Category: Death Note

Short Synopsis: Kira’s deaths have been benificial to the Yotsuba-group, and L finally manages to find this out. Meanwhile, the police has had to give up chasing after Kira. Good: Aizawa Bad: What is the Yotsuba-group anyway? Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10 Ah, yeah. After last week’s climax, we’ve again got a number of quiet episodes of building up, before the show can reach another climax. This episode was dedicated to introduce the suspicions about the Yotsuba-group, and to get rid of Aizawa. The former wasn’t really that exciting, but Aizawa was pretty interesting. I’m wondering whether it’s really goodbye for him now, or that we’ll see him again. Next on the list to go is probably Matsuda. This episode gave a few very clear hints that he’s absolutely useless, except for getting some coffee. This is probably getting worse, until he breaks and leaves. Or gets involved in some kind of plot twist. ^_^ The fight between Light and L also was pretty amusing, but I’d wish that Light would turn back to his old self. He’s got a really dull character right now. More than that, I want to see Ryuk back, and I want to see how he’ll react to the Yotsuba-group. Speaking of the devil, what is up with them? Heck, what kind of company are they anyway? What would they be doing so that deaths of criminals actually are beneficial to them. I mean, that shouldn’t be too hard to investigate? Why didn’t we hear any deductions about that? I’m also beginning to suspect that one person in the Yotsuba-group indeed has a death-note for himself. One of these eight has it, but he hasn’t told the others about it. That’s why they assumed one of them to be Kira, because they couldn’t tell the difference between the deaths by Kira and the deaths by the mysterious member.]]>

Short Synopsis: After day fifty (!) of confinement, Light and Misa finally get released. Good: Misa looked beautiful when she was in the car. Bad: Don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming. Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10 Dammit, just when I thought that this anime was so good with surprises it comes with this episode. Why did it have to be so mysterious when it was obvious that Light’s father was acting all along? It would have been way better off focusing on Light’s and Misa’s reaction to this, the people who didn’t know anything. Speaking of the two of them, they acted awfully normal for people who had been locked up for fifty days. Especially Misa. You’d think she’d go at least a bit crazy, but she’s immediately back to her normal self when her blindfolds are taken off. I really would have liked to see how the confinement changed them, but the only changes that came from them were because of the effects of their resignments of the Death Notes. Still, this episode showed something very interesting regarding the Death Notes. The only thing that the resignation of the Death Note did for Light was lose his memory of everything related to the Death Note, and anything what would make him remember it, but nothing more. That’s why he forgot how he wanted to manipulate Misa, because of her power, but he didn’t forget Misa herself. (On a side-note: what would happen if L showed Light the “L, do you know Shinigami love apples?”-note to him once more). Still, based on this, you’d think his personality would remain the same. Rather bored with society, wanting to do something, not really caring for anything. But interestingly enough, he suddenly turned into a goody two-shoe. This shows how a Death Note is able to influence people. I’m suspecting that Light actually had the same personality before he found the Death Note, though he had lots of doubts about his life-style. When the Death Note arrived, and he saw what he could do with it, his true self suddenly started opening up. And also about L’s building. What the heck? Why does he need such a high building in order to search for Kira? Why is he willing to spend so much money on the search for Kira, why does he say that he’s determined to catch the real Kira, when he also releases the number one suspect of Kira from confinement? I mean, he could have just left him there for a couple of more months, to see what happens, while continuing the investigation on Kira by himself. If I had to guess, it was to get the police officer’s trust on the case back. I can imagine that the team must’ve been falling apart for the weeks in which he did nothing but observe Misa and Kira. That’s probably why he let them go, but still ordered their 24/7 supervision. It’ll also be interesting to see how Light will get his Death Note back. I mean, I just know he left some hints behind while he still had his memory, but it’ll be pretty tricky to do this when he’s continuously tied to L. Also, seeing as this episode marks the end of the Misa-arc, a new arc is about to start. It’s probably going to be the Yotsuba-group-arc. This episode already left a little teaser. A really vague teaser, actually. We seem to be dealing with a powerful company, which is run by eight people. Takahashi Ei’ichi, Higuchi Kyousuke, Ooi Takeshi, Namikawa Reiji, Kida Masahiko, Midou Shingo, Hatori Arayoshi and Shimura Suguru. Apparently, Kira’s murders were incredibly benificial for them, so they conclude that Kira’s one of them. They make lots of theories, but most of them miss the mark. It’s interesting to compare the Misa-arc to the Naomi-arc. Both had their good and their bad points. During the Misa-Arc, Light really had some great moments, after finding out that there’s a second Kira, for example, and of course his involvement in the great plot twists in the episodes 14 to 16. During the Naomi-arc, I feel that Light’s planning talents were better executed. Not to say that he got dumb in the Misa-arc, but his strategies in this arc just didn’t match up to the great plans he had in order to track and kill Ray Penbar, and not to mention to fix the holes in these plans. The Naomi-arc also had an amazing ending, while the Misa-arc ended rather dull, like we saw in this episode. I also liked how the Naomi-arc was nice and down to earth, in opposition to the huge events in the Misa-arc. That did make sure of some amazing plot twists, though. It’s interesting to note that both arcs were troubled by some moments of convenient timing.]]>

