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Death Note Tarot Tales V: Kira's Magician Versus the Wammy's Magi - Divine Wisdom and Poetic Justice in Death Note

8/5/2016

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Every epic journey must begin
with a step upon its routes, roads and Ryuk directed by-ways.

Every great destiny must have a destination.

Explored against
the back-drop of Death Note,
the Major Arcana Tarot cards
feature the realm of The Magician

~ written by our guide into
all things esoteric
Tarot Mikami

Death Note Tarot Tales on Death Note News
Welcome seekers after sama, kana and qi!  You won't be the first to want to reverse your life's fortunes; otherwise embrace words to change the world; take steps to transform yourself into a hero; divert humanity away from its current perverse course; perfect its core that all may sing together - refraining from discordance, aligned in peace and harmony; gain insight into the working of the universe; realize your dreams; reach for the stars; sail across the cosmos and converse with the divine; enchant and charm Kannon at the gates of wisdom; seize manna from the Gods; invoke matter from the kether; traverse the mysteries and become God of this New World.

It's not unknown.

But no matter what foolish idea inflames your passion and ignites your will.  Before you take your first steps onto the path of making it real, you will need some guidance.  Sound the intro, maestro!  And enter The Magician.

The Many Roles of the Tarot Magician

The Magician Tarot Card
The second card of the Major Arcana starts the story proper.  It stands at number one, as The Fool is zero.  Without meeting or becoming The Magician, the Fool is merely a broiling mess of notions, running around like a headless chicken with no direction in which to pursue them. 

If nothing else, the Magician is a doorkeeper - providing access to another (or the wider) world, opening a gateway onto an appropriate path, or acting as a way-marker signing the route to take.  Usually this role contextualizes the bigger picture and sets out the destination.  The Wise Man is concerned with destiny.  Though the advice should be taken indiscriminately.

The Magician isn't necessarily on your side.  The guidance given or the way forward illuminated might be a service provided in all innocence and altruism. Nevertheless, he/she has an agenda of their own and the knowledge to manipulate others too. 

They may play a dual role - making Mafia profits sky-rocket, whilst diverting its resources into capturing a Death Note - and could as easily be trickster instead of consigliere. 

Or a charlatan.  This all-knowing being may present themselves as God, then turn out to merely be a man and a murderer at that.  Worse still, a serial killer implicating you in the guise of the great detective L. 

But the differentiation isn't always that clear cut either.  Nothing so black and white.

The Magician juggles many roles, generally playing all the same time; multi-tasking meaning depending upon who is being addressed.  One person's terrorist being another's freedom fighter and all that, while the manipulation might be to save yourself from yourself, or to aid a greater cause.

Either way, The Magician will certainly give our hero something to ponder and a route (or twelve) to take next.  There's the potential for destiny-laden adventure and opportunities lessons to be learned here, if only never to be that gullible again.

The Meaning of Magician in the Major Arcana

Christians are most familiar with The Magician as the Magi - Three Wise Men in modern versions of the Bible; twelve Pharisee priests in the closest we have to the original - who visited the newborn Christ with gifts. 

For everyone else, the name has largely denigrated to the level of sleight-of-hand illusionists and tricksters on stage, or grown fantastical in figures from stage or literature like Gandalf, Merlin and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

It used to mean so much more.  The hints of it permeate our lexicon.  We glimpse their greatness in words sharing the same root, like magnate, mega, magnitude, magnus, magus and majesty.  That last also containing a hint of their skill as spokespeople, mediators, lecturers, teachers and orators - 'gest', as in 'jester', 'gesticulate', 'gesture' and the 'gist' of a story.  It comes from Middle English 'to recite a tale', originating in Latin 'geste' or 'gesta' 'to perform deeds; to act'.  By the time it hit 13th century France, 'geste' meant to 'narrate an heroic tale'.

Stories could (and often still do) command the will of a people.  Which is why governments today are so keen to pressure the press into toeing the party line.  In Medieval Italy and France, which is where our earliest extant tarot cards were made, the majesty of magicians led to them adjudicating in delicate matters, acting as counsellors or speaking on behalf of less learned individuals.

The Magicians as magisters, in fact, or magistrates.  That 'gist' sometimes turning into its other form of 'iurare' to bring us to jury, and conjurer; or 'joculate' as joker or juggler.  Wise counsellor or trickster indeed.  Furthermore, the French word grammairien referred to 'learned men; magicians', whose ability to know the power and perfect usage of words gave us 'grammar'.

But akin to magician is also master, maestro, mahatma, maharaji, maharishi, yogi, guru, the one who knows.  The Japanese would call them dai-sensai, or O-sensai, doshi, Rōshi, or know them as sifi.  In addition to great wisdom and skill, The Magician brings into play the tools that the Fool might need t0 embark upon their journey.
Major Arcana Magician card
In ancient Persia, the Magos were the learned members of the priestly caste, adept at astrology.  They could give you the overview of your life and destiny, as it was written in the stars, taking in the knowledge of what constellation was on the ascendency or ruling within a certain house. It was up to you what you did with that information and how you let it guide your lives.

Over the centuries, their spiritual descendants have been known as the adepts in a variety of other fortune-telling, mind expanding, soul perfecting or perception enhancing skills.  For example, those magnificent seekers delving into the Kabbalah/Cabala/Qabala as scholars, scryers, practitioners, occultists, alchemists, diviners, philosophers, Hermetic code-breakers and ceremonial magicians.

Enlightened beings who know The Way and what it might mean for you.  But if it's shared - and done so entirely, selectively or else strewn with misinformation - and how that translates into relevancy for your own life's destiny, only a Fool can know in passing through the realm of the Magi.

The Magi In All Their Guises: Major Arcana Death Note's The Magician Card

Death Note: The Magician Tarot Card
Tarot Magician Death Note Rules
Death Note Enlightenment The Magican
The Death Note itself can be seen as falling right into the realm of The Magician.  In fact, it's practically the Three Magi represented here in the notebook, as its role is considered in relation to Light Yagami.

Firstly Light has to find the shinigami's notebook, which serves the dual purpose of opening his eyes to the existence of a world beyond his own and highlighting its possibilities. Hitherto unconsidered (or disbelieved) realities are presented as a pathway upon which to forge his own destiny.  It's the Tarot Magician as gatekeeper, signpost and luminary of higher knowledge.

However, its also the Trickster, or Charlatan, insofar as the falling Death Note serves Ryuk's agenda first and foremost. Its presence on Earth is set to alleviate the shinigami's boredom.  Light will pick it up and, primarily believing it an elaborate prank, use it to the detriment of his own future.  Not only will it curse his living years, but condemn his eternal being into the dissolution of Mu.  This ultimate destination for Death Note users means that a destiny is foisted upon Light Yagami, manipulated by ignorance and curiosity into foolishly using it without fully translating all of the rules beforehand.

The Death Note wasn't on his side, nor against him.  It's an item; a thing without judgement nor partiality.  It serves an agenda encapsulated by itself.  ('I am that I am' is the So'ham Sanskrit manta; also viewed as the Word of God in Christian mysticism; or 'As above, so below; so below, as above' in Hermetic teachings.  All very much part of The Magician's inner knowledge, and here beautifully descriptive of the Death Note too.)

Secondly, Light actually reads the rules written inside the Death Note.  Here the shinigami notebook becomes The Magician as a teacher; illuminating the arcane knowledge needed to utilize this supernatural tool.  The rules themselves inspire possible ways in which Light may now traverse in order to fulfil his projected destiny.

Even more dramatically comes that third moment of the notebook of death as The Magician in Death Note.  That's when the touch of it allows Light's mind to access his memories, previously locked away through rejection of the artefact.  Perhaps it's not quite what the ancient Magos would view as accessing the higher self, but it serves the same purpose within the storyline.  In an instant, Light Yagami's ignorance is dissolved, when the doors of perception are well and truly opened upon his past.  His destination now reached, just as planned.

