DEATH NOTE + RE-READ

2. L

2008-02-16T13:07:18Z

Sorry for the delay! I signed up for this week at the last minute, and then I had what I thought was a technical problem ~~but was actually stupidity~~. Okay, without further ado, I bring you...

* I used scans for the images and quotes from the Viz translation.

**I ask direct questions in this post but feel free to discuss anything--don't limit yourself to my questions.

Synopsis

During a G8 summit at ICPO (Interpol) headquarters, members discuss the heart attacks occurring worldwide. Several ICPO members put forth their own theories about the killings, and someone suggests that this is a case for L. A police chief tells his subordinate that L is a "sleuth...[who] has solved countless...cases so far." ICPO does not have to ask L to help, for he has already taken an interest in the case. His aide, Watari, appears in front of the ICPO members with a laptop, through which L states that he must have the full cooperation of international law enforcement to work on the case.

Meanwhile, Light walks home with some classmates. The boys share some light-hearted banter about the deaths before Light goes home and checks his death note. He tells Ryuk, "Until I see [the death note], when I'm at school or anywhere else, I just can't relax." He then shows Ryuk the number of pro-Kira (as people and/or media have dubbed the person(s) behind the killings) sites that have flourished on the internet, noting that he dislikes the moniker 'Kira'.

Suddenly, the program playing on Light's television is interrupted by an announcement from Lind L. Tailor, who purports to be L. At the same time, ICPO watches the broadcast. Tailor says Kira is evil, which enrages Light. Light writes Tailor's name in the death note and gloats as Tailor dies on air. Then, a voice-over reveals that the real L is not only alive, but that he dares Kira to kill him. Light is, of course, unable to do so. L tauntingly thanks Kira for helping him find some important clues: Kira doesn't have the power to kill just *anyone*, and since the announcement was only broadcast in the Kanto region, Kira must be there as well. L and Light both claim that they are righteous and will hunt the other down.

* * * * * *

Characters

Yagami Light - Highly intelligent student who uses the death note to kill criminals; now known to the world as Kira.
Ryuk - The death god who dropped the death note in the human world, and who now is 'bonded' to Light.
L - A mysterious detective, known for solving 'unsolvable' cases, who takes on the Kira case.
Watari - L's mysterious aide. Nothing else is known about him at this time.
Yagami Soichiro (unnamed) - A Japanese police chief at the ICPO meeting to discuss the killings.
Matsuda Touta (unnamed) - A novice Japanese police officer at the ICPO meeting to discuss the killings.
Lind L. Tailor - A death row convict who acts as L on TV.

Rules

- This note shall become the property of the human world once it touches the ground of (arrives in) the human world.
- The owner of the note can recognize the image and voice of its original owner, i.e., a god of death.
- The human who uses this note can neither go to Heaven nor Hell.

* * * * * *

First Impressions

"Commonly in detective fiction, the investigator has some source of income other than detective work and some undesirable eccentricities or striking characteristics". (emphasis mine) -- from wikipedia's entry on Detective fiction.

Well, almost first impressions. L is shown at the end of Chapter 1, though his name and role are not clear until Chapter 2. L's popularity as a character owes in some part to his design and unconventional (for a detective) looks. Readers have noted that he looks nothing like the stereotypical tweedy detective. Indeed, in the following panels, Watari looks more the detective part than L:

Some readers have said that, based on his introduction in this chapter, they thought L would be a typical bishonen. Still others thought it a deliberate act of misdirection on Obha's part, to reveal little of L's looks and personality initially only to thwart our expectations later. I'm not sure about that--I think Obha was making it up as he went along--but I was intrigued by L in this chapter nonetheless. I didn't know what to expect. If anything, Watari was the one who surprised me. At ICPO, he's clad in a kind of badass-looking trenchcoat, but later he reminds me usually reminds me of Alfred Pennyworth--both his demeanour and his role.

But whether you think he looks like a bishie or just weird, L does fit the stereotype of the eccentric detective, which brings me back to the quotation at the start of this section. Did L capture your interest this early in the manga, and if he did, did he live up to your expectations? How did your first impressions inform or affect how you looked at L or Watari later?

An Emotional Killing

Chapter 2 is notable for introducing L, but it has another first as well: Lind L. Tailor is Kira's first non-criminal--as far as Light knows, anyway--killing. This is the first time that Light really loses his grip (not counting his nausea and sleeplessness from the first days of using the note). Light looks maniacal in some panels, and he even scrawls Tailor's name across an entire page of the death note--unlike his other killings, for which the notebook's pages were covered efficiently with tiny script.