Short Synopsis: In order to avoid getting killed by Rem, Light must save Misa. In this episode, he executes his brilliant plan. Good: Definitely a unique episode; I love it when my favourite anime start using memory loss as a plot device. Bad: Didn’t Light write down the names of criminals for four weeks in advance in case he’d end up in the hospital for some reason? Did he stop doing that? Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 Before I start, I’m sorry for the delays I’ve been having. My studies came with a pretty obnoxious deadline, so I haven’t been blogging as much as I’d like to. Right now, I’m going to try to catch up with my backlog, though I’m fearing that some shows are going to have to be dropped. Anyway, about the episode, I loved it! Light’s plan: turn yourself in, pretend to be Kira subconsciously, and get locked up. Beforehand, bury the Death Note somewhere where nobody can go, and leave some hints that only you can understand, so that only you can find it back, also give Rem’s Death Note back. Once in prison, wait a few days, and then forfeit ownership of your own Death Note. Because of this, you’ll lose your memory and start blabbering nonsense because of the situation. Get released, find clues and get back your Death Note. Still, there still remain a few questions, which will have to wait till the next episode to get answered. How will Light get out of prison? The end of the episode showed a nice twist, but will it really be enough for L to release him? Also, why did he have to go through such huge lengths to save Misa? Why is him being confined necessary to free her? Still, this plan may have been nice, the really good parts were the mind games the characters played with each other. This episode was one of the most emotional Death Note episodes yet, and it made great use of the memory loss to confuse the heck out of L, while L turned the Light without his memories crazy in his turn, by confining him for two weeks. Light’s father also was brilliant in his worries about his son.]]>

Short Synopsis: Before Light gets the chance to kill L, L makes his move. Let’s just say that Misa didn’t like this. Good: Death Note is getting more exiting by the minute! This episode had some awesome plot twists. Bad: L’s timing may have been a bit too perfect. Overall Enjoyment Value: 8.5/10 Ah, of course. L can’t just die in front of everyone from a heart attack, since if that’s the case, Light will be getting all the blame. Instead, he had to set up a scene. L, however, managed to beat Light to it. Indeed, if the two Kira’s have teamed up, it means big trouble for L. Especially if Light happens to be Kira. After the introduction, things start out very light, when Light runs into L, and Misa runs into the two of them later. L then starts behaving like an idiot. It’s pretty funny, but then the episode suddenly turns extremely serious, since he probably knew that Misa was going to be arrested beforehand. Because of this, he snatched her mobile phone, just before she was arrested, since he happened to be a bit in the neighbourhood (It’s like I said above. Death Note is an awesome series, but the timing seems to be a bit too perfect at times). In the end, it seems that Misa remained an idiot, who couldn’t clean up after her. This caused her downfall. Since she’s the second Kira, L doesn’t want to hold back to torture her. She was so sad when she begged for her Rem to kill her, but the really good stuff happened afterwards. Rem made Misa give up the ownership of her Death Note. When she did this, Rem accidentally moved Misa’s hair which would have been very unnatural if there wasn’t a shinigami near her, and L happened to see that. There is NO WAY he’s not going to use that somehow. To make things even better, however, Light has lost his opportunity of acquiring L’s real name (So he does have one. This makes me think about his parents again) and Rem also will kill him if he doesn’t save Misa. It seems, however, that Light already has a plan for this, which involves getting rid of his original Death Note, while keeping Rem’s. At least, that’s what is implied. If it will really go that way, then what will happen to Ryuk and his second Death Note? Something is telling me that the next episode is going to be one to remember. :)]]>