The Magician as Death Note's Gatekeepers and Arbiters of Destiny

Ryuk as The Magician Death Note Tarot
Ryuk is another obvious contender for The Magician's Death Note tarot representative.  His appearance directs the plot in a myriad of ways, not least because it clarifies Light Yagami's overview and destiny.

Just like his notebook, the shinigami confirms the existence of previously unknown layers to reality, broadening Light's horizons and information base. 

Ryuk stands as guide and gatekeeper to the shinigami realm.  Not only can he speak for and translate the Gods, he is one.

Whilst denying Light access to any such services, unless the whim of the moment takes him.  Because he can.

The shinigami also acts as arbiter of knowledge concerning eternity and deals available to human users of Death Notes, which he does deign to share.  Albeit selective in his choice of snippets to pass on, and deliberately obtuse in the timing of all such communication.

It's too amusing for him not to cause maximum frustration in thus trolling his human Death Note user. 

Which all fits in completely with the reason for him being there, performing his role as Earthly sage and sometime mentor. Openly not on anyone's side - but that of his own amusement - Ryuk is the Trickster Mage personified. 

His entire performance is dedicated to his own agenda, aligning with those of others only where each party's motives/tactics run in tandem. Or he's persuaded that the potential for entertainment is strong.

The Death God is, after all, quite bored and he's here to alleviate said tedium. Everything that occurs must factor that in first, as top priority, because it's certainly the only reason Ryuk is acting in any capacity right now.

L's Messenger Mage Watari: Herald, Spokesperson and Point of Contact

Tarot Death Note Watari as The Magician

As gatekeeper to L, Watari's intervention at the Interpol meeting is pure Magician territory.

Not only does it alert all present to the avenue of inquiry now opening up due to the detective's interest in the Kira case, but it allows Matsuda - thus us too - to discover L's existence in the first place.

Thus the Fool takes the first step out of innocence, ignorance and a lack of context for the world.

For the veteran law enforcement agents there, Watari represents destiny in a very practical sense.  They don't need to discuss the way forward in their investigation now, because L is involved.   He IS the way forward; an option for the situation to be passed up to a higher authority. 

(Sneak preview for a later major arcana card - The Hierophant describes L for those with knowledge and experience of his work.)

For Soichiro and Matsuda, Watari's position is doorkeeper to destiny in a much more ethereal way.

To one it will prove downright Fateful, while the other will reach the proposed destination (catching Kira) changed beyond recall.

Destiny's Magister: Roger Ruvie, The Wammy House Ringmaster Tolls Part Two

Roger Ruvie as the Magician in Death Note tarot
One day, Wammy House warden Roger Ruvie will be Watari too.  His role will encapsulate The Magician in just the same way as Quillsh Wammy, as described above.

Nevertheless, in that Fateful moment imaged as tarot arcana (left), Roger already illustrates several aspects of The Magican card.  Each face or facet exhibited simultaneously.

For a start, he's a messenger, delivering the news that the children's idol and surrogate father are both dead.  Divining correctly the information received from a transmission's ending.  Liaison, wisdom, enlightenment, all wrapped up in that single act.

He's doing so as Wammy's House administrator - which has its root in 'ministry/minister' and from there becomes entrenched in symbolism linked with The Magician.  Minister meaning to 'act on behalf of a higher authority', hence a minister of the state in politics or the church (it literally meant 'priest' in Medieval Latin). It gets its secretarial sense from the French, where it became 'servant; overseer; watcher; manager'.

But may also relate to inspiration of a more tuneful note, hence minstrel and musician are both cognitive words. Each obviously pertaining to The Fool, yet The Magician too, as the latter can be former in receipt of self-awareness, context or knowledge, thus driving their own actions.

It all becomes much more blatant, when another cognate is brought into the mix - magistrate or magister.  One who directs or adjudicates; making decisions; laying down the law.

Roger is authorized to tell a twelve and fourteen year old that their idolized foster sibling and beloved guardian are dead. Yet nothing of sentimentality here. His job is to collect children from around the world, bring them to The Wammy House and train them as potential successors to L.

His results are majestic. After coldly dismissing Mello's emotional outburst, the first question asked was which of them was chosen as heir. No querying the fact that kids are about to be sent into an arena which killed two adults, one purportedly the world's most genius detective.  No options considered.

This Wammy Ringmaster magisterially sends both kids to fight round two; their destination seeming less destined than Fated, with such news extolled like passing bells, louder than ever tonight.

Mello the Consigliere: Death Note Mafia Mage with a Dual Agenda

Mello exemplifies The Magician with a dual agenda, while acting as consigliere within the Mafia family headed by Rod Ross.

It's similar to the previously examined outlook of that other magnate Ryuk, but Mello's motivational duality holds some important differences.

The Magician acts by manipulating an individual's lack of essential knowledge or wisdom.  However this doesn't necessary occur every time, only when it suits our canny counsellor's alternate agenda to do so.

Sometimes the concerns will align for both advisor and their directed individual; sometimes not. Regardless, the interests of the latter do not factor into the guidance given by this Mage - whether in counsellor mode, or as councillor representing their client's views and speech to others.

Consigliere (or consigliori) - Mello's position in the Mafia - meant both by the way.  Though technically describing solely the counsel given to the Don, consiglieri (in manga and in life) also fulfil many other roles ruled by The Magician.  Including, but not limited to, mediating in conflict; liaising on the Don's behalf with important contacts and/or authority figures (judges, police etc.); and keeper/archivist of secrets for the entire Family's, so to retain an overview and warn if trouble may be caused, for example, by a capo acting rashly through ignorance of matters concerning another.

Mello seems to be a good consigliere.  At one point Rod Ross is moved to comment that the genius teen has never been wrong in any decision made since joining their Family.

However, no-one should lose sight of reality. Mello was just using the Mafia to achieve his own goals.  

The wisdom imparted by Mello as consigliere causes Rod Ross's profits to sky-rocket.  Yet those and all other available resources are soon diverted into serving Mello's ambition to secure a Death Note. 

After Mello achieves his goal, thus placing a shinigami notebook in the hands of his Mafia family, all agendas probably fell in line, shared and indivisible. For a moment, indeed it seemed to Ross et al that they had absolute power.

And then, in the next moment, they ended up dead.  Mello using the lives of the last ones standing to make good his own escape.
Mafia Mello Death Note Magician

Sakura TV as the Charlatan: Showmanship Masquerading as Wisdom

Death Note Tarot The Magician Sakura TV Charlatan
When Sakura TV appoints itself as the voice of Kira, it's an attempt to appear as The Divinely Ordained or Enlightened Magician.  

As studio boss and anchor-man, Demegawa's overall aim is to trick unsuspecting individuals into believing the station has some conferred higher knowledge. Therefore attempting to gain the same trust or power given to The Magician.

Or in this case, boost ratings.

The Magician can well act as spokesperson for the people/individuals in dealings with authority, or magistrate dilemmas and/or direct juries.  They can certainly translate the divine for those less versed in the sacred mysteries.  However, its beholden upon us all to beware false prophets.

In its more negative (or domineering/pompous) aspect, our spokesperson Mage might not say what we wished them to convey.  

Think politicians declaiming sentiments which make us cringe or cry, all in our name; or the journalist who twists your words, yet 'quotes' you all the same, in pursuit of a sensational story bearing no relation to what actually occurs; or the parent/guardian/teacher expressing their own views as if they were automatically shared by yourself, ignoring or over-riding any attempt at dissent.

While Kira may experience Sakura TV's antics (in the persona of Demegawa) as the above, every other viewer is watching a charlatan or mountebank in action.  A pseudo-priest or trickster mantis preying upon the gullibility of their television audience turned congregation.

