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

Death Note news articles

L Theme Park Attraction! Universal Studios Japan Join with Weekly Shonen Jump to Bring Death Note to the Tourists

10/5/2016

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Picture
A theme park in Osaka will be taking day-trippers into the Death Note universe with L right alongside to ensure no-one gets themselves killed.

Because he was always so good at that...

Universal Jump Summer marks a collaboration between Weekly Shonen Jump and Universal Studios Japan.  Running throughout the summer months of 2016 at the latter's tourist attraction, the event will bring to life major characters from manga and anime.

That includes Death Note detective L, who'll be recruiting rookie investigators (that'll be you) to accompany him through a role-playing, puzzle-solving, live action game entitled Death Note: The Escape.  It will be built on the back of other Death Note themed Real Escape games, that have been running in cities around the world to mark the manga's 10th anniversary.

Additionally, the theme park will regularly host theatrical performances featuring another stalwart of the genre.  One Piece Premier Show 2016 tells a story especially written for the event.

Unfortunately, visitors to Universal Studios Japan will have to pay extra to enjoy either of these anime-based attractions.  However, their general admission price allows for free access to the third one - Dragon Ball Z: The Real 4-D.  Not too much further information there, other than our hero Goku will be fighting the evil Frieza.

Yeah, whatever.  Our lot will be with L, taking on the truly nefarious designs inherent in a locked door.  And if you don't think that's dangerous, then you seriously never read Another Note.  Hold on.  Ok, so our guide looks like L. Fine. But someone must have double-checked his jam eating propensity.

Haven't they?

Enjoy going beyond in the Universal Jump Summer 2016 Death Note Real Escape event.
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Death Note Manga Store Fully Updated on Death Note News

18/1/2016

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Death Note Book Shop on Death Note News
Sales of Death Note literature on Death Note News
(Screenshot January 18th 2016)
So you think you've read (and probably own) every book about Death Note? Check out our store, you might be surprised.

We certainly have been.  During a whole weekend of hunting down errant manga and other literary Death Note works, there were tomes we'd never heard of, let alone read.

And coming from a gang of such Death Note obsessives, that's quite saying something.

For example, did you know about L: File Number 15?  A canon book of short Death Note cartoons created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata.  Half of our team did not.

Or what about Notes of Reasoning, the Chinese novel by Zao An Xia Tian? Which may or not not be a canon work taking the Death Note universe and adapting it to a Chinese setting.  Or it may be an elaborate and published piece of fan-fiction.  We don't know. None of us speak Chinese.

How about the hardback special editions of Death Note manga that exist out there in the English language?  Some of those even took us by surprise, missing our radar entirely.

As you may have surmised, this weekend has been a time of skipping interesting things and putting our nose to the grind of finding, collating, formatting and arranging  Death Note books everywhere, in various languages, across the board of genres.

All now beautifully arrayed in the Death Note News book shop.

It's worth nipping inside, if only to discover what you may have missing from your own library collection.  But also to purchase a volume or two to help with the costs of running this website.  Enjoy!  And if you buy, thank you.

In addition the anime/movie Death Note store has been tidied up, hence will be easier to open, load and navigate.  While the music merchandise has had one or two updates too.


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Platinum End: Death Note Creators' New Manga Available in USA Same Day as Japan

6/10/2015

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Takeshi Obata's artwork for Platinum EndPlatinum End artwork
by Takeshi Obata
An English language version of Platinum End - the new manga by Death Note writer Tsugumi Ohba and artist Takeshi Obata - will be released in the US, Viz Media have announced.

Not only that, but it will keep pace with the Japanese Jump SQ serialisation of the manga.

The US Platinum End manga series will run in Viz Media's digital Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, matching each new edition with English translations available on-line at the same time.

However, chapters are going to be individually published, with readers paying 99c a time to follow the unfolding tale.

Platinum End appears to be closer to Death Note's plot than the creative duo's interim collaboration Bakuman. 

Ohba and Obata's new manga follows the fortunes of a boy named Mirai Kakehashi, who 'does not seek hope in order to keep on living'.  While Light Yagami's worldly frustrations found vent in a shinigami's deadly notebook, we don't yet know what happens to Mirai.

