Long and rambly and filled with Death Note
Actually, I finished the series ages ago. I just had a lot more ambition to go scampering through the fandom than to sit down and write anything more than a few quick notes...but now that I’ve downloaded well over a gig of doujinshi, started putting together an L-cosplay, and read the entries of people who finished the series after I did...well, I figure it’s now or never.
It’s only fair that I start out by saying I had no interest in this series beyond joke-based curiosity. Given the hype surrounding it and what little I knew of the series beforehand, I wrote it off as the same pretentious overwrought wangst as Neon Genesis Evangelion, which--and I’m probably running the risk of crucifixion at the hands of half my friends list saying this--I pretty much loathed. It looked dark, and I’m not really a fan of dark. I like cutesy, sparkly shoujo fluff. I like warped and surreal. I like testosterone-laden action-adventure. As a general rule I don’t really do dark. As such, I didn’t really care to watch it, and when Adult Swim shoved it on in Bleach’s timeslot, I had even less interest in it because I wanted to know what happened to Renji, dammit. I watched the first few episodes of the dub purely because I had two or three different people foisting the series on me...and I figured, what the hell, might as well be prepared for the inevitable jokes/AMVs/skits at Tekko this year.
Anyway, watching only the dub, my initial impression was that Light was an asshole and Ryuk was creepy. Dub!Ryuk sounds sinister and raspy instead of weirdly playful, and Light’s dub voice is very...not-Light. Well, really, Light’s an asshole in any version (though that seems to be the case for everyone in the cast, with the exception of the rest of Light’s family and maybe Matsuda), but his original voice makes him an awesome, cunning, badass one. His original voice makes me want Miyano Mamoru’s Light and Anthony Warlow’s Jekyll/Hyde to have awesome crazy screaming babies together...and oh, what awesome crazy screaming babies they’d be. But between a Ryuk who sounded like a minor villain in the Yuugiou dub (watch out, Light! He’s after your starchips and your apples!) and a Light who came across as melodramatically cheesy at best, it was hard to work up any real enthusiasm for the series. When L showed up all shadowy and mysterious in the second episode, interest was slightly piqued only because I realized I’d saved fanart of the guy years ago just because it was neat-looking...but even then it was only a “huh, how ‘bout that” sort of interest. Then L revealed himself all pasty and lemur-like in episode 6 and I was pretty well smitten. By episode 7 I’d more or less switched over to watching fansubs (mostly due to chaosimpacted‘s insistence that the “because I’m Kira” scene would be ruined by Light’s dub). By episode 10 I was watching four or five episodes a night, and I ended up finishing the series before the dub aired episode 11. Easily the fastest I’ve ever watched an anime series. Ever. My attention span isn't that long...particularly when I’m watching things on a computer. Speed actually worked for me this time, though, as it meant I made it through the series devoid of major spoilers (including THAT ONE in episode 25 that it seems nobody makes it to without knowing about in advance). The only things that were “spoiled” for me were L’s appearance (and that didn’t lessen the impact of the scene, though I’m fairly sure the looks of hilarious dismay on the faces of the rest of the team had something to do with that), and the fact that Mello ended up scarred at some point (though I didn’t know when or how or why, so it wasn’t much of an issue).
But the long and short (mostly long) of it is, I ended up loving a series I had no interest in and pretty much only watched incidentally. The universe is laughing at me. But I have doujinshi, so it’s all good.
L was my overall favorite, but I never expected to like Light as much as I ended up liking him...actually, I can’t help but wonder if Light would’ve been my favorite had I heard his original voice first (once the initial “lawl, TAMAKI!” faded, anyway). That’s some damned impressive voice-acting, there...particularly with the “lawl, TAMAKI!” taken into consideration. And in a real-world situation, I’d probably be more inclined to be pro-Kira...still, my fondness for Light’s more of a “you piss me off but I like it” sort of fondness. My fondness for L is more along the lines of “you’re weird and creepy but you’ve transcended weird and creepy over into hilarious and adorable...and I squee when you eat cake.” That, and I like the contrast between him looking like a crazy homeless person and being one of the more “stable” characters. Oh, and of course, the CAKE. Any man who likes cake that much is a man after my own heart, cartoon or not.