On the flip side, even the False Magician may inadvertently act as teacher.  The lesson today from Sakura being not to believe everything you hear on TV.  

(Particularly when tabled as a Trump; donkey imagery warns us off, as seen below The Magician's board in some ancient tarot decks.  Mistake the babbling showmanship of this charlatan for wisdom, and your only sure destiny is to be made feel like an ass.)

Kiyomi Takada: Enlightened Divine Messenger of Death Note

I don't remember who said it, but the quotation snagged in my mind.

Someone was told that David Icke - the footballer turned commentator and write - was now telling all and sundry that he was the Son of God.  There was a pause in which the informant gleefully awaited  the witty put-down that was sure to follow concerning the subject of their gossip.

"Well?" The other slowly asked.  "Has anyone checked if he is?"

And therein lies the rub.  How does one verify such a claim?  And if we can't, then how do we know for sure whether they're a mounteback babbling lies, or insane, or someone Cassandra cursed to be disbelieved in all the divine truth they tell?

The Magi would know.   It tends to be them. Whether reading the portents in divination; searching arcane knowledge to uncover higher truths; or acting as intermediaries between the Gods and us, as the priestly caste or ministering on career paths.

Just occasionally, we get the real thing.  Magos aglow with the numen nod - enchanters, prophets, seers, the chosen and invokers; attuned to the Great Music and entrancing with utterances lifted from source; merely mediums through which the universe flows.

Or television anchor woman/newscaster, who just happens to be the right person, at the right time, with a matching warped sense of morality and all the right contacts to be the Messiah. 

The divine intermediary aspect of The Magician is represented quite literally by Death Note's Kiyomi Takada, twofold.

She performs her role as Messenger of the God(s) in that Takada is the actual, publicly appointed spokesperson for Kira; while also being the conduit that allows both Kiras - Light Yagami and Teru Mikami - to communicate in open conversation.

No charlatan this.  Blessed Takada performs with gravitas; notably refined before this even began.  Now perceived by the ever-growing faithful as gentle, radiant, the real thing and absolutely full of grace. Buying into and believing all Light says; mind mired and amazed beyond all rationality. 

But then it was always thus:
Death Note Tarot The Magician Takada
Quem Deus perdere vult, dementat prius; quem di diligunt, adolescens moritu.
Those the Gods will destroy, they first make mad; and whom the Gods love dies young.

Le Bateleur Matsuda: Sleight of Hand Illusionist in Death Note

The Magician Matsuda - Death Note's Le Bateleur
Le Bateleur is the aspect of The Magician most familiar to us in the modern world; give or take a few fantasy movie mages, and their counterpart skills offered as an option for gamers.

This is the stage magician; the conjurer; the sleight-of-hand trickster; the illusionist; the abracadabra, now you see it, now you don't, bateleur drawing in crowds and thrilling them with misdirection, misinformation, smoke and mirrors distraction, before delivering all enrapt and gasping with awe to that climatic moment of The Prestige.

Le Bateleur - and its cognates Il Bagatto, El Bagatella, Bateleuse - refers to this tarot figure's stick, rod or, ta-daaaa, wand.

This aspect of The Magician appears throughout the Death Note series. There's even a whole chapter, in Death Note 13: How to Read, devoted to explaining all of the tricks inserted into the storyline by Tsugumi Ohba.

The Death Note Magician tarot card we've chosen to depict Il Bagatto in action features Matsuda faking his own death.  Before a stunned crowd of Yotsuba corporate executives, he pulls off The Prestige in garnering their belief that the dressed up Aiber far below on the ground is Matsuda's mangled corpse.  Meanwhile, Touta sits safely on a mattress a mere one floor below.

However, we could just as easily picked any of the dozens of scenarios, whereby Death Note's conjurers wash over truth with a new reality, attested by witnesses swearing on oath that they watched throughout.

Like when Light becomes aware he is being watched by surveillance cameras. He quickly acts to manipulate the evidence by a tricky sleight-of-hand illusion.

To the onlooker, it would appear as though he was only studying, while taking those potato chips and eating them. The reality being that Kira was killing criminals with a piece of the Death Note hidden, alongside a miniature TV, inside the chip bag.

Even L was fooled by that one.

So what's your favourite showing for the tarot Death Note Bagatella?   Just to check that you kept observing, through all there was to see.

The Three Wise Men (Wam-Magi?)

Picture
Picture
Picture
In the time of Watari, after Kira was born in Japan, wise men from the Wammy's House in Winchester came to Kanto, asking, "Where is the murderer who has been born God of the New World? For we observed his kill count at its rising, and have come to take him down."

When Takimura heard this, he was frightened and all world leaders with him; and calling together all the Kira Task Force and NPA public relations officers, he inquired of them when the Kira was to be arrested. They told him, "In the Yellow Box Warehouse; for so it has been written by Near: 'And you, Takimura, in the land of Japan, are by no means going to know a thing about it, because Mello would have got you killed by then.'"

Then US President David Hoope secretly called - via Watari - for the wise men and begged each in turn to stop threatening to control him into doing worse than Kira, whenever any of them get hold of a Death Note. Then he sent them to Kanto, saying, "Go and search diligently for Kira; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage."

When they had heard the POTUS, they got him killed and replaced with George Sairas; and there, ahead of them, went the star Misa Amane that they had seen rising as Second Kira, until she stopped because L had her tortured. When they saw that the Japanese idol had started begging to have her life ended, they were overwhelmed with joy.

On entering the Warehouse, they saw the megalomaniac with Mikami his worshipper; and Near knelt down (the other two forced to too, as they were now dead and puppets). Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of cake, Transformers, and chocolate.

And having painted a vivid picture for Ryuk warning of a future bound to a Death Note now stuck in Near's vault - while Light languished in a prison for the criminally insane for life - Near successfully manipulated the Death God into taking out Light before returning to the shinigami realm.  Then the Three Wise Wammys left for their own country, where verily two returned to the toy box and Near took L's Code for himself.  And probably Mello's too.
Hold on!  One missing from this listing of The Wam-Magi as read from the Book of God's New World: 

Bored out of his mind, Il Matto stayed put in Winchester, playing SuperMario and thanking the Gods of the Internet that Kira never came with cyber-terrorism on-line.  Else he'd never have been able to get away with hiding behind his lazy, mad, wise Fool routine; playing Tetris instead of getting himself killed in someone else's war.  So wise he only ever ranked third and remained forever Il Matto.  He probably wouldn't have amounted to much anyway.  Beep, beep, lulwut, nub?
Matt Death Note Il Matto tarot
Ok, I've stopped now.
As if by Magic - More Death Note Tarot Tales

Posted as Part of

Month of Death Note Wammy
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New Trailer for Death Note: Light Up the New World!

27/4/2016

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Warner Bros Japan have released a thirty-second teaser for its upcoming movie -the erstwhile Death Note 2016 trailer, now officially renamed Death Note: Light Up the New World.

The segment depicts one of the new - and purportedly worse ever - Death Note owner Sakura Aoi (Rina Kawaei) in the midst of a mass killing spree.  She has no ideological background, just the will to kill.  She tells Ryuk, "I will show more interesting things than Kira did."   He finally answers, "After all, humans are so interesting!"

Death Note: Light Up the World Trailer


Sensu Death Bonus Gift with Advance Ticket Sales in Japan

Early bird purchasers of tickets to see Death Note: Light Up the New World can look forward to receiving a limited edition sensu in thanks.

The Death Note sensu is not apparently mooted for general release.  It will just be available for advance movie ticket holders in Japan.

A sensu is a folding fan, one of Japan's traditional crafts.  This version - pictured in the Warner Bros advertisement (right) - has been labelled Sensu Death. Each panel replicates the cover of a shinigami notebook.

