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Watari Letters: Death Note Canon Alphabet of Wammy Kids: L-Z

5/5/2016

1 Comment

 
"Watari, from now on you must safeguard the world with the other Letters."
~ L, L: Change the World, p 17

Welcome back to our ABC list of known canon Wammy kids alongside the letter to which they were (or most probably were) assigned.

The Wammy House for Gifted and Talented Orphans is the intriguing institution which features so prominently in Death Note, or at least its alumni form the centrepiece of the war against Kira. 

Each genius child raised there is afforded a bespoke education, side-stepping the normal system of classrooms, with professors, researchers and other experts in their field brought in for one-to-one demonstrations and tutorials.

Graduates get to enter The Wammy Foundation, a shadowy organisation founded by the man who raised them - their childhood benefactor and adulthood allocator of a single Letter which meant so much - Quillsh Wammy, aka Watari.

This alphabet of Letters from Wammy's House investigates the ethos and histories of each recipient for clues as to the character and motives of Wammy himself.
Death Note The Wammy's House gatepost sign

Death Note Wammy Letters' Alphabet Pt 2 - L-Z

Read the first part: Wammy Alphabet A-K
Watari, also known as Quillsh Wammy, had used the enormous earnings from the patents of his many inventions to establish the Wammy Foundation, an organization dedicated to building orphanages around the world.

Among them, one orphanage took in highly intelligent children from around the world without regard to nationality, race or gender and provided them with a specialized education. The orphanage was called Wammy's House.

There was no formal school or academic departments at Wammy's. Instead university professors, researchers and top specialists in their fields from around the world were invited to give individual instruction to the children according to their abilities and potential.
~ L: Change the World, p13
Death Note Wammy's House refectory
Near in the library Wammy's House Death Note
Death Note Mello and other Wammy House kids dining

L - Wammy Kid The Last One, or The Lost One - True Name L Lawliet*

* This is the name that features upon a collectors' card fitted as a bonus gift inside the back fly-page of manga manual Death Note 13: How to Read.  It's also the name recorded in a Death Note, as seen in the Japanese live-action films.

However, in the novel Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases, narrator Mello wrote that L was in possession of well over 3,500 names and pseudonyms to hide his personal identity.  Mello postulated the theory that even L didn't know his own true name any longer.

... the name L was, for him, just one of many. He never had any direct connection to that identity, he never thought of himself as L... L had a real name that nobody knew, and nobody will ever know, but a name which only he knew never defined him. I sometimes wonder if L himself ever knew exactly which name was written in the Death Note, which name it was that killed him.
~ Another Note, p43-44
L with his name in a Death Note
Though M (presumably Mello again) subsequently contradicted himself one book on - in the novelization of the movie L: Change the World - when he casually informed the reader that only L and Watari knew his real name.  Thus able to facilitate the key plot-line underpinning this variant of the story, wherein L won his war against Kira effectively by committing suicide via Death Note.

However, this was an alternate universe to that recounted in the manga and anime, wherein M as Mihael Keehl's Mello never existed, begging the question as to who is writing this novel now.  Unless it's Maki, grown a little older and brought furthermore into the Wammy House loop.  The fourth generation Wammy to be assigned that code-letter M, in lieu of poor, lost Mello, omitted unmade and erased from the record for this telling.

Anyway, onto the plot.

Death Note's almighty L
He wielded incredible power, was able to mobilize every investigative bureau in the entire world, and was applauded generously for his efforts.
~ Another Note, p10.

Young L in Wammy's House
L is the one about whom the whole of Wammy's House, its founder, staff and children, plus its attendant Foundation revolves.  He was the first of those genius orphans afforded special attention, a tailored education and a letter to use as his name and his calling code.

By accident, precedent or design, he set the standard whereby all other Wammy kids are measured.  They are supposed to be precisely him and if they best him, they get his code.

But that's highly unlikely to occur.

As Beyond Birthday found out, beating him is one thing; it's quite another to persuade Wammy to relinquish his obvious favourite, so to divert resources and his personal support towards a more worthily ranked ward.

That was a pattern which began on day one, when Wammy brought the tiny orphan L into Wammy's House and left him with his peers in the ornately stained glass windowed main hall.

The other children rushed to give him a hug - cute, new, big-eyed boy and all - but that panicked L. He was only about eight years old, but managed anyway to beat up and floor boys and girls much bigger than himself.
Instead of reprimanding him and ensuring that he apologized to the kids and teens groaning against the floorboards all around, Mr Wammy thought this rather fabulous.  Presumably the other orphans were shortly deprived of familiarity, friends and home by being relocated to sister establishments in the chain of Wammy Orphanages. Meanwhile, L got his own room, a computer and plenty of cooing fuss.

L managed to redeem his anti-social behaviour - if such was needed in Wammy's eyes - by perusing stock markets and advising the old man on what to buy and when to sell.  In that way, the profits poured right in.  That was the year that the eight year old took on the Winchester Mad Bomber and averted World War III.
Marking the moment when Wammy vowed to accept L's every decision and support him wherever possible.

From now on, the child, not the adult was ostensibly calling the shots; Watari would make good each hefty choice and passing whim spoken aloud by the eight year old.

Nor apparently was there any disapproval expressed for the dodgier demands, let alone censure or out and out refusal to comply.  Watari just did it, trusting that L was clever and would be right.  (Giving him just enough rope hang himself? Or truly in perfect trust of the child's truth and sense in all things?)

Therefore leading to a situation - so a canon Omake tells us, authored by Tsugumi Ohba and drawn by Takeshi Obata - wherein the adult L cannot dress himself, or attend to his own ablutions, without Wammy assisting with the fundamentals.  L seen now as so intelligent that he's become downright infantile.

An absent-minded genius trope too far, or some manner of control/avenging the loss thereof/kicking back against too much of the same, or someone severely upon the autistic spectrum?  Frankly it's way too tempting to assume the former, though the other options have their resonance in all other of L's famous ticks, quirks, eccentricities and prolific sweet consumption.

The latter also keenly enabled by Quillsh Wammy in butler (more like carer at this point) mode. Along with a pop, pseudo-scientific rationale that such quantities of sugary things are needful in order to keep L's brain whizzing along.
Wammy dressing L in Death Note
Being handed such freedom on a plate, with adults to order about too, would be heady stuff for any child.  Pair it with extreme wealth and the ear of world leaders and suddenly even societal boundaries are non-existent.  The possibilities are limitless, with even torture, killing and the ordering of a condemned man onto live television for his execution are not only on the table, but Watari's logistical and sniping skills will ensure all continues quite smoothly.

With a seeming lack of constriction akin to a juvenile Roman Emperor, it's little wonder that L emerges into the Death Note story with a personality self-confessedly childish, but also spoiled and cruel.
Death Note L and the Kira Task Force meet
However, a thick layer of covert constrictions hide just beneath the surface for the detective.  He's been told from childhood two things - there are those in the world out to kill him; and world peace hinges upon his living in a state of constant, active and demonstrable investigations.
While the world leaders should make efforts to ensure the safety of all the finest minds... the current societal systems do not allow for this, and L believed he had no choice but to protect his mind under his own power...  For a detective of L's ability, self-preservation and the preservation of world peace were one and the same.
~ Another Note, p 69
Ergo, his life is in danger, but he can't stop to save himself without imperilling the world. Not that most of the potential killers with him in their sights are that far from home.
Depending upon whether Beyond Birthday ever met L or not, it was either now or five years later - when L was thirteen - that The Wammy House for Gifted and Talented Orphans was established with Roger Ruvie at the helm.   Employed by Wammy not as warden per se, but as a trained psychiatrist there to gather parentless, genius kids from around the globe, and to reshape them - body, personality and mind; self-identity changed as standard - into clones of L.

In a rare moment of introspection, L saw clearly what manner of man he considered himself to be - both inspiring and imbibing the Wammy ethos, as the one most influenced by its engineer.  Amongst them all, L had the most direct, one-to-one contact with Quillsh Wammy, who set up the system and let it evolve that way.  The current crop of Wammy orphans gathered together to learn what their privileged, pressurized upbringing was urging them to become.

L laid it on the line in his famous 'monster' speech.  To be L was to embrace the monstrous. Just like him.
Picture
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There are many types of monsters in this world, monsters who will not show themselves and who cause trouble. Monsters who abduct children, monsters who devour dreams, monsters who suck blood, and monsters who always tell lies. Lying monsters are a real nuisance. They are much more cunning than other monsters. They pose as humans, even though they have no understanding of the human heart. They eat, even though they've never experienced hunger. They study even though they have no interest in academics. They seek friendship even though they do not know how to love. If I were to encounter such a monster, I would likely be eaten by it because, in truth, I am that monster.
~ L, Death Note Relight: L's Successors
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Driven home in the hearts and minds of his back-up foster siblings, over whose lives L is able to exert absolute control.  Wammy, L and Ruvie colluding with potentially sociopathic abandon, in what can only be deemed 'experimental' upbringings for those children subjected in generational waves to that institution.  No soaring IQ necessary to foresee tragic results in such child-raising methodologies, centring around rehumanisation at its core.

From suicide to serial killing through to the attempted pathogenic extinction of the human race, via joining the Mafia and martyrdom, Wammy kids answered their psyche's refashioning en masse.
... just as the greatest of detectives makes the greatest of criminals, a specialist in investigation is also a specialist in murder. From this perspective, this was nothing but a detective war. Beyond Birthday challenged L. And L accepted the challenge.