When I first read this chapter, I wasn't very surprised to see Light lose his cool so quickly; with an ego like his, of course he'd consider pseudo-L's confrontational tone an affront. He even says that L shouldn't mess with (in the Viz translation) "Lord Kira". To say that Light is self-aggrandizing might be an understatement. It's understandable if some readers lose any sympathy they had for Light now, but to tell the truth, I was still torn at this point. How about you--how did this incident affect your perception of Light, or increase your sympathy/antipathy for him?

Technology

I find the role(s) of technology throughout Death Note particularly interesting in the ways that Light, his supporters, and his opponents use it (but that's a whole other post). In this chapter, technology is used to garner support for Kira, and it is also instrumental in effecting his first defeat. The technologies in question--Internet and television--are among the most common types of household technology today. Also, they are both used primarily for entertainment or leisure in the typical home. It's a little unsettling how Light's classmates treat the Kira killings like a joke. But even something as serious as unexplained, impossible mass murders seems like entertainment once it's on TV or the 'net (and in the live-action movie, in text messages and chat rooms...).

Light tells Ryuk that many people secretly support Kira or similar ideologies, but they don't admit it because they'd rather "act all virtuous...But on the anonymous Internet, 'Kira' rules." So it's ironic that whereas the Internet secures Kira's dominance without his having to compromise his identity, television helps L win the first battle. And although it is only necessary for Kira to see the broadcast and respond, many others see it in Japan, ICPO, etc., and it is reported in the news afterward. As the manga shows, having witnesses--and thus, supporters, believers, or followers--is as important as the event itself. This is true whether you believe Kira or L is righteous.

A basic difference between Internet and television is that the former has the potential to be collaborative and accessible--anyone can say something on the 'net--and the latter is owned and regulated by powerful groups. Given what you think of the Internet and human nature, do you agree with Light's statement about people's insincerity and the appeal of Internet anonymity? And because it is a big plot point--what do you think was the most important part (strategically or otherwise) of L's televised confrontation/challenge to Kira?

1. Boredom

2008-02-07T23:08:45Z

Hey all, hope you haven't completely forgotten about this tiny little start-up comm. It's Thursday, and since no one volunteered for the first chapter, I'll get the ball rolling. Please, don't be shy, and sign up! I don't want this comm to be fusakugyoku's Soapbox time. ^^ But it's just as well, I suppose, since the idea of what this comm is all about hasn't been totally cemented yet.

My info and opinions on chapter one are below~ Warning: long and ranty, but I'm sure you were expecting it. Comments and discussions, go!

I am using the OT and WTF scanlations, simply because they're what's on my harddrive, they're easier to provide scans for, and I don't have my Viz copy on campus with me. It should still work. Also, I am so sure that I missed some point I want to talk about.

Summary:
The Shinigami Ryuk drops his notebook of death in the human world, where it is picked up by an idealistic, intelligent Japanese high school student named Yagami Light. Initially dismissing it as a dark prank, Light seems to take little interest in the mysterious Death Note, until he is visited personally by Ryuk, who has come to see what human has discovered his note. Much to Ryuk's amazement, Light has actually been actively using the Death Note, writing out death sentences of hundreds of criminals in the span of five short days. Light's initial intent was to satisfy his morbid curiosity, but after discovering the Note's potency, he makes a conviction to use his newfound power to rid the world of the infestation of dark hearts and criminals, even at the potential cost of his mind. As he explains to Ryuk, Light wants his presence to be known in order to influence society to do good-- and to rule over the subsequent era as a god. Meanwhile, Interpol has noticed to the shocking influx of criminal deaths, and a mysterious young man looks on the proceedings from afar...

Characters:
Ryuk: God of Death who drops his Death Note in the human world. At first, it seems that he did so out of accident, but we soon discover it was a deliberate act in attempt to cure his boredom.
Yagami Light: Idealistic, intelligent high school senior who picks up the Death Note. Very few character descriptions fail to bring up these adjectives.
Yagami Sachiko: Light's mother. Her few lines suggest that there may be pressure (or a feeling of obligation) on Light to succeed in school.
Otoharada Kurou: Serial killer who takes a preschool hostage. Light's first victim, killed when Light tries the Note out of curiosity.
Shibuimaru Takuo: Wild bike who harasses a young woman. Light's second victim, to confirm the Note's powers.
???: Mysterious young man observing Interpol's discussion on the serial deaths of criminals.