Death Note: Light Up the World is the fourth in the live-action movie series. Directed by Shinsuke Sato, it goes on general release in Japan on October 29th 2016.

In addition, Indonesian cinema chain CGV Blitz announced on Facebook (see below) that it too will be showing the movie.  Though no date was given for the Death Note movie opening night in Indonesia.
Death Note Sensu - early bird free gift for Death Note: Light Up the World ticket buyers in Japan
Facebook: CGV Blitz to show Death Note movie in Indonesia
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Death Note 2016: Shinigami Ryuk Gets a Scary Facelift, and Shidou Nakamura is Back to Voice Him!

15/4/2016

4 Comments

 
Ryuk Death Note 2016
A new still released for Death Note 2016 reveals the terrifying face of Ryuk - re-imagined for this latest movie.  It's all the shinigami as we know and love him, but darker, sharper and somehow much more gritty.

Death Note's creators did say that this would be the darkest iteration of the on-going story yet.

Further news to make fans cheer is today's announcement that original Ryuk voice actor Shidou Nakamura has signed on to provide the voice for this version too. Nakamura's tones are familiar to the Death Note fandom from the anime through to the earlier movies in the series: Death Note; Death Note II: The Last Name; and L: Change the World.  Jun Fukushima took over for the TV drama.

All 0f this follows the previous news that Erika Todd will be returning to play Misa Amane ten years on.
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Aerial Sky Shares Advice on Cosplaying Matsuda from Death Note

14/3/2016

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Death Note News - Aerial Sky cosplaying Beyond Birthday
For Month of Matsuda on Death Note News, we've looked long and hard across cyber-space for cosplayers to share their tips on donning Touta Matuda costume.

Here to start us off is Aerial Sky!

There she is cosplaying Beyond Birthday from Death Note's Another Note, as seen in older pictures on her Instagram account:  @dncosplayer25.

She's at pains to let us know that her cosplay has improved greatly since those days.  And further adds,

"I've been into cosplaying for about two years now, and it's my favorite thing to do when I have spare time. Currently I am finishing up my Matt cosplay, and I've cosplayed L and Beyond Birthday, all from Death Note. I plan to cosplay more when I have more time and when my parents accept this habit of mine XD."

So what does she have to say about Matsuda cosplay?  Read on!

How to Cosplay Death Note's Matsuda by Aerial Sky

Have you cosplayed Matsuda now or in the past?
No - never

Is there any reason that you haven't considered cosplay for Touta Matsuda?
I have considered it, mainly because he's the comic relief of the story, and because he's a precious little cinnamon roll XD I think I will stick with the characters I do best. Those being Matt, L, Beyond Birthday, Jeff the Killer, and maybe the occasional Kira/Light.

How would you go about creating a costume for Touta Matsuda?
I would go to Goodwill or some sort of thrift store and buy a suit. There's no need to spend a bunch of money for something you could find easily.

What clothing and/or props do you feel are essential Matsuda costume items?
A black or grey suit, and definitely a good sense of humor.

Is there more to cosplaying Matsuda than the outfit? (Look/behaviour etc.)
You have to have a good sense of humor, as well as a good personality. Don't be afraid to get really into character.

He acts like a goofball, and is about the average high schooler XD

What's your professional opinion about ready-made Touta Matsuda outfits, such as those in the Death Note News Cosplay Store? Any other pieces in there decent enough for a Matsuda cosplay? (Be honest!)
I would definitely go to a thrift shop first and see if I could get something cheaper. Custom made things are so much more expensive.

If not anything there, where would YOU source items to cosplay Matsuda?
Goodwill. And maybe your own closet if you have nice business clothes.

Any last tips for anyone reading, who wishes to create their Matsuda cosplay from scratch?
Get a good quality wig, and just be patient. Good things come to those who wait. :)
Aerial Sky as Ryuk Death Note News

Aerial Sky rolls out her Ryuk

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 Month of Matsuda
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Death Note Summed Up in a Single Panel

10/12/2015

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Isn't this pretty much Death Note in a nutshell?  All that's missing is the fine detail.
Death Note Ryuk 'Because I was bored'
Can you think of any Death Note manga panel that more perfectly encapsulates the whole damn story? 
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Fabulous Death Note Ryuk Lego Display by Neo's Bricks

5/12/2015

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A Shinigami sculpture!  Isn't this wonderful?  Built entirely of Lego, Ryuk from Death Note was created by Neo's Bricks:
Neo's Bricks Ryuk in Lego
Lego Ryuk from Death Note by Neo's Bricks
Courtesy of @NeosBricks, reproduced here with permission.
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Death Note Tarot Tales I: Near & the Use of Tarot in Death Note

23/11/2015

 
Setting foot on a Fool's Journey through Death Note in a new column by Tarot card reader, Tarot Mikami
Death Note News column: Death Note Tarot Tales with Tarot Mikami
Many dramas, books and films make use of tarot cards to symbolic effect.  Death Note is no exception. There's no doubt that the cards were chosen for shock value. Yet remarkably, Death Note's tarot usage is often - and perhaps inadvertently - correct.
The appearance of tarot cards in Death Note is heralded by Near's shopping list, presented to Anthony Rester, of things that he requires in order to investigate the Kira case. Amid items such as 'plastic models', 'inflatable pool', 'secret base set', 'radio controlled rubber duck' and a 'Christmas tree', Near asked for 'Tarot cards... $250'. That's a pretty expensive deck of tarot!

It's to Near we return, time and again, to see how tarot is used in Death Note.

Death Note Near's Tarot Deck

Death Note Near's Tarot Cards

Near's tarot cards in Death Note Episode 30 (anime)
The deck of tarot cards used by Near in Death Note appears to have been invented by Takeshi Obata (or prompted for him to draw by writer Tsugumi Ohba). At least it's not one that I've ever seen outside the Death Note universe, nor have any fans apparently found a real world set.  Surely a marketing opportunity lost right there.

Anthony Rester's tarot purchase on behalf on Near was first revealed in the manga: Death Note Chapter 78 Prediction.  Those scenes later appeared in the anime: Death Note Episode 30 Justice.
Death Note tarot Near's deck

Back of Near's Tarot in Death Note
Death Note The Devil tarot card

Death and The Devil in Near's Death Note Tarot

Near's Tarot Spread in Death Note Manga and Anime

In both the Death Note anime and manga, Near lays his tarot cards out in a very specific way.  They are arrayed in a circle around himself, with most of the cards used in this manner, while a small pile remains to sit inside with him.

While I can't claim to know every single tarot card spread in existence, this one is a new configuration on me. It's difficult to know how it would - or indeed could - be read in a predictive context.
Death Note Near tarot spread

Near's tarot spread in Death Note - Prediction manga chapter 78
There are roughly 40-44 tarot cards precisely placed in a circle around Near.  As there are seventy-eight cards in most packs, this constitutes the majority of them.   They appear even more densely packed in version shown in the anime of how Near lays out his tarot cards.
Near tarot spread Death Note anime

Near's tarot spread in Death Note anime episode Justice
Circular tarot spreads tend to use far fewer cards. The most I've encountered are sixteen piles, with thirteen or twelve (or zodiacal spreads of tarot) being more common.  This isn't to say that Near hasn't invented his own, or else knows a way that I haven't seen before.  Just that it's rather surprising and probably for visual effect only.

The question being - for whose?

Themes and Motifs in Death Note's Tarot Scene

Death Note Episode 30 Justice title page
Death Note Episode 30: Justice
The titles of the Death Note scenes where tarot cards are featured contain hints of their usage.

In the manga, this is Chapter 78 - there are usually 78 cards in a tarot deck.  The chapter is entitled Prediction. Fortune telling is how tarot is most famously employed, though by no means the only way in which they might be used.