I also liked Ryuk, once I started watching the original and got the awful raspy dub-voice out of my head...he was just so open about only being in it for the lulz. Lulz, and apples. Then there’s Matsuda...I can’t help it, I love the little dork. He tried so hard, and sucked so frequently, and was still the closest thing to cuddly on the taskforce. I want to squish him. The fact that he was also a Misa-Misa fanboy just added to his ridiculous levels of cute. As for Misa...well, Misa grew on me. She squicked me pretty hard those first few episodes, being all fangirly and not terribly nice to Rem (who an episode after seeing her had me going “yeee, I want one~”...she was just so big and protective and cool-looking). I was more forgiving after she turned out to have a damned good reason to be fangirly, and it was hard not to like her after her response to Ryuk popping up behind her was, “Nice to meet you! ^__^” After she cheerfully referred to L as “wonderfully unique,” and maintained her good-natured disposition even after he grabbed her ass, it was pretty much impossible. I ended up liking her enough to be mad at L for torturing her for information an episode later.
So there I was, enjoying the series after all, liking the characters, and delighted with all the psychological goodness and cat-and-mouse games in lieu of drawn-out fight scenes and endless power-ups. Then the Yotsuba arc happened. I spent most of it going, “This is boring. Light’s not fun anymore. These villains suck. I miss Ryuk.” Of course, if I’d known how that arc was going to end, I’d probably have appreciated it more...and now that I’ve watched most of the episodes two or three times, things that seemed boring the first time through just seem strangely hilarious. I can’t take the Yotsuba group seriously anymore. I blame doujinshi. I see them in all their evil corporate Kira-y glory and all I can see is Midou and Namikawa gaying it up in the bathroom with a delighted L and a traumatized Light watching through the surveillance cameras o’ voyeurism. It’s worse than the Big 5 in Yuugiou...I could never take the Big 5 seriously, but it was more of “Three Stooges plus two” situation, whereas Yotsuba is now “Three Stooges plus five minus Hatori but REALLY, REALLY GAY.” It’s all Namikawa’s fault. It’s what he gets for being so damned pretty. What doujinshi artist could resist?
Speaking of “really, really gay,” I think the series cured my boredom with yaoi. I’ve never liked rival pairings on the basis that they’re generally boring and obvious, but by the eighth or so episode I was thoroughly convinced that Light and L just needed to bend each other over...and that was before the doujinshi. Canon wants you to pair them up...it starts out with them just being obsessive over each other, then you realize they’re the only ones who can draw a passionate response from each other...then you think you’re reading too deeply into things, but then there’s handcuffs and cake, and L sitting next to Light on his supposed date with Misa while Misa’s sitting aaaaaaaaaaall the way over on the other side of the table, and they have that meaningful moment in the rain and a foot-massage, oh gods, the foot-massage, and even if you can’t stand yaoi it’s impossible not to see where they get it. And while we’re on the topic of pairing-types I usually don’t like, Rem/Misa may be one-sided and unrequited, but I still like it better than Light/Misa...but then, Light/Misa is pretty one-sided and unrequited in its own right. Rem’s just less likely to kill Misa...which is sort of ironic, given Rem’s a Shinigami, and all.
Retracing all of those slashy tangents back to the original point, yeah, I was sort of bored with the Yotsuba arc, even in spite of the handcuffs and cake and Misa instigating a friendship circle and turning Death Note into a shoujo series for one glorious, sparkling scene. Oh, but it was nice to finally see enough of the rest of the taskforce to learn their names, and not be left referring to them as “Angry Afro-man,” “Cute-but-Useless,” “Big Quiet Guy,” “Officer Getskilled,” and “Poor Light’s Dad.” Finally, though, Light got his Kira-ness back and was fun again, and Ryuk came back and was weirdly adorable again (he was shy around Misa! And shared his apples-of-death!), and everything was good and fun and I was all excited with the series again...and then L died. OMG L DIED, and it sucked and it was awful and it should’ve been entirely too obvious between the hinted-backstory and the rain and the damned foot-massage, but I totally wasn’t expecting the major antagonist to be killed that early in the series and was in denial even when the spoon dropped. Oh, gods, that falling spoon kills me every time. He died without even getting to finish his coffee. DDDDDD: Actually, “DDDDDD:” likely sums up my state of mind (and probably facial expression) at that point. I was “DDDDDD:” personified, too upset to even immediately appreciate that half my OTP was dying in the arms of the other half, going through the five stages of grief, all of that.
Denial: “But...but he can’t die now! It’s only the twenty-fifth episode!”
Anger: “Damn you, Light! You could’ve had foot-massages and cake, you horrible bastard!”
Bargaining: “Five more episodes...just give him five more episodes and I’ll try not to be openly disdainful of Mello and Near and all of their fangirls!”
Depression: “Boohoo, this isn’t Yuugiou, so no one will be making any miraculous returns from the dead. ;__;”
Acceptance: “Might as well settle in for twelve sad cakeless episodes and see where this train eventually wrecks.”
