Light Yagami shorn of his Kira memories) sets out to divide and conquer them, thus snatching back divine power as his sole preserve.

Light doesn't change the Yotsuba executives' language. Despite the nice touch in 'Babel' (aka Near/Mello) asking for 'hush money'.

However L and Babel succeed in causing divisions amongst the group's mindset. When they are no longer working in accord, nor even in the same room, its a simple matter to confound their pseudo-divine plan.

Another Note: Beyond Birthday's Near Nod in Death Note (2015) Episode Seven

Of course, when we first saw that giant B appear upon the screen, none of us were thinking of Mello, Near, Babel nor anyone else inserted into the show.

In the Death Note universe, an Old English font letter B signifies L's original back-up: Beyond Birthday.
B in Death Note's TV drama 2015
I thought we were jamming with L's second. We were, but not in the way that elicited so many gasps from those watching from my house.
Watari: There are three people known as the greatest detectives in the world. L, Eraldo Coil, and Marie Deneuve. Babel is ranked after the three of them.

Makimura: The fourth, then?

L: No, Coil and Deneuve are both me. So Babel is actually the second. Quite the troublesome one.
- Death Note Episode 7 (2015)
We were so being trolled by the writers of this television version of Death Note. Despite the fact that most of us, after our initial shock at seeing Beyond's B, had spent the rest of its occurrences assuming that Yotsuba's detective was Near.

The only major mystery being whether we were hearing Near or Mello, as the dominant personality at the time.

Yet when L introduced B as his second, Beyond's cameo suddenly felt like a distinct possibility again.
It was now common knowledge that the three great post war detectives, L, Eraldo Coil and Danuve were all actually the same person... L engaged in a war with the real Eraldo Coil, and the real Danuve, and emerged victorious, claiming their detective codes... in addition, L possessed many other detective codes... at least three digits worth.
- Mello, Another Note by Nisioisin, p43
He was B.
The second child in Wammy's House.
"If only I could see the death of the world," Beyond Birthday murmured, on August 19th at 6am, just as he woke up.
- Mello, Another Note by Nisioisin, p 95
NB This episode of television's Death Note drama was aired on August 16th 2015.  The 19th was a Wednesday.
Death Note: Another Note cover

Beyond Birthday was L's
antagonist in the novel
Death Note: Another Note
He was B. B stood for Backup. For Babel - the second... OMG! Was Death Note's Beyond Birthday in this show after all?!!

I mean, how fabulous would that have been?!
The first child, A, was unable to handle the pressure of living up to L and took his own life, and the second child, Beyond Birthday, was brilliant and deviant.
B stood for Backup.
But B tried to surpass L, not become him.
Mello, Another Note by Nisiosin, p105
Death Note I Am Babel
Alas, no.  Near has not only merged with Mello, but absorbed Beyond Birthday's background too.  It remains to be seen whether this includes his jam-loving, murderous self, as a separate persona. 

However in that 'I know all about it. Deep down inside, you think you're better than L' line from episode two, we've already seen Mello accuse Near of something more commonly attributed to Beyond.  Did 'deep down inside' hold a more significance than hitherto realised? 

Dissociative Identity Disorder in Death Note

Babel as L's acquaintance in Death Note
Watari and L call him Near
Ok, I'll call it - Near IS Beyond Birthday!  And that's not all.

A could have been the original individual - the first child - whose personality fragmented into the rest, and is now lost beneath them all.  Near is so named, as the persona most closely resembling A.  Or its an acronym: Near Enough A's Replica.

I tell you, Matt's in there too.  Probably Linda and all the Letters from L: Change the World as well. Given enough time, scope and energy, Near's going to turn out to be a walking Wammy's House; all Watari Letters contained within a single form.

Which probably accounts for the outstanding cleverness overall.

A Double Wammy in Death Note's Multiple Personality Plot Twists?

