News about Death Note

Death Note Event Reminder: Death Note Ladies Appreciation Weeks on Tumblr

14/12/2015

Can you name these Death Note female characters? (Answers at the end)

Just a reminder about a Death Note event on Tumblr, which began yesterday and continues over the Christmas period to finish on December 26th 2015.

Death Note Ladies Appreciation Weeks looks to redress the balance in focus given to Death Note's women and girl characters. Let's face it, the fandom really does relish its male personae over the female cohort. Yet there are some extremely kick-ass and/or fascinating ladies in this universe. Explore their stories in canon pics; elaborate upon them in fan-fiction and fan-art; discover that they even exist, if you blinked and missed their cameo.

This is the second year running for the Tumblr event for Death Note fans. Anyone can join in. You just tag your update with #dn ladies appreciation and post away, preferably on the day scheduled for your yuri pairing and/or each individual female Death Note character's bespoke date:

Week One
December 13th: Misa/Takada
                                Halle/Misa
December 14th: Naomi/Halle
                                Halle/Takada
December 15th: Misa/Sayu
                                Rem/Misa
December 16th: Wedy/Naomi
                               Wedy/Misa
December 17th: Sayu/Yuri
                                Yuri/Misa
December 18th: Sachiko Yagami/Eriko Aizawa
                                Sachiko Yagami/Mrs. Mikami
December 19th: WILD CARD (Any yuri Death Note pairing)

Week Two
December 20th: Halle
                                Wedy
December 21st: Naomi
                                Takada
December 22nd: Sachiko
                                 Sayu
December 23rd: Misa
                                Rem
December 24th: Yuri
                                Shoko Himura (from Death Note TV drama)
December 25th: Shiori Akino
                               Maki Nikaido
December 26th: WILD CARD (Any Death Note lady)

For more details, check out our original head's up about the event; where you'll also find a slightly easier collage of Death Note women to test your knowledge of characters in the Death Note universe. For answers to the much more difficult one posted at the top here, see below:

Characters from Death Note who are female

Clockwise ( l-r from top):
Wammy's House aide and two female Wammy kids; Dr Kimiko Kujo; Sayu Yagami; Yumi Aizawa; Akiko Himura; Nori (Misa's friend); Unnamed Kira Worshipper; Yuri; Ami Hamazaki; and Shiori Akino

And if you're looking for inspiration and/or something to post on each day, then our sidebar has all of these ladies listed under Death Note News Categories - archives full of things about them! Feel free to post links to what you will.

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Christmas Death Note Ladies Appreciation Weeks on Tumblr

19/11/2015

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Some of the women of Death Note - how many can you name?

Can't get enough Hal Lidner? Sick of hunting in vain for some Misa/Takada yuri? Wish you saw more fan love for Shoko Himura? Your time has come.

For the second year running, Death Note Ladies Appreciation Weeks will be hosted on Tumblr over the Christmas period. It aims to throw a spotlight on those under-rated female characters from Death Note.

Death Note Ladies Appreciation Weeks 2015 on Tumblr

Under the heading Expect the Unpredictable!, Tumblr user ComplicatedMerary announced the site wide event, and highlighted the guidelines for those who wish to participate.

Beginning on December 13th 2015 (Mello's birthday!), Death Note Ladies Appreciation Weeks spans the holiday period to end on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas. Until then, the Tumblr event will be divided into distinct halves.

Week One (Dec 13th-19th) is given over to Death Note yuri. Each day is devoted to two bespoke pairings, with the final one a yuri wild card for the female Death Note couple of your choice. Week Two (Dec 20th-26th) similarly features a daily focus. This time the limelight falls upon individual Death Note women. Two named in any given day, before that too ends with a wild card.

Dec 26th is the day for highlighting your favourite female Death Note character.

Hop on over to Tumblr to learn more about it. Contribute, or merely sit back and watch the ladies of Death Note fill the website in glorious array.

Answers to the collage quiz for Death Note's female characters:
Clockwise (l-r from top):
Kiyomi Takada; Hal Lidner; Naomi Misora (central); Wedy; Misa Amane; Maki; Linda; Eriko Aizawa; and Sachiko Yagami.

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TV Death Note Episode 5: Symbolism, Style and Split Personalities - Plus Mello Nearly

16/8/2015

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Did I just see Mello in a live action Death Note drama? I think I just saw Mello!

I can't be sure, though you'd think you'd spot that smirk coming a mile off, or at least hear chocolate snapping with all the danger trigger signals more generally associated with a tiger prowling or a T-Rex taking out Tokyo.

Nevertheless, I think I just glimpsed Death Note's most dynamic character in shades a little lighter than his usual Mafioso black. Take a look for yourself.

Near and Mello in Death Note 2015 Episode 5

Is that you, Mello? Can you see him too?

No! I'm not talking about the puppet. That's patently a version of Mello, but not a human actor walking, talking, breathing life into Mello. I'm thinking less wooden here. I'm nodding meaningfully towards the individual who - I grant you - looks a lot like Near.

(S)he's going to turn out to be Mello in disguise over the next few episodes. You mark my words.

Notice how the Mello puppet was mute? Spot how Near was OUTSIDE without an escort? See the grey clothing settling over the spotless white. That's going to be significant. That's Near's 'innocent' morality turning murky with the influx of Mello. Because the great guess in our house is that Near and Mello are one and the same this time.

Potentially Pairing Mello & Near in Death Note

Image: Death Note 13: How to Read bookcover

Death Note 13: How to Read
full of loads of disturbing trivia

Death Note 13: How to Read revealed that Tsugumi Ohba contemplated making Mello and Near twins. Death Note's writer never said if they'd be identical or fraternal.

If the former, then Mello and Near would have looked the same.

Moreover, Takeshi Obata mentioned that his initial drawings of the pair got mixed up somewhere en route to Ohba. The image sketched as Mello actually began Near and vice versa.

It's a story which has had the fandom on both sides staring long and hard into space over many a year in the interim. Imagining a Mello that looked like Near; or a Near with Mello's features.

Now we don't have to picture how that would be. Because all indicators are pointing due Multiple Personality Disorder. Near has been the dominant persona until now, but the morphing into Mello has already begun.

And if I'm wrong, then I deserve all I get from the Near fandom, and the utter disdain of my very own Mello/Matt community. But I'm not wrong. I can practically hear the chocolate snap just beneath the surface, (re)drawing Near.

Let's follow this one through.

What's the Significance of Near Going Outside?

I'm can't imagine any circumstance in childhood, wherein my brother would look quite so startled as L, if informed by our Dad that I'd left the house. (He'd more likely be shocked now. After all, my computer is indoors.)

Yet when Near goes out to play in the park, the very fact of it seriously disturbs the folk back home. Just look how Mr Wammy breaks the news and L's silently fearful expression in reaction.

Death Note (2015) L hears 'Near has left the house'

L (Death Note TV drama) wary hearing Near has left the house

L doesn't say a word. It's Wammy speaking throughout. Starting with a huge sigh close to the door, striding across the room with shoulders stooped and head bent, the very aspect of one readily to impart something unsavoury.