To put it bluntly, the Los Angeles BB Murder Cases were nothing but an internal struggle, a civil war within hour home, sweet home - Wammy's House.
~ Another Note, p106
Even Naomi Misora knew what had happened to detectives falsely identifying themselves as L, and B was from Wammy's House, so he knew better than anyone - so this choice suggests the strength of his decision. He never once intended to survive.
~ Another Note, p160
... it would certainly seem odd if (K), who was threatening the President posing as L, asked him why the US hadn't moved to kill L.
~ L: Change the World (novel), p140
In the end, it didn't matter how many Wammy kids strove to murder L.  He beat them there too.  No matter which version of Death Note is consulted, L kills himself.  His suicide is either openly stated, as per the live-action movies, with him writing his own name in a shinigami's notebook to beat Kira; or else it's so subtle as to be barely acknowledged, hidden beneath an overlong stare at Light Yagami, circa Kira's 'just as planned' exclamation of victory.

That L had worked it out is confirmed conversely by his statement of the precise opposite.  He dully enunciates that Light is not Kira, and should in fact be the next L.  The mystery was solved; the game was over.    Though to admit so was to lose the fun.  The clash of minds that had begun with a challenge to Light Yagami, which was answered in kind.  Without it, L could foresee the futile vastness of his life without that battle enriching all.

Already depressed, L said nothing, just concurred with the sentiment of Light's innocence.

It prolonged their cerebral sparring a little while longer, but it would kill L soon, as he well knew.  It seemed worth the cost in the banishment of tedium and onset of fascination alone.  Just to see what Light would do next, and to end the life that kept L trapped - 'a reclusive sociopath' - in Wammy's world of responsibility, self-protection and unceasing investigations. Now doomed to tedium post-Kira, plus the unsolvable crime because he would never catch Kira. He'd already let him go.

L's manga suicide was his silence.  A final act of justice (belatedly) for his Wammy House brethren was in taking Quillsh Wammy with him.

M - Wammy Kid Mello - Mihael Keehl

I'm always number two… no matter how hard I try…
Mello, Death Note manga, chapter 61 (Number Two)
It's not just the notebook I'm after. I wanna eliminate my competition. I will be the best. I don't care what it takes. I'll beat Near by any means necessary.
~ Mello, Death Note anime, episode 27
In Another Note, Mello calls Wammy's House 'home, sweet home' and describes it as the place 'which raised me until I was fifteen'. (p11)

Between real time scenes from the manga (Zero) and anime (Renewal), plus flashback scenes from Near's memory in Death Note Relight: L's Successor's (and the one-shot manga), we have a fair bit insight into Mello's experience and behaviour during that time at Wammy's House.

Just as you'd except from a teenager who left the institution to join the Mafia, young Mello is shown to be a bully at while he was still there.

We see him kicking a football into another child's face. On another occasion, he's clutching another boy's hair and pulling his head down, whilst walking up the corridor.

He even attacks Roger, bunching fistfuls of the warden's lapels and half dragging him across a desk, in response to news of L's death.

None of this is reprimanded.  There's no adult response at all from the first incident. In the second, Roger merely captures Mello's hand and holds it whilst untangling his victim's hair. No words are spoken about it.

During his lunge at Roger, all the older man can summon up is a vague, world-weary 'Mello', uttered like a sigh.  Imagine behaving like that with your own parent or guardian, would you have received the same lack of passion in their reaction?  

But apparently this is the Wammy's way and Mello is perfectly at liberty to use violence, intimidation and fear as part of his life strategy.
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It's also semi-rewarded, insofar as the goals of the institution are concerned.  L names Mello as one of his chief candidates for succession due to 'a nasty look in his eyes' rather than anything related to grades.  While Roger follows up both latter acts of aggression with encouragement and/or expectation that the fourteen year old before him take the deceased L's position in the world, at least jointly with Near (a twelve year old).

Can we say child soldiers?

The bullying isn't all. We also view Mello as a Wammy boy apparently isolated amidst his peers.  During L's 'monster' speech, Mello stands alone, away from the children excitedly grouped before the laptop through which L chats with them.

When he hears about L's death, Mello's mind flashes back to a moment in receipt of grades (pictured right). All of the other kids are flocking to read Near's paper and see his mark. Mello is left lonely and anxious reading his own.  He also apparently studied alone, as the following panel demonstrates.

Probably because he's the Wammy House bully and this is the best that his foster siblings can do in their own defence and/or revenge.

Not all of them though.  Near was quite happy to work with Mello, when their warden Roger suggested it, regardless of the look of utter horror twisting Mello's expression at the same time.  Later on, Matt appeared from the peer-group at the Wammy House to partner Mello in the final hunt for Kira.  So two people at least could have been, or were, Mello's friends there.  That said, even bullies have confederates and/or a gang.

Mello goes for the biggest and the best (or worst, depending on how we're phrasing it) gang after leaving Wammy's - the Mafia.  Wherein his admittance was assured despite his lack of Sicilian ethnicity (which kept Al Capone out); his posh Winchester/English accent; his youth; and his effeminate attire.  All this was over-ridden by his demonstrable intelligence and the fact that he brought, as an entrance present, the head of a Mafia Don whom even Kira couldn't touch.

How literally should we take that 'bringing the head' tidbit?  Are we actually talking the decapitated article in a box?  Or information thereon?  An alternative translation states it in the plural - 'the heads of Mafia dons, who even Kira couldn't touch'.  Maybe this is the source of those skulls, with which the teenage Mafia era Mello likes to surround himself.

Nor is this the worst that Mello feels justified in ordering during those days.  He arranges for the abduction of Japanese police chief Takimura, followed by the same for Sayu Yagami, both as bargaining chips to be exchanged for the Death Note in Japanese police custody.  Takimura is killed by Kira in a pre-emptive move; Sayu is left catatonic with trauma. 

No end of Mafia associates are killed, or pressured into giving up half of their lives to acquire shinigami eyes.  Drug routes established.  The President of the United States of American coerced into suicide in order to prevent Mello using the Death Note to force his hand. Like making him launch nuclear bombs around the world, thus causing World War Three.  The theft of a missile.  All but three of the SPK massacred as a test of the Death Note, falling around Near, probably as a show of strength for his benefit.

Therein lies the rub.  It's all about Near, ergo all about Wammy's House, not really about Kira or Rod Ross's prestige and profits at all.  When the pair finally confront each other face to face, the background fades to exhibit instead the stained glass windows from the institution which raised them, and continues to cast its pall over their lives right now.
Near and Mello Wammy House stained glass  Death Note
For Near and Mello, the battle to become L is all. Both are willing to pull out extremities in action, thought and deed to secure the prize Wammy and Roger left dangling for them.  Ultimately, Mello will give up his life simply to make it onto the final score-sheet as joint first, once he realizes that the end is nigh and he'll be second in perpetuity.

N - Wammy Kid Near - Nate River

Death Note SPK blood
I've wanted to make him taste his own pathetic failure with all my heart.
~ Near, Death Note manga, chapter 90
Don't worry, Commander Rester, making assumptions is part of any investigation. If we're wrong, all it'll cost is an apology.
~ Near, Death Note anime, episode 30
Giovanni: If there are shinigami, I might die, right?
Near: Yes.
Giovanni: ...
Near: If you are scared, I'll ask Lester to go.
Lester: ...
~ Death Note anime
Of all the Wammys - with the possible exception of Beyond Birthday and his peer, the institution's first child suicidee A - Near seems to have taken the directive to become L's clone most keenly to heart.

He never met his idol, so any physical emulation of his idol was accidental, or an inadvertent consequence of both boys being raised within the same system.  This didn't matter. The purposes for which reprogramming children to match the prototype was deemed necessary didn't involve B-like cosplay antics.  Before Kira, no-one outside the Wammy Foundation met with L face-to-face, therefore would be hard pushed to identify him in a line-up.  There was a brief interlude with Naomi Misora, immediately prior to the Kira case, but L never actually introduced himself.  Perceptive Naomi guessed anyway, but she had the huge clue before her of Beyond Birthday making an indelible impression whilst copying L in costume, aspect and stance.

Near's task was much more insidiously wrought than just dressing up would have been. He sought to think like L. Submerge his own personality beneath a persona modelled upon that of his predecessor, as Near believed him to be based on this own observations and insights gleaned from L's electronic address to the fourth generation Wammy wards en masse.  Near didn't even ask him any questions. They never had a conversation.
Near thinking of what L would do
Near, thinking of what L would do Death Note
Scant enough hints around which to mould a credible likeness in continuation of the L Code.  Especially when it has to be enough to to fool world leaders, and high-ranking contacts - networked to no known degree in the past - drawn randomly world-wide from government, military, legal/law enforcement, intelligence, secret services and other offices. Plus those within the private sector, researchers, consultants and experts in fields raising across the academe.

With whom did L share a confidence?  Who did he know? Detest? Exchange now impenetrable dialogue in language encroached in private in-jokes?  All of which Near must know in order to pull this off, or else his failure is outright and absolute.  'Just a loser' in all he worked hard and aspired to be - surviving his nearest rivals; out-ranking the rest - the only source of meaning for his life.  He was told.  And equally raised to fear, as catastrophic on a global scale,  being exposed as a fake L, alongside the real L's death now leaked.

World War III would start.  Only the actual Lawliet held its inception in abeyance.  Crimes rates everywhere would soar, in figures projected to make the upward surge post-Kira seem like an insignificant bump beside the inevitable spike post-L.
Death Note Near subsumed by L
Near must have spent an inordinate amount of brainpower and time pondering all L was or seemed to be; imagining his world-view and thought processes; researching by whatever means may come every snippet of information truly known about his idol; deducing what triggered every known pattern in behaviour, decision-making and everything else besides.

Then Near would have to expend yet more energy, resources and concentration in seemingly endless hours perfecting his carbon copy role-playing of the same.

