News about Death Note

In Recognition of Sachiko, the Last Yagami Left Standing Pt 1

11/12/2015

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

20/11/2015

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

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

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

For us prospective Death Note know-it-alls, Japanese blogger Kyoko Kikuchi has painstakingly trawled through the manga and sifted out all those first appearances for every main Death Note character.

It's actually more fascinating than it initially sounds. I thought it would be a thing of passing interest, but I'm struck by how many times we meet individuals without ever seeing their face. Takeshi Obata has his readership creep up on characters, like stalkers or shinigami.

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

First appearance of Misa Amane in the Death Note manga

Misa Amane's first Death Note appearance

Death Note L's first appearance in the manga

How the Death Note world first met L

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

Death Note manga Light's first appearance mirrored by Soichiro's first appearance

Like father, like son - our first sight of the Yagami men in Death Note manga panels

Even the shapes of things on their tables mirror, in polar opposite colours, objects on the surface before the other.

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

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

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

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

And today I learned that artists are just as bad.

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

We could be here for hours.

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

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

Death Note Rolls Out Over NTV/Sony GEM Asia Network

12/11/2015

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L and Light in Death Note drama on GEM
Image: Nippon TV

Fans in Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia are currently enjoying high definition airings of the Death Note TV drama courtesy of the GEM Channel.

The television network is the sparkly new collaboration between Sony Pictures Television (SPT) and Nippon Television (NTV). It includes exclusive shows from both companies portfolios, as well as a clutch of other programming too.

Eventually GEM will be beaming Death Note into South Korea, Taiwan and other Asia territories too, including China, which will surely go down well.

                     Read:
                          * Chinese Cyber Authority Cracks Down on Death Note
                          * Death Note Fans in China Dodge the Censor

For the rest of us, there's a nice selection of images from the Death Note television drama, courtesy of NTV, highlighted on the GEM Channel Death Note show webpages. Some of which are reproduced here, above and below.

Near and Anti-Kira task force in Death Note TV drama

Near and the anti-Kira task force
Courtesy of Nippon TV

L, Watari and Light in Death Note TV drama

L and Watari torture Light Yagami
Courtesy of Nippon TV

In addition, there's a synopsis of the show, programming information (every Monday and Tuesday at 8pm (JKT) and 9pm (BKK)) and profiles on various cast members, including Yutaka Matsushige as Soichiro Yagami, Hinako Sano as Misa Amane, Kento Yamazaki as L, Mio Yuki as Near and Masataka Kubota in his award-winning performance as Light Yagami.

A nice touch there is the trivia end-piece on each actor, informing us for example that Yutaka Matsushige is one of the tallest actors in Japan (he's 6ft 2") and Mio Yuki's real name is Rina Kanno. She was launched into stardom after winning a HoriPro talent contest in 2012.

Mio Yuki as Near in Death Note TV drama (2015)
Courtesty of NTV

In Other News...

Meanwhile, there's an apology to make. Much hecticness and chaos behind the scenes a few months ago at Death Note News meant that our analytical reviews of the last few episodes of the drama were never published. Nor indeed written, though much enjoyment was had in actually watching the show!

We intended to. It's just that the write ups never made our To Do list, thus were overlooked and finally forgotten entirely. They might never have appeared if one of our readers hadn't been on the ball.

Grace Butler has given us the nudge (politely and very sweetly), hence those Death Note (2015) reviews are back on the list to do. Thanks Grace! And sorry to all who have been waiting on them.

In the meantime, here are the Death Note News analytical reviews of Death Note drama episodes so far.

Reviews & Critical Analysis of TV Death Note Drama Episodes

Masataka Kubota as Light Yagami Death Note drama 2015

Masataka Kubota as Light Yagami in Death Note television drama (2015)
Courtesy of Nippon TV

* Death Note Episode One Review
* Death Note Episode Two Review
* Death Note Episode Three Review
* Death Note Episode Four Review
* Death Note Episode Five Review

* Death Note Episode Six Review Pt 1
* Death Note Episode Six Review Pt 2
* Death Note Episode Seven Review
* Death Note Episode Eight Review Pt 1
* Death Note Episode Eight Review Pt 2

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Nathaniel Overthinks Death Note #01: Kant and Confucius in Death Note via Soichiro Yagami

26/10/2015

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Beginning today, a brand new Philosophy of Death Note column
by Nathaniel Brown for Death Note News.

Death Note News Column: Nathaniel Overthinks Death Note

The morality of Death Note is curious thing, not least because the complex themes Ohba raises in his manga are unintentional.

When examining the themes of Death Note we as a fandom have a lot of input. Death Note is the perfect slate for a variety of interpretations because Ohba himself didn’t have much in mind outside his desire to entertain his readership. When interviewed he said that he saw a magazine article about the themes of the series he stated that it was “too difficult for me to understand” and the creation of the “deep philosophical themes” of Death Note were a by-product of their desire to entertain, not the other way around.

He’s even on record as saying “some people may have been taking the series too seriously”! (Which in writing this article I’m probably falling into the category of). He was pressed about this topic and did eventually say “no human has the right to pass judgement on another’s actions. No one should play God”; but this seems to be retrospective analysis rather than something he had in mind while writing the series.

Nevertheless, whether Ohba intended to or not his series raises many valid ideas and paves way for multiple readings; not just the one I’m about to offer. The risk in approaching Death Note is to view it with too strong a Western perspective when characters like Soichiro Yagami are so clearly eastern. Nevertheless, it’s through this lens I will (partially) view it because of my greater familiarity with Western philosophy.

The three main ideologies characters could be argued to have in the series are Utilitarianism, Confucianism (with a touch of Kantianism) and Nihilism. We'll start this month with the middle one.

Death Note's Confucian Soichiro Yagami (and Kant)

Death Note's Soichiro Yagami: Manga, Anime, Takeshi Kaga and Yutaka Matsushige

The Confucian faces of Soichiro Yagami: (clockwise from l) manga, anime, Yutaka Matsushige (TV)
and Takeshi Kaga (live action movies)

Light’s father Soichiro Yagami is a fundamentally eastern character with a highly Confucian mind-set. Confucianism (similar, but not identical to the Western philosophy of Kantianism) emphasises collective duty to the whole of society and that the ends never justifies the means!

