There's always been something a little off about events in the Yellow Box Warehouse, wherein was staged Death Note's climactic scenes.

It's all good drama nontheless.  We get Gevanni's sleight of hand with Death Notes performed like a stage magician's prestige; that breath-taking instant of Light's confession; the chaos and the shooting; a divine madman's soliloquy on the subject of justice; and Near's finest hour in the coldest put-down to ever deaden a burgeoning reality.

Not to mention the revelation of Mell0's final heroism, as martyr to the cause (inadvertently taking Matt with him), being more meaningful than hitherto suspected; and the crawling disbelief of Light, as the Kira veneer is stripped from him and we're all reminded that Ryuk was only ever here for the lulz.

Then death - a flashing ghost of glowing L, if this is the anime over manga - and everyone leaves to resume normality in a world, where the given order has long since been shaken to the core.  Global society now quickly recovering with a haste almost indecent enough to prove Kira right after all. 

And everyone lived happily ever after.

Except they didn't.  Do you know a single Death Note fan who hasn't at least questioned the unfolding narrative in that scene?

Attempting to follow Near's proof and logic from confrontation to conclusion; not only of the moment, but the whole story supposedly unravelling in evidence that leads directly to Light's undignified demise.

I think everyone read or watched it again at least twice.  I've lost count of forum posts with each new fandom victim meandering to say, 'Erm, sorry, but I don't quite get this.'

Thus follows the specific point where they tripped down yawning the plot-holes, now opening up like a minefield across the scene:   What did Mello do again?  How did Near know x, y, z?  Is he psychic or something?  And what the sweet proverbial was up with Mikami's bizarreness in behaviour generally and facial expressions definitely?

Everyone too busy worrying that they were the only one left confused to even touch upon the gore of that arterial blood-burst, so gloried in the anime as Mikami's dramatic turn at self-harm.

You know what I mean.  We've all been there.  Several detailed readings or stop-contemplate-start viewings on, some of us can even convince ourselves that the denunciation is sequential; all points supported with no great leaps of faith; and it all makes sense.  Otherwise we've sat though 37 episodes/108 chapters of story that doesn't deliver at the final crescendo of all that build-up.  Which can't be true, when the tale is widely deemed to be a - perhaps the - classic of the genre; wildly, unabashedly and unceasingly popular on a global scale.

So the doubt creeps in that it's us instead.  We weren't genius enough to fully 'get' it.  It's enough to pretend we did, then run with the points that were discerned and fitted perfectly in place.

The rest is simply fan-fiction.

The problem is our natural propensity to think of Death Note as Light's story.  It's not.  It's Ryuk's.  (Though Tarot Mikami is coming up shortly with an intriguing perspective on the manga also being Matsuda's tale.)    Nevertheless when the epic build up breaks upon Kira's death, and subsequent dissembling into nothingness, it can seem like we went with him.

What follows is way too often dismissed as superlative; an epilogue to bring us all back down to Earth. While mischievously inserting doubt over whether Light really lost, when Kira worshippers still ritually congregate and believe.

But this, not Kira's Curtain, was what it was all leading up to.  Tsugumi Ohba himself said, in How to Read - Death Note 13, that the vision of these scenes in Finis were what caused the spark of inspiration to flow through the rest of the Death Note narrative.  All else he wrote was working back from this, no tacked on arcs post-L, nor leaping into the grave with Light.  For all their game-changing grandeur, they were ultimately merely markers upon the narrative, pointing beyond themselves to now.

Pinging upon the sacred number of Defilements in Buddhism, Finis is chapter 108.  It always would be.  Ohba decided that one early on, and left the one-shot manga to follow unnumbered so not to alter the fact that Death Note has exactly 108 chapters.  You can count them on your Mala Beads, if you want.

So what great facet is revealed to us here?   That Light found divinity in the end?   That the world without him simply returns to previous form:  crime rate rising to pre-Kira levels; all else flowing back as if the last seven years had been erased, with even the same people in the streets, older, yet doing exactly the same things.

Light's endeavours, and even erstwhile existence, rendered meaningless in minute, subtle ways.  Like the return of Yamamoto, last seen in cameo within the earliest Death Note chapters as Light Yagami's friend; now greeting Matsuda as his BFF, and off they go to the pub.  Light's own mother never learning the truth of his loss.  Told lies to cover up the reality as seen and shaped by her son.  His place in the world, philosophy, perspective and pursuits all rendered Mu as his Kira ridden soul.  All else come full circle and moved on like he was never there.

Nor is this the point of Finis.  It just the fine detail in the background driving certain messages home; if we're charitable a coda of candles in the wind.

It's in the foreground that the big reveal is happening, hidden in plain sight through the chattering of a 'Fool' and already dismissed by Ide before we even make the mountain top.

Most readers agreeing, because we're too distracted by Light and all the lovely Easter eggs waving from the scenery.  Plus we already feel like idiots for not quite 'getting' the Near exposee of Light in the Yellow Box Warehouse, and we're damned if we're going to be drawn into another long explanation posited by a traumatized idiot.

Matsuda's always been so easy to dismiss.  Particularly now, when we recently saw his gullibility writ large upon that shattering previous scene. His shock in the great Kira reveal caused such a meltdown that he's probably suffering PTSD or  something now.  Racked with guilt over Soichiro and so many dead; still obviously wrestling with the shock of knowing a third of his life was lived as a lie; his loyalty disabused in the most belittling, gut-wrenching way.

We don't need the ghost of L to whisper, 'Shut up, Matsuda! You idiot!'  Because we're hardly listening anyway.  It's just background noise finally shut down by Ide, tacitly approved by all lost in mourning for our mass murdering megalomaniac and his warped sense of justice.

Now echoed by Ide himself, as he decrees Kira's crimes terrible enough to warrant his summary execution - with an illegally wielded firearm (Matsuda was technically off-duty) and a Death God's intervention, in an out of the way warehouse, without charge, nor trial, judge and jury, and no right of appeal before instant death.  Based upon evidence constructed from a self-confessed SPK sting, plus Near sounding so sure as he blithely divulged bits of the known coupled with conjecture, like it was the only way things could have played out.

His speech, on behalf of the prosecution in this kangaroo court condemnation of Kira, seemed utterly watertight.  Yet Near was still able to reorder his version of events, to encompass the implications of Mello's intent in Takada's abduction, as Hal Lidner testified her impression of the same rather late in the day.  It was an interpretation which cast a different hue upon the timeline, but delivered in confidence nontheless and received likewise from all who heard.  Just as they'd accepted the prior telling too.

Maybe because they, like those bearing witness from our ringside seats in the fourth wall, couldn't truly follow it at the time.

But Near is a genius, so it must be true; and who cares why or how a Mafia man died? While Matt only turned up twelve panels ago, if he'd lived he probably wouldn't have amounted to much.  We hardly knew him, so let him go - collateral damage in a war against a man too rotten to live in this world of safety and security, and justice.

Around this time in proceedings, it's normally behoven for babes or Fools to call out to say that the Emperor wears no clothes; or that in this Orwellian warehouse scenario it's getting difficult to call the pigs from the humans, humans from the pigs, nor tell the rationale of Kira from those arrayed extra-judicially against him.

Unfortunately the Fool Matsuda was in meltdown at the time, being dragged away by his friends; while the only child present was made judge and chief prosecutor at the same time.  Needless to say, he won the day.  Then watched Light Yagami die as a result; howling, without advocacy, nor anyone to ask whether Light was even sane enough at this point to understand what was happening to him. Or take the opportunity to arrest Kira, hold him safe, and learn what he knew about the Afterlife and eternity, and all those other things that philosophers, priests and ordinary people have pondered to distraction over every millennia of human sentience.

Instead all watched too, accepting the sense of prevailing 'rightness' in the air around Near.  Who watched Kira die and kept the Death Notes.