...it’s been a very, very long time since I’ve been that emotionally-involved in a series. But I didn’t cry, surprisingly. I whined at Siren for getting me into the series in the first place, but I didn’t cry. I was inconsolable during certain scenes in Fullmetal Alchemist, went all weepy over some of the more touching scenes at the end of Eureka 7, hell, I even teared up a bit over some of the “deaths” in Yuugiou, even knowing they wouldn’t stay dead/soulless/incapacitated for long. I suppose it’s because the characters in Death Note, likable as some of them are, are about as far from typical “good guys” as they can possibly be...it’s hard to be sympathetic for a lot of them. Still, omg L. D: ...and Watari and Rem, for that matter. Especially Rem. Watari and L were at least mentioned afterwards, but Rem died and nobody noticed or cared (well, except for Light, but he set it all up, so it doesn‘t particularly count). Poor Rem.
The rest of the series wasn’t as bad as I’d feared (particularly after noticing the number of fans who jumped ship after L bit the dust), but...ehhhhhhhhn, it wasn’t the same. Of course I missed L (and Watari and Rem...seriously, killing them all off within a minute of each other just added insult to injury), but Light wasn’t as entertaining anymore. He had all the power and was devoid of a lemur-like antagonist to keep him in check...really, the rest of the taskforce wasn’t a challenge at all, and if it weren’t for Near nosing around and coaxing everyone over to his side, they likely wouldn’t have acted on any suspicions they might’ve had...if they had any at all before Near started voicing his own. It did seem like everyone suddenly thought, “Oh, hey, L thought Light was Kira, too, yeah, maybe there’s something to that” the second time around, despite being all twitchy over the idea when L kept bringing it up. I didn’t like Near. I still don’t like Near. Neither he nor Mello felt properly fleshed-out...I’m told they’re more legitimate characters in the manga, but as far as the anime went it was pretty much “here are your crappy replacement Ls.” Near was just guesswork and fuckugly fingerpuppets rolled up in a pair of white pajamas (really, what was that scene of him “deducing” that Mikami was X-Kira? It was like he sat down in front of a bunch of monitors and said, “...umm, it’s that guy. Yeah.”), and Mello was a big ball of chocolate and leather and fail. Near’s team was flavored with a generous dose of Mary Sueism (fuck you, Giovanni. Fuck you and your super-special Note-copying skills), and Mello’s had virtually no impact. Near wrapped things up too neatly, and Mello...I spent most of those episodes waiting for him to do something. All he did was kidnap people, eat chocolate, and look like a homunculus. Granted, one of those kidnappings was important to the case, but still.
Eventually I grew to like Mello, mostly because he seemed...courteously regretful toward certain things he had a hand in. Then he died. I was still waiting for him to do something impressive, so that was made of “wut.” That was another problem I had with the last batch of episodes...they dragged in a bunch of new characters, and most of them were killed off before they felt like legitimate characters. Like Matt. Wtf, fandom. He seems to have more fangirls than Light. I’ve read about people crying harder for him than for L. Matt’s barely a character. He’s there for perhaps a minute, throws a smoke bomb, and then he dies. Is it entirely appearance-based? He does look fun to draw, but I feel like there must be some secret episode or manga volume that goes over him in massive detail, and I’m just missing it. In some twisted alternate universe, Matt must be the main character, and only his most rabid fangirls are privy to that information. And Takada! She seemed to be there just to provide a foil for Misa...and give Light one more opportunity to show what a callous bastard he can be. I was actually worried that Takada would end up killing Misa, particularly after Misa forfeited her Death Note for the second time and didn’t know she was shacked up with Kira...or that Kira was putting the moves on Takada for purposes of manipulation. I was sort of relieved when Light killed her just because it meant things weren’t going to degrade into a catfight-of-death. Did feel bad for Mello, though, ending up dead just because he had the courtesy to let Takada hang onto her underwear. That had to suck.
