"
The pen is mightier than the sword."
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton (Cardinal Richelieu, 1839)
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| Minoru Tanaka and Ryuk the Shinigami |
It's been 13 years since I last laid my eyes on the finale of
Death Note, a highly-acclaimed animated thriller from Japan with plot twists flying off the rails episode after episode. It was one of the first experiences that left me feeling empty at the end of it all.
Death Note (デスノート; Desu Nōto, 2006) is an anime adaptation by
Studio Madhouse (HxH 2011, One Punch Man s1, Parasyte, Monster) of a manga by the same name created by a duo named Takeshi Obata (draw artist) and Tsukumi Oba (writer).
The series is inspired by Ballard's 1959 novel short story Now: Zero. The fame of Death Note from its very first conception in 2004 blew the world away and the series soon after became a global hit known as the gateway anime series for any person, regardless of whether or not you like anime.
The series tells the tale of a boy named Light Yagami who finds a notebook with a set of rules that gets dropped from another realm by a resident of that realm - a shinigami (death god) named Ryuk. After getting the Death Note, Light slowly becomes corrupted by the power of the book that allows him to kill anyone whose face and name he knows. This corruption of Light around the globe becomes known as Kira, a god that is assumedly just in trying to kill all the evil people on Earth. The God of the New World. The birth of the concept of Kira introduces us to a new character, L, who is an introvert sugar lover as well as the greatest detective in the world. L builds an instance known as the Kira Task Force that is meant to apprehend the serial killer whom L deems to be utterly evil. The existence of L himself however gives us one of the greatest cat-and-mouse game in anime history as Light and L try to find and apprehend each other without knowing either ones true names or faces. The loser of this grim tale
will die.
In the anime industry a great manga having a good anime adaptation is extremely rare. The reason for that is obviously money; the anime is simply promotional matter for the original work that's been successful enough to warrant an anime adaptation. The fame of Death Note comes not just from its interesting soundtracks (albeit synthesized), insane direction, intriguing plot or immense passion put into the series, because the series is also more than just the sum of its parts. Every single episode of Death Note has mind-tweaking twists that are different from the norm that you expect in an anime series as we see the psyche of L and Light when they try to outmaneuver each other in crazy ways. The manga is fantastic with art akin to a seinen series (yes, Death Note was running in Shounen Jump magazine) and the anime somehow makes the manga come alive frame by frame, panel by panel, in a way no other shounen author has been able to replicate thus far. It would not be a stretch to say that Death Note is the greatest series producted by Madhouse and the greatest series by the duo authors as well when we look at the immense effort that went into the final product. The series was animated in 2006 but it still holds up to this day - just like a heavy budgeted anime film from the 80s such as Akira would.
In January 2020 Weekly Shounen Jump announced that Jump SQ will be releasing an 87-page sequel one-shot manga series for Death Note by the original mangaka duo the very next month, on February 4th, and it will be available for free on their official site. This news was amazing - the 20th anniversary for new Bleach news AND Death Note manga one-shot sequel, maybe we'll even get Hunter x Hunter back this year for its 400th chapter milestone (most likely the final x00 chapter milestone we'll ever get)!
Now, the sequel manga series' one-shot chapter is finally here and I will be doing a live overview of the whole thing. For new readers of this blog, I like to overview every single aspect of a series I think is well written to get inspiration from how the authors frame everything out in the story. So now it's time to start listening to the full OST's of the original anime and start reading the chapter.
Returning to the World of Death Note
The color pages of this series have always been 10/10 tier, and this one-shot is no different from what came before it. The artist is one of the best in the industry when it comes to presentation and understanding of dimensions in drawing medium. Ah, I really feel like I'm back in 2007 right now when see this new art. Anyway, we see Ryuk in all his Frankenstein's monster glory behind our new fluffy-haired main character with the MC himself holding the forbidden apple in his right hand - the apple in this series represents the Death Note; the main character of the original series taking a bite of the forbidden apple was to represent him doing his first kill with the notebook. The series has always been full-on with symbolism like this. I'm not a big fan of symbolism in shounen but it's definitely one of the best aspects of Death Note when it comes to setting the atmosphere. There are some insane scenes like representations of L post-episode 25 chaining Light down (with Near and Mello appearing) as well as Light and L being on top of skyscrapers as red and blue characters. It's really cool to watch and a way to make a series about characters writing on a notebook hella interesting just with the author having understanding of what great presentation looks like.