"L." He curtly begins. "Unpleasant news." Then the barest pause before, "Near has left the house."

Immediately, L's head shoots up, his eyes already swivelling sidewards to stare at Watari while the words are still spilling out. Is he scared or is that disdain? Whatever we're seeing, that look lasts for long seconds in mute regard, until the end of the scene.

The whole exchange couldn't be more laden with significance, if someone stuck a neon light above L's head flashing on and off pink with the word 'SIGNIFICANT'. What is less explicit is why.

It could be L's inconsistent horror of the dangerously dirty outside.

This is a man who lives in a place so sterile that all who visit have to suffer disinfection at the gate.

Yet L played tennis last week and attended a concert in this episode without any apparent trauma at all. Strange, and a little jarring.

Personally I think there's significance because Near never goes outside, but Mello does. Wammy is basically telling L that Mello is the dominant personality now.

Disinfecting Kira at L's entrance

Message from a Split Identity in Death Note

Death Note television drama episode 5 is heavier than usual on the symbolism - as we'll come back to later on - and none more so than Near's parkland scene.

Unless, of course, I'm reading way too much into it. See what you think.

The sequence opens upon a huge screen bearing the legends: 'New revelation - there are two Kiras!' and 'A message from the second Kira to the real Kira'.

Image: Death Note (2015) Two Kiras breaking news bulletin

Then that breaking news story becomes pretty much incidental. We know about it already, but its a feight in misdirection, cluing us in to a similar tale hidden in plain view.

For as the message from the second to the first begins, the camera pans from the back of puppet Mello's head to the figure holding it. This 'second' (according to the Wammy House rankings) is mute, not even its limited body language to convey. The puppet's face is turned away. It does not move, utterly inanimate.

Instead its Near's voice which drowns out the newscaster's speech. Or at least the individual who looks like Near and is holding the toy.

Yet not playing with it, as Near is wont to do, hence the seeming emptiness of the previously highly animate doll. Nor is this person twirling a lock of hair, wearing all white or anything else that's previously been a quirk or hallmark of the Wammy House number one.

And this is the person who speaks over the second's message to the first. Because, to my mind, he IS the second (Wammy, persona, whichever you want to call) with his own message to express.

You can practically see the handover taking place between two personae in one form. Though if this is a split personality, as I highly suspect, then the switch seems more like a slow merging from one to the other, than an instant transformation.

It's not a conversation between Near and Mello, as the people of the world think. It's more a struggle for dominance between their twin personalities, currently running parallel - neither quite one nor the other - though I believe that Mello has a slight advantage.

The camera pans in closer and closer, as the commentary plays out. Making it clear that we should be paying attention to what's being said. Closer still, focusing upon the head or mind, like we're poised to enter inside.

Then this Near does what the earlier incarnations rarely did - looks directly at the puppet, whilst addressing it. Quite fondly in fact, aping that Christian scene so beloved by Near above the Wammy House stairs, complete with clusters of people congregating close by, and a foreground grouping of three children.

Though this particular dummy Messiah sits listlessly still.

Unnamed and unmoved until that second. Only belatedly given clunky expression in the eyes, that suddenly turn upwards to the left.

If this was Wammy's House, then the puppet would be looking directly at that painting, as Near so often ended each scene doing.

For the first time ever, the puppet's operation can be clumsily discerned. Near usually makes it seem so effortless. This seems like a parody to me.

But the puppet is empty. Mello is inside the body and Near is simply fading from view.

Wammy's House Stained Glass window from Death Note episode 1

Near's stained glass window at Wammy's House
from the end of Death Note episode 1

Three in One? Multiple People Grouping Near

Three children in Death Note Episode 5 (2015)

Before any of that, there was a long shot and childish dialogue, which yet may hold some especial significance.

All those people watching the exchange between two Kiras on the screen seem themselves uncommonly grouped. Each gathered into sets of three. Except Near, who seemingly sits alone. Even the trees in the background were planted in a clump.

Visually, its just another clue to complement the two Kiras broadcast heard over the top. We are being nudged to note that all present belong to a collective. Thus - I'm certain will transpire - Near too constitutes a group, albeit one wherein its harder to count heads than the rest.

Three perchance? I cut one lady off with my screen-shot, but there are three to the side. Three behind. Three in front.

Nor can I help but see Matt, Near and Mello respectively alluded to in the three children at the fore there. But that might just be me.

Anyone else see what I'm seeing? Symbolically, not actually. Nope, just me then.

It's these three who discuss what they're seeing, as an introductory commentary over our first proper view of Mello(?) arrving. Or Near on the brink of departure. The grey suitcase prop works as a visual clue for both.

"Who's Kira?" asks the boy I'm calling Matt. The girlish Near counterpart replies, "Dunno." Because identities are difficult to perceive, when not all might be as it seems. Then we hear the news anchor for a final time reading the words of the second, "Therefore, I will cancel L's press conference."

In short, nobody knows who Kira is these days, nor how many Kiras there might turn out to be. And L is no longer required to appear in public. All anyone grasps for certain is that the second is speaking.

As does the person on the bench. With the symbolism of the scene stating - here are three personalities grouped as one, and it's the one ranked second now being so publicly heard.

Near walking away in 2015 Death Note drama

So Mello now that we've even lost the puppet.
White clad and walking towards the red - Death Note
colour code for ascendancy in the field of play

Colour Coding the Three in One and Death Note

Speak to me ordinarily about the Three-in-One and its not Death Note's Near and possible multiple personalities that comes to mind. I'm a Pagan and a Celt, my mind is with the Triple Goddess.

A relevance only in the fact that the Celtic Three-in-One can identified in the tales of bards by the colours worn in each aspect. White for the Maiden; red for the Mother; black for the Crone.

Not something I should comfortably be considering within the context of a Japanese television dramatization of Death Note. Japan is a long way from Western Europe, where those story-telling traditions hold sway.

Light, L and Soichiro in black, white and red

Black clad Kira, the master of his game; white L slipping back to first base; and Soichiro in red in the middle
keeping the peace. Each a point on the Wheel of Fortune still turning.

Yet it's patently there too. Not even subtly so. Downright laid on with a trowel, all those instances where white, red and black combine to indicate the undercurrents in a plot-line. In this episode, it was applied so ubiquitously and heavily that it sometimes seemed like style over substance.

Though such overplay did allow us to watch the shift in power between the two Kiras. Watch Misa slip from mistress of her scene through to the mirror image shot at the end, wherein Light has taken it all.

She shouldn't have gone from black to white. It's too late then to go back to red. Not when Light's completely in black.

Romance in Hues of Black, Red and White

I thought perhaps the director worried that the plot was skirting so close to canon, that we'd all be bored by the familiarity in episode five. Except for the Near segment, there were hardly any twists to stop us settling down secure in the knowledge that we know all that's coming next.

Someone warn Mikami! As he pledges his support on-line for both Kiras,
his black suit, white shirt and red tie bask in a rosy kind of quite literal foreshadowing.

