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to MarkAndrew

has death note changed your view of manga a little?

may i just say you really have to try more manga they meny great manga series but i understand if you dont like it because there are lods of crap one out there as well

venomsgod101

I’m definitely looking forward to volume 13.

It is I have watched the entire show and now I am about to read the novels

It’s the only way.

I’ve usually seen the author of Death Note considered a “she”, if only because Tsugumi is typically a female name. For all the “mystery”, it is probably just one of the female writers Jump’s used in the past who didn’t want any possible controversy reflecting on her more innocuous back catalog, as the Wikipedia theory goes. For all the weird gender politics of Shounen Jump’s content, they’ve had a lot of their recent hit series written by women. Shounen Jump’s editorial policy regarding female characters seems stupid to me, but then again, I’m not Japanese– and if I don’t like it, I can go read shoujo comics and see a totally different bias!

This is not to say Jump stories are devoid of interesting or seemingly assertive female characters, and finding exceptions isn’t hard. (You can go as far back as Fist of the North Star and Saint Seiya and find some attempts at building strong female characters– and watch them quickly marginalized when the series grows more popular!) Still, watch the overall development of the story carefully. If the female characters are supporting a male character, then the female characters are usually strictly secondary and not allowed to be very assertive at the end of the day. They may be instrumental to part of the hero’s overall mission, but usually aren’t allowed to play the role of major (physical) antagonist or to perform any crucial day-saving tasks themselves.

Please. It shows up in, what, 2% of current American superhero comics?

Unless you got a list of titles that disagrees…

Infinite Crisis, where 7 issues are devoted to how dark the DCU is getting, which is really a statement about whether superhero comics are getting too dark? Metacommentary.

Seven Soldiers musing on the DCU as some sentient, growing organism, and especially the Bulleteer issues dealing with a superhero convention? That’s basically a statement on the superhero comics world and its fans. Actually, just about all of Morrison’s recent DC work since leaving Marvel has to varying degrees focused on how the characters are vaguely aware of their fictional status and how the DC universe is somehow a living breathing organism. Another of his more recent examples is his recent Joker issue in Batman which is basically a dissection of Joker comic incarnations throughout comic history disquised as a dissection of the Joker character within the story.

Countdown to Infinite Crisis? Abhay’s review talks about how the whole thing is a statement on how superhero comics have changed and innocence is gone. Little lines in Blue Beetle’s narration like “Fawcett City…it’s like a shiny new dime.” A reference to when comics cost 10 cents, a reference to how the old Captain Marvel comics were sunny and bright.

Dan Slott’s GLA and a lot of his inside jokes on She-Hulk are metacommentary. Meltzer’s JLA stuff where the characters are constantly reminescing on the past and how their lives (meaning superhero comics) have changed, with many flashbacks deliberately done in Silver Age style. Black Flash asking Wally West why Barry Allen’s villains never just unmasked or killed him when capturing and Wally responds “I don’t know…just a more innocent, naive time I guess.” A commentary on how comics have changed and gotten grimmer. The Team 13 backups by Azzarello. The attack on “kewl” characters as seen through Kingdom Come and its sequel. The story where Superman takes out the superteam analogue for the Authority, yet another writer’s statement on the state of comics (Joe Kelly in this instance). A lot of the infinite crisis tie-ins throughout the past few years. I don’t read that much DC anymore, but I’m sure there are tons of these metacommentary moments abound where the story is just a thinly veiled exploration of the writer’s view on comics.

And on the opposite spectrum, not quite meta but more a reaction to it, are the books that are trying so hard to go against the dour and serious grain of modern comics that they overdo it and just sound ridiculous, like Busiek’s style of writing the Avengers. The whole attempt to recreate the dated and stilted dialogue and recycle plots are in a way HIS own commentary on what comics should be, his own statement on modern comics, by using exaggerated nostalgia.

In all these cases, telling a gripping, in-character story takes a backseat to making a statement about comics in general. They are not comics about the human condition, they are comics about the condition of the superhero comic industry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsugumi_Ohba

Interesting thing about all of the complaints about the “bad” female character writing in Death Note: the writer, Tsugumi Oba, is a woman.

Prove it.

No, seriously. There seems to be a LOT of uncertainty on this point, and I couldn’t find a photo.

It’s generally translated as “Ohba” BTW. In case anyone wants to do any serious googling.

But what must be remembered about Death Note is that it runs in Shounen Jump, an anthology of stories marketed aggressively at young-to-teenage boys. As an editorial feature of the anthology for years and years, no Shounen Jump series is allowed to have aggressive or numerous important female characters in the American style; the girls are always secondary to the boys as an element of genre.

Didn’t know that. Seems pretty stupid t’me. I thought I found contrary evidence to this, too, except the character from volumes 7 and 8 that I thought was female turned out not to be.

But Misa is not meant to be one of those, and in fact she herself does tell that to Light shortly after they meet.

A strong point of Death Note which is surprisingly unmentioned so far is the marvelous character evolution. Some character from early on that barely register at first end up quite fleshed out.

I would elaborate on that but I am trying to avoid spoilers, so let’s just say that I like characters who earn their merits gradually more than those who are created with them – and Death Note does supply at least a couple of the first type, and one of them is a most remarkable case of character growth indeed.

Or, most likely, she is just a fan service object and I’m just trying to find ways to not hate her. Yeah, probably that one.

My wife and I both consumed this series and got into it earlier this year, being all caught up when volume 12 came out.

As for MarkAndrew’s theories … some, dead on, others … wow so far out in left field. And as for who dies … assume no one is safe, because no one is.

A fantastic series and everyone who reads it … just becomes engrossed by it, which is amazing considering neither the antagonist nor protagonist is actually a completely symphathetic character and the antagonist changes. Great reading. Probably my number 1 manga recommendation.

Veidt

But what must be remembered about Death Note is that it runs in Shounen Jump, an anthology of stories marketed aggressively at young-to-teenage boys. As an editorial feature of the anthology for years and years, no Shounen Jump series is allowed to have aggressive or numerous important female characters in the American style; the girls are always secondary to the boys as an element of genre.

If you want to see strong or subtle characterizations of women, then you want to read comics aimed at more mature audiences. Read Naoki Urasawa’s Monster to see women depicted in a way that would be pleasing to an American’s cultural ideas of “strength”, or anything from the sprawling genre of comics actually aimed at teenage girls in the way Shounen Jump is aimed at teenage boys. Nana is a good place to start reading girls’ comics (if you can get over the art, which is… uh, stylized), as is Please Save My Earth (if you can find it).

On the subject of Misa, she is pretty annoying, but she’s intended to be that way, I think. As Barlow said, she’s really one of the most dangerous characters, since Light has to try to control her, and walks the line between trying to use her for his own ends and having to rely on her too much when she’s not very smart (although she was clever enough to figure out Light’s identity). While I don’t know if she develops that much, she does end up being a pretty tragic figure.

I also don’t think she’s that unrealistic of a character, at least compared to the others. Light is a genius, the best student in Japan, able to outsmart people all over the world, and he’s the guy who just happened to pick up the notebook. L is a weird, reclusive, introverted type, also ridiculously smart, and he’s also a great athlete, apparently. They’re both pretty interesting, but realistic? Not very.

But it’s still a damn fine read, with some great moments. And it’s ridiculously addictive; once you start reading, you can’t stop. I was reading it as the volumes were coming out, and it was painful waiting a couple months to get the next part of the story.