Hunt for the Origin of the Wammy Surname It's not in any of my dictionaries nor directories of English surnames, nor the Celtic ones either. So I take my search for Wammy origins on-line. The first issue is wading through pages and pages of search engine results relating to Death Note's Wammy and not a lot else. Apparently there's a single, solitary individual surnamed Wammy in Tanzania - probably a Death Note fan - and a billion role-players, fan-fiction writers and fan-artists all including the name in their fandom pseudonym. (I'm just as guilty with my MRSJeevas avatar, which was only ever added for a laugh on a single site right on the eve of my novels taking off...) Eventually hitting a few 'Wammy Surname Meaning' sites, I draw several large blanks. The pages are set up, with no historical personages nor current demographical clusters to populate them. All kind of confirming what instinct said before - Quillsh Wammy has a British feel to it without following through to reality. Could Wammy Indonesian or from the Nederlands?
British Wammy Surnames in the Genealogical Record!Pretty much ready to call it a day, I nontheless duly typed Quillsh Wammy's name into Ancestry. He doesn't exist - naturally, as Tsugumi Ohba made him up for Death Note - but Wammy people do with aplomb, figuring highly in the historical record with Christian names that wouldn't seem out of place in Another Note: The LA BB Murder Cases. Ok, not a Believe Bridesmaid between them, but a Canada Let Wammy, and a Graphics Wammy. And a Sammystirred Wammy. All there on board ships or, well mostly, in US High School Yearbooks. Real, actual US names! Name-list.com was right to call it above. But no, skimming down the line reveals a distinct grouping of folk surnamed Wammy - way before Death Note was conceived into literary being - in 18th century Nunkirschen, Prussia and Marne, France. Then they all disappear again. Only to resurface two centuries later as a sole fictional character in Winchester, England, and a fair few Americans filling in Yearbooks. I'm going to assume misspellings in the past and Death Note fans now. Nevertheless, for your genealogical pleasure, here is that listing. Off you go fan-fiction writers!
A whole group of us are already pinning our Wammy's House and Mr Wammy related items of interest over on Pinterest. You can too!
Do you have a group, forum, community, fan-club or other website dedicated to Watari, Wammy's House or anything connected with the Wammys? Let us know via our submission page and we'll big it up for you during this Month of Watari on Death Note News. Help us get the community connected with like-minded members of the same fandom!
Death Note 2016: Shinigami Ryuk Gets a Scary Facelift, and Shidou Nakamura is Back to Voice Him!15/4/2016 A new still released for Death Note 2016 reveals the terrifying face of Ryuk - re-imagined for this latest movie. It's all the shinigami as we know and love him, but darker, sharper and somehow much more gritty.
Death Note's creators did say that this would be the darkest iteration of the on-going story yet. Further news to make fans cheer is today's announcement that original Ryuk voice actor Shidou Nakamura has signed on to provide the voice for this version too. Nakamura's tones are familiar to the Death Note fandom from the anime through to the earlier movies in the series: Death Note; Death Note II: The Last Name; and L: Change the World. Jun Fukushima took over for the TV drama. All 0f this follows the previous news that Erika Todd will be returning to play Misa Amane ten years on. Matti might be Editor-in-Chief of Death Note News, but she's better known elsewhere - writing under the unfortunate moniker of MRSJeevas - as the author of the It Matters series of Death Note fan-fiction novels centring upon Mello and Matt. To encourage other fan-fiction writers to submit their stories for these Month of events, she's been drifting out of her comfort zone to write short stories and drabbles on whatever character is our monthly focus. This time around, she's finally back on home ground, writing about a Wammy. In fact, THE Wammy. Enjoy! The Quartermaster Quest: A Drabble Upon the Dreams of Quillsh Wammy Everybody wanted Aston Martins these days; all drinking Martinis, shaken not stirred. But they were missing the point. Seduced by the flash and swagger of James Bond, seeing no further than the bravado and charm. Fleming's character had daring, that much was true. Plucky fellow and all that. But it was born of arrogance and the bankroll to fund it. The protagonist's sense that he was too elite to die; not through any true talent. Bond had just enough intelligence to follow his privileged past into an assumption of immortality. False trail. Shoddy thinking. His imitators thought hedonism set Bond apart from all those other two-bit classy spies - that seemed everywhere from the pulp fiction piles to the silver screen in these days of escalating Cold War news. Ubiquitous in the background; sparking a backlash frenzy of unimaginative fashionable writers pandering to their half-asleep readership. No, the real thing that elevated Fleming's work wasn't Bond himself, but the gadgetry he carried on him. And that wasn't Bond, James Bond, at all. That was the truly exciting position held by Q. The inventor(s). Bound by nothing but the outer reaches of his - or their - own imagination; boundless really in its lack of brevity. The creative force behind the flashy tapestry of the spy's rich world. Godlike in that way. So mysterious too, that single letter to denote a being controlling Fate from the background. Q. Like Quillsh. His own first name. Thrilling to it the first time he read Casino Royale - 'see Q for any equipment you