Rules:
= The human whose name is written in the note shall die.
= The note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.
= If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen.
= If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.
= After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

Impression:
I was fourteen years old when I first read up the Death Note manga, way back in early 2004, I believe. Just a few months before, I had read the pilot chapter, which I really only examined out of morbid curiosity-- a one-shot drawn by Obata Takeshi, with that frightening, fascinating word "Death" in the title. (I was really easily scared back then, and "horror stories" was like an exotic, forbidden concept to me. Actually, it's not that different now, four years later.) Like Light, I picked up Death Note almost on accident, but it changed my world.
I had been expecting something like the pilot chapter in the series: a creepy notebook, a wide-eyed shounen, and a horror-story sequence of events completed with a pretty and clean ending that wrapped everything up with a nice moral message. The series has been completely different, but it certainly didn't disappoint me. While the horror elements had decreased, there was another sort of thrill in this first chapter. Seeing Light bust out the Note with a million names on it really drew me into the story; watching him kill Shibuimaru with a flick of his wrist made me a convert. I think it was at that moment and this became my favorite manga of all time.

Commentary:
Parallelism between Light and Ryuk: both see their respective worlds as corrupt, but in different ways, and both claim to be acting out of boredom. Ryuk is bored out of his brains with the decrepit mindlessness of the lazy Shinigami, all of which have no ambition and are too easily satisfied. Light similarly dislikes the state of his world, but for a rather different reason-- humans are too ambitious and too unsatisfied; Light observes that people are willing to harm others out of selfishness, and even the harmless cram students will break the rules and complain about their states. Throughout the series, Ryuk comments about comparisons between Shinigami and humans, but often it seems that Shinigami are even a little purer; it's better to have no motivation at all than to be obsessively greedy and selfish, it seems. Light's boredom is a little different from Ryuk's, it seems. Ryuk's boredom seems to fit our normal connotations of the word-- unbreakable monotony-- but Light is actively trying to make the world a better place, not to decrease monotony, but to decrease evil. Again, Light himself is the human, more ambitious than his shinigami counterpart.

Consequences of sin: Light clearly uses the Death Note in anticipation of divine punishment; he believes his cause is worth dying for. At this point, whether one agrees with his aim or his methods at all, it seems admirable that he would be wiling to sacrifice himself in an attempt to improve the world. However, Ryuk tells him that there is no concrete negative consequence for his actions, I sort of feel like he got way too excited-- if there are no consequences, then he doesn't have to really have reservations. It was a little disturbing to me-- he doesn't consider morality or the worth of a human life as consequences in themselves . I still can't decide if I think this makes him typical or atypical of the human race-- do we as a species generally try to do good and avoid evil because we're moral creatures who want what's right or because some part of us is afraid of some kind of consequence, whether it be something tangible like the law or religion, or something more intangible like karma or even the fear that we will feel guilty or deteriorate as humans if we become accustomed to evil? This clearly isn't a story in which a man does evil without considering the consequences; he embraces them... at least, for now.

God complex: I've heard it said (particularly by Kira supporters) that Light's goal was good, that even his methods were justified to a certain extent, but that his only downfall was that he aimed to be a god. I don't really personally agree about the goal or methods (I happen to be against capital punishment, but that's aside the point) but downfall? Yes, it seems to be a contributing factor, major classic hubris. I wonder if Light would still have this specific ambition on top of his whole World Spring Cleaning idea if Ryuk hadn't told him that there would be no divine punishment for his deeds. At the same time, this scene really develops him, and I think it cements the reader's opinion of the character; before it, I felt sickened at his actions, but a little part of me still nodded when he moaned the depravity of the world. At this, I made up my mind that he wasn't doing the right thing. Other people who support Light might say that he could have made his perfect world without this complex; it's an issue I want to hear a lot of other people's opinions on.

Anime vs manga: I was actually really disappointed when I saw the anime ep because, if I recall correctly, it didn't keep the non-linear storytelling that I found absolutely brilliant in the manga. I was highly impressed with Ohba's technique of showing Light coming home from school, talking to his mother, as if only one day had passed and nothing of consequence had occurred, then busting out his notebook with all the names, a total shock as we realize that five days have passed and "dang, is this guy a psychopath or what?!" Ohba totally led me on, I was totally punk'd. Alas, the anime didn't have that, but it did have the gorgeous pen-is-mightier-than-the-sword scene and the bit with the sunlight slowly covering Light's face, two beautiful sequences that could not be captured in the still image. It redeemed itself a little bit.