But a supernatural entity is also lurking, as may be assumed by the tale being about 'a human and an angel'.

How that encounter plays out is yet to be seen.

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Death Note Creators' First Artwork and More Details Announced for Platinum End

2/10/2015

 
First artwork for Platinum End

Platinum End artwork released by Jump SQ
Jump SQ have Tweeted a preview of the Platinum End artwork to adorn its 8th anniversary edition centrefold.

The third collaboration between author Tsugumi Ohba and artist Takeshi Obata - which began with Death Note - appears to be about a suicidal human visited by an angel.

Platinum End follows the fortunes of Mirai Kakehashi, a young boy without any 'hope in living'. The fact that an angel also features prominently in the story would suggest that Heavenly forces have his back. Presumably to help on a quest to acquire some aforementioned hope.

Find more information about the release and publication of Ohba and Obata's new manga in last week's piece announcing it.

And in the meantime, help me work out why translators are suddenly calling Takeshi Ken Obata. Has he gone and changed his first name? Or has some strange algorithm tweak left Takeshi lost in translation?

Standard and Omega Death Note Blu-Ray Box Sets Delayed for Three Months

29/9/2015

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Death Note: The Omega Edition
Fans hoping to find an exciting new limited edition Blu-Ray Death Note box set in their Christmas stocking this year are about to be disappointed.  Death Note: The Omega Edition was due for release on December 1st 2015. It's now been put back until March 1st 2016 with no explanation as to why.

Details of this rather expansive Death Note Blu-Ray collection were recounted a couple of weeks ago. However, we managed to completely overlook the fact that a second Death Note box set in Blu-Ray format was also coming out the same day.
Death Note Blu-Ray Anime Collection

Blu-Ray Death Note: The Complete Series box set cover art
Death Note: The Complete Series collects all of the Death Note anime in Blu-Ray format for the first time.

This is without the bells and whistles accompanying the limited edition Omega Edition.

It's merely all thirty-seven episodes awaiting an almighty binge watch.

Fans can hear the dialogue dubbed in English,  Spanish, French or Portuguese, or hear it in the original Japanese, with all four of those alternative languages provided with subtitles.

As with Death Note: Omega box set, those looking for Blu-Ray Christmas gifts for Death Note fans are being thwarted here too. The Complete Series has also seen its release date postponed until March 1st 2016.

Though Welsh Death Note fans could always exchange Blu-Ray gifts for St David's Day, if that ever became a thing.

In the meantime, there are more Blu-Ray Death Note Christmas gift ideas over in our store, though they tend to towards the live-action movies rather than anime.
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Platinum End - New Angelic Collaboration Between Death Note's Ohba and Obata!

24/9/2015

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Platinum End Announcement in Weekly Shonen Jump
Platinum End manga announcement
in Weekly Shonen Jump No 44
This should be of interest to Death Note fans - Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata are teaming up again, and the bare hint from the tag-line implies the plot will be right up our alley.
PLATINUM END
This is the story of a human and an angel.
Well, we all seemed quite taken last time, when it was a human and a shinigami!

The announcement will appear in the next edition of Weekly Shonen Jump, issue 44, due out on September 28th 2015.  It will be followed by a Platinum End première feature the following week, in the October 5th Weekly Shonen Jump No 45.

However, it will be another Shueisha title - Jump Square - wherein the actual serialisation will begin.

Our Death Note creators' brand new manga Platinum End launches on November 4th 2015, dated the Jump SQ December 2015 edition - thus is the way of the world.

Tsugumi Ohba: Angels and Humans

Mello Death Note

Angels featured subtly in Death Note too
I don't know about you, but I'm quite excited about this! Given Ohba's propensity to mess around with angels - vis-a-vis Light's lifting of Lucifer quotations from Paradise Lost and Mello's alignment (made explicit in the recent televised Death Note drama) with the archangel Michael - I feel that the groundwork has already been forged.  And that was quite fabulous.

What are your thoughts on the matter?  Please do leave your comments below in the usual manner, but I'm also going to insert a poll about this.  Mostly because I've only just noticed I've got a pre-coded poll module that I can insert, and I want to find out what it does.
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Weekly Shonen Jump: Two Part Bakuman Prequel and More Ahead of Live Action Movie

22/9/2015

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Weekly Shonen Jump No 43 21st September 2015
Weekly Shonen Jump No 43
September 21st 2015
Only tenuously Death Note related, it's all about Bakuman in their creators' world this week.