Ah, but I'm already rambling on with the first page alone here. The color page is amazing and our new main character has a great design to him. Let's see what kind of person he is next.
The story begins in the realm of the Shinigami in year 2013 with the round-headed shinigami and our main guy Ryuk hanging out in the corrupt world filled with chains hanging from the black sky. The original series's timeline ended in 2011 but the real ending of the series (Light's ending) happened in 2010, meaning that this happens three years after the ending of Death Note.
The round-headed shinigami arrives to give Ryuk his notebook back. In the shinigami realm it's apparently become known that Ryuk succeeded in having fun in the human realm. The round-headed shinigami didn't succeed in anything. Ryuk tells the other shinigami that he'll take the notebook back but the shinigami should give him something else as well in compensation - something from the human realm, obviously. The shinigami then throws an apple at Ryuk - as expected - and Ryuk instantly spins it in his mouth with his tongue and chomps it down.
In the original series Ryuk was insanely into apples - whenever he had to go days without them, he'd start to get heavy symptoms. This time Ryuk decides that he absolutely needs more apples so he should probably try to go to the human realm once more. He wants someone like Light Yagami so that he can eat apples for a long time and have fun at the same time.
May, 2019, Tanaka household
Six years later we meet the fluffy-haired character from the color page as he's listening to music through earpods. Right after, Ryuk's hand comes through the floor into the boy's room (Note: Ryuk is intangible - he can phase through objects and shooting him with guns won't do anything as they phase through him as well. Ryuk crawls through the ground towards the boy - who's just minding his business, listening music with his eyes closed - and taps the boy with the Death Note (results in the user being able to see shinigami).
Ryuk tapping the boy with the notebook causes us to get a full-page panel similar to Light Yagami getting his memories back on the helicopter from touching the notebook. It seems that out main character has held to this notebook prior to this page in the story, making this a rather interesting turn of events.
Our MC is first slightly surprised at seeing Ryuk but then just gives a sigh of relief. He says that it's been two years since Ryuk and he last hang out. Ryuk tells the boy that he came out of the floor as promised and the MC tells him that he wouldn't work with anyone who doesn't keep their promises - shinigami or human, doesn't matter. This exchange of words gives us some mysteries like was it actually necessary for Ryuk to come from the floor or something and understanding of how much our main character values loyalty (maybe because he likes to use people).
Two years prior (2017) - The Fated Meeting
We go back in time to explain our main character meeting with Ryuk.
Minoru Tanaka, our main character, is being talked about in the school's faculty room. Teachers in the school talk about how Minoru got the top score once again, for three years in row and counting. They assume that he could be the smartest middle school student in Japan right now. Note that in the page where he got his memory back we saw him with a low score so maybe the Death Note will stress him so much to fail after being the best. Or maybe not as right after we see him get some mediocre grades despite him being incredibly smart.
Minoru is outside the school on a swing, looking at his scores. He got 28 points on English. These kind of scores make him call himself dumb. This scene makes me feel kind of bad for our main character. Then all of a sudden a notebook falls from the sky and hits Minoru right in the head. He grabs his head and shouts from the sting as Ryuk appears next to him and tells Minoru that the notebook is his now. After hearing Ryuk and looking back to see the giant monster right behind him we get large panels of Minoru just being shocked from seeing him.
Ryuk tells Minoru that he heard the boy is extremely smart - smart enough to give Ryuk some fun like Light Yagami did. Ryuk then looks at Minoru's test scores, which are terrible, but tells him that he overheard the teachers say the kid is the smartest middle schooler in all of Japan. Minoru is confused at what Ryuk is talking about while still being shocked and he tells Ryuk that he might mean intelligence tests instead of school tests. Minoru says that the school doesn't tell the students the scores for the IQ test so he wasn't aware that he's the smartest in the country- and even then, getting high scores in IQ tests just means Minoru is into brain teasers and playing IQ games, not studying. According to Minoru any teacher that tells that he's smart because he scores high in IQ tests instead of studies is a dumbass.
Ryuk then asks Minoru if he's an idiot then to which Minoru answers that he's terrible at studies and he's only good at things like riddles and quizzes.
Ryuk keeps creepily looking at Minoru and tells him that he might be the perfect person to get the notebook of death. Minoru wonders what he's talking about and asks what Ryuk even is. Ryuk tells Minoru to get up and go to his house. Minoru declines but Ryuk tells him that only Minoru can see Ryuk at the moment. Then in the end they get to go to Minoru's house to talk about things.
