Updates, discussion, events and news about Death Note.
  Death Note News
  • News
  • Death Note Month of...
    • Kira Month
    • Matsuda Month
    • Misa Month
    • Naomi Misora Month
    • Wammy Month
  • Death Note Interviews
    • Drew Nelson Interview
    • No Need to Stay Interview
  • Death Note Gifts
    • Death Note Books
    • Death Note Cosplay
    • Death Note DVDs
    • Death Note Music
    • Death Note Accessories
    • Death Note Mugs and Water Bottles
    • Death Note Christmas Gifts >
      • It Matters Death Note Christmas Gifts
    • Character Stores >
      • Death Note Light Yagami Gifts
      • Death Note Matt Gifts
      • Death Note Mello Gifts
      • Death Note Teru Mikami Gifts
      • Death Note Misa Gifts
      • Death Note Naomi Misora Gifts
      • Death Note Wammy Gifts
  • News Summary
    • On This Day in Death Note
  • About
  • Contact
  • News
  • Death Note Month of...
    • Kira Month
    • Matsuda Month
    • Misa Month
    • Naomi Misora Month
    • Wammy Month
  • Death Note Interviews
    • Drew Nelson Interview
    • No Need to Stay Interview
  • Death Note Gifts
    • Death Note Books
    • Death Note Cosplay
    • Death Note DVDs
    • Death Note Music
    • Death Note Accessories
    • Death Note Mugs and Water Bottles
    • Death Note Christmas Gifts >
      • It Matters Death Note Christmas Gifts
    • Character Stores >
      • Death Note Light Yagami Gifts
      • Death Note Matt Gifts
      • Death Note Mello Gifts
      • Death Note Teru Mikami Gifts
      • Death Note Misa Gifts
      • Death Note Naomi Misora Gifts
      • Death Note Wammy Gifts
  • News Summary
    • On This Day in Death Note
  • About
  • Contact

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

Death Note news articles

Join a Pinterest Community Group for Wammy and Wammy's House!

15/4/2016

0 Comments

 
Death Note Wammy Pinterest board run by Death Note News.
A whole group of us are already pinning our Wammy's House and Mr Wammy related items of interest over on Pinterest.  You can too!
We have a community Pinterest Board for Death Note's Wammy cohort, which anyone may join and contribute what they will.

It's part of a whole collection of character or other subject specific boards created and maintained by Death Note News.

So click away on the follow button, wait for your invitation to be added to the board - prompt us with a comment here* containing your Pinterest name if you want to hurry us up with that, though we will try to be quick with the Wammy additions during this Month of event - then pin, pin, pin all you've got on Watari and his wards.

And once you're in, feel free too to invite your friends along. All our members can add other pinners to the group. That's what community is all about!
* If you wish to be added to other boards too, then list those in your comment as well.  There are so many of you that these things otherwise go in bursts and starts!
Follow Death Note News's board Mr Wammy and Wammy's House on Pinterest.
Latest pins on our Watari Pinterest Community Board
Do you have a group, forum, community, fan-club or other website dedicated to Watari, Wammy's House or anything connected with the Wammys?  Let us know via our submission page and we'll big it up for you during this Month of Watari on Death Note News.  Help us get the community connected with like-minded members of the same fandom!

Posted as Part of

Wammy Month on Death Note News
Read More
0 Comments

The Quartermaster Quest: Death Note Wammy Fan-Fiction by MRSJeevas

14/4/2016

0 Comments

 
Matti might be Editor-in-Chief of Death Note News, but she's better known elsewhere - writing under the unfortunate moniker of MRSJeevas - as the author of the It Matters series of Death Note fan-fiction novels centring upon Mello and Matt. To encourage other fan-fiction writers to submit their stories for these Month of events, she's been drifting out of her comfort zone to write short stories and drabbles on whatever character is our monthly focus.  This time around, she's finally back on home ground, writing about a Wammy.  In fact, THE Wammy.  Enjoy!

The Quartermaster Quest: A Drabble Upon the Dreams of Quillsh Wammy

Sniper Watari in Death Note anime
Everybody wanted Aston Martins these days; all drinking Martinis, shaken not stirred. But they were missing the point. Seduced by the flash and swagger of James Bond, seeing no further than the bravado and charm. Fleming's character had daring, that much was true. Plucky fellow and all that. But it was born of arrogance and the bankroll to fund it. The protagonist's sense that he was too elite to die; not through any true talent. Bond had just enough intelligence to follow his privileged past into an assumption of immortality. False trail. Shoddy thinking.

His imitators thought hedonism set Bond apart from all those other two-bit classy spies - that seemed everywhere from the pulp fiction piles to the silver screen in these days of escalating Cold War news. Ubiquitous in the background; sparking a backlash frenzy of unimaginative fashionable writers pandering to their half-asleep readership. No, the real thing that elevated Fleming's work wasn't Bond himself, but the gadgetry he carried on him.

And that wasn't Bond, James Bond, at all. That was the truly exciting position held by Q. The inventor(s). Bound by nothing but the outer reaches of his - or their - own imagination; boundless really in its lack of brevity. The creative force behind the flashy tapestry of the spy's rich world. Godlike in that way. So mysterious too, that single letter to denote a being controlling Fate from the background.

Q. Like Quillsh. His own first name. Thrilling to it the first time he read Casino Royale - 'see Q for any equipment you need' - twenty-two and suddenly knowing precisely what he wanted to do. Join the British Secret Service Q-Squad and invent things to save the world.

Only the reality wasn't like that at all. He was in. His family connections saw to that. But there was no Q-Squad in MI6 like the novels promised. Just order requisitions in triplicate; more paperwork than vision could withstand. No figure of Q as strode gloriously withdrawn into the shadows of the movie plots inspired by the books. Merely Quillsh Wammy labouring under the surrender of disappointment with petty bureaucrats (and worse, politicians) dictating his work-life with rigid demands. Tedious in their scope. No room for innovation. No Q. Not even a Bond. Just people who wished they were the latter and thought an Aston Martin purchase, celebrated with a Martini, could cut it for themselves.

The field guys called him Q and thought it funny. Wammy enjoyed the shivery honour of the title, at first; then realised the joke was on him and disdained them for it. People whom Wammy wouldn't trust with the key to the office petty change box given free rein with the treasury of Britain. Most of them raised to start wars, not intercept their onset and divert into harmless channels. Playing at national security as they'd arranged their tin soldiers in childhood. Like it was all a game.