While we might consider Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata in terms of OUR manga, they have collaborated much more recently than that on the semi-autobiographical Bakuman.

It's a series which chronicles the rise of an author and writer within the manga industry.

The current edition of Weekly Shonen Jump (September 21st 2015) includes the first in a special two-parter prequel to the main Bakuman chapters.

It tells what happened with main characters Moritaka Mashiro - pen name Saikō - and Akito Takagi - later known as Shūjin - before the pair joined forces to produce a wildly popular manga series. Like, you know, Ohba and Obata did in real life with Death Note.

Spanning 23 chapters, the first part of this Bakuman prequel has boosted the manga magazine to a hefty 315 pages!  Featured as an added bonus is a full colour Bakuman centrespread.

The original Bakuman manga ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2008-2012.  Those chapters were collected into twenty volumes published by Shueisha, which have sold over 15 million copies worldwide. An anime based upon the story was televised over three seasons, aired in Japanese television between 2010-2013.

Viz Media and Media Blasters reproduced English language versions of the manga and anime respectively, primarily for North American audiences.

A live action Bakuman movie is due to be released on October 3rd 2015, hence the two part prequel beginning in Weekly Shonen Jump this week. It acts as a tie-in special event and incidentally helps boost publicity for the film.

Bakuman 1 manga

Bakuman Manga Volume 1
Buy at Amazon US
Bakuman 1 Anime

Bakuman Anime DVD 1
Buy at Amazon US

Fictional Bakuman Manga Becomes Real

In the story, Muto Ashirogi's third manga is entitled PCP -Kanzen Hanzaitō- (trans. PCP - Perfect Crime Party). Now that fictional manga is due for release as a real world novel.

It will bear Ashirogi's name as the first author, though his co-author Sei Hatsuno (HaruChika) probably did much of the work here.

Another blatant tie-in, the novel will hit bookshelves on October 2nd 2015, one day ahead on the Bakuman movie.

New Takeshi Obata Artwork for Bakuman OST

Takeshi Obata artwork for Bakuman CD
Takeshi Obata draws the artwork for Bakuman's soundtrack CD
A new live-action Bakuman film means an original soundtrack to accompany it. For fans of Takeshi Obata's art, this is an unexpected avenue in which to discover some.

Obata has created the artwork for the Bakuman CD soundtrack, including that for a CD single Shin Takarajima (pictured above) lifted from the OST. Due to be released in a limited edition format, the song has been recorded by rock band Sakanaction and features in the movie.

A DVD of the Bakuman OST is also scheduled.
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Viz Announces Death Note Omega Edition on Blu-Ray - Much Extras, Coming December 2015

14/9/2015

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Death Note Omega Edition Blu-Ray Cover
On the hunt for Christmas 2015 Death Note gifts? 

Viz Media have a potential present for Death Note fans winging its way to our stores in time for the festive season.

But only if you happen to own a Blu-Ray player.

For many of us, this is going to seem like the same old, same old. Coupled with a heartfelt - how often can they repackage and sell this stuff?!

Actually this one appears to be a little different.  There's a lot included in the package for a start. 

Death Note: The Omega Edition includes all 37 episodes of the Death Note anime.  However, you can choose between a variety of dubs and subs. The dubbed languages are English, Japanese, Spanish, French, Portuguese; all of them (minus Japanese) are also available as subtitles.

In addition, this Blu-Ray box set includes Death Note Relight 1 & 2.  Those are the feature film length re-edit of the whole series; detailing the story with highlights, with the occasional scene not in the original telling.

You will be able to enjoy the Death Note: Relight Blu-Ray Omega Edition in Japanese with subtitles in English or French.  Or else hear both anime movies dubbed into English or French instead.
Blu Ray Death Note Omega Edition Box Set
Death Note: The Omega Edition box set for Blu-Ray
The blarb (and picture) is telling me that there's a Death Note art book in this package too.  I haven't got much to tell you about that, other than the pages open in the image are from the Death Note prequel one-shot.

