#1) Death Note, Vol. 1: Boredom ★★★★☆
#2) Death Note, Vol. 2: Confluence ★★★☆☆
#3) Death Note, Vol. 3: Hard Run ★★★★☆
#5) Death Note, Vol. 5: Whiteout ★★☆☆☆
#6) Death Note, Vol. 6: Give-and-Take ★★★★☆
#7) Death Note, Vol. 7: Zero ★★★★☆
#8) Death Note, Vol. 8: Target ★★★☆☆
#9) Death Note, Vol. 9: Contact ★★★★☆
#10) Death Note, Vol. 10: Deletion ★★★★☆
#11) Death Note, Vol. 11: Kindred Spirits ★★★★☆
#12) Death Note, Vol. 12: Finis ★★★☆☆

➸ Trigger warnings for sexual harassment, heart attack, murder, torture, including nonconsensual sensory deprivation, unlawful and inhumane imprisonment and surveillance / invasions of privacy by law enforcement.

▷ Representation: Japanese cast & setting.

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Bana güven ve öl.

Guys? Am I the only one who's still waiting for their own Death Note?

My default review for the entire series is here, where I talk about how damn much I love the series. This review will be far less intelligent, and mainly about how much I hate Misa. You have been warned.

I know it happens a little later for most people, but this is where the series starts to go downhill for me. It gets a lot worse later, don't get me wrong, and I've been told the manga does this arc better than the anime, but this is by far the worst one so far. Why? Well, there are a couple reasons, but it mostly has to do with Misa.

Misa.

MISA. I FUCKING HATE MISA.

(I had a really great meme summing up how much I hate Misa, but GoodReads refuses to display it, so instead, here's a meme featuring a much better character.)



Alright, I'll explain why I hate her so much. Because it's not just that she's annoying. It's more than that.

Alright, so I've complained about Death Note's misogyny before now. The series has a strong lack of women, the women that do exist don't do anything, and the only woman ever to appear that actually did something for herself met a swift death. But I was able to ignore it up until now, write it off as a fluke, because I loved everything else about the manga so much. When I was at this point in the anime (which I watched before reading the manga), I thought, "Okay, this sucks. But if Ohba's willing to stick to what he's good at and just kind of... avoid writing about women, I think I'll be able to tolerate it. It's not the best solution, but it'll work."

And then along came Misa, and everything was blown out of the water.

Misa kind of reads like the token black character in a 70's show (or Glee, same difference) - it's nice that they're making an attempt to be diverse and show that they're not racist, but the character is so black in every possible way that it falls flat. That's how Misa is. You see, Misa is a cute girly-girl, even with blond hair. But she has to make a living somehow, right? So what's the girliest possible profession? Why, a fashion model, of course! And everything she does is motivated by her love for a guy (specifically Light). Sure, she does some things for herself (she came up with a mildly clever ruse to manipulate the Kira task force), but it was all to meet Light, and once she did, he had to do everything for her. She actively sabotaged plans, in ways that could get her and Light both killed, just to see him. That's probably my least favorite part about her - she does ridiculously stupid things just because of her obsession with Light (which was love at first sight, by the way). Ohba could've used this as an opportunity to explore obsession and the psychology of an obsessed person, but instead, it's just annoying and misogynistic.

But it wouldn't be fair to deduct two stars from this volume just because of one character, right? Well, that's because I have more. Sit tight.

The other reason I deducted the stars was because of the plot. And this mostly has to do with this book's relationship with later books, but regardless. What I'm about to discuss is also very spoilery, so if you don't want to have a bunch of twists majorly ruined for you, don't open the tag. (As in, if you open the tag, you'll find out about the death of a major character. Don't do it.)

Okay, so in this book, when Light meets Misa, he discovers that she has the Shinigami eyes, which means she can see the names and lifespans of people whose faces she can see. That means that to kill someone, all she has to do is come close to them. Light immediately realizes that this can be used to kill L - all Misa has to do is see him in person. But wait! We're only four volumes in! L can't die yet!

So, yes, Ohba has to come up with a reason to prolong L's death. Which he does. Oh, but it also has to be plausible and not-contrived. At which Ohba completely fails.

Here's what happens: only a few seconds after Misa sees L in person, she's arrested as suspect of being the Second Kira. Why? Well, when Misa sent videotapes to the police station, they had traces of perfume and hair in them. Perfume and hair that happened to match Misa's hair and perfume. The only logical conclusion is that the Second Kira is Misa! (Which it is.) Perfect, right?