Moreover, in Death Note 13: How to Read, author Tsugumi Ohba claimed that he chose the title based upon the predictions given by Near and Light respectively.  Namely that there is a fake rule (Near) and that Mello would contact the Japanese Kira Task Force (Light).  No mention of tarot in this context at all, though it would seem the obvious source.

In the anime, the scenes in which Near reads tarot cards occur in Episode 30: Justice.  There's nothing particularly meaningful about the number 30 in tarot, but there is a card usually labelled Justice.

Death Note Chapter 78 Prediction Near and tarot

The opening panels of Death Note: Chapter 78 Prediction
depicting Near reading the tarot

Death Note Near's Tarot Card Reading - Death

Absolutely the most clichéd use of a tarot card in popular culture comes with the misuse of the Death card.  The problem is that viewers, or readers, think they know what it means. You don't have to be a tarot reader to interpret that Death is bound to translate into a fatality. It doesn't look good for the person whose fortune is being told, which is why it works so well for dramatic effect.

Unfortunately for the storytelling plot, the Death card in tarot rarely means actual, physical death for any individual uncovering it.

As an aside, a group of us tarot readers once challenged ourselves to come up with a configuration of cards which would genuinely denote an imminent loss of life. As in unequivocally could not be read in any other way.  It was hard work, with much toing and froing and debate, but we eventually arrived at something. Every card was one of the minor arcana.  They did not feature the major arcana card Death.

So how did Death Note do with its use of the tarot Death card?
Death Note Death tarot card - Near plans to kill Mello

With the Death card on view, Near offers to kill Mello
At first glance, quite badly.  Near waves the Death card about whilst discussing Shinigami, rules of the Death Note and finally focuses upon it as he tells Light and the Japanese Task Force that he plans to murder Mello. None of which are particularly covered by that card's tarot meaning.

At least not in isolation.

Though, of course, Near could just be using the Death tarot card as a symbolic prop and not reading it at all. In which case, it very nicely indicates a Death God, an instrument of death and a vigilante brand of enacting capital punishment upon his erstwhile foster brother.

However, that's not precisely how and when Near links events with his Death card.
Death Note anime episode 30 Death card tarot

Near flips the Death card to conclude that the 13 day rule in Death Note is fake
In tarot, the Death card signifies an ending of something - usually a situation or circumstance, rather than a life. It might just as well have been called a breakthrough card or closure of a chapter, than the more evocative Death.

Near doesn't turn over  his card until the moment when he's found a rule which can't be proven true given the known facts of the Kira case.  Unless, of course, Light Yagami really was innocent, which Near doesn't believe.

Therefore the appearance of the Death card in Death Note marks a watershed moment whereby Near's investigation genuinely threatens Kira's security, and Light's previously watertight alibi.  It's also the first fruits from the beginning of a new arc, in which Mello and Near (not entirely willingly) work together to defeat their mutual adversary.

Death Note's creators may have employed this tarot card in a purely symbolic way or not, but it also fits the plot.

Death Note Near's Tarot Reading - The Devil

A second card gets flicked over, as Near realises that the second L - à la Kira - can see and speak with a shinigami. Bringing another of the major arcana into play seems to denote that some progress has been made.  Two cards to signify that they've taken a step forward.

It could also be seen very symbolically without recourse to knowledge of tarot cards.  If Kira is Death, then he was tempted into it by a supernatural force, i.e. the Death God.  (Who was no doubt seen as demonic anyway, especially in the Western mind, amid all that Christian imagery dotted throughout Death Note.)  Who better then to represent Ryuk in tarot than The Devil?
Death Note Near with The Devil and Death tarot cards

Near storytelling via tarot illustrations in Death Note
However, as it happens, The Devil in tarot is exactly the right card for Ryuk, particularly in this situation.

If you're reading from an Abrahamic background (Jew, Christian, Muslim etc.), then please put aside all you know of The Devil/Satan. This tarot card skirts about the edges of that persona, but it isn't an exact fit. For that you need to reach further into the inspiration for the modern Devil - Pan, Bacchus/Dionysus etc.  This is a deity/demi-god who exists for hedonistic pleasure. He will grant your every desire and give you tools to satisfy your greatest craving.  Thus teaching the individual the meaning of the old adage: be careful what you wish for, it might come true.

You only have to see the addict in thrall to their next hit, or those crushed beneath debt because they really couldn't afford all those things that they bought, in order to see how instant gratification and receiving all that you wanted might go badly wrong.

In the case of Kira, it was that Ryuk presented him with power usually beyond the scope of any mere human. Light Yagami's wish for a better world made him reach for the Death Note.  His use of it ultimately controlled him, rather than the other way around.  Ryuk has frequently stated that he's on nobody's side.  He's there for the lulz, as it were. But here he is providing Light/Kira/2nd L with the lie required to continue satisfying his need to remain in power.

That is The Devil of the tarot, and the Death God of the manga/anime alike.  At any time, Light could have stopped. Ryuk doesn't force him into this course of action.  He just facilitates it.

That Near turns over The Devil card at the point whereby Ryuk lies on Kira's behalf is exactly right. That was the moment of facilitation, not merely that of being present. 
Death Note Ryuk, Light and Ide Chapter 78

Ryuk and Light exemplify The Devil in Death Note Chapter 78

How Near Uses Tarot Cards in Death Note

In both the manga and anime, Death Note's tarot scenes with Near aren't so much fortune-telling - nor the Prediction of its chapter title - as seeing the cards used as commentary upon what's already occurring.  Near isn't 'reading' tarot cards per se.  He's providing illustrations to highlight the important clues unfolding.

If he'd merely picked those cards at random from the tarot pack, then they really were worth the $250 in precision, and Near is undoubtedly the most intuitive character in manga history.

But he didn't pick either of them at random.

Look again at how the sequence with The Devil tarot card in the Death Note anime plays out to witness how Near selects his tarot cards quite purposefully.

Psychological Profiling with Near's Tarot Deck in Death Note

Near shuffles tarot cards in Death Note episode 30
Step One:  Near sits in the midst of his circle of tarot cards. He's selected just a handful - five or six at most - and flicks through them overlooked by Hal Lidner and Anthony Rester.  As his conversation with Light Yagami goes on, Near's index finger pauses upon a single card among the tarot in his hand.  His fingertip strokes back and forth along its rim.

Analysis:  Near hasn't yet reached a firm conclusion upon what's occurring with the Second L (Light/Kira). Each tarot card in his hand represents a possibility.
Death Note Near with The Devil tarot card ready Episode 30
Step Two:  Near suddenly whips the card free of those in his hand. But he holds it away from himself, with its picture aspect concealed from his own view.  His gaze is actually upon the Death card upturned on the carpet before him.  Meanwhile, Near tells Light that he knows there is a fake rule in the Death Note and asks his opinion upon which it is.  Light - in the guise of (second) L - answers that it's the 13 day rule.

Analysis:  Until now, The Devil card has symbolized one of a final handful of strong contenders for what's going on. Near has promoted it to most likely scenario, but cannot acknowledge it as fact until he's tested his theory.
Death Note Near smiles over his tarot card (The Devil)
Step Three:  As Light asks Ryuk to confirm whether or not there is a fake rule in the Death Note, Near smiles and turns The Devil card towards himself.  He does so at the moment that Ryuk asserts that there are no fake rules, thus lying to maintain Light Yagami's prior alibi against accusations of being Kira.

In that pose, Near clarifies that there is indeed a shinigami present, and confirms that the answer was that all Death Note rules are truly stated.

Analysis:  Near has already deduced that there should be a shinigami present, as he suspects that Light Yagami is Kira.  What he was testing was whether the relationship between Kira and Ryuk is akin to that state of affairs governed in tarot by The Devil card.  Near knows there is a fake rule, so Ryuk's denial of the fact confirms Near's favoured theory.  