Which was the actual point of the Yellow Box confrontation - to knock out the opposition and clear the decks ready to quietly seize power, when no-one else was looking.   At least it is, if we're running with the gut instinct of Matsuda and some really quite compelling end game theories for Near in Death Note.

One year to the day after the death of Light Yagami, Touta Matsuda still isn't convinced that they were on the right 'side' in the end.  He watches society sink back from fear of Kira into a resurgence of the usual mix of humanity for good or ill living as they will. With the inevitable wave of criminal behaviour surfing in ever higher numbers in their midst, Matsuda's depression deepens.

For those not actually targeted by Kira, these streets had been safer under his horrific regime.

It's an unsettling notion that maybe, after all, they did crucify their Saviour.  Yet sharing his concerns with Ide elicits a most telling reply:

Kira was wrong.  Because that's what they DECIDED by consensus was the case.   Kira has to be wrong, or else there was no purpose attached to the sacrifice of those serving on the anti-Kira Task Force, nor who lost their lives in other parties in his opposition.  

Condemn Light Yagami's worldview, and his prospective Godhood with it, and survivors like Matsuda, Ide, Aizawa, Mogi and Near with his group all become war heroes.  Able to feel pride in their past endeavours and self-respect for themselves.  Their fallen - Soichiro, Ukita, L, Watari, Raye Penbar, Mello, Matt et al - become martyrs in a noble cause.  The Glorious Dead of cenotaphs, remembered with honour and distinction.

Support Kira in memory and all that fails.  Each become betrayers, of a friend and comrade, perhaps of a Messiah.  Maybe even the destroyers of humanity itself; thieves of a genuine Utopian dream.

It was decided Kira was not right, because otherwise they wouldn't be able to grasp what they were fighting for in that bitter, seven year war.  And madness beckons that way.

For all that its generally ignored, or blatantly rejected within the panels of the Death Note manga, Matsuda's theory isn't that off the wall. It's nestling comfortably in the realms of actual possibility.

Whilst recalling that this was the chapter planned from the start - following  one that was almost called Black Curtain (a Japanese euphemism for someone orchestrating events behind the scenes) - and that Tsugumi Ohba blatantly said that 'Near cheats', let's recap.  These were the points of plot that Touta Matsuda was pondering:

However, we never do find out.  Matsuda manages to convince Ide to at least intimidate some parts of his theory have been heard, and taken seriously.  For a moment, the older man steps into Touta Matsuda's reality and that kind of affirmation was all the young officer needed for comfort in his unsolvable, unsettling theorizing.

A touch of grace and we see the old Fool back.  Matsuda grinning with a friend, too busy chatting, making plans to visit a bar tonight, to properly hear a word Near has to say anymore.  The final word in Death Note - before the ritual coda of Kira cultists - is Near's admonishment to Matsuda, "Listen carefully!"

Maybe because Near knows that he might need Matsuda one day to stop him too, if only the Fool would pay attention.   But for now he's distracted, laughing and moved on, Near got away with killing for personal gain.  But surely that's understandable?  Just ask Kira.

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

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

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

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

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

Could he have had much more confidence in his own abilities?  L would quite happily instruct world leaders, decision makers, law enforcement agencies and other powerful people the world over, and feel himself entitled through dint of superior intellect to do that.

It's often played bordering upon arrogance.  Criminal arrogance at that, when we factor in his propensity to order the televised death of one prisoner (Lind L Taylor) and torture of others (Light Yagami and Misa Amane). 

Also in Another Note, Mello implies that L was responsible for the demise of several private investigators - not only the trio named, but hundreds casually collated as a number - as he took their detective codes.  Am I the only one who read that as physical killing?  Or otherwise causing to stop breathing?

Add eleven years more to that mindset and I can see only one of two options - either L's confidence crumbled under the rigours of life and perspective, or it grew into yet more terrible proportions.  There was always little difference between himself and Kira, with regard to their worldly outlook and serial killer tendencies, which is what made the battle between them so intriguing.

If your head canon allows for Kenichi Matsuyama to remain as L for the rest of his life, then we can imagine how the Death Note detective might age.  At least until thirty years old, because that's how old Kenichi is now.  Just watch the actor age, then extrapolate six years more.

Assuming that L's survival meant that he beat Kira, then the world would be his oyster - even more so than at 25, when he could command Interpol and Japanese police officers for the asking.

Yet success in that case couldn't have been easy.  I'm not talking about the clash of minds itself, as L appeared to be thoroughly enjoying that, right up until Kira cheated via deployment of a suicidal shinigami.  I'm talking about the terrible cost of succeeding in such circumstances. 

L would have had a taste of meeting a mind akin to his own.  Then losing it.  What happens after that?

Victory might feel rather hollow without the thrill of psychological battle and a strange kind of kinship.  It could leave him regretting emerging quite so triumphant, and that's a potential dent in his confidence.  If nothing else came along quickly to fill the void, then life might seem to have lost its sparkle.  Demotivating L to the point of potentially throwing in the towel on his detective career.

All kind of directions open up then.  He might take refuge in simplicity.  Becoming a doorman like Christopher Langan - US man estimated to have an IQ as high as 210, thus too clever to tie up his time doing a job that denied him time to think upon his own current interests.

L might sink under cynicism.  Seeking something and finding nothing to the point when the pressure causes his psyche to collapse under its own negative perceptions.  Whole plot bunnies here in L becoming a parody of Beyond Birthday's own dark parody of L himself.

Or he could strike off in another avenue of inquiry and become a brilliant scientist, theologian, philosopher or emulate Wammy as an inventor.  Any number of possibilities here, limited only by his imagination, as delineated by the fan fiction writer.

But whichever way he turns, trouble is being stored up in the background.

It's one thing telling a bunch of 12-14 year olds that they're being trained and competing to become L's heir and successor, but what happens when they're 22-24?

Particularly when they have the intellect to potentially hold the L title in their own right.

We have a precedent in reaching adulthood as a Wammy kid, being told that your only reason to be is to wait in line as L's back up.  Beyond Birthday turned serial killer in an attempt to lure L out.   A took his own life.

So what of those remaining at Wammy's House in this alternative Death Note universe, wherein L didn't die and therefore Near, Mello and Matt emerged to take over the Kira case? 

It ended badly for A and Beyond Birthday, but they were both working alone.   Near and Mello have already shown that they can 'surpass L', if they join forces.  They just have to mature enough to put aside their manufactured rivalry as a distraction from their own enforced position on the detective code conveyor belt.  Mello and Matt have already proven that they can work together.

Whether singly, in pairs, groups or en masse, surely L is going to suffer an onslaught of grown up Wammy kids rebelling against their childhood rendition and expected adult position; stepping out of the fold, or else buying into it and seeking him out with the succession in mind.  Regardless of whether their predecessor still occupies the position into which they've been raised to succeed.

After  all, L's own benchmark was to take the code, no matter what and - if the implications in Another Note hold true - those Wammy heirs have been tutored from childhood to consider cheating and/or murder a valid avenue to winning.  The back up(s) are coming to bite him in the precedent.

Those are my musings.  What do you think L and his world would look like, if he had lived long enough to celebrate his 36th birthday today?

Ever puzzled on how to pronounce a Death Note Wammy kid's name?  Worse still, there is no anime to fall back upon if you're stuck on how to say the name of an original character from the Wammy House.

A few individuals from the He Moves Me Differently forum (Mello/Matt fan-fiction community) met up in Skype last night.  That was the subject which soon emerged, particularly from Lua, who understands a dozen languages and therefore is quite keen on getting these things right.

The upshot was a video guide, which has just been uploaded onto YouTube to take the mystery out of pronouncing Wammy House names. At least as they appear in the It Matters series, though a fair scattering also turn up in Death Note, whence they were lifted in the first place.

Even if you don't know the stories wherein many of these characters derive, you may be able to correct the pronunciation of their names, particularly if you speak Congolese-French, Azerbaijan, Greek, Croatian and one or two more.

