Mello eating chocolate in the Death Note anime
Admit it, you've never watched beyond the final credits in L: Change the World. I'll admit it. It never occurred to me to continue on.
For some, it's painful enough to get to the credits, let alone sit through them. Particularly when they're not subject to subtitles translating the beautiful kanji sailing past.
Which means that we all missed the semi-secret poignant scene sneaked in there - beyond all acknowledgements, but one.
It depicts L sitting before a desk, upon which lies a lever arch folder, closed over a pile of tidy case-notes. L stares at a photograph of Mr Wammy for long seconds, before stepping from his crouch upon the chair and walking off camera. The scene ends with a black screen, upon which white words form: L Lawliet, Rest in Peace.
He's gone back to Watari. At least that's the only interpretation which salves the heart of onlookers.
So what's this got to do with Mello? For a start, those case-notes. We're not told which ones they pertain to, but my imagination tells me that there are three cases in there and they'll be referenced or retold in the novel Another Note. But that's conjecture.
More blatant is the fact that the sequence begins with a loud snapping of chocolate.
We hear it before we see Lawliet perched in situ. For a instant, we suspect we're about to see a blond Mafioso smirking from the shadows. And perhaps we do, at least in nodding acknowledgement towards those who died in the cause of Kira.
Just look at L in this scene. And smile through your pathos. It was a hint, but we caught it.
For some, it's painful enough to get to the credits, let alone sit through them. Particularly when they're not subject to subtitles translating the beautiful kanji sailing past.
Which means that we all missed the semi-secret poignant scene sneaked in there - beyond all acknowledgements, but one.
It depicts L sitting before a desk, upon which lies a lever arch folder, closed over a pile of tidy case-notes. L stares at a photograph of Mr Wammy for long seconds, before stepping from his crouch upon the chair and walking off camera. The scene ends with a black screen, upon which white words form: L Lawliet, Rest in Peace.
He's gone back to Watari. At least that's the only interpretation which salves the heart of onlookers.
So what's this got to do with Mello? For a start, those case-notes. We're not told which ones they pertain to, but my imagination tells me that there are three cases in there and they'll be referenced or retold in the novel Another Note. But that's conjecture.
More blatant is the fact that the sequence begins with a loud snapping of chocolate.
We hear it before we see Lawliet perched in situ. For a instant, we suspect we're about to see a blond Mafioso smirking from the shadows. And perhaps we do, at least in nodding acknowledgement towards those who died in the cause of Kira.
Just look at L in this scene. And smile through your pathos. It was a hint, but we caught it.
Chocolate eating L stares at Watari in the
closing scene from L: Change the World
It's reminiscent of our final glimpse of Near, in the manga, nomming chocolate out of respect for Mello. That acknowledgement was admitted by Ohba in How To Read - the official guide to Death Note. However, we haven't finished with Mello and this movie yet.
There was another obscure Mello hint in the previous final scene of L: Change the World. By that, I mean the last one before the credits, wherein L takes the tiny Thai child to Wammy's House and names him Near.
In Lawliet's little speech to his young mathematical genius companion, he advises him, 'There is one thing I want you to remember, no matter how gifted, you alone cannot change the world.'
Is that not a nod towards Near's own Yellow Box denouncement of Light in the manga? When he said that he alone couldn't surpass L. But with Mello alongside him, they could collectively succeed where L had failed.
The whole scene is reproduced below, though no-one on YouTube - insofar as I can find - has captured that final part beyond the credits with the chocolate.
There was another obscure Mello hint in the previous final scene of L: Change the World. By that, I mean the last one before the credits, wherein L takes the tiny Thai child to Wammy's House and names him Near.
In Lawliet's little speech to his young mathematical genius companion, he advises him, 'There is one thing I want you to remember, no matter how gifted, you alone cannot change the world.'
Is that not a nod towards Near's own Yellow Box denouncement of Light in the manga? When he said that he alone couldn't surpass L. But with Mello alongside him, they could collectively succeed where L had failed.
The whole scene is reproduced below, though no-one on YouTube - insofar as I can find - has captured that final part beyond the credits with the chocolate.
Is all of this just the rabid ravings of an obsessed fan-girl? You tell me!