Allowing another man's self in totality to imprint as a mask over Near's psyche.  To suppress his own as worth much less than this prototype soul; as he alone won the right to exhibit L in de facto possession.

Yet some part of Near's genius must be twitching rebellion in a dark, cerebral recess.  As early as twelve months prior - to the day - Near espouses rhetoric about how he (in union with Mello) surpassed L. However, it's spoken hesitantly, with many pauses for reflection in its delivery during Near's final confrontation with Kira in the Yellow Box warehouse.  Nor does his conclusion appear to have lodged inside his own mind, beyond a theoretical concept to mess with Light's mind.
A year later, Near's faded from his own world; withdrawing into isolation as a hermit obsessively constructing a whole city out of tarot cards, paranoid about the fragility of his finely balanced reality.  One draught of wind or an unwary boot upon Rester's foot might bring whole sections of the edifice down.  Near's obvious depression surely a consequence of his attempt to obliterate his distinct and natural self, in lieu of fulfilling his Wammy given destiny to become L. Lawliet.

All of this after several years in pursuit of Kira - as the L defined arena in which his prototype Code's pretenders must battle to the death for the right to claim it as their own. Not to mention that it followed on top of a childhood raised in the Wammy House, with its petty rivalries, academic expectations, competitive rankings and presumed early exposure to graphic evidence from crime scenes, as part of the endemic brainwashing forging a strong desire to become L, should a back-up be required.

It takes a retracing of his steps back to the start for Near to even grasp the issue.  The return sparked by circumstance - a prospective new Kira appearing on the scene - coupled with the urgent messages forged in his own subconscious - Near's arranging for all previously present to reassemble in the Yellow Box warehouse on the first anniversary of Light Yagami's denunciation and death.  Another confrontation in the offing, this time with a crime syndicate dealing in drugs.

That hardly seems worth the while of a Wammy kid, except that it puts altered realities in Near's frame of introspection.
Death Note's Hal Lidner tells Near he doesn't have to be L
In the midst of that mix, experienced after twelve months spent dissembling, something had to give. It seems to begin with the sequence shown in the panel above, whereby Hal Lidner affirms to Near that he doesn't need to become L.  'L is L, you are you,' Lidner tells him and Near is momentarily at a loss for words to say in response.  He mentally assesses her wisdom in taking such a perspective and is forced to conclude that she is quite correct.

I wonder if it's deliberate or coincidental that Hal's further comment - 'we can handle it our own way' - apes Mello's upon leaving the Wammy House - 'I will find my own way'.  Near would have heard such echoes of sentiment anyway.

Later in the conversation, Hal says quite pointed that Near is trying to think as L would think.  Near, who had just accidentally knocked over a section of his tarot card city, asks the pair to leave.  He telling adds that they shouldn't topple his towers on the way out.  In tarot, The Tower is a card of necessary destruction in the major arcana.  It wipes away the old that the new might flourish.
What we then see from Near is a breakthrough moment of self-awareness, in the most literal sense.

At first Near appears dwarfed by the spectre of L.  We're still in the same location, but his own world torn down to facilitate a new configuration of tarot card towers.

Each one spells out the single initial L.  Near's own figure is almost completely lost amongst them. 

Meanwhile Rester speaks from a monitor above, peering down like God Himself, or an Orwellian 1984 style Big Brother.  The message he has to convey could have been uttered by Wammy.  It certainly encapsulates the Zeitgeist of Wammy's House -  the methodology can be as awry as it needs to be in order to solve the puzzle.  The method justifies the means.

Near meekly replies that he'll embody L, doing only what it would be natural for L to do.

He goes on to broadcast globally in L's name, with a speech that includes elements from the only one he ever personally heard L declaim.  Near addresses the 'new Kira' situation with utter disdain, stating that he won't be getting involved, because it doesn't interest him.  Just as L told the Wammy kids in Near's own hearing that he chose his cases solely if they piqued his interest.
Death Note manga Rest talks to Near over L towers in tarot cards
However, Near's concluding statement in the L speech was a denunciation that was never heard from Lawliet's mouth, nor anything akin to it.  But it mirrored entirely that famously enunciated by Near to the first Kira - 'You abominable murderer'.  It was Near's personality emerging in full strength t0 wipe away the vestiges of Lawliet. 

This time, when Rester repeats Hal's assertion that Near is L, Near does not hesitate to concur.  We get the wide view and see that the Towers of L aren't so much zones of intimidation.  It's Near demonstrating full well his altered world view.  He doesn't have to be Lawliet, because he's Near.
Near  as L in the Death Note one shot manga
All of this is a far cry from the Death Note anime, which simply skips over the issues Near endures post-Kira.  Or the Death Note movies, which only features Near in the third film (L: Change the World).  There he's a very young child when L dies, delivered to Wammy's House as L's final act of salvation before the detective dies.  It will be a long time, if ever, that Near will have to take on L's mantle in that alternative timeline.

Or you can opt for the timeline altered once more in the novelization of L: Change the World, which omits the Thai boy entirely, to reinstate a more commonly rendered Near in cameo as the end.  Only this one doesn't have self-identity issues, nor any compulsion not to tell the US President that L is dead, and he is now L.  This telling establishes L as a team effort rather than investigated in one figurehead, albeit one with the same initial as the overall group.  Here Near comes across as Puckish, in fact almost angelic. 
"Mr. President, this is L... The L organization has captured L-prime and recovered the Death Note. We will eliminate L-prime with the notebook. You can confirm the body in one hour at the Kira Headquarters in Japan."
~ Near, L: Change the World, p186
"By the way, Mr President, would you mind if also issued you a threat?... You will ensure a future where children can go on smiling. Will you promise us that? If you should break that promise, we will not hesitate to use the Death Note."
~ Near, L: Change the World, p187
Well, angelic only if we recall that Lucifer was also an archangel; that Gabriel's horn topples city walls; that Samael was an Angel of Death and Destruction; and that Michael wielded a fiery sword to wage war on God's behalf.  Near stating that he'll murder a man, then destroy the Death Note in one breath, followed by a threat to kill the President via it, sometime in perpetuity, seems nothing next to all that.  Even if he did get caught in a lie from his own tongue within seconds of stating it.
Near in Death Note TV drama
Then you get the Near characterisation - the latest incarnation at the time of writing - wherein the Puckishness and violence have come utterly to the fore.  Though in this case it's stated that Near has dual personalities and it's the Mello persona sharing their body who has the capacity to kill.

None of which strays too far from previous canon, nor the attributes with which Near was originally created by Tsugumi Ohba.

Even in the manga, Near has no problem causing the death of others - or else placing them in potentially fatal peril - if it assists him in solving the puzzle.  Thus Kira is led to Mello's Mafia family hide-out; dollar notes worth $10m are dropped on a square in Manhattan causing a stampede; Gevanni is despatched to recover a Death Note's pages, despite instant death if Near's deduction is wrong; and Near psychologically shifts Ryuk into a position whereby the shinigami is keen to kill Light Yagami ASAP.
If Matsuda's theory is correct, then Near went much further than what was less than subtly implied in the pages of the manga.  The new L was a serial killer, whose victims could well have included Mello, and whose continued possession of the Death Note AND the L Code makes him a dangerously all-powerful influence upon the modern world's movers and shakers.

Just as he learned at Wammy's House.

O - Wammy Letter Not Assigned in Canon

We don't currently have a canon assignation for the Wammy group letter O, just the usual known candidates: Matt and Linda, plus Wammy House created and raised L clone Ryūzaki (from Death Note: Light Up the New World).

P - Wammy Kid Pseudonym and True Name Unknown

Wammy letter P is known in canon only through being shown on L's call/mailing list in the movie L: Change the World. 

These are the individuals who make up the Wammy Members' Group to whom L breaks the bad news via email that Watari is dead.  The Wammy House crest, their knowledge of Mr Wammy (and the fact that they'd care about his death) and that they are all designated with single initials renders it certain that they are active members of the Wammy Foundation.

Though we know nothing about P, it can be guessed through the precedent of the rest that he/she is probably a detective, scientist or excelling in the arts.  Aizawa and Matsuda reported in the manga that most Wammy alumni fit into those three categories, and the known alumni have followed suit so far.

Of course, there's nothing stopping these letters also possibilities for being assigned to the like of Matt and Linda, though the timeline makes it unlikely to be Ryūzaki's letter. 
L Change the World Wammy letters on L's screen

Q - Wammy Kid Pseudonym and True Name Unknown; Unless Strong Probability: Q - Wammy Kid Matt - True Name Mail Jeevas

The hacking defence system, developed by Wammy's House's Q and given to him by his personal friend Watari, had identified the perpetrator who had cleverly routed through several servers all over the world on its way into the lab's system.  "Accessed from inside the lab..."
~ L: Change the World, p31
After sending one email, he deleted all his files using the emergency system created by Q.
~ L: Change the World, p32
Wammy Letter Q mentioned in L Change the World
Q's letter is seen in the call list of Wammy's kids glimpsed briefly upon L's screen during the movie L: Change the World (see P). 

Unlike most on the list, this individual is also mentioned in the novelization of the same, where it's revealed that (s)he is some kind of computing genius.

For this reason, Wammy's Q is most likely the letter assigned to Matt, aka Mail Jeevas, named in canon as the third ranked Wammy kid of the fourth generation (i.e. next in line for L's succession after Near and Mello).
It is a truth universally known and recognized throughout the Death Note fandom that Matt is good with computers.  On his Death Note Wiki page, where cited facts tend to be cross-referenced back to source, we're told '(Matt's) specialty is technology, and he is tasked by Mello to monitor the activities of Misa, Mogi and Aizawa.'  The information is devoid of citation.