Soichiro values his family above all other things, and his duty as a police officer next. He was the first to agree to stay on with L after the police force stopped investigating the Kira case, and his guilt in saving his daughter lead him to accept the Shinigami eyes and ultimately die for his cause. He risks his life numerous times during the Kira investigation and his passion for justice makes him an incredible workaholic (his family often had to deliver clothes to him because he worked such long hours, this caused Light to meet Naomi while he was delivering them to him; too her eternal misfortune).

Ohba has stated that Soichiro Yagami is the only “good” person in Death Note.

Despite his dedication to catch Kira, he has his limits of what he perceives as morally permissible to do so and he certainly doesn’t espouse the idea “that the ends justify the means”. This objection is revealed multiple times throughout the investigation; most notably when L wishes to allow criminals mentioned by Yotsuba to die in order to incriminate the organisation. Soichiro opposes on the grounds that “even if they are criminals” it’s unethical to allow them to die even if it is to solve the case. To make this clear, they arguably stand to gain more by allowing these criminals to die (and to be fair, we aren’t talking about purse snatchers here in most cases) since if they can apprehend the Yotsuba Group, more people will be saved from Kira.

Looking it at it from a more Kantian perspective all humans have an intrinsic value, and can never be a means to an end because their intelligence and sentience makes them an end in of themselves meaning things such as murder and lying (which Light does with impunity) never acceptable.

The song sung by Soichiro in Death Note the Musical - Honour Bound and Bound by Honesty - has a distinctly Eastern feeling to it; enhancing his Confucian and Japanese associations.

At the heart of Soichiro Yagami’s character is a man who struggles between his duty to his family and his duty to remain impartial as a police officer. This ultimately leads him to consider committing suicide after he’s forced to hand over the Death Note to Mello to get his daughter, Sayu, back.

Other versions of Death Note enhance this very Japanese perspective further. In the Death Note drama, Soichiro Yagami commits suicide with the Death Note after uncovering his son’s identity as Kira. This harkens back to the honour killings that were once common in Japan; most infamously with Kamikaze pilots. Since Soichiro Yagami cannot bring himself to kill his son (that would be a violation of his duty to his family) he kills himself since he failed in his duty to raise a morally upright son.

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TV Death Note Episode 6: Torture and the Switch of a Personality Split - Pt 2

22/8/2015

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I waffled quite a lot concerning Near's possible split personality, hence split the blog entry too.

Part 1 of my Death Note (2015) analysis and review may be found over here. Now here's more about split personalities in the show, before I SERIOUSLY go off on one about torture.

Death Note (2015): Personality Shifts and Kira

Will these hands ne'er be clean?
Kira in Macbeth mode

The Wammys aren't the only ones subject to plural personalities inhabiting the same body.

Episode 6 in the Death Note television drama bore witness to both Kiras (Light and Misa) losing their memories concerning their murderous notebook usage. Less a split personality than a shifting of their own.

This deliberate amnesia wiped away all considerations of guilt and presumably layers of other emotion too. The TV adaptation of Death Note has flirted with a Tolkeinesque element of dread upon their artefact. Like wearing Bilbo's ring, writing in a shinigami's Death Note induces feelings of angst, pain and paranoia.

The accumulated effect of which must weigh heavily upon a psyche. Serial users experience the anguish verily ladled upon their minds and emotions, twisting their personalities beneath it as a coping mechanism.

Add too the stressful reality in which both have been living - Death Notes aside - with Misa's parental past rearing its ugly head, and L pursuing Light with a doggedness skittering into criminal obsession.

All this is what gets lifted from them, along with their memories, shinigami eyes and ability to see Death Gods loitering in their cells. Though they do then have to contend with being incarcerated and tortured without any context to explain their victimization.

Misa-Misa and the Light Lost to Kira

Misa's personality barely seems altered for the supposed loss of her preternatural dread. She simply switches focus in her verbal bids for freedom, assuming now that her captor is a stalker rather than an investigator in the Kira case.

For Light, the change in personality is much more dramatic.

It's testimony to the talent of actor Masataka Kubota that we can view, as a physical shifting, the stripping of Kira from Light. More impressive still, when you realise that most of it occurred with the camera in extreme close up, showing just his facial expressions and drooping/lifting head.

Kira	Still Kira

Kira's memories are wiped from Light Yagami in Death Note 2015

Head bowed as his memories are wiped

Light

Not any more - Light seems visibly
stunned by L's question

Light's been referring to Kira in the third person since the earliest episodes. Seeing the change in his visage and eyes, shorn of Death Note related memories, perhaps he was onto something after all.

Then again, dehumanizing or treating the killer within as a separate entity is what allows terrible things to be enacted upon a person without much protest from onlookers.

A much more subtle series of split personalities were on show in TV live-action Death Note episode 6 - the horrifically realistic vision of ordinarily upstanding people turning a blind eye to torture.

Fear, peer pressure, anxiety about appearing stupid or an unwillingness to stick one's head over the parapet regularly combine to create a kind of mass personality splintering. Individuals, communities or whole populations can be persuaded to set aside otherwise extant morality and common sense, as long as the victim and/or their circumstances can be presented as an exception to the norm.

Hence Holocausts occur; or other genocides, wars, lynching, the vilification of individuals and groups, and any other occasion when the loudest voice is saying words like 'subhuman' and suggesting a relaxing of rights, laws and rules as the only way forward.

In the torturing of Misa and Light, Death Note describes this phenomenon with aplomb. It's one of the aspects which first drew me to the story.

Did Somebody Call Amnesty International?

Death Note Ryuk and Kira discuss torture in Japan

Sorry, Light, your assumptions are naive. According to AI and other human rights groups, torture under interrogation by police is endemic in Japan.