We're not quite over yet - this Death Note Blu-Ray box set comes in a 'premium, metallic chipboard box', whatever that means.  (Metallic AND chipboard? So is it metal made to look like chipboard?  Or vice versa?  And premium as opposed to, I don't know, shabby?)

Let's just assume that Viz Media have poshed up the box enough to make it look good on your shelf and underneath the Christmas tree.

Blu-Ray Death Note: The Omega Edition will be available to buy on December 1st 2015.  However, it's probably only a Christmas gift for a Death Note fan you love very, very much, given the recommended retail price tag of $69.99.
Death Note Omega Edition back cover

Back cover of Blu-Ray box set Death Note: The Omega Edition
Report back if you decide to go for this, in order that we get the low-down on its relative greatness or otherwise.

In the meantime, don't forget that there are plenty of Death Note Christmas gift ideas in our store too.  Including a whole section devoted to festive Death Note decorations, cards, table ornaments and the like.
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Takeshi Obata Draws Bakuman (& Death Note)

2/9/2015

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This is an old news item, but it's been taking up space in my 'Death Note News stories' folder. Despite only tenuously having anything to do with our story.
Takeshi Obata blank pad and pen
Death Note mangaka Takeshi Obata was featured in a Shonen Jump special video, which showed the artists behind four of their most successful series creating their characters from scratch on a pad.

Obata was included, of course, though he opted to draw the main characters from Bakuman rather than those from his earlier run-away success with Death Note.
Takeshi Obata's segment begins at 4.20.  Also featured are Tite Kubo (Bleach), Masahi Kishimoto (Naruto) and Eiichiro Oda (One Piece). 

It was uploaded on July 29th 2013.

Watch Artist  Takeshi Obata Ink Manga Page

Also available on YouTube is a far more leisurely view of Obata drawing a page from Bakuman, back in April 2013.

Filmed in real time, the footage will be of particular interest to those wanting to know what goes into a mangaka's work, maybe to become one themselves.

It takes Takeshi Obata half an hour to ink the previously sketched manga artwork for this page.
It seems wrong in a Death Note blog to skip any examples of Takeshi Obata drawing our characters.  Hence I've found a couple of moments for you.

Takeshi Obata Draws Ryuk from Death Note

This footage is from 2012, when Obata attended Lucca Comics and Games in Tuscany. He's beginning to sketch Ryuk. Unfortunately all fan filming and photography was banned, hence this is a very short clip.

Takeshi Obata Sketches Death Note in NY

We've already featured a clip of Obata drawing Ryuk and L at New York Comic-Con in 2014.  But here it is again.
Death Note News covered Obata's US visit far more extensively at the time. Read more about it:
  • Takeshi Obata Talks About Death Note at New York ComicCon 2014
  • 'I Struggle to Draw Cute Girls' Takeshi Obata Tells Comic Alliance
  • Difficult to Draw Shinigami Should Have Been Kept Simple - Takeshi Obata Interview at CBR
  • Death Note Characters - 'Borderline Fully-Fledged Villains' All, According to Obata
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Death Note TV Adaptation Airing July

17/4/2015

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L with his Computer
A live action television version of Death Note will be airing in Japan in July.

The adaptation has been announced in Weekly Shonen Jump (issue 21), but no other details have yet been released.  As yet, we have no idea who the cast will be, nor director/producer, writers etc.

But that's something to look forward to on a Friday morning, isn't it?

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RKD-EK9 - One Shot Takeshi Obata Art in English Weekly Shonen Jump (Dec 29th 2014)

9/1/2015

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Image: Weekly Shonen Jump 05-05 December 29th 2014
Takeshi Obata's artwork on the
cover of Weekly Shonen Jump
(Dec 29th 2014)
Sorry, sorry, I'm a week late with this news, but what can I say? There were parties to be had and hangovers to survive.

In the meantime, the English language version of Weekly Shonen Jump has been having a field day with Death Note related items. By which we mostly mean 'things drawn by the same bloke who drew Death Note'.

Though there are a couple of items less tenuously linked.
The first big news concerns the one-shot RKD-EK9, which Death Note artist Takeshi Obata created with NisiOisiN. There's a double connection here for our fandom, as this was the author of Another Note.

