Death Note
Death Note (デスノート, Desu Nōto?) is a
manga series created by writer
Tsugumi Ohba and manga artist
Takeshi Obata. The main character is
Light Yagami, a high school student who discovers a
supernatural notebook, the "Death Note", dropped on Earth by a death god named
Ryuk. It centers around Light's attempt to create and rule a world cleansed of evil using the notebook and the efforts of a detective known as
L, and subsequently his successors, Near and Mello, to stop him. The Death Note grants its user the ability to kill anyone whose name they know, by writing the name in the notebook while picturing their face.
Death Note was first serialized in 108 chapters by
Shueisha in the Japanese manga magazine
Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 2003 to May 2006. The series was also published in
tankōbon format in Japan starting in May 2004 and ending in October 2006 with a total of twelve volumes. The series was adapted into
live-action films released in Japan on June 17, 2006, on November 3, 2006, and on February 2, 2008. The
anime series aired in Japan from October 3, 2006, to June 26, 2007. Composed of 37 episodes, the anime was developed by
Madhouse and directed by
Tetsuro Araki. A
light novel based on the series, written by
Nisio Isin, was released in Japan. Additionally, various video games have been published by
Konami for
Nintendo DS.
Viz Media licensed the
Death Note manga in North America and has published all the twelve volumes from the series as well as the light novel. The episodes from the anime first appeared in North America as downloadable by
IGN. Viz later licensed the anime series and it aired on
Bionix. The live-actions briefly played in certain North American theaters since 2008. However, none of the video games titles have thus far been published in North America.
Several publications for manga, anime and other media have added praise and criticism on the
Death Note series. The plot and violence from the story have been praised, noting it to be very interesting. However, the series was banned in China due to various problems people had with children altering their notebooks to resemble a Death Note.
On April 30, 2009,
Variety magazine announced that
Warner Bros. acquired the rights for the
Death Note manga to be adapted into a live-action movie in the United States. Warner Bros. has hired screenwriters Charley and
Vlas Parlapanides to adapt the manga into a screenplay. Unlike the Japanese
Death Note live-action movie trilogy, the US-version will be directly adapted from the material in the manga and will not follow the storyline of the Japanese movie adaptations.
As of January 3, 2011, IMDb has listed the movie under pre-production with a tentative release date in 2011.
Plot
Light Yagami is a genius high school student who resents the relentless increase of crime and corruption in the world around him. His life undergoes a drastic change when he discovers a mysterious notebook, known as the "Death Note", lying on the ground. The Death Note's instructions claim that if a human's name is written within it, that person shall die, as well as various other rules. Though Light is initially skeptical of the notebook's authenticity, he realizes that the Death Note is real after experimenting with it on criminals. After meeting with the previous owner of the Death Note, a
shinigami named Ryuk, Light plans to become a
god and establish a new
world order by passing his keen judgment on those he deems evil and anyone who gets in his way.
Soon, the number of inexplicable deaths of reported criminals catches the attention of
International Police Organization and a mysterious detective known only as "
L". L quickly learns that the serial killer, dubbed by the public as "Kira"
(キラ?, derived from the typical Japanese pronunciation of the English word "killer"), is located in Japan. He also concludes that Kira can kill people without laying a finger on them and that he is in Japan after using a convicted criminal named Lind L. Tailor, whose capture was kept secret and who was condemned to die at that hour, and pretending Tailor is L so that Kira would kill him. He then reveals this was only being broadcast in the Kanto region of Japan, and that the first Kira killing was of a criminal only broadcast in Japan. Light realizes that L will be his greatest nemesis, and a nuanced game of psychological
cat and mouse between the two begins.
L realizes Kira is getting information from inside the task force and sends 12 FBI agents to follow people connected to the Japanese police. Light tricks Raye Penber, his tail, into showing his ID, after which he kills all the FBI agents. Naomi Misora, Raye's fiancee, suspects Kira was one of the people he tailed, but Light finds out and makes her commit suicide using the Death Note.
Noticing Raye Penber's odd behaviour, and the fact that Raye's fiancee is missing, L begins to suspect those Raye Penber was investigating, and places cameras in their homes. Light realises their presence, but continues the killings with help from a minature TV. L finally decides to remove the cameras, and enrolls at the same university as Light. His suspicions grow of Light, but he asks him to join the taskforce.