need' - twenty-two and suddenly knowing precisely what he wanted to do. Join the British Secret Service Q-Squad and invent things to save the world. Only the reality wasn't like that at all. He was in. His family connections saw to that. But there was no Q-Squad in MI6 like the novels promised. Just order requisitions in triplicate; more paperwork than vision could withstand. No figure of Q as strode gloriously withdrawn into the shadows of the movie plots inspired by the books. Merely Quillsh Wammy labouring under the surrender of disappointment with petty bureaucrats (and worse, politicians) dictating his work-life with rigid demands. Tedious in their scope. No room for innovation. No Q. Not even a Bond. Just people who wished they were the latter and thought an Aston Martin purchase, celebrated with a Martini, could cut it for themselves. The field guys called him Q and thought it funny. Wammy enjoyed the shivery honour of the title, at first; then realised the joke was on him and disdained them for it. People whom Wammy wouldn't trust with the key to the office petty change box given free rein with the treasury of Britain. Most of them raised to start wars, not intercept their onset and divert into harmless channels. Playing at national security as they'd arranged their tin soldiers in childhood. Like it was all a game. It was the way they were raised. Q mused. Those with the wealth and connections to be here weren't those with the common touch to understand why they should change the world. Improve it. Make it safer. Most of them breed out of brain cells several generations back. Too lacking in much beyond what was and what should always be, in their opinion, immutable; and unfair. In bitterness, Quillsh tried to tip the balance in his own small ways. Bypassing the limitations of that stack of requisition forms by letting his mind soar into the stratosphere of inventive bliss. Becoming the Creator. Q in actuality, not just name. That earned him a final warning and quite a few dressings down for wasting public funds. So he did it in his own time. Wasting his hours on wandering through ideas, akin to Da Vinci in their scope, and enjoying them immensely. Then finding and patenting one, then more, that stood out as genuinely useful. Of all the weird and wonderful, it was a tiny stop-lock that made him rich. In his own right wealthy beyond his uncle's wildest dreams. That sour old man for whom money and its acquisition had always taken the place of feeling or reaching further than himself. Who'd raised Wammy in name only as guardian; the reality being boarding school, held back for the holidays, as his uncle found it too distracting to have a child at home. Except for Christmas break, which was achingly boring and way too formal. Quillsh blocking out droning talk of the stock exchange and investment banking with mechanisms of the imagination, built silently as excitement, or diversion to replace the love lost with his long gone parents. Uncle William was interested in his nephew now. Fascinated in fact, in his prospects and his bank-account. Lectures on the best stock in which to invest at the present time - naturally brokered through himself - didn't get more alluring with adulthood. Uncle William's interest being solely in the interest that could be due. While Wammy's remained entirely with the Quartermaster. The first orphanage founded was to thwart Uncle William, and to teach him something too. A little reaching out in assuage of his childhood; plus amusement. So many startled agents learning that power in riches didn't need to come with Martinis on a yacht; the Aston Martin waiting; an endless supply of fine foods and alcohol; the ladies dripping in all they could grab. Power came best in the adulation of young minds under his control, to cater for and educate according to Wammy's wealth and whim. Such things confused them. Which suited Quillsh just fine. For he was an orphan and so was James Bond. A fact that seemed to miss them entirely. Maybe one day a young Bond might pass within his warden watch; and he could be Q. For more Death Note fan-fiction by Matti, check out He Moves Me Differently - website for the Mello/Matt It Matters series - and those stories written for earlier Death Note News Month of events: Mu Amongst Fools: A Drabble from the Death of Light Yagami and Matsu's Musing, a Decade on: Death Note Matsuda Fan-Fiction.
Light Yagami and L have turned up in cartoon and dialogue within the pages of a Social Studies textbook - destined for the classrooms of South Korean 10th Grade schoolchildren.
This is admittedly old news to those living and learning in South Korea, but we admit its only just turned up in our orbit. The first time the screenshot appeared online was 2009, meaning there's a whole generation of Korean sociologists now used to referencing Kira in their problem-solving. We'd love to know what it says, if any kind Korean speakers care to translate it for us. Thanks in advance! Welcome to our roll call of all the actors ever to have played Quillsh Wammy in the varying adaptations of Death Note. We've hunted them down across the globe and to the best of our ability, here they are. Though please - it's driving us mad - who IS the sungwoo providing a voice for Watari in the Tagalog dub Death Note anime? It's been a mission for so many; each new challenger thinking they were somehow better at internet searching and/or hounding Filipino friends, yet the Tagalog Wammy actor's name alludes us. If you know, we're begging you, put us out of our misery And if you deem this quest to be game on for yourself... you have our utmost sympathy as you stand poised to join our thwarted ranks. Nevertheless, good luck. We're all cheering you on.