Matt's geek prowess in computing and 1337 cyber skills are implied in canon. Nevertheless it may surprise most to realise nothing in manga, manual, anime or elsewhere explicitly states anything of the sort.  Unless we're missing some reference somewhere, Matt's technological genius is pure fanon.

What we are told - or shown - by Death Note's creators Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata is that Matt likes video games.  He's rarely seen without a PSP or Nintendo DS in hand, and/or other consoles trailing in the background, unless he's driving a car, wielding a gun, watching Kira over the road through a camera or chatting to Mello over his phone about Misa, boredom and the unchanging nature of brick walls. 

However, there are quite often computers in the vicinity too.  Multiples thereof.   Whole reasons in fact why fanon latches onto this notion that Matt is Wammy's technological genius, not least because of the sheer amount that surrounds him at every (woefully scant) view we get.
Picture
It may have seemed that all (Matt) did was play video games, but his existence itself was important (laughs).
~ Tsugumi Ohba, How to Read: Death Note 13 p 69
His character concept was a young man who loves video games and doesn't really care much about the world.
~ Takeshi Obata, How to Read: Death Note 13, p136
Picture
Death Note Matt inspecting computer as a child
Picture
Monitoring multiple screens, (Matt's) cockiness leads him to make a few mistakes.
~ How to Read: Death Note 13, p27
Whether the case is made for Matt being Q or not, he's likely to be the figure behind a Wammy letter.  This correlation between implied official/widely accepted fanon facets of Matt with those known about Q is as close as canon has come to assigning him a letter thus far.

A major insight into the mores of Watari is afforded us through the added information about Q .  The Wammy House computing adept has created at least two highly useful programs.  They  belong to him/her - unless the geek's own Hacker Ethic has seen them released as freeware online - and could be patented for personal profit outside the Wammy Foundation orbit. 

Yet they have not.  Moreover, Watari feels warranted passing those scripts onto a personal friend as a gift.

There could be quite innocent and laudable reasons for this, or it could be that all those high flying skills possessed by Wammy letters are never quite their own to utilize.  Their gained wealth and honours fly straight into the Wammy coffers to be used as a common treasury for all within the House and its Foundation.   Fuel for fan-fiction writers anyway.

As for Matt himself, he's yet another letter coming from the Wammy House into that deathly battle against Kira.  After assisting Mello in some surveillance work in the USA, Matt flew with him to Japan.  There he further helped out, this time firing a CS gun from the driver's seat of a red muscle car, creating a smokescreen to facilitate the abduction of Kiyomi Takada.

Matt was killed shortly afterwards, when cornered by Kira supporters and shot dead.   He was nineteen years old.

R - Wammy Kid Pseudonym and True Name Unknown

Wammy Letters R, I, E, K, V, T on L's screen in L Change the World
R is amongst those Wammy Letters known only from a glimpse of L's computer monitor in the movie L: Change the World.

Those listed there were on the Wammy Members' Group. Each identified by just a single initial, alongside the Wammy House crest. Most were e-mailed by L that he might alert them to the death of Watari.

Only there's something different about B, R, V and T to all those mentioned from this source previously.  They weren't in receipt of the missive, and their letters were blocked out grey with a line voiding the box to select them.

The implication is that these are Wammy kids who are no longer alive.  A kind of confirmation coming in the inclusion of B there, assuming that this movie exists in the same timeline as the novel Another Note: The Los Angeles Murder Cases.

Beyond Birthday would indeed be dead this close to the end of Kira's reign. He was killed on January 21st 2004 of a heart-attack probably during one of Kira's purges of international prison populations.

S - Wammy Letter Not Assigned in Canon

To date, there is no known Wammy Letter S in canon, which isn't to say that one doesn't exist.  The usual candidates apply here too.

T - Wammy Kid Pseudonym and True Name Unknown

T is known only from his/her entry on L's call/mailing list in L: Change the World live-action movie. However the initial is faded out to grey, implying that T is dead (see R.)

U - Wammy Letter Not Assigned in Canon

There is no Wammy U letter assigned in any canon source to date.

V - Wammy Kid Pseudonym and True Name Unknown

Another included on L's Wammy Members' Group mailing list in the film L: Change the World. V's initial is greyed out, it's owner presumed dead.

W - Wammy Letter for Watari - Quillsh Wammy Himself

Death Note's Watari with L icon
It's difficult to know the motive for Quillsh Wammy in creating The Wammy House for Gifted and Talented Orphans in Winchester.  Mostly in manga, anime, novels and live-action adaptations of Death Note, the altruism is played up in the persona of L's handler (as Tsugumi Ohba described him).

But the Death Note author also stated that Wammy cultivated those kids as detectives 'for fun'.

Even if Wammy's orphanage and the lettered foundation to follow were established for the best of reasons, gathering genius children from across the globe - for the most part relocating them to another country - then stripping them of their names and other indicators of self-identity robs all concerned of their birthright.  Held up to the light of the UN's Rights of the Child (international law) and Wammy's House is shown sadly lacking for all its wonderful provision.

That document was certainly ratified in England, where Winchester is situated.  Some government officials, and those in the local authority too, must be turning quite a large blind eye, or else Hampshire Social Services would be traipsing all over the premises.  Closing it down too because, for all its bright and glorious intentions, Wammy's House is an illegal concern by universally declared human rights laws.

Obviously those politicians in Winchester, Westminster and in the offices of other world leaders too consider it expedient to let the institution continue existing - taking the Stalinesque position that the ends justify the means - but that's by the by.  The question here is what Wammy himself thinks he's up to, and how he's squared it with his conscience (if, of course, he knows his operation to be criminally negligent and cares about that).
The hints from the manga are inconclusive to bordering upon the disturbing.

We never hear Wammy's own thoughts on what he's established, just catch an undercurrent of Aizawa's unease, as he reports back to Light what he find in Winchester.

Plus How to Read: Death Note 13's note on Roger Ruvie, that he was employed to collect children internationally and bring them to Wammy's House to train as L's successor.  Watari employed him to do that.  He pays his wages too.

The anime continues on along the same theme, adding nothing directly from Wammy's mouth, but providing us with snap-shot flashes of the orphanage with sobbing infants and bullying in the corridors.

Not to mention the strange spectacle of Roger telling Mello and Near (aged 14 and 12 respectively) that they now have to take L's place in the struggle against a mass murderer of global proportions.
Aizawa and Matsuda report back to Light about Wammy's House
And incidentally, their guardian is dead, along with their idol.  The one they were raised to emulate to the point of becoming in a very literal sense.

Its director's cut movie length double bill - Relight - adds the darkest element yet in L's 'monster' speech, as recalled by Near.  Whatever else anyone thought the Wammy Foundation to be, L was in it for the lulz.  Apparently.   Then Mello, as narrator in Another Note, takes the matter of Watari's motives and the institution's reality plummeting to whole new levels of criminal insanity and horror.  Herein, Quillsh Wammy emerges as a mad inventor, dehumanising children to the level of machines, psychologically repackaging them as carbon copies of his prototype child. Then placing them on a conveyor belt onto martyrdom or becoming L mark 2.

Thereafter, things lighten up considerably.  Wammy suddenly transforms into a kindly benefactor, personally concerned in realising the potential in each of his wards, coupled with a genuine zest to save the world - or change it, as the movies and their novelisation strangely phrases it.
Death Note L Change the World L and Watari
Though this overtly compassionate soul doesn't stop L, to all extents and purposes, committing suicide by writing his own name in a Death Note; F dying with a smile on his face in Thailand; and K building a biological contagion to wipe out all humanity.  All directly or by proxy sent into the situations that killed or unhinged them by Wammy himself or one of his assistants at Wammy HQ.

Not one of them elicited a word of censure or damage limitation from their guardian either; nothing of consolation nor urging them to put their own safety and well-being above the perils of the case.

F's death 'couldn't be helped' (L: Change the World movie). K was never approached with the key information that she'd been assigned and kept not only her letter, but Watari's own esteem (L: Change the World novel, p 176-177). While sight of L's name in that Death Note almost prompted words in reaction from the man who'd raised him and continued to be a constant presence catering to his every whim.  But Wammy stopped himself speaking 'and closed his eyes to contain  his feelings' (ibid, p 16).

For that matter, though L was on the trail of Beyond Birthday enough to contact and advise Naomi Misora, Watari did not take the first available flight to Los Angeles in an attempt to calm his wayward, suicidal ward.  With all L's considerable sway upon the movers and shakers of most nations - the USA topmost on the list - no apparent intervention was made on behalf of the badly burned Beyond Birthday. He was left to languish in a LA prison, until Kira killed him.  (Nor then had the Wammy Foundation ensured his anonymity regarding face and name, as Near did for Mello. B lost and thus was excluded from the fold.

It's unlikely to be an appalled father figure washing his hands of the 'back-up'.  Watari covers up or fixes the carnage from no end of criminal acts, up to and including murder, as enacted by his other wards.  Like Near/Mello, in the Death Note TV drama (2015), phoning to announce that he's just killed Yudagawa.  Wammy's reaction being to retrieve Near from the scene, arrange the clear up and cake.  Near's favourite at that.
Death Note television drama.  Watari brings cake for Near and L
Finally back to the manga's original story and timeline, wherein Watari, firmly entrenched in the perils at the front line of the Kira case, never once thought to phone home to tell Roger, "You know, this might be too dangerous for the kids. Plus they've got the onset of puberty looming on the horizon, which is going to play havoc with their thought processes and deductive reasoning.  If anything happens to me and L, be sure and keep Near and Mello safe indoors, eh?"