In Minoru's room Ryuk tells him that the notebook Minoru got actually used to be Kira's. Minoru then tells us about Kira - Kira is now known as a person who eliminated war and reduced crime rates. These days everyone knows about Kira; he's being told about in elementary school books people study Kira as part of the world history. Ryuk wonders if people treat Kira as one of the great historical people. Minoru tells Ryuk no, in fact in ethics they teach kids that Kira was pure evil. In world history classes Kira is being described as a crazy mass-murderer terrorist known to be the worst one in recent history. Regardless, many people say Kira was a god, to which Ryuk is kind of surprised about.
Minoru wonders just how does one notebook make someone a god. Ryuk points Minoru to the instructions on the first page but since it's written in English, Minoru doesn't understand it.
Ryuk is forced to translate the rules to Minoru and as the translation we get this cool one-page of a page of rules of the Death Note.
The Rules of the Death Note
I) The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
II) This note will not take effect unless the writer has the persons face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected
III) If the cause of deaath is written within 40 seconds of writing the persons name, it will happen.
IV) If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.
V) After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
Minoru is shocked as he reads the rules. He says that he can't believe it but since the existence of Kira is a fact, the notebook truly does explain how he did all the things he's known to have done.
He looks at Ryuk and asks him if the police and the famous detective L were trying to arrest Kira, to which Ryuk says yes and that it was all very entertaining to follow.
Our main character asks Ryuk if he could tell more about the things that Kira did. Ryuk then tells Minoru that he'd much rather eat an apple before doing something like that. Soon, Minoru comes back and gives Ryuk an apple. Minoru tells him that since his mother is on an apple diet and Minoru eats an apple once a day, there are apples in the house. Ryuk says that he's not going to share any personal details about Kira but he will tell some things that he remembers of the person as he takes a huge bite of the apple.
Time passes as Ryuk tells Minoru about Kira. Minoru is in disbelief but seems kind of down to earth about it, almost disappointed and impressed at the same time due to Kira being so smart. Minoru is impressed at Kira using the rules of the notebook and the fact that touching the notebook makes people see shinigami to his advantage. Ryuk tells Minoru that Kira's test scores used to be the greatest in the country.
Minoru tells Ryuk that if someone were to try the same thing now they'd instantly get caught. Kira's reign was about ten years prior, in a whole different era. Nowadays there are security cameras on every street and corner, and every train, car and bus has a dashcam. It'd be impossible to do the deeds Kira did without getting caught. Nowadays cops are solving cybercrimes easily, meaning that if Kira were to try to get his message online, they'd just track him down. All cell phone calls are null as well. There are no way to send untraceable messages online.
Regardless, Minoru believes that even with all the technological advancements, Kira must have been smart enough to still come up with a way to pull everything off in the current technological era.
Ryuk asks Minoru if he can pull off Kira's reign in the current era. Minoru gets surprised and looks at Ryuk. He thinks to himself that Ryuk wants him to do the same things that Kira did and that there's no way he'd use a deadly notebook.
We get a panel of Minoru thinking to himself. This is pretty interestingly presented with Minoru being white as he thinks of what to do with the notebook. From what Ryuk told him, if he were to give someone else the notebook or return it to Ryuk, he would lose its ownership along with all the memories of it. It'd be a way to forget the supernatural power that once ruled the entire world. Minoru thinks about how Kira gave the notebook back to Minoru once before as well, so it must work.
Minoru has one problem however; if he were to give the notebook back to Ryuk, the shinigami would just give the notebook that can only be used to kill people to someone else instead.
Minoru wonders about what the right answer to using the notebook would be. Get rid of it or not, and how would he go about his next choice?
Hours pass and Ryuk asks why Minoru hasn't said anything since then. Minoru tells Ryuk that he's the kind of person who keeps thinking until he reaches his own answer to questions at hand. Ryuk gives a comedic answer about how that must be why Minoru is the best at quizzes.
Time passes once more and Minoru just thinks about the situation until he turns around to asks Ryuk two specific questions.
Question 1: Are there any other humans besides Minoru who are able to see Ryuk?
Ryuk answers yes, meaning the final group of people such as Near that caught Kira are able to see him. Ryuk thinks of Near, Matsuda and the rest of the SPK that was built to catch Kira.