From a pack of 78 tarot cards, Near has now homed in on one - The Devil - to describe Kira's inner sanctum and mindset, and Ryuk's position within the scenario too.  This sets the tempo for what will later play out in the Yellow Box warehouse.  In short, Near just nailed Light Yagami's psychology; Ryuk's facilitative indifference; and his own end game.  All with a single tarot card to provide context.
Near smiles from a tarot circle, clutching The Devil card to himself
Step Four: Near might hold his card close to his heart, but only physically.  In actuality, he's crowing his victory - repeating to Light precisely what just happened.  That the confirmation wasn't that the Death Note rules aren't fake, but that a shinigami will lie in capitulation to Kira's will.

Whilst speaking, Near throws down The Devil card, so it lands upturned upon the Death card.
Death Note anime Near turns over The Devil card
Analysis:  Thus Near is able to finally play his card - The Devil previously selected - whilst spelling out to all listening (the remaining SPK, plus the entire Japanese Task Force, in addition to Light and Ryuk) that the shinigami's presence confirms Kira's presence too.

Moreover, Near's just shown that the Death God will lie for Kira, inserting fake rules to provide him with an alibi. Therefore Light Yagami's innocence is no longer proven.  He could still be, and almost certainly is, Kira.

He never once mentions The Devil, though Hal, Anthony and the unseen Stephen would be able to see Near deal his tarot card.  Nevertheless, Near has tripped Light up by triggering the weakness inherent to all in that state of being highlighted by The Devil in tarot.

Conclusion:  Near uses the tarot in Death Note as psychological profiling tools.  Not fortune-telling at all, just props for his own thought processes and theory categorization.
Death Note Near surrounded by Tarot cards

Surrounded by his tarot, Near contemplates The World to attain in Death Note
 I hope you enjoyed the first editorial in my Tarot column for Death Note News.  Next time I'll be looking at the way Near uses tarot in the Death Note One Shot manga.
~ Tarot Mikami

First Time Ever I Saw Your Face... Death Note Blogger Collates Initial Manga Appearance for Each Major Character

20/11/2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Like father, like son - our first sight of the Yagami men in Death Note manga panels
Even the shapes of things on their tables mirror, in polar opposite colours, objects on the surface before the other. 

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

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

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

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

And today I learned that artists are just as bad.

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

We could be here for hours.

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

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

Death Note Music with Lucas King: The Horror of Shinigami Ryuk (with Original Death Note Composition)

5/11/2015

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The first in an occasional column  by Lucas King covering Death Note
musical references, themes and whatever else comes to mind.

Death Note Musical References with Lucas King
Hey guys,

I’ve been thinking about Ryuk lately. Behind all the smiles and goofiness there's some real darkness. We’re told that he dropped his Note into the human world because he was bored, but when you stop and think about just how much misery and pain was brought from his cure for boredom its quite sick.

Naomi Misora lost her fiancee, Misa Amane was driven to suicide, the demise of all our favourite former residents of Wammy’s house. It’s heartbreaking how much loss was brought on from Ryuk’s actions.

It seems like the blame should be placed on Light for it all, but it’s Ryuk. At the end he reminisces about his time on earth, but does he show any remorse? None at all.

There’s that theory that at the end the Shinigami we see is actually Light, now a Shinigami. I think that’s accurate, and it gets me thinking about how the Shinigami King (or whoever decides) chooses who is going to be a Shinigami. I think that the criteria is bringing a lot of death and doing it efficiently and without remorse, much like Light Yagami did.

So perhaps Ryuk was once a human on earth, a cold remorseless serial killer, maybe one who killed out of boredom. 

Death Note Horror Music - Ryuk (Original Composition)

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Game of Thrones/Death Note Crossover Cosplay by Magic Missile Studio

17/10/2015

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Crossover Arya (GoT) and Ryuk (Death Note) cosplay by Magic Missile Studio
This tremendous crossover cosplay for Death Note and Game of Thrones was snapped in Sydney, Australia.  It is the brainchild of cosplay collective Magic Missile Studios - though on a second look, the tag-line actually reads 'Photographer | Graphic Design | Video Games'.  With costumes.

Permission to reproduce the image here was given by Arya, aka prop and costume maker Dashy. 

Our sassy, smug-faced female Ryuk was performed by fictional character - says so on Facebook, must be true - and cosplayer Nerdalina Ballerina. 

You can enjoy more of her Ryuk cosplay, with plenty of extra crossover pics with characters from other shows or gaming worlds, in her Oz Comic-Con 2015 photo album.  They include another Ryuk Game of Thrones moment, as the shinigami crosses over universes to take the much contested Iron Throne. 

Presumably having written off a number of Lannisters in her Death Note, in order to do so. Which can only save time for George R.R. Martin, who is very much prone to doing the same.
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Taylor Swift's Blank Space Death Note Reference in Both Video and Lyrics?

8/9/2015

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Death Note's Kira with apple

Death Note's Kira with apple

The theory definitely gains credence, when you consider the accompanying music video. It depicts Swift holding aloft an apple whilst singing that chorus.

Not to mention that the book in which she writes said names is revealed to look not unlike a Death Note.

But to what extent is all this conjecture concerning Taylor Swift's Death Note credentials true?


There have been rumours circulating that Taylor Swift is a Death Note fan, since she released her 1989 album in October 2014.

In particular, since a certain lyric turned up in Blank Space - her first single issued from the album:

'I've got a blank space baby,
and I'll write your name...'


Sounds a bit Kira to you?
Taylor Swift with apple in Blank Space

Taylor Swift's Blank Space

What is Taylor Swift's Blank Space About?

It seems that the media were giving Taylor Swift a hard time. Scathing journalists wrote nasty editorials warning would-be lovers to keep well away.

As one reviewer put it, these stories framed her as 'an overly attached man-eater who dates for songwriting material' (Sam Lansky, 1989 Marks a Paradigm Swift, Time Magazine, October 23rd 2014)

So the singer had a bit of fun with that.

Blank Space
is all about her hunt for a new boyfriend, whom she'll date in a highly possessive manner, then turn psycho upon. In the meantime, his name will be added to her notebook entitled My True Loves.
Taylor Swift's Blank Space Death Note

Taylor Swift's Death Note... sorry, My True Loves notebook

Anti-Hero Taylor Swift as Blank Space Villain

Much of the fun in the video for Blank Space by Taylor Swift comes after she catches her partner (Sean O'Pry) texting other women. That's when our heroine's romantic inclinations turn psychotically sour.

And some Death Note fans start to see Misa Amane in her overly-possessive retribution for the slight.
Death Note's Misa Amane

Misa-Misa
Taylor Swift as Misa Amane

Taylor-Taylor
We can confirm the 'crazy villain' part with a quotation from her director:
Director Joseph Kahn said that Swift came to him with the idea for the treatment, saying she was all too aware of the jokes made about all of her ex boyfriends and how she likes to include them in her songwriting. Taylor said she wanted to address the general thought of her in the clip in a fun way by playing a crazy villain.

“When I heard this concept, I thought ‘This is amazing!’” Kahn said. “This is a deconstructivist version of Taylor Swift!”
- Hugh McIntyre, Yahoo Accidentally Leaks Taylor Swift's New Music Video For 'Blank Space', Forbes, November 14th 2015
Kahn was also at pains to create a film set feel to the music video, borrowing from many different styles of cinematography in a technique which he calls Spielbergian.  This allowed one story to be told, while also making it seem like a compendium of separate tales stuck together. 

The notion of Taylor Swift as anti-hero or villain was helped along by Kahn taking much inspiration from Kubrick's classic A Clockwork Orange.

But what other popular cultural references were pinged in Swift's Blank Space music video?  Some fans and other commentators think they know.