It was the way they were raised. Q mused. Those with the wealth and connections to be here weren't those with the common touch to understand why they should change the world. Improve it. Make it safer. Most of them breed out of brain cells several generations back. Too lacking in much beyond what was and what should always be, in their opinion, immutable; and unfair.

In bitterness, Quillsh tried to tip the balance in his own small ways. Bypassing the limitations of that stack of requisition forms by letting his mind soar into the stratosphere of inventive bliss. Becoming the Creator. Q in actuality, not just name.

That earned him a final warning and quite a few dressings down for wasting public funds. So he did it in his own time. Wasting his hours on wandering through ideas, akin to Da Vinci in their scope, and enjoying them immensely. Then finding and patenting one, then more, that stood out as genuinely useful.

Of all the weird and wonderful, it was a tiny stop-lock that made him rich. In his own right wealthy beyond his uncle's wildest dreams. That sour old man for whom money and its acquisition had always taken the place of feeling or reaching further than himself. Who'd raised Wammy in name only as guardian; the reality being boarding school, held back for the holidays, as his uncle found it too distracting to have a child at home. Except for Christmas break, which was achingly boring and way too formal. Quillsh blocking out droning talk of the stock exchange and investment banking with mechanisms of the imagination, built silently as excitement, or diversion to replace the love lost with his long gone parents.

Uncle William was interested in his nephew now. Fascinated in fact, in his prospects and his bank-account. Lectures on the best stock in which to invest at the present time - naturally brokered through himself - didn't get more alluring with adulthood. Uncle William's interest being solely in the interest that could be due.

While Wammy's remained entirely with the Quartermaster.

The first orphanage founded was to thwart Uncle William, and to teach him something too. A little reaching out in assuage of his childhood; plus amusement. So many startled agents learning that power in riches didn't need to come with Martinis on a yacht; the Aston Martin waiting; an endless supply of fine foods and alcohol; the ladies dripping in all they could grab. Power came best in the adulation of young minds under his control, to cater for and educate according to Wammy's wealth and whim.

Such things confused them. Which suited Quillsh just fine. For he was an orphan and so was James Bond. A fact that seemed to miss them entirely. Maybe one day a young Bond might pass within his warden watch; and he could be Q.
James Bond Quartermaster Q (Desmond Llewelyn)
Death Note Watari screens
James Bond Q (Ben Whitshaw)
Q with cake for James Bond
Watari Death Note movie
For more Death Note fan-fiction by Matti, check out He Moves Me Differently - website for the Mello/Matt It Matters series - and those stories written for earlier Death Note News Month of events: Mu Amongst Fools: A Drabble from the Death of Light Yagami and Matsu's Musing, a Decade on: Death Note Matsuda Fan-Fiction.

Posted as Part of

Death Note News Wammy Month
Read More
0 Comments

Casting Wammy Around the World: Actors Who Have Played Death Note's Watari

13/4/2016

0 Comments

 
Welcome to our roll call of all the actors ever to have played Quillsh Wammy in the varying adaptations of Death Note.  We've hunted them down across the globe and to the best of our ability, here they are.

Though please - it's driving us mad - who IS the sungwoo providing a voice for Watari in the Tagalog dub Death Note anime?  It's been a mission for so many; each new challenger thinking they were somehow better at internet searching and/or hounding Filipino friends, yet the Tagalog Wammy actor's name alludes us.  If you know, we're begging you, put us out of our misery

And if you deem this quest to be game on for yourself... you have our utmost sympathy as you stand poised to join our thwarted ranks. Nevertheless, good luck. We're all cheering you on.

Kiyoshi Kobayashi

Kiyoshi Kobayashi Watari Japanese voice actor Death Note anime
Voice Actor
(aka 小林清志)
- Death Note anime Japanese original
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Japanese original
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Japanese original

French Tickner

French Tickner Watari English dub Death Note anime actor
Voice Actor
(aka French Tichner, French A. Tickner)
- Death Note anime English dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God English dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors English dub

Ron Halder

Ron Halder Watari English dub actor Death Note anime
Voice Actor
(aka Ronald Halder)
- Death Note anime English dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God English dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors English dub

José Santa Cruz

José Santa Cruz Brazilian dub Watari voice actor Death Note anime
Voice Actor
- Death Note anime Brazilian Portuguese dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Brazilian Portuguese dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Brazilian Portuguese dub

Wong Chee King

Wong Chee King Watari voice actor Mandarin dub Death Note anime
Voice Actor
(aka Zijing Huang, Huang Zijing, Wong Chi-King, Huang Zi-Jing, Wong Ji-Jing, Wong4 Zi2 Ging3, Jinshu, 黃子敬)
- Death Note anime Cantonese dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Cantonese dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Cantonese dub

Félix Benito

Félix Benito Watari actor Spanish dub Death Note anime Catalan dub too
Voice Actor
(aka Félix Benito Guitart)
- Death Note anime Spanish AND Catalan dubs
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Spanish AND Catalan dubs
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Spanish AND Catalan dubs

Pierre Dourlens

Pierre Dourlens French dub actor Watari Death Note anime
Voice Actor
- Death Note anime French dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God French dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors French dub

Cyrille Monge

Cyrille Monge French Death Note film dub actor Watari
Voice Actor
- Death Note film French dub
- Death Note: The Last Name film French dub

Hans-Gerd Kilbinger

Hans-Gerd Kilbinger German voice actor Watari Death Note anime
Voice Actor
- Death Note anime German dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God German dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors German dub

Várday Zoltán

Várday Zoltán Hungarian dub Watari Death Note anime
Voice Actor
- Death Note anime Hungarian dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Hungarian dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Hungarian dub

Michele Kalamera

Michele Kalamera Italian dub Watari Death Note anime
Voice Actor
- Death Note anime Italian dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Italian dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Italian dub

Shunji Fujimura

Shunji Fujimura Watari actor Death Note movie
Film Actor
(aka 藤村俊二)
- Death Note film Japanese original
- Death Note: The Last Name film Japanese original

Kazuaki Hankai

Kazuaki Hankai Watari actor Death Note TV drama
Television Actor
(aka 半海一晃)
- Death Note TV drama

Park Yeonghwa

Park Yeonghwa Watari Korean dub Death Note anime
Voice Actor
(aka Yeong-Hwa Park, Bak Young-hwa, Bakyounghwa 박영화)
- Death Note anime Korean dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Korean dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Korean dub