Minoru asks Ryuk if he's absolutely positive to which he answers that people who have possession of the notebook and lose possession will lose their ability to see shinigami, but people who touched the notebook won't lose the ability and should still be able to see Ryuk, the invisible and intangible death god. Minoru thinks with a worried face about the situation.
Question 2: Minoru asks about one of the rules of the notebook. The rules says "The human owner of a Death Note must be possessed by a shinigami." Minoru's question is about just how far away can the shinigami get from the owner. Ryuk says that there'd no firm rule and it most likely works as long as Ryuk knows where the owner is. There is no distance set to how far away a shinigami should be. Minoru asks Ryuk to just come up with a number. Ryuk tells him that by measurements of the human world he will set the distance at 14 kilometers (almost 10 miles which is 16 km) as 14 km is close enough to identify humans and to reach the owner of the notebook instantly.
After getting his answers to both of his questions Minoru thinks more and then tells Ryuk that he's decided on what to do: Minoru tells Ryuk that he will return the Death Note, in turn losing his memories of it, however, he also tells Ryuk to come back in two years time. In two years Minoru will use the notebook, and in turn he promises Ryuk apples every single day. Ryuk wonders about the fact that he has to be in apple withdrawal for two whole years and Minoru tells him that if he can't wait he can just give the notebook to someone else. Ryuk tells Minoru that nah, he'll wait as he sees potential in Minoru.
We get a nice page of Minoru giving the ownership of the notebook away to Ryuk the Shinigami as Minoru physically hands the notebook to Ryuk.
Present day - Minoru's Plan
We get to see a more grown up Minoru Tanaka thinking about what has happened thus far. Ryuk tells him that he's gone two years without apples. Minoru says that now he can proceed with the plan he created two years prior when he lost his memory of the notebook. Ryuk wonders about the plan as he never heard what it is and Minoru tells him that it's time to sell the Death Note. This is kind of funny because it can also be seen as the authors saying they're going to be sell-outs and make more of the series despite it ending, but I digress.
Anyway, after hearing that Minoru plans to sell the Death Note by putting it up for auction online, Ryuk is surprised at first but then tells that the plan sounds actually interesting, however, the problem here is that Minoru himself said two years prior how no one can anonymously use internet to do anything as everything can be tracked on the net. Minoru says that he's not going to use the net, no, there was a very specific reason as to why he asked Ryuk exactly just how far away he could be from the owner, who is in this case Minoru himself. It was set by Ryuk that he can be 14 kilometers away, so that's just the perfect distance as Minoru asks Ryuk to head over to Sakura TV's base which is 11 km distance away from Minoru's household.
Minoru gives Ryuk an apple and tells him to use paper and pen from the TV station to write something down. Not in English, as Minoru still doesn't understand it, but in Japanese. Ryuk wonders what's going on and heads to the TV station where news are being shown. All of a sudden on the television screen appears a floating piece of paper. In fact it's not floating but the invisible Ryuk is holding the paper and showing the world as follows:
"The Power to remotely kill people as used by KIRA is being put up for auction. If you want to buy it, use the Hashtag #powerofkira on Twitter and Indicate your bid amount in American dollars."
The news reporters and other TV studio personnel of Sakura TV are wondering what the paper is supposed to be. People around Japan are wondering what it means and think that it's an on-air screw-up with Sakura TV just doing publicity stunts again. The director tells the reporters not to touch the paper and to explain what's going on. They say that the paper is floating in the air unsupported and that it's referring to Kira's power to kill people from a distance. Minoru watches at the news via his phone and sees Ryuk holding the paper.
In the police station we see Matsuda look at the news via his laptop and he recognizes Ryuk as well. Matsuda tells the deputy commissioner that Ryuk is trying to sell the notebook to which the guy tells Matsuda that it's the person owning the notebook, not Ryuk. After 30 seconds, Ryuk drops the note to the ground and phases through the ground as he leaves, leaving the news reporters at Sakura TV baffled.
The Next Day - World Wants the Notebook?
Students at Minoru's high school ponder about whether or not the Sakura TV sale was for real or not. On twitter, it hasn't even been one day and people are bidding millions of dollars online since the sale came to light. That amount of money in Japan translates to over 300 million yen currency. The students ponder that if it really is Kira's power, mere millions of dollars is an extremely cheap price. We see Minoru just spend his day listening to music through his earpods while in the class, not caring about what others say.