We may have identified a default school uniform for Wammy's House in Death Note's canon universe.  Or perhaps one worn by those gifted and talented orphans around the house.

Though its a theory that would carry more weight, if every child there donned the same attire.

We've grown used to seeing Near looking perky and bright wearing a distinct outfit in television's 2015 Death Note drama.

Technically there have been three costume changes thus far. Nevertheless TV live action Near cosplayers will likely choose grey pinafore trousers over a white shirt.  That flannelette dungaree look remains the most recognizable, readily identifying the cosplay as Near from Death Note (2015).

However, this could equally be a more obscure Death Note costume, with the fan turning up dressed as a random Wammy's House orphan, as glimpsed on the institution's staircase in Death Note Relight 2: L's Successors (2008).

The best of it being that the scene above was recalled in flashback by Near. So perhaps the character just likes the costume.

What do you reckon?  Coincidence?  Wardrobe staff from the new Death Note drama taking inspiration from Takeshi Obata's animation in the older adaptation?  Or an actual canon Wammy House uniform blithely ignored by most of its denizens?

Who cares?! This is fodder for fan-fiction writers everywhere and probably artists and cosplayers too.  Off you go!

It turns out that I had way too much to say about this episode.  But I do love dissecting the symbolism and drifting off on a voyage of thematic discovery re Death Note.

You should read part one of my discussion about episode 8 in Death Note's TV drama before carrying on here. This is merely a continuation of that.

The colour yellow seemed to be everywhere in Death Note's episode eight. Particularly in the vicinity of the hapless Kudagawa and/or providing hints towards the emergence of Mello.

Previously, I was speculating that yellow, in television Death Note's colour themes, had something to do with thuggery or violence.

However, there was a very poignant moment with the colour yellow, seemingly teeming with significance, which fell back upon the traditional meaning of yellow in Japanese culture.  Namely the hue of courage or nobility.

This was the moment when Near handed L a yellow jigsaw piece and suggested they might add the final bit of the puzzle together.  And L slotted it perfectly into the partially completed jigsaw on the floor.

It was all in stark contrast to the mirror scene in episode seven, when L distractly tried to force a piece into the wrong position on a white jigsaw.

Then handed Near the errant jigsaw piece with dire warnings that it might not be himself to insert the last one.  Maybe it would be Near.

White is the colour of purity and spirituality.  Yellow is the hue of majesty and bravery.  The photography and direction of both scenes were extremely similar, but bathed in light to match the colours on the jigsaw.

Though they sat in the same relative positions, L faced Near the first time around. He sat sidewards on the second, wherein the personality could well have been Mello.  Or Near under internal barrage from Mello's scathing tones.

Plus the emotions of the major players were at odds.

In the first instance, receipt of the jigsaw piece caused consternation in a hitherto jubilant Near.  It triggered Mello into momentarily coming out, both personae swinging back and forth in domination of their body.

Meanwhile, a despondent L merely left.

In the second, a watchful Near purportedly had control of their body after earlier taking it back from Mello.  Near seemed quite pensive, until L took the jigsaw piece. 

Meanwhile, a determined L simply sat back down.  Then fitted the piece into the puzzle.

To my mind, a whole sub-current in unspoken conversation was going on here. 

In the first iteration, L was unsure if Near (and/or Mello) were even on side regarding the Kira case.  They'd joined in with the whole Babel thing, but then so had Light. 

Previously Near had left Wammy's House without sanction and proceeded to hack L's computer and interfere with his investigation vis-a-vis handing information to the errant Kira Countermeasures police team.

Right now, Near was sitting back in a position of purity, innocence or spirituality. Chaotic neutral at best, but certainly not fully signed up as L's successor in anything, let alone the battle with Light Yagami.

L handed over the white jigsaw piece as a challenge. Pretty much saying, "Who's side are you on, Near?"

We'd seen that yellow jigsaw previously in episode eight. It was after Near/Mello had been off breaking and entering, then murdering folk, then had popped back to enjoy an afternoon with L and Watari.

The former NOT playing jigsaw puzzles with his younger foster ward.  The latter baking Near's favourite cakes as a lovely treat.

Near anxiously queries L's safety with Mr Wammy, who doesn't do much to alleviate their concern.  Mello, as puppet, gleefully concludes that L is prepared to die to 'finish Kira'.  Near tells him to shut up with such talk.

Thus we get a long shot, the mirror of that above, but with Near and Mello turned 90 degrees from their prior position.

Their allegiance appears already cast with L, if the evidence of the puzzle board is to be believed. Even Mello has his sights set firmly on (the) board.

Internal decision made, all that is left now is to inform L that they will become his successors in the Kira case, if circumstances require it.  Hence the undue significance placed upon Near (or was that Mello; it works best as a combination of the two) handing over that yellow jigsaw piece.

Yellow for courage and/or nobility. 

And note that we're not yet over the hidden chess-piece symbolism either. Near's come from a position of white - spirituality, priesthood, monks - and he's now sitting in L's gigantic chessboard room, occupying the Bishop spot.

Moreover, look at how prominently L's White Queen pillar is displayed, along with all that lighting picking out Near/Mello, in the instant immediately prior to the yellow jigsaw piece being handed over.

Near and Mello may play black or white in this particular, or indeed any, game of chess. But right now they are firmly aligned with the White Queen, in whose defence L is prepared to become over-shadowed. 

In short, the second iteration of this scene is a continuance of the first.  "Who's side are you on, Near?"  "Yours, L."

Light's strategy, early on in episode eight, surrounded setting up matters so that Misa acquired shinigami eyes. 

It didn't quite work out like that, but it set up an on-going theme involving eyes and watchfulness per se, which ran throughout this entire chapter in television's Death Note story-telling.

Here are a few such recurrences:

Only this time, L had pulled off the most delightful twist. Circumventing Near's trick from the Yellow Box scene in canon - swapping the Death Note for a fake, thus surviving.

Thus giving all us old timers watching something unanticipated to enjoy.  No-one's averting their eyes here, I can tell you.  It's aye all round!

There was a bit, quite early on, wherein Light bent over his Death Note was attempting to justify his use of it.  He said something which seemed to me to paraphrase MacBeth's famous line, quoted above from his eponymous play by William Shakespeare.

All this spoken whilst staring down at his clawed fingers in a 'will these hand ne'er be clean?' kind of way.

I wish I could find where I wrote about that, because it was very much mirrored by L's feigned first usage of his own Death Note.  Only with the hooked hands bit substituted for a 'is this a dagger I see before me?' sort of pen-holding stance.

Same MacBeth quote in modern form though.

Oh!  And he had a Tolkeinesque moment too - with L practically recasting himself as Samwise right at the instant when the hobbit realises his best friend Frodo can't escape the fatal pull towards using the Ring.

All in all, it's (patently) left me fascinated, and I can't wait to catch up with the three remaining episodes.  Though writing their analyses in blog entries might take longer.

Yes, I know I'm lagging behind the whole world here.  I'm on it. I'm on it.

We're up to episode eight of the Death Note live-action television adaptation, wherein Light has his memories back; Kira has his Death Note in his Golem-esque clutches; and the Wammys are pursuing new leads, whilst telling everyone to witness, watch and don't avert their eyes.

Don't blink. Whatever you do. Don't blink.  And now, how about a nice game of chess?  White moves first...

I know I've said it before, but I think it's worth the reiteration.  There are some truly wonderful performances from the actors in Death Note (2015).

After this episode, we were discussing Shugo Oshinari's portrayal of Teru Mikami. He seems born to play him!

Fitting the role so perfectly that I can't imagine anyone else doing so. 

Even physically, there's a resemblance between the actor and the manga/anime depiction of Mikami.  It makes you wonder if the cast were chosen as much for their looks in comparison to the characters, as anything else. Or if the actors are just so good, that they draw that likeness down onto themselves.

Then there's Matsuda. Anyone else feel like Gouki Maeda has brought our bubbly hero Tota to life so completely, that it appears nothing short of preternatural?