Fair warning: I'm an Amnesty International Urgent Cases activist (hence the Amnesty banner on my Death Note fan-fiction website). I was also an organizer for Holocaust Memorial Day events for years, after gaining my Honours Degree as a Historian specializing in the Porajmos.

Let's just say that I know a thing or two about how human rights and torture work in real situations. It colours somewhat my perception of these scenes in Death Note.

Realism in Death Note's Torture Scenes

Misa bound and illegally detained in Death Note

Illegally detained Misa bound and tortured in TV's Death Note (2015)

Death Note pulled no punches in its scenes of torture during the interrogations of Misa and Light. We'd seen such things in the manga and anime, but there's something more immediate a little more disturbing when it's live action drama.

Nor did it seem particularly gratuitous to me. Though I did note that it was only the female Kira (Misa) who ended up scantily clad and arrayed in tight bodily restraints. Male Kira Light Yagami was allowed to keep most of his clothes on, while held in 'only' handcuffs.

Not that such physical restrictions, worn day in day out for over two weeks, would be particularly pleasant to endure.

The prolonged use of restraints causes extreme discomfort, pain, and in some cases lasting damage... Furthermore, because prisoners in Japan are kept in restraints for prolonged periods of time, they are forced to eat and use the toilet while restrained. These functions cannot be done in a dignified fashion in the restraints. This amounts to degrading treatment, also prohibited under Article 7 of the ICCPR.
- Prison Conditions in Japan (PDF) pp 80-81, Human Rights Watch Asia (1995)

... his hands were bound with leather handcuffs... He sat all day long in the cross-legged position. The "protection cell" had no windows, and it had fluorescent lights... He ate his food in what he described as "dog" fashion, lying on the floor and picking it up off the plate with his mouth... The former prisoner reported that he suffers from back pain to this day, the fact he attributes to the month spent in restraints.
- Ibid p 36

Image: Light Yagami tortured in a Japanese police cell

Aizawa with Light's meal - Torture scenes in Death Note

I've been impressed by the reasonably realistic elements on display in Death Note's depiction of judicial torture in Japan. You just don't expect that with manga, anime nor the live-action versions bouncing off them.

The quotations above described real life complaints from prisoners tortured in Japanese detention facilities. Yet they could equally have pertained to scenes in episode six of Death Note's television adaptation.

Nor were these the only bits which echoed the true life experiences of Japan's tortured detainees.

... prison officials have been known to use physical and psychological intimidation to enforce discipline or elicit confessions. The government sometimes restricts human rights groups’ access to prisons...

The National Police Agency is under civilian control and is highly disciplined, though reports of human rights abuses committed by police persist. While arbitrary arrest and imprisonment are not practiced, there is potential for abuse due to a law that allows the police to detain suspects for up to 23 days without charge in order to extract confessions.
- Japan - Freedom in the World, Freedom House Report 2009

Daiyo Kangoku in Death Note: Japanese Police Extracting Confessions by Torture

Death Note (2015) Chief Superintendent Goda

Chief Superintendent Goda sanctions the torture of Misa Amane in Death Note

It feels like fiction how Misa and Light are dramatically detained in Death Note's episode six. Indeed it should be fictitious.

But we have to wonder to what extent Ohba and/or Obata were making a point in the way that their story aped the truth of what is permissible for Japan's police-force. After all, the television version of Death Note merely followed the canon telling of torture by Japanese law enforcement officers.

And that canon story - or something similar - could be occurring in a Japanese interrogation cell right now.

The daiyo kangoku system, which allows police to detain suspects for up to 23 days prior to charge, continued to facilitate torture and other ill-treatment to extract confessions during interrogation. Despite recommendations from international bodies, no steps were taken to abolish or reform the system in line with international standards.
- Amnesty International Annual Report 2014/15 - Japan

Far from being fiction, Death Note's telling didn't go far enough in showing the degradation potentially awaiting detainees arrested by police in Japan. A real world Misa and Light could be kept:

in solitary confinement;
handcuffed or subjected to other body restraints;
without access to legal counsel (attorney/lawyer);
without access to family, friends, witnesses etc;
ignorant of information/evidence/developments regarding their case;
under constant surveillance;
forced to go to the toilet restrained, watched and unable to wipe/clean themselves;
eating their meals from bowls on the floor;
deprived of sleep;
verbally and physically intimidated;
in receipt of death threats;
told constantly to confess;
for days/weeks on end;

Just as depicted in Death Note - but with viewer sensibilities spared the spectacle of Light eating meals with his hands still cuffed, or the humiliation of Misa made to publicly pass water - and all in contravention of international human rights laws.

If the presence of a defense counsel were to be required for an interrogation, it would be difficult to perform the interrogation promptly and sufficiently within the limit ed period of custody.
- Government of Japan, official response to issues raised by the UN Committee Against Torture p9, July 2011

In addition to a fairly realistic portrayal of how daiyo kangoku may be abused, Death Note also highlights facets of torture which may only be fully understood within the context of Japanese culture.

Like why police officers are pressured to gain a signature upon a prisoner's statement, even if the result is forced confessions - fabricated or otherwise - signed simply to make the torturous interrogation stop.

The Importance of Confession in Japan

Death Note's Light Yagami in solitary confinement

Day Five for Light Yagami at the mercy of Japanese interrogators in Death Note

When arrested, aged just 20, (Sakurai) was treated like a guilty criminal, he says. "They interrogated me day and night, telling me to confess. After five days, I had no mental strength left so I gave up and confessed."

"It may be difficult for people to understand, but being denounced repeatedly - it is harder than you think."

- Shoji Sakurai, acquitted after serving 29 years in prison for a murder to which he confessed but didn't commit

Certain restrictions upon the police, imposed by the Japanese people after World War Two, has unforetold expression in the modern day. Not least in the huge emphasis placed upon confession, as a sure-fire way to secure a conviction in a court of law.

That historical abuse of police power in wartime saw the agency stripped of the right to legally investigate or interrogate, using methods taken for granted globally by other police forces. For a start, Japanese officers may not listen in on private 'phone calls or stake out properties undercover.