Ah, this episode reminded me again why I love this show. It’s different from most series. Sometimes, I’m in for the story, others have me drooling for the characters, and yet others capture me with its tension. But not Death Note. For me, Death Note is all about its plot twists. These plot twist are so brilliant, and unlike most other shows, you absolutely won’t see them coming. That’s what I love about this show. Good for me that this episode had a LOT of juicy plot twists. 😀 Twist one: Light can’t kill Misa, otherwise he’ll die. This is going to be quite a problem. ^^ We see him theorize about how he’ll use her and kill her afterwards, with a big smirk on his face, and then Rem comes and ruins his entire plan. This is going to be quite a bitch for him to solve, seeing as the only way to kill Rem is to endanger Misa. Unfortunately, Rem will only suspect Light when that happens, so he’ll get killed. Twist two: “Light-kun is my first friend.” That was so brilliant and cheesy at the same time! And to make matters worse, I don’t even know whether L was serious or not. You would expect L to be tricky, sly and clever, though this confession was awfully genuine. Light’s response also was so incredibly cheesy, though. I wouldn’t suspect that if that really was an act of L, he’d start to suspect something after that. XD Twist three: Light manages to get Rem to kill L. When I saw it for the first time, that was such a brilliant moment. Easily one of the best plot twist of the entire anime. But as I’ve been writing this entry, I started to think how L could get out of this one. After all, there wouldn’t be much of a challenge left to this anime if he didn’t, would it? And I think I finally realized how he’ll get out of Light’s plan. I’m suspecting that L doesn’t have a name to begin with. Seeing that he considers Light as his very first friend, he’s always been lonely. There’d be a good chance that something happened with his parents, and he never even got a name. It’s not likely, but apart from that, I can’t see how he’ll be able to stop a friggin shinigami who’s after his head.]]>

I began to get a bit afraid that after Death Note’s lisencing, the subs would stop appearing as well. Being Dutch and all, I couldn’t care less whether or not some random American company acquired the licence. Luckily, there are people who feel the same, with one fansub appearing just a few hours ago, as well as a softsub. For more info on the softsub, go visit Wakaranai. Anyway, about the episode, it started off a bit buggy. It may have been because of the quality of the softsubs, though it also was more of the same. It also felt a bit rushed. But when Misa actually found out Kira’s identity and went to his house, things really went from decent to amazing. Especially because I was so anxious to see how Light would react after the things Misa told him. Especially since he kept asking her cold questions. Misa herself also was extremely touching to see. She definitely had some good reasons to go after Kira. It also quite surprised me. I knew she wanted to meet him, though I never realized that she was that dedicated to him. You also have to love Light’s smirk at the end of the episode. It’ll be interesting to see how the two of them will do after this episode.]]>

When I first saw Misa, I doubted whether she could be a large challenge to Light, though after watching this episode, I have to say that it’ll definitely be interesting to see how Light will deal with such a huge idiot. She actually mentioned the existence of the eyes and shinigami on a tape which got sent to the police. L also reacted quite strangely when he heard about the shinigami, this does suggest that there’s some kind of connection between him and the death gods, which suggests that there will be a point in which his childhood will be shown. 🙂

I also keep wondering the meanings of Ryuk’s maniacal laughter. Like shown before, he laughed when Naomi gave a false name. Was there also a reason why he laughed when L asked Kira to play Kira, or did he just laugh because of the irony? He’s smarter than he looks, after all, he did trick the king of the shinigami-world to give him a second Death Note. In any case, it’s good for light that he was at the scene when L watched the tape, otherwise, L would have pulled his own conclusions. This episode showed that L does listen to Light’s words.

