MCM London Comic Con 2016 is currently in full swing with convention goers able to wow the crowds with Death Note theme tunes, if they so wish.

The Manga UK stage has been taken over by Anime Karaoke, which is precisely what you think it's going to be.  Punters called up into the spotlight get a choice of over 150 songs from anime across the board.

Their tuneful menu includes two helpings of Death Note music - The World and Alumina both by Nightmare, both made famous as Death Note theme songs.

Let's hope that any fan brave enough to try it knows what they are doing.  Each track has the potential to trip folk up - The World by being faster than intrepid songsters might fancy; while Alumina on the surface seems much the easier option, while being pitched an octave higher than most routinely recall.  Until it's too late and there's a microphone in their faces and expectant hordes of Londoners looking right up at them.

Good luck, brave and beautiful Death Note karaoke singers!  Ignore the cockneys and sing like Kira's coming tomorrow!

Staged at ExCeL London, May 29th 2016 is the third and final day of MCM Comic Con, but the website reports that there are still tickets left.  Anime Karaoke kicks off at 11am today.  We dare you.

We invite readers to take The Psychopath Test for Death Note's Misa Amane.  Collectively we might determine whether Second Kira was indeed suffering from psychopathy - and causing victims in their hundreds of thousands to suffer too.

This is the actual twenty-point test devised in 1975 by Bob Hare in consultation with eighty-five of the best psychopathy specialists across the world.  It's the checklist by which you - or anybody - would be subjected in the real world, if a professional had cause to believe that you were a psychopath.

Are you game to complete it on her behalf?

Writing a fashion feature for Yahoo Style this week, Zalora considered the whole of anime past and present to produce the most fabulously attired characters in them.

The resultant '5 Anime Characters Whose Style We Want to Steal' (Yahoo, Zalora, May 23rd 2016) included no less than TWO dramatis personae from Death Note anime!  Complete with tips on how to replicate their look.

While Misa Amane topped the feature as the character selected to star in the banner, she came in a mere fourth anime-wide for overall fashion sense.  Beating her hands down was that self-confessed 'best dresser who died like a dog' Mihael Keehl, aka Mello.

Sound about right to you?   Or do you disagree with the Yahoo writer's judgement on Top Five fashionable anime characters and/or what has been written about them?  Who would you have chosen?  And what would you have said in justification of those choices?

Read more at the original posting, including why Misa made number four and how you can copy her style too.

The reader survey held recently on Death Note News also pointed to another issue:  speculation and fact can get blurred when the theoretical is being reported alongside actual news stories.

An example was given regarding an article on Matsuda's Theory, wherein a reader had commented to state that the theory wasn't possible in one regard. Yet the piece itself was never updated to indicate this.  It has been now:

The point in a more general sense has been taken on board and our writers are going to try to highlight precisely what is fact and what is musing personally upon a facet of Death Note canon and its wider universe.

Hopefully this satisfies the querent at this time.

Here's the latest Death Note News article, as seen on Feedly:

However, that only formats well if all of the elements span the whole page.  If they take up only a fraction of it like, for example, an image alongside text, then the rendering breaks down completely:

We know what this issue is.  It'll stem from the time when Matti altered the CSS coding on the main website to force more room to publish the articles. There's a secondary lift from it, which she's not yet been able to find, which only to date has affected the draft article formatting.  Finding it has hitherto been on a back-burner, because that was only us inconvenienced and there were many more important things to concentrate on instead.

Now that we know it's a much wider issue, then it'll work its way back onto the priority list for site maintenance.  However, that is like finding a needle in a haystack, hence we hope you'll bear with us here.

Call this merely a heads up that the issue hasn't been forgotten and we can see what you're reporting now.  Thanks for that.

Death Note's anime adaptation ends with the suicide of Misa Amane, Second Kira and one of the most significant driving forces behind the whole broad story.  Without her intervention, much original plot might never have happened, or been changed completely along a different course.  Yet the manga never gave her that big dramatic send off.

She wasn't even witness at the grand finale clash between Light and Near. Her creator Tsugumi Ohba dumped his character in a hotel room and forgot about her, because he self-admittedly couldn't find 'a situation to fit her in'.

It was only by the reappraisal of the manual, in Death Note 13: How to Read, that the author seemed contrite about his choices.  Ohba proffered the opinion that she probably committed suicide. Whilst also confirming that the widely believed interpretation (at the time) of the final manga scenes - that the Kira priestess was Misa reinvented as a cult leader honouring dead Light Yagami - was completely incorrect.