(This may be why it's American FBI agents who L drafted in to follow Light and other Kira suspects. Soichiro and his squad aren't permitted to do the same.)

By limiting police intrusiveness, even in the pursuit of evidence, Japan's post-war civilian population unwittingly paved the way for an undue emphasis placed upon confessions. A statement of guilt is often all that investigators may legally present to a judge.

The importance of confession being that the vast majority of Japanese convictions rests upon one.

In fact, for the two and a half centuries of Japan's Tokugawa era (1600-1868), a confession had to be extracted before any alleged criminal could be found guilty. It was seen as the most reliable evidence around, a notion still firmly imprinted upon the general Japanese mindset.

Light Yagami looks at his father pre-detention in Death Note

Committing himself to voluntary detention, Light looks to his father

Others have pointed to traditional elements in Japanese culture to account for the value placed upon confessions.

Practically enshrined in the national psyche is the vilification of personal shame above all else; whilst truth, respect for authority figures and diffidence to one's family - particularly parents and other elders - are elevated as fundamental to the Japanese character.

Confessing to crimes avoids the shame inherent of denying them, only to be found out later. Historically, people really did spill their every misdemeanour for the asking, though we only have the testimony of those doing the asking - and punishing - here.

Which is why Death Note sees L, in constant repetition, challenging Light to confess that he is Kira.

Truth will out and, if not, then its not just the individual shamed. Everyone will be blaming the parents, who couldn't possibly have raised their child with correct and proper values.

A facet which has been blamed for the phenomenon of false confessions willingly produced by those unable to prove their innocence.

Parental Shame and Japan's Judicial Torture

Mogi expresses an attitude which would be all too prevalent
in Japanese society - and which drives Light's actions here, not to
mention those detaining him

Human rights campaigners have pointed to consideration of parents as a key component in the extraction of false confessions.

It's something which police interrogators can use against those being reticent in signing a document bound to be central in their own conviction.

Individuals are prompted to think about their families, and the deep shame felt by Mum and Dad, as their off-spring repeatedly denies culpability in criminal behaviour. How the family name is being brought further into disrepute the longer this drags on.

It is too much to bear when I think about what went through his mind [when he confessed] - how he was longing for evidence of his innocence but he had to give up.

The saddest thing is I as a parent even doubted his innocence.

- Father of a 19 year old Meiji University student, whose son was compelled to make a false confession out of parental consideration

Naturally, as detainees may be held for weeks incommunicado, it's easy for interrogators to withhold information. Particularly that pertaining to evidence that points towards their subject's innocence.

The prevailing ethos is that its better to tell prisoners nothing, lest the 'lesser' proof of innocence be superseded by better evidence. Like a confession.

We see this too in episode six of Death Note's TV drama. Wherein Light crawls on his cell floor begging to know if Kira has killed again during his own incarceration. L's intractability in refusing to impart such knowledge moves Aizawa to compassion.

The police officer's whisper that 'it's alright' is instantly deemed detrimental to L's tactics. The overt torture of Light - isolated; bound; scrutinized 24/7; his sense of time forcibly confused; kept ignorant of news in his case, and without counsel but for that telling him that he's guilty, confess and be done - was over at that moment.

It's no accident that what followed involved Light's father and the belief that he would confess to Soichiro alone, if imminent death - murder to assuage parental shame - threatened that truth would be taken to the grave.

Soichiro Yagami threats to shoot Light in Death Note

Shamed Soichiro would rather his son be dead than he sully the Yagami family name

What may be less obvious, to many watching the show, is why an upstanding citizen like Soichiro Yagami would countenance the torture of anyone, let alone his own son?

Indeed, how the rest of his team could continue to comply with L's edicts.

Complicity in the Torture of Death Note's Kira

Aizawa challenges L re Torture in Death Note

Protestations were issued by most members of the Kira Countermeasures squad - well versed in human rights principles and able to spot when interrogations had gone too far - but each quickly backed down again.

The entire squad conveying tacit approval, even when the majority couldn't watch the torture in action. All but Aizawa left Light alone with L, no longer witnesses to his plight.

That's how most remain complicit in on-going human rights abuses in reality around the world - by their silence, looking the other way, keeping themselves ignorant and generally acting in denial of their own ability to intervene. Aped powerlessness and not getting involved are the most subtle forms of approval.

Also the most prevalent way in which people demonstrate complicity in torture.

After all, you know that torture exists in the world. What have you done about it? Today? Yesterday? At any time in your life? If something, then thank you so much. If nothing, then what excuses do you give yourself?

Those are likely to be akin to the kind of excuses within the minds of the Japanese police officers watching Misa, then Light, tortured in Death Note. Though they scream, shout, stamp around and shake their heads going, 'No, this is wrong' (then finally half of them walk out), they don't actually DO anything about it.

Even Aizawa's quiet rebellion, regarding the embargo on information for Light, doesn't precisely constitute stopping it. Though that was coincidentally the end result.

Any one of those present could have physically over-powered L. Instead they attempted to reason with him, then backed down at the first counterpoint raised by the Wammy detective. Like he had the right to do what he did, even as a foreigner torturing Japanese citizens upon Japanese ground.

But people can be talked into complying with anything, if no-one else joins in the stand, and a clever speaker reassures them that everything is alright.

L appears to be enjoying torturing Light...

If all else fails, then torturers like L can always fall back upon that old fail-safe - fear. Governments do it all the time, as do newspaper editors, civic leaders, parents, whole religions are founded upon it. Fear remains the best way to control individuals, groups, communities and populations alike.

Terry Pratchett observed, in one of his DiscWorld books, that the fundamental question plaguing humanity most of the time is, 'Am I going to get in trouble for this?'

Rather tongue in cheek, but it lies at the heart of why so many - knowing torture to be wrong - fail to act when faced with even the threat of danger to their own self. Or the notion that someone somewhere will tell them off for acting rationally and morally.