We should never forget the key point about Beyond Birthday - he looked like L.  Enough to fool Naomi Misora into thinking she was dealing with the same man. Practically clones, L and Beyond, physically at least.
Death Note Another Note Fly Cover

Beyond Birthday with Naomi Misora on the fly sheet of Another Note.
A version depicting Beyond Birthday close up adorns the German translation book-cover.
Have we yet discounted the hypothesis given in an earlier blog entry - that it's L with the multiple personalities?  Near et al live solely within his head; with an option on Watari additionally being a dissociated fragment of L's own self.

It would explain why the detective's insistence upon a sterile home environment faded whenever he went outside to play tennis or watch Ichigo Berry in concert.  That wasn't L. It was Mello or somebody wearing L's face.

Less L changing the world, than the world triggering a change in L.

Moreover, L's Dissociative Identity Disorder would fix an anomaly which has been niggling me since the very first episode.  (I am a Death Note fan-fiction writer, finding plot-holes to credibly fill is what breathes life into our tales.)  How could Wammy's House alter architecturally, depending upon whether L or Near sit on that staircase?
L and Watari at Wammy's House - Death Note Episode 1

Wammy's House: Watari opens the door, while L waits on the stairs
Wammy's House with Near and Mello in Death Note TV drama

Wammy's House: Near on the stairs, The Fall of the Rebel Angels replaces L's door
Maybe there is no Wammy's House in the physical world. It exists as a mind palace inside the psyche of a genius detective, acting as the gateway through which dissociated selves become dominant. No accident therefore why it appears as a hallway - the only room ever glimpsed in that house - devoid of creature comforts, stark and stripped, even when highly decorated.  Its main purpose being as a place to leave or be received.

Its secondary purpose to be where personae stand by, acting as consultants in the near consciousness. Communicating fully with the self on public display, seeing upon their screens what that worldly self views with their own eyes.
L calls Near a bit of a personal consultant

L explains Near's relationship to himself. Watari had labelled them 'acquaintances'.
Which is why L and Near's respective monitors once displayed the same page of Kira suspects; why L was able to hear Mello speaking, though the camera showed that Near's lips were not moving.  They were still in the House at that point. L discerned Mello coming to the fore within his own mind.

Hence the terrified look then, and the horror on L's face, when Watari informed him that Near had left the House.

Watari acts as a kind of internal gatekeeper, or an external carer, able to inform L when personae become dominant without his knowing that time had been missed. 

Watari was telling him that he'd been usurped by Near.  That Near had been dominant, while L unknowingly and unwittingly was shut down, losing time through being stashed somewhere within the unseen chambers of Wammy's House.

Worse still, that Near could act as a conduit, or else has a twin, a counterpoint to his own behaviour - so close in morality to L, that the latter doesn't always mind him coming to the fore - which can too easily flip to control them both. It might be Mello playing maverick with their case-load, and it's impossible to predict his moves or count on tracking them down later. 

They couldn't even trust that he was always on their side, working with L and Near, rather than Kira.
Death Note's Near dismisses L's worries about Mello

Is that a Mafia-esque big, black chair, foreshadowing away, looming in the background? Last seen in the manga Rod Ross's LA penthouse suite.
They could lose the game simply because Mello played by different rules, or entered into another game entirely.  And what would it cost, if Beyond Birthday was ever to wake to discern the death of the world from a Wammy House hallway window?

Oh! There's so much fun to be had speculating on the possibilities inherent in this new Death Note storyline!  But I'd better return to what is, and not what might potentially be.

Creation of a Successor - L and Near's Michelangelo Moment in Death Note (2015)

As primary player in opposition to Kira, L demonstrated his ability to consider the whole team in episode seven of Death Note TV drama.  If he was forced to forfeit his position, then it would be beneficial to assign a successor.  

That way Kira wouldn't gain too much ground, while struggles for dominance divided and conquered those who might stand in his way.

L has already foreseen that his baton could soon need to be passed on.  He cryptically tagged Near, placing him on stand-by as his choice for successor.

The way he did so owed a debt in imagery to Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam. Wherein God reaches out to touch Adam, gifting the spark of life to one made in His own image.
Michelangelo The Creation of Adam
Death Note's Near takes L's jigsaw piece
Or, as L did it in Death Note (2015), gifting a jigsaw piece to the one who thinks most closely to himself.