Youwen Chen

Youwen Chen Watari Mandarin dub Death Note anime
Voice Actor
(aka Chenyou Wen, Chen Youwen, 陳幼文, 藤村俊二)
- Death Note anime Mandarin dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Mandarin dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Mandarin dub

Carlos del Campo

Carlos del Campo Watari Latin Espanol dub Death Note anime
Voice Actor
(aka Carlos Nicolas Ramos del Campo)
- Death Note anime Mexican dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Mexican dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Mexican dub

Radosław Popłonikowski

Radosław Popłonikowski Watari Polish dub Death Note anime
Voice Actor
- Death Note anime Polish dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Polish dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Polish dub

Vadim V Prokhorov

Vadim V Prokhorov Watari Russian dub Death Note anime
Voice Actor
(aka Vadim Vladimirovich Prokhorov, Владимирович)
- Death Note anime Russian dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Russian dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Russian dub

Rafael Turia

Rafael Turia Watari Spanish dub Death Note film
Film Actor
- Death Note film Spanish dub
- Death Note: The Last Name film Spanish dub

Unknown

Here there be content
Voice Actor
- Death Note anime Tagalog dub
- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Tagalog dub
- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Tagalog dub
There they are!  The full roll call of Mr Wammy actors and voice actors (excepting the elusive Tagalog one).  Their birthdays have also been added to the Death Note calendar, if known.  We are missing the following information, if anyone knows it:
  • Wong Chee King's year of birth;
  • Félix Benito's date of birth and birthplace (we believe the latter may be Barcelona);
  • Where in Canada Ron Halder was born;
  • Pierre Dourlens's date of birth and birthplace;
  • Cyrille Monge's date of birth;
  • Where in South Korea Park Yeonghwa was born;
  • Where in Russia Vadim V Prokhorov was born;
  • Rafael Turia's date of birth and birthplace;
  • Anything about the Tagalog Watari voice actor.
Thanks in advance!

Posted as Part of

Month of Watari
Button Text
0 Comments

Wearing Mr Wammy: Finnish Cosplayer Kinky Mattila with Watari Costume Tips

13/4/2016

0 Comments

 
Death Note Wammy cosplayer Kinky Mattila

Death Note Wammy cosplayed by Kinky Mattila
Another Death Note character event;
another cosplayer willing
to spill the beans on
how to dress like them.

This time it's
Month of Mr Wammy
on Death Note News and
Kinky Mattila is here
to tell you all how to
don your Watari wear
in style.

Kinky Mattila has been cosplaying since 2005 with her group Team Fabulous Awesome. Over in their native Finland, TFA have been creating costumes within a raft of fandoms, including Death Note, of course.  As the image above amply demonstrates, that means Wammy cosplay too (flanked by his wards Mello and Near courtesy of fellow TFA members). 

TFA show no sign of waning after more than a decade in costume - 'still doing it happily', Kinky Mattila confirms - with plenty of pictures to fill the TFA-Finland cosplay gallery on DeviantART.  But first she has advice to share on cosplaying Mr Wammy.

Death Note Costume Tips: How to Cosplay Watari by Kinky Mattila

Have you cosplayed Quillsh Wammy now or in the past?
Yes - in the past.

Any anecdotes about your experiences cosplaying Mr Wammy?
It was my very first male cosplay with a moustache.

My friends were creating a Death Note cosplay group and the only available character left at that time was Watari. It was suggested that I should cosplay with his face hidden,  but I decided to be wild and his face visible with a moustache.

At that time I didn't know you could buy fake moustaches, so I made my own - sacrificing my white wig for it. It looked kinda okay and, cos I don't use make up, so also that time I didn't use either.

I liked cosplaying Watari. It was a nice experience. Plus I heard I was the first Watari cosplayer here in Finland at the Tracon 2 cosplay event!

For the first time, I got asked for so many pictures to be taken of me. I was so overwhelmed by the attention I received.

I just loved that cosplay.  Also that Watari costume made me want to keep on cosplaying, no matter if I got noticed or not.
Kinky Mattila cosplays Watari New Hero of Death Note

Kinky Mattila's Watari cosplay - originally posted to her
DeviantART gallery, with her variation on a theme here
How would you go about creating a costume for Watari/Mr Wammy?
Find at a flea market some suit that fits you and buy some white shirts for men.  They are not that expensive here - about like 10euros. Buy some fake moustaches, and a pair of Santa's glasses, then colour them grey. Add men's shoes, of course.

A nice wig is also good to get, but your own hair works too.

What clothing and/or props do you feel are essential Watari costume items?
Men's suit.

Is there more to cosplaying Wammy than the outfit? (Look/behaviour etc.)
Just to have fun.  That is most important to me and nothing else. <3

What's your professional opinion about ready-made Death Note costumes, such as those in our Cosplay Store? Any pieces in there decent enough for a Mr Wammy cosplay? (Be honest!)
I haven't looked for any custom made Death Note costumes; but the ones that I found right now, most of them seemed really nice and need just a little bit of changing.

Any last tips for anyone reading, who wishes to create their Watari cosplay from scratch?
Go look for a cheap men's suit and start from that. :D  Nowadays it is way easier to look like a man than it was then (when I cosplayed Watari).

But do it!!! GO FOR IT!"!!! You can rock it. :D

Cosplayers!

Would you like to have a go at answering these questions yourself? 

A different Death Note character forms the focus each month.

If you cosplay Death Note - or indeed a cosplayer of any tale - and you're willing to share your tips, thoughts and advice with the fandom, then visit our cosplayer's questionnaire page to fill in the form.

Thank you in advance!

Posted as Part of

Death Note Wammy Month
Read More
0 Comments

Death Note Profile:  Who is Quillsh Wammy?

8/4/2016

1 Comment

 
Mr Wammy (Shunji Fujimura) -  Death Note live-action movies (Japan)

Mr Wammy as played by Shunji Fujimura
in live-action Death Note films
Watari - aka Quillsh Wammy - is L's 'handler' in Death Note.  He is also the founder of the Wammy chain of orphanages, including The Wammy House for Gifted and Talented Orphans.

Also known as Wammy's House, this was the institution which raised L, Near, Mello, Matt, Beyond Birthday, Linda et al.  It is located in Winchester, England.


We first meet Mr Wammy under his guise as Watari, an anonymous figure clad from head to toe in a black leather trench coat complete with Fedora hat.  He infiltrated a meeting of Interpol, wherein representatives of the world's law enforcement agencies had convened to discuss the Kira case. Watari was carrying a laptop from which emerged the electronic voice of L to address them all.