So we got arty shots with aplomb, in shades of white, red and black. So many that I had to look it up, just to see if each colour had any special meaning in Japanese culture too.

Bizarrely enough, the symbolism behind each hue seems to follow fairly precisely that inherent in my own ancient British legends. Shades of the Three-in-One underwriting Kira and L's battles for sovereignty too.

Like Living in a Chessboard, L and Light Make Their Moves in Black and White

Japanese Symbolism in White, Red & Black

The television Death Note drama seems to rely quite consistently upon its stylistic colour coding, in order to depict the challenges between protagonists, antagonists and all respective hangers on.

However, those colours don't always mean the same thing. It all depends upon who is donning them, or otherwise saturated in the hue, and what's being linked with those around them.

As a rule of thumb, these are the colour meanings in Japan:

White: Intellect; cold calculation; rationality; divinity; sacred (angelic/Godliness); isolation; snow; impersonal; incorruptible; cleanliness; purity; sterile. However, it's also the colour worn by health professionals, so may simply be a uniform on some.

White and Red: Seen in Japan as the colours worn when one is in love. Or else celebrating in pure happiness. However, it may also have a religious connotation, implying a wish to reach to the Gods and/or dedicate your life to deity.

Red: As in so many cultures around the world, this is the shade of fire, passion, danger, losing oneself to powerful emotions, sensuality, vitality, activity, energy, zest or strength, violence, aggression and blood.

At home with Rem and Misa, in all the shades of red, white and black

Black: Mystery; power; 'evil'; emptiness; the void or abyss; madness; mourning; sexuality; depth; unhappiness; remorse; sadness; fury; fear. Unless worn as formal attire - as in a 'black tie' dinner - wherein it denotes sophistication, elegance and/or class; or as a fashionable item - as in a 'little black dress' - which might just mean stylish.

Black and White: Traditionally the colours worn to funerals and left as memento mori. Signifies loss. Unless they're worn as opposing colours - as in L in white and Light in black - in which case we're looking at challenge; battle; the yin-yang; a nice game of chess. Or in a temple, as some areas in the Shinto religion are set aside in black and white, dedicated to the kami - Gods or spirits come from Heaven or the sea.

Let's see how informative that is, as we continue on through the artistically shot future scenes in TV's Death Note. Shout up if you spot those colours being used symbolically.

And especially if 'Near' turns up in black or red, snatching a chocolate bar to prove me right. I'm going to look really daft after all that if I'm wrong.

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TV Death Note Episode 4: Manipulation, Paranoia and Compliance

15/8/2015

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As someone coming from the Mello fandom, there's only one thing to know about episode four of Death Note (2015) TV drama. This!

Death Note (2015) Near and Mello in Wammy's House

Wide shot of Wammy's House: No live action Mello in that big room!

Near and Mello in Death Note TV Drama 2015

For the past three episodes, we've been teased with the notion that a prone, or otherwise blind-to-the-puppet-of-himself, Mello has been out of shot in that room. I suspected he was sitting on one of those chairs.

Near always looks over the head of the puppet, whenever (s)he addresses Mello. His voice is heard, projected without so much as a twitch of Near's lips.

In the second episode it seemed that a shoulder could be glimpsed in the shadows of the fireplace chair alongside Near. Right at the spot where his/her eyes kept being drawn, roughly consistent with where a head might be on the individual seated there.

L addressed Mello directly, as someone external to Near in that same instalment. He subtly did it again just moments prior to the wide-shot scene above. Watari approached to say that Near was on the line. L answered, "I'll call them back." Implying that there was more than one person to be called back.

However L's delay wasn't being well received at the other end of that line. Focused fully upon Near and his Mello puppet, we were privy to a disturbing exchange.

Mello: He's disrespecting you!
Near: Calm down.
Mello: Hey, call Kira! We can work with Kira to erase L!
Near: We can't do that.
Mello: Help him out.
Near: No.

It's at this point that Near shifted to physically align position with the puppet.

Image: Near and Mello Puppet Death Note 2015

Before both voices sounded simultaneously seeming to confirm that Mello was indeed a separate entity.

Near and Mello: You're so stuck-up, Near.
Near: You talk too much Mello.
Near and Mello: Dummy! Dummy!

Image: Near and Puppet talking in unison

Near and the Mello puppet talk in unison

The laughter which sounds over the wide shot that follows could be either Near or Mello, or both become one again. We're expecting to see Mello as live action figure sitting in that seat, but the beautiful room is empty beyond Near, his Mello puppet and the Christian iconography in stained glass and huge artwork.

What Near was looking at - in lieu of referring to an actual Mello there - was the canvas depicting the Fall of the Rebel Angels.

Yet two voices were heard and they were both Near. So yep. That's the major gossip. Near is in fact Mello. And a whole section of the fandom freezes. While also admitting that it makes for an intriguing storyline.

I know that half of the Mello/Matt fandom are here. What do you make of it? Personally I'm quite fascinated. I'm sticking around to see where they go with this, whilst holding out for a real Mello to turn up later in the series.

After all, Near's puppet was based on someone in the manga. It might still be here too.

Elsewhere, there are more mind games being pursued throughout episode 4 of Death Note.

Item one is a wilful disregard for human life on the part of all three main protagonists. Four, if we include Near/Mello's avowed compulsion to kill L.

There's Light scribbling down names a week in advance, so Kira's body count may continue, even as Light himself is under surveillance. He contemplates the fact that he can only get five names onto his scrap of paper, not with any remorse for murder, nor any avowed sense of justice, but as a personal smoke screen. He's a very different young man from the sobbing one seen in the earlier episodes. Kira cold and plotting, already consumed by the need to succeed whatever the cost.

There's Misa blithely noting that a cameraman only has a year to live, even as she's smiling and posing for pictures. It doesn't seem to penetrate emotionally at all. She doesn't know him and he appears to be a bit of a creep. Nevertheless, you'd expect a flicker of human feeling at the realisation of his imminent demise.

Later, she's downright gleeful, as she joins spectators at the scene where two criminals lie dead. They've been killed by herself, with her own Death Note, at the urging of Rem. There's none of the angst that beset Light at his first Kira kills playing upon her face. She's even dressed appropriately as the Black Widow incarnate.

Mind Games in TV Death Note Episode Four

Image: Misa as Second Kira in Death Note 2015

Misa as the Second Kira dressed in black

Then there's L, dispassionately announcing that he used Mark Dwellton (Ray Penbar) as bait in order to catch Kira - effectively sending him to his death without any back up. He didn't seem to spot any incongruity in the fact that he 'didn't get around' to asking who Kira was, though Mark/Ray patently knew by now. Yet L did find time to plant a transmitter upon him.

It was more important for L to be the one to find Kira, than it was to catch Kira per se, or save a man's life.

Compliance and the Loss of Human Rights

L's mindset paved the way for one of the most thought-provoking sequences within Death Note television show episode four.

The phenomenon of compliance exists all too easily in real life too - which is how concentration camps are built and harsh laws enacted without much more than a murmur on the streets - and L knows very well how to invoke such behaviour.