There they are! The full roll call of Mr Wammy actors and voice actors (excepting the elusive Tagalog one). Their birthdays have also been added to the Death Note calendar, if known. We are missing the following information, if anyone knows it:
Thanks in advance!
Kinky Mattila has been cosplaying since 2005 with her group Team Fabulous Awesome. Over in their native Finland, TFA have been creating costumes within a raft of fandoms, including Death Note, of course. As the image above amply demonstrates, that means Wammy cosplay too (flanked by his wards Mello and Near courtesy of fellow TFA members). TFA show no sign of waning after more than a decade in costume - 'still doing it happily', Kinky Mattila confirms - with plenty of pictures to fill the TFA-Finland cosplay gallery on DeviantART. But first she has advice to share on cosplaying Mr Wammy. Death Note Costume Tips: How to Cosplay Watari by Kinky Mattila
How would you go about creating a costume for Watari/Mr Wammy? Find at a flea market some suit that fits you and buy some white shirts for men. They are not that expensive here - about like 10euros. Buy some fake moustaches, and a pair of Santa's glasses, then colour them grey. Add men's shoes, of course. A nice wig is also good to get, but your own hair works too. What clothing and/or props do you feel are essential Watari costume items? Men's suit. Is there more to cosplaying Wammy than the outfit? (Look/behaviour etc.) Just to have fun. That is most important to me and nothing else. <3 What's your professional opinion about ready-made Death Note costumes, such as those in our Cosplay Store? Any pieces in there decent enough for a Mr Wammy cosplay? (Be honest!) I haven't looked for any custom made Death Note costumes; but the ones that I found right now, most of them seemed really nice and need just a little bit of changing. Any last tips for anyone reading, who wishes to create their Watari cosplay from scratch? Go look for a cheap men's suit and start from that. :D Nowadays it is way easier to look like a man than it was then (when I cosplayed Watari). But do it!!! GO FOR IT!"!!! You can rock it. :D
Originally, Ohba meant to call this character Shadow, as in L's shadow - a moniker with more than one inferred meaning, which fan-fiction writers would have had great fun exploring. However Death Note's editor pooh-poohed the name, telling Ohba, 'No, no! Anything but that!' Hence the author coming up with Watari, which he explained meant 'handler' in Japanese. Watari's Vital StatisticsKey Dates for Watari
The Auguries of Quillsh Wammy
A Versatile Fixer - The Personality of Quillsh Wammy Death Note 13: How to Read gives us an insight into the character of Quillsh Wammy, at least insofar as his author saw him. The older man scores highly for versatility, talent, initiative/willingness to act, motivation and emotional strength. Not far behind are his only slightly lesser scores for creativity, social skills and intelligence. That he doesn't reach the topmost figure for creativity is a little surprising, given that Wammy made his fortune as an inventor. The ultimate creator, one might think, this side of actual divinity. We do get a hint of the kind of things that Wammy invented, when he turns up in the Death Note manga with belts containing panic buttons. Not exactly Bond's Q, but in the ballpark. As befits a man whose wealth and life has become devoted to raising children, his pet hate is 'dirty rooms'. Presumably plenty of those at Wammy's House. I can't quite see the like of Beyond Birthday, Mello and Near running around with a duster. This is an attribute taken to extreme levels in the Death Note TV drama, wherein guests are sprayed with disinfection at the door. The interior of L's headquarters is kept pristine in its cleanliness, with Watari hurrying in to exchange L's shirt should a mere splash of food stain hit upon it. In most tellings of the Death Note story, it's also inferred that Wammy is a fabulous cook. At least there doesn't seem to be any travelling caterer providing all that confectionery for L that his handler regularly delivers. Though it's nowhere stated that Wammy is an Englishman, it's implied in the location of his main orphanage for the training of gifted and talented orphans - Winchester, in England. A further clue is given in his most favourite thing in the world - Earl Grey tea. It's never truly explained how Watari managed to become such a crack marksman either. His sharp-shooting is such that, in the Death Note manga and anime alike, he's able to fire a bullet which blasts a gun from the hand of Yotsuba's Kyosuke Higuchi, far below him on the ground. Wammy himself hovering over the scene in a helicopter at the time. Nor do we learn where Quillsh Wammy acquired such skill in espionage, though he puts that to good use in Death Note, infiltrating various organizations to gain or deliver information. Not least a gathering of Interpol. Nevertheless he passed on all this knowledge, and the thinking/morality behind it, to the children in his care. Maybe more clues to Watari's character reside in those he raised - how they turned out and what became of them. Complete List of Wammy Kids in Death Note Canon Genius children taken from wherever they lived around the world and installed in Wammy's House, Winchester. Here their 'special talents' were cultivated with a top class education, whereupon they were sent back out into the world to put those skills into practice. All of these individuals were nurtured by Wammy - or at least had their upbringing and training overseen remotely by him, as warden Roger Ruvie took orders from above.