Instead, he doesn't even deign to indicate a name for L's successor - news which every child there spends every second of their existence in conditioned striving to become - partially because he knew L had already named Light (more important information for the cohort in Winchester, perchance?), and also because Wammy's own death was so sudden.

Yet surely this ultra-efficient man had made provision?  Given his wealth, responsibilities and current condition in risk of sudden death by Kira, it seems the most obvious rolling course of action for the Wammy House founder and father figure.

The only insight we get to the mindset of Quillsh Wammy, in regard to the ridiculously short life expectancy of those in his care, comes from his musing in response to the fait accompli of L's suicide  - deferred by twenty-three days as per the extremities of the Death Note's limitations.  In the knowledge that L would have contemplated every move available to himself before acting thus to checkmate Kira, a conclusion is reached - 'this was the choice L had made. How could Watari object?' (L: Change the World (novel), p17)

How could he not?  When each tragic loss to the Wammy House cohort, met without comment, reaffirms the normality/inevitability/expectancy of such choices made, his objections should be paramount.  Especially as L - with his own demise fixed and irreversible - instantly acted as though a burden had been lifted from his shoulders.  A burden that the novel later articulates as,
... L did not and could not forget the face of thousands of victims... The chronically rounded shoulders, the inevitable dark circles, the eccentric tastes - L suppressed the pain of being a champion of justice, but the evidence of the pain was molded into his very body.  L tore out his hair and howled at the sky, unleashing the agony inside his soul.
~ L: Change the World (novel), p151
It's a life that Watari chose for his favourite ward to live, when the boy was way too young to know what it could possibly entail.  A whole Foundation was constructed around facilitating and perpetuating it, complete with staff-members tasked with replicating L upon the raw matter and vulnerable psyche of a steady procession of living children.  The majority of whom L, at just twenty-seven years old, has already out-lived.

His guardian, mentor and carer Wammy hasn't left his side in over twenty-one years.  Two decades of reaffirming to L that what he's doing is necessary and the only thing he could be doing.  Acting like this is normal and right.  Intimating that L perhaps owes him something for this relentless support and companionship, with so much time, wealth and world peace tied up in the detective going on as before; his burden bending his shoulders and adding dark pits around his eyes.
L looked up suddenly... with the worried expression of a child.  "Watari, have I fulfilled you expectations?"  Watari answered with his usual serene smile and uttered one simple unerring word:  "Fully."
- L: Change the World, p188

X - Wammy Kid Pseudonym and True Name Unknown; Y - Wammy Kid Pseudonym and True Name Unknown; and Z - Wammy Kid Pseudonym and True Name Unknown

... I heard from L: the story of the detective war between the three greatest detectives, all solving that infamous bio-terror case, with guest appearances from the last of the alphabet, the first X to the first Z from Wammy's House.
~ Another Note, p170
X, Y and Z were all Wammy House children who assisted L, as he battled for supremacy over the original Eraldo Coil and Danuve.

Emerging victorious, L wasn't content to merely take the top spot in investigative global ranking.  He took their detective codes too, hereafter able to call himself by their names; as evidenced in the battle against Kira, when he announced to the task force that he was in fact all three detectives now.  Aiber was able to pose as Coil, in L's stead, when the Yotsuba Group hired the supposed 2nd placed detective in order to investigate the first.

Yet none of this explains what happened to X, Y and Z afterwards.  Mello never tells us in Another Note; nothing more beyond that snippet quoted above.   Nor do they turn up in the B case, or the fight against Kira which follows on.

Then again, that quotation can be read another way and perhaps they weren't assisting L at all, despite their Wammy House credentials.  It seems unlikely that one or two WERE the original Coil and Danuve, challenging L for the chance not to be his backup nor copy.  That would place them centre-stage, not cameos.

But nothing there says that they weren't the instigators of the bio-terror case under investigation.  After all, it wouldn't be the first time that something like that was spawned from the dark corridors of the Wammy House to be unleashed upon the world.

In which case, all precedent says they're now tucked up safely inside their laboratories within the confines of the orphanage, welcomed home with an attitude akin to respect and a jolly well done.  But for the fact that none of the trio factor upon L's calling screen in L: Change the World - plus Mello refers to all as 'the first' of their names in Another Note.

The implication being that these three Wammy kids no longer exist, even within the institution out of public view.  Moreover, those who supplanted them in their allocated initials potentially were lost too.  That is if we're taking all Death Note stories as one amalgamated canon, even where their time-lines clash.

The Wammy Alphabet of Death Note Letters

Entire list of Wammy letters colour coded according to status
Those names greyed out are already dead by the end of all iterations of the Death Note canon.  Those inverted represent Letters whose allocation is currently unknown.  Leaving just D, E, G, H, K, N and P still alive.

However, this is just one run through from all known canon data.  We have indubitably got a mix-match of generations here.  A, B, X, Y and Z are known to have been amongst the first.  M and N were definitely fourth.  L, H and W held their letters throughout.  K's letter survived at least two generations in its allocation.  It has to be assumed that for a letter to be reassigned (four times for four generation of alphabets filled and started again), the previous recipient is dead.

How many Wammy kids must have died then, for the latest as semblance of Wammy Letters to exist?   A vague straw-poll based on the configuration seen above suggests that, of the overall proportion, 73.1% are dead.

It may be presumed that Ryūzaki, Linda and those nameless Wammy kids in the background of flashback scenes all bore an initial apiece. A single letter displayed upon a white screen when they called - stark black  in an Old English font, in lieu of a real name.

And where were J, X, Y and Z on L's calling screen in L: Change the World?  A possible 4-7 more dead or disappeared.  J to a burning ship in the middle of a pixel ocean; the latter three implied dead by Mello's comment 'the first to hold those letters'.

And of the remainder, one planned to destroy all humanity but was brought back into the Wammy fold.  Not before K had already killed thousands, obliterating whole villages along the way.  While, if Matsuda's theory was right, another is a secret serial killer in possession of a Death Note's great power, in addition to holding the L title that every one of Wammy's children coveted.

As L's successor, N beat them all to what amounts - in practicality, wealth and influence alike - to world domination.

Posted as Part of

Month of Death Note Wammy
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Matsu's Musing, a Decade On: Death Note Matsuda Fan-Fiction by MRSJeevas

4/4/2016

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Death Note Tota Matsuda pensive
There was a documentary about Kira on television tonight.  Matsuda sat and watched, thought he'd had himself convinced until the last minute that he would not.  Then duly sat in silence for a long time after the TV had been shut off, partway through its closing credits.

Not thinking anything much about it.  Despite its scheduled high intentions, the depiction told him nothing he didn't already know.  Same old, same old, only slightly rehashed.  One or two added examples of the pitiful nature inherent throughout the dregs of humankind - a camera lingered over Kira worshipping websites still running; interviewed the leader of a cultist enclave, who maintained a shrine in honour of a mass murderer's divinity.

Yet the statistics piled up, droned through an announcer's bland diction and sounding all the more dire for it than worse read in spreadsheet on Matsuda's work computer.  A tiny part of himself wondering once again if he'd ever been on the right side of anything.

Not thinking about it otherwise, mostly because what was left to dwell upon after a decade spent doing just that? There madness lay, or outrage. Guilt. A sense that one day he should snap. If only to honour the dead in showing he was not so unscathed in surviving. If only he wasn't so stubbornly, optimistically, stupidly sane.
Ten years was such a long time to be blinked into passing, while Matsuda was distracted by the close-up minutiae of life. Time enough for academic papers to be produced; published across a range of disciplines in peer-reviewed journals and books; the occasional thesis cropping up amidst an avalanche of dissertations; private reports for classified viewing (some only leaked, glimpsed upon Aizawa's desk, or divulged as a result of his quiet, semi-depressed venting with someone who was there; worse still, stumbled upon online due to a hackers' craft in cyber-theft and sharing). Dry facts delivered with seeming objectivity. The endless debates and analyses so complex as to render distant that whole Kira case. Polarizing conclusions losing something in translation from the academe into common sense.

Like emotion. Empathy. Reality.

It was as if Kira and all he embodied has been set behind glass. Immutable. Divorced from true experience. In the process of becoming severed from that through which Matsuda had lived. And Mogi. Aizawa. Casting them all surreptitiously adrift from involvement in that thing that changed, traumatized in subtle ways, still loomed large over everything, all society, the whole world.

Funny the things that got left in or lost; errors perpetuated into pseudo-fact, until reality shifted and tipped them off its plate. Those Who Were There. The steady drip-drip of Kira becoming a legend through credible channels. He'd long since been legendary among the digital, popular and/or vulgar culture moguls, and masses.  Bellwethers of fashion bringing him in and out of consideration according to their whim. Sometimes it was good to approve of his methods, that strange phantom God who came and went and never came back. Sometimes Kira was to be condemned, the papers said, and all their readers spurted rhetoric stating the same.

And Matsuda felt cold. And contemplated that scar raw ancient moral dilemma for the latest in uncountable time. Boring himself with the stab of angst and indecision before any conclusions ever seemed reached. Just his conscience rocking back and forth on the winds of wondering what was right. Honourable. What Soichiro would have done. Said. Ultimately sided with.

The officer shook off a poised lingering now. This moment was already too laden with potential pathos. Tedious the things that unsettled him so far down the road. More distractions. Distraction aplenty. That's what he needed. Him and the world.

And where was Near?