Later, as the Kira Task Force are invited to meet L and vetted by the same, Watari appears again, this time in the suited guise of his actual self - Quillsh Wammy, benefactor of the Wammy Group chain of orphanages and the man who trained L to become a detective.

He now facilitates his ward in his work solving crimes, acting as a handler, spokesperson or kind of butler.  Noted mostly for organizing logistics of manoeuvres ordered by L; transferring the funds to pay for the same; and bringing copious amounts of cakes, sweets and other sugary things for L to consume whilst puzzling over his cases.

Elsewhere, it transpires that Wammy is a crack marksmanship, as well as highly skilled in espionage.  He made his considerable wealth as an inventor.

Killed in the line of duty, during the fight against Kira, Quillsh Wammy is remembered as a 'great man' by members of the Task Force, lauded as the same by newspaper obituaries around the world.

Yet there is a darkness that hides beneath the surface of this seemingly amenable, altruistic man.  As author Tsugumi Ohba put it, 'He's a guy who cultivates detectives for fun. That's kind of terrible, isn't it?' (How to Read: Death Note 13, pg 27).  Well, in anybody's language, that's child trafficking and rendition, at the very least.

The Names of Quillsh Wammy

Death Note's Watari is alternatively known as:
キルシュ・ワイミー
Quillsh Wammy
Quillish Wammy
Kirushu Waimī
Kirsch-Waimi

Mr Wammy
ワタリ
Watari
W
渡
真名
Wye Me
Originally, Ohba meant to call this character Shadow, as in L's shadow - a moniker with more than one inferred meaning, which fan-fiction writers would have had great fun exploring.  However Death Note's editor pooh-poohed the name, telling Ohba, 'No, no! Anything but that!'  Hence the author coming up with Watari, which he explained meant 'handler' in Japanese.

Watari's Vital Statistics

Watari Death Note anime
Hair Colour:
Grey


Height:
5' 7" (170.18cm)
Eye Colour:
Blue


Weight:
8 stone (112lbs; 50.8kg)
Occupation:
Inventor; L spokesperson; benefactor of orphanages; collector of orphans; educator

Relationship Status:
Unknown, presumed single

Key Dates for Watari

May 1st 1933:
Quillsh Wammy born
Manga
May 1st 1936:
Quillsh Wammy born
Anime
November 5th 2004:
Quillsh Wammy killed
Manga
November 5th 2007:
Quillsh Wammy killed
Anime

The Auguries of Quillsh Wammy

Taurus
Born on May 1st, astrologically Quillsh Wammy is Taurus
Rooster
Wammy's birth date of May 1st 1933 (manga) also factors into Shēngxiào. He is a Rooster in the Chinese Zodiac
Rat
However, the time-slip of the anime would have him born in 1936 instead. That means that now in the Chinese Zodiac Watari is a Rat
Blood Type B
How to Read: Death Note 13 reveals that Quillsh Wammy's blood group is B

A Versatile Fixer - The Personality of Quillsh Wammy

Death Note 13: How to Read gives us an insight into the character of Quillsh Wammy, at least insofar as his author saw him.

The older man scores highly for versatility, talent, initiative/willingness to act, motivation and emotional strength.  Not far behind are his only slightly lesser scores for creativity, social skills and intelligence.  That he doesn't reach the topmost figure for creativity is a little surprising, given that Wammy made his fortune as an inventor.  The ultimate creator, one might think, this side of actual divinity.

We do get a hint of the kind of things that Wammy invented, when he turns up in the Death Note manga with belts containing panic buttons.  Not exactly Bond's Q, but in the ballpark.

As befits a man whose wealth and life has become devoted to raising children, his pet hate is 'dirty rooms'.  Presumably plenty of those at Wammy's House. I can't quite see the like of Beyond Birthday, Mello and Near running around with a duster.

This is an attribute taken to extreme levels in the Death Note TV drama, wherein guests are sprayed with disinfection at the door.  The interior of L's headquarters is kept pristine in its cleanliness, with Watari hurrying in to exchange L's shirt should a mere splash of food stain hit upon it.  In most tellings of the Death Note story, it's also inferred that Wammy is a fabulous cook.  At least there doesn't seem to be any travelling caterer providing all that confectionery for L that his handler regularly delivers.

Though it's nowhere stated that Wammy is an Englishman, it's implied in the location of his main orphanage for the training of gifted and talented orphans - Winchester, in England.  A further clue is given in his most favourite thing in the world - Earl Grey tea.

It's never truly explained how Watari managed to become such a crack marksman either.  His sharp-shooting is such that, in the Death Note manga and anime alike, he's able to fire a bullet which blasts a gun from the hand of Yotsuba's Kyosuke Higuchi, far below him on the ground. Wammy himself hovering over the scene in a helicopter at the time.

Nor do we learn where Quillsh Wammy acquired such skill in espionage, though he puts that to good use in Death Note, infiltrating various organizations to gain or deliver information.  Not least a gathering of Interpol.

Nevertheless he passed on all this knowledge, and the thinking/morality behind it, to the children in his care.   Maybe more clues to Watari's character reside in those he raised - how they turned out and what became of them.

Complete List of Wammy Kids in Death Note Canon

Genius children taken from wherever they lived around the world and installed in Wammy's House, Winchester.  Here their 'special talents' were cultivated with a top class education, whereupon they were sent back out into the world to put those skills into practice.  All of these individuals were nurtured by Wammy - or at least had their upbringing and training overseen remotely by him, as warden Roger Ruvie took orders from above.
Wammy A
A
- Name Unknown

Committed suicide at Wammy's House
(Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Case)
Wammy E
E
- Name Unknown

Shown on L's call/mailing list
(L: Change the World)
Wammy Kid J
J
- Name Unknown

Appears only as character in
a DS Death Note game.
(L: The Prologue to Death Note)
Picture
M
- Mello (Mihael Keehl)

Joined the Mafia in a bid to catch Kira and succeed to the L title before Near did. When unsuccessful, he gave his life to help Near defeat Kira.
(Death Note manga/anime)
Wammy kid Matt (Mail Jeevas) Death Note
Letter Unknown
- Matt (Mail Jeevas)

