Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
: Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata :
by William the Bloody
Ever get really bored? So much so that maybe you'd do something a tiny bit reckless just to alleviate the boredom? That's precisely what God of Death Ryuk and high school student Light Yagami were experiencing when their fates collided. Ryuk decided to liven up his endless existence by dropping his Death Note randomly on the ground in the human world. Light spots the black notebook on the ground and picks it up. He reads through it and thinks some goth kid is playing out a revenge fantasy or something. It seems that if you write someone's name in the book while picturing their face, they will die. You have forty seconds after writing their name make any sort of specifications on the death, if none are made they die after that time has passed of a heart attack. Light doesn't believe it could be true right off, of course, but he can't get the book out of his head and decides to test it out on a criminal he sees on a live news report who is holding children hostage in a stand off with the police. After writing the criminal's name, he waits staring at the television for some sign, and just when he thought it was indeed a hoax, the hostages come running out of the building and the news report claims the criminal just suddenly collapsed, dead. What to do with such power? Light realizes he can finally fix the world at large and immediately begins combing the internet for mug shots of internationally wanted terrorists, murderers, and so on and begins to fill the book with names. Five days after dropping the book, Ryuk heads to the human world to see where his Death Note wound up. The God appears to Light in his bedroom and explains that the notebook now belongs to Light and they are now linked until he dies. Ryuk will do nothing to either hinder or progress Light's use of the book, and after Light fills Ryuk in on his plans to clean up the world, Ryuk knew he made the right decision in leaving his book on Earth because, well, humans are hilarious, especially when given great power.
The Good: Obata's art is really great! It's clean and looks completely awesome in black and white. The way he draws Light at various angles and expressions, you can really see how possessing the power of the Death Note has made him an EENSY bit crazy. Nice. The story is one that intrigued me. Author Ohba really worked out the details on use of the book; the way you have to picture someone's face when writing their name eliminates killing EVERYONE with that name on the planet, also how you can specify quite a lot in the manner of the person's death including an exact time (Steve Smith, gets shot three times in chest, bleeds to death and dies at 11:30pm OR even as detailed as Steve Smith, gets shot three times in chest in a botched gas station robbery, writes "God help me" in his own blood and dies at 11:30pm) but cannot be physically impossible (such as someone in a Turkish prison cannot die in five minutes in Paris even if it is specified in the book). The character of Light is interesting. He's a straight A student, scored the highest in the country on the practice college entrance exams, and a model teenager, but now with the power of the book, he sees himself as the righteous passer of judgment on not only criminals, but those who would hinder his plan to save the world.
The Bad: There is a detective known only as "L" who has been hired by Interpol to find out who, if any one person, is responsible for the massive amount of criminals both wanted and incarcerated suddenly dropping dead and I don't like him. Yes, he's supposed to be one of the best detectives there is, but I don't know how he manages to draw some of the conclusions he does. They're all true and accurate, but I honestly don't see how someone could have possibly discovered some of the stuff he knows. Perhaps this will be addressed in future volumes of the story...?
All in all, Death Note is great! I really enjoy reading about Light and his plot for a better world. The way he thinks, cold and calculating is interesting and intelligent. He thoroughly thinks every action before execution and is exceedingly careful and meticulous with his use of the book. Also, his interaction with Ryuk is fun, too.
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