Human beings basically want to follow the herd. No matter how heinous the action, most will first look around to see if anyone else is speaking out. We second guess ourselves, if all our peers appear readily accepting of the situation. If someone in authority assures us that it's alright, then it's pretty much game over. We're socially programmed to not only keep silent, but actually join in that which ordinarily we'd call an outrage.

Matsuda protests against L's deadly usage of Ray Penbar for bait. L sneeringly dismisses the condemnation, assured in his personal immunity because Matsuda can't file an official complaint without exposing his real name and face to Kira.

The police officer instantly backs down. Personal safety, the silence of his peers and L's scathing tone reduce his concerns to nothing, despite the clarity of his duty here.

Image: L and the Japanese Task Squad in Death Note 2015

Compliance stills the complaints of Matsuda and Mogi in the face of L's disdain

It's the introduction of security cameras, enacting secret surveillance within the homes of police officers which fires Mogi's indignation. "This is a human rights violation!" He rails at L, who merely smirks. It's the usually upright and morally exact Soichiro who loses sight of all ethical conduct here, reassuring Mogi and ordering his people to follow L's orders.

The compliance is complete, when all officers not only cease their protest, but join in with what they previously found so reprehensible. It's only several days hence that Mogi has an insight to level at L, "You're the same way (as Kira)!"

Then they're all sent home. L no longer needs to manipulate them into compliance, he was about to switch tactics anyway.

Manipulation Tactics in Death Note Episode 4

Image: Light Yagami 'Kira is Evil' scene from Death Note (2015) episode 4

Then again Soichiro Yagami himself was above similar guilt manipulation.

I refer to his whole speech partway through about evil being the ability to kill, and those with such power being truly cursed. His condemnation of 'Kira is evil' soon wiped the smirk from his son's face.

Strategies involving manipulation were also very much in evidence in this episode of the television live action Death Note drama.

Some were very subtle indeed, like Light Yagami reading girlie magazines in full view of cameras that he knew to be there. Moreover, he discerned that his father was watching. An obvious guilt trip to make it really awkward for Soichiro to be witnessing the scene before all of his staff.

Mind you, that's a philosophy soon twisted in Light's mind through a filter of Kira, until its finally subverted into, "I think Kira, who was born by acquiring this power, is the most blessed person on Earth."

Other techniques of manipulation were middling, such as Watari - acting upon L's orders - broadcasting fake news bulletins about 1500 FBI agents entering Japan to search for Kira.

More yet were downright blatant. Light came on like a bulldozer in manipulating Ryuk by force of apple abstinence into helping him find the surveillance devices in his bedroom.

.... yet.

While the heaviest of all came from Misa and her threatening letter, designed to manipulate Japan's government and its media. She didn't want much, just their open support and assistance for Kira, and L dragged onto television for a public execution.

Given that the police authorities had already 'lost their nerve', it's probably a blessing for L that its chiefs didn't know his location. Else Misa might have won that round.

Hidden Nod to Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata

Incidentally, did you spot the hidden nod in that scene towards Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata?

The stricken Chief of Police was called Ogiso Takeshi. That he shared the same name as Death Note's canon artist was obvious. Less so was the link between Ohba and Ogiso.

We have to slip back a few centuries and relocate to Africa. There you'll find the biggest Benin dynasties. Firstly the Ogiso, which was succeeded by *drum roll* the Oba. Different spelling, same pronunciation. Tenuous? I think not.

Paranoia in the Watchers and the Watched

Misa learns all about paranoia
as a concept

Finally we get the most pervasive theme of all in this TV Death Note episode, that of paranoia.

Particularly in the sense of that old adage: 'just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not watching you'.

Light Yagami is downright paranoid from the off.

Though, to be fair, it's with good reason, what with FBI agents following him, Japanese agents watching his every move at home, Misa stalking him and L turning up at his school to challenge him in front of all his friends.

He begins the episode with statements like, 'if anything happens to me, Kira's judgements must still go on', thus implying that he believes something might happen to him. He then has a good long paranoid moment in class, trying to guess the identity of the second Kira - is it someone he knows? It is somebody famous? It could be anybody!

His paranoia also shows in his behaviour. Booby-trapping his bedroom door is a big one, though again that actually tipped him off that his room had been entered by professionals.

By partway through, his self-commentary is coming out with things like, "If I make one false move, (L will) find out." Not the musings of a sane boy, however correct his presumptions transpired to be.

Mind you, he did manage to traverse the potato chip scene without any of the iconic bellowing of his English dub anime counterpart.

Then you get Misa's big moment, wherein Rem warns her that using any Death Note causes its owner to become highly paranoid. (A new aspect created for this telling of the tale?) Until now, Misa has appeared relatively intelligent and capable. Suddenly she's beaming blankly at Rem, asking airily, "What does paranoid mean?"

Before setting out to manipulate Light by triggering his own Death Note incurred paranoia. It all felt a little jarring from where I was sitting.

Light xL Fanservice in Death Note TV Episode 4

Mostly though, Death Note (2015) episode 4 is going to be remembered for its blatant and gratuitous fan-service for the legions within the Light/L fandom.

Until now, Kento Yamazaki taking his shirt off every episode has been the biggest fare on offer for his fans. Now a good ten minutes was taken up with nothing much beyond Light and L flirting incessantly and posing with little to no clothes on. There was a whole scene in a communal shower for Kami's sake!

Let's just have a little picture show and let the images speak for themselves.

I rest my case.

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TV Death Note Episode 3: Deities, Dualism and Dreams with Light the Bringer of Kira

11/8/2015

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Death Note red apple -
why do we suddenly have
three scratch marks?

I've been a little late in catching up with the Death Note television drama. Life happened in stress inducing proportions, then I watched two episodes back to back last night.

The first was episode 3 of Death Note (2015) wherein we begin to see Light transforming into a very recognizable and familiar Kira.

During the opening scenes, Light is very frightened; devastated because L is getting too close and gleaning too much from very little information. There's the sense that Light knows he's in over his head, with the horror becoming even more real once it occurs to him that his own father would be the one to arrest him.

This is all juxtaposed against a flashback scene, wherein we see a very young Light playing at cops and robbers with his father. He obviously idolizes him and wishes to emulate his father further by becoming a police officer. Innocence, love and enjoyment are all there in the bonding, while Mrs Yagami (Light's mother) looks on, fondly, proudly, and an infant Sayu is brought into the game. They were a close-knit, loving family.

The first time Light used the Death Note with any understanding of the consequences, it was to save his father from a dangerous siege situation. His earliest justification for the notebook's continued use was that he could protect his family by creating a better world. Even so, he tore himself apart emotionally, analysing each murder, filling his self-reflections with seemingly endless angst.

Now there's the killer, like a split personality beneath the surface threatening to overwhelm the whole. Ready to kill his own father - at the barest suggestion from Ryuk that he should - in order to avoid exposing himself as Kira.

Nor does this fact even seem to penetrate. Light merely meditates upon the danger posed by L and strategizes how to defend himself from it.

