Category: Death Note

When I accidentally read a few facts about this episode, it seemed that this episode would feature some potato-chips-bag-opening-action. I didn’t think much behind it, though it’s almost scary how Light ripped open that bag and started eating. Death Note surely has some of the more creative “action”-scenes I’ve seen in a while.

In any case, this was a fun episode. As the previous episode featured a big climax, the current episode takes a step back again, and the creators start to introduce even more strange quirks in the characters. This episode was really meant in order to flesh out all of the different characters. For starters, Watari treats every member of the investigation to a cone of strangely coloured ice-cream. After a lot of searching, L finally found something suspicious with the surveillance tapes where Ray Penbar was captured: the envelope. Therefore, the ones who were investigated by Ray Penbar have gotten cameras installed in their house.

Then, back at Light’s side, it seems that Ryuk starts acting very weird when he suffers from a lack of apples. Very weird, though very funny as well. Because of this, Light has found a good way to manipulate him and now knows the location of every camera in the house. Light meanwhile displays his extreme chips-eating skills and Light´s father shows some interesting reactions when it seems that his family might be under suspicion. Quite good. After seeing the surveillance on Light, L also gets his first suspicions on Light himself. It seems he’s reminded of himself. ^^;

Also, this episode also showed a good example of lazy animators. It’s been a strange episode this time, in contrast with the previous ones. A very good one as well, mainly due to the weirdness and L’s reaction to Light’s behaviour.

Okay that was such an annoying episode. I just loved it. Nothing much happens. The largest part of the episode consists out of Light, finding a way to kill “Maki”, and Watari shows himself. Especially the former part was strange, but great to watch at the same time.

I’ve indeed put “Maki” between quotations, as she indeed used a false name. Light has a huge deal of trouble, trying to figure out her name, without acting suspicious. After all, there’d be no way for him to know that she used a false name, so he can’t mention it. In the end, he makes use of something that’s in every human: longing. The moment Light found out that she’s been working for L, and that she trusts him, he knew that she was longing to see him back. He made use of that, by pretending that he was member of the investigation team, and offered her a place in this. If you asked a normal person, he or she would react sceptical to this, but with “Maki”, it’s her weak point. Light made good use the fact that he wouldn’t have to continue his act as soon as he got her name written down.

The best part of the episode, though, was the ending. Not because Light won at the end, but because of two other things: the soundtrack, and its mystery. I just love the tune that the creators made for this. It fits the atmosphere perfectly. But so many strange things happened in such a short period of time. And before it has even time to sink in, the cliff-hanger sets in. First of all, one of the officers on Kira’s case gets sent to the police office, in order to make sure that one of them always is there, in case someone (like “Maki”) comes with an interesting tip. He just walks right past “Maki”, handing over her ID and nothing happens. Only seconds later after he passed, Light tells her that he’s Kira. Did he hear, or did he not? Talk about close calls. Also, why did Ryuk laugh more hysterical than ever when Maki agreed to hand light her ID? I also loved how Light reveals he’s Kira, two seconds before the Death Note takes control of her. The fear really was in her eyes.

I believe that L’s weakest point is Matsuda. Whenever Light figures out that he’s part of the investigation, L will be dead. He’s just too inexperienced and unprofessional for such a job. I wonder if L already noticed this. Also, only now I realized when this anime’s taking place. The current episode takes place at December 30, 2006. That means that Light should attain his Death Note, right about now. It’s a freaky thought that perhaps tomorrow, the newspapers will be full of strange deaths. Is this some trick by the creators of the anime, or were the same dates used in the manga?

This episode consisted out of two parts: L, meeting up with the police officers, and coming up with a strategy to find Kira and Light, meeting up with Maki, Ray’s ex-girlfriend. I especially loved the last part. You have to have some real guts in order to try and attempt what Light did. He heard her talk, found out that she was the person closest to finding out Kira’s secret, just walked in on her and started talking to her like nothing ever happened. This makes us suspect that Light has followed some kind of acting classes in the past, as any normal person probably wouldn’t have managed to pull of such a reckless stunt.

During this episode, something also happens which the OP has been hinting at for a while: characters changing hair colours. Those against Kira get blue hair, while Kira himself, and his possible future allies get red hair. Symbolic, of course. Not in real life. Now the question for the next episode remains: how will Light kill Maki? Will he just act as careful as possible and make her end up in a car accident, or will he use her in order to confuse L even more?