Matsuda's hand stilled en route to lifting his bottle of beer to his lips. The chill coming white-hot this time. That modern L was the aspect in all of this upon which terror or fury could dwell, not at all muted by time. Made worse by the waiting for his greatest fears in context of that strange Wammy to metamorphose into real life. But either Matsuda was wrong - which was great - or Near's silent psychopathy in secret possession of multiple shinigami notebooks, and all the unfathomable power they afforded him, hadn't yet surfaced in the public sphere. Maybe Near was too clever for them all - which was probable - and they would never know what he did with that divine gift in vault, nor how he managed the death gods loitering in his vicinity 24/7. How he kept them from boredom. Enough to explode an imagination and jolt a mind into terrible places.

The young man continued to engineer reasons for some kind of reunion, usually in Japan, often en situ, on the anniversaries of Light Yagami's death.  Matsuda had only managed to avoid three throughout the decade.

Near liked the Yellow Box Warehouse. He knew it. It was a good place for confrontations.  "Lucky?" Matsuda had asked him once, and Near had sneered. Pure evil, Matsuda thought, surveying the foreigner's features. But Mogi had chuckled at the description, shared later, and Aizawa had merely looked grimly on and said nothing. Well, they could belittle him. They'd earned the right. Near had not. Or had. And Matsuda wished he knew which.

He occasionally saw Sachiko Yagami. She was keeping well. Sayu with her. She was not. It used to sadden him for all that lost innocence and glee. You got used to the most messed up situations given time. That they'd had. Yet Soichiro would have wanted him to ensure they were alright. Keep his eye on them. Of course they were alright. Sachiko was steel beneath the mumsy face and apron. What would dare not be alright with her to face it down?

And he hated that she remained not knowing what happened to Light. That she'd never know what her boy became. Nor yet his true Fate. It wasn't her fault. Kira. Bloody Kira.

Had it really been ten years ago?  When the sudden cessation of Kira's regime caused a momentary global hush; as if the whole planet in chaos and ransom awaited with bated breath developments from its tyrant. Then exhaled as one and forgot about him. Overwhelming the void with pretty much a return to everything that had governed before. The Kira case reinterpreted; encased in ways more palatable to the new-old Powers That Be. Plastering over cracks each time the ripple effect marked the smoothness of their political surfaces.

Cementing it in studies too. Kira re-affixed as yesterday's fad; not so much out of vogue now as refashioned into old news - a failed endeavour; a detached legend; a tired topic eased off most fora. Slowly consigned by populists and professors into nothing much at all.

It was in hours like this that Matsuda felt himself falling. Not physically. But inwardly ajar. Survivors' guilt, somebody once said and he'd thought it must be, after a greater period considering it just guilt. Gullible; ineffectual; Matsuda knew he could have done more.

He did all he could. Heroic.

A message from Mogi beeped onto his device. Startling Matsuda into jerking, swept from his darkening reverie into reading it. "Watch that?" Mogi had asked.

Matsuda replied simply, "Yes."

No response to that forthcoming for a good fifteen minutes. Matsuda picked it up halfway to the pub. "Just ignore," Mogi's legend read. It seemed to sum up more. Matsuda didn't answer immediately, stomping bowed and way too serious through night dreary streets that turned suddenly into an onslaught of neon, as he entered the main strip close to his home.  

Bright lights that initially repulsed, then seduced and lifted his spirits tremendously.  He was hailing friends and laughing by the time he crossed the bar to get his drink. Only then he replied to Mogi, "Already have. So should you. Two for one cocktails on special and karaoke being set up. Coming?"

Mogi must have been secretly morose and musing, because his answer came so quick. Less than a minute. Perhaps a mere forty seconds. "Yeah ok. Get them in."

And just like that, Kira was gone; ghost and decades and all.

Posted as Part of

Death Note Month of Matsuda
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Death Note Event Reminder: Death Note Ladies Appreciation Weeks on Tumblr

14/12/2015

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Female characters in Death Note

Can you name these Death Note female characters? (Answers at the end)
Just a reminder about a Death Note event on Tumblr, which began yesterday and continues over the Christmas period to finish on December 26th 2015.

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

This is the second year running for the Tumblr event for Death Note fans.  Anyone can join in. You just tag your update with #dn ladies appreciation and post away, preferably on the day scheduled for your yuri pairing and/or each individual female Death Note character's bespoke date:
Week One
December 13th: Misa/Takada
                                Halle/Misa
December 14th: Naomi/Halle
                                Halle/Takada
December 15th: Misa/Sayu
                                Rem/Misa
December 16th: Wedy/Naomi
                               Wedy/Misa
December 17th: Sayu/Yuri
                                Yuri/Misa
December 18th: Sachiko Yagami/Eriko Aizawa
                                Sachiko Yagami/Mrs. Mikami
December 19th: WILD CARD (Any yuri Death Note pairing)
Week Two
December 20th: Halle
                                Wedy
December 21st: Naomi
                                Takada
December 22nd: Sachiko
                                 Sayu
December 23rd: Misa
                                Rem
December 24th: Yuri
                                Shoko Himura (from Death Note TV drama)
December 25th: Shiori Akino
                               Maki Nikaido
December 26th: WILD CARD (Any Death Note lady)
For more details, check out our original head's up about the event; where you'll also find a slightly easier collage of Death Note women to test your knowledge of characters in the Death Note universe.  For answers to the much more difficult one posted at the top here, see below:
Characters from Death Note who are female


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

And if you're looking for inspiration and/or something to post on each day, then our sidebar has all of these ladies listed under Death Note News Categories - archives full of things about them!  Feel free to post links to what you will.
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In Recognition of Sachiko, the Last Yagami Left Standing Pt 1

11/12/2015

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It's quite sobering to stop and consider the situations met head on by Death Note's grand matriarch, Sachiko Yagami.

What was great drama for us was fundamentally the story of her entire family's destruction.  Yet she is last seen standing strong, mothering in the ruins of shinigami boredom and all it wrought upon her home, kith and kin.  Pushing her traumatized daughter Sayu in her wheelchair through a park.
Death Note's Sachiko Yagami pushing traumatised daughter Sayu Yagami

Sachiko Yagami as we left her, attempting to reinvigorate
shocked daughter Sayu after the latter's Mafia abduction
Seen from above, like a Death God watching; sharing its view with us - the voyeurs in a series of personal tragedies. Should the sympathetic perspective ever switch to that of Sachiko. But we were rapt.

We too watched only until we were bored. Or the instalments ended and there was no protagonist left to kill. Then like shinigami ourselves, we flew away to manga and anime pastures new.  Finding other sources of entertainment, leaving the character to continue on with her strolls in the park.  Caring, because what else was there for her to do?  Scream?  Sob?  Collapse under the grief and sorrow for the cards that life dealt her?

Frankly, she doesn't seem the sort.

Sachiko Yagami, Strong Woman of Death Note

My copy of Death Note 13: How to Read says of Sachiko that she's a 'strong woman who stays by Soichiro's side and supports him through thick and thin. She's a dutiful wife and does her best to keep her family from falling apart during the Kira investigations.'

Alongside it a caption to a manga panel reads, 'worn out by the stressful fight with Kira, Soichiro receives encouragement from Sachiko until the very end'.

However, it seems there are different editions and translations of this tome. Another one is reproduced left.  Here the wording slightly, and very subtly, differs.
Sachiko Yagami Death Note 13 How to Read
Now we are told that Sachiko 'is Light's mother and as the wife of a policeman, she has been quietly supportive of Soichiro. Despite being an ordinary housewife, she fiercely upholds her trust in Soichiro and kept the family together during the most troubled times of the Kira case.'   Because you know, 'ordinary housewives' are generally distrustful of their husbands and live to scatter the family in times of trouble.  But at least she's not 'dutiful' anymore, a word which doesn't sit well in the Western mind, whatever the etymology.

The panel caption is now worded, 'when Soichiro had his doubts about his decisions in the Kira's case (sic), Sachiko was at his side, urging him to see it to the end.'  Which makes her sound a bit bad-ass and the rock in the family.   Until you put the panel into context, then you have to wonder if there was a touch of psychopathy there for Light to inherit.  Soichiro has, after all, just announced to his family that he's prepared to die to bring this evil to justice.

Which is all very well and noble for society at large, but not much good to her.  Nevertheless, Sachiko pretty much says, 'Yeah, go on, martyr yourself for the cause then.  I support your decision to die a hero.'   Like one of those fabled wives of Sparta, who purportedly told their spouses to return with their shield (victorious) or upon it (dead). 

Supportive, dutiful or 'as long as you get from under my feet and stop whining, dear'.  Apparently the former, given the emphasis placed upon her support of husband Soichiro Yagami in both translations of the original Japanese penned by Death Note author Tsugumi Ohba.

Charting the Personality of Sachiko Yagami from Death Note

Sachiko Yagami Light's mother waiting for him to return with his results
There are also some small differences in the personal data between my own copy of How to Read, and that found elsewhere on-line.

Sachiko's birthday - October 10th 1962 - and the blankness of her death day (because she didn't die; she survived Death Note) remain the same.  As does her blood type, liking for TV drama (the reproduction adds 'serials') and dislike of salesmen.   Perhaps some hint of a story lies in that last entry.  It does to any self-respecting fan-fiction writer anyway.  Leave it with me.

My version says that she's 5' 2" in height and weighs 110lbs.  The other 158cm/50kg. Same thing, different units of measurement.  (And for the benefit of any British reading, that's 7 stone 86lbs, on the off-chance that anyone cares for such things.)  So far so pretty standard, but then we get to the personality chart and the wording changes significantly.

Both are agreed on 'intelligence' and 'creativity'.  The above version's 'willingness to act' aligns with mine own 'initiative'.  Then this alternative translation has 'motivation', where my copy of How to Read states 'emotional strength'.  Two rather different concepts. In all so far, Sachiko ranks rather low.  She does just a little better in the next point charted. 'Social life' says that recreated above.  My book goes for 'social skills'.  Same ball-park, different sport.  Finally there's the section in which Sachiko Yagami actually excels.  Above it lists 'housewifeness'.  Whatever that is.  In my Shonen Jump Advanced published edition, that reads 'verbosity'.