RKD-EK9 was announced in October 2014 and it's already been published in a December edition of the Japanese Weekly Shonen Jump. For English readers, it constituted a special dual chapter stop-gap publication of the US Weekly Shonen Jump - issue No. 05-05 - which came out on December 29th 2014.

Just around the time that I was opening my first bottle of wine.
Takeshi Obata has also teamed up with writer Nobuaki Enoki to produce a new manga serial of Gakkyū Hōtei for Weekly Shonen Jump.

We gave you the heads up about this in November, when it was due to begin its run in the Japanese edition of the respected manga magazine. But English readers get to discover the delights too. The publishers have promised that all stories will be released in the US on the same day as in Japan.

Obviously give or take RKD-EK9...
Image: Takeshi Obata's artwork in RKD-EK9

Takeshi Obata's artwork in manga one shot RKD-EK9
This means that I'm woefully behind on telling you that the slightly renamed Gakkyu Hotei: School Judgment is running in the US version of Weekly Shonen Jump.

It actually began on December 1st 2014 (issue No. 1). By the manga's very nature as a serial, Gakkyu Hotei continued on through every edition thereon, and will do until the tale is told.  Though the special edition on the 29th didn't feature a chapter. All of the serials paused for that one.
Image: Gakkyu Hotei in Weekly Shonen Jump

Takeshi Obata's artwork in Gakkyu Hotei: School Judgment
I did promise some actual Death Note news rather than just what its artist is up to now.

Weekly Shonen Jump has also featured work from a second Death Note artist. Didn't know there was another?  You obviously haven't factored in the fan art of a lady named Sara E.

A week later, there was more Obata fan art. This time from Toshiyaka M. recreating Bakuman's The Detective Trap. No, not Kira. Totally different story.

Finally Weekly Shonen Jump also ran with a feature about the release of the new box set - Death Note: The Complete Series.

But you already knew about that, as I actually managed to report it in a timely fashion, a month before Shonen Jump did. And shoved the actual product in our Death Note box set section of the website.

And there you are - all up to date with all things Death Note related from Weekly Shonen Jump.  Well, recent things anyway. We'd be here all day if I had to return to the start.

Image: Weekly Shonen Jump cover for December 1st 2014 Issue No 1

Takeshi Obata's cover art
for Weekly Shonen Jump
(December 1st 2014)
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Gakkyū Hōtei Manga Relaunch to be Drawn by Death Note's Artist Takeshi Obata

11/11/2014

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Gakkyū Hōtei Dec 2014 Weekly Shonen Jump
Gakkyū Hōtei is coming back.

Shuiesha announced that
Nobuaki Enoki's 'shocking court mystery' manga will feature throughout 2015, as a Weekly Shonen Jump serial, beginning with the January publication (due in December 2014).

So far, so utterly relevant within the remit of this blog. Until you notice that Takeshi Obata is the artist brought on board for the project. Shuiesha will be hoping that Death Note's own visionary will be able to reprise his magic for this title too.

Previously,
Gakkyū Hōtei's artwork was drawn by its author Enoki. The story, formatted as a Smartphone app, ran as part of Jump Live.

'Gakkyū Hōtei' translates as School Investigation Court.  Each of the manga's chapters will highlight another elementary school offender, as they go to trial.

It's a kind of Ace Attorney meets Grade School because... well, why not? High School students being judgmental is hardly anything new (it sets them up for adulthood, where being opinionated comes as standard, though we have to be more subtle about finger pointing and kicking people out of our gangs). 

Though I'm still unsure about how legally binding these School Tribunals are, nor am I 100% on the nature of the crimes under consideration.

If it's mass murder via a supernatural note book, then Obata has this one totally in the bag.  Whatever it is, I'm sure he'll cope.


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Takeshi Obata Talks About Death Note at New York ComicCon 2014

17/10/2014

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Guest Blogger Orangepunch brings us a round-up of all the Death Note news and gossip from Takeshi Obata's appearance at New York ComicCon 2014.
Takeshi Obata at New York ComicCon 2014
The New York ComicCon was held from October 9 through October 12th in New York City, and Takeshi Obata was invited to host two different question and answer panels.

Both had crowds of people wanting to participate, many of whom had to be turned away after the room had filled.