The only character who didn’t feel hastily shoved-in at the end was Mikami...though that’s probably due to the fact that he spent a good chunk of an episode vomiting his backstory all over the audience. I liked Mikami, though...he was his own special brand of crazy. And he had the same seiyuu as Kyouya! Though he did bring with him a sense of impending doom...you know it can only end badly when the main character starts musing about how wonderful his proxy is because he can act without being told. And that’s ultimately what fucked Team Kira over...Mikami acted as Light would’ve, without being ordered to do so. The ending sort of bothered me, actually...the whole Note-switch seemed to rely too much on Light being lazily careless. Granted he was probably so bloated with his own hubris at that point that he couldn’t be bothered to muster much foresight...but this is the same guy who set up three major-character deaths ten episodes in advance earlier in the series, and did so very, very elaborately. For the switch to be believable, we have to accept one or more of the following:
1) Mikami didn’t bother to check the real Death Note, after going to anal-retentive extremes to examine the fake under a microscope,
2) Mikami was too caught up in his sakujogasm to notice he was carrying around a fake Note, even after writing a page a day in the real one for however long he had it,
3) Giovanni is just so damned awesome he can make an undetectable reproduction of a supernatural notebook in one day,
4) it didn’t occur to anyone to have Mikami keep a few emergency Note-sheets on hand, despite the repeatedly-proven usefulness/necessity of such things.
Seriously, if anyone can explain to me any other way for it to work, please do. I don’t like being mad at plot-twists.
I expected Light to die. I expected a lot of characters to die, really...I knew Souichirou was doomed from the moment Light swore to avenge him if he ended up dead, and Rem pretty well screwed herself with foreshadowing as soon as she told Misa how to kill Shinigami. But Light more or less set himself up as a classic tragic hero from the get-go...you can’t play God for that long and not end up smote. Actually, I was half-expecting Light to “win” (Near was the only character I was really gunning for Light to kill), be all set to settle down and finish reconstructing the world, and then be offed by Ryuk for a giggle before he got the chance. It was hard not to feel bad for Light at the end...he came down hard. Totally crushed. Still, the one I felt the worst for was Matsuda...poor, sobbing, trigger-happy Matsuda, whose brain broke over the sudden realization that his buddy Light had been Kira all along, and that he’d been responsible for all of the deaths they’d been dealing with from the beginning...including his mentor’s. Unfortunately for Light, a mindsnapped Matsuda with a gun is clearly not a Matsuda to fuck with. I also sort of hurt for Mikami, who had to watch his God crumble in front of him, because of him. Also, suicide by fountain pen...just...ouch. I was glad it was Ryuk who actually killed Light, though...he’d been saying he was going to from the beginning, and by that point...well, it could really only be considered a mercy-killing. Imprisonment after having all of his dreams and ambitions smashed in front of him would probably finish off whatever was left of his sanity, and while he’d probably be sentenced to death quickly enough...he’s very pretty, and played God with the lives of thousands and thousands of criminals. He wouldn’t have lasted an hour.
...but I squeed when the last thing Light saw before dying was apparition!L. I squeed hard.
Now, the reason this entry is obscenely long? I haven’t picked up a new fandom in...roughly five years. There’ve been plenty of things I’ve been rabid about--however briefly--since then, but the drive faded for the most part as soon as I finished watching, or reading. I finished the anime back in early January, and I’m still fawning all over it. I’m reading fanfic. I barely bother reading fic for most of my other fandoms (though to be fair, the fanfiction for Yuugiou is so consistently horrible it’s hardly worth looking for it), much less things I’m casually interested in, but I’ve been reading fic almost every night for weeks now. This is serious.
But because this post is so obscenely long, it gets its very own appendix of things I wanted to work in elsewhere! It’s just that special.
--I can’t be the only person who thought Near was giving himself and Mello too much credit when he said that with their forces combined, they surpassed L. It was more along the lines of “Near gleaned information from people he manipulated into getting killed--including Mello--and figured things out from that.” Anyone who’s read all of the manga, is it any better there? Or at least slightly more balanced?
--Misa’s lifespan started to seem like a bad algebra problem by the end of the series. “Misa’s original lifespan runs out, but Jealous dies to save her. She then makes the Shinigami eye deal with Rem, and later Ryuk after regaining her memories. Later, Rem kills Watari and L to save her, dying in the process. Taking all of the above into account, how long does Misa have left to live?” So...Jealous’s remaining lifespan, divided by two, resulting number divided by two again, plus Watari’s remaining lifespan, plus L’s remaining lifespan, plus Rem’s remaining lifespan...hah! It’s a trick question! She kills herself a year after the series ends anyway!
--I read in an interview that the quirky similarities between L and Mello and Near were because the creators wanted it to look as if part of L had been left behind in his successors, but all it really does is make me wonder what the hell they do to the orphans at the Wammy’s House. They all leave it with blank stares, weird addictions, and no eyebrows.
--If the trend of pecularities among the Wammy’s House children holds, and L’s a nail-biter, and Near’s a hair-twirler, somewhere along the orphan-alphabet there must be a nose-picking genius.
--I'm convinced Aizawa's haircut was just to prepare him for his role in Light's downfall. Nobody could take him seriously with the 'fro.