Third ranked Wammy kid at the time of L's death. Matt ultimately stepped into the Kira case at the behest of Mello. He was gunned down and killed by Kira supporters.
(Death Note manga/anime)
Wammy R
R
- Name Unknown
Shown on L's call/mailing list. However the name is faded out to grey, implying that R is dead. (B's is the same hue.)
(L: Change the World)
Wammy kid V
V
- Name Unknown
Shown on L's call/mailing list. However the name is faded out to grey, implying that V is dead. (B's is the same hue.)
(L: Change the World)
Wammy Z
Z
- Name Unknown
Assisted L in the Detective Wars bio-terror case.
(Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases)
Beyond Birthday - Death Note
B
- Beyond Birthday

Tried to lure L out with a series of grisly murders in Los Angeles; impersonated L for Naomi Misora, before setting fire to himself in a failed suicide attempt; imprisoned in LA, where he suffered a heart-attack and died (presumably killed by Kira) on January 21st 2004.
(Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases)
Wammy kid F (Kazuki Namioka)
F
- Name unknown

Rescued Near from a remote village, where all were dying in a deliberate epidemic, and sent him to L. F was killed in Thailand when a US helicopter shoots down his trunk. However F was already infected with a deadly virus.
(L: Change the World)
Kimiko Kujo L Change the World
K
- Kimiko Kujo

Scientist - unleashed a deadly virus in her own bid to 'change the world' by wiping out its human population.
(L: Change the World)
Near Death Note
N
- Near (Nate River)

Mathematical genius, who de facto succeeded L at age twelve, when the latter was killed by Rem/Kira.  With clues provided by Mello's martyrdom to the cause, Near was able to finally defeat Kira in the name of himself, Mello and L, ergo Wammy's House.
(Death Note manga/anime)
Wammy P
P
- Name Unknown
Shown on L's call/mailing list
(L: Change the World)
Ryūzaki Wammy kid Death Note 2016
Letter Unknown
- Ryūzaki

Cloned from L's DNA and raised at Wammy's House as L's true successor.
(Death Note 2016)
Wammy X
X
- Name Unknown

Assisted L in the Detective Wars bio-terror case.
(Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases)
Death Note Relight: Wammy kids
Random Wammy kids
as seen in Death Note: Relight (above)
and Death Note manga (left)
Wammy D
D
- Name Unknown

Shown on L's call/mailing list
(L: Change the World)
Wammy Kid G
G
- Name Unknown

Shown on L's call/mailing list
(L: Change the World)
Wammy L Death Note
L
- L Lawliet

Apparently the prototype 'special talent' Wammy orphan, for whom all the rest were raised as back-ups or successors.

At eight years old, L could beat up the other orphans in Wammy's House. He also discovered the delight in solving true crime cases, and thwarted the Winchester Mad Bomber. Beyond that he made his name as not only the world's greatest detective but, under pseudonyms, the 2nd and 3rd ranked too. 

He was killed during the Kira case.
Linda Death Note
Letter Unknown
- Linda

Became a successful artist. During the Kira case, she drew images of Near and Mello for the Japanese Task Force.
(Death Note manga/anime)
Picture
Q
- Name Unknown
Shown on L's call/mailing list
(L: Change the World)
Wammy kid T
T
- Name Unknown
Shown on L's call/mailing list. However the name is faded out to grey, implying that T is dead. (B's is the same hue.)
(L: Change the World)
Wammy Y
Y
- Name Unknown
Assisted L in the Detective Wars bio-terror case.
(Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases)
Wammy children Death Note manga
Each skilled Wammy kid set loose on the world was assigned a letter by Watari.   In L: Change the World, it's stated that this only occurs with the greatest, most intelligent of the Wammy's House outcrop.  Kujo is according stunned to belatedly realise that she was afforded the letter K.

Dotted across various adaptations of canon, we've practically got the entire alphabet in Wammy Letters.  With Watari himself indicated by the Letter W, only H, I, O, S and U are missing.  However, some known Wammy alumni never divulge their letters.  We don't, for example, know which Matt was assigned, despite him being third in the Wammy House rankings.  Nor yet do we know which letter Ryūzaki will take in the forthcoming movie Death Note 2016, assuming that he takes one at all.

Meanwhile, by the end of the manga/anime Death Note stories, Near interchangeably uses both N and L.  The latter earned post-Kira.  Thus giving an insight into the fact that letters can be taken from their peers by successful rivals/successors from the same Institution.  This is a system that Wammy himself must have set up.

Along with a code of ethics that apparently accounts for serial killers, abductors, biomedical scientists bent on mass destruction and the propensity of Wammy graduates to think it proper to die - or be killed - for want of a puzzle's solution. 

The Faces of Watari

Watari Death Note manga

Quillsh Wammy Death Note manga
Watari Death Note anime

Quillsh Wammy Death Note anime
Wammy Death Note DS game

Quillsh Wammy Death Note Nintendo game
Watari Death Note Relight

Quillsh Wammy Death Note: Relight


Posted as Part of

Month of Watari Death Note News
Watari Death Note movies

Quillsh Wammy Death Note live-action movies
Watari Death Note TV 2015

Quillsh Wammy Death Note TV drama
Read More
1 Comment

Otaku Death Note Fan-Artist Georgina Aguilar Gives Advice on Drawing Watari

6/4/2016

0 Comments

 
US hobby artist Georgina Aquilar likes to create digital art.  For Month of Wammy, she turns
her attention to her favourite characters from Death Note - Watari and L.
Death Note News Watari and L artwork by Lacie BunCat

Watari and L by Lacie BunCat
Originally published on DeviantART
Reproduced here with permission
Georgina Aguilar describes herself as a hobbyist artist from El Paso, Texas, USA.  Her digital art is collected in her gallery on DeviantART, where she is known as Lacie BunCat.

Georgina writes, 'I love anime, I been drawing since five years old. Practice towards the years. I love art, so I use different techniques, mostly on Photoshop. And also I'm an Otaku. And I have a lot of my personal comics and fan made ones including one for Death Note.'

Lacie-BunCat Tackles Our Artist Questionnaire About Drawing Mr Wammy

Detail from Watari and L by Lacie-BunCat

Have you created Quillsh Wammy art now or in the past?
Yes - currently.

Any anecdotes about your experiences as a Watari artist?
Well I've only drawn him twice - once holding L as a kid and in sketch.

How would you go about creating a Watari drawing/sculpture?
It'll be an amusing experience if I do that.

What attributes, clothing and/or scenarios, do you feel are essential to include in Mr Wammy artwork?
He's like a babysitter/body-guard of L.

