Following the latest episode, in a surprising move, Kira has given L Death Note. Having gotten bored with it and feeling his actions were too predictable, Kira challenges L in this odd, yet intriguing, move. Upon acquiring Death Note, L feels an instant surge of power and immediately begins writing. Casting aside morals and reason, he contemplates the realization of his own ideals. But what becomes of Kira? Picking up where L left off, he jumps ship and continues L’s job…blogging Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru. Wait. What?

Of course by Kira I mean Soda and by L I mean me, Shirukii. Replace said names, clean up the syntax and the above paragraph may make a little more sense. =P

In yet another authoring shuffle, I have taken over Death Note since Soda had already read the manga and felt his views would be uninspired. Whereas, while I enjoy watching OtomeKoi, I just can’t seem to bring myself to blog it.

I’m not about to tackle 4 episodes of backlog for this show so I’ll just summarize quickly and pick up the episode by episode next week.

I’m sure everyone knows the basic storyline by now, Yagami Light (who I’ll just refer to as Kira) is a highschool student who happens to find a notebook called Death Note. This notebook has the ability to kill any person who’s name is written in it, specific details about the death can be written in as well, all governed by a set of rules inscribed in the book. Kira wants to use this book to kill all the wrongdoers in the world and create a utopia where he will reign as God. Unfortunately, he’s seen as nothing more than a deranged serial killer by the world’s crime forces and so they begin investigation to catch him. This investigation is led globally by L, a brilliant detective rumored never to have left a case unsolved.

Long summary ahead, episodes 3-6, skip to the “Thoughts” section if you’re uninterested. And so, picking up from episode 3…

Following L’s brilliant plan to narrow down the search for Kira by broadcasting a news flash at specific times in different regions to pinpoint Kira’s location, the battle of the geniuses begins. Kira, a highschool student with top marks and the ability to kill anyone who’s face and name he knows versus L, a prodigy detective with superior intellect and no unsolved cases. Both with the mindset that they are acting in the name of justice. The first to make a mistake will die.

In the subsequent episodes Kira and L use volleys of challenges and personal attacks try and gain clues about the other. As the case heats up and the body count piles higher and higher, many agents quit the force in fear of their lives. The trend continues until we reach the current situation, only 5 agents from the Japanese police force remain, in addition to L that makes 6 detectives vs Kira.

At the same time L and the Japanese police force work on the Kira case, the FBI has begun their own investigation, sending 12 agents to Japan in hopes of catching Kira. An arc lasting a few episodes is dedicated to Ray Penbar, one of the 12 agents. However, after Kira notices he’s being tailed by Ray, he stages a busjacking in order to learn Ray Penbar’s name so he can kill him. Not only that, but he gives the unsuspecting FBI agent a page of the Death Note and uses him to kill his own comrades.

This sets off another chain of events in motion that causes Ray’s fiancee Maki, a former FBI agent, to begin a solo investigation on the Kira case. Using her knowledge of Ray’s movements and the busjacking case she uncovers the one flaw that could bring Kira down, that he can kill using other methods than heart attacks. This information combined with related pieces of information (ie. the bus route, access to police case files and police reports on the day of the busjacking) could easily be linked together to determine Kira’s identity.

However, before she is able to get in direct contact with the police, Kira himself overhears of her knowledge. With his dad as the director of the Kira case, he befriends Maki and is horrified by how perfectly she has interpreted his actions. But with her name and face known to him, it’s only a matter of time before she too falls victim to Kira.

So as it stands, Kira has as his arsenal: the Death Note, access to police records and the ability to manipulate the one person who knows the flaw that can bring him down. Conversely, L has the cooperation of most of the crime divisions in the world, knowledge that Kira has access to police files and six officers who he can use to link this information, as well as numerous clues left by Kira. Both have made mistakes, both have made mistakes that could potentially lead them to their demise and both are one clue away from ending this game of life and death. Who will come out on top in this battle of wits? Stay tuned for the answer, next time on Dragon Ball Z Oh come on…it’s been a while.

Thoughts

Man, that was a long summary, and I cut it down as much as I could. But then again, it’s hard to summarize four episodes into anything less than an essay. I congratulate all of you who actually read through all that, I probably wouldn’t have.

This anime is really appealing to me, I love suspenseful stories that are battles of intellect rather than random explosions and ricocheting bullets. Unfortunately there are very few animes that manage to pull this off and remain interesting. Monster being the only other that I can think of at the moment.

The battle between Kira and L has been spectacular so far. Each of them operate very logically, carefully planning each step before making a move, as most people probably would if they were playing a game where losing means death. L tends to be more thorough with his plans, this is to be expected because he is the one playing on the reaction front, meaning that he makes a move only after Kira has made one, giving him more time to prepare. On the other hand, Kira is the aggressor, having to keep up with his ideal of ridding the world of evil as well as make sure he doesn’t get caught by the police. He is forced to think on his feet as he must kill criminals, but also use their deaths to accomplish the ultimate goal of killing L and the investigation against him.

As the series goes on I noticed that the two are making more and more mistakes in their logic and plans, like Kira’s busjacking plan or L revealing his identity to the Japanese police. They’re beginning to enact plans that are reckless and often leave clues that could lead to their demise. At first this bothered me because I really liked the flawless reasoning that was dominant in the first couple of episodes. However, I came to realize that these actions are necessary in order to further the plot. Mistakes must be made so that clues are left, although perfect reasoning is ideal and very cool to watch, it would lead to a stalemate that could last hundreds and hundreds of episodes. Instead, suspense is built through the flaws in logic that are waiting to be exploited on both sides. The thrill of watching and not knowing who will make that first fatal flaw or who will find that first hidden clue that pieces together the enemies’ identity is awesome and keeps me anxiously awaiting the next episode.

Animation, voice acting and sound are all top-notch, one of if not the best in terms of animation this season. I won’t compare to Kanon or Negima!? since they are very different stylistically.

Characters are what make any mode of entertainment interesting, and Death Note has great ones. Kira is interesting as he starts off terrified by the power he has gained through acquiring the Death Note. But absolute power corrupts absolutely, and he quickly begins to shape the world to meet his ideals. However, as he begins to be pursued by the police, he starts to stray from his ideals and begins to kill them as well. According to L, he is rationale is something like: I am creating a world free from evil, those who oppose the rise of such a world must be evil as well.

As for L, his eccentricities are interesting to watch. He is very thorough in his analysis and has the ability to think like a criminal, using Kira’s mindset as a weapon against him. Although he is sometimes led down dead ends due to his compulsive overanalysis. He also looks funny XD Kind of nerdy in a way, I wish I had his hair =(

Whew, I think that’s enough writing for this entry. Damn Soda for leaving me with 4 episodes of backlog D= But oh well, I guess it’s understandable, he’s already read the manga, so it’s probably hard for him to blog about Death Note when he already knows what’s going to happen.

If you read everything up to this point, you deserve a medal, or are in dire need of something to calm your boredom. If the latter is true, I urge you to read the rest of the material on this site. In the best case scenario you’ll be occupied for hours by the reading, worst case scenario you’ll fall asleep, which will still pass the time. Score!

Expect to see typical episode by episode coverage starting from next week, which means a short summary, my thoughts and some screenshots. Matta ne!

~ Shirukii ~