--Watching Death Note makes Ouran Highschool Host Club infinitely funnier...particularly around episode 23, when Tamaki declared Kyouya a god. Oh, it was so perfect. XD
It’s only fair that I start out by saying I had no interest in this series beyond joke-based curiosity. Given the hype surrounding it and what little I knew of the series beforehand, I wrote it off as the same pretentious overwrought wangst as Neon Genesis Evangelion, which--and I’m probably running the risk of crucifixion at the hands of half my friends list saying this--I pretty much loathed. It looked dark, and I’m not really a fan of dark. I like cutesy, sparkly shoujo fluff. I like warped and surreal. I like testosterone-laden action-adventure. As a general rule I don’t really do dark. As such, I didn’t really care to watch it, and when Adult Swim shoved it on in Bleach’s timeslot, I had even less interest in it because I wanted to know what happened to Renji, dammit. I watched the first few episodes of the dub purely because I had two or three different people foisting the series on me...and I figured, what the hell, might as well be prepared for the inevitable jokes/AMVs/skits at Tekko this year.
Anyway, watching only the dub, my initial impression was that Light was an asshole and Ryuk was creepy. Dub!Ryuk sounds sinister and raspy instead of weirdly playful, and Light’s dub voice is very...not-Light. Well, really, Light’s an asshole in any version (though that seems to be the case for everyone in the cast, with the exception of the rest of Light’s family and maybe Matsuda), but his original voice makes him an awesome, cunning, badass one. His original voice makes me want Miyano Mamoru’s Light and Anthony Warlow’s Jekyll/Hyde to have awesome crazy screaming babies together...and oh, what awesome crazy screaming babies they’d be. But between a Ryuk who sounded like a minor villain in the Yuugiou dub (watch out, Light! He’s after your starchips and your apples!) and a Light who came across as melodramatically cheesy at best, it was hard to work up any real enthusiasm for the series. When L showed up all shadowy and mysterious in the second episode, interest was slightly piqued only because I realized I’d saved fanart of the guy years ago just because it was neat-looking...but even then it was only a “huh, how ‘bout that” sort of interest. Then L revealed himself all pasty and lemur-like in episode 6 and I was pretty well smitten. By episode 7 I’d more or less switched over to watching fansubs (mostly due to chaosimpacted‘s insistence that the “because I’m Kira” scene would be ruined by Light’s dub). By episode 10 I was watching four or five episodes a night, and I ended up finishing the series before the dub aired episode 11. Easily the fastest I’ve ever watched an anime series. Ever. My attention span isn't that long...particularly when I’m watching things on a computer. Speed actually worked for me this time, though, as it meant I made it through the series devoid of major spoilers (including THAT ONE in episode 25 that it seems nobody makes it to without knowing about in advance). The only things that were “spoiled” for me were L’s appearance (and that didn’t lessen the impact of the scene, though I’m fairly sure the looks of hilarious dismay on the faces of the rest of the team had something to do with that), and the fact that Mello ended up scarred at some point (though I didn’t know when or how or why, so it wasn’t much of an issue).
But the long and short (mostly long) of it is, I ended up loving a series I had no interest in and pretty much only watched incidentally. The universe is laughing at me. But I have doujinshi, so it’s all good.
L was my overall favorite, but I never expected to like Light as much as I ended up liking him...actually, I can’t help but wonder if Light would’ve been my favorite had I heard his original voice first (once the initial “lawl, TAMAKI!” faded, anyway). That’s some damned impressive voice-acting, there...particularly with the “lawl, TAMAKI!” taken into consideration. And in a real-world situation, I’d probably be more inclined to be pro-Kira...still, my fondness for Light’s more of a “you piss me off but I like it” sort of fondness. My fondness for L is more along the lines of “you’re weird and creepy but you’ve transcended weird and creepy over into hilarious and adorable...and I squee when you eat cake.” That, and I like the contrast between him looking like a crazy homeless person and being one of the more “stable” characters. Oh, and of course, the CAKE. Any man who likes cake that much is a man after my own heart, cartoon or not.
I also liked Ryuk, once I started watching the original and got the awful raspy dub-voice out of my head...he was just so open about only being in it for the lulz. Lulz, and apples. Then there’s Matsuda...I can’t help it, I love the little dork. He tried so hard, and sucked so frequently, and was still the closest thing to cuddly on the taskforce. I want to squish him. The fact that he was also a Misa-Misa fanboy just added to his ridiculous levels of cute. As for Misa...well, Misa grew on me. She squicked me pretty hard those first few episodes, being all fangirly and not terribly nice to Rem (who an episode after seeing her had me going “yeee, I want one~”...she was just so big and protective and cool-looking). I was more forgiving after she turned out to have a damned good reason to be fangirly, and it was hard not to like her after her response to Ryuk popping up behind her was, “Nice to meet you! ^__^” After she cheerfully referred to L as “wonderfully unique,” and maintained her good-natured disposition even after he grabbed her ass, it was pretty much impossible. I ended up liking her enough to be mad at L for torturing her for information an episode later.