All on the off-chance that L should (metaphorically of course) fatally place his own wrong piece in the battle against Kira. Then it would fall to his successor - 'It could be you, Near' - to finish the puzzle, and the war.

Near caught the implication loud and clear, with an expression further seeing significance in L leaving the scene, as soon as his piece was conveyed. It was a gesture laden with pathos. Inherently implying that L expected to die.
Near watches L leave
Though naturally Mello was looking in the opposite direction, when all consideration of L's successor pointed due Near.

He was probably too busy noticing that their surroundings still looked like a Mafia penthouse in Los Angeles.

Nor had it been explained, other than the room wasn't in Wammy's House ("You don't have to go back to the house?" L asked Near not two minutes previously). The furnishings weren't even remotely like those in the hotel, wherein we last saw Near lodged and within the depths of which L had his own hide-out.

Perhaps it would have been too blatant had they gone instead for the zebra striped suite from the other Mafia digs in the desert.
Death Note Near and Mello's Room
Though it begs the question that, if I'm right about where this scene takes place, then why are Near and L there?

Unless I'm also right in my wilder speculation that this room doesn't exist in the real world. It's L visiting a secondary self inside a place located inside his own psyche. 

And that jigsaw piece passing hands is L acknowledging that he's losing his position as dominant personality amidst a multitude of others.
Near and Mello learn of L's death

How this scene is more commonly seen

Light Changes L's Mind: Death Note Winners

Actually, we did watch L's mind wilfully changing, or at least his mindset concerning how winning and losing would be judged in this clash between himself and Kira.

In L's world-view, the challenge has been issued with Light as his opponent, regardless of how they spent episode seven double teaming against an external interloper. The Yotsuba group, headed by Higuchi as the current Death Note owning Kira, were never serious challengers in L's book. They existed as an opportunity to gather clues and ammunition for the proper battle of wills with Light.

But to play an effective game, both sides need to know the rules.  Otherwise how could anyone be declared champion?  It would be a hollow victory without the loser knowing themselves to be beaten.

Thus the conditions for winning were set out by Light and agreed by L.
Even if we learn how he kills people, if a comrade dies that's losing, in my opinion.
- Light Yagami, Death Note (2015), episode 7
A game-changing moment, which saw L immediately switching tactics to take down the Yotsuba group and its Kira with ease.  But for him, this contained a fatal flaw.

A Fatal Flaw for L in new Death Note Drama

Death Note's L observing that Light thinks like Kira
Light couldn't have known that he spoke for Kira too.

But no matter that. L had already observed that Light and Kira's minds worked along the same lines. Light's thoughts would probably fit in with Kira's plans too. Their dual outlook aligning in this duel.

Nor was Light necessarily aware that his definition of winning was meaningful for L. 

It was Kira who entered into the battle of wills with the detective, not Light. If he felt the challenge, then it was in reaction to L's actions now. His memories of the previous cerebral duelling had been wiped.

If L's pride hadn't been so intent upon recognition as the winner, then he wouldn't have altered his game-plan. Perhaps the outcome might have been different. As it was, allowing Light to influence strategy had immediate consequences.

He touched the Death Note. His memories flooded back.  Himself as Kira returned.  Just as planned.

Paradise Lost and Kira - Myself am Hell

There have always been shades of Milton's Paradise Lost running as an undercurrent through Death Note. 

One day, I shall write a whole blog comparing the two, demonstrating how significantly Kira quotes Satan from Milton's epic verse.

To my mind, one of those moments comes in Light's classic line, 'I am Kira'.  I can't help thinking of Satan in Paradise Lost screaming out, 'Myself am Hell!'

It's not word for word - nor even close - but their proclamations hold the same feeling for me.  Not least because both are spoken as each anti-hero assumes their role by mentally and emotionally accepting its inevitability.  Each against a background of isolation, as all relationships become merely instruments through which power may be gained or retained.
Light and L in the light

Light the bringer of L?
If this Death Note live action drama continues along tradition lines, then we can see another link between Milton's Satan and TV's Kira.

