Death Note is great and L/Ryuuzaki is brilliant! Finally finished the second part of the movie and do I have to say that I love, love, love it?

L/Ryuuzaki is perpetually slouched and looks looks like a walking question mark. He sucks his thumb and he has childish mannerisms. He loves sweets so much and I can imagine how challenging it was for Matsuyama Ken’ichi to portray someone who has to act weird and eat so much in one movie.

Homer-san, pinagpuyatan namin to! Ika nga ni Kuya Germs, walang tulugan! Shet, ang ganda talaga. Bakit parang gusto kong bumili ng eyeliner na black?

Actually, yun na lang ang kulang, pwede na akong maging si L. I slouch (but not as bad as he does) and I love sweets. ^_^

I Googled (so that’s now a verb, Google? Googled? Googling?) some of his (Matsuyama’s) pics and I think I already know who he was in Gokusen. Very forgettable, this guy. He wasn’t particularly good-looking in Gokusen and he was just a bit player. But in Death Note, he was a revelation. At least for me. He sure succeeded in creeping me out, at the same time, awing me with his tactics during his mental battle with Fujiwara Tatsuya. 格好いい!

For those who haven’t seen this one, by all means, please watch Death Note. If you have the money, get the anime and manga as well. That’s what I’m going to do. Har-har-har. So the next couple of paydays will be dedicated solely to DN! Kidding.

是非見て下さい、デズノート！

Finally got to watch the first part of this live action movie. For those who do not know, Death Note is a manga series about a high school boy (named Light Yagami) who receives a notebook called “Death Note” from a shinigami called Ryuk. This notebook empowers him to kill anyone just by writing down a name. Light eventually becomes known as Kira (Killer).

Ryuk has written the rules inside the Death Note. Interestingly enough, he wrote it in English because it is the most popular language in the world. Cute.

The Death Note rules:

• The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
• This note will not take effect unless the writer has the subject’s face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.
• If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the subject’s name, it will happen.
• If the cause of death is not specified, the subject will simply die of a heart attack. (In the crappy subbed version I have, it says ‘heart paralyse’)
• After writing the cause of death, the details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

The manga is up to 12 tankobon, plus a 13th volume entitled “Death Note – How to Read”. The anime version is expected to reach 37 episodes and a Nintendo DS game has already been released last month.

Now, the movie…we were able to finish the first part. We still have to find a nicely subbed 2nd disc. Hopefully, the subs will be done this month. Shit, bitin na bitin ako. All I can say it that this is a brilliant movie! It is a real battle of the brains between Light Yagami and L. Actually, I’m still torn…I still don’t know whose side I’m on. But leaning towards L for the simple reason that I love sweets. Duh, right?

The thumb-sucking L is played by Matsuyama Ken’ichi, who incidentally is the seiyuu of Jealous, another shinigami in the anime. (Might have to watch Gokusen again…his Wiki profile says he was one of Yankumi’s students.)

Light Yagami is Fujiwara Tatsuya, well known for his role as Nanahara Shuya in the cult hit, Battle Royale and Battle Royale 2. He also played the role of young samurai Okita Souji in NHK’s Taiga dorama for 2004, Shinsengumi.

I hope to get all the Death Note anime and manga volumes. According to our Japinoy discussions, only the English version mangas can be found locally. I guess for the Japanese ones, I would have to look at Mandarake… *sigh goes my credit card*

I am really, really praying hard that I can get my hands on the second part. This is one brilliant movie, and I cannot say that enough. ^_^