Here's the problem: how did L know that the perfume and hair matched Misa. The only reason he'd find that out is if he searched Misa's house, and the only reason for him to do that is if there was suspicion of Misa being Kira or Second Kira. Of which there was absolutely none. When Light introduced Misa to L, this is the first he'd seen of her, and she was just a random model - just one of Light's girlfriends. Yet only seconds after they meet, Misa's been arrested. There was absolutely no reason for L to suspect her, no reason for her house to be searched. So the only way Ohba could think of to extend L's life was through a plothole. (This gets even more contrived and even more blatantly-filler in the next volume, but we'll get there when we get there.

This is still Death Note, don't get me wrong - the quality hasn't really declined yet. It's still very morally and psychologically interesting, the artwork is still phenomenal, and all the characters are still realistic. This is merely the start of a decline in this manga, and it'll take it a while to recover.

If I recall correctly, the next volume is pretty interesting, and then it gets mind-numbingly dull from there on out. Wonderful.

2020, ikinci okuma edit’i: başından beri light’ı sevmiyorum... ama L...... benim yabani bebeğim ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ hemen beşinci cilde devam edeceğim çünkü, beş sene önce de dediğim gibi sonu çok fena bitti... “hemen diğer ciltleri alacağım!!” dememin üstünden beş sene geçmiş olmasının absürtlüğü peki kdfjdk “hemen” tanımım biraz ilginç olsa gerek...

_______________________

Light cidden çok zeki ama bu onu sevmemi sağlamıyor maalesef. Çok çıkarcı olduğunu düşünüyorum.L Light için o benim ilk arkadaşım tarzında bir şey dediğinde eridim resmen,ya ben seni yerim yerim.

Sonu çoook fena bitti ve ben diğer ciltleri İSTİYORUM. Sanırım fuar için para biriktirmeyi falan umursamadan alıcam diğer ciltleri de >_<

The least interesting of the series thus far. The cat and mouse game that Light and L play continues to be interesting, and I liked the new Shinigami, Rem, - very different in tone from Ryuk - maybe she's female? What this manga needs is a strong woman character or two. Misa is damn annoying. OK, so she's a model and dumb and subservient, but she's twenty and behaves like a bratty five year old. I know that we've all lived through the age of Trump for the past 4 years, and bratty behavior is still a sore subject, but honestly! The plot doesn't really move forward much, and I'm annoyed with Misa Misa, and I miss the woman FBI agent - though we didn't spend much time with her. Why are there no interesting women in this manga? Sigh.

Can't give the volumes less than five!

This volume would have been more enjoyable if it hadn't been made up of 50% preparation, 40% thought-bubbles/floating-text thingies and 10% action. Somehow the 10% made the thing worth it, even though it twisted on itself multiple times, and I'm hooked again.

L wants to draw the second Kira out in the open and plans to use Raito to do it. Raito is spotted by Amane Misa, the second Kira, in one of the places she wrote in her diary. She gets his name using her Death's Eyes, Remu's ability to read people's names by looking at them. Instead of killing him, she goes straight to Raito's house and offers to discover L's real name. Raito sees the advantage of having her as an ally and accepts her offer.

Misa seems to truly love him, but goes about it in a way Raito finds unbearable. L, Raito and Misa meet each other on the street, of all places. Really believable setting. Anyway, Misa sees L's real name and Raito hopes he can get it out of her. Unfortunately, Misa is arrested based on evidence found at her house, so now Raito intends to get rid of her before she points her finger at him. How convoluted...

Aaand bondage scene! Dem asians! Watari, L's butler or something, is instructed to get Misa's confession even if he has to resort to torture to do it. Things are heating up. Given Misa's link to Raito, L again suspects Raito of being Kira. Then another weird thing happens: Misa asks Remu to kill her. Now, why did she have to use ridiculous lines, though? 'Kill me now while I am young and pretty.' Remu is acting like a pussy here and refuses to kill her. Some god of death. Instead he has her give Raito her death note, which also wipes her memory of every event related to it. All but her love for Raito. Cause why not? Remu joins Raito who has already hatched a plan against L which involves Rait's imprisonment in a attempt to remove him as a suspect.

i hate how misa amane is written to be an annoying character why did you do my girlie like that

Never been more anxious while reading anything else

Misa coming in and throwing a wrench into Light's plans is absolute hilarity. I was giggling like a school kid.

Also... I got some major Harley Quinn vibes from her.



This story gets better and better.

Both Light and L are so sharp that it makes me feel dumb -_-

Anyway, what the HECK with that Misa!!! I want to slash her neck, cut her arteries and veins one by one, and then I shall suck her blood like Robert Pattinson used to do in Twilight (I didn't watch it actually; I'm only assuming). GAAAAAAHHHHH! What's wrong with that idiot!! I have to admit that I like the idea of another Death Note carrier, but that child was so &%*&E(*#&)(#)*^#

Though I know that Light is evil, I'm still Team Light :p The kind of enemy one admires I guess.