I could highlight several more fabulous actors from this series, but those pair are the current stand-outs from Death Note episode eight.

Talking about great Death Note actors, some are perennial and none more so than Masataka Kubota as Kira.  He can eject Light with a look; bring Kira slithering in on a glance.

Light Yagami quite notably never got the shinigami eyes. But that isn't to say that the Death God can't been seen in his gaze.

As Light, he can seem quite wide-eyed and innocent, self-effacing even, nevertheless able to focus straight on. Head high, facing the world, though internally he may be scheming.

Then see him turn to Kira in a sudden sidewards shifting of his vision.  Like the killer stands alongside him, stepping in.

From now on, that stare will rarely meet any sight head on. Kira's gaze slides like a snake has control of each orb, weaving, winding, coiling in their sockets, taking his head on a nodding, sinking, roller-coaster orbit too.

Just as it always will, when Kira presence is known.

In the sequence above, Light - as Kira - is captured in stills taken from the midst of a sweeping gaze. The second part with L following hard on the first in his room, as a continuation of the same internal dialogue.

His sidewards glance from the initial couplet carrying straight into that smug perusal of L. Then onwards; his vision moving across the floor, defocusing upon a spot beside him and up finally in smirking contemplation.

Shifting, sliding, crooked; just like Light's suddenly hooked index finger in the second of the four images, snapped at the instant that Kira fully comes to the fore.

Or Light Yagami gets a plan worked out to fruition. Which is pretty much the same thing.

But there's much more to see here, and I'm having fun revisiting my Uni housemate's Film Studies degree (which I might as well have added to my own CV, the amount of times I was in the actual study part of it...).

So let's head on into the nitty-gritty.

Look again at those four screenshot images and note how often Light and/or his Kira persona are filmed on the left hand side of the frame. Even in close up, you get a lot of background scenery seen on the right.

In fact, his Kira gaze first looks left, then settles into whichever way it'll slither.

All over the world, the left has historically been denigrated as a cultural no-no. Some societies reserve the left hand for unsavoury necessities, like using it for cleaning oneself after using the toilet. Others have considered left handed folk to be luckless, awkward, stupid or downright criminal.

Language too, on a global scale, routinely disdains the left - 'the left hand path' is used in Abrahamic religions (and some Pagan ones) to describe selfish, sinful or destructive practices in worship and/or magic; from ancient Mesopotamia, through the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, and into modern times, 'left' has been inserted into phrases meaning evil, wrong or otherwise not quite what should be done.

Nor is Japan exempt from this left disdaining social etiquette.

It's considered impolite - and bad luck - to eat with your chopsticks in your left hand there. The majority of left-handed children are still forced to use their right hands to write.

However, given the prevalence of Christian imagery in this adaptation of Death Note (and indeed the original too), it's worth noting that the Archangel Gabriel sat at God's left hand. And he was the Angel of Judgement.

Judgement Incarnate or possibly Satanic (in the traditional modern sense) evil doer?  You decide.

Though I will say that imagery in previous episodes has suggested Light aligning more with Lucifer the Light Bringer, than Gabriel the Bringer of Life from the baby spirit banks of Sheol.  I haven't seen Kira raise a trumpet to his lips once.

Noticing what's in the background is generally quite worthwhile in Death Note's television adaptation.  There's no exception here.

While Light ponders strategy, we clearly see his troops lined up against the wall behind him.  Symbolically, at least, in the form of toy soldiers. 

We're meant to spot them. They fill half of the screen, in perfect clarity, vividly green against a white background.  Apparently green means 'freshness; eternal life; youthfulness' in Japan's colour coding.  Innocent then, in the prime of their lives, individually placed so each stands out.

Yet overlooked, thus dominated by the antlered head of a Japanese Kirin - as already discussed in my review of episode two - positioned like Light to the left.  
This mythological being is representative of vengeful judgement and justice. Its placement making it almost seem like a sheepdog herding those toy soldiers into their orderly rows. Like sheep corralled into the fold.

And below there is a human skeleton, not unlike Rem in aspect, standing slightly off the ground, aping Misa's stance whilst captured by L and the Japanese police. It's flanked by the skeletal reproductions of two dinosaurs - both extinct.

Does anyone know what purple creature features prominently in that bottom corner?  It's staring straight at Light. 

Possibly a mythological Japanese totem for luck or protection?  Most of those pertaining to Light generally fall into that category, unless they're representing Kira in murderous reckoning.  It looks like a horse to me. Please do shout up, if you can identify it.

Now keep your attention on Light's carefully placed pawns - those plastic troops - as he switches persona more noticeably into Kira.

He fades in. They fade out.  Still commanding half of the screen, but utterly out of focus. Kira's looking away and our eyes naturally follows his direction.

No-one cares now what happens to the once vivid and innocent, penned and ignored toy soldiers. Losing their individuality as they fade from view. Just pieces to be played on Kira's personal battlefield. Deployed in dialogue, and already moving out of sight. Out of mind to follow suit quite swiftly.

Like any other war really.

Of course, if you're going to create a combat driven gaming board of your surroundings, then nobody does it better than L. 

His entire inner sanctum seems fashioned upon a gigantic Wammy House chessboard - a game which was invented to equate a theatre of war, requiring tactical moves not unlike those found upon real life battle-fields.

I know it's been highlighted before, but look at that colour scheme and ceiling squares. Everything square or rectangular really, even the paper that L is holding up.  The whole theme suggestive of a chequered board in chess.

Kira's biggest problem being the white knight sitting one step before him and two beside.  That's an L shape and knight can own any piece from there, not least the black king currently held in check.

And is that a giant white king chess-piece looming alongside Light?  Bit dangerous.  It can only move one square, but that's enough to take him completely should he get too close.

Luckily it's only a pillar.  Randomly ornate in a room full of squares, mostly  in black and white with a nice blue border.  (Cloudlike patterns for blue sky thinking.) 

See the double row of identical shirts, white pawns awaiting play upon their white squares.  With an option on snakes and ladders, as an option at the back.

No, no, I'm sorry, I'm a noob.  Double row, stacked squares - bricks in a castle, spiral staircase leading up into the tower. Besieged by a darker ladder with the potential to breach.  Sky above.  Placed in a corner of the chessboard, precisely where one would expect to find a white side's rook.

(Black rook sits opposite. The entrance way into the room, all dark steel cages and stairs to descend within.)

The pawns are the white computer chairs standing all in a row.  Presumably that's a bishop disguised as a triangle shaped meditation tent over to the side. Spiritual and triangular to imply diagonal.

Ignore the flowing curves of L's desk.  A little fancy, but still L shaped. Positioning the White Knight, who has so often got his feet up; astride his table - equine in its stead - as befits a rider.

That L is the White Knight in a giant chessboard also accounts for his choice of lucky ring.  The horseshoe signet which had me so befuddled back at the beginning of Death Note's television series run, when I thought it was actually a crescent moon.

Perhaps this explains too the purple horselike creature surveying Kira in that last picture from his own room.  Black gets a knight too, though I'm not sure purple counts as black.

Nevertheless, Light's better off now than he was two episodes back, when white captured the black queen and took her clean off the table.   A move which forced black king Kira to play repeatedly in check, relying upon stalemate to remain in the game.

A desperate recourse to hope that he lasted long enough to win freedom by default.  But it all worked out as planned.

At least he's got a queen.  Stop looking at Near, no white queen there despite the actress playing them.   Weren't you paying attention last week with the Tower of Babel and all?  Or the week before that, with Near positioned up above in surveillance from a camera?  Or a few weeks back with that big, red monument beckoning them on to the field of play. 

Dude's playing rook right now.

Meanwhile L's having to pretend white has a queen too. Played psychologically - to be subtly intimidating, standing right alongside him - and introduced by dint of installing a suitably regal chess-piece pillar halfway across the board.