Misa Amane, another Death Note owner, finds Light, after sending a video in which she claims to be Kira. She possesses Shinigami eyes which allow her to see a person's name and lifespan, but at the cost of half her remaining lifespan to obtain this information. Ryuk offered Light Shinigami eyes when Raye Penber was following him but Light declined. Obsessed with Kira after the death of her parents' murderer who was being acquitted for lack of evidence, she devotes herself to helping Light, but is captured by L. Light makes a plan involving renouncing ownership of both Death Notes and all of his memories of them, and turns himself in to L for surveillance, as Rem threatens to kill him if Misa is not freed. Together, Light and L investigate eight people from the company "Yotsuba" who are using a Death Note for their own profit. While arresting the third Kira Higuchi, Light recovers all his memories when he touches the Death Note. Using a death note fragment in his watch, he kills Higuichi thus becoming the owner of the Death Note. He remembers and continues his plan of compelling the former owner of Misa's Death Note, the
shinigami Rem, into killing L and his assistant Watari, which causes Rem to lose her life, as a Shinigami is not allowed to purposely extend a human's life. Light then gets her Death Note. Meanwhile, Misa again acquires her memories and the Shinigami eyes from Ryuk.
After L's death, Light is given the position of the "new L" by the Japanese Task Force. Four years later, Near and Mello - two children who were raised to be successors to L in an orphanage founded by Watari - appear, with the goal of finding Kira. In the meantime, Kira has gained much public support, and has contacts. Mello, one of L's successors who has joined the Mafia, kidnaps the Director of the NPA, but after Kira kills him, he kidnaps Sayu Yagami, Light's little sister, as a bargaining chip to get the Death Note. The Japanese Task Force plans to go to Los Angeles to rescue Sayu but ends up losing the Notebook. The Task Force later attempts to retrieve it and succeeds in doing so, they also get Mello's real name due to Sochiro making the deal for Shinigami eyes with Ryuk. However, as a result of an explosion that Mello uses to cover his escape and one of his henchmen, Light's father Soichiro Yagami dies.
Near begins to suspect the second L of being Kira thus causing some members of the Japanese task force to also openly suspect him. Realizing the risk of being caught, Light has Misa give up ownership of her Death Note. He then finds his next successor, Teru Mikami, a strong, almost crazed Kira supporter, who trades for the shinigami eyes and kills Kira's last spokesman - for his greed - who helped Near escape from a crowd of Kira supporters. Mikami later recruits a new spokesman for Kira, Kiyomi Takada, a newscaster and one of Light's former college girlfriends. Teru Mikami and Kiyomi Takada continue killing criminals while Light is unable to do so himself. Kiyomi is later kidnapped by Mello and is forced to kill him with a hidden piece of the Death Note. Light kills Kiyomi by making her commit suicide by setting fire to the location and everything she wrote on, to avoid her implicating him after she uses the note to kill Mello. Mikami, unaware of this action, writes her name in his notebook which is hidden in a bank vault, exposing it to the members of the SPK. Near has its pages replaced with a fake version and, in a final confrontation with Light, is able to use it to prove that Light is Kira. Realizing that Light had lost, Ryuk writes down Light's name in his own notebook, killing him with a
heart attack.
Manga
The
Death Note manga series was first serialized in the Japanese manga magazine
Weekly Shōnen Jump published by
Shueisha in December 2003. The series has since ended in Japan with a total of 108 chapters. Later, the individual chapters were collected into twelve separate
tankōbon. In April from 2005
Death Note was licensed for publication in North America by
Viz Media,
[12] and the first
English-language volume was released on October 10, 2005.
[13] In February 2008, a
one-shot special was released. Set two years after the manga's epilogue, it sees the introduction of a new Kira and the reactions of the main characters in response to the copycat's appearance.