In America at the "new" SPK built by Near (now known as the Next L), Near's agents arrive to tell the next L news about Kira that are spreading in Japan at the moment. When the agents arrive to meet L, they're greeted with a replica of Ryuk's face. Next, we see a long and white-haired person telling the agents that he's trying to create a facial-recognition program for shinigami, but obviously it's not an easy thing to do as only people who have touched the notebook can see shinigami. Then we see the face of present-day Near. He tells the agents that they'll be calling the person trying to sell the Death Note on auction as A-Kira.
Near tells the agents that he could see the shinigami holding the paper in mid-air at Sakura TV. Near understands that A-Kira is a very cautious person due to the fact that he avoids using the internet to sell the notebook. He also explains that following the shinigami - Ryuk - is going to be their chance to find A-Kira. They will try to find security footage of A-Kira and Ryuk together. It's however impossible to find the footage from every single security camera in Japan if you only use the help of people that can see shinigami.
Near starts to go through his toy box to find a toy eye. The agents ask if he thinks A-Kira is in Japan. Near answers them that based on the past experiences, the shinigami most likely can't be far from the owner of the notebook- it's very likely that A-Kira is in Japan.
The agents tell Near that they'll be arranging a ticket to Japan immediately to apprehend A-Kira, however Near tells them that it's going to be impossible to charge the perpetrator with a crime when he's trying to sell a notebook.
In the past Near used to call the Death Note the
Worst Murder Weapon in Human History, but weapons of mass destruction are traded around the world every single day. Killing with the notebook is a crime, but selling the notebook is not. Near tells the agents that they should just track down the person who buys the notebook instead of A-Kira. The agents ponder why L - Near - wants to track down A-Kira then to which he answers that A-Kira is extremely smart and because of that he has personal interest in meeting the person trying to auction the Death Note. The agents and Near are silent until Near tells them that if they want to help, they can go get the security footage of Sakura TV via the help of Mr. Aizawa who can then send the clip over to America.
The agents head to speak with Aizawa and Matsuda through earphones. Aizawa tells Mr. Rester (one of the agents) that they've finished checking out the camera footage from Sakura TV as well as the surrounding area. After throwing away the sheet of paper with the message inside the TV studio, Ryuk passed through the bottom of the second-floor studio, then the first floor, then the basement parking lot, and was not shown on the security footage afterwards after going underground. Near looks at the Ryuk Replica in his studio and says that they won't be making the shinigami face recognition system after all if Ryuk is just traveling underground between the TV station and A-Kira's house. There's nothing they can do about it.
Near then presses a button and the Ryuk replica simply explodes and then he explains that if the shinigami is to appear on any camera footage aside from the TV studio it's going to be the time when he's handing over the murder notebook to the next buyer. Near pulls out a finger toy version of Ryuk and a black cube that he flicks over to the agents.
The moment when the buyer gets the notebook is going to be when A-Kira will lose any memory of the Death Note. It's a great plan with very little chance of getting caught. If the previous SPK wants to catch the perpetrator as A-Kira, the only chance they have is the moment when A-Kira gets the money and lets go of the Death Note. Near looks at the finger toy Ryuk in disgust and tells his agents that even though it'd be easier to figure A-Kira's identity out by figuring out who gets the money after the auction is complete but he feels like it'd be admitting defeat to A-Kira in a way. He also mentions how he has a feeling that A-Kira has planned the whole thing out in a way that the SPK won't be able to detect the money changing owner.
In the end the only thing they can do is wait and see whoever gets the notebook.
Back at the Tanaka household Ryuk and Minoru are checking out the current bids on Twitter - they're up to 10 billion yen at this point as the plan is proceeding along incredibly well. Ryuk asks when the bidding will stop and when he'll stop getting apples and Minoru answers that he never decided on a deadline. As for apples, Minoru can give them for a bit even after he gets the money. Ryuk is sad about not getting more apples than that.
Next, another "floating" message at Sakura TV appears. It reads as follows:
"One week left until the end of the auction. It may end prematurely as well. You will be informed if that happens. This transaction will be final. No complaints, no returns."
After the message appearing the director of Sakura TV tells them to drag the message of A-Kira out for 30 minutes to get more viewers to watch the show. The STV squad realizes that the message is also written on the STV's very own paper and with their own pen as well. Ryuk thinks that Minoru told him to only hold the message for 30 seconds, not 30 minutes.