On top of the two Q and A panels, Obata had two signings in which the few lucky fans who were able to get one of the few tickets to attend before they sold out were able to meet Obata, and get something signed by him.

For those who missed out, one fan recorded the panel and posted it to YouTube for fans to watch.  (Skip to the below to view it.)

During the panels, Obata discussed his art in his past and present manga and answered questions about his art style, what it was like to work on manga like Death Note, Bakuman, and his others, and how he designed certain characters.

He ended by doing a live drawing of Ryuk and L from Death Note.

Obata and Death Note Related Announcements Released at NYCC

“…He made playing Go look exciting. And then he made a person writing in a book look cool. And then he made people drawing pictures look amazing. He is a legend in the manga industry, and probably the reason you’re at this panel. Introducing the one, the only: Takeshi Obata!”
The Shonen Jump panel had many announcements for their fans, including several exciting ones for Death Note Fans.

A new program from Shonen Jump called Jump Start - which will release internationally the first three chapters of every new series simultaneous with them coming out in Japan - hopes to identify what fans abroad my be interested in reading.

At the same time, they are also launching Jump Back, which will highlight classic hits from Shonen Jump manga. October's focus is upon Death Note! We will have lots of free previews and fun things to see that are Death Note related on their website.

As previously highlighted on Death Note News, the panel also announced that Viz Manga is having a big sale on all manga related to Obata and they are also running a sweepstakes to win exclusive posters and manga signed by Obata. Check out the website to enter.

Takeshi Obata Discussing his Art and Working on Death Note

Death Note is undeniably Obata’s first and greatest success in manga so far. There’s no doubt that the brilliant artistic minds of Ohba and Obata were meant to work together.

We have all our thanks for this pair meeting up due to the editor of Death Note, Koji Yoshida. Yoshida was familiar with Obata’s art style, and after first meeting with Ohba and seeing Death Note, he had a feeling Obata’s “Gothic aesthetic” would make him a good artist for the story.

Obata talked about what it was like when he first met Ohba, and described him as mysterious and cool, and remembers thinking, 'Yeah, he seems like the kind of person I’d be able to come up with a story like this.'
Takeshi Obata at Shonen Jump panel NYComicCon 2014

New York ComicCon: Takeshi Obata on Drawing Death Note

Obata’s inspirations for Death Note characters initially came from Ohba’s writing. But, he also drew inspiration from the personality he seemed to get from them.

He described L as weird, eccentric, and strange, yet still cool, and those attributes really intrigued him, so he really wanted that to come across in the drawing of the character as well.

When Obata went about drawing and designing the character of Ryuk, he wanted a true representation of a shinigami, but he also to have fun with it. As he first drew Ryuk, he decided it would be fun to make his costume look like someone who was trying to wear “high fashion for the Milan collection.” And because he gave Ryuk a human face, the artist commented that it was important to pay attention to “not make him too scary or too cute.“

Obata said that, in the end, his design for Ryuk ended up strongly influencing the personality of the character when Ohba wrote him. And this is true across the board.
 
Of course the initial written design of a character by Ohba influenced how Obata brought them to life in a drawing, but the details, quirks, traits that Obata put into the drawings of characters then influenced how Ohba went on to write them and their behavior in the manga. I think it is interesting how the duo came to work together so perfectly; not only ended up with a captivating story, but characters who were so real, interesting, and had so much personality and depth that it left readers obsessed, to the point where we are still talking about them over a decade on.

Death Note Editor Koji Yoshida Talks about Takeshi Obata

NYC Comic Con 2014 Takeshi Obata and Koji Yoshida
As with any artist, you have to know that the things in their lives which affect and influence them will eventually make it into their art, even if only subtly.

A particularly cute moment from the panel is when it was pointed out during questions about character design that Yoshida, the editor of Death Note, eventually made his way into one of Obata’s later works - Bakuman. The character himself was even named Yoshida!

When Obata was asked how he came up for the design of Yoshida-san, Obata turned and looked at his former editor sitting beside him, and the crowd attending the panel erupted in laughter. Obata commented, “That’s how I see him in real life.”

Yoshida seemed to disagree, declaring that he didn’t actually look much like the character. Though he was impressed with Obata’s ability to bring that character to life.