So there I was, enjoying the series after all, liking the characters, and delighted with all the psychological goodness and cat-and-mouse games in lieu of drawn-out fight scenes and endless power-ups. Then the Yotsuba arc happened. I spent most of it going, “This is boring. Light’s not fun anymore. These villains suck. I miss Ryuk.” Of course, if I’d known how that arc was going to end, I’d probably have appreciated it more...and now that I’ve watched most of the episodes two or three times, things that seemed boring the first time through just seem strangely hilarious. I can’t take the Yotsuba group seriously anymore. I blame doujinshi. I see them in all their evil corporate Kira-y glory and all I can see is Midou and Namikawa gaying it up in the bathroom with a delighted L and a traumatized Light watching through the surveillance cameras o’ voyeurism. It’s worse than the Big 5 in Yuugiou...I could never take the Big 5 seriously, but it was more of “Three Stooges plus two” situation, whereas Yotsuba is now “Three Stooges plus five minus Hatori but REALLY, REALLY GAY.” It’s all Namikawa’s fault. It’s what he gets for being so damned pretty. What doujinshi artist could resist?
Speaking of “really, really gay,” I think the series cured my boredom with yaoi. I’ve never liked rival pairings on the basis that they’re generally boring and obvious, but by the eighth or so episode I was thoroughly convinced that Light and L just needed to bend each other over...and that was before the doujinshi. Canon wants you to pair them up...it starts out with them just being obsessive over each other, then you realize they’re the only ones who can draw a passionate response from each other...then you think you’re reading too deeply into things, but then there’s handcuffs and cake, and L sitting next to Light on his supposed date with Misa while Misa’s sitting aaaaaaaaaaall the way over on the other side of the table, and they have that meaningful moment in the rain and a foot-massage, oh gods, the foot-massage, and even if you can’t stand yaoi it’s impossible not to see where they get it. And while we’re on the topic of pairing-types I usually don’t like, Rem/Misa may be one-sided and unrequited, but I still like it better than Light/Misa...but then, Light/Misa is pretty one-sided and unrequited in its own right. Rem’s just less likely to kill Misa...which is sort of ironic, given Rem’s a Shinigami, and all.
Retracing all of those slashy tangents back to the original point, yeah, I was sort of bored with the Yotsuba arc, even in spite of the handcuffs and cake and Misa instigating a friendship circle and turning Death Note into a shoujo series for one glorious, sparkling scene. Oh, but it was nice to finally see enough of the rest of the taskforce to learn their names, and not be left referring to them as “Angry Afro-man,” “Cute-but-Useless,” “Big Quiet Guy,” “Officer Getskilled,” and “Poor Light’s Dad.” Finally, though, Light got his Kira-ness back and was fun again, and Ryuk came back and was weirdly adorable again (he was shy around Misa! And shared his apples-of-death!), and everything was good and fun and I was all excited with the series again...and then L died. OMG L DIED, and it sucked and it was awful and it should’ve been entirely too obvious between the hinted-backstory and the rain and the damned foot-massage, but I totally wasn’t expecting the major antagonist to be killed that early in the series and was in denial even when the spoon dropped. Oh, gods, that falling spoon kills me every time. He died without even getting to finish his coffee. DDDDDD: Actually, “DDDDDD:” likely sums up my state of mind (and probably facial expression) at that point. I was “DDDDDD:” personified, too upset to even immediately appreciate that half my OTP was dying in the arms of the other half, going through the five stages of grief, all of that.
Denial: “But...but he can’t die now! It’s only the twenty-fifth episode!”
Anger: “Damn you, Light! You could’ve had foot-massages and cake, you horrible bastard!”
Bargaining: “Five more episodes...just give him five more episodes and I’ll try not to be openly disdainful of Mello and Near and all of their fangirls!”
Depression: “Boohoo, this isn’t Yuugiou, so no one will be making any miraculous returns from the dead. ;__;”
Acceptance: “Might as well settle in for twelve sad cakeless episodes and see where this train eventually wrecks.”