Verbosity.  An excess of words; long-windedness; the propensity to never shut up.  Describing the Queen of Understatement in Death Note.

Maybe something got lost in translation - twice - because nothing thus told matches the personality exhibited in the manga panels (nor anime scenes) themselves.  Therein a very underrated, quietly fabulous Sachiko Yagami emerges.

Go to Part Two:  Meeting the Subtly Stated Sachiko Yagami
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Christmas Death Note Ladies Appreciation Weeks on Tumblr

19/11/2015

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Female Death Note characters

Some of the women of Death Note - how many can you name?
Can't get enough Hal Lidner?  Sick of hunting in vain for some Misa/Takada yuri?  Wish you saw more fan love for Shoko Himura?  Your time has come.

For the second year running, Death Note Ladies Appreciation Weeks will be hosted on Tumblr over the Christmas period. It aims to throw a spotlight on those under-rated female characters from Death Note.
Death Note Ladies Appreciation Weeks 2015 on Tumblr
Under the heading Expect the Unpredictable!, Tumblr user ComplicatedMerary announced the site wide event, and highlighted the guidelines for those who wish to participate.

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

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

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

Hop on over to Tumblr to learn more about it.  Contribute, or merely sit back and watch the ladies of Death Note fill the website in glorious array.
Female characters in Death Note
Answers to the collage quiz for Death Note's female characters:
Clockwise (l-r from top):
Kiyomi Takada; Hal Lidner; Naomi Misora (central); Wedy; Misa Amane; Maki; Linda; Eriko Aizawa; and Sachiko Yagami.
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TV Death Note Episode 3:  Deities, Dualism and Dreams with Light the Bringer of Kira

11/8/2015

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Death Note television red apple
Death Note red apple -
why do we suddenly have
three scratch marks?
I've been a little late in catching up with the Death Note television drama. Life happened in stress inducing proportions, then I watched two episodes back to back last night.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kira eyes in Death Note television drama

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

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

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

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

He is now quite permanently Kira.

Split Identities in Death Note Episode 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Framed Picture on Light Yagami's Wall

Picture on wall behindLight Yagami

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

Who is the figure and what is he holding?

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

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

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

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

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

Who is this being displayed so prominently alongside Light? Can you identify them and their context?
Japanese God Picture on Kira's wall in Death Note TV drama

Japanese God? Satan? Can you identify the figure framed on Light's bedroom wall?
My current best guess is that it's Bishamon (aka Bishamonten) - Japanese God of War and Punisher of Evil-Doers. Also considered the chief of Japan's Four Kingly deities.

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

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

Nightmare of the Dreamweaver in Death Note

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

This time it was our protagonist musing upon aspirations.
Dreams are just about self-satisfaction. Everyone has a mission in life.
~ Light Yagami
By the second third mark of the show, Light was suddenly wearing his Sandman t-shirt again. Contrasting his disdain of dreams with a celebration of Neil Gaiman's ultimate dreamweaver.

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

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

Everyone's a Potential Kira Now!

Raye Penbar

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

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

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

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

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

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

Light and Sayu in Death Note episode 3Grey plaid all round for the Yagamis
There's a length of chequered black and white fabric that's seriously serving the Yagami family well in episode three of Death Note's television adaptation.

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

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

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

Later on, she would be seen totally in black.

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

Plot-hole Ahoy! Misa in the Warehouse

Misa Amane in Death Note (2015)

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

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

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

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

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

Did I miss something?

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Finally Watched Death Note TV Drama - And It's Good!  (Plus Mello IS in It... Sort Of)

14/7/2015

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Img: Death Note (2015) Opening Titles
Death Note (2015)
Opening Titles
After all the early exposure to TV Death Note's reviews, I didn't expect to be telling you now that I loved it.

It took me a while to actually get there (life keeps happening), but I'm so glad that I did. It's not the Death Note that we've all come to life, breathe and quote excessively at each other. It's fascinating for all that.

I started watching it in the early hours of the morning. I was already yawning, ready for bed. My vow to myself was simple - I'd watch until the moment I said, 'WTF?!' or got bored, whichever happened first. I was there until the end, staring stunned at the screen. Then lay awake for a while later, pondering certain scenes that I'd seen.

Particularly the ending, when our missing Mello turned up.

My advice?  Go in with an open mind, forgetting all that you know of the manga, anime or live action movie versions. Treat it as a brand, new story. You won't be disappointed.

A Very Different Kind of Death Note

Image: Light Yagami in Death Note 2015

An ordinary Light Yagami in his room in Death Note (2015)
The fact is that we're engaging with a a different story entirely. Not merely a different version of the same old tale.  To my mind, the realism just edged up a gear or three.

Light is an Everyman kind of person. He's the bloke you meet on the street. He's not the top student in all of Japan, but a young man with hang-ups and a life not without its problems.  He's us from the get-go and that changes everything.  He's not there to be the God of this New World Order, but to change the world.

He's a nice person. Sympathetic. Without the hubris and arrogance of the original character upon which he's based. 

That alters irreparably the dynamic between himself and L - the latter displaying all the arrogance that his manga source did too, only much more noticeably here without Light's megalomania to over-shadow it. 

At first, I thought L's characterisation had shifted too. It took a second watching to discern that wasn't true. He's wearing shoes and devoid of endless strawberries and cup-cakes, but everything else pings off lesser played aspects of the canon character.

It's only Light who's shifted so much. As any Physicist may tell you, when the source of illumination alters, shadows and hues cast upon others changes utterly too. Hence Soichiro seems grave without gravitas, and Sayu appears whiny without reason.

Then you get to Near.  Oh wow!  Do we get to Near!  He was never so interesting to me in the original. Only a brief scene shows him/her at the end and it raises far more questions than it answers.  Wammy's House was always sinister (which is why I focus so much of my fan-fiction upon it), but this telling makes that abundantly clear.

And there, right alongside Near, is Mello.  We didn't think he'd been so much as acknowledged. But he's there.

Let me put the rest beneath a Read More break, so those not wishing to be spoiled don't have to see.

Read More
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Early Impressions of Death Note TV Drama, Plus Big Plot Changes Causing Havoc

6/7/2015

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Last night the television drama Death Note aired in Japan to much comment on Twitter.  First reactions are in from Japanese fans and they seem utterly underwhelmed.  Give or take the curtains.

Please note that I haven't seen this yet myself. Death Note's TV version won't show in my country until Wednesday.  No doubt I'll add my rants to the rest right about then. Until then I'm left haunting Tweets, looking for the word on the street.

So what's the deal?  Let's start with the positives.  All three of them.
Image: Hinako Sano as Misa Amane

People all over Japan are thinking of Misa Amane tonight.

Hinako Sano's Misa Amane
is Easy on the Eye



By far the most prevalent positive comments that I've translated/read about Death Note's TV outing are complimenting Misa Amane.

It's not exactly her compelling characterisation, nor the skill and talent with which actress Hinako Sano brings her to life.

On the whole those Tweets came from (insofar as I could tell) young gentlemen, who appreciated her on a more genetic level.

I'd repeat a few, but they were mostly of a rather crude and adult nature. Therefore not appropriate for a family friendly blog.

Calling Curtains on the Death Note TV Show

Image: Death Note Floral Drapes
Floral drapes in Death Note
Tweeted by @ts1_ksdd
Flooding Twitter were many, many people watching Death Note's première with excitement and glee. 

Nothing to do with the plot, acting nor even its actuality, but everything to do with the drapes seen in the background of an early scene.  They're apparently quite popular curtains to be purchased amongst the Japanese populace. 

Dozens of pictures ensued of televisions showing Death Note - and its floral drapes - alongside the exact same curtains in viewers' homes.

Apparently consumers and set designers alike visited one of the most ubiquitous Japanese home furnishing stores. Those particular drapes were perfect for purses on a budget. Colourful, economical and cheap. Hence so many people owning them.

There's one example above, as Tweeted by @ts1_ksdd. There are plenty more on Rocket News 24.

Anyone else concerned that the background curtains were what TV viewers most found to talk about? Doesn't bode well, does it?

High Kanto Viewers for Death Note TV Launch

Crunchyroll is reporting that Death Note aired with 16.9% of the Kanto population watching. That might sound a little low, but it's actually the highest rating for any new commercial TV drama launched in the country this year.

Then the site pretty much leapt straight into reminding folk that they're streaming the show world-wide on Wednesday. So, like, subscribe to them. kthxbai. 

Even those with a vested interest are struggling to support this one then. 

So what's gone so wrong?  Time to turn our attention to the negatives.

TV Death Note Doesn't Wow Japanese Fans

In truth, the highest number of comments translated were simply one word expletives, or a curt condemnation along the lines of 'They ****ed Death Note up'.

Few seemed prepared to follow their thumbs down with a detailed analysis of why they so disliked what they saw. Especially not in 140 characters.  Those who did tended to focus upon the characterisations, which differed hugely from those familiar personalities known from previous canon tellings.

For a start, L is 'too pretty' with none of the quirks and general weirdness known and loved by millions.
Image: Kento Yamazaki as L

Who needs to be clever and quirky, when you're as pretty as Kento Yamazaki's L?
Kay, over on Rocket News 24, went much further than that. She disdained the 'newly arrogant personality' in Kento Yamazaki's portrayal of L, considering it close to actual narcissism. (Nor was she alone there. Elsewhere I saw Tweets about him being 'egotistical', or simply just 'boring'.)

