Is it just about writing?

         Time to kick off my return with the new season and with Death Note 01-02. Strangely enough, it’s a story of a notebook that can cause death. Who would’ve guessed?

         According to Animenano, in the past two weeks, Kanon’s remake and Death Note are the two most blogged about series, with Kanon absolutely slaughtering all competition. Now going by this, I’m sure there are plenty of other blogs that offer indepth summaries and such, but I don’t think I’ll be one of those people doing that. Firstly, I’m sure you’ve already seen all the summaries, and you’re sick and tired of reading the same damn thing again and again. And really, if you needed said summaries, then it would probably mean you didn’t watch the episode. And if you didn’t watch the episode… what are you waiting for?!?! Get watching, NAO! Another reason for not doing summaries is that I’ve already read the manga a long time ago, so nothing’s new or fresh or surprising or unknown or whatever. So by already knowing everything, I think it’s best if I only offer my thoughts and stuff, though I’ll provide a brief recap just to refresh your memory. In any case, without further ado, here’s Death Note:

         So lets start off with a little summary refresher. Basically what happens is that we start off this series in the realm of the shinigami, where we meet Ryuk. Ryuk’s just some crazed up shinigami bored out of his mind. So to alleviate said boredom, he decides to “accidentally” drop one of his death notes into the human world. Normally a shinigami would only have one death note, but he managed to get his hands on a second one. And from that, the real story begins with Yagami Light.

         Yagami Light, a brilliant high school student. Every day, he hears of murders being committed, of rapists “enjoying” a night out, and generally he hears of a world of corruption and decay. He comes across Ryuk’s death note, a notebook promising death to whoever’s name is written in its pages. Much like anybody else, he’s sceptical. Sceptical… that is, until he tests the powers of it. Proving to be genuine, Light decides by himself to take on the burden of being a God, to rid the world (Japan) of the filth known as criminals.

         After a while, Ryuk decides to once again depart from the world of shinigami and venture into the human world, to check up on how his little experiment is going. He finds Light, and they have a chat regarding what the Death Note is and what it means. Light shares his little fantasy of his perfect utopia to Ryuk, and Ryuk delights in his new entertainment goldmine.

         Light continues his little façade of being a model student, all the while killing criminals left and right without a second thought. He discovers from Ryuk that anybody that touches the death note will be able to see Ryuk, obviously something that isn’t very good. Or at least, to anybody who’s SANE. Knowing this, he rigs up a little trap in his drawer to ensure the secrecy of the death note.

         Meanwhile, the police are going crazy over all the deaths of the criminals. The amount of deaths due to heart attacks at roughly the same time is just too suspicious to simply dismiss. Someone or something must be killing them off. Enter L, the best detective in the world. Ok, actually, don’t enter L. Enter Wataru, L’s contact man who enters the scene on behalf of L. L promises the police to catch the killer (nicknamed “Kira” by the general public, from the pronunciation of “killer”. Oh Japan, you so clever!). So officially begins the race between L and Kira, a battle of seeing who can catch who first.

         The first move is by L, in a brilliant move that caught Kira off guard. With a live TV broadcast, he has a criminal pose as himself. After the impostor pisses off Kira, Light kills him off with the death note, giving L the proof that Kira is able to kill people from a distance. In addition to that, that Kira lives in the Kantou region of Japan.

         And that just about brings us up to speed. Just as a little background to me and Death Note, yes, as I have stated before, I have read the manga. Or at least until it had a large plot change, after which I lost interest and stopped reading. Since I’ve already read the source material, I doubt there’ll be a lot of surprises for me in the anime, so it’ll be fairly uneventful. I’ll definitely try to watch my words, I wouldn’t want to spoil anything for you guys. Of Kanon and Death Note, I’d definitely rank Death Note as a series not to spoil, since the mindgames are what drive the series, as well as the fact that I’d expect more people to know of Kanon’s ending than that of Death Note’s.

         That out of the way, a little discussion is in call. I’ll be perfectly honest: I disliked the first episode. Having read the manga, there’s no excitement of how this story will turn out, which I’m quite sure is skewing my view. As an episode to try to capture my interest, I can’t say it did a good job as it plays with the mystery of what the Death Note is, and of what the future holds for Light. Just that… well, I already know all that stuff. In any case, it was disappointing for me. I was holding out for the second episode because had I posted about only the first episode, it wouldn’t be pretty. However, I can say the wait paid off. The second episode effectively reawakened the original interest I experienced in the manga. I’d definitely attribute this to the appearance of L and the official beginnings of the race between him and Kira. His little TV broadcast move was quite the plan, one that was rather well thought out, even though it wouldn’t work nearly as well in real life. Light’s brilliance also comes to play too, with his security system for his death note. It’s the intelligent plans and thought out decisions that really draws me to this series, and the second episode did that job quite well.

         On a side note, a minor thing that I THINK was in the manga but not the anime. When L was broadcasting on TV, I believe he stated at the very beginning that it was a worldwide broadcast. Instead, in the anime series, there was absolutely no reference to this until after the fake L died. Just a small thing, but it would have been nice to see it.

         Stolen from Shirukii, the transition from “zomg this is scary, maybe I shouldn’t be a murderer” to “bwhahahaha I r teh god, die you useless pieces of scum!” was a little too fast. As Ryuk said, most people would be too afraid to use the Death Note after a verification of its powers. For Light to suddenly transform to a kira [lolcwutididthere?] seemed a little TOO unrealistic. But alas, he’s carrying a note that has the power to kill by writing down names, and he’s being followed by a shinigami. I think Light’s change in philosophies is the least of my concerns.

         When Light was in full out “I r teh god” mode in the first episode, writing down names as blazing speeds, I found it a little ridiculous. I mean, I’ll admit it wouldn’t be easy, but they tried to make it look like writing something down on paper was dramatic and exciting. I found it kind of stupid, but what else could the animators do? I won’t hold it against them. But come on, it’s writing.

         The OP and ED were meh in my books. They’ll probably grow on me over time, but they don’t stick out too too much as of this moment. The OP was fairly dark (and I don’t mean in terms of brightness), which surprised me. I don’t recall the manga being so dark, but it can work, though I’ve yet to see exactly how fitting it will be.

That’s no Death Note, that’s an obituary!

Literally from “i r scared” to “i r god” in less than 15 seconds

THIS is dramatic writing in its truest sense

However brilliant, he has wayy too much free time to think about all this

And so the race begins..

         Overall, I found the first episode rather boring, but the second episode definitely made up for it. I think it’s pretty safe to say I’ll be following this series to the end, which I unfortunately already know [unless all the manga readers are in for a surprise, but I doubt that]. However, the ending is not everything, but rather the race happening between the start and the finish lines.

         On a side note not directly related to Death Note… I’m still trying to find my blogging style, so please bear with me. My little summary chat was longer than I expected, but I guess because it’s the first episodes of the season, it’s to be expected. I’ll find my style soon enough..

//Soda