Just when I thought that television's Death Note plot was firmly back in the canon groove, it goes and changes things around again.

The glee in this household was palpable.  After years of knowing the same old story inside and out, it's wonderfully exciting to have something new to enjoy within the same broad contours of this fascinating, familiar tale.

So Misa goes into the forest to collect her Death Note, finds it, digs it up and reads the title. All in red, like a woman on the brink of powerful ascension, as per long established colour coding in imagery for this Death Note television adaptation.  Power right there in her grasp, with all due regard to those scarlet fingernails, which with she raked a manicured touch right across the cellophane.

Then in lieu of regaining her memories, she gets smacked around the head with a spade instead.

Talk about shock!  And good fight with this show's propensity to surprise.  Now us old timers can watch without knowing what is about to happen next.

Meet Mikami's new friend Hiroki Yudagawa.  Misa's assailant in the woods; temporary conveyor of the Death Note; quickly sought and identified by L; and an unwelcome distraction for Light.

Yudagawa was brought to us today by the colour yellow.

I'm not kidding.  Look, it follows him around.

He was yellow, Light.  Everything about him yellow, from the random hook on his front door to the children's slide outside his house and about a trillion other things besides.

Including the fact that Near is part way through completion of a plain yellow jigsaw (in place of the usual white one), whilst discussing Yudagawa with L.

You'd think it was just his colour, but then yellow crops up again and again.  Like in the childhood bullying scene reminisced by Mikami, wherein a much more junior thug was indeed wearing yellow.

Hence yellow is slowly being introduced as the Death Note TV series hue of violence.  It's the colour associated with villainy of a much more bog standard level than hitherto encountered in murderous notebook owners, or authority figures advocating torture, and proclaimed geniuses applying the same in blatant disregard of its ineffectiveness as a vehicle for truth.

Yellow applies to the kind of physical violence you'd find in any dodgy pub on a Friday night. Plus the sort of villains who might live in your street.

Like Near.

Soft glow illuminating from Wammy's desk, drawing the eye at the centre of the screen. Casting yellow shadows that bounce from the white and fade into black, showing us Near, sitting there staring back.

Except its not Near, is it?   And I think we all know whose persona watches from the sidelines there.

Lamp like a spotlight, picking out just one figure to be fully lit in this scene: the Mello marionette.  Glow bouncing blond like a halo around the top of its head; its shadow reaching out in the pool of yellow light before it.

Near hasn't twirled a single lock in ages.  The same lamplight shades that white hair in hues of blond and grey. The puppet lies abandoned a few feet away.  To my mind, that's already Mello staring back at us.

So does yellow also mean Mello in this show's internal colour coding?  He'd certainly factor into the Man of Violence designation, vis-a-vis the Mafia. 

Not to mention the more obvious link with the colour of his hair.

We've already had a definite glimpse of Mello in episode eight of Death Note (2015) and there was certainly much violence involved, and a profusion of the colour yellow. 

It makes the scene above downright weird.

Basically we have to accept that Wammy and L are blithely welcoming Near into their midst - introducing them to high-ranking police officers as L's highly intelligent 'right hand man' (despite looking like a child) - and calmly hanging out playing jigsaws. 

All without mentioning this:

I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that my parents would have freaked.  I think I would have at least been grounded. 

What I'm 100% certain about is that my Mum and Dad would not have plonked me in front of the Meditation Tent equivalent of a naughty step, then not mentioned the sodding great corpse I created with my own bare hands, while helping me complete pretty puzzles and complimenting me in front of their friends.

But then again, my parents aren't child traffickers in pursuit of detective dollars (unlike Watari) nor enthusiastic torturers (like, say, L).  So perhaps this behaviour is normal in Wammy circles.  The evidence seems to point towards as much (yes, we're all looking at you, Beyond Birthday).

Nevertheless, let's just review what the Wammy House massive are overlooking in their child today:

First their little cherub broke into the home of a known violent assailant.

With inevitable results, when their ward was violently assaulted. Thus accounting for the split lip sported in later scenes. (Then mysteriously healing in order to disappear for scenes set just hours later.)

However, this triggered some kind of honour code within the mindset of the emerging Mello persona.  No longer smirking from a puppet's face, Mello sneered, "You've done it now." 

And whatever showed upon his expression - turned away from the camera, thus hidden to us - was enough to cause panic to pass across a grown thug's face.

Mello continued, "Remember, you're the one who laid a hand on me first."  Thus proving that he was raised right, in the correct and sane values that it's ok to commit cold-blooded murder, as long as they hit you first.

Mello and/or Near - in the pursuit of evidence to support their theory that viciously killed Kudagawa was in receipt of the missing Death Note - then completely trashed the place.

Before calling home to report upon their investigative breaking, entering and criminal damage;' 'fess up to murder; and get invited around for a nice evening eating cake and doing jigsaws.

Kids today, eh?!

Imagine the scene. A young lady has been viciously attacked.  A police officer arrives in her hospital room to take her statement.

Just on it, her boyfriend turns up.  He gabbles stuff about them being friends and asks the constable to go away, so that the couple could talk. 

The officer does not know if this is actually the assailant, as he has no verification nor yet a statement. But he is aware that there's a dangerous woman battering thug out there in his city today.  He needs information fast, so the next female digging in woods might do so without a spade across the head.

So the policeman says, "Yes, no trouble. I'll just leave you to it and take yet more time out of my busy schedule to come back at a time more convenient you to, Mr Random Stranger."  Or words to that effect.

Actually, you don't need to imagine it.  That's precisely what happened in Death Note this week, and the police officer wasn't even being sarcastic in his polite agreement before leaving.

Bizarre.

Yet not even close to being the most bizarre moment.

That's when the Kira Countermeasures task force hears about the attack upon Misa, and L basically hacks the city's CCTV cameras to find out who did it.

Armed with a name and address, the assembled police officers pretty much discuss whether they can be bothered to investigate further.  The conclusion being that they're too busy with the (largely stagnant) Kira case to nip over and arrest the spade-wielding psycho.

Not even with all that circumstantial evidence linking Kudagawa WITH the Kira case.  Nor does anybody check with head office that Misa's assault is on somebody's else's desk as a case file. 

After all the police officer originally tasked with collecting her statement was too busy being polite to actually do his job. (See above.)

So far, so sadly indicative of many police force attitudes around the world. 

Though perhaps not the message that Death Note's scriptwriter and director intended to convey in this scene.  That would have been - show the caring, supportive presence of nice law enforcement agencies, then get him the Hell out of here ASAP, so we can move the plot along with an anxious exchange of words between Misa and Light.

THEN the bizarrest moment of all kicks in. 

Matsuda decides that actually, he CAN be moved to check out the assailant. But he would like to take his boss's son along with him, perhaps for work experience or something. 

Moreover, Mogi supports Matsuda's suggestion.  Telling their gaffer that Matsuda is so crap at his job that he can only be trusted to investigate if Light is with him.

In lieu of, say, any trained police officer, who's sworn an oath to uphold the law and thus given a mandate by the people of Japan, to act on their behalf in the protection of civilians, pursuit of criminals and preservation of the peace.

After all, the victim was Light's girlfriend, so taking him into the home of her supposed assailant is fine.  I mean, what could possibly go wrong there?  It's not like there's any potential for an emotional reaction, like avenging his missus with swift and bloody retribution, and/or leaving something nasty inside Kudagawa's home.

Plus you know, getting a warrant to search the property is too much paperwork.  So Matsuda will just call the suspect's landlady instead and get her to open his front door. 

Anyhow, much waffling done and much more to continue, so I'm going to call this another two parter.  Be back soon with the other half.

Near Watch is pretty much concluded. After episode 7 of television's Death Note drama, it's undoubtedly proved to be Mello Watch too. Though the jury is still out on Matt there as well.

