The Price is Right

Die Writing!

At the end of the year 2006, the manga that took the community by storm was one that at first did not really seem to fit the shonen (young boys) demographic. That being fun stories based on battles of a martial arts and/or supernatural element, mixed with an adventure about how friendship will save the world and one would normally have the formula for a good, common shonen manga. However, Tsugumi Ohba created a dark, grim world where reality was not that different to our own. People were abused, teenagers bullied, people were harassed and the good would always fall victim to the bad. In this world, however, there existed an underbelly of macabre proportions, a realm of the dead. The realm of the shinigami or death gods. Individuals who were in charge of making sure that people died and enjoyed that they did for it gave their life purpose. However, one was bored with the mundane existence he had and decided to take his “book” out into the human world. Once there he meets the teenage genius called Light Yagami and once he explains the contents of his book, a book that has the terrifying power of killing anyone as long as their name is written in it, Light being sick of the unfairness f the world, vows to become a vengeful god for the weak and eliminate all criminals. Ryuk, the Shinigami in question who gave him that power finally finds the thrill he’s been seeking, and so the most unconventional shonen to appear in Shonen Jump for a while taking off.

Light Yagami

Ryuk

Long story short, and of course, forgive me but the following will have spoilers for the end of this story, Light becomes drunk with power and develops a messiah complex. Killing all who get in his way or become annoyances in some way to his grand plan of becoming a god. Gaining so much fame that the world-renowned detective known only as L vows to bring him to justice. Problem being is that Light never once shows his face while killing all these people, he instead becomes the enigmatic Kira, and while under the persona of his high school genius normal life, is invited to work alongside L to track down the murderer. Becoming one of the best thriller/mystery stories to come out in recent times. At the end of the road, Light/Kira is regarded worldwide as a god to some and as a terrorist to others. He eventually kills L, only to thwarted later on by his successor Near. Light is shot by the police and as he struggles to catch his breath he tells Ryuk to write the names of all who stand before him, only to see that Ryuk wrote Light’s name instead seeing as he was about to die eventually anyway, be it by blood loss or a shootout.

One way or another, Light did manage to reach immortality in a way as he not only inspired copycat killers, but also became so infamous that he is written in history textbooks and taught around the world as one of the greatest threats humanity ever had.

In comes the subject matter to be reviewed/discussed in this post, after 14 years, the creator released a new chapter in the Death Note mythos.  In this special one-shot, we have a bored Ryuk departing once again to our world to try and stir up some much-needed chaos, here we are introduced to the newest wielder of the Death Note Minoru Tanaka. This young teenager is also similar to Light in the young genius department. However, having the knowledge of what a death note is and knowing as well all the havoc that it brought upon those in the living world, he decides to wait tow years before agreeing to make a deal to use it with Ryuk.

Without going into the actual meat and fun of the story, the least I can say is that this is one hell of a welcome back tour to the world and tense atmosphere of Death Note. The pacing of the story is very well done, with the beats hitting in a seamless way, almost feeling like you’re right next to the action as it all goes down. Now the question is, how does this new “Kira” match up to the original and will the new “L” be able to stop him in time? Guess you just have to read it to find out!