Moreover, Sayu (Reiko Fujiwara) has descended into the realms of 'whiny brat'; Soichiro (Yutaka Matsushige) has lost his gravitas; and Light (Masataka Kubota) is simply too ordinary, a regular guy with none of the genius which fuelled the original plot-lines. His characterisation seemed 'under-developed' and his fan-boy antics over Misa's band Ichigo Berry bordered upon Otaku.

Plus the pace was rushed and the screenplay rubbish.

She went into more detail than is easily permissible on Twitter. Nevertheless the Twittosphere seemed in essence to agree with her observations.

Death Note Television Trailer

Apparently I missed the furore last week, when trailers for the television Death Note reveal how much has altered from the original canon.  Not least some ominous implications for its ending.

Two of the earliest trailers (reproduced on Anime News Network) openly and repeatedly stated that we'll be 'surprised' by the 'final climax'. That there is a 'new resolution', 'new ending'.  None of that sardonic Near narrative in the Yellow Box then. (And still no sign of Mello either.)

Death Note's pilot episode on TV confirmed many of the direst speculations.

Light isn't an especially bright boy in this telling. He's a student of fairly average intelligence at the local university, whose greatest aspiration in life is to be a civil servant.  The main excitement in his life is following girl band Ichigo Berry, those main star is Misa Amane.
Image: Masataka Kubota as Light Yagami

Light: More potential stalker than self-professed Messiah in this Death Note telling

Plot Changes for Death Note's TV Drama

Her disparaging comments about Kira will wound Light's sensitive soul in later episodes. She is no Kira fan to start. We're yet to see whether she becomes one as time goes on, or even if she'll continue to be the second Kira as per the norm.

Incidentally, there are going to be new characters. Presumably not cameo ones, if the producers have felt the need to announce them.

All in all, this new Death Note appears to be touching the familiar tale, but only by the lightest fingertip grasp. How we'll ultimately receive it remains to be seen, but the initial reaction doesn't seem too good.
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Death Note TV Series to Stream Worldwide (ish) on Crunchyroll; Air in Japan and Korea

5/7/2015

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Image: Death Note TV Drama July 5th 2015 official site

Death Note television drama launch from the official site.
Sorry for the delay in major news here - house move pwnt productivity - so there's a lot to catch up on.  Today - July 5th 2015 - it can only be about the Death Note television drama which is shortly to air in Japan.

However, that won't be the only place where the series may be caught. A few days after being shown in its native nation, Crunchyroll will stream it to several countries around the world.

On July 8th 2015, at 7.30pm Pacific Time, the site will show Death Note's television adaptation in the following countries and regions:
  • Australia
  • Canada
  • Caribbean
  • Central America
  • Denmark
  • Europe (except for Italian speaking territories)
  • Finland
  • Great Britain
  • Iceland
  • Ireland
  • Middle East
  • The Netherlands
  • New Zealand
  • North Africa
  • Norway
  • Russia
  • South Africa
  • South America
  • Sweden
  • USA
I don't know why some are named by country and others implied by continent (nor what Italy did to upset everyone, give or take the Mafia, Mussolini and the Roman Empire, none of which appear to have an immediate bearing upon Death Note, Mihael Keehl aside). Unless that listing has something to do with Crunchyroll's subscription categories.

I do know that you'll have to subscribe to the site in order to watch Death Note live action TV drama. There is a free trial to be utilized though. That will get you the first two episodes, as long as you're savvy enough to sign up on July 8th 2015, probably around 7pm Pacific time.  Then it's $4.99 a month thereafter.

However, if you happen to live in South Korea, you can disdain all of this. The show will air there, on Channel J, about a week after its showing in Japan.

Death Note TV Drama Trailer (English Subs)

TV Changes in Death Note Canon Plot

Also revealed over the past few days is the basic plot-line for Death Note's TV drama.

There are some huge deviations from canon, but otherwise it's basically following the same story as the manga.

For a start, we've lost Mrs Yagami. Light's mother has been erased from the scene, leaving single parent Soichiro to raise Light and Sayu. 

In addition, they are all a few years older. Light attends university, not high school, with a part-time job placing extra pressure on his time.

There's an emphasis upon Light being a fan of Japanese idol group Ichigo Berry. I'm not finding much about them on-line, so I'm going to assume that they're a fictional band invented for the show. Light attends as many of their concerts as his life and finances allows.

Ah! Here's the clue - one of its members is Misa Amane.  As the rise of Kira occurs, she is an out-spoken opponent of his modus operandum and ethos. Which must cause some extra angst on the part of her fan-boy, Light.

This is all we have so far. 

Nothing yet on the most important point - where the sweet proverbial is Mello in all this?

Any thoughts on the television Death Note show ahead of time?

Death Note TV drama Misa Amane actress Hikano Sano

Hikano Sano as Misa Amane
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TV Death Note  Trailer and Updated Cast List

7/6/2015

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Masataka Kubota Death Note

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

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

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

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

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Tokyo Girls Interview with Death Note Actresses Fuka Yuduki and Ami Maeshima

24/4/2015

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Death Note Theatrical Actresses
Ami and Fuka - Tokyo Girls
Screenshot (March 16th 2015)
The actresses playing Misa Amane and Sayu Yagami in Death Note the Musical have been interviewed about their roles for Tokyo Girls magazine.

Featured in its March 15th 2015 issue, Ami Maeshima (Sayu) and
Fuka Yuduki (Misa) talked about being members of Death Note's original Japanese cast.

Both revealed that they were Death Note fans before the stage show was even a thing.  Ami went to the cinema with her family to see the live action movies - and kept the flyer because it looked like a Death Note.

Fuka recalled her shock at seeing Misa Misa bound and gagged in the manga. A recollection which didn't at all help when she read 'bound to a board' in the Death Note theatrical script. At the time of the interview, she hadn't yet rehearsed that scene to see how bad it could possibly be!

As a Death Note fan, Ami admitted some trepidation at the notion of Death Note being turned into a musical, but was reassured as soon as she read the script. Sayu's actress appeared confident that we'll love it too.

The fandom has really reached out to her too. Ami was pleasantly surprised, upon the announcement that she had been cast, to discover the on-going appeal and extent of the Death Note fandom. It seems that many of us Tweeted her from all over the world, making friends, asking questions or merely wishing her well.

Beyond that, the actresses discussed what it was like being in Death Note the Musical and how their personal friendship with each other had been forged through it.

Worth a read!


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Death Note Musical Sayu: SUPER☆GIRLS Star Ami Maeshima Cast as Kira's Sister

22/4/2015

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Better late than never - the final profile from the original Japanese cast of Death Note the Musical. Teen pop idol Ami Maeshima - one of the 12 strong members of Super Girls - brings Sayu Yagami to all singing, all dancing life!
Ami Maeshima as Sayu Yagami

Sayu Yagami actress Ami Maeshima

J-Popstar Ami Maeshima in Super Girls

In 2010, Ami Maeshima beat out over 7000 other hopefuls to win a coveted place in the teen girl band SUPER☆GiRLS. The group was assembled by Japanese record label Avex Trax through several arduous rounds of public auditions. It's gone on to repeatedly top the charts, gathering pop awards aplenty.

Clad in rose pink, Ami is an original member. A pop idol used to performing in stadiums, being rushed through hordes of fans and living with the constant attention of the Japanese paparazzi. Her fame is equally as strong in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Now her name will garner even greater international acclaim for she will bring to life Sayu Yagami in the Death Note Musical, and Death Note fans are everywhere.
In addition to performing in all of Super Girl's hit tunes (like Max! above), Ami had her moment in the spotlight. The group's Sentimental Journey (below) was released under her name too, as she took the lead vocals.
Sentimal Journey DVD Cover

Buy Sentimental Journey (+DVD) on Amazon US
Sentimental Journey - Ami Maeshima

Buy Maeshima Ami/Super Girls - Sentimental Journey [Japan CD] on Amazon US

Death Note's Sayu - Ami Maeshima Biography

Known to her friends and family as Amita, the actress was born on November 22nd 1997, in Saitama, Japan.  She was just thirteen, when she became a Super Girl.  (She's only 18 now!)

A year later, Ami became the recurring commercial face of Ito-Yokado, a Japanese retail chain. Between 2011-2014, she was also a model for the

Pichiremon (Gakken) line of gel nail polish. In 2013, Ami helped promote a Vintage Toy Exhibition too.
Amita - Ami Maeshima
Amita (Photo Album)
While being a Super Girl might be all about singing and dancing, the teenager is no stranger to acting either. She's had roles in five Japanese dramas - Suiensaa (2011), Sprout (2012), Tsuri Deka (2012-13), Family Game (2013) and Dad and Together (2014)

In 2013, Ami appeared as a character in the Nintendo 3DS original story game SPEC - Interference. This wasn't her first outing as a gaming voice actress. She'd contributed dialogue for the arcade game Pretty Rhythm: Aurora Dream back in 2011.

As a Super Girl, she's been the focus of two officially produced photo albums: Amita (2012) and Maeshima Ami (2013).

Her professional profile lists Ami's interests as being anime (we can all identify with that one!), playing with her cats and visiting the local planetarium.

While Sayu Yagami might have 'victim' plastered all over her demeanour, Ami Maeshima is no push-over. If Mello's Mafia thugs ever came for the actress, they'd be met with some serious karate resistance. Ami is especially known for her round-house kicks.
So what do you reckon?  Could Ami Maeshima wear the face of Sayu Yagami for you?  Perfectly cast or oh dear?  Personally she passes muster with me!
Ami Maeshima as Death Note's Sayu

Ami Maeshima as Death Note's Sayu Yagami
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