We so called it.  Back in my review of the very first episode of Death Note's TV drama, I wrote:

Watching and piecing together the clues from week to week, my SO and I have increasingly been talking about Near with Multiple Personality Disorder (though I understand that psychologists would prefer us to discuss this as Near's Dissociative Identity Disorder, because they renamed it again).

By episode seven, all speculation was confirmed as fact. We saw Near's persona physically switch into Mello.  We witnessed a re-emerging Near beg Mello, "Don't come out."

Thus paving the way for a million future Death Note memes on the subject of Mello coming out.

There was a hint, in the scenes immediately prior to the great reveal, that split identities - or the divisive babble of too many voices simultaneously sounding - was going to factor into this story.

Our clue was in the pseudonym taken by Near: Babel.

With all the Judeo-Christian imagery surrounding Near in this series, it's not too difficult to guess from whence they lifted this new moniker.  Genesis 11:1-9 tells - within a Biblical context- the story of the City of Babel.

Its people decided to build a tower, those top reaches would allow them to climb into Heaven itself. God wasn't best pleased about this imminent invasion of human beings, so set out to thwart them. 

Until then, everyone on Earth had been united. They spoke just one language and all understood each other. God did a bit of smiting, or cursing, whatever you call it, whereby their mother tongue suddenly splintered into all the various languages heard around the globe, then and since.

Hence Babel being the root of babble. Multiple voices. No-one able to understand the other.

Additionally, God 'scattered them abroad', so that none were congregated in the city anymore, but its population exiled all over the planet.  The people divided from one into many.

Oh look! Near and Mello are one! And possibly Matt makes three, though the evidence is tenuous and not yet confirmed by canon. But they can be - and are about to be - separate entities.  Just like the people of Babel.

Plus it doesn't hurt that Babel looks a bit like Babe L, as befits L's successor or, as Near is described in the TV adaptation of Death Note, 'consultant'.

Nor does the Babel imagery end there.

The whole Yotsuba group could be seen as acting akin to the citizens of that Biblical city.  They band together at the top of a Tower and, as a kind of collective Kira, they seek to steal for themselves that which habitually belongs to deity.  Be that access into Heaven, or writing in a Shinigami's notebook.

The Yotsuba arc continues running parallel to the Tower of Babel tale, insofar as God (well, Light Yagami shorn of his Kira memories) sets out to divide and conquer them, thus snatching back divine power as his sole preserve.

Light doesn't change the Yotsuba executives' language. Despite the nice touch in 'Babel' (aka Near/Mello) asking for 'hush money'.

However L and Babel succeed in causing divisions amongst the group's mindset. When they are no longer working in accord, nor even in the same room, its a simple matter to confound their pseudo-divine plan.

Of course, when we first saw that giant B appear upon the screen, none of us were thinking of Mello, Near, Babel nor anyone else inserted into the show.

In the Death Note universe, an Old English font letter B signifies L's original back-up: Beyond Birthday.

I thought we were jamming with L's second. We were, but not in the way that elicited so many gasps from those watching from my house.

He was B. B stood for Backup. For Babel - the second... OMG! Was Death Note's Beyond Birthday in this show after all?!!

I mean, how fabulous would that have been?!

Alas, no.  Near has not only merged with Mello, but absorbed Beyond Birthday's background too.  It remains to be seen whether this includes his jam-loving, murderous self, as a separate persona. 

However in that 'I know all about it. Deep down inside, you think you're better than L' line from episode two, we've already seen Mello accuse Near of something more commonly attributed to Beyond.  Did 'deep down inside' hold a more significance than hitherto realised? 

Ok, I'll call it - Near IS Beyond Birthday!  And that's not all.

A could have been the original individual - the first child - whose personality fragmented into the rest, and is now lost beneath them all.  Near is so named, as the persona most closely resembling A.  Or its an acronym: Near Enough A's Replica.

I tell you, Matt's in there too.  Probably Linda and all the Letters from L: Change the World as well. Given enough time, scope and energy, Near's going to turn out to be a walking Wammy's House; all Watari Letters contained within a single form.

Which probably accounts for the outstanding cleverness overall.

We should never forget the key point about Beyond Birthday - he looked like L.  Enough to fool Naomi Misora into thinking she was dealing with the same man. Practically clones, L and Beyond, physically at least.

Have we yet discounted the hypothesis given in an earlier blog entry - that it's L with the multiple personalities?  Near et al live solely within his head; with an option on Watari additionally being a dissociated fragment of L's own self.

It would explain why the detective's insistence upon a sterile home environment faded whenever he went outside to play tennis or watch Ichigo Berry in concert.  That wasn't L. It was Mello or somebody wearing L's face.

Less L changing the world, than the world triggering a change in L.

Moreover, L's Dissociative Identity Disorder would fix an anomaly which has been niggling me since the very first episode.  (I am a Death Note fan-fiction writer, finding plot-holes to credibly fill is what breathes life into our tales.)  How could Wammy's House alter architecturally, depending upon whether L or Near sit on that staircase?

Maybe there is no Wammy's House in the physical world. It exists as a mind palace inside the psyche of a genius detective, acting as the gateway through which dissociated selves become dominant. No accident therefore why it appears as a hallway - the only room ever glimpsed in that house - devoid of creature comforts, stark and stripped, even when highly decorated.  Its main purpose being as a place to leave or be received.

Its secondary purpose to be where personae stand by, acting as consultants in the near consciousness. Communicating fully with the self on public display, seeing upon their screens what that worldly self views with their own eyes.

Which is why L and Near's respective monitors once displayed the same page of Kira suspects; why L was able to hear Mello speaking, though the camera showed that Near's lips were not moving.  They were still in the House at that point. L discerned Mello coming to the fore within his own mind.

Hence the terrified look then, and the horror on L's face, when Watari informed him that Near had left the House.

Watari acts as a kind of internal gatekeeper, or an external carer, able to inform L when personae become dominant without his knowing that time had been missed. 

Watari was telling him that he'd been usurped by Near.  That Near had been dominant, while L unknowingly and unwittingly was shut down, losing time through being stashed somewhere within the unseen chambers of Wammy's House.

Worse still, that Near could act as a conduit, or else has a twin, a counterpoint to his own behaviour - so close in morality to L, that the latter doesn't always mind him coming to the fore - which can too easily flip to control them both. It might be Mello playing maverick with their case-load, and it's impossible to predict his moves or count on tracking them down later. 

They couldn't even trust that he was always on their side, working with L and Near, rather than Kira.

They could lose the game simply because Mello played by different rules, or entered into another game entirely.  And what would it cost, if Beyond Birthday was ever to wake to discern the death of the world from a Wammy House hallway window?

Oh! There's so much fun to be had speculating on the possibilities inherent in this new Death Note storyline!  But I'd better return to what is, and not what might potentially be.

As primary player in opposition to Kira, L demonstrated his ability to consider the whole team in episode seven of Death Note TV drama.  If he was forced to forfeit his position, then it would be beneficial to assign a successor.  

That way Kira wouldn't gain too much ground, while struggles for dominance divided and conquered those who might stand in his way.

L has already foreseen that his baton could soon need to be passed on.  He cryptically tagged Near, placing him on stand-by as his choice for successor.

The way he did so owed a debt in imagery to Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam. Wherein God reaches out to touch Adam, gifting the spark of life to one made in His own image.

Or, as L did it in Death Note (2015), gifting a jigsaw piece to the one who thinks most closely to himself.

All on the off-chance that L should (metaphorically of course) fatally place his own wrong piece in the battle against Kira. Then it would fall to his successor - 'It could be you, Near' - to finish the puzzle, and the war.

Near caught the implication loud and clear, with an expression further seeing significance in L leaving the scene, as soon as his piece was conveyed. It was a gesture laden with pathos. Inherently implying that L expected to die.

Though naturally Mello was looking in the opposite direction, when all consideration of L's successor pointed due Near.

He was probably too busy noticing that their surroundings still looked like a Mafia penthouse in Los Angeles.