Is there more to recreating Watari visually than the outfit? (Expression/stance/slogan etc.)
I won't change a thing, leave him as he is - a person, who loves L and carries him.
What, in your professional opinion, are fundamental tips/advice in producing art that's recognisably Watari? Any thoughts regarding secrets lifted from Takeshi Obata's artwork too?
I've never drawn Obata's artwork. I only like Watari and L.

What are the common noob errors made in drawing/modelling Quillsh Wammy?
Mostly likely his old detail on his face, like adding the wrinkles and all - best wishes to all!  No one is expert but you can practice towards time.

Any last tips for anyone reading, who wishes to start creating Mr Wammy artwork?
Just good luck to anyone and try your best. No-one is an expert, but practicing will make you better.

Posted as Part of

Death Note Watari Month
Read More
0 Comments

Welcome to Wammy Month on Death Note News!

5/4/2016

0 Comments

 
Death Note News Month of Quillsh Wammy
Better late than never, it's time to enter the shady world of Quillsh Wammy - sharp-shooter, collector of orphans, entrepreneur, inventor, master of espionage, international crime-fighter and, of course, handler for L.

Great man?  Or the dodgiest villain to stalk the pages of Death Note, Kira notwithstanding?  Can't wait to see where you leap with this one.

In an altered time-frame from advertised, Month of Watari will run from today until May 5th 2016.

It may cover more than the man himself - Mr Wammy; Quillsh to his friends; Watari to others - insofar as anything connected to or with him is also acceptable for publication during this event.

This means you may dig out your exposes of the Wammy House or contemplate its founder from Beyond Birthday's point of view - or any other of his kids.

Though please do keep it referring back to him if running with the latter.  All Wammy alumni are bound to feature in a month of their own anyway.

How to Submit Content for Month of Wammy on Death Note News

You must be used to the form by now, but here it is again for those needing a recap or new to one of these events:
  • General submission page - various mediums through which you may contact us or send in files;
  • Cosplayer Questionnaire - for those feeling generous with their tips and advice;
  • Fan-art Questionnaire - for Watari artists happy to share their craft;
  • Fan-fiction Writers Questionnaire - for authors of Wammy fan-fiction kind enough to pass on their knowledge to those just starting.
We already have a few items in.  As for the rest of you, off you go!  Send in your Wammy stuff now!

Watari Month Begins on Death Note News!
0 Comments

Month of Wammy Delayed Until Monday April 4th

1/4/2016

0 Comments

 
Death Note Manga Watari and Task Force
This is getting to be a bit of a habit!  But we have made the executive decision to start our next month's focus slightly later than advertised.

Unavoidable personal issues here meant that there was a bit of a bottleneck in posting Month of Matsuda articles and other submissions.  While we had a spurge yesterday, there are still some left over.  Hence a couple of days grace will benefit us all.

Plus it wouldn't be fair to not include reader contributions, just because Matti disappeared off in an ambulance and couldn't publish their stuff!

Month of Watari will therefore begin on Monday April 4th 2016, and hopefully we can keep on track thereon.

Death Note Matsuda Month
Read More
Death Note Wammy Month
Read More
0 Comments

TV Death Note Episode 7: Babble, Beyond & Paradise Lost - One Notebook to Bind Them All

26/8/2015

3 Comments

 
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.
3 Comments

TV Death Note  Trailer and Updated Cast List

7/6/2015

7 Comments

 
Masataka Kubota Death Note

Masataka Kubota as Light Yagami in the TV adaptation of Death Note
More information has emerged about the Japanese television adaptation of Death Note, not least an updated list of the characters and cast.

They are:
  • Light Yagami - Masataka Kubota
  • L - Kento Yamazaki
  • Near - Mio Yuuki
  • Misa Amane - Hinako Sano
  • Sayu Yagami - Reiko Fujiwara
  • Soichiro Yagami - Yutaka Matsusige
  • Akiko Himura - Megumi Seki
  • Touta Matsuda - Gouki Maeda
  • Shuichi Aizawa - Tomohisa Yuge
  • Kanzo Mogi - Jiro Sato
  • Watari - Kazuaki Hankai
So this does look very much like the main Death Note story being retold, yet still with an ominous omission in the form of Mello.

However, there is a shift in the timeline. Light Yagami will be a university student, not at High School at all. Hence my theory regarding Near having flashbacks just got a hit.

We do have some trailers though. Ready for a look?  Yeah, so was I, but for some reason my YouTube unblocker has failed me. The videos are only available in Japan. *sigh*   Here are the links anyway:  First Video  Second Video

7 Comments

A Chat with Lawliet Director Rico Arechiga

1/9/2014

4 Comments

 
Ricardo Arechiga director Lawliet
Last Thursday, I had the very great pleasure of chatting with Lawliet director Ricardo Arechiga about his Death Note movie.

The image isn't really him by the way. It's a character from one of his animations, as Rico is a graphic artist by profession.

All of this came about because Logan set me on the quest to discover more about a movie about L. The initial findings were described in:
Lawliet - Short Movie About Death Note's L.

On the assumption that you've already read that, I won't repeat myself here. I will mention that there were one or two minor details that were awry. With thanks to Rico for pointing them out, I've already been back to edit those into accuracy.

So now to have our questions answered!

First let me say that Rico is a wonderful conversationalist. As you can tell, I took that screenshot after chatting with him for well over an hour, nor had we finished then! Yet he's so passionate about Death Note, and insightful about the issues raised within, that it all felt like no time at all. If he's like that just discussing it, I really can't wait to view his film about L.


Rico rather apologetically informed me that his movie Lawliet has not been given the official rubber stamp by Ohba and Obata. But then again, he hasn't asked for one!  By that token, this Death Note movie short will be technically fan-made on a shoe-string budget.

But when I think of fan-made movies, I tend to imagine so-so quality. At the very best, it will be hit and miss. Here we actually do have qualified film-makers delving into a subject which inspires them greatly. "I really wanted to do (L) justice. As a fan, I want something. I want to see more live action."

Basically, Rico and his colleagues are here to fill the gap left by indifferent studio executives. As fans, they want it. As talented individuals, they can deliver it.  Let's see that trailer again.

Death Note Movie Short - Lawliet Official Teaser Trailer

That emphasis on quality explains why we still don't have the movie in September 2014, despite it being due for release in July.  It is largely completed and it could be on our screens right now. But Rico isn't absolutely thrilled by some aspects. The perfectionist in him wants it to be the best he can deliver with his resources.