One of the reporters start reading the message that Ryuk is holding out-loud but Matsuda runs in and tries to stop the program. Ryuk tells Matsuda that it's been a long time since they met. Matsuda however was only ordered to follow Ryuk when he leaves, not to show up and try to stop the program- well, Matsuda is still a cop so he just does what he thinks is right.
The whole scene with Matsuda is pretty comedic as he just ruins the entire plan of trying to track Ryuk and A-Kira. Near watches the TV and says that at least Matsuda has been keeping himself busy over the years. One of his agents just tell him that Matsuda's actions simply make the whole thing (Kira's power being sold) even more believable for the customers.
At police HQ Matsuda tries to explain the chief the powers of Kira being a notebook that can kill people but he gets put on desk duty to keep him away from media for the rest of the case.
The Next Day
Now, because of Matsuda's actions the bids on the Death Note on Twitter have gone up to 200 billion dollars, or over 20 trillion yen. At the school the students theorize that that amount of money is not personal anymore - no single person on Earth has over 130 billion dollars. This means that it's most likely a nation or a large group trying to buy the power of Kira now. If the nation gets to buy the notebook they get to become an internationally formidable foe. The bids on the Death Note keep rising billions of dollars at an insane rate; it quickly passes 300 billion $.
Minoru thinks to himself that he already knew that it'd become a national competition as the rest of the students are enamored on the battle between two nations trying to outbid each other.
Another letter at Sakura TV appears saying the following:
"Don't bother with Twitter. Put your government reps into the media to make an official announcement of how much you will pay to buy it."
After the message appears, Near thinks that the entire thing is going to get very interesting from now on.
In America the 45th president of United States, Donald Trump, makes his appearance. Trump thinks to himself that in 2005 the FBI director and a boy named Near testified to the President that Kira's power was a notebook that would kill a person if you wrote their name in it. Trump thinks that if the legends were true after all, no other nation should be allowed to get their hands on it.
Trump takes the stage on the TV as the President of the United States of America and makes a live announcement that the United States will buy the Power of Kira for 500 billion dollars.
Next up the People's Republic of China's president claims that they will be buying the Power of Kira for a trillion dollars along with a promise that the power will be used for peaceful means. The masses go crazy about this announcement.
After hearing what China has to offer, America decides to offer two trillion dollars and promises to never use the Power of Kira for world peace.
Minoru looks at Trump and thinks of what to do.
The Next Day - Battle of the governments
Another note appears on Sakura TV. A-Kira tells them the following:
"Any world leader bidding must name a price only. No other nonsense."
Which is hilarious. No one trusts what the leaders have to say. Near is enjoying the show, telling his agents that the whole thing is getting incredibly entertaining.
In America/China, different journalists decide to flock over the prime minister and ask him if it's possible to hold a world leader summit to ensure no country buys the Power of Kira. The prime minister tells everyone to stop with the idealistic statements; everyone knows some country is going to get the power since no single person has enough money to bid trillions. Whatever country would say in the summit to not buy the power would in reality be the first one to backstab the others and try to get the power to themselves.
The Next Day - The bidding battle reaches insane heights
On the net the news sites have updated that the bids for Power of Kira have passed the quadrillion yen mark as the US president bids 1 quadrillion yen in Power of Kira auction.
At school the students think that a quadrillion yen equals to Japan's whole national debts - it would be cool if Kir
a would pay off the entire debt, however Japan would most likely just return the money back to the winner, be it China or USA, but especially to USA due to Japan and US having a security relationship. The students also claim that even though Japan is the most indebted nation in the world, according to Google, it also holds the most resources available.
After school Minoru tells Ryuk that he'll be ending the auction for Death Note the next day. Once Minoru has confirmed the money is in his possession, he'll be discarding the ownership of the notebook. Minoru asks Ryuk to deliver it to the buyer. Ryuk just eats apples and tells him that even though he hoped to eat more, he's kind of interested in the whole thing so he'll be doing what Minoru asks.
In America, Near and his agents ponder about how in the world A-Kira is going to try to get a quadrillion yen to his possession. It's impossible to receive or pay that much in bills so it's going to have to be an online transaction according to Near as he builds a tower full of watching eyes, however, the mystery is exactly how A-Kira is going to get that amount of money without it being able to be traced.