I've never realized @taylorswift13 is a fan of #DeathNote More apples for you @dude_mysterious pic.twitter.com/iRB3KV1rGF

— Melissa Dickinson (@BlazingRoselia) August 11, 2015

Socio-Cultural References in Taylor Swift's Blank Space Video

Far from Misa Amane, Elle Magazine saw a Law & Order: SUV shout out in the scene with the birthday cake and the cat. Not least because the cat is called Olivia Benson after a character in that show.

They also highlighted The Great Gatsby and Titanic. Plus poses from an Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue.

KQED Arts spotted the nod to Katy Perry's Mean Girls in the way Swift cuts holes in her man's shift. Also included in Bustle's purportly definitive list of all Swift's Blank Space cultural references:
  • Ghost Rider;
  • Partition - Beyoncé;
  • Twilight;
  • Shake It Off - Taylor's earlier music video;
  • Before He Cheats - Carrie Underwood;
  • Mean Girls - Katy Perry;
  • Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte;
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde;
  • The Parent Trap;
  • Once Upon a Time/Beauty and the Beast;
  • Romeo and Juliet.
Yet no Great Gatsby there - which seemed quite blatant to my mind - nor 10 Things That I Hate About You, which my partner was quite certain about seeing there.

And not one of them mentioning Death Note.

Twilight or Death Note: Taylor Swift's Apple

Taylor Swift with apple in Blank Space

Taylor Swift's Blank Space apple sequence
What do you see in the gif sequence above?  Most seem view a blatant homage to Stephanie Meyer's Twilight saga in all those apple-based shenanigans. 

Unless they are  Death Note fans, then Taylor becomes a Death God a la Ryuk - loving apples enough for a celebratory spin, before taking a hearty bite.
Twilight Saga One Cover with Apple

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
Death Note Ryuk action figure

Death Note Ryuk action figure
NB Here she sings that she has a blank space (baby) to write your name. 

Are Twilight's vampires known for writing names in notebooks?  Because Death Note's shinigami and their notebooks' human owners sure are!

Taylor Swift Admits Being a Death Note Fan?

Naturally, there's nothing like hearing the truth from the horse's mouth to clear things up like the confusion above. So I went on a search to see if Taylor Swift had ever admitted to being a Death Note fan.

I instantly thought I'd hit pay-dirt, when I found this:
Taylor Swift Blank Space inspired by Death Note
However, that appears merely to be a mock-up created by a contributor to FunnyJunk.com, as I can't find the interview itself in (cyber) real life.

Though Mikikazu Komatsu is indeed a prolific contributing writer for Crunchyroll.  There was nothing of the sort posted on February 6th 2015, as the archives for that date reveal.

So what do you think?  Is Taylor Swift alluding to Death Note in Blank Space?  Have you heard/read her say as much?  Or just noted it yourself in watching its music video? 

Here it is again for your viewing pleasure:
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Much Cuteness as Final Curtain Closes on Korea's Death Note Musical Stageshow

4/9/2015

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The Korean cast of Death Note the Musical were clearly having a fabulous time performing the show. In fact, as the last curtain fell, a handful of actors didn't want to go.

Led by Kwang-Ho Hong, the group didn't exit stage left, as they were supposed to do, once the final bows had been given on August 15th 2015.
Kwang-Ho Hong reaching for Sun-ah Jung in Death Note Musical Korean curtain call
The Kira actor raced to catch up with Sun-ah Jung (Misa), reaching out to pull her back into the limelight.

She'd already left the stage by the time he was able to grab her. Undaunted Hong dragged her back from the wings; grasping the arm of Hong-suk Kang (Ryuk) for good measure too.
Korean Kira drags Misa and Ryuk back on stage (Death Note Musical)
Shinigami and Second Kira secured, Hong then called out across the stage to forestall another actor's exit over there.
Cast of Korean Death Note the Musical at final curtain call
Death Note Musical cast final curtain call
Attention caught, kisses were blown in the direction of Jun-su Kim (aka Xia Junsu, JYJ KPop idol now playing L) - who was taking his own sweet time in leaving the stage; too busy waving to the audience to have yet disappeared into the wings.
Kim Junsu Death Note Musical in Korea final curtain
Naturally his colleagues' kisses were reciprocated...
Xia Junsu kisses at Death Note Musical final curtain
... prompting a fair amount of bouncing and applause from Jung and Hong, as Kang looked on. Kim answered with a much more cursory wave back, albeit grinning like a Cheshire Cat.
Korean Death Note cast members applaud each other at final curtain
Jun-Su Kim waves to fellow Death Note Musical cast members
Jung now patently considered all extra-curricula shenanigans to be over, as she made her way back towards the wings.
Korean Misa Amane Death Note Musical Sun-ah Jung
Before Hong's reaching cry brought her to a jolting stop, half in the wings on tip-toe, her arms flying into the air. She turned quickly about, hand out-stretched towards her on-stage beau. 

The Light Yagami actor had already grasped the forearm of his shinigami pal, lest Kang also entertain ideas about bringing this curtain call to a premature end.
Korea Death Note Musical Misa returns for curtain call

0815 데스노트 총막 홍라이토가 퇴장하려는 미사랑 류크 잡아끌어서 같이 인사 #홍광호 #정선아 #강홍석 pic.twitter.com/ZB4oaypWxS

— 딩봇 (@DINGbot227) August 15, 2015
After all, Junsu was still on-stage, blowing kisses and waving to fans in the audience, who loudly replied with rapturous accolades...
Xiah Junsu as L at Death Note the Musical last curtain call
... growing yet more in volume, as Junsu tearfully took a long, long bow.  His actions emulated on the other side of the stage by Jung, Kang and Hong.
Korean Musical Misa, Ryuk and Light bow to Death Note audience
Junsu Kim bows to Death Note Musical audience
All four eventually standing to issue one last laughing wave at the theatre crowd, before leaving the stage for the last time.

Korean Death Note the Musical Final Curtain

There was more than one fan in the audience with a camera. They captured footage of that prolonged curtain call for Death Note the Musical's final performance in Seoul, with others additionally filming the official ending - and speeches - which preceded it.

Seoul Musical Death Note After-show Party

The celebrations didn't end there.  After fifty-seven performances, it was only right to wind things down with a post-show Death Note party for the cast and their guests.

Pictures have flown around Twitter to give you a taste of how that played out.

At closing party last night with other actors #KwangHoHong #deathnote pic.twitter.com/Wk85leK3cI

— Kwang-Ho Hong Fan (@hkhmusical) August 16, 2015

광호형! 형과 함께여서 정말 행복했습니다. 같이 서로를 바라보며 호흡하고 노래하며 느꼈던 짜릿함과 전율들..평생 잊지못할거예요 우리 또 함께 무대에 설 날을 기약하며..데스노트의 마지막날 pic.twitter.com/L7l9oablXr

— 김준수 (@1215thexiahtic) August 15, 2015
6 Comments

Cosplay Flasher Ryuk Exposes Himself to Worldwide Sneering and Censure

27/8/2015

1 Comment

 

It seems that a gentleman in Kita-Ku, Sapporo has not been a credit to his mother.

Though he has been flashing what she gave him to unsuspecting ladies in the Tonden district of Japan's fourth largest city.

So far, so sad. But the truly bizarre element - and the part which makes it relevant here - is that he did this while cosplaying Ryuk.

That's right. A wannabe Ryuk revealed himself to a rightly disdainful woman, who promptly reported him to Sapporo's Kita-ku constabulary.