Speaking of the devil, he’s indeed quite different from any normal person. He’s been living without any human contact for a long time, which may have been good to protect himself from those after him, though this did make him oblivious to any cultural traditions or habits. The fact that he’s always been living in the dark also made his eyes rather strange. In any case, while Light’s currently focusing his energy on Maki, L has come up with a strategy: trace everyone who was investigated by the FBI-officers. This number of people was quite small, which makes Light even more suspicious. It’s interesting that the bus-jacking incident must be kept secret at all costs for L.

It’s also interesting how one of L’s reasonings is wrong. During Light’s experiments with his power, L figures that Kira only used a few criminals in order to test out his new powers, though I actually think that he used all of them, though in most cases, the Death Note didn’t work because Light wrote some obscure cases in order to really test the limits of the Death Note. It’s never shown, but Light seems smart enough to actually conduct a thorough investigation, and not just an investigation based on the six cases we saw in episode four.

Still, I’m going to be anal again. Even Light notices it: what caused the coincidental meeting of Maki with Light? There’d better be a good reason for this, for obvious reasons.

Death Note’s huge power comes from the power of surprises. This anime really is one of the best anime out there when you look at that aspect. But, at the same time, while this is a huge strength, it’s also a huge weakness: because it’s so focused on surprises, it has almost no rewatch value. I’m seeing this from lots of sides. People who’ve read the manga really can’t seem to enjoy this anime, which is perfectly understandable. This is one of these anime you do NOT want to get spoiled on.

There was one thing I didn’t like in this episode: Ray Penbar’s girlfriend. She’s a former FBI-agent, but after she met Ray, he forced her to quit her job and work as a housewife. Emancipation, anyone? Ah well, it seems that she’ll become the next antagonist to cross Light’s paths, so I think we can expect a bit of background from her, which will hopefully explain why she chose to leave the FBI. Another thing I didn’t like about this episode was that L secretly hoped that Light was connected to one of the remaining police officers. It just remains too coincidental that Kira’s father just happens to be the police investigator who’s in charge of his investigation. That’s a chance of about one out of one million (or whatever the amount of people is who live in the Kantou-region and could have a child of Light’s age is).

Okay, those were the things I didn’t like. Now for the things I did like. 🙂 First of all, Light’s actions at the first half of the episode really surprised me, in a very good way. You would suspect that he’d try not to be seen, though he actually reveals to Ray Penbar that he’s Kira, without showing his face, and makes him kill all the FBI-agents who were sent to Japan to investigate on Kira. Never thought that he’d actually attempt to do such a reckless task. It just shows how much research Light is putting into his plans.

Another thing I really liked about this episode was the police. Lights father offers every agent on Kira’s case the chance to resign, as it seems that everyone who stands in Kira’s way dies. This only leaves a total of six people on Kira’s case. And suddenly, the police officers all get their own personality. Something which couldn’t be done with such a huge number of people on the case. I’m hoping that each of these officers will turn into someone significant, later in the story, as they’re really interesting characters. L’s decision to reveal his face also was great to see.

And, of course, a number of small details:
– Ryuk not knowing that you can write the cause of death first, only to write the name of the victim later and the Death Note will still work, and especially his reaction when he found out about this.
– “L, do you know shinigami only eat apples?” A very creative way to tease L. (^^;)

This series is pacing forward really fast. You’d wonder how Light’s struggle versus L can keep up for 32 more episodes. Some strange things really have to happen in order to make this happen. I’m very interested to find out how this story will be continuing.

Haha! He actually didn’t accept the deal. He’s more human than I thought he was. Still, the deal can be made any time. Could it be that at some point in the anime, the deal will be made after all? Anyway, this episode had some extremely creative ideas. I loved them. ^^

First of all, the police are notified of another six deaths, though three of them contain something weird. One cut off his finger, wrote a pentagram and then died of a heart attack, one wrote a dying message before dying and one escaped to the toilet, only to get a heart attack afterwards. What really happened was Light, who carried out a few tests about the details of death on six person, from which three of these failed. One was written to die in front of the Eiffel Tower in France, for one, he wrote “draws a perfect likeness of L’s face on prison wall” and for the last, he was supposed to write on the wall that the know that L is doubting the Japanese police. Am I sadistic if I actually found that funny? (^^;) In any case, these results showed that you can make people harm themselves and draw symbols, but you can’t draw things you’ve never seen before, you can make people go to places they can reach, but you can’t make them go to places they can’t reach, you can make people write things they know or think, but you can’t make them write things they don’t know or think. I loved how each of these tests come in pairs.