The editor mentioned that several years back, when they were working on Death Note together, he used to wear a square watch every day. Even though they no longer worked together when Obata was doing Bakuman, Yoshida did notice that his namesake character sported a wristwatch exactly like the one he used to wear.

He believes that it’s Obata’s ability to remember and include such small details like that, which makes him so good at depicting people. 

The Artistic Link Between Death Note and Sherlock Holmes

Considering that, I was entirely amused when the crowd had a chance to pose questions and one person asked who Obata’s heroes are. Obata described his first heroes being the characters of manga he read when he was a child. He named  Sherlock Holmes, because of “how he would solve the most unbelievable mysteries.”

Death Note is described in the panel as Obata’s first global hit. I think it is great that Obata, as a manga artist, declares Sherlock Holmes as one of his first and standing heroes. When you consider how much it must have influenced him in every moment he was working on Death Note, you can really see how he was able to bring each and every character, no matter how minor, to life on the pages.

Ready to watch it all for yourself? Spot the Takeshi Obata's live drawing of Ryuk and then L, which you can watch in the video (starting at 4:00 and 8:33 in the YouTube videos linked below).
With much thanks to Orangepunch for writing this report for us!  If you'd like to guest blog here, just ask. Assuming it's relevant and interesting, I'll probably say yes.
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Takeshi Obata - US Schedule October 2014

6/10/2014

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For the first time ever, Death Note manga artist Takeshi Obata will be making public appearances in the USA. So where might you be able to catch him?

All of Takeshi Obata's US appearances will be in New York City. When and where is listed below.

Takeshi Obata USA 2014

Thursday October 9th 2014

6pm-6.45pm - New York Comic Con, Room 1A10, Javits Convention Center. Takeshi will be part of Viz Media's  panel: The Future of Shonen Jump. The rest of the panel is made up of Weekly Shonen Jump's US editors, all discussing what people can expect from the publication in the future.

7.30pm - New York Comic Con, Javits Convention Center.
During the evening, Takeshi will be stationed at a table ready to autograph an exclusive signing board. Please note that this involves a strict ticket system.

You will NEED to visit the Viz Media booth (#1944) at 1pm or 4.30pm - no queuing until 15 mins prior to each slot - wherein you'll be given tickets and your shikishi signing board on a first come, first served basis. Sounds like a bit of a mission, so good luck!

Friday October 10th 2014

5pm-5.45pm - New York Comic Con, Room 1A10, Javits Convention Center.  Takeshi will star in his own panel entltled Weekly Shonen Jump Presents: Takeshi Obata, Artist for Death Note and All You Need Is Kill. Joined by his editor Koji Yoshida, the discussion will be about how Takeshi began as an artist in the manga industry, and his long history as one of its most respected talents.

8.30pm-9.30pm - Kinokuniya Book Store, 1073, Avenue of the Americas.

Takeshi Obata signing session as part of New York Super Week. You will need  to secure a (free) Super Week ticket in advance, available here.

All ticket holders will receive an already autographed shikishi signing board. Takeshi will only additionally sign that board OR books purchased - at the time - from the store itself.

Saturday October 11th 2014

6pm-7pm - Barnes & Noble, Tribeca, 97 Warren St.
Takeshi Obata autograph session for New York Super Week. Different venue, but otherwise the same set up as at Kinokuniya. Please read that and be prepared!

That's all so far, though this will be updated if extra US Takeshi Obata events do pop up. In the meantime, discover more about Obata himself and skim through the latest Takeshi Obata news, so you will feel all knowledgeable and up-to-date about Death Note's artist before you're face to face with him.

And if you do meet him, please, please do report back here. We're all living vicariously through you!

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English Release of Takeshi Obata's All You Need is Kill on Viz Digital Manga

17/5/2014

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Shonen Jump All You Need is Kill

Finally! Something happening in the Death Note world in English!

And by Death Note, I mean the bloke who drew it. And by 'happening', I mean extremely tenuous link via the aforementioned bloke who drew it.

In short, Viz Media have announced that it will be releasing All You Need is Kill in English.  It will be launched on the same day as the Japanese version goes live on June 19th 2014.

If this one is rocking your boat, then the English Digital Manga of All You Need is Kill will turn up on Viz Media's website.
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