Nathaniel Clark – A&E Editor

nuc5002@psu.edu

Photo Credit: Viz Media

Mystery, suspense, and fantastical horror: all of these elements are on brilliant display in Tsugumi Ohba’s “Death Note.”

“Death Note” started as a manga series written and drawn by Tsugumi Ohba and ran from December 2003 to May 2006. After the series’ first run, “Death Note” quickly became a massive property with a collection of spin-offs, novels, and video games. The most famous of these is the Tetsurō Araki-directed anime adaptation which ran from October 2006 through June 2007. There have also been countless live-action adaptations with the most recent being the 2017 Netflix film starring Lakeith Stanfield and Willem Dafoe.

The overall story of “Death Note” has the audience following protagonist Light Yagami, a disaffected and intelligent high school student who lives in Tokyo. One day on his walk back from school, Light finds the titular “Death Note,” a mysterious black notebook that can kill anyone as long as the user knows both the target’s name and face. 

At first not believing in this notebook’s power, Light decides to test it out when he sees a hostage situation on the news. After writing the abductor’s name into the notebook with their face on his man, Light suddenly sees the announcement that the hostages had been freed. With police and news stations in utter confusion, it is announced that the abductor had keeled over and died from a heart attack. Understanding this book’s inherent power, Light begins to kill high-profile Japanese criminals, later targeting international criminals.

Five days after Light’s first usage of the Death Note, the high schooler is finally introduced to the notebook’s previous owner. Ryuk, a supernatural spirit, is invisible to anyone who has not touched the notebook. When talking with Light, the spirit, known as a shinigami, reveals that he dropped the Death Note into the human world out of boredom. Now that he is amused by Light’s actions, Ryuk plans to stay and watch whatever may occur. 

As Light, going by the codename Kira, continues to kill off criminals through the notebook, Interpol looks for a way to apprehend the mastermind behind these deaths. The organization requests the assistance of L, an enigmatic consulting detective. After mild research and a decoy, L can reveal that Kira is living in the Kanto region of Japan after Light takes the detective’s bait and kills the decoy on live TV. With the police hot on his trail, will Light be able to conduct his mass plans and stop the police from catching him in time? 

One element which I feel is not discussed enough about “Death Note” is the overall morality concept. Specifically, are the actions of Light as Kira necessarily moral? This question is posed by a few characters throughout the story. While the majority of the individuals executed by Kira are criminals, Light did attempt to kill L, someone who he had just learned of existing only moments prior. While I will not give my perspective on this matter, it is an interesting way of looking at the series. 

When it comes to reading the original “Death Note” manga, there are a variety of ways to do so. You can always go for the online versions, but the physical editions are where “Death Note” shines. There is the All-in-One Edition which has the series’ twelve volumes condensed into one book which is cool in premise but, in my opinion, bad in execution. Various box sets of the series are also available, but I highly recommend the Black Edition. The Black Edition, with its larger pages, really allows the reader to enjoy Tsugumi Ohba’s visual storytelling. Additionally, the Black Edition condenses the twelve volumes into only six books which all look perfect together on a shelf. 

No matter how you read it, “Death Note” is an excellent series for anyone who likes a little supernatural in their mysteries.