Each skilled Wammy kid set loose on the world was assigned a letter by Watari. In L: Change the World, it's stated that this only occurs with the greatest, most intelligent of the Wammy's House outcrop. Kujo is according stunned to belatedly realise that she was afforded the letter K. Dotted across various adaptations of canon, we've practically got the entire alphabet in Wammy Letters. With Watari himself indicated by the Letter W, only H, I, O, S and U are missing. However, some known Wammy alumni never divulge their letters. We don't, for example, know which Matt was assigned, despite him being third in the Wammy House rankings. Nor yet do we know which letter Ryūzaki will take in the forthcoming movie Death Note 2016, assuming that he takes one at all. Meanwhile, by the end of the manga/anime Death Note stories, Near interchangeably uses both N and L. The latter earned post-Kira. Thus giving an insight into the fact that letters can be taken from their peers by successful rivals/successors from the same Institution. This is a system that Wammy himself must have set up. Along with a code of ethics that apparently accounts for serial killers, abductors, biomedical scientists bent on mass destruction and the propensity of Wammy graduates to think it proper to die - or be killed - for want of a puzzle's solution. The Faces of Watari Adam Wingard's Death Note is likely to start filming in June 2016. But it won't be Warner Bros behind the production anymore. At the moment, it's highly likely to be Netflix. That is the startling news circulating today. It's unknown why Warner Bros. has decided to surrender the project, which it's held firmly in abeyance since 2009. During that time, the studio has ordered script rewrites; actors have been linked with various roles, but the rumours rarely came to fruition; while directors have come and gone, one - we're indebted to you, Shane Black - with horror stories of Warner Bros. US attempting to sanitize the Death Note story out of all comprehension. By the end of 2015 through early 2016, it seemed that Warner Bros. finally had a format which worked for them and all concerned. Adam Wingard was directing; Nat Wolff had signed up to play Kira, with his real life girlfriend Margaret Qualley poised to become the movie's Misa Amane. There was much talk of initial photography beginning in the spring. Hence the shock nature of the news (broken by Justin Kroll at Variety) that Warner Bros. chose now to put their Death Note film 'into turnaround'. Opening up a bidding war which Netflix currently seems set to win. Though SFX and Lionsgate are also strongly in the running. (Anyone else think that something about a Lionsgate Death Note feels so right?) However, there is some speculation that giving up Death Note is part of Warner Bros. previously declared cull on 'homegrown movies', in order to concentrate its resources upon extant franchises known to be successful. The monetary profit for Warner Bros - raised by the sale of its film rights to Death Note - is expected to fall into the ballpark of $40m-$50m. Adam Wingard, Nat Wolff and Margaret Qualley are all apparently still on board, whichever company snaps the movie up. Netflix, of course, already has some data concerning the popularity of Death Note. It recently started streaming full episodes of the anime, so can see for itself how many Western viewers are interested in this particular story. However, it's not yet game over for the other bidders. The current status for Netflix and Death Note is 'in final negotiations', which could pretty much mean anything, besides what it says on the packet. As for fans, it's mostly looking like we will finally get our US live-action Death Note movie, whomever produces it, though it remains to be seen whether that will be available online only, or also released as a theatrical run. US hobby artist Georgina Aquilar likes to create digital art. For Month of Wammy, she turns her attention to her favourite characters from Death Note - Watari and L. Georgina Aguilar describes herself as a hobbyist artist from El Paso, Texas, USA. Her digital art is collected in her gallery on DeviantART, where she is known as Lacie BunCat. Georgina writes, 'I love anime, I been drawing since five years old. Practice towards the years. I love art, so I use different techniques, mostly on Photoshop. And also I'm an Otaku. And I have a lot of my personal comics and fan made ones including one for Death Note.' Lacie-BunCat Tackles Our Artist Questionnaire About Drawing Mr Wammy
What, in your professional opinion, are fundamental tips/advice in producing art that's recognisably Watari? Any thoughts regarding secrets lifted from Takeshi Obata's artwork too? I've never drawn Obata's artwork. I only like Watari and L. What are the common noob errors made in drawing/modelling Quillsh Wammy? Mostly likely his old detail on his face, like adding the wrinkles and all - best wishes to all! No one is expert but you can practice towards time. Any last tips for anyone reading, who wishes to start creating Mr Wammy artwork? Just good luck to anyone and try your best. No-one is an expert, but practicing will make you better.
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