He felt rather bad about this, though I personally think it's a good thing. He did wish to highlight that Lawliet is being produced around his paid commissions. It's a labour of love, not profit.

I know that I'm not an official spokesperson for the whole Death Note fandom, but I'm certain that I spoke for all of us, when I assured him that we could wait. We'd prefer the moment of greatness to that of potential, and we'd like the director to be happy with his work. After all, we've been waiting forever for Shane Black/Gus van Sant to get on with it!

So what can we expect when Lawliet finally arrives?

Rico has written a script which explores the character of L. I don't mean that in the sense of 'fictitious character', though of course that is true too, but in what makes this person tick. Where did he come from? What motivates him? And most of all, how does L come to terms with the notion that he could be killed on this case?

Lawliet is a movie short, which takes place right on the eve of L's entrance into the Death Note world.
He's already working on the Kira case, but has not yet revealed as much to the Interpol meeting. It captures a moment when L understands the danger, yet he is on the verge of committing to it anyway.

Most of the long conversation between myself and Rico was about the inner workings of L's mind (and, to a lesser extent, the other Wammy House kids too). I can confirm that this writer/director has contemplated the issues long and hard.
He's considered the darkness that lies at the heart of the orphanage, which currently are addresses in the movie. Though that segment may not make the final cut (Rico is refining parts of the script).

With all of my fan-fiction, I thought I'd contemplated much of what there was to say about that institution. But Rico certainly introduced several elements that had escaped me. Particularly in regard to the dangers of chasing Kira. Or, as Rico put it, if the Wammy kids weren't careful, "they would become what they've been brought up to stop."


In Rico's opinion, L is a hero, who knew very well that he would die, but predicted how that would end up. He knew from the beginning that Kira would be defeated, and the entire of Death Note merely plays out L's ultimate plan.
Then, at the end, L wins.

Rico tells us that his movie will be 'sweet, humorous and dark'. Pretty much what all Death Note fans love then!


He'll pop back for a proper interview, when Lawliet is ready for release.
If you do have any questions for him, then leave them in the comments here and I'll be sure to include them then.

Incidentally, this is a movie by
Identity Entertainment working with KA Films. Power On was just an early iteration of Identity Entertainment, but they decided they didn't like the name after all.  Bit generic...

And finally, when we do come to watch Lawliet, Rico says to watch out for Easter Eggs. He's included some for us die-hard fans.
Challenge accepted!

4 Comments

Lawliet - Short Movie About Death Note's L

22/8/2014

2 Comments

 
Poster for Lawliet Movie Death Note
Well, I'm back from the wilds of North Wales. But while I may have been slacking on keeping up with the Death Note news this week, one of our readers has not.

Logan has discovered that a short film about L is being made!

Lawliet is billed viewing in July 2014, but its IMDb page still has it listed as 'not yet released'.

Starring Ray Evangelista as the eponymous L Lawliet, the blarb about this movie short reads:

Alone, he struggles with a decision. How will he face death? Lawliet ponders on the topic of death as he sits alone in his room. What will his conclusion be? Especially once he is visited by a Reaper?
Also cast are Ricardo 'Rico' Arechiga as Ryuk; John Khouri as Quillsh Wammy; and Austin Hively as Light Yagami.

All three are there as voice actors.  According to IMDb, this is John's first role, while the other two have a couple of bit parts in professional, albeit small scale, film productions to their credit.

That - coupled with the fact that all information about the L film contains phrases like 'inspired by' or 'based upon' works by Tsugami Ohba and Takeshi Obata - makes me think that Lawliet is not an officially authorized Death Note short movie.

But if it is a fan-made endeavour, then the quality is extremely high.

Lawliet Official Trailer for Death Note Movie Short

Lawliet is being made by Power On Films, a production company based in California, USA. The Death Note inspired movie constitutes its only offering to date.

Both appear to be the brainchild of Ryuk voice actor Ricardo Arechiga, who is billed as writer and director of Lawliet, as well as its cinematographer. His name is down as producer too, though that's a task he'll be sharing with fellow up-and-coming filmmaker Kazuki Abika.

Fans they may be (and aren't we all?), yet there is genuine talent behind this particular collaboration. From their self-penned biographies on IMDb, we learn that Rico and Kazuki are students.  Rico won an excellence award from his Theater Arts class in his final year at High School, while Kazuki is currently attending
New York University for Tisch School of the Arts. He is majoring in Film and Television.

They are still teenagers - Rico turns 20 in September and Kazuki in December - but have gained plenty of experience in all aspects of film-making.

Not only from their courses either.  Kazuki has already produced several movie shorts and documentaries (there are seven listed on IMDb, including Lawliet), which has led to some recognition within the Indy Mogul internet-based independent movie-making community.  Meanwhile Rico has established himself, along with L actor Ray Evangelista, as the YouTube channel duo Rico and Ray.
Their official Facebook page for Lawliet has the poster pictured right as its most recent.

It is slightly confusing, insofar as the production company is now listed as Identity Entertainment in conjunction with KA Films. (I'm assuming that the latter denotes Kazuki Akiba's involvement, given that those are his initials.) Though everywhere else, including the Lawliet film website, tells us that Power On Films is creating this picture.

I wonder if the change in production companies explains the delay in releasing the L short movie.

I guess we'll have to wait and see!  Though in the meantime I will do some digging, and maybe even see if those behind the movie would be willing to come and chat with us about their project. It sounds like exciting times anyway!

UPDATE:  Our questions are answered here: 
A Chat with Lawliet Director Rico Arechiga.
Death Note Lawliet Movie Poster
2 Comments

Kira is Back! 10th Anniversary Death Note Website Countdown Expired!

3/3/2014

82 Comments

 
Death Note 10th anniversary website
It's noon in Britain, which means that I've finally been able to see what that intriguing Death Note announcement will be.

Kira is being resurrected from the dead!
At least, that's what is implied.

In an on-going plot, running throughout March 3rd 2014, Matsuda has heard rumours concerning the fact that Light Yagami has returned from the grave. He's investigating it on behalf of the SPK. (Because, you know, Near probably has better things to do...)

The information seems to have originated with Hitoshi Demegawa, the anchorman from Sakura TV, who played such a large part in bringing Light and Misa together. As Kira's erstwhile spokesperson, Demegawa may also have been considered a great source of information.

I say 'have been', because I have a distinct recollection of this same nasty media man writing in fatal agony on the floor. Didn't Mikami kill him with a Death Note?