Nor had it been explained, other than the room wasn't in Wammy's House ("You don't have to go back to the house?" L asked Near not two minutes previously). The furnishings weren't even remotely like those in the hotel, wherein we last saw Near lodged and within the depths of which L had his own hide-out.

Perhaps it would have been too blatant had they gone instead for the zebra striped suite from the other Mafia digs in the desert.

Though it begs the question that, if I'm right about where this scene takes place, then why are Near and L there?

Unless I'm also right in my wilder speculation that this room doesn't exist in the real world. It's L visiting a secondary self inside a place located inside his own psyche. 

And that jigsaw piece passing hands is L acknowledging that he's losing his position as dominant personality amidst a multitude of others.

Actually, we did watch L's mind wilfully changing, or at least his mindset concerning how winning and losing would be judged in this clash between himself and Kira.

In L's world-view, the challenge has been issued with Light as his opponent, regardless of how they spent episode seven double teaming against an external interloper. The Yotsuba group, headed by Higuchi as the current Death Note owning Kira, were never serious challengers in L's book. They existed as an opportunity to gather clues and ammunition for the proper battle of wills with Light.

But to play an effective game, both sides need to know the rules.  Otherwise how could anyone be declared champion?  It would be a hollow victory without the loser knowing themselves to be beaten.

Thus the conditions for winning were set out by Light and agreed by L.

A game-changing moment, which saw L immediately switching tactics to take down the Yotsuba group and its Kira with ease.  But for him, this contained a fatal flaw.

Light couldn't have known that he spoke for Kira too.

But no matter that. L had already observed that Light and Kira's minds worked along the same lines. Light's thoughts would probably fit in with Kira's plans too. Their dual outlook aligning in this duel.

Nor was Light necessarily aware that his definition of winning was meaningful for L. 

It was Kira who entered into the battle of wills with the detective, not Light. If he felt the challenge, then it was in reaction to L's actions now. His memories of the previous cerebral duelling had been wiped.

If L's pride hadn't been so intent upon recognition as the winner, then he wouldn't have altered his game-plan. Perhaps the outcome might have been different. As it was, allowing Light to influence strategy had immediate consequences.

He touched the Death Note. His memories flooded back.  Himself as Kira returned.  Just as planned.

There have always been shades of Milton's Paradise Lost running as an undercurrent through Death Note. 

One day, I shall write a whole blog comparing the two, demonstrating how significantly Kira quotes Satan from Milton's epic verse.

To my mind, one of those moments comes in Light's classic line, 'I am Kira'.  I can't help thinking of Satan in Paradise Lost screaming out, 'Myself am Hell!'

It's not word for word - nor even close - but their proclamations hold the same feeling for me.  Not least because both are spoken as each anti-hero assumes their role by mentally and emotionally accepting its inevitability.  Each against a background of isolation, as all relationships become merely instruments through which power may be gained or retained.

If this Death Note live action drama continues along tradition lines, then we can see another link between Milton's Satan and TV's Kira.

Each are now poised to duel with an avenging second. Be it Satan's clash with the Archangel Michael (Champion of El), or Kira's confrontation with Mello, aka Mihael Keehl (Champion of L).

The latter already long since viewed in kinship to St Michael. Ensured by Near's constant visual references to Giordano's The Fall of the Rebel Angels - showing Michael taking down Satan - whenever Mello's potential in play came to the fore.

Plus the obvious parallel in which Satan was Heaven's Light-Bringer, and Kira was Light.  Ignorance is bliss they say.  Light hated Kira. His own paradise lost in the knowledge that he is Kira.

However it wasn't Milton, but Tolkien brought to mind in Masataka Kubota's performance as a re-emerging Kira. 

Watching this Kira clutch his Death Note prompted me to write 'Gollum' on my pad, then circle it several times as the sequence progressed.  I really did expect him to start hissing, 'My Precious!'

The television adaptation of Death Note has pinged off Tolkien's Middle Earth saga several times already.

Not until Death Note 2015 have we heard that the notebook alters personalities to the bad. That using it invokes paranoia and feelings of dread, not to mention causing agony for those writing names.  These are traits more commonly associated with the One Ring to Bind Them All in Tolkien's universe.

The emergence of a secondary personality - split from the owner's primary persona and seemingly built to serve the artefact - is another facet found in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Most notably in Gollum, whose conversations with his other self might have also inspired Mio Yuki's portrayal of Near and Mello in open discussion.

That Gollum with the Ring appears physically transformed is echoed in how TV Death Note's Kira can be discerned, distinct from Light, changed utterly.

Light was actually being truthful then, when he emphatically told L that he wasn't Kira. At least in this version of Death Note.

There was none of that in the original manga Death Note, nor its anime, nor even the previous Japanese live-action adaptations. In all of those variants, Kira seemed less Light Yagami's split personality and more an alternative name for the same individual.

Light's nick-name, if you like.

Accepted and assumed during a period when Light's psyche stretched to embrace ownership of the Death Note. A label therefore for his supposed megalomania and increasingly apparent descent into madness. But still fundamentally a single self.

Only by integrating Tolkienesque themes, do we witness Light and Kira separated, as dissociated identities and possibly an emerging secondary self entirely.

By implication, the Death Note dividing his very soul.

Maybe this soul-split is why those who use the Death Note are condemned to Mu when they die? 

Complete souls are required to enter Heaven or Hell, at least as such things are understood by shinigami. Personae fragmenting from the same being dilutes the core identity enough that their passport into the afterlife is denied. With nowhere to go, they are lost to the void and formless. Nothingness ensues.

Moreover, this might explain why Death Note owners are identifiable by the lack of a name and date above their heads. It could be that shinigami eyes are confounded by the data being multiplied, as more than one person is present inside that head.

If so, then this has obvious implications for Near and Mello too.

Not least because shinigami eyes are twice used to read Mihael Keehl above Mello's head in the canon rendering. What will happen during those scenes in the story?  Can Mello still be killed, as one self amongst multiples? 

If so, how does that affect Near?  Will he die too?  Or will he seem to make like a gamer or a cat with apparently numerous lives to risk in battling Kira? 

If not, then how might Kira react to the discovery that some - to all practical extent and purpose - possess immunity from the Death Note's deadly reach. And L's successors are amongst their number.

A new twist beckons, as the insertion of split personalities creates diverging plot-lines. It will be interesting to see how this pans out as the story progresses.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

My first thought was 'Oh! Come on! It's so much more than that!', shortly followed by 'Mmm, ok, it's a fair cop.'  I don't even think that she was dismissing Death Note as being particularly crap. The very fact that it factored into her piece shows that it's worthy of comparison with a story that she obviously enjoys. Moreover, it sets Death Note up as the benchmark by which the rest of the genre is judged.

One of the reasons why Death Note so captured my imagination was the 'social thriller' aspect. The notion that power is usually seen as such a distant thing, particularly by teenage schoolboys, coupled with a sudden presentment of absolute power and what happens next, that's what drew me in. The fact that we weren't given a black and white notion of right and wrong was another biggie. So much was left for the reader to determine for themselves.

Those initial dilemmas faced by Light put me in mind of something that Mark Twain said. I haven't got the exact quotation at hand, but the paraphrase is - if we knew for certain that there were no consequences, which of us wouldn't kill? 

I like to think the answer is 'most of us', but then situations and circumstances float through your mind. And if you had a Death Note in your grasp, wouldn't you scribble down a name or two?  If you thought you could avert a war, or end abuse, or... suddenly the list extends into increasingly greyer areas.

That's the appeal of Death Note, to play out our darker fantasies against a what if and maybe world.

Then suddenly it's all about this:

But that's thrilling too!  The clash between Light and L (then Near/Mello/Matt and L) belongs in that category where we also find Sherlock and John Watson. It's about a meeting of minds, clues sought and found, red herrings thrown, geniuses trying to thwart each other at every turn.

Which isn't quite the same story as when it began, is it?