Mogi demands L stop torturing Misa. L responds, "Would you prefer to conduct the interrogation yourself, in the same room?" And Mogi's reservations are instantly silenced.

L's threat doesn't even make sense. Why should him desisting his torture equate a police officer thrown alone into a room with the scary Kira suspect?

But it sounded like danger, delivered in a reasonable tone which implied that was the only way it could be. Thus fear did the rest.

Did L Have the Right to Torture Light and Misa?

No. He didn't.

Not by Japanese law - he's not a Japanese police officer, nor has he taken an oath of legal service under any Japanese code of practice. In short, the government and people of Japan had not handed him a mandate to act, and even if they had, a new law would have needed to be passed to allow him to behave quite like this.

Not under international law - Light and Misa were born with certain rights, immutable and without exception. That includes the right not to be tortured.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 5:

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Not even Kira.

Why Can't Death Note Kira Suspects Be Judged Under the Law?

They can and should be.

When early protests are sounded, amongst officers seeing how Misa is being held - full body restraints and a blindfold, whilst forced to stand throughout her incarceration; under 24/7 surveillance (without even the uncertain dignity afforded by a female guard doing the watching); subject to verbal intimidation; without counsel nor formal charges levied against - L is unsympathetic.

He disdains all suggestion that Misa is bereft of her human rights, seeming almost bored as he irritably explains the situation to those witnessing it.

Death Note's L denies Misa her human rights

"The ability to kill people just by looking at their face cannot be judged under the law," L tells the law-enforcers, apparently quite convincingly too, as all of their complaints simply melt away.

Do you agree with his standpoint? Actually it doesn't matter whether you do or don't, nor if the the Kira Countermeasures squad are persuaded to this point of view as they seem.

(Though they, at least, were in an immediate position to assess the situation and intervene. You'd have to discover it was a thing, then start bombarding influential people with letters, including Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, Minister for Justice Yoko Kamikawa, National Police Agency Commissioner-General Tsuyoshi Yoneda and - fictional - Chief Superintendent Goda, plus your ambassador to Japan and the Japanese ambassador to your country. Those are the ones with the clout to save Misa, and the regard for public and/or international opinion, which means they can be pressured into doing so.)

Regardless of L's persuasive qualities, your opinion, the Kira team's cowardice or the (usually secret) commands coming down the hierarchy from the highest levels, a fundamental fact remains the same:

Misa retains the right to be judged under law, shinigami eyes or not.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

- The birthright of all human beings born on the planet, hence the word 'universal' in the title. Enshrined by Japan's government, publicized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and here's a version in Japanese.

Article 6:

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7:

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8:

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9:

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Light suffers 14 days arbitrary incarceration, isolated, cuffed and without charge

Article 10:

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11:

(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12:

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

In short, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - and its counterparts found in the Japanese Constitution and other laws - exist to protect people like Misa and Light from the likes of L.

Unfortunately, there were no police officers around courageous enough to enforce it. A state which undoubtedly has its echoes in real life Japanese interrogation cells.

L disappointed that Light's torture will cease

I really have gone on enough in this blog entry. That's what happens when two passions collide in circumstances of great scrutiny, and I know way too much about both.

I hope it was informative, and/or entertaining, at least.

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

16/8/2015

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

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

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

Near and Mello in Death Note 2015 Episode 5

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

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

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

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

Potentially Pairing Mello & Near in Death Note

Image: Death Note 13: How to Read bookcover

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let's follow this one through.

What's the Significance of Near Going Outside?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Disinfecting Kira at L's entrance

Message from a Split Identity in Death Note

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Though this particular dummy Messiah sits listlessly still.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Three in One? Multiple People Grouping Near

Three children in Death Note Episode 5 (2015)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Near walking away in 2015 Death Note drama

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

Colour Coding the Three in One and Death Note

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

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

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

Light, L and Soichiro in black, white and red

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

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

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

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

Romance in Hues of Black, Red and White

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

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

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

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

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

Japanese Symbolism in White, Red & Black

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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TV Death Note Episode 4: Manipulation, Paranoia and Compliance

15/8/2015

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

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

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

Near and Mello in Death Note TV Drama 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image: Near and Mello Puppet Death Note 2015

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

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

Image: Near and Puppet talking in unison

Near and the Mello puppet talk in unison

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mind Games in TV Death Note Episode Four

Image: Misa as Second Kira in Death Note 2015

Misa as the Second Kira dressed in black

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

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

Compliance and the Loss of Human Rights

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Manipulation Tactics in Death Note Episode 4

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

Then again Soichiro Yagami himself was above similar guilt manipulation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

.... yet.

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

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

Hidden Nod to Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata

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

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

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

Paranoia in the Watchers and the Watched

Misa learns all about paranoia
as a concept

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

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

Light Yagami is downright paranoid from the off.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Light xL Fanservice in Death Note TV Episode 4

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

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

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

I rest my case.

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

11/8/2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kira eyes in Death Note television drama

Light-bringer Kira burning plans for mass murder

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

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

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

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

He is now quite permanently Kira.

Split Identities in Death Note Episode 3

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

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

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

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

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

Near and Mello Puppet in TV Death Note show

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Framed Picture on Light Yagami's Wall

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

Who is the figure and what is he holding?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nightmare of the Dreamweaver in Death Note

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

This time it was our protagonist musing upon aspirations.

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

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

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

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

Everyone's a Potential Kira Now!

Raye Penbar with Death Note pages

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

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

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

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

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

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

Grey plaid all round for the Yagamis

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

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

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

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

Later on, she would be seen totally in black.

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

Plot-hole Ahoy! Misa in the Warehouse

MIsa Amane and her Death Note

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

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

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

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

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

Did I miss something?

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Projecting and Reflecting in Episode Two of the New Death Note TV Series (2015)

17/7/2015

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Image: Mio Yuki as Near in Death Note TV Series

Near (Mio Yuki) in Death Note (2015) Episode Two

I was a little quicker off the mark in watching Death Note (2015) episode two.