In the online Death Note 10th Anniversary extravaganza, actors are playing Matsuda and Demegawa. I've grabbed some screen-shots above, while the actual film can be found on Shueisha's website.

Updates will be made there, and on the simultaneously launched 10th Anniversary Death Note Facebook page.  Further information is being announced via an official Twitter stream @deathnote10th.

What do you make of it?   A publicity stunt, or the precursor to a whole new saga of the Death Note story?  There's certainly scope here. The original story finished with a strange cult meeting on a mountain top, performing some kind of ritual. It was certainly to venerate Kira, but could it have been much more than that?

Personally, I'm not sure how I feel about it.

The whole point of Death Note was that the stakes were very high. Those who touched the Death Note went to nothingness - to Mu - when they died.  Tsugami Ohba made it quite clear at the time that there was no coming back. If this is a promotional vehicle leading to a brand, new arc of the Death Note story, then it would seem to negate the principles of the previous ones.

On the other hand, these are new canon chapters for Death Note. What's not to love about that prospect?!

And, if Kira can be revived, then why not all of the others too?  Demegawa certainly seems to have made it back into the realm of the living.

Will we see a charred and steaming Mello arising from the ruins of a burnt-out barn? Perhaps Near looking startled as a giant Old English L fills his screen, and a familiar electronic voice thanks him for his custodianship of the title and code. 

Maybe a ghostly Camero running roughshod through Tokyo streets, with a bloody Matt lighting a cigarette at the wheel. Or the television screens suddenly coming alive with the half-naked figure of
Kiyomi Takada, smiling mystically at the cameras.

Will we hear the creaky tones of Noami Misora, as she addresses her former FBI colleagues with a terrible rope burn etched into her neck?  And the approaching tingle of a sweets trolley, pushed by the gangling figure of Mr Wammy?

What do you think?

UPDATE:  It's been brought to my attention that a FAQ on the official site makes it clear that there will be NO new Death Note manga series.  Also Matsuda ISN'T the one we already know and love, but Matsuda
MomoFutoshi, a new character created especially for the 10th Anniversary.

Why? I don't know. Matsuda Touta survived the original, so he could just as easily been used.

UPDATE TWO:  It's not at all what we thought it might be...

82 Comments
Forward>>
    Death Note spoiler disclaimer
    Never miss an update - subscribe to Death Note News feed and/or check out an extended list of the latest Death Note news headlines.
    Death Note News categories banner

    Death Note News Categories

    All
    10th Anniversary
    10th Anniversary Website
    Academia
    Actors And Acting
    Adam Wingard (Dir.)
    Aiber
    Akiko-himura
    Ami-hamazaki
    Another-note
    Another-note-novel
    Anthony-rester
    Art And Fan Art
    Astrology
    Bakuman
    Beyond Birthday
    Blood Type
    Business And Marketing
    Calendar Death Note
    Columnists For Death Note News
    Cosplay
    Death Note (2003-6 Manga)
    Death Note (2006-7 Anime)
    Death Note (2006 Movie)
    Death Note (2008 Manga One Shot Special)
    Death Note (2015 Musical)
    Death Note (2015 TV)
    Death Note (2016 Movie AMG)
    Death Note (2017 US Movie)
    Death Note: Light Up The NEW World (2016 Movie)
    Death Note Month Of...
    Death Note News Digest
    Death Note Relight (2007-2008)
    Death Note Relight (2007-8)
    Death Note Relight (2007-8 Anime)
    Death Note Tarot Tales
    Death Note: The Last Name (2006 Movie)
    Death Note: Year One (Movie)
    Demegawa (Hitoshi) (Char.)
    Dr.
    Eriko Aizawa
    Events
    Fan Fiction
    Fans And Fandom
    Focus On A Fan
    Food And Drink
    Franchise
    Games And Gaming
    Gifts And Merchandising
    Gus Van Sant
    Hal-lidner
    Hirokaku-ukita-char
    Horipro
    It Matters Series
    Jump-comics
    Kanzo-mogi
    Kenichi Mikuriya
    Kimiko-kujo
    Kira Worshipper
    Kiyomi Takada
    Koji-yoshida
    L
    Lawliet-movie
    L-change-the-world-2008-movie
    L-change-the-world-novel
    Lei-k-columnist
    Light Yagami
    Linda
    Lucas-king-music-columnist
    Madhouse
    Maki-nikaido
    Manga Entertainment
    Matt
    Mello
    Misa Amane
    Morality-and-ethics
    Movies And Films
    Mrs-mikami
    Music And Soundtracks
    Naomi-misora
    Nathaniel-overthinks-death-note
    Near
    Netflix
    Nippon-television-ntv
    NisiOisiN
    Nori
    Panini-comics
    Philosophy And Theology
    Platinum-end
    Podcast
    Psychology
    Quillsh-wammy
    Real-world-death-notes
    Real World Influence
    Rem
    Rod-ross
    Roger Ruvie
    Ryuk
    Ryūzaki
    Sachiko Yagami
    Sakura Aoi (Char.)
    Sayu Yagami
    Science And Mathematics
    Selecta Visión
    Shane Black
    Shinsuke Sato (Dir.)
    Shiori Akino
    Shō Nanase
    Shō Nanase
    Shonen Jump
    Shueisha
    Shuichi Aizawa
    Site News
    Sociology
    Soichiro Yagami
    Spin-Off Matsuda (2008 Movie)
    SPK
    Squad Six Cosplayers
    Takeshi Obata (Artist)
    Takeshi Ooi (Char.)
    Teru Mikami
    Tetsuro Araki (Dir.)
    The Cosplayer Chronicles
    Toko
    Touta Matsuda
    Tsugumi Ohba (Author)
    Tsukuru Mishima
    Viz Media
    Wammy's House
    Warner Bros
    Wedy
    Yotsuba
    YouTube And Videos
    Yūgi Shion
    Yumi Aizawa
    Yuri

    Visit Death Note News's profile on Pinterest.

    Monthly Archives

    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    Disclosure: This page generates income for the author based on affiliate relationships with her partners, including Amazon and VigLink.
    Site Claim and Authorship Verification: All that follows is for me to prove my authorship of Death Note News in various places. Hoop jumping stuff for me; boring for everyone else.
    Google+

Where Now?

Death Note Gift Store
Matti's Fan-Fiction Website
Mello & Matt Fandom Forum
MRSJeevas Fan-Fiction Store

Death Note News

About
The Team
Site Index
Site Map

Support

Contact
FAQ
Terms of Use
© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.