Viz Media Releasing Death Note DVD Box Set

A brand new DVD box set for Death Note is coming out on November 4th 2014.

There's no Viz press release accompanying it. It's just mysteriously appeared on Amazon, where it's currently available for pre-order.

This is possibly to tie in with the sudden flurry of interest in Takeshi Obata again, as he's the artist behind another recently released Viz title All You Need is Kill.

Plus, you know, he'll be at New York Comic Com and all, where a whole new cohort of potential Death Note fans are sure to discover him.  Though you'd think that a November release date would be slightly missing the boat, if that was the reasoning behind it.

But who are we to quibble over speculations?  There's something new in the Death Note world!  Hurrah!

So how new precisely is this?  Comparing this with the extant Viz Death Note Box Set 1, the answer is not a great deal.

• Both have five DVDs covering the first 20 episodes of the Death Note anime.
• Both have a variety of formats (widescreen et al).
• Both are 500 minutes long.
• Both give you the choice between the English dub or the Japanese original.
• Both have subtitles, which may be switched on or off.
• Both have 'one hour of extra content' (same wording on all).
• Both have audio commentaries.
• Both have an interview with the Japanese creators. That's the anime creators not Ohba and Obata by the way.
• Both have behind the scenes with the English voice cast.

Death Note: Set 1

In fact, insofar as I can tell, the only difference is that the newer version has a different picture on the front cover, and a release date six years after the first. Anyone tempted?

More Death Note anime box sets here