So why does Misa Amane commit suicide according to the mangaka mind that made her?  Because someone 'like Matsuda' 'probably let it slip' that Light was dead.  She had already long since stated - to L no less - that she couldn't contemplate living in a world without Light.  It would be too dark.

Only now does the mangaka get the brainwave that Misa might have ended her own life. Recorded in the transcript of the interview complete with pauses denoting the hesitancy of Tsugumi Ohba as inspiration hits there and then; well after the manga chapters have completed their inaugural run of publication in Weekly Shonen Jump.  He finishes weakly, 'something like that'.

It would probably be easier to accept Tsugumi Ohba's suggestion as canon, if he sounded more sure about it. But all those 'likes' and 'probablys' make it sound like he's making up stuff on the spot to answer a question and wriggle out of abandoning his character to a crowbarred plot ending.  As a dutiful storyteller, he should have found the narrative that included her too.

The poetic juxtaposition of circumstance echoed in her visage and attire. Misa Amane has dressed carefully for her existence's final scene. The actress has manicured her nails, painting them purple; adorning two rings to match in gleaming purple and blue/green. Her make-up is applied to perfection. No random clump of mascara on a rogue eyelash, nor lipstick mostly wiped off before you've even left your own home station, as would happen in reality. Misa-Misa's cosmetic attention has left her face as a canvas covered in a glossy mask, like a doll staring flawless and porcelain back. Not helped by the deadening of all expression in her gaze.

Her clothing is just as carefully chosen and arranged about her person. Black and white dress, with matching headband, and great white ruffles arranged just so. Beneath that topmost article, her hair remains teased into shape, styled without a strand out of place, like every lock was cemented on. Her big, clumpy platform shoes mark the precision of her gait, keeping it of necessity slow, as if she apes the slow, striding pace of the funeral director at her own final send off.

There is something of the Geisha about her, though not a single visual artifice directly apes that of those traditional entertainers. But for the general unreality of the look; woman as walking art. A canvas shell without soul inside, to be adorned for the pleasure and artistry of the thing. Which isn't to paint a disservice to the actual Geisha, who were notably vital. Particularly those with their obi worn around the front.

Misa's telling us that she's already gone.  She's made herself outwardly pretty in order to smash the shell of self to smithereens.  So unflinching and perfectly rendered that she appears not pretty at all, but abnormal. An animated marionette teetering towards the edge of the Uncanny Valley.  We will not like what comes next.  Fortunately for viewers of anime, Death Note doesn't show it. Implied amidst the final credits, we see the sky turn pink and arms outstretched, she leaps. More so in imagination than ink.

So was Tsugumi Ohba right?  Was it for love of Light that Misa Amane makes this horrifically unromantic fatal plunge?  The timing would imply so. 

Misa-Misa suicides on St Valentine's Day 2011.  Choosing February 14th on which to end her life has an obvious resonance for those viewing from the West. A day in which lovers are celebrated makes this unequivocally about Light Yagami.  Fragmented sensibilities exposed therein, echoed in the lyrics that she intones so sweetly en route:

However, we may be forgetting something quite important. Misa Amane is not Western.  She is born and bred Japanese, and Valentine's Day isn't marked in precisely the same way there.

February 14th is the day when Japanese women and girls vie to press their hand-made tezukuri chocolate into the hands and hearts of favoured males. If accepted, the gifter can expect to be the recipient of a small token - usually a white ribbon - on March 14th, aka White Ribbon Day.  Thereon all that remains is the marriage, mortgage, pets, 2.4 children and a lifetime in drudgery to the maintenance of the household.  But first they have to get Christmas out of the way.

It's not Valentine's Day when all romance is sought, elicited and put on show in Japan. It's Christmas Day. This is not a Christian nation.  No-one native to Tokyo is singing hymns to baby Jesus, whilst trying to square that with the pile of presents to be bought and wrapped for the kids and all out.

Instead, they're trying to snag a date.  Christmas in Japan is for couples. It's the more obvious date for Misa's sunset dive into finality.  Which should incur the supposition that this is less about Light than something else. Except for one thing.

Misa Amane was born on Xmas Day and died on Valentine's Day.  She would see that as heartbreakingly romantic, when in reality it's just heartbreaking. Nevertheless, the interconnecting of life and death in those two dates does bespoke a love issue underlying her grisly end.  Plus it's only a fortnight on from the first anniversary of her disappeared  finance's supposed death.  The sadness would naturally push up to peek at such flashpoint dates with that the biggest of all.