He's no longer protecting his father, his family or society at large. He's losing all conscience in a bid solely to retain his freedom to act as Kira. Or, at least, protect Kira as a separate entity who just happens to share his own self.

Kira eyes in Death Note television drama

Light-bringer Kira burning plans for mass murder

We've had Light dissociating himself from Kira before. Now L is at it too. The detective speaks to Light over the telephone as part of a general trolling of police officers' family members. L tells Light that he will expose 'your, no *pauses* Kira's method of killing'. Like they are distinct personae.

Ryuk several times comments that he can perceive a 'Kira face' upon Light's features. The viewers can see it too, particularly as he constructed his secret cabinet inside a desk drawer and later as he came up with a plan to massacre all Kira assigned FBI agents.

It all puts me in mind of Milton's Paradise Lost and the original Light bearer - Lucifer - bellowing out, 'Evil be thou my good!', even as he is lost to the flames. Twice Light played with fire and both times concepts of good and evil were transplanted beneath the gaze of Kira.

This isn't merely a mental distinction. As Misa - now physically transformed herself with shinigami eyes - peered out across the audience at her concert, she spotted a deep significance in Light Yagami's aspect. He alone, amidst all the crowd, had no death date on display above his head.

He is now quite permanently Kira.

Split Identities in Death Note Episode 3

In my musing upon episode two of Death Note (2015), I discussed the dissociation and projecting going on amongst the characters here. Such things escalated to a downright schizophrenic level in this one, not to mention secrets and misdirection in personal identification aplenty.

We had things practically banal in comparison to the rest - like the Japanese task force all being given IDs with names akin to their own, but slightly misspelled or otherwise minutely changed. Each of their ranks were altered too.

Then there's the ordinary strangeness of this Death Note show's Naomi Misora substitution - Cathy Cambell (or Campbell, in the English subtitles) - choosing to write her full name on the back of a photograph for her fiancée. Considering they were poised to be married, you'd think that Raye Penbar would recognize the lady in his arms on the other side, and barely require her first name in the caption, let alone her surname too.

It just seemed a little like she was writing on behalf of someone else. (Or else it was an overly contrived plot line to facilitate Kira later.)

None of us yet know what's going on with Near and her Mello puppet. All points to Near projecting her darker musings upon a doll of her peer, but each time she addresses Mello personally, she looks above or beyond the toy.

Near and Mello Puppet in TV Death Note show

Follow Near's eyes, it's not the puppet she's addressing

Like that bit of the room we haven't yet seen has the actual Mello in it, delivering his lines, and somehow never mentioning the sodding great puppet in his image on Near's knee.

There's another very significant deviation from norm in the dynamic between Near and Mello. Now it's Mello wanting them work together, while Near is circumspect, as it won't make L happy.

My partner is convinced that Near and Mello both exist solely inside L's mind. That he's the one with multiple personalities and they are our hint towards it. Eventually we'll find out that L is Kira and no-one in this show existed, except Watari, who's L's carer in a psychiatric ward.

Whatever the reality of Near, we can know that she identifies firmly with Christ, as depicted in the stained glass above the landing of the stairs. I previously thought this was Mother Mary at the Nativity, but I've since watched the show in high definition. That's Jesus Christ in 'suffer little children to come unto me' mode.

It compares with Mello's Archangel Michael - Fall of the Rebel Angels - on the other side of the room.

Nor are Wammys the only ones linked with deities, there's someone divine standing right alongside Light too.

Framed Picture on Light Yagami's Wall

The artwork was prominently shown beside Light for a whole scene.

Who is the figure and what is he holding?

Light's bedroom is filled with interesting knick-knacks, ornaments and posters. Each episode thus far of Death Note (2015) television drama seems to focus upon another piece, that's usually pertinent to the plot at hand.

This time, the camera angle quite blatantly drew our attention to framed artwork on Light Yagami's bedroom wall. For a moment there, we seemed to be zooming in on it, but the close up shifted onto Light's face.

The art is some kind of small tapestry, or embroidery, with tassels at each edge. The figure within appears to be highly stylised and based upon an original woodcut. But who is it?

My mind, attuned as it is to Western mythology, immediately supplied the fact that I was looking at Satan. But why would a Japanese young man have the Christian anti-Christ on his bedroom wall?

Instead I'm assuming this depicts a Japanese deity, or mythological creature. However a long perusal through various image searches hasn't produced a contender.

Who is this being displayed so prominently alongside Light? Can you identify them and their context?

Japanese God Picture on Kira's wall in Death Note TV drama

Japanese God? Satan? Can you identify the figure framed on Light's bedroom wall?

My current best guess is that it's Bishamon (aka Bishamonten) - Japanese God of War and Punisher of Evil-Doers. Also considered the chief of Japan's Four Kingly deities.

He would fit in very nicely with Kira's self-perception and wouldn't appear out of place amongst the other pieces depicted in that bedroom. Moreover, Bishamon would be invoked to ward away invaders or personal enemies. The focus here occurs while Light is deeply upset because L is onto him. This is mere seconds before his father turns up with a police colleague to investigate Light's association with Misa's (deceased) stalker.

Both circumstances in which Bishamon's good fortune might usefully be evoked by a desperate Light Yagami.

Nightmare of the Dreamweaver in Death Note

In addition to a strategically placed item in Light's bedroom, I'm also coming to expect a philosophical soundbite - usually occurring around the first third mark of each episode - which sums up the whole theme.

This time it was our protagonist musing upon aspirations.

Dreams are just about self-satisfaction. Everyone has a mission in life.
~ Light Yagami

By the second third mark of the show, Light was suddenly wearing his Sandman t-shirt again. Contrasting his disdain of dreams with a celebration of Neil Gaiman's ultimate dreamweaver.

All this from the man who, in the first episode, stated that his ambition was to be nothing special. Just a public servant with no excitement in his life. Where did this 'mission' thing come from?

His morality seems changed utterly. But so does everybody else's too.

Everyone's a Potential Kira Now!

Raye Penbar with Death Note pages

A major hallmark of Death Note (2015) episode 3 is how readily murder was mooted as the solution to any given obstacle.

We're not just talking about Kira either. Half the people there appeared on the verge of killing, or actually going ahead and doing it. Particularly as concerned the preservation of self or family.

Kira (Light) would have murdered his own father to protect himself;
Raye Penbar was ready to kill Light to save his fiancée Cathy Cambell;
He actually murdered several colleagues with a Death Note in the same cause;
Misa did kill Raye with her Death Note to stop him pulling the trigger on Light;
L consistently sends his people out into potentially deadly situations, especially Raye;
Soichiro seems practically suicidal in his zest to enter the Kira case in the almost certain knowledge that he could be killed. All to protect society, justice and his family;
Near accuses Mello of wanting to kill Kira.

Then you had both Ryuk and Rem urging their respective humans (Light and Misa) to write in their Death Notes.

In fact, murder was downright normalized in this episode, like we were all transforming into mini-Kiras and losing bits of morality to justify the change.

