2003-2006 manga written by Tsugumi Ohba and drawn by Takeshi Obata, about a teenager who discovers a 'Death Note', capable of killing anyone whose face and name he knows, and sets about cleansing the world of criminals while avoiding capture by the mysterious 'L'.
Also a 2006-2007 anime.
Originally published over several years in Weekly Shonen Jump, it is now available in 12 paperback volumes.
I got the first volume of the Black Edition for my birthday in 2013 from Matthew, and bought the second for myself in October 2013.
Length[]
208 chapters over 12 volumes.
First attempt (September 2013)[]
Format[]
Paperback, Black Edition.
Journal[]
After watching and reading all of Hikaru no Go I started to get a bit more into anime and manga, experimentally. I decided I would try reading Death Note, since it's a classic and I never finished the anime.
Volume 1 & 2 (September 2013)
385 pages long. I got it from Matthew for my 26th birthday and I got one from the fifth (2012) printing.
I read it over about a week or two, I think. I was teaching at my first job and very busy and not reading anything, except for occasional chapters of Royal Assassin which I was still trying to get through, but after I got a sudden amount of free time I saw away the rest. It was pretty good, but I already know the story so, much like Hikaru no Go, I'm finding that mangas aren't really worth reading if you've seen the anime.
First read (July-October 2014)[]
Format[]
Paperblack, Black Editions.
Journal[]
In mid 2014 - July, I think - I started again after having bought the second volume of the Black Edition and giving that to Matthew. I bought the third volume (of six total) in late July.
As of the 4th of August I'm halfway through the second volume and it's definitely interesting. Obviously the anime was the same but it's been a while so to a large extent it's not so far from reading it for the first time.
Update 27th August: I started the fourth volume a while back but I haven't read very often. Might be halfway through. It's gotten to the post-L stage that bored me in the anime. I think it is a slump, after the first three volumes were pretty awesome, but I'm still willing to believe it's working up to more good stuff. I guess I'm just a bit busier at the mo.
Finally finished off the fourth volume on the evening of September 17th. First time I'd read it since the last update. I'm not sure I remember any of this from the anime, so maybe there's more to the manga than the anime? Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention by the end.
Update 26th October: I finished the last volume two or three weeks ago I guess. I definitely think it's too long, the punch is lacking from the post-L stage and the ending wasn't very satisfying. The only good bit was seeing Light appeal to Ryuk only to be casually rebuffed, but that wasn't enough to make up for the silly situation it all came down to, with both players believing completely that they were about to win and for us to have no idea which one had thought one step further. Just the fact that Light didn't even apparently seem to have considered the possibility that he'd need to have thought another step ahead when he knew what sort of game he was playing and with what sort of opponent was silly. And Light having spent basically the entire last half of the manga staring through his bangs into a computer screen with his back to the police people, that got really dull.
Rating[]
1, I guess