It’s been a while since an episode of Death Note has confused me as much as this one does. Light is one to talk, his actions of late seem to be just as random as those of the two girls he’s stringing along. Near is also no exception, his conclusions of late have been based on little more than probable assumptions.

Episode Rating: 8.5/10

As Light’s daily meetings with Takada continue, Aizawa’s suspicions of Light become stronger. Light’s insistence on sweeping the room for unidentified bugs and cameras is reason enough to suspect Light, but just to make sure, Aizawa marks the notepads in the room to see if Light and Takada are communicating through writing.

The meeting itself seems normal enough, Takada tells Light that she met with Misa and talked about him. Light is then forced to tell Takada the truth about Misa being the previous second Kira, but not by his choice, unlike her. He tells Takada to agree to help them catch Kira, and ends the meeting.

When Aizawa goes back to check the hotel room, he finds that two of the marked notepads have been replaced. Knowing that room service had not yet cleaned the room, Aizawa is now sure that Light and Takada are communicating by writing, suggesting that Light is in fact Kira. He goes to tell Near this, but Near is uninterested, saying that at this point it’s not a matter of identifying Kira, they already know who he is, their goal now is to expose Light and completely defeat him.

New Year’s rolls around and as part of her cover, Misa is scheduled to perform on NHN. But on the way there she and Mogi are taken by the SPK on Near’s orders. Since they went along willingly, albeit a little reluctantly, Light can’t contest Near.

Meanwhile, Giovanni continues to investigate Mikami, who is pretty much confirmed as X-Kira. Near has Giovanni make contact with the death note to see if a shinigami is trailing Mikami. Near then gets him to take some photos of the pages in the death note, and with that, Near’s plan is set. He’ll wait 24 days to avoid the possibility that Giovanni is being controlled by the death note and then arrange the final confrontation with Kira.

Light’s not sitting by idly though, though no specifics are mentioned, he is using Takada and Mikami to set a plan of his own in motion.

Thoughts

With Death Note coming to a close (3 episodes remain) the plans that Light and Near are working on right now will probably be the final clash. It’s too bad I already know who wins…but I suppose getting there is half the fun.

As for what exactly their planning, this time around I’m completely in the dark. Usually I can come up with a theory or two based on some light foreshadowing, but I really have no clue what these two are thinking any more.

Near looks pretty smug about how things are going, so I can only assume he thinks that everything is going according to his so called scenario, whatever it may be. I’m still disappointed at how many liberties he took with his assumptions, let alone his hax to find Mikami last episode, his confidence that Light is Kira STILL has no real evidence beyond his behaviour.

I’m just as lost when it comes to Light, his actions of late have been really sloppy. To use the notepads provided by the hotel in his meetings is kind of stupid in my opinion. Even though he did replace them as a measure against things like carbon paper tracing, a move like Aizawa’s should have been within Light’s foresight. And I don’t even know where to begin with his usage of Mikami and Takada, besides leading Near down a dead end with the fake death note, what is he planning on doing with them? And I still don’t see the reasoning behind the fake death note in the first place, it’s not as if Light knows that Mikami is being suspected, so I see no reason why he even think of doing something like that.

Meh, whatever. At this point I’m going to suspend my beliefs and trust that there’s some sort of grander scheme going on underneath the surface that surpasses my abilities of reasoning and logic. I’ve heard people say that a lot of explanation and internal dialog was cut out during the manga -> anime conversion, and maybe that’s why things aren’t making as much sense as they should.

Then again, maybe it’s because I decided to write this post at 4 a.m. and I’m just not thinking straight.

Next time on Death Note: Matt!? And since we’re nearing the end, maybe it’s time for some melodies?

~ Shirukii ~