More imagery relating to her lost relationship with Light Yagami lies in digging deep into the fine detail of each frame moving her excruciatingly steady towards her final encounter with a far distant pavement.  Putting it all together might entrail the overall picture a little more.

The last time Misa sees and talks to Light is whilst lodged within the Teito Hotel (Hotel Teito, trans. Imperial).  

Prior to the Yellow Box showdown, Near arranges for Hal Lidner and Mogi to forcibly re-home Misa in a reasonably luxurious room there.  While Mogi tells Light that he's there by chose, Misa blithely announces that she is not. Yet she makes no attempt to escape, despite earlier chapters making clear her resourcefulness in such situations.  On the contrary to her spoken words, she seems quite pleased to be there.  Though whether her joyfulness is approval expressed as glee in regard to the appointment of this expensive room or rests fully (or in part) upon another underlying cause, it's never made clear.

During the two day interim just prior, it might be assumed that Light and Misa have conversed via telephone or PC, though such is never show. Then Misa is nominally set free. However, she is given the usage and run of a penthouse suite in the same hotel, and Misa's exuberance now holds no bounds.

Just before Light leaves towards the Yellow Box Warehouse and his eventual, unforeseen death, he speaks with his hyper fiancée against over the telephone. Misa Misa is beside herself with delight; rolling like a toddler around the furnishings.  In fairness, Light does tell her to stay put, while he confidently walks towards degradation and the flooring of his plans of living openly in divinity, recognized as such in all due numinous euphoria. Instead, it is Near's reality which is inserted upon the scene and Light sees eight years of careful elevation dissolve into Nothingness.  Right on the brink, or so he thought, of his Godhead coming into fruition.

Bloodied, raving, insane and disappointed to a deep soul level, Light never once turns to Misa, safely ensconced in the luxury of Teito's top floor apartment.  As far as she's concerned, he simply let her rot there, while he walked away and vanished unutterably from their common law marriage. Eight years plus of near constant cohabitation, de facto conjugation and sometime actual companionship just got thrown away.

Because, for some inexplicable reason Light's wife, mother and sister are never told of his demise.

The rationale is breezed over in the manga/anime as 'security' to safeguard the secrets of a highly classified case. Moreover one which is laced with international ramifications should news of Kira's illegal and ignominious kangaroo court death get out.

Not to mention local/national ones for the officers (and Near) involved, if their part in such proceedings was leaked to the press, public and Amnesty International.  Still fiercely  pro-Kira in those immediate aftermath months, Japan would be unlikely to support such vigilante dealings. Nor should be be forgotten that it disbanded one corrupt police force after World War II, then severely curtailed the liberties of its secondary, replacement force.  There's a cultural twitch regarding abuse of due process by law enforcement officers to be evoked in Japan.  Not a thing to be overlooked as YOLO.

Which means that for fear of the mob (in governments wide-world or on the street), Sayu, Sachiko and Misa have to suffer the unceasing starting and listening at any sound that might be their missing man come home. The inordinate cruelty of never knowing if he lies chained and tortured in some dark hole, or is freely wandering the Earth in rejection of their love.

There's a dark, unbending cruelty there, not lessened by the months its allowed to endure, and made considerably worse by the justifications ditched out by all concerned for such obdurate behaviour.

Meanwhile, whatever else may or may not feature in the mix, Misa's sense of self will be eroding with every passing day of waiting, watching, hoping, imagining, knowing that someone knows something and will let her languish like this in perpetuity - her worth and sanity deemed less than whatever reason underpins such relentlessness in silence.

Also adrift will be her societal connectivity (who can empathize amongst her neighbours and peers?); her yet to be mourned loss of context for a life shared with Light and hitherto built upon dreams, aspirations/goals and actual plans (how can she gain closure and remould a future, when he could walk back in at any moment, or not, and she will never know which until she watches the door and dies a little more inside each time it remains shut); and the deadening of that fundamentally Japanese concept of her personal 'ikigai' (reason to exist?).

All this alone may well account for Misa's descent into despair enough to jump from the roof of that skyscraper.  But there's much more going on besides.

Some of it subtle, existing in the imagery alone.  You see, Teito Hotel actually existed once.  It was built, maintained and used by Allied Forces, foreign diplomats and Western business personnel in the post-WWII forcible reconstruction of Japan.  Its architecture was distinctly American, as was the service, décor, amenities and portable goods to be found inside.  By the order of General MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for/of the Allied Powers, no Japanese clientèle was permitted within. Teito served Western venture capitalists, merchant buyers and global market enterprise agents only.

There was a reason it was called the Imperial. In Japanese.