I'm not sure that we have the like of the Wammy kids in real life. At least, I hope we don't, because that institution looked like serious exploitation of vulnerable children to me.  In fact, now it's ALL about the power play! The thing that attracted me to this scenario - the Mark Twain stance on ethics by peer pressure - is no longer part of the plot.

There ARE consequences for Kira. They come in the shape of the Wammy kids with whomever else each side chooses to drag along. As pretty much everyone states time and time again, it's all about winning the competition and solving the puzzle. Matters of morality seem to slip away entirely by the close of the first arc.

So maybe Ms Ekens is right, along with whomever she's quoting. Death Note is a 'power fantasy in social thriller's clothing', and we can only assume that it was Tsugumi Ohba's fantasy, in which we all merely came along for the ride.

What do you think?

Last Thursday, I had the very great pleasure of chatting with Lawliet director Ricardo Arechiga about his Death Note movie.

The image isn't really him by the way. It's a character from one of his animations, as Rico is a graphic artist by profession.

All of this came about because Logan set me on the quest to discover more about a movie about L. The initial findings were described in: Lawliet - Short Movie About Death Note's L.

On the assumption that you've already read that, I won't repeat myself here. I will mention that there were one or two minor details that were awry. With thanks to Rico for pointing them out, I've already been back to edit those into accuracy.

So now to have our questions answered!

First let me say that Rico is a wonderful conversationalist. As you can tell, I took that screenshot after chatting with him for well over an hour, nor had we finished then! Yet he's so passionate about Death Note, and insightful about the issues raised within, that it all felt like no time at all. If he's like that just discussing it, I really can't wait to view his film about L.

That emphasis on quality explains why we still don't have the movie in September 2014, despite it being due for release in July.  It is largely completed and it could be on our screens right now. But Rico isn't absolutely thrilled by some aspects. The perfectionist in him wants it to be the best he can deliver with his resources.

He felt rather bad about this, though I personally think it's a good thing. He did wish to highlight that Lawliet is being produced around his paid commissions. It's a labour of love, not profit.

I know that I'm not an official spokesperson for the whole Death Note fandom, but I'm certain that I spoke for all of us, when I assured him that we could wait. We'd prefer the moment of greatness to that of potential, and we'd like the director to be happy with his work. After all, we've been waiting forever for Shane Black/Gus van Sant to get on with it!

So what can we expect when Lawliet finally arrives?

Rico has written a script which explores the character of L. I don't mean that in the sense of 'fictitious character', though of course that is true too, but in what makes this person tick. Where did he come from? What motivates him? And most of all, how does L come to terms with the notion that he could be killed on this case?

Lawliet is a movie short, which takes place right on the eve of L's entrance into the Death Note world. He's already working on the Kira case, but has not yet revealed as much to the Interpol meeting. It captures a moment when L understands the danger, yet he is on the verge of committing to it anyway.

Most of the long conversation between myself and Rico was about the inner workings of L's mind (and, to a lesser extent, the other Wammy House kids too). I can confirm that this writer/director has contemplated the issues long and hard. He's considered the darkness that lies at the heart of the orphanage, which currently are addresses in the movie. Though that segment may not make the final cut (Rico is refining parts of the script).

With all of my fan-fiction, I thought I'd contemplated much of what there was to say about that institution. But Rico certainly introduced several elements that had escaped me. Particularly in regard to the dangers of chasing Kira. Or, as Rico put it, if the Wammy kids weren't careful, "they would become what they've been brought up to stop."

In Rico's opinion, L is a hero, who knew very well that he would die, but predicted how that would end up. He knew from the beginning that Kira would be defeated, and the entire of Death Note merely plays out L's ultimate plan. Then, at the end, L wins.

Rico tells us that his movie will be 'sweet, humorous and dark'. Pretty much what all Death Note fans love then!

He'll pop back for a proper interview, when Lawliet is ready for release. If you do have any questions for him, then leave them in the comments here and I'll be sure to include them then.

Incidentally, this is a movie by Identity Entertainment working with KA Films. Power On was just an early iteration of Identity Entertainment, but they decided they didn't like the name after all.  Bit generic...

And finally, when we do come to watch Lawliet, Rico says to watch out for Easter Eggs. He's included some for us die-hard fans. Challenge accepted!

I don't pretend to be a musician, or to understand musical notation. But I know a man who does.

Composer Robin B was looking at the scores for Death Note anime music. He found something very interesting in the signature of Wammy House alumni themes. They're all in uncommon time.

Common time, as the name suggests, accounts for the majority of music out there. It's the 4/4 rhythm that underlines practically every song you ever heard. That beat overwhelmingly dominates the popular download charts, and all other tracks besides.

The Death Note theme songs, plus Light's Theme, Misa's Song, Fuan and all of the themes associated with the shinigamis are in 4/4 throughout.

But it is not present in the themes of L, Near and Mello.

There the common time signature of four beats to a bar disappears under a riot of changing rhythms. It happens with such a regularity that barely two bars ever match the same beat. The Wammy House themes are ALL in uncommon time.

L's Theme begins by sampling Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, which itself was created in uncommon time. That accounts for the latter's beautifully eerie ambiance, as used to such good effect in The Exorcist.

Apparently Hidecki Taniuchi - who composed this and all the Wammy House themes - was told to wrote something akin to Tubular Bells for L. He began with a direct lifting of the opening bars, then developed those in a different direction to represent L.

The uncommon time signature starts at 7/8 (or 14/16), then alternates each bar with another at 6/8 (or 13/16), until it reaches the chorus. Suddenly we're in familiar territory with 4/4 (indicating L solving a case?), before it scoots off again into 7/8.

L's Theme chorus continues to swap 4/4 and 7/8 for every bar, until returning again to alternating 7/8 and 6/8 for the verses. As demonstrated in the sheet music published on Ichigo.com.

This exact time signature is repeated in Near's Theme.

There is little doubt that Hidecki Taniuchi wanted us to musically consider Near to be L's successor.  Their beats are identical, until Near's flies off onto a different rhythm for a single bar.

You're hearing here an alternating pattern for each measure of 6/8, 7/8, 6/8 then BAM 8/8. Songsterr has helpfully provided the sheet music for Near's Theme to demonstrate this.

Two other versions available online are transcribed arrangements for piano. Jill-Jênn Vie's version smooths it out into 27/16 time, though she explained in her notes that the meter should be 13/16 and 14/16 alternating.  Ilana-san adapted Near's Theme for duet and also opted to set the time signature as 27/16, until the chorus, where it switches to 4/4.

Two Wammy's House kids and so far, so musically identical.

So what about Mello the second of L's successors, and the only other genius detective to have a bespoke theme? 

Considering that he is Death Note's rebel extraordinaire, a Chaotic Good character who consorts with the Mafia, his theme starts surprisingly prosaic.

In short, it's nearly in Common Time. Good old 4/4, with the only remarkable feature being that it alternates with 3/4 (aka 6/8). Those 6/8 bars have been seen in both L and Near's Death Note themes, and could be accordingly viewed as the time signature pattern for Wammy's House.

Once again, I've lifted the tab score from Songsterr. This is how Mello's Theme begins.

But then, around the 1.47 minute mark, Mello's Theme goes off on one. It starts there at 4/4, switches back to 3/4, 4/4, 3/4, then suddenly stays at 3/4 for several bars until finding 4/4 again.

My friend Richard Mak just looked at the tabs and told me that this is extremely weird. Songs usually stay with one measure per bar throughout the piece. They don't alternate like this, and they certainly don't soar off into 3/4 for several bars before coming back to the same unusual pattern.

The 3/4 isn't precisely the same as the 6/8 prevalent in the other two detective themes, but it's close enough. It links Mello, at his most musically rebellious, straight back into the Wammy House stable.

These Uncommon Time signatures are so strange as to not be coincidental. Hidecki Taniuchi knew precisely what he was doing.

Edit: I've now added the Death Note music soundtracks to our goodies section.