090 - Death Note vol. 3 by We Appreciate Manga / Anime Blog Tracker

090 - Death Note vol. 3

The dudes talk about the Death Note’s impact as a “non-battle” manga and their feelings to what can be best described as the “Dragonball problem” James and Will also describe the very first panels they saw of the manga and how it convinced them to buy the manga, panels that appeared in volume 3. Skip synopsis @ 7:19 Email: Death Note vol. 3 - Hard Run Chapters 17 to 25 ‘Trash’ and ‘Fool’ Story by Tsugumi Ohba Art by Takeshi Obata Translation by Pookie Rolf Lettering by Gia Cam Luc The genius detective “L” plants sixty-four microphone and camera bugs in Light Yagami’s bedroom. All in the hopes of catching him in the act of murder and solving the Kira case. For L the move is a failure as Light hides a pen, Death-Note and portable TV within a bag of snacks, and thus is able to kill criminals, however with the compromise that these be killed for minor crimes, all whilst studying for exams. Mindful of this, Light allows himself to be seen watching the news so that he can memorize the name of minor criminals that can be killed later. It's not long after this that L ups the ante, and after removing the bugs he decides to not only enrol at the same university as Light but he also outright tells him that he is L. Further putting pressure on Light, the two speak about the Kira case. L speaks to him as if he knows the details behind the deaths of twelve FBI agents, but Light does not fall for it. Light does however fall for one trick; L deliberately withholds a fake piece of evidence, only presenting it once Light refuses to infer that L has more evidence or acknowledge that L does not need to show him all the evidence. The mind games are quickly put on hold when Light attends a family emergency. And in a twist of fate, a second death-note user makes themselves known by holding live TV stations hostage. They demand that the director-general of the NPA or L make a televised appearance. And the most threatening fact about this second Kira, is that they only need to see someone’s face to kill them. Topics: At this point in the manga L knows that Light is intelligent and that Light maybe a sociopath with a god complex. (Page 36) Although Light has not been caught, he is now even more suspicious since he killed a purse snatcher, and a suspect, possibly of embezzlement. L also knows that there is a second Kira, that does not need a name to kill, only their face. How Death Note changed the game? The manga is an early example of what would be called “Non-Battle Battle Manga”, Light and L would battle only with their minds, causing the other to give away information that would be decisive in their own victory and never with forceful subjugation or powerful displays of physical violence. It barely passes as Shueisha style Shonen manga because of its “Good vs Evil” plot, but even then, both characters are morally dubious. What makes it passable as Shonen manga is that the rivalry on both sides demonstrate equal amounts of intelligence, courage, tenacity, will and determination. These are traits which are virtues to a Shonen audience and is shared by the Shonen heroes of past works. Ohba has stated that they were not thinking of a theme when writing the story. And really the thought process was about putting Light in increasingly antagonistic circumstances for the sake of entertainment. However, there is a theme, and that is “Ideological Conflict”. It’s a non-didactic manga, in comparison to other Shonen works, and is not interested in telling readers what is morally right or wrong. It came out the same time Bleach and Naruto was running. Since then, it has codified and formulated a genre of manga where rivals compete to the best of their abilities and test out who has the most indominable will. And the competition can be over anything. In Bakuman, its over who has the most well received manga, in the Drops of God its about who is the best wine taster, and Food Wars about chefs. Death Note is also a response to manga such as YuGiOh and Hikaru No Go, in that they are both manga that does not use physical battles but with the exception that Death Note demonstrates a darker tone in comparison. Albeit YuGiOh could be very dark at times!

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