No wonder Misa was so stunned to be sitting in the Penthouse suite. She must have been sneaked past reception by Near or one of his American personnel, because no-one as Japanese as she could possibly have been there under normal circumstances.  Despite it being in Japan.

When Hotel Teito was finally sold back to Japan - under private ownership subject to the highest bidder - in 1959, the first thing that occurred was the whole edifice being razed to the ground and swept cleanly away.  Hotel Palace with its elegant Japanese designs in architecture, facilities and interiors now stands pointedly upon the spot.

All of this psychological upheaval would take its toll upon the most steadfast mind, but Misa has twice been an owner of a Death Note. Right there in the rules it states that users will feel despair and torment as a result of their writing within those pages.  Misa killed her victims in the hundreds of thousands. It's safe to say she used more than one shinigami notebook and incurred such penalties upon her mentality from all.  It doesn't matter than her memories of mass slaughter are all gone. This isn't a memory.  It's an indelible mark in common to all human Death Note owners.

No amount of anti-depressants, Tai Chi sessions and mindfulness training are going to shift her from a despondency that she cannot trace to source. She kicked over the routes back there when she surrendered her notebook possession and shinigami eyes with it.  Misa cannot even understand why.  She'll never be able to fix it; nor can she know that.

There are other aspects too, seen in literal flashbacks - single frozen images flickering through her mind's eye, visible to the viewer too.  This is Tetsuro Araki edging his bets in blatant disregard for the Death Note rules.  Misa's memories have been washed clean, yet she still recalls numbers and names above people's heads.  

She either retains the ability to view death data upon all things living now - in which case who wouldn't go mad or want to simply make it go away by ending the life of flesh and blood sustaining it?  Or rogue, inexplicable snapshots of horrors have somehow stuck in her memory's cache.  Clues towards knowing that she was once something or someone much more, but that's gone too with no way of knowing what it was nor how to reclaim it, should she want to.

Besmirching his vision, shared by herself, with a growing number of voices raised against him in condemnation. Seeing all they'd accomplished in sacrifice and blood amounting to nothing now the new God is gone, and his dominion with him. Only the void remains now for Misa Amane, perceiving herself in isolation; visions lost in a paradigm of rising crime and wars reinstated; too making people telling her that she was wrong. Though not to her face. They didn't know, nor ever would, what she did or was.

And neither would she.  

As Misa Amane's sole song finished, she stared into the abyss; and it stared back. The last Death Note credits rolled from view and Misa-Misa jumped.

However, same day information linking Selma and Straight Outta Compton star Keith Stanfield with Death Note was only reported by The Wrap (Adam Wingard’s ‘Death Note’ Jumps From Warner Bros. to Netflix (Exclusive), Thom Geier, April 6th 2016). 

A tip-off had been sourced from an 'insider', but no-one at Netflix was available to take repeated calls to query its veracity.

Nor yet the second shared insight. This was that Death Note was nearing production, when Warner Bros decided to end years of dilly-dalling by pulling the rug at the 11th hour.  But that bit was obvious.  It didn't take a Wammy level genius detective to deduce its truth. This was the only scenario which could account for the studio hiring director and stars for its cast; then suddenly sitting down at the negotiation table with Netflix, now poised to secure Death Note's production rights for itself instead.

A little out of left-field and accordingly met with surprise by the Death Note fandom, with no little wide-eyed pondering upon the implications.

Most fan comments clocked by Death Note News staff on balance seemed relieved that our tale was out of that studio's hands.  Few had really trusted Warner Bros executives in the US, since Black exposed their desire to show Light Yagami muddled, angst-ridden, but fundamentally a good guy, whilst getting rid of Ryuk for Satanic overtones vis-a-vis shinigami.

Now Netflix appeared (and remains so at the time of writing) to be making the Death Note movie; and, if Thom Geier of The Wrap has it right, bringing favoured actor Keith Stanfield into the project too.  Though nothing of the sort can be verified until the ink is dry on that deal documentation.

Which leaves fans of Death Note musing upon two big burning questions for the moment:

• Will Netlix release Death Note (US movie) in theaters/cinemas, or stream it only?
• Who will Keith Stanfield be playing?

With Light - and Misa - already taken, the field is wide open.  It could be any Death Note character at all (though the likelihood falls dramatically regarding roles amongst female dramatis personae).  In considering it, watch Keith Stanfield in action and see if a name presents itself. Then please do comment with your suggestions.  We might be the first to call it!