And with this, Kira finally is about to face an opponent with another Death Note. Still, I think I’m liking his human opponents more. It’ll be interesting to see how normal humans face against someone equipped with the Death Note. And furthermore, this doesn’t seem like a challenging antagonist as well. Okay, she has the Death Note, she has made the eye-deal, though she’s also incredibly naive, from the things that we saw of her. I’d have loved to see a bit more mystery behind her, though the end of the episode basically blew all secrets about her, after all the time the first part of the episode spent introducing her. Also, if you just look at the OP, you’ll see a rather spoilery scene about what will probably happen between the two Kira’s in the following episodes.

Light had a surprisingly small role in this episode, though I really liked him. He does remain an interesting character, and this episode only proved this even more. He’ll also be put in a rather interesting situation, basically hunting himself and his impersonator. The next couple of episodes can really turn out either incredibly good or incredibly bad. It all depends on whether Misa can still be interesting and provide a few twists.

Also, I’m wondering whether the lyrics in the OP show any meaning. I especially mean the last part, where Light says that he hopes to show a certain “you” a perfect world. Could Light be doing all this for a certain person? Up till now, we don’t really know anything of Light’s friends, or the people he hangs out with, let alone his history. Like I said before, I’d love to see some of Light’s and L’s histories. ^^

One thing about Light and L irks me a bit. They’re great characters, which match each other perfectly, though I’m beginning to fear that the creators went a bit too far into making them as perfect as possible, aside from a few flaws. I can understand that Light has to be rather smart in order to carry off his plans, but making him end up with perfect scores of one of the most prestigious universities in Japan is going a bit too far. Also, making both Light and L tennis champions does the same thing, and it’s not like these things add anything to the story.

Anyway, apart from that, this episode was as fun as usual. This time, it focuses on L’s attempts to unmask Light. It was interesting to see small flaws in both their deductions and Light’s acting. One thing the tennis game was good for is to symbolize the constant dialogue between Light and L. It’s also interesting to see that Light does care about his father. As the episode progresses, Light keeps making small flaws, which raises L’s suspicion of him. Until his father has a heart attack. Because of this, Light’s acting skills suddenly turn up a level, and L’s suspicions of him actually decrease. This’ll be interesting for later.

The new arc, introduced at the end of the episode, seems pretty interesting, as in I’d love to see Light and L’s reaction to the sudden announcement, made by the fake Kira. Furthermore, who made that tape in the first place? It also seems that another climax is going to arrive in about two or three episodes again, in comparison to the last three episodes, which mainly focused on Light and L’s relationships. I’ll be looking forward to it. 🙂

As with episode 7, we have another episode solely dedicated to one event: L, walking up to Light and telling him that he’s L. It’s an interesting tactic, as this now makes sure that Light can’t just kill L, even if he knew his name, as L figured that Light figured that L would tell the police about his plans. Still, I’m not sure he did. We never see him, in any case.

In a way, L is acting very irresponsible. Right now, he’s acting purely on his instincts, instead of common knowledge. Okay, he’s right. But what if he were wrong? It’s almost like he’s got some kind of Shinigami on his side as well. Speaking of the devil (pun intended), what will the role of the Shinigami be in this story? We see quite a few of them in the OP, but so far, all they’ve been doing is sit around and playing cards. Will they perhaps become relevant in the later parts of this anime? I could imagine that one would tell L about the Death Note out of boredom.

I’m looking forward to the next episode, as then, the real cat-and-mouse game between Kira and L will begin. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of tricks they’ve got up their sleeve. I’ve also been wondering… how old is L exactly? He must be pretty old in order to be able to build up such a large reputation, but he looks like he’s about Lights age. Or has he been a genius detective ever since he was a child? Which reminds me… I’d love to see some scenes about Light and L when they were young. 🙂