Fifty Shades of Yagami Grey (Well... 3)

Grey plaid all round for the Yagamis

There's a length of chequered black and white fabric that's seriously serving the Yagami family well in episode three of Death Note's television adaptation.

Sayu's school uniform skirt, Light's shirt and (later on) a bag filled with a change of clothes for Soichiro all seem to have been cut from it.

Of course, black and white checks tend to produce an overall effect varying shades of grey. Pretty much like Light Yagami's moral outlook as he hurtles headlong into his Kira persona.

In the meantime, Misa marks her descent from subject of a Shinigami stalker to a Death Note wielding Kira by switching clothes. She's usually in red (just as L is in white and Light tends towards dark colours), but killing Raye saw her donning red and black chequered clothes.

Later on, she would be seen totally in black.

It's a little stylistic colour coding, which may have deep, profound meaning as the show goes on. Or might just look pretty.

Plot-hole Ahoy! Misa in the Warehouse

MIsa Amane and her Death Note

Talking about the newly murderous Misa, have we worked out how she just happened to be in the abandoned Araide Industries factory in order to commit said murder?

One second, she's receiving her Death Note, getting to know Rem and surrendering half of her remaining life span, so she might acquire shinigami eyes as this season's must have accessory. So far so perfectly normal within the Death Note universe.

Misa is able to identify Light as another Kira, as she can't read his death date with her preternatural vision. She could grab his name though, which she completely mispronounces in conversation with her Ichigo Berry pals.

Then nothing to explain how she went from that to being on site at the precise moment when Raye Penbar was about to kill Light.

Even if she'd tracked Light down via his name and some fan mailing list, there's no reason for her to know where he is at any given time. Nor for her to turn up on the off-chance that she might be able to save his life.

Did I miss something?

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Death Note the Musical Songs in English

19/5/2015

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We've all been seeing Death Note Musical news and dress rehearsal videos coming out of Japan and Korea, but those of us in the English speaking world have yet to fully comprehend what we're hearing.

How can we know how Kira and L sound mid-duet, when the lyrics are strange to our ears?

Obviously we could simply learn Japanese or Korean and stop being so lazy about it. But we don't have to, because a New York cast performed demos back in the day when Frank Wildhorn was writing all these songs.

This is how they sound.

The Name is Kira - Death Note the Musical

- Peformed by Eric Anderson as Ryuk.

Where is the Justice? - Death Note the Musical

- Performed by Jeremy Jordan as Light.

Stalemate - Death Note the Musical

- Performed by Jeremy Jordan, Jarrod Spector and Adrienne Warren, as Light, L and Misa respectively.

Playing His Game - Death Note the Musical

- Performed by Jeremy Jordan and Jarrod Spector as Light and L.

Honor Bound and Bound by Honesty - Death Note the Musical

- Performed by Robert Cuccioli (I think!) as Soichiro Yagami.

When Love Comes - Death Note the Musical

Performed by Carrie Manolakos as Rem.

Only Human - Death Note the Musical

Performed by Eric Anderson and Carrie Manolakos as Ryuk and Rem.

At Any Price/Love You More - Death Note the Musical

- Performed by Adriennne Warren as Misa Amane.

NOW what do you think of it all, my fellow lazy monoglot compatriots?

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Korean Kira and Cast for Death Note the Musical Revealed

13/5/2015

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An all singing, all dancing Kira is coming to Korea.

Running from Jun 20th - Aug 9th 2015, the Seongnam Arts Center Opera House, in Bundang, will witness the second world staging of Death Note the Musical, and the cast has been announced.

Death Note Musical Korea Kira Hong Kwang-ho

The starring role of Light Yagami will be filled by West End musical actor Hong Kwang-ho, alongside Korean pop sensation Kim Jun-su - aka Xia Jun-su - as his sparring rival L.

Fresh from Korea's stage production of Wicked!, actresses Jung Sun-ah and Park Hye-na will be performing together again in the musical Death Note. They play Misa Aname and her shinigami Rem respectively.

The other shinigami, Ryuk, will be brought to life by Kang Hong-seok, whose most recent appearance was as Lola the drag queen in Kinky Boots.

No word yet on who will be fulfilling the roles of Soichiro Yagami nor his tragic daughter Sayu. Not to mention the second actor undertaking the key part of his son Light. After all, there were two leading the show in Japan, playing Kira on alternate nights, as the position was so demanding.

However, there's already a trailer out and it looks freaking amazing!

Plus a poster circulating of the aforementioned Death Note the Musical Korean cast members already in costume:

Clockwise from top left: Hong Kwang-ho (Light Yagami); Kim Jun-su (L); Death Note the Musical Korean
production poster;Kang Hong-seok (Ryuk); Park Hye-na (Rem); and Jung Sun-ah (Misa Amane).

Any thoughts so far on Korea's Death Note Musical casting?

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Call Out for Budding Death Note Voice Actors

26/1/2015

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There's an intriguing development over on Behind the Voice Actors site - a call for Death Note voice actors!

The project appears to be a fan-based audio-visual rendering of the entire Death Note manga. It's being organized by ShadowMistress, who has the licensing already in the bag.

Characters up for audition are: Light Yagami, L, Mrs Yagami, Ryuuku, two shinigamis, Shibuimaru Takou (biker), news reporter and extras. If you think you have what it takes to bring any of them to life, then you're invited to read prescribed lines in an audio track and submit it.

Deadline is February 23rd 2015. More details here.

How exciting!

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Death Note Skins for Minecraft Gamers

10/1/2015

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Here's a lovely one for the Death Note gamers amongst us. Which is pretty much all of the Matt cohort and probably most of the others too.

You can play Minecraft as Death Note characters by downloading bespoke skins.

I've never played Minecraft, though it's top of my list of games to try. I've loved Terraria and the like, so I know I'll enjoy this one.

Nevertheless, I was lured onto Planet Minecraft by the vast number of friends who do play the game. One of them mentioned an L skin, so I went for a shufty. Then made the rash promise - if there's a Matt skin, I'm in. Yep, there's a Matt skin too. Guess what I'm going to be playing in 2015...

Here are the Minecraft Death Note skins and other stuff that I've uncovered for your delight and amusement:

Image: Matt Death Note skin for Minecraft

Mail Jeevas Minecraft skin

L (absolutely 100s of them)
Kira (100s of them too)
Ryuk (skin) Ryuk (statue)
Soichiro Yagami
Touta Masuda
Rem
Gelus
Death Note Texture Pack

Matt (white top) Matt (red top)
Mello (version 1) Mello (version 2)
Misa (black dress)
Near
Beyond Birthday
Death Note banner
L Pixel Art
Shinigami Realm

There are plenty more, but frankly you could explore them for yourself. Off you go! And please report back on any particularly cool things that you think we should know about.

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Death Note Musical Rem: Songstress Megumi Hamada Cast as Misa Misa's Shinigami Mentor

11/12/2014

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First a quick apology. I had every intention of completing all Death Note actor biographies when they were announced. I blinked and somehow it's two months later with two Death Note actresses still not featured here.

I didn't forget either of them. Time just conspired against us. But let me make good that deficiency with the first of the two right here - Death Note Rem actress Megumi Hamada!