The purpose of these tests was to unmask the guy who’s been following Light. Now that the results are in, it’s time for stage two: Light goes on a date, and boards a bus along with the woman who’s going out with him. A while later, a criminal enters the bus, and hijacks it. Light then drops a piece of the death note and makes the criminal touch it. Ryuk appears and makes the guy get out of the bus, only to get hit by a car afterwards. But not before Light discovers the name of Ray Penbar when he starts suspecting him of being an accomplice of the guy who hijacked the bus. I’m beginning to see Light’s strategy. For the normal cases, he just uses heart attacks, so that he can kill the ones who would raise suspicion by death in a more subtle way. A nice way to keep yourself hidden.

Another thing I like about this show is that both Light and L lack information, and therefore at times, they pull the wrong conclusions. L, for example, starts to think that there’s actually a message behind the random symbols and poems Light has been drawing, and he actually falls for Light’s trick. Light, on the other hand, starts suspecting the cop, who’s just doing a routine research which is carried out on every acquaintance of every member of the NPA.

Also, there’s that matter of Ryuk’s second Death Note. He does have another one. What does this mean? And what happens to Shinigami who lost their original Death Note. Do they get another one? And where did the Death Notes come from in the first place? And I’m also going to be anal again. Don’t you think it’s a bit suspicious that Light chose the date which would be the last day for the Ray Penbar to follow him?

An intermezzo. Both Light and L are preparing some plans, but no real conflicts happened. Light’s father happens to be the inspector of police, in charge of the search for Kira. I’ve got a few problems with this. I mean, isn’t it too much of a coincidence that out of all the millions of people who live in Kanto, his father is the one who is one more important people who are after him?

In any case, Light uses this convenience to his advantage when he makes clear to L that he’s got contact with the police. He figures that by doing this, the police and L will end up cooperating less and less because of doubts from the police’s side. They then probably investigate on L’s identity as well, after which Light snatches his life away. Still, I have a feeling that it won’t go this easily. L, meanwhile, has found out that Kira is most likely a student of some sort, due to the fact that the times all happened at times when normal students have a bit of free time. If you combine this with the fact that Kira has some kind of connection to the police, then I think his next step is to look for sons or daughters of police officers. It’s probably what the shady guy who’s been following Light at during the second half of the episode is up to.

Ryuk also makes a very interesting deal with Light. There are two major differences between shinigamis and humans who use the Death Note. The first is that whenever a shinigami writes a person’s name in the Death note, the remaining life-span of that person gets added to the life span of the shinigami. That means that you can’t kill a shinigami, unless they’re really lazy (I loved the parts in which Ryuk states the obvious(^^)). It makes you wonder, though. Why do shinigami exist? What’s their purpose? Do they just live to scribble names in their Death Note every ten years or something?

The second difference is that whenever a shinigami sees a person, the name of this person, along with his lifespan appear on top of this person. Well then, Ryuk is willing to trade his eyes, which make Light do his job more accurately, for the half of his remaining life-span. We all know that Light is going to say yes, but what’s up with the cliff-hanger at the end of the episode? Also, this brings up an interesting question. Something that also came in Night Head Genesis on the table: will these estimated life-spans be 100% accurate, outside of the Death Note? What if Light looks at himself in the mirror? Doesn’t that mean that he’ll know exactly when he’ll die? That’s indeed great for a strategic element.

After seeing the second episode I just had to blog this. Death Note will be an extremely interesting show. Most shounen-action series are bad, but when they actually involve complicated planning, they become awesome. The Law of Ueki showed this, and now Death Note shows this.

This episode introduces L. The detective, hired to stop Light. We start the episode with Light, who still continues school. He plans to keep his grades at the same level they’ve always been. Very interesting. It’s interesting that Ryuk actually decided to stay with him. Doesn’t he have to do his job, or anything?