Near thinks the whole thing through and realizes that A-Kira must be a person who doesn't want to use the notebook to gain money as he must not want to commit murder. A-Kira is trying his best to dispose of the notebook and the best way to do that is by a planned auction. Since A-Kira has been incredibly careful thus far it goes to reason that he must be planning the money receival as well in a careful manner.
At the Tanaka household in the middle of the night as Minoru is sleeping, another shinigami arrives to Ryuk by phasing throught he wall of the building. This time it's the jewel-wearing and jewel-eyed Armonia Justin shinigami who sits on his skeletal chair as he moves. Ryuk wonders what's up and he gets told by Armonia Justin that the King of Shinigami is calling him. The very moment that Ryuk is able to leave his notebook's owner, he has to go meet the Shinigami King by person. Armonia tells Ryuk that he doesn't know what the king wants, he's just the person to send the message to Ryuk. Then the other shinigami just leaves the way he came.
The next day - Day after day after day
All of Japan is shocked as the world gets notified via Sakura TV that the Power of Kira has been sold to America for the quadrillion yen and that the transfer and methods will be revealed within the next 24 hours. The whole world is shocked. The agents think that if they were to follow their original plan, it would mean to seize the notebook from their own government. Near tells his agents to just do that on their own as he's an American citizen now so he's not going to go against his government.
Near tells his agents that since the entire world knows of the power, it just makes it incredibly much harder to simply use the notebook at this point. Right now the more pressing matter is how A-Kira is going to handle the insane transaction of money as well as the notebook. This could be their final chance to catch the Death Note and A-Kira.
Since the money's going to be transferred in 24 hours it means that it would happen at 6 PM on friday, May 24, in Japan's time. The banks aren't open after three o'clock on fridays and are closed over the weekends, so it's likely there will not be any bank transfers as that would also be the same as asking to be caught.
The amount of money being transferred here is one quadrillion yen. According to Near (oh I remembered, his real name was Nate River), the lifetime earning potential of a Japanese person is 300 million at most. Near also says that if A-Kira has been planning this out from the start they're amazingly intelligent. Not sure why.
The next day - May 24th
There is another message on Sakura TV once again, so the last one wasn't final message in the end. This message reads as follows:
"The money from the winning bid should be deposited by May 27 of this year in equal amounts to every person with a Yotsuba bank of Japan savings account and registered residence in Tokyo aged 60 and under as of the date of May 24, 2019."
Japan is in uproar as the money is being split. Even if there are a million Yotsuba bank accounts that still means around one billion yen per citizen with the account. But why under age of 60? That remains to be seen.
Minoru's mother runs inside his room and asks if he still has the Yotsuba bank saving account to which he answers yes, he does. They're going to be filthy rich from now on. It's funny that Minoru's mother calls Kira their god now.
Japan's population fills Yotsuba banks as they try to get their share of the money.
Near tells his agents that he did assume A-Kira to be a young person from the get-go. Limiting the age of people to under 60 increases A-Kira's share, but it also narrows down the possible suspects to. But not too much as there are still hundreds of thousands of people we're talking about here.
What makes the whole thing crazier is that once the three days for the transaction on the 27th have passed, not even A-Kira will remember that he was A-Kira. It's impossible to track the perpetrator down at this point.
Here, for the first time since becoming the next L, Near claims to admit defeat. He lost to A-Kira.
After hearing the China's president make
Three days later - Monday, May 27th
A payment to Yotsuba bank of ten trillion dollars has been made from America and now customers storm the bank branches - everyone is happy that Kira gave them money. There's a funny scene where a guy is looking at his bank balance and it says:
Previous Balance - 3,805 yen
Deposit Amount - 1,027,939,840 yen.
People of Japan are still fighting their way to open up a bank account in Yotsuba bank to get their share of the America's quadrillion yen deposit, but they're not being let in. The bank announced that customers will only be able to withdraw their savings prior to the 24th for now, up to 100,000 yen each day. Minoru understands that he won't be able to access the account for about a month from now due to the chaos.
Minoru hands the notebook over to Ryuk and tells him to take it to the president of the United States as America did pay up.
Ryuk asks Minoru if that was all. Minoru tells him that they are both done now. Now that he'll be discarding the possession of the notebook, Ryuk shouldn't show up around him ever again for any reason. He'll be forgetting about Ryuk and live a happy life. Minoru says that he doesn't want to have anything to do with the notebook as it's far too dangerous.