Death Note Musical actress Megumi Hamada as Rem

Shinigami Rem actress Megumi Hamada

No-one in her native country would need any introduction to Megumi Hamada. She's one of Japan's leading musical actresses!

Set to bring a death goddess to life, our shinigami actress was born in the human world on August 2nd 1972. She hails from Kitakyushu, on the Fukuoka Perfecture, in Japan.

Megumi Hamada attended Kyushu International University High School. After graduation, she worked for a time in a local book-store, before saving up enough funds to move to Tokyo. There she enrolled in the Performing Arts Academy, based in the capital's Toshima district, determined to realize her dream of becoming an actress. Just like her idol Yuko Doi.

That seems to be working out well.

Japanese Musical Death Note Rem Megumi Hamada

Megumi Hamada as Death Note Musical cast member Rem

More images of Megumi Hamada as Rem in Death Note the Musical.

Obviously the biggest item now on Megumi's professional resume is her upcoming portrayal of Rem in Death Note the Musical. Previously it was Wicked that everyone was talking about.

Megumi Hamada was the first actress to play Elphaba in Japan. She took that high-profile leading role - heading the original Tokyo cast of Wicked - back in 2007. (Nevertheless, she'll be the first actress in the world to play Rem!)

Evidently a good place to begin, if we want to see our new shinigami actress in action. Can you envisage how she will perform as Rem from this? It's an opening cast trailer for Wicked starring Megumi as Elphaba. For the culturally inept, she's the green one.

Megumi brought Elphaba to life for Japanese theatrical audiences from 17 June, 2007 – 6 September, 2009.

Whereupon she handed over to Masae Ebata, who's carried it around the country ever since.

However, as the originating Elphaba, Megumi was the one recorded for the official album release from the show: Wicked: Gekidan Shiki Version (Japanese Cast Album).

Here she is again, in another YouTube clip, performing one of Wicked's most famous songs, Defying Gravity.

Megumi Hamada as Christine Japan Love Never Dies

Despite the fact that most commentaries focus upon Wicked, Megumi Hamada has been in many other musicals in Japan.

More often than not, she's cast as the female lead.

Roles like Christine (pictured left) in Love Never Dies - Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical sequel to The Phantom of the Opera - which opened in March 2014, at the Nissay Theatre in Tokyo.

We get to see Megumi Hamada in white here, a colour that she will most certainly be rocking whilst playing Death Note's pale shinigami Rem!

Versatile in both her singing and acting, Megumi Hamada never appears typecast, judging from the parts offered to her. In addition to her performance as Christine Daae, Rem's actress has recently played Alice (another source says The Mad Hatter) in Wonderland'; Bonnie in Bonnie and Clyde; and led an operatic showing of Bizet's Carmen. Naturally as Carmen.

Anyone else get the feeling that, if Light Yagami had been female, then Megumi Hamada would be Kira?

As it is, Fuka Yuduki must be quite wide-eyed at the fact that she's landed Misa Amane, when Megumi is also on board as a Death Note Musical original cast member!

Shiki Theatre Company: Megumi Hamada - Four Seasons Lead Actress in Western Musicals

It's hardly a coincidence that the actress poised to play Rem has already acted in a plethora of shows well known in the West.

From 1995-2010, Megumi Hamada was contracted to the Shiki Theatre Company, and that's what they do. In house Shiki writers take musicals and plays that are huge in the West, then adapt them to suit Japanese audiences.

Generally they'll retain the same names as the shows that inspired them, rendered in English - or whichever other language the play was originally penned - rather than also translating all titles into Japanese.

Whether for this reason, or as an in-crowd thing, the company is often referenced as the Four Seasons by theatrical critics, reviewers and fans alike. Especially Western ones. Four Seasons being a literal translation of Shiki into English. Then again, this might not even be a thing. It might just be a glitch in all the translation programs that I'm using to research this biography!

Japan The Lion King - Megumi Hamada as Nala

Megumi Hamada as Nala in The Lion King

It was through Shiki that Megumi starred in Wicked, as well as lead roles in:

Beauty and the Beast (Belle);
Cats (Jellylorum);
Crazy for You (Polly Baker);
The Lion King (Nala);
Exotic Hill (RiHanaRen);
Aspects of Love (Giulietta Trapani);
Aida (Aida - one scrambled translation implies that Megumi performed this part over 1000 times during its three year run; but another reading suggests that the Aida role itself has been subject to the 1000 performances by many different actresses, spanning decades, world-wide);
Rokumeikan (Akiko Daitokuji);
Black Comedy (Carol Meruketto);
Mamma Mia (first the mother, then Donna).

The clip below purports to be Megumi Hamada in fine voice as Aida. I'm not convinced this is the same actress! What do you think? Just me getting tired?

Megumi Hamada Meets Frank Wildhorn

Attitude: Shinigami actress Megumi Hamada
sings Frank Wildhorn's songs.

It was around now that Megumi made the contact which has brought her into our Death Note orbit.

Transferring to Shiki Theatre Company's Taidan group, she was cast as Bonnie in Bonnie & Clyde - a show written by Frank Wildhorn, the man now tasked with creating music for Death Note the Musical. It seems that the Broadway composer was quite taken with his Japanese star actress, because he invited her to 'do a CD together'.

The result was Megumi Hamada's 2012 album Attitude, wherein her tracks were all composed by Frank Wildhorn.

There also seems to be a second album floating about called Wildhorn Melodies, which again features Megumi Hamada singing Frank Wildhorn's tunes.

He 'fell in love with her voice'. Very much in love apparently, because she's now Rem.

In addition to which, Megumi Hamada recently switched theatrical agents. She's now being represented by HoriPro, which is the company promoting Death Note the Musical. As this occurred just ahead of casting, the move doesn't feel all that coincidental.

Moreover, Shiki Theatre Company have repeatedly staged plays with music by Frank Wildhorn, during the three years since Bonnie and Clyde. Megumi Hamada is usually the actress leading those shows, thus performing his songs.

It makes me wonder if her role in the musical Death Note occurred at the request of its composer. Not to mention the fact that, if he knows her so well, then Rem's music is probably being written with Megumi in mind.

Plus her Japanese Wiki page lists the Death Note Musical as being staged BY Shiki, though this is the first time I've heard the company mentioned in connection with the project.

If that is correct, then may we speculate that it was the prospect of working with Megumi Hamada again which brought Frank Wildhorn on board in the first place. There definitely appears to be a pattern of collaboration going on here! In which case, we can all fully embrace Megumi in the role of Rem, as that casting is what made Death Note the Musical a reality.

Megumi Hamada's Shiki Theatre Company Taidan roles:

Jekyll & Hyde (Lucy)
Wonderland (Mad Hatter)
Cyrano (Roxanne)
A Tale of Two Cities (Madame Dofaruju)
The Count of Monte Cristo (Louisa)
Love Never Dies (Christine Daae)
Carmen (Carmen)
Memphis
Death Note (Rem)
Sunset Boulevard (Norma Desmond)

Rem Actress Megumi Hamada Live in Concert

In addition to her theatrical work, Megumi Hamada has embarked upon a career as a singer, packing out concert halls and producing more albums. She released a DVD last year from one of her live performances. Most of its tunes are sung in English, including her take on the old Carpenters' classic (They Long to Be) Close to You.

