death note

A.k.a my latest obsession. It's not even funny anymore, this thing is addictive.

I've always been a tad suspicious of Japanese anime. I mean, the most recent reference I have is the Sailor Moon of my childhood and let's face it, that one is a little stupid. Then again, how can you go wrong with a cartoon (don't mention Rango...)? Also, it's really good practice for my Japanese.

So (in the name of education) on advice of a Japanse/Canadian friend who's also an exchange student, I tried Death Note, an anime series. There's a film, live-action film, manga etc as well, but I chose the anime. No particular reason why. And let me tell you this: I. Am. Hooked. Like a fricking fish in the pond. It's ridiculous. There are 40 episodes, and I'm on 26 now. It's so good. Allow me to outline the story:

The main character is Yagami Light ('Yagami' means 'dark' - you do the maths), an A-student with seemingly sound values and good looks - in other words perfect. It takes place in contemporary Tokyo. The plot is sparked from the realm of Death Gods (Shinigami) when one of them is bored and drops his Death Note to the earth. A Death Note is a tool with which the Death Gods kill humans in order to expand their own life span. There are certain rules in using the Death Note, for example you have to know the face and the name of the person, otherwise it won't work. You kill by writing the name of the person in the note, and you can specify how/when/where etc according to other specific rules. Without getting into too much specifics, Yagami Light uses the book to bring justice to criminals, and it sort of spins off from there.

Every episode ends on a sort of cliffhanger, or a situation where it is impossible to know where it will head on, and so you're forced to go on to the next episode. Spending more time on this than, well, to be honest - anything else.

If you don't mind signing up a significant part of your life for an addictive new 'hobby', I recommend it. Most of the episodes are on youtube, available both with English subs and dub. Above is the trailer with English dub (personally, I prefer the subbed version).

Jo x