Death Note
The Death Note animated series continues to hold my interest and constantly surprises me with each episode. After seeing the live action movies that were released a couple of months back I’d pretty much dismissed any need to watch the anime series which had come before it (which itself was inspired by the hugely successful Manga comic series).
When I watched the first volume of the animated series, I was struck by just how close the movies had stuck to the series, This only reinforced for me that I wasn’t going to be seeing anything new in the series, that I hadn’t already seen in the movies… Boy, was I ever wrong!
By the end of the second volume the series and the movies have parted company to quite a degree. Neither feels wrong, just different. And it’s here where the series has the ability to take things much further than the movies could, purely by virtue of the fact that the series has a lot more time to play with ideas that the movies needed to condense for the sake of getting the story told.
Death Note V3 contains episodes nine, through twelve and in them the series takes it’s biggest turn to date. As always, I’ll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum here, but the very nature of this series means that even the most basic descriptions of episode content will reveal secrets from previous episodes. So, I’d suggest that if you’re watching this series (which you should be) and you’re the kind who doesn’t like surprises spoilt, well, you’ve been warned!
Episode 9: Encounter
After almost submitting to his apple withdrawals, Ryuk is ecstatic to discover that the surveillance cameras have been removed from Light’s house. Light’s relief at foiling L’s hidden cameras is short lived when a strange new student at Light’s school makes an unusual revelation.
Episode 10: Doubt
A ‘friendly’ tennis match between Light and L reveals just how in-tuned their inner thoughts are, but Light soon realizes that he is dealing with someone whose intelligence may rival his own. A phone call sees Light and L both rushing to the hospital, as someone close to them both, and the investigation, suffers from a heart attack.
Episode 11: Assault
The taskforce is thrown into chaos when a local television station airs a tape which it claims to have received from Kira. After a member of the taskforce is killed within seconds of arriving at the television station, L suspects that Kira now has the ability to kill someone without needing to know their name.
Episode 12: Love
When Light is asked to join the Kira investigation he helps the taskforce identify the actions of a second person with the Death Note powers. While the taskforce focuses on the investigation, Light ponders how to make contact with the impostor without being caught by the very people he’s now assisting.
With every instalment of this series it stacks more and more onto the twists and revelations of the previous episodes. As a result it remains one of the most engaging shows to currently inhabit my viewing schedule.
The Death Note V3 DVD continues the trend set by the other releases and includes a commentary track and a short behind the scenes documentary — featuring Brian Drummond, the voice of Ryuk — focusing on the production of the English audio production for the series.