I'm into this new Death Note drama now. Drawn in hook, line and sinker. No longer dutifully checking out - for the purpose of this blog - something which the armchair critics already panned. They were wrong and I'm excited to find another episode ready to air.

After all these years obsessed with the same story, it's a beautiful thing to have new twists to entangle; a fresh take to embrace.

And for those bored with seeing the same old storyline retold with no obvious deviation from norm, then there is a whole world of background iconology and themes to explore. I know that I'm having fun with that!

For episode two of the Death Note TV drama, it seemed to me to be all about reflections/mirror images and/or projection. Even of itself.

Reflections, Polar Opposites and Mirror Images in Death Note (2015)

Img: Masataka Kubota as Light in 2015 Death Note series

Light Yagami (Masataka Kubota) assumes his Kira persona

Take Light. The Kira we all know and love - from previous canon versions - had a God complex. At the very least, he was arrogant and self-assured. He enjoyed absolute confidence in his own intellect and abilities. He was certain he could do whatever he set out to do, and his personality became increasingly saturated with megalomania.

This 2015 Death Note Light Yagami has an inferiority complex underpinning his actions in episode two. For example, when he learns that Misa's life is in danger, he comments, "I can save her without Kira's power. Even I can do that." (Though ultimately he can't and has to fall back upon that preternatural scribbling.)

He's become his own polar opposite; a fundamental trope turned on its head.

Sometimes it seems like the whole adaptation is showing through a glass darkly that original telling. There was a genius Light, who here is merely average intelligence. Yet their strategies are mostly the same.

It always appeared as a plot-hole to me that Death Note's geniuses weren't precisely genius in tactic, deed nor thought. This version reflects that right back at canon, while ironing out said plot-hole by making Light smart, but not to the point of hyperbole. It adds another layer of realism over a quite fantastical tale.

Light's Lucky Number Seven in Death Note, or the Letter L Inverted

Img: Light and his Lucky Seven bin in Death Note

Light's Lucky 7 rubbish bin

Mirror images tend to be upside down and turned around. Those appearing as polar opposite spokes on a wheel of fortune would merely be upside down. The letter L becomes a number 7.

I noted in the first episode that Light owns a trash bin sporting a Lucky Seven design. Like many cultures around the world, Japan regards this number as fortuitous - a tradition with its origin there in Buddhism. The implication is clear - rubbishing L is lucky for Light. Fair enough.

Episode two saw a profusion of iterations of the number seven. It turned up everywhere! Some that I caught:

Misa's life was to have ended at 7pm;
There were 7 people on the bus;
The bus was hijacked on 7/7 (July 7th - actually celebrated as Tanabata (Evening of the Seventh), a national holiday in Japan; though as a Briton, the hijacking of public transport on that day seemed a little in bad taste).

Did you spot any others?

I'm still reading this as Kira in the ascendency, as represented by Light's 7, while L's fortunes continue to flounder beneath. Though that situation seems poised to change. The last scene saw Light's luck finally running dry.

Light's Sun; L's Cresent Moon

L shows off his ring in Death Note episode two (2015)

Moreover, L's world seems fixed within the colour scheme of white, red and black - the hues of the Triple Goddess in Wicca (white = Maiden, waxing moon; red = Mother, full moon; black = Crone, waning moon). A palette apparently picked up by Misa too for the closing scenes, in her black and white striped dress and her red Death Note.

Though she's been 'red' from day one. It's her Ichigo Berry colour. Interesting to see how, or if, this theme continues.

Soichiro and L with the latter's waxing moon avatar

A slightly more blatant juxtaposition came in the positioning of Light with the sun and L with the moon.

Our protagonist's solar credentials are right there in his name - Light. But also in some of the random articles dotted around his room: two depictions of the solar system (one cylindrical, the other a poster) for a start, and, more tenuously, various sources of energy, like the propeller/windmill and transistor. Then there was a whole scene with Light standing before a box labelled Sun Flower (in English and written as separate words).

L for lunar now, is it? When I first spotted his signet ring, I thought the design was a horseshoe - something also thought to be lucky here. His answer to Light's seven.

Then I saw his night-time desktop avatar screen. His trademark L against a midnight sky, alongside a brightly waxing crescent moon. The 'horseshoe' suddenly clicked as a crescent too. Smooth out a corner and the letter L could be a crescent, but only if it's waning. Otherwise it's that 7 again.

Dualism and Personas Projected in Death Note (2015) Television Drama Episode Two

Light is still dissociating himself from Kira, talking of both as if they are two separate entities. This is despite Ryuk categorically telling them that they are one and the same.

Meanwhile, I was taking another long look at the items dotted around his room and wondering if Light's subconscious knows about his inferiority complex. There are so many references there to dominion, empire or Godhead.

Above the aforementioned Sun Flowers, there was another small box simply bearing the word 'imperial'; those globes could be interpreted as owning the world (several times over), ditto the universe/solar system references; plus the emperor penguin.

Then there's his perceived link with the Otherworld, often projecting his fear as pieces of decoration or memorabilia. A quick internet search with regard to those animals ornamenting his desk and shelves, and their place in Japanese tradition, proved most illuminating.

Panda - prominently adorning Light's desk this episode. In Japan, pandas are believed to ward off evil spirits;
Unicorn - on the wall beside Light's bedroom door. The Japanese unicorn is called a Kirin. It's the most powerful of all mythological creatures, signifying the arrival of a sage or ruler. They are seen as being pets of the deities. Kirin have the ability to discern guilt from innocence, punishing the former and bringing peace and serenity to the latter. Kirin sounds VERY close to Kira, as well as performing a similar kind of murderous/judgemental function;
Stag - on the wall beside his bookcase. This isn't actually a stag, as we in the West have been incorrectly identifying it. It's an older representation of the Kirin (antlered dragon). So see above.
Giraffe - on the shelving unit beside Light's desk. The Japanese word for 'giraffe' is 'kirin' - see above again. Ditto the zebra on the bookcase, also associated with kirin;
Polar Bear - standing at the back of his desk. Bears are viewed as gods in some parts of Japan;
Owl - on a shelf in the centre of Light's room. The animal form of one of the seven Gods of Luck in Japan.