Has he the gravitas to be Soichiro Yagami perhaps?   Though, thinking about it, that might raise questions about whether Light (aka Nat Wolff) is really his biological son.   Aizawa?

 We're a little late into our event now in posting to announce this Misa Amane fan club.  But regular readers must have known  it was coming - given that every other Death Note News monthly focus thus far has prompted a similar invitation to come and join in.

The topic titles might change from month to month, but the location does not. 

We have Pinterest Community Boards dedicated to Death Note characters; fandom genres; differing adaptations; music; manga; anime; movies; cosplay; creators; academia; you name it and Sod's Law practically dictates that it'll be the only remaining aspect within the Death Note universe that none of us thought to build a board around.

Naturally, all of this includes a forum for Misa Amane fans or, if 'fan' seems too strange to speak about a genocidal maniac genki girl, those with an interest in sharing random, related things about Misa found on the internet may come too.   We already have a lively Team Misa Misa posse pinning away and hundreds more enjoying the spectacle by merely following.

All you need do is follow the board.   One of the Death Note News team will be along - hopefully shortly - in order to answer every alert with an invitation. Click yes or no, as your is your wont, then jump in and pin, pin, pin, or watch, if you chose the latter.  Every community member may invite others too, so bring your mates along for the ride.

And enjoy!

What's your professional opinion about ready-made Misa outfits, such as those in the Death Note News Cosplay Store? Any other pieces in there decent enough for a Misa-Misa cosplay? (Be honest!)
I personally would never buy a Misa cosplay. I much prefer making her clothing and enjoy being able to say that I made it and it's accurate. Looking at the Death Note News store, the options are very nice and the most accurate I've seen for pre-made costumes.

last tips for anyone reading, who wishes to create their Misa cosplay from scratch?
From scratch? Make sure you pay close attention to your reference photos. Pick out every detail before you sketch it out and don't forget about her jewelry.

On a global scale, Misa-Misa has been dubbed, played and in some instances sung into life for the delight of Death Note audiences everywhere.

In honour of her monthly event on Death Note News, we have collected together the names of the twenty-one Misa Amane actresses from Death Note adaptations across the world. Who for you, amongst these ladies (and one gent), wore the face or spoke the voice of Misa the Second Kira?

Mind you, the Japanese National Police Agency's Death Note Countermeasure Headquarters Special Team seems rather more populous than its counterpart from a decade earlier, the Kira Task Force.   The new base doesn't look too shabby either, as the two pictures below may attest.  Still in that Death Note de rigour colour scheme of monochrome with a touch of red, so beloved of every version ever.

These movies stills from Death Note: Light Up the NEW World were sanctioned by Warner Bros Japan, but made it into the public eye via an intrepid Death Note fan and writer for Natalie.mu, who 'sneaked' onto set - in an undisclosed Japanese location - on May 18th 2016 and witnessed the above scenes being filmed.  In addition to managing a quick interview about the movie and their roles from the two actors seen sizing each other up in character above, Sousuke Ikematsu and Masahiro Higashide. 

Read more about that here:  映画「デスノート」対策本部に潜入、東出昌大と池松壮亮がプレッシャー語る (Natalie, May 18th 2016)  If, of course, you read Japanese or can stand Google Translate's attempt at a native transcription.  Otherwise one of our Japanese translators will hopefully be along soon to tell us all about it.

It seemed out of character for her. This was the woman who would have died for Light Yagami; who twice shortened her lifespan by half each time on his behalf; who withstood torture for weeks on end in his defence; and who killed indiscriminately, in truly mind-boggling proportions of mass slaughter, to impress him or else cover his back.

Yet Misa wouldn't leave an unguarded penthouse, when every clue at her disposal hinted at a showdown moment for Light. She stayed put because it was pretty.  Though, to be fair, Light did tell her to remain there for the time being. Though since when did directives like that figure, if Misa had any inkling that her erstwhile fiancé might need her.

We barely needed Death Note author Tsugumi Ohba to state what was obvious.  Misa Amane was sidelined at the end, as he didn't 'have a situation in which to fit her'. (How to Read: Death Note 13)  Just like Mello, Misa was simply bundled out of sight, however out of character the requisite actions and decisions, in lieu of her creator to pen a plot-line that accommodated all personae dramatis.

Perhaps it was hoped that we wouldn't notice.  We did.

Do you agree with this reading of the situation?  What do you think would have occurred had Misa Amane been in the Yellow Box warehouse?  Would Light's mental disintegration have shaken her devotion to him, thus saving her from the suicide that finally constituted Misa Amane's departure from the Death Note story?