...it’s been a very, very long time since I’ve been that emotionally-involved in a series. But I didn’t cry, surprisingly. I whined at Siren for getting me into the series in the first place, but I didn’t cry. I was inconsolable during certain scenes in Fullmetal Alchemist, went all weepy over some of the more touching scenes at the end of Eureka 7, hell, I even teared up a bit over some of the “deaths” in Yuugiou, even knowing they wouldn’t stay dead/soulless/incapacitated for long. I suppose it’s because the characters in Death Note, likable as some of them are, are about as far from typical “good guys” as they can possibly be...it’s hard to be sympathetic for a lot of them. Still, omg L. D: ...and Watari and Rem, for that matter. Especially Rem. Watari and L were at least mentioned afterwards, but Rem died and nobody noticed or cared (well, except for Light, but he set it all up, so it doesn‘t particularly count). Poor Rem.
The rest of the series wasn’t as bad as I’d feared (particularly after noticing the number of fans who jumped ship after L bit the dust), but...ehhhhhhhhn, it wasn’t the same. Of course I missed L (and Watari and Rem...seriously, killing them all off within a minute of each other just added insult to injury), but Light wasn’t as entertaining anymore. He had all the power and was devoid of a lemur-like antagonist to keep him in check...really, the rest of the taskforce wasn’t a challenge at all, and if it weren’t for Near nosing around and coaxing everyone over to his side, they likely wouldn’t have acted on any suspicions they might’ve had...if they had any at all before Near started voicing his own. It did seem like everyone suddenly thought, “Oh, hey, L thought Light was Kira, too, yeah, maybe there’s something to that” the second time around, despite being all twitchy over the idea when L kept bringing it up. I didn’t like Near. I still don’t like Near. Neither he nor Mello felt properly fleshed-out...I’m told they’re more legitimate characters in the manga, but as far as the anime went it was pretty much “here are your crappy replacement Ls.” Near was just guesswork and fuckugly fingerpuppets rolled up in a pair of white pajamas (really, what was that scene of him “deducing” that Mikami was X-Kira? It was like he sat down in front of a bunch of monitors and said, “...umm, it’s that guy. Yeah.”), and Mello was a big ball of chocolate and leather and fail. Near’s team was flavored with a generous dose of Mary Sueism (fuck you, Giovanni. Fuck you and your super-special Note-copying skills), and Mello’s had virtually no impact. Near wrapped things up too neatly, and Mello...I spent most of those episodes waiting for him to do something. All he did was kidnap people, eat chocolate, and look like a homunculus. Granted, one of those kidnappings was important to the case, but still.
Eventually I grew to like Mello, mostly because he seemed...courteously regretful toward certain things he had a hand in. Then he died. I was still waiting for him to do something impressive, so that was made of “wut.” That was another problem I had with the last batch of episodes...they dragged in a bunch of new characters, and most of them were killed off before they felt like legitimate characters. Like Matt. Wtf, fandom. He seems to have more fangirls than Light. I’ve read about people crying harder for him than for L. Matt’s barely a character. He’s there for perhaps a minute, throws a smoke bomb, and then he dies. Is it entirely appearance-based? He does look fun to draw, but I feel like there must be some secret episode or manga volume that goes over him in massive detail, and I’m just missing it. In some twisted alternate universe, Matt must be the main character, and only his most rabid fangirls are privy to that information. And Takada! She seemed to be there just to provide a foil for Misa...and give Light one more opportunity to show what a callous bastard he can be. I was actually worried that Takada would end up killing Misa, particularly after Misa forfeited her Death Note for the second time and didn’t know she was shacked up with Kira...or that Kira was putting the moves on Takada for purposes of manipulation. I was sort of relieved when Light killed her just because it meant things weren’t going to degrade into a catfight-of-death. Did feel bad for Mello, though, ending up dead just because he had the courtesy to let Takada hang onto her underwear. That had to suck.
The only character who didn’t feel hastily shoved-in at the end was Mikami...though that’s probably due to the fact that he spent a good chunk of an episode vomiting his backstory all over the audience. I liked Mikami, though...he was his own special brand of crazy. And he had the same seiyuu as Kyouya! Though he did bring with him a sense of impending doom...you know it can only end badly when the main character starts musing about how wonderful his proxy is because he can act without being told. And that’s ultimately what fucked Team Kira over...Mikami acted as Light would’ve, without being ordered to do so. The ending sort of bothered me, actually...the whole Note-switch seemed to rely too much on Light being lazily careless. Granted he was probably so bloated with his own hubris at that point that he couldn’t be bothered to muster much foresight...but this is the same guy who set up three major-character deaths ten episodes in advance earlier in the series, and did so very, very elaborately. For the switch to be believable, we have to accept one or more of the following:
1) Mikami didn’t bother to check the real Death Note, after going to anal-retentive extremes to examine the fake under a microscope,
2) Mikami was too caught up in his sakujogasm to notice he was carrying around a fake Note, even after writing a page a day in the real one for however long he had it,
3) Giovanni is just so damned awesome he can make an undetectable reproduction of a supernatural notebook in one day,
4) it didn’t occur to anyone to have Mikami keep a few emergency Note-sheets on hand, despite the repeatedly-proven usefulness/necessity of such things.