In short, even before Ryuk threw a Death Note in Light's general direction, a little part of the student was already thinking Kira type thoughts. It just emerged harmlessly projected onto surrounding himself with Kirin.

L, Near and Mello: Wammy Boys Projecting in 2015 Death Note Episode Two

Image: Death Note Near captioned I think you're projecting, Mello

Near calls out the whole 'projecting' views thing in Death Note episode two

Then we get the whole enigmatic scenario that is the Wammy House segment. Here the notion of projecting is downright blatant (but might it not quite be blatant enough?).

To all extent and purposes, it seems like this whole scene involves someone projecting their thoughts/opinions/personality onto another. Whether it's Near's ventriloquism (we see that his lips don't move when Mello speaks) onto his puppet, or Mello's accusation, followed by Near's counter-accusation.

Here's the dialogue for you to judge for yourself:

Scene: Camera pans down from the ceiling (which seems in a state of disrepair), lingering upon Luca Giordano's painting The Fall of the Rebel Angels (1660-1665), before which Near has twice appeared with her Mello puppet. She's heard, then the camera continues down to find her below the artwork talking into a 'phone with L.

Image: Wammy's House with Archangel Michael at the Fall of the Rebel Angels artwork.

Featuring prominently at (presumably) Wammy's House is Giordano's artwork depicting the Archangel Michael chasing rebel angels from Heaven

NEAR:     The victims all died of a heart attack. It's almost like their souls are being stolen by a shinigami.
L:           Shinigami? If they exist, I'd love to meet one.
MELLO:    If you met one, you'd die.
L: Shut up! Listen to me. Don't get in Near's way.
MELLO:    Shut up, dummy!
NEAR:      Don't worry. I'll be fine. Goodnight, L. *disconnects the call*
MELLO:    *sniggers* I know all about it. Deep down inside, you think you're better than L.
NEAR:      I think you're projecting, Mello.
MELLO:    *close up on puppet's smiling face*

Img: Puppet Mello Death Note 2015 Episode 2

Puppet Mello finds this accusation of projection so amusing

So far, so apparently straight forward. Near is a brilliant ventriloquist, whose rebellious thoughts are projected onto her puppet. L humours this by addressing the puppet as if it's real, but bans it from expression. Near may only comply. She may not even protest in a dislocated fashion.

But I'm not sure that's what is going on at all. I'm not convinced its the puppet (or its owner) actually talking.

We've seen that Near's lips don't move, but neither do Mello's. The mechanism is patently there, yet never once has that puppet mouth moved. Near is only working the eyes.

Moreover, Near doesn't look at the puppet when addressing Mello. In both this scene and that in episode one, she peers over towards the only wall left unseen in all those tight, claustrophobic camera angles. (Why are we always creeping up to Near? Or seeing her through the bars of chairs? Whose POV IS that?) In this episode, Near appeared to be looking towards the half-glimpsed padded chair adjacent to her own.

Img: Mello and Near Death Note 2015 Episode 2

Near's still on the 'phone here. But will look towards the next chair to continue the dialogue with Mello. Thus showing her lips aren't moving.

Is the real Mello over there, in some way, shape or form? Presumably electronically and without a camera, else he'd be kicking off about the puppet.

L's response means that Mello's voice can be heard in real life - not as a figment of Near's imagination - though L's 'shut up... don't get in Near's way' is downright cruel, if he is addressing his real heir. The only other explanation being that BOTH Near and Mello exist solely inside L's head. He's the one projecting them, as a dualist approach - good cop, bad cop; or angel and demon sitting on his shoulder.

He certainly looks suddenly quite shaken, scared even, when Mello speaks. L pauses for a beat or two before snapping 'Shut up!' And what precisely is that reflected in the light of L's eyes?

I'm fascinated to see how this one will pan out.

What's your take on it all so far? It's invigorated my interest in a way I really didn't see coming, as you can probably tell!

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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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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

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.

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

6/7/2015

5 Comments

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.

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

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.

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.

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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Death Note the Musical Songs in English

19/5/2015

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

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

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

This is how they sound.

The Name is Kira - Death Note the Musical

- Peformed by Eric Anderson as Ryuk.

Where is the Justice? - Death Note the Musical

- Performed by Jeremy Jordan as Light.

Stalemate - Death Note the Musical

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

Playing His Game - Death Note the Musical

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

Honor Bound and Bound by Honesty - Death Note the Musical

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

When Love Comes - Death Note the Musical

Performed by Carrie Manolakos as Rem.

Only Human - Death Note the Musical

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

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

- Performed by Adriennne Warren as Misa Amane.

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

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Death Note Skins for Minecraft Gamers

10/1/2015

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

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

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

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

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

Image: Matt Death Note skin for Minecraft

Mail Jeevas Minecraft skin

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

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

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

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Takeshi Kaga to Reprise his Role as Kira's Dad in Death Note the Musical

23/9/2014

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While I've been off gallivanting again, there's been a lot of news coming out of the Death Note Musical camp. Fortunately Logan was on the ball, noting it all and giving me the heads up when I returned.

Most of the cast has been revealed!

I'm going to go through them one by one, so we can have a good look, starting with a very familiar face.

Soichiro Yagami played by Takeshi Kaga

Death Note fans already know all about Takeshi Kaga. He is the actor who plays Soichiro Yagami in the live action movies! Therefore it feels only natural that he will bring the same hapless parent to life on stage.

But what do we really know about Takeshi Kaga? Well, for a start, his name isn't Takeshi Kaga!

This well-known stage and movie actor was born Shigekatsu Katsuta, in his native Kanazawa, Japan, on October 12th 1950. He was already singing in a local boys choir aged seven, but didn't begin acting until he was an adult.