It seems that Light has put some serious thoughts in his plans. He doesn’t continue writing all night long, because of sleep deprivation. Ryuk, however, is more easygoing. The fact that he hasn’t told Light that anyone who touches the Death Note will be able to see him. Because of this, Light finds a rather ingenious way of hiding the Death Note: take one drawer, and give it a false bottom. Put a diary on top of the false bottom, and the Death Note under it. You can just leave the drawer unlocked. After all, when it’s locked something precious has to be hidden, which raises suspicion. The only way to remove the false bottom is by using the cartridge of a normal ballpoint pen. Under the drawer, there’s a small hole through which it fits, so it lifts the false bottom up. If you forcefully try to remove this false bottom, a special mechanism burns the Death Note and all evidence. The mechanism works like this: there’s an open circuit running, right over the hole. The bottom part of the false bottom is made of rubber, so it’ll stop the electrical current. The cartridge does the same. But when there isn’t anything to fill up the gap between the two pieces of metal, they clap together, due to the tension of the metal. Then the electrical current starts running (I’m assuming he’s using a battery for this) and a little plastic bag of gasoline would ignite. The pressure in this bag is high enough to burn the Death Note in a second. It’s interesting that he does acknowledge that when things go wrong, he’ll have to burry the book. Most people would want to safe keep the Death Note for further use, but he very cleverly plans to destroy all evidence when things point to the direction of him getting the death sentence. It’s also interesting to note that Light has a very keen eye for detail. After all, this construction has to be perfect. Even one small design flaw and the Death Note turns to a bit of ash. Just think what would happen if the fake bottom wasn’t attached in the right way.

Interpol, or ICPO, meanwhile is trying to find out what to do with the suspiciously huge number of heart attacks on the criminal population. It seems that this anime highlighted two employees, their names haven’t been mentioned, for as far as I know. One is some kind of chief, and one is his assistant. As lost of people are attending in the meeting, things go rather chaotic, until L.’s name gets mentioned. Nobody knows his name, face, or voice, but he’s a brilliant detective, who’s solved a huge amount of cases worldwide.

There’s just one problem: nobody knows how to contact L. Then Watari appears, the only man who’s said to be able to contact him. His identity, of course, also remains a mystery. He’s carrying a laptop, from which the letter “L” appears. The laptop gets plugged in and L. starts speaking. He’s made it so that his voice gets deformed. Quite creepy.

In any case, L. firstly requests for full cooperation from both international police as ICPO, and then especially the Japanese government. L. reckons that the criminal is Japanese, or at least hiding in Japan. Later in the episode, he states the reason for this: Light’s first murder.

Meanwhile, the normal people are starting to notice that someone is killing off a bunch of criminals, and the first websites about “Kira the Savior” have popped up. I think indeed that some people would react that way. While Light isn’t exactly acting politically correct, technically, he is reducing criminality in the world. People also are starting to like him because of his mystery. It’s common knowledge that that what is unknown only awakens more interest. It’s how religions started to exist as well.

Then, the fun really starts when a live international broadcast from the ICPO interrupts the regular television. A person named Lind L. Tailor, or “L.” appears n th screen, claiming that he holds the entire planet’s police force. He claims that he’ll definitely atch the culprit behind the mass homicides, and claims that Light is “evil”. Light gets angry when he hears this, so he kills Lind L. Tailor off.

Then, the real L. appears on the screen. It seems that that was all a test by L., to see and prove that the criminal was able to kill people without ever laying a finger on them. Lind L. Tailor was just an unlucky bystander, a top-secret criminal, scheduled to be executed on that same time. This shows that the culprit doesn’t have access to that kind of information. To make things only better, the emergency broadcast only turned out to be broadcasted in Kantou, Japan. When you think about it, it’s logical. Ryuk intentionally drops his Death Note, but as he’s more of an easygoing guy (devil? do shinigami have genders?), he didn’t care where he dropped it. So it became a random location in Japan, or the location he knew best, which means the most populated and well known region, aka Kantou. When L planned his first broadcast, it was only logical to start with the most populated region, as it means more chance of success.

L. continues. He’s been doing some research. The first victim of the Death Note was the guy who hijacked a school, holding about 13 characters hostage. When you compare him to the murderous killers who died after him, his case does seem to be a bit small. L. noticed that. Light, of course, sees this as a challenge. It seems that both parties are trying to challenge each other out of their hiding place.

Still, even with such a good concept, I can’t help to be anal a bit. We see a few shots of L. For as far as things look, he’s a young adult, probably 20 years old. If that’s the case, how the heck did he manage to accumulate such a huge amount of fame, and how did he solve such a large amount of cases to make him internationally recognized?