Megumi Hamada's Cozy DVD Tracks

Don't Know Why
Lovin' You
Dindi
Slighty Out of Tune (Deasafinado)
Isn't She Lovely
黄昏のビギン
ラヴ・スコール
Never Can Say Goodbye
(They Long to Be) Close to you
Smells like Morning（オリジナル曲）
Remember（オリジナル曲）
All You Wanted
Free（オリジナル曲）

Buy Death Note actress Megumi Hamada Live 2013 Cozy DVD

So what do you all think? The living personification of Rem, as we know and love the shinigami? Or are you not yet as convinced as Frank Wildhorn?

Over to you.

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Difficult to Draw Shinigami Should Have Been Kept Simple - Takeshi Obata Interview at CBR

17/11/2014

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The recent appearance of Death Note artist Takeshi Obata at New York Comic Con provided plenty of opportunities for fan posed questions and full scale professional interviews alike.

As a result, tidbits of information and Death Note insights are currently falling like confetti over our entire fandom. Thank you all for sharing!

One delightful little interview with Takeshi Obata has been published by Brigid Alverson over at Comic Book Resources. She picked up on his point - given during his panel Q&A - that he took inspiration for Ryuk's look from Italian fashion designs. So did Obata have a particular designer in mind?

Apparently not.

Actually I am not specifically interested in fashion, but I like designed clothing, and like a lot of people, I read magazines and then I'll see stuff I like. I like looking at fashion, and if I see something I like, it ends up in my work sometimes. (Takeshi Obata, CBR. Oct 17th 2014)

Which isn't to say that he's not interested in designer fashion per se. As already intimidated, there is inspiration to be had there!

The clothes I put the characters in obviously become part of the characters, so I am really careful about how I dress them, for sure. I take a lot of care in that. (Takeshi Obata, CBR. Oct 17th 2014)

That brings a whole new complex to the adage that clothes maketh the man... and the shinigami too.

Talking about shinigami, Ms Alverson wondered if Takeshi was ever so enthusiastic in his original character drawings, that the complexity became later regretted, as he was stuck with reproducing the look in later scenes. He concurred that such things occurred - Ryuk being a case in point.

Definitely, especially with the shinigami, I always end up drawing something really detailed in the beginning, and it gets really difficult as I keep doing it and I think I should have done something a little bit simpler. (Takeshi Obata, CBR. Oct 17th 2014)

I have to admit that it never crossed my mind that this kind of thing happened. I'm no artist, so I haven't got the context first hand. Though I do know how soul-destroying it is to edit stories as a writer. It's the sheer tedium of going over old ground, without the joy of discovering or creating anything new, that weighs me down.

I'm now very, very grateful that I never had the talent to become an artist in a long serial. You'd have to go over old ground constantly, just changing poses here and there, or maybe hair-styles and clothes, if your character gets to enjoy costume changes. *shudders*

How do you artist types keep sane under such conditions?!

Back to the plot, it's worth checking out Brigid Alverson's actual interview with Takeshi Obata, as there's more there than I've quoted here, particularly concerning his non-Death Note work.

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Musical Shinigamis in Death Note Stage Show

9/10/2014

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When the story calls for two supernatural entities to take centre stage, then there's a variety of ways in which a director might go.

Death Note's shinigami pair have been illustrated (manga), animated (anime) and brought to life via CGI (live action movies). For the theatrical production of Death Note, I did wonder if audiences would be treated to an awe-inspiring puppet element a la War Horse, or something arty produced with shadows on a light board.

None of the above. For the first time ever, Death Note fans are going to see Ryuk and Rem portrayed live by actors. Cosmetics will create the requisite Death God look.

Kotaro Yoshida Ryuk actor Death Note Musical

Kotaro Yoshida as Ryuk in Death Note the Musical

Actress Rem Megumi Hamada Death Note Musical

Megumi Hamada as Rem in Death Note Musical

What do you reckon? Disappointed? Relieved? How did you envisage your all singing, all dancing shinigamis in the musical Death Note?

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Death Note: The Musical Reading in New York City - Character List Revealed

19/4/2014

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Andy Kelso isn't your obvious Light Yagami. Cute as he is, he's way too old to play a schoolboy in the Death Note stage show.

Nevertheless, the NYC actor was the one chosen to act the part of our favourite teen megalomaniac, in the first read through of Frank Wildhorn's Death Note: The Musical.

The show has been written in English, but will be translated into Japanese and Korean ahead of their world premiers in 2015.

The cast arrayed in New York, on April 14th 2014, will not be those performing in the actual Death Note theatre show. They were just there as part of a workshop to see how the script works as a physical performance.

We do know who they are though:

Andy Kelso played Light Yagami
Drew Gehling played L
Robert Cuccioli played Soichiro
Adrienne Warren played Misa
Eric Anderson played Ryuk
Jackie Burns played Rem
Deborah Lew played Toko

Supporting cast members were: Alysha Deslorieux, Sean Jenness, Sara King, Dan Kohler, Adam Pribila, Rashidra Scott, Sara Sheperd and Jason Wooten.

Two things spring to mind. The first is 'who's Toko?' and the second is the Musical will only cover the opening arc of the story. Unless it retells it completely. I see no Mello, Near, Hal et al in that character list.

Any thoughts out there?

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Death Note news articles

Potentially Pairing Mello & Near in Death Note

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Message from a Split Identity in Death Note

Three in One? Multiple People Grouping Near

Colour Coding the Three in One and Death Note

Romance in Hues of Black, Red and White

Like Living in a Chessboard, L and Light Make Their Moves in Black and White

Japanese Symbolism in White, Red & Black

Near and Mello in Death Note TV Drama 2015

Mind Games in TV Death Note Episode Four

Compliance and the Loss of Human Rights

Manipulation Tactics in Death Note Episode 4

Hidden Nod to Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata

Paranoia in the Watchers and the Watched

Light xL Fanservice in Death Note TV Episode 4

Split Identities in Death Note Episode 3

Framed Picture on Light Yagami's Wall

Nightmare of the Dreamweaver in Death Note

Everyone's a Potential Kira Now!

Fifty Shades of Yagami Grey (Well... 3)

Plot-hole Ahoy! Misa in the Warehouse

The Name is Kira - Death Note the Musical

Where is the Justice? - Death Note the Musical

Stalemate - Death Note the Musical

Playing His Game - Death Note the Musical

Honor Bound and Bound by Honesty - Death Note the Musical

When Love Comes - Death Note the Musical

Only Human - Death Note the Musical

At Any Price/Love You More - Death Note the Musical

Shiki Theatre Company: Megumi Hamada - Four Seasons Lead Actress in Western Musicals

Megumi Hamada Meets Frank Wildhorn

Rem Actress Megumi Hamada Live in Concert

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