His talent quickly emerged though. He was snapped up by one of Japan's top theatrical groups Shiki Theatre Company, where he was soon cast in the leading roles of Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar and Tony in West Side Story. In short, there's a long history here which assures us that Kaga can sing, act and dance more than adequately for his part in the musical Death Note.

Though leaving Shiki in 1980, Kaga has returned to the stage several times during his long career, often in starring roles. He's played Jean Valjean in Les Misérables twice! Once in 1987, then again in 1995, wherein he represented Japan in a 10th Anniversary performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. That latter show saw seventeen Valjeans from seventeen different countries appear one after the other!

He was Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, in a stage adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll & Hyde. Here he worked with Frank Wildhorn, who is now producing Death Note the Musical.

Kaga has also starred in non-musical theatrical performances, including playing MacBeth in the eponymous Shakespearian play, and Cyrano in Cyrano de Bergerac.

Japan 2000: Takeshi Kaga as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables.

However, for the rest of the world (and indeed most of Japan), it wasn't the stage performances which made Takeshi Kaga so famous. That was his appearances in movies and on television.

Let's be honest here. It wasn't all of them. They just kept his name out there and his face familiar. The real biggie was his casting as Chairman Kaga in the internationally syndicated Ryōri no Tetsujin, or Iron Chef, as it was known in the English speaking world, usually with each country's name tagged on the end.

This stylized cooking show pits top chefs against one another in a crazy cook-off, all presided over by Takeshi Kaga as the loud, flamboyant Chairman Kaga. It's all about as far away as the staid, sensible Soichiro Yagami as it's possible to get. Nevertheless those two are Kaga's biggest roles in most minds around the globe.

Here he is, as Chairman Kaga, getting very, very excited about food ingredients for each cook off:

For gamers and anime fans (that's us), Takeshi Kaga is best known for his voice acting. The former group heard him as Golbez in the Nintendo DS version of Final Fantasy IV, and Dissidia: Final Fantasy for the PSP.

He was the voice of Teridax in all the Lego related media for their Bionicle line (which is credited with saving the Lego Group from complete collapse and bankruptcy in the 1990s).

As an anime voice actor, Kaga appeared as Jirarudan in the second Pokémon movie Revelation Lugia - also singing the theme song Ware Wa Collector; Dr. Kiriko in Black Jack: The Two Doctors of Darkness; and Tokimune Shochikubai in Yukan Club, amongst many, many more roles.

But for Death Note fans, Takeshi Kaga's big moment for international fame came in 2006, when he was cast as Light's dad Soichiro Yagami in the first two Death Note live action movies.

Here he is during that tense final scene from Death Note 2: The Last Name (obviously full of spoilers for anyone who hasn't encountered Death Note before, which I'm assuming isn't any of us), as the stunned father of Kira unmasked:

For many fans of Death Note, those performances in Death Note (2006) and Death Note: The Last Name (2007) have already ensured that Takeshi Kaga wears the face of a live action Soichiro Yagami.

Therefore it's no great leap to imagine him reprising the same role in the Death Note stage show. In fact, it feels only fitting. Do the rest of you agree? Over to you.

Death Note (Live Action)

Death Note II: The Last Name

Discover more live action Death Note movies

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Death Note news articles

Sachiko Yagami, Strong Woman of Death Note

Charting the Personality of Sachiko Yagami from Death Note

In Other News...

Reviews & Critical Analysis of TV Death Note Drama Episodes

Death Note's Confucian Soichiro Yagami (and Kant)

Death Note (2015): Personality Shifts and Kira

Misa-Misa and the Light Lost to Kira

Did Somebody Call Amnesty International?

Realism in Death Note's Torture Scenes

Daiyo Kangoku in Death Note: Japanese Police Extracting Confessions by Torture

The Importance of Confession in Japan

Parental Shame and Japan's Judicial Torture

Complicity in the Torture of Death Note's Kira

Did L Have the Right to Torture Light and Misa?

Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 5:

Why Can't Death Note Kira Suspects Be Judged Under the Law?

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 6:

Article 7:

﻿Article 8:﻿

﻿Article 9:﻿

Article 10:

Article 11:

Article 12:

Potentially Pairing Mello & Near in Death Note

What's the Significance of Near Going Outside?

Message from a Split Identity in Death Note

Three in One? Multiple People Grouping Near

Colour Coding the Three in One and Death Note

Romance in Hues of Black, Red and White

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

Japanese Symbolism in White, Red & Black

Near and Mello in Death Note TV Drama 2015

Mind Games in TV Death Note Episode Four

Compliance and the Loss of Human Rights

Manipulation Tactics in Death Note Episode 4

Hidden Nod to Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata

Paranoia in the Watchers and the Watched

Light xL Fanservice in Death Note TV Episode 4

Split Identities in Death Note Episode 3

Framed Picture on Light Yagami's Wall

Nightmare of the Dreamweaver in Death Note

Everyone's a Potential Kira Now!

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

Plot-hole Ahoy! Misa in the Warehouse

Reflections, Polar Opposites and Mirror Images in Death Note (2015)

Light's Lucky Number Seven in Death Note, or the Letter L Inverted

Light's Sun; L's Cresent Moon

Dualism and Personas Projected in Death Note (2015) Television Drama Episode Two

L, Near and Mello: Wammy Boys Projecting in 2015 Death Note Episode Two

A Very Different Kind of Death Note

Hinako Sano's Misa Amaneis Easy on the Eye

Calling Curtains on the Death Note TV Show

High Kanto Viewers for Death Note TV Launch

TV Death Note Doesn't Wow Japanese Fans

Death Note Television Trailer

Plot Changes for Death Note's TV Drama

Death Note TV Drama Trailer (English Subs)

TV Changes in Death Note Canon Plot

The Name is Kira - Death Note the Musical

Where is the Justice? - Death Note the Musical

Stalemate - Death Note the Musical

Playing His Game - Death Note the Musical

Honor Bound and Bound by Honesty - Death Note the Musical

When Love Comes - Death Note the Musical

Only Human - Death Note the Musical

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

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Hinako Sano's Misa Amane
is Easy on the Eye