[14] Several
Death Note yonkoma (four-panel comics) appeared in
Akamaru Jump. The yonkoma were written to be humorous. The
Akamaru Jump issues that printed the comics include 2004 Spring, 2004 Summer, 2005 Winter, and 2005 Spring. In addition
Weekly Shōnen Jump Gag Special 2005 included some
Death Note yonkoma in a
Jump Heroes Super 4-Panel Competition.
[10]
In addition, a guidebook for the manga was also released in October 13, 2006. It was named
Death Note 13: How to Read and contained data relating to the series, including character profiles of almost every character that is named, creator interviews, behind the scenes info for the series and the pilot chapter that preceded
Death Note. It also reprinted all of the yonkoma serialized in
Akamaru Jump and the
Weekly Shōnen Jump Gag Special 2005.
[15][16] Its first edition could be purchased with a Death Note themed diorama which includes five finger puppets inspired by Near's toys. The five finger puppets are Kira, L,
Misa,
Mello, and
Near. In North America,
13: How to Read was released on February 19, 2008.
[17]
Anime
The
Death Note anime, directed by
Tetsurō Araki and animated by
Madhouse, began airing in Japan on October 3, 2006, and finished its run on June 26, 2007, totaling 37 twenty-minute episodes.
[37] It begins in the year 2006, instead of 2003. The series aired on the
Nippon Television network "every Tuesday at 24:56".
[38] The series was co-produced by Madhouse, Nippon Television,
Shueisha,
D.N. Dream Partners and
VAP.
[39]
In North America, the series has been licensed by Viz for residents in the United States to use "Download-to-Own" and "Download-to-Rent" services while it was still airing in Japan. This move is seen as "significant because it marks the first time a well known Japanese anime property will be made legally available to domestic audiences for download to own while the title still airs on Japanese television."
[40] The downloadable episodes contain the original Japanese audio track and English subtitles,
[41] and is available through
IGN's
Windows-only Direct2Drive service.
[42] DVDs of the series are also being released,
[41] containing both an English dubbed audio track, produced by
Ocean Productions, and the original Japanese audio track with optional English subtitles.
[43] Viz announced at
Anime Expo 2007 that the first DVD was officially released on November 20, 2007, in both regular and special editions,
[44] and also confirmed at
Comic-Con International 2007 that the first 15,000 copies of each DVD contains collectible figures.
[45]
Death Note was slated to make its North American television premiere in Canada on
YTV's Bionix programming block on September 7, 2007;
[46] however, the show was removed from the schedule at the last minute.
[47] The Canadian premiere was pushed back to October 26, 2007, at 10:00 p.m., when it finally premiered.
Death Note premiered in the U.S. on October 20, 2007, at 11:30 p.m. on Cartoon Network's
Adult Swim,
[48] until January 10, 2010, when the contract expired.
[49] The last episode aired on Canada's YTV channel on July 4, 2008, and on
Adult Swim two days later. YTV took away the show on July 5, 2008, with the last airing being the last episode rerun at 1:30 a.m.
ET, as part of YTV moving the Bionix block to a 2-hour only block on Saturdays.
[50] The show also streamed online for free on Adult Swim Video, with a new episode available every Saturday afternoon, on the day of its broadcast premiere.
[51]
A two-hour animated
Death Note Rewrite: Visions of a God' (DEATH NOTEリライト·幻視する神, Desu Nōto Riraito: Genshisuru kami?) TV special aired on Nippon Television in Japan on August 31, 2007, at 8:00 p.m. It is a recap which takes place after the series end, where a Shinigami approaches Ryuk in the Shinigami realm in order to learn more about the human world. Instead, Ryuk tells him of all the events leading up to the last story arc, about Light Yagami and his rival L. Originally, this special was advertised as a retelling told from Ryuk's point of view, but it does not give a different point of view from what was originally told. However, it contains updated dialog, as well as a few new scenes.
[52]
The Japanese broadcaster NTV aired the
Death Note: Rewrite 2: L's Successors (Death Note Rewrite 2: L o Tsugu Mono) special on August 22, 2008. Like the first special, this new compilation summarized a part of the 2006–2007 television anime series. Specifically, it recounted the final half of the suspenseful supernatural story, including the investigators Near and Mello's confrontations with the vigilante Kira.
[53] This version features more updates than the previous one, most notably omission of the mafia plot.