...In the Spotlight!

Shounen in the Spotlight

Death Note

If you haven't gotten into this yet, I'd suggest you do. The target demographic is middle school to high school boys - but tell that to the fan base! You definitely don't have to be a teenage boy to love this series. It's amazing, form the manga, to the anime, to the live action movies... worth every second and every penny spent on it. The English version of the anime won't be out until November, but you can download episodes 1-16 from the VIZ site (though I'm sure there's a charge). If you don't want to do that you can always check it out in the Japanese on YouTube, and the Manga's already fully released in the US. It's labeled horror, but I really can't see why. Though there is plenty of death (as the title implies) it is not graphic. My primary caution would be that there is mild swearing. The manga, the anime, and the live action movies are all worth checking out - while you'll know the ending from whichever you see first it's still fairly interesting to check out the rest. After seeing the live-action movies I picked up the manga... and I couldn't put it down. There's enough extra detail to make it worth the time.

The protagonist is Light (Raito) Yagami, a third year (that'd be the final year for Japan) high school student. He's brilliant, ranking first in the national exams, but bored and more than a little sick of all the corruption and immorality in the world around him. His father is fairly high up in the NPA (National Police Agency) and Light's goal is to become the head of the Agency some day and do his part to stop crime. However, his chance to make a difference may come sooner than he thinks when he finds a strange Notebook on the ground at school. It's written in English, which isn't a problem for a 'serious, college-bound senior' like Light, and on the first page it states a list of rules the first of which is this: the human whose name is written in this book will die. Is it a ridiculously complicated chain prank, or is this for real? Light can't resist checking it out, and when he does a whole new world of possibilities open up for him, but so does a whole new world of anxiety and corruption... Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Just a quick note of warning for those of you who like to get into the fandom of a series. The fan community for this series is very Light/L homo-centric (even though I can't see it in ANY of the official story - Manga, Anime, or Movies). Always be cautious when surfing the net... you may stumble upon something that will scar you for life.

Title: Death Note

Genre: Shounen, Detective Fiction, Horror, Psychological Thriller, Supernatural

Rating: T+ (older teen)

Mankaka (creator/author): Tsugumi Ohba (story), Takeshi Obata (art)

Japanese Publisher (manga): Shueisha, Weekly Shonen Jump

Japanese Publisher (anime): Madhouse

English Language Publisher (Manga): VIZ Media

English Language Publisher (anime): VIZ

Manga Run dates (in Japan): December 2003 to May 2006

Number of Manga Volumes: 12

Manga Status in Japan: Complete

Manga Status in the US: Complete