In the end Ryuk commends Minoru on being able to use the notebook without writing on it at all. It was a fun time for him. Minoru throws the notebook to Ryuk and Ryuk heads over to America to give the notebook to Donald Trump in the White House.
Before heading to the president of USA, Ryuk got yelled at by the Shinigami King however. The King was angry because Ryuk had let a human sell the Death Note, thus a new rule had to be added to the notebook:
THE NEW RULE OF DEATH NOTE:
"A human who buys or sells the Death Note in the Human World will die. The Seller will die when they receive the money, and the Buyer will die when they receive the Death Note."
The president is shocked. Ryuk agrees that the whole thing is crazy, but it's a brand new rule. So, the president really paid all that money just to die. However if he refuses to take the notebook, Ryuk will treat it as if he never bought it. However at this point it's impossible for him to get any of his money back.
So, now the president has two choices:
Choice #1: Take the notebook and die, however the notebook will remain there. Any big shot in the country will get it. So even if he dies, the notebook will belong to the nation.
Choice #2: Not take it and live.
Trump tells Ryuk that he won't be taking the notebook and Ryuk is hilarious here as he says that he understands how he feels, the president must value his own life over his country. The president tells Ryuk that he's still going to announce to have claimed the Power of Kira regardless. Trump explains that he will claim that he got it but refuses to use it; that'll make him look like a saint.
Ryuk is impressed by the president and leaves. Now, Minoru has no idea about the new rule either, however Minoru did tell Ryuk to never ever again come back to him for any reason, sealing his fate.
One month later - The End of the Journey
Japan's economy was booming and the people called it the Kira or Reiwa Bubble. People bought apartments and cars, they took toasts in the name of Kira.
But one person is seen falling to the ground, his face completely red with his money on the ground and his earpods still playing his favourite music. The moment our main character withdrew the cash from his bank account, he died of a heart attack.
Outside, Ryuk is standing on top of a Yotsuba bank ad board. In Ryuk's death note there are two names: Light Yagami and Minoru Tanaka. Ryuk thinks of how much of a shame it is that a person with such a perfect plan met his end - no matter how one does it, any human who uses the Death Note is fated to meet an unfortunate end.
Ryuk thinks of an apple and is sad that there seems to be no person around that wants to used the notebook for all that long anymore.
The End.
This concludes my overview of Death Note 2020 Special One-Shot. As for my thoughts, it was fine. The great art was the thing that kept me interested but the plot wasn't completely dry feeling either. The way that no matter how good a person is but wants to gain something - money, fame or justice - by using the Death Note will always meet a bad end, is kind of sad. I like how Ryuk had an active role in this story and how we saw old faces again but the story itself wasn't that intriguing compared to the original. This one had the same level of presentation and skill in pacing but did not have the tension which is the key element of Death Note as a series. But I'm glad this was a one-shot instead of a series as a one-shot is the perfect for this type of less tense story without any huge twists to it. Near kind of didn't do anything here which was what I didn't much care for as our main character Minoru Tanaka didn't have any rivals.
The art was amazing as always and these authors' ability to frame a story is pretty impressive but this story didn't really leave much with me after it ended. Minoru died quickly but even without that he still seemed kind of a throwaway character, a boy that just wants money and to get rid of the Death Note. At least Minoru's design was very nice.
The most intriguing things about this one-shot were the thoughts on how will this story unfold, what will Near do, how will Minoru get the money - which was well thought out by the way - and the fact that Ryuk had a lot of screentime here. For the first half I actually felt some tension in this story when Minoru was planning on what to do with the Death Note. Sadly seeing the SPK and police members that are familiar to us from the original series didn't really click with me, I didn't care for them at all here and they kind of took a bit too much screentime for my liking, but I wouldn't say they made the story worse, just longer than it needed to be as no one could challenge A-Kira due to his so-called perfect plan where he utilized Ryuk to do everything for him.
The Dragon Quest video game series is one of my all-time favourite when it comes to RPG's. I've spent hundreds if not thousands of hours playing the games and there is always something new to find in them due to the humongous amounts of worldbuilding and intriguing character dialogue. At the end of last year, year 2019, I heard about the upcoming animated TV series by Toei Animation and it got me wanting to replay some of the Dragon Quest games I never really bothered to finish, such as DQIX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies for Nintendo DS (I never finished the game because the game doesn't have any actual side characters even though those are one of the best aspect of Dragon Quest games. Very disappointing in that aspect but the game is entertaining for the first 10 or so hours).