Everything else:
Just a side note: "YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE!" (Does anyone know the Viz translation of this line? I don't have my Viz copy on me.) I think we can assume that the chosen ones are Light and L (or L and his team of orphan lackeys), although others might interpret it differently (Light and the world, Light and evil, whatever). Of course, Ryuk says that he didn't "choose" Light at all, so what's the deal with this line? Is it said out of irony? Perhap the meaning of it depends on one's interpretation of the series; those who would say that the series is nihilist and without any moral message whatsoever might say that there is no force that chooses anyone, so the line is out of place or meaningless; those with a more traditional outlook, I suppose, might call it fate, a force that is clearly greater than the shinigami and thus controls life and death. In truth, I'm actually a bit more inclined to believe that Ohba just said this to sound impressive; s/he actually admits that Death Note was written to be more pulpy than serious literature. This is my theory, and it makes Ohba seem a little weak as a writer. Someday I would really love to ask him/her to clarify this! but considering how mysterious the elusive Ohba is, it would never happen.

Chapter sign-ups

2008-01-25T04:34:21Z

Sign-up for chapter assignments here, by replying. All sign-ups are generally first-come-first-serve, but individuals who have not previously hosted a chapter will have precedence over those who already have.

For formatting and rules, please see community info.

Any chapters that do not get an assignment one week before the due-date will be taken over by a mod~

Page 1 : Boredom (due 7 February 2008) - fusakugyoku
Page 2 : L (due 14 February 2008) - nobutterflies
Page 3 : Family (due 21 February 2008) - unassigned
Page 4 : Current (due 28 February 2008) - unassigned
Special Topic 1 : free topic (due 28 February 2008) - unassigned

Page 5 : Eyeballs (due 6 March 2008) - unassigned
Page 6 : Manipulation
Page 7 : Target
Page 8 : Woman
Page 9 : Slots
Page 10 : Confluence
Page 11 : One
Page 12 : God
Page 13 : Countdown
Page 14 : Temptation
Page 15 : Phone Call
Page 16 : Handstand
Page 17 : Trash
Page 18 : Gaze
Page 19 : Humiliation
Page 20 : First Move
Page 21 : Duplicity
Page 22 : Misfortune
Page 23 : Hard Run
Page 24 : Shield
Page 25 : Fool
Page 26 : Reversal
Page 27 : Love
Page 28 : Judgement
Page 29 : Weapon
Page 30 : Bomb
Page 31 : Easy
Page 32 : Gamble
Page 33 : Removal
Page 34 : Imprisonment
Page 35 : Whiteout
Page 36 : Father & Son
Page 37 : Eight
Page 38 : Strike
Page 39 : Separation
Page 40 : Allies
Page 41 : Matsuda
Page 42 : Heaven
Page 43 : Black
Page 44 : Successor
Page 45 : Crazy
Page 46 : Ill-Suited
Page 47 : Impertinence
Page 48 : Give-and-Take
Page 49 : Potted Plant
Page 50 : Yotsuba
Page 51 : Misunderstanding
Page 52 : Split-Second
Page 53 : Scream
Page 54 : Inside
Page 55 : Creation
Page 56 : Embrace
Page 57 : Two Choices
Page 58 : Feelings Within

Hiatus : Death Note Pilot

Page 59 : Zero
Page 60 : Kidnapping
Page 61 : Number Two
Page 62 : Decision
Page 63 : Target
Page 64 : Right Angle
Page 65 : Responsibility
Page 66 : Death
Page 67 : Button
Page 68 : Discovered!
Page 69 : Fight
Page 70 : Tremble
Page 71 : Contact
Page 72 : Verification
Page 73 : Cornered
Page 74 : A Fine Performance
Page 75 : Acknowledgment
Page 76 : Greetings
Page 77 : Use
Page 78 : Prediction
Page 79 : Lies
Page 80 : Clean-Up
Page 81 : Warning
Page 82 : Himself
Page 83 : Delete
Page 84 : Coincidence
Page 85 : Election
Page 86 : Japan
Page 87 : Tomorrow
Page 88 : Conversation
Page 89 : Kindred Spirits
Page 90 : Preview
Page 91 : Standstill
Page 92 : Night
Page 93 : Decision
Page 94 : Outside
Page 95 : Convinced
Page 96 : Meanwhile
Page 97 : Miscellaneous
Page 98 : Everybody
Page 99 : The Two
Page 100 : Face to Face
Page 101 : Inducement
Page 102 : Patience
Page 103 : Declaration
Page 104 : The Answer
Page 105 : Impossible
Page 106 : Intent to Kill
Page 107 : Curtain
Page 108 : Finis