Each are now poised to duel with an avenging second. Be it Satan's clash with the Archangel Michael (Champion of El), or Kira's confrontation with Mello, aka Mihael Keehl (Champion of L).

The latter already long since viewed in kinship to St Michael. Ensured by Near's constant visual references to Giordano's The Fall of the Rebel Angels - showing Michael taking down Satan - whenever Mello's potential in play came to the fore.

Plus the obvious parallel in which Satan was Heaven's Light-Bringer, and Kira was Light.  Ignorance is bliss they say.  Light hated Kira. His own paradise lost in the knowledge that he is Kira.

The Return of the King: Kira Finds his Precious

However it wasn't Milton, but Tolkien brought to mind in Masataka Kubota's performance as a re-emerging Kira. 

Watching this Kira clutch his Death Note prompted me to write 'Gollum' on my pad, then circle it several times as the sequence progressed.  I really did expect him to start hissing, 'My Precious!'
Gollum smirking
Gollum grin
Kira regains his Death Note
Kira returns in Death Note

Eat your heart out Andy Serkis! Kira has his Precious back!
The television adaptation of Death Note has pinged off Tolkien's Middle Earth saga several times already.

Not until Death Note 2015 have we heard that the notebook alters personalities to the bad. That using it invokes paranoia and feelings of dread, not to mention causing agony for those writing names.  These are traits more commonly associated with the One Ring to Bind Them All in Tolkien's universe.

The emergence of a secondary personality - split from the owner's primary persona and seemingly built to serve the artefact - is another facet found in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Most notably in Gollum, whose conversations with his other self might have also inspired Mio Yuki's portrayal of Near and Mello in open discussion.

That Gollum with the Ring appears physically transformed is echoed in how TV Death Note's Kira can be discerned, distinct from Light, changed utterly.

In Death Note's Dark Prism Light Splits

Light Yagami denies being Kira

Light Yagami denies being Kira
Light was actually being truthful then, when he emphatically told L that he wasn't Kira. At least in this version of Death Note.

There was none of that in the original manga Death Note, nor its anime, nor even the previous Japanese live-action adaptations. In all of those variants, Kira seemed less Light Yagami's split personality and more an alternative name for the same individual.

Light's nick-name, if you like.

Accepted and assumed during a period when Light's psyche stretched to embrace ownership of the Death Note. A label therefore for his supposed megalomania and increasingly apparent descent into madness. But still fundamentally a single self.

Only by integrating Tolkienesque themes, do we witness Light and Kira separated, as dissociated identities and possibly an emerging secondary self entirely.

By implication, the Death Note dividing his very soul.

Kira Identified in Split Personalities

Let's just say this: you will feel the fear and pain known only to humans who've used the notebook. And when it's your time to die, it will fall on me to write your name in my death note. Be warned any human who's used a death note can neither go to heaven nor hell for eternity... That's all.
- Ryuk, Death Note Anime, Episode 1
Maybe this soul-split is why those who use the Death Note are condemned to Mu when they die? 

Complete souls are required to enter Heaven or Hell, at least as such things are understood by shinigami. Personae fragmenting from the same being dilutes the core identity enough that their passport into the afterlife is denied. With nowhere to go, they are lost to the void and formless. Nothingness ensues.

Moreover, this might explain why Death Note owners are identifiable by the lack of a name and date above their heads. It could be that shinigami eyes are confounded by the data being multiplied, as more than one person is present inside that head.

If so, then this has obvious implications for Near and Mello too.
Death Note Mihael Keehl Name and Date

How does one view the name and days of a puppet, or two in one personae?
Not least because shinigami eyes are twice used to read Mihael Keehl above Mello's head in the canon rendering. What will happen during those scenes in the story?  Can Mello still be killed, as one self amongst multiples? 

If so, how does that affect Near?  Will he die too?  Or will he seem to make like a gamer or a cat with apparently numerous lives to risk in battling Kira? 

If not, then how might Kira react to the discovery that some - to all practical extent and purpose - possess immunity from the Death Note's deadly reach. And L's successors are amongst their number.

A new twist beckons, as the insertion of split personalities creates diverging plot-lines. It will be interesting to see how this pans out as the story progresses.
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