Seriously, if anyone can explain to me any other way for it to work, please do. I don’t like being mad at plot-twists.
I expected Light to die. I expected a lot of characters to die, really...I knew Souichirou was doomed from the moment Light swore to avenge him if he ended up dead, and Rem pretty well screwed herself with foreshadowing as soon as she told Misa how to kill Shinigami. But Light more or less set himself up as a classic tragic hero from the get-go...you can’t play God for that long and not end up smote. Actually, I was half-expecting Light to “win” (Near was the only character I was really gunning for Light to kill), be all set to settle down and finish reconstructing the world, and then be offed by Ryuk for a giggle before he got the chance. It was hard not to feel bad for Light at the end...he came down hard. Totally crushed. Still, the one I felt the worst for was Matsuda...poor, sobbing, trigger-happy Matsuda, whose brain broke over the sudden realization that his buddy Light had been Kira all along, and that he’d been responsible for all of the deaths they’d been dealing with from the beginning...including his mentor’s. Unfortunately for Light, a mindsnapped Matsuda with a gun is clearly not a Matsuda to fuck with. I also sort of hurt for Mikami, who had to watch his God crumble in front of him, because of him. Also, suicide by fountain pen...just...ouch. I was glad it was Ryuk who actually killed Light, though...he’d been saying he was going to from the beginning, and by that point...well, it could really only be considered a mercy-killing. Imprisonment after having all of his dreams and ambitions smashed in front of him would probably finish off whatever was left of his sanity, and while he’d probably be sentenced to death quickly enough...he’s very pretty, and played God with the lives of thousands and thousands of criminals. He wouldn’t have lasted an hour.
...but I squeed when the last thing Light saw before dying was apparition!L. I squeed hard.
Now, the reason this entry is obscenely long? I haven’t picked up a new fandom in...roughly five years. There’ve been plenty of things I’ve been rabid about--however briefly--since then, but the drive faded for the most part as soon as I finished watching, or reading. I finished the anime back in early January, and I’m still fawning all over it. I’m reading fanfic. I barely bother reading fic for most of my other fandoms (though to be fair, the fanfiction for Yuugiou is so consistently horrible it’s hardly worth looking for it), much less things I’m casually interested in, but I’ve been reading fic almost every night for weeks now. This is serious.
But because this post is so obscenely long, it gets its very own appendix of things I wanted to work in elsewhere! It’s just that special.
--I can’t be the only person who thought Near was giving himself and Mello too much credit when he said that with their forces combined, they surpassed L. It was more along the lines of “Near gleaned information from people he manipulated into getting killed--including Mello--and figured things out from that.” Anyone who’s read all of the manga, is it any better there? Or at least slightly more balanced?
--Misa’s lifespan started to seem like a bad algebra problem by the end of the series. “Misa’s original lifespan runs out, but Jealous dies to save her. She then makes the Shinigami eye deal with Rem, and later Ryuk after regaining her memories. Later, Rem kills Watari and L to save her, dying in the process. Taking all of the above into account, how long does Misa have left to live?” So...Jealous’s remaining lifespan, divided by two, resulting number divided by two again, plus Watari’s remaining lifespan, plus L’s remaining lifespan, plus Rem’s remaining lifespan...hah! It’s a trick question! She kills herself a year after the series ends anyway!
--I read in an interview that the quirky similarities between L and Mello and Near were because the creators wanted it to look as if part of L had been left behind in his successors, but all it really does is make me wonder what the hell they do to the orphans at the Wammy’s House. They all leave it with blank stares, weird addictions, and no eyebrows.
--If the trend of pecularities among the Wammy’s House children holds, and L’s a nail-biter, and Near’s a hair-twirler, somewhere along the orphan-alphabet there must be a nose-picking genius.
--I'm convinced Aizawa's haircut was just to prepare him for his role in Light's downfall. Nobody could take him seriously with the 'fro.
--Watching Death Note makes Ouran Highschool Host Club infinitely funnier...particularly around episode 23, when Tamaki declared Kyouya a god. Oh, it was so perfect. XD