[Review] The human whose name is written in this note shall die. Written by Katherine@forbiddenplanet.co.

uk ---o0o---

A little over a year after the final volume was published in English, Ive finally gotten around to finishing one of the most hyped and most heavily-spoiled manga series ever: Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obatas Death Note. Death Note is based on the highest of high concepts: The human whose name is written in this note shall die. If you had a notebook you could use to kill anyone whose name and face you knew what would you do? Death Notes main character Light Yagami decides to use it to cleanse the world of evil people evil by his definition, of course. After a brief reflection on the morality of this decision, Light sets about his task with glee and gains the attention of police forces worldwide, who dub the mysterious murderer Kira (a Japanese pronunciation of Killer). The eccentric detective L decides to join the chase. Once L comes into the picture, the story settles into the form it retains for the rest of its run: an increasingly complex cat-and-mouse game between Light and the people investigating him. Its in the twists and turns of the pursuit that Death Note comes into its own. Tsugumi Ohba doesnt go in for character development, and doesnt bother much with exploring the moral dilemmas the existence and use of the Death Note throws up; instead, the focus is on the plans and manipulations and gambits and counter-gambits Light engages in to cover his tracks, fool his pursuers, and further his ascent to virtual godhood. Sometimes these plans get ridiculously convoluted; in the words of TV Tropes, they cross the line from Xanatos Gambit to Xanatos Roulette, with all parties involved seeming to know too much and manipulate events with far too much skill. More than once, the moment when youre convinced that Light has been caught in a trap and cannot possibly get out of it will be followed by Light grinning his evil, satisfied grin and thinking to himself: Exactly as planned! Theres always an explanation, but its not always terribly convincing, and even when the plans are more or less reasonable, theres always a lot of lengthy introspection along the lines of he thinks that I think that he doesnt know that she knows that I know, repeated for each character so that you can be absolutely sure who knows what about whom. Provided, that is, that you can hold it all in your hea

I get lost a lot when Im reading Death Note, and sometimes its irritating, but its worth it for those moments when the dominoes fall in exactly the right way and Lights plans or someone elses work out just perfectly. The bizarre thing about Death Note is that I actively dislike most of the characters, and yet that doesnt hinder my enjoyment at all. Would you enjoy a chess game less if the king was a sociopath and the pawns were all naive morons? Its the moves that matter, not the pieces; not even the players. Takeshi Obatas art is never less than gorgeous, and one of the interesting things about revisiting the first few volumes for this blog entry has been seeing how his style evolved over the course of the series, growing smoother and slicker by imperceptible increments. The subtle, understated touches he adds in facial expressions and body language make up somewhat for the thinness of the characters as written. It says something for his range of faces that characters as superficially similar as Mogi, Ide and Matsuda are impossible to confuse for each other. Does Death Note live up to the hype? Yes and no. Yes, in that its a compelling read from beginning to end with more twists than a ten-mile corkscrew; and no, in that every aspect of the storytelling other than the simple unfolding of the plot is thin and unsatisfying. Ohba gestures towards moral reflection, but doesnt follow through, and most of the characters are, as Ive said, either very lightly sketched or thoroughly dislikeable. (Dont get me started on Misa. I dont normally hate fictional characters, but dear God, its so easy to make an exception for her. As Shaenon Garrity put it: Shes the stupidest creature on planet Earth. Even stupider than the other female characters in Death Note, who are all stupid. Even stupider than other idol singers a woman with the mind of a squirrel monkey.) Whats more, after volume 7, theres a sudden dip in the quality of the plot, as the events of that volume leave a hole in the mangas narrative structure thats never quite filled. The last five volumes are less compelling than the first seven, and the plotting begins to get sloppy by comparison. To be fair, the pace picks up in volume 9, and even if it never quite matches the tightness of the early volumes, its always fun to read. And, ironically, a large part of what makes it fun is the very sketchiness of the aspects Ive described as unsatisfying. One of the Death Note fandoms favourite characters is Matt, a character who appears in a grand total of 12 panels. Not 12 pages: 12 panels. The very concept of the Death Note encourages speculation: if you had one, what would you do? If you were in Lights shoes, and wanted to do what he did, could you do a better job? If you were investigating Kira, what steps would you take to find out who he was? Death Note is set up to encourage the fans to read between the lines, to speculate, extrapolate, and come up with their own ideas. It may not be deliberate, but thats the effect, and that being so, too much detail in the

characterisation or in the moral reasoning would be counter-roductive it would leave less space for the readers imagination. So in the end, the thing that makes Death Note so powerful is the same thing that makes the Death Note itself powerful: the fact that you can write anything you like in it. Just dont write any real persons name. After all, The human whose name is written in this note shall die