全身タイツ男が下半身露出 きのう午前4時50分頃、札幌・北区屯田7条7丁目付近で、女性が下半身を露出した男を目撃しました。男は35~40歳位、やせ型、身長170~175cm位、黒色の全身タイツ、背中に黒色の羽のようなものがついていました。札幌北署 #不審者

— UHBニュース公式アカウント (@uhbnews_uhb) August 21, 2015
Man in Full Body Tights Exposes Himself

At 4.50 am yesterday morning, in 7-7 Tonden area of Kita-ku, Sapporo, a woman witnessed a man exposing his lower half. The man was around 35-40 years old, slim and roughly 170-175cm tall. He wore full body black tights and what appeared to be black feathered wings on his back. Sapporo Kita-ku Police #SuspiciousPerson
- UHBNews (Hokkaido news channel),  August 21st 2015
Death Note's Ryuk
Sapporo police are appealing for any information that will help their inquiries into the incident.  (Or should that be APPLE-ing?) 

I shouldn't laugh, but the notion of a Ryuk cosplayer exposing himself is so ridiculously pathetic that pointing and laughing seems the only recourse.

Though not, of course, for the lady who had to witness this. That really couldn't have been pleasant, and good fight her for reporting him. Too many incidents like this pass without any response at all, which allows idiots like our erstwhile Shinigami Ryuk flasher to continue without consequence.

Now it's not just police officers seeking to track this offender down.

Police Hunt Death Note Shinigami Flasher - and So Does Everyone Else

In choosing to don a Death God costume to flash at strangers, this dodgy individual now knows what exposure truly means. UHB's news report became an instant internet sensation.

Far from lurking in Tonden back-alleys - where his sordid actions might conceivably remain concealed - they're talking about him all over the city; and across the rest of Hokkaido, throughout Japan and around the world.

I'm sitting in Great Britain telling folk about his shameful actions.

Closer to home, you can be sure that everyone is watching out for a flasher in a shinigami costume, or indeed anyone cosplaying Ryuk, now or at any time in the past. If they seem to be the sort to act suspiciously, then a tip off to police could be coming any time soon.

His poor mother must be so proud.
1 Comment

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

It Surely Must Happen to Mello Too - Death Note Secrets Gleaned from Cosplay

21/8/2015

1 Comment

 
Squad Six Cosplayer Lara Sizemore Death Note Misa

Misa Death Note cosplayer
Lara Sizemore at Ichibancon 7
Nowhere is this more true than in anime related cosplay, wherein its much more than a mile spent traipsing in another's footwear. It's probably several, and not just the shoes either.

All day spent in character at conventions, or clambering into awkward places to position oneself for photographs - after minutely studying the manga or anime for clues on how to appear recognizably convincing - can certainly provide insights into the persona being aped.

So much so that you have to ask yourself - if it happens to me, then it certainly has to have been experienced by the original character too.

The old adage states that none may be understood, until a mile has been walked in their shoes.

Ryuk Cosplayer in Pittsburg Comicon 2008

Ryuk Death Note cosplayer at
Pittsburgh Comicon 2008.
Photograph by Jim Reynolds

Blinding Detail in Death Note Matt Cosplay

blAIRbender cosplay Matt Death Note

blAIRbender cosplays Matt
Like the anecdote shared by a friend, blAIRbender, following her quest to create a cosplay for Death Note's Matt that was exact in every detail.

Many hours were spent scrutinizing images from the manga; sourcing and moulding materials; then engaged in painstaking assembly. Finally she held a perfect replica of Matt's goggles. It was only when she came to wear them - particularly over several hours - that she realized Matt must spend a lot of time demisting said goggles. The slightest hint of perspiration saw the lenses fogged from edge to edge.
As far as goggle fog goes, it takes about two to five minutes after putting them on initially, depending on how warm you are at the time and the room temperature. After that, they are constantly foggy on the inside. They will fog in all weather conditions. My dad recently mentioned that there is a spray that exists that would prevent fogging, but I haven't looked into it any further.
~
blAIRbender, Matt Cosplayer, in conversation with Death Note News
Also his peripheral vision was non-existent. 
God knows why he favoured that sidewards look, while keeping Takada under surveillance. Misdirecting her gun-toting louts into thinking he could see them too? 

Though it would explain how Matt was able to miss all of those wide escape routes in the spaces between encircling cars. For want of opaque side panels on fashionable googles, thus fatally assuming that he was surrounded.
Matt Death Note

Matt regretted choosing solid sides on goggles
that mist up at inconvenient times
Matt Death Note hands up

Matt's side blinding googles meant he missed
escape routes opening up to his right

Mello Cosplayers Concentrate on Chocolate

There's also the friend cosplaying Mello, who emerged smug and filled with insights from a taxing day at an anime/manga convention. 

Though it had been fun, the organizers hadn't quite got the hang of crowd control - bottlenecks formed wherever the flow beached (regularly); heavy-handed security unsympathetically carried out long-winded checks at every juncture; rooms not allocated with any apparent common sense - and the venue became increasingly hot and stuffy. 

Moreover, food vendors were not spread out, resulting reputedly Hellish conditions, as people crammed into a single section of the arena looking to dine. Each of them subject to long waits in queues for food, tables or simply somewhere to sit.  Over-heating, factitious, shouted at by security.
My Mello cosplayer informed me that she was the only person in her group not losing focus and fainting with hunger.

She was the one with a bar of chocolate to hand, which kept the energy levels raised nicely.

Maybe that's why Mello risks all to ensure he has his confectionery to hand (fifteen boxes at least)?  Perhaps he's prone to bouts of low blood sugar. The Mafia would be terrible company within which to loose concentration, or collapse in a heap on the floor.

Or he's worked out the advantage in always having food to hand, when you never know what meals will be delayed and what leadership opportunities could arise on a bite of chocolate.
Picture

Chocolate helps you keep your head, while
all about you people are losing theirs

Risk Assessment for Rosaries in Mello Cosplay

Death Note's Mello with handcuffs

Mello's rosary was caught on his handcuffs again
Best one I heard is a little too risque to share here. Let's just say the cosplay didn't end with bedtime, but did scream to a sudden halt shortly thereon. 

Instead I'll mention the friend of a friend who ended up in an emergency room, due to the crucifix - on the end of her cosplay Mello rosary - swinging up to nearly take her eye out, after it got caught on the furry costume of a tall man in front. A strange combination of her shrieking, him stopping dead and a sudden crowd surge from behind did the rest.

Such things must occur to Mello too, though I can't help thinking that when they do, somebody could well end up dead.
You'd be amazed on what a rosary can get stuck on, trapped inside or otherwise threaten to garrotte its wearer in any number of inventive ways.

Unless you habitually cosplay Death Note's Mello, in which case none of the above even counts as news anymore. You've been there; not only got the t-shirt but also the thread burn scar on the back of your neck.

Nor do you have any patience with those who blithely state that the rosary should have snapped.

You also have snapping rosary stories. Plus a plentiful supply of 'nearly snapped Mello cosplay rosary' scares to add into the general mix.

Don't Misa-Misa the Sunscreen!

Misa Amane always looks stylish, with her fashionable togs revealing random bits of her body to the rays of the sun.

So what would happen if she'd forgotten to apply the sunscreen before she went out?  Misa cosplayer Ayane Maro found out, when she did just that at Tokyo's Comic Market.

今日は暑い中ありがとうございました! あしたのミサミサナースも撮ってやってください♡ あと日焼け跡のやつRTやばすぎだから□□□□ まじ自分の名前デスノートに書きたい□□□□ pic.twitter.com/4AYkhrVrLC

— 麻呂あやね@サッカー至上主義 (@aru_nico) August 14, 2015
The full story (with pics) is told in Tweets above from the lady herself, or check out a version in English by Brian Ashcraft (Cosplayer Forgets Something Very Important (Kotaku, August 17th 2015)).

Got any Death Note cosplay tales of your own?  Or facets unknown about your character until you donned their clothes? 

Comment and let us know about them!  Such things are the fodder of fan fiction, entertaining in their own right and might even tip off new cosplayers in the Death Note community, before they make the same errors common to all who preceded them.

In the meantime, there's a collection of cosplay Death Note items available on our website for those perfecting or putting their costume together.
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