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ローゼンメイデン 
October 17, 2006 | 
29 Comments
I find it hard to believe that the anime already reaches this point in the story in the space of 3 episodes. Having said that, I think this is the right speed because the series seems to work better at a frenetic speed than a slow crawl one. I do wonder how much of the story will be covered in the anime though. It's been said that there will be a total of 37 episodes but I wonder if these are enough to cover the entire story up to its conclusion. I hope that the writers don't stop halfway through the series because that will just make some fans even angrier. Anyway, quality wise this episode is not as good as the first two but the drop in quality is barely noticeable. I'm glad that Madhouse gets to adapt this because while they have made some questionable choices with other series (Paradise Kiss for example), in general their production quality is quite high.
The episode begins with various detectives reporting their findings to the Chief Inspector. The first detective reports that so far they've received 3029 calls from the public. Out of those, 14 calls claimed that they know or saw Kira while there are 21 calls from those who claim that they are Kira. Because they don't want to exclude any possibilities, they decide to investigate these 21 people. Another detective then gives out victims report which suggests that all victims who died from heart attack live in Japan. In addition to this, these deaths usually occured between 4PM and 2AM Japan time. with 68% happening around 8PM to midnight range. On weekends, the time usually ranges from 11AM to midnight. Upon hearing this, L points out that there is a likelihood that the killer is a student. Matsuda then naively tells the Chief that he doesn't want to praise Kira but lately the criminal activity around the world and in Japan has decreased dramatically.
Before the meeting concludes, L asks the detectives for one more request: he wants the victims unit, the media unit, and the internet unit to monitor the way Japanese media reported information on these victims. More specifically, L wants to know if any images of the victims were shown. After the meeting is over, Matsuda apologises to the Chief Inspector for what he said in the meeting. The Chief thinks there is nothing wrong with Matsuda's opinion. However, it's another matter entirely if he thinks Kira should be awarded. Matsuda immediately tells his Chief that of course he won't think of awarding a killer. A few hours later, Light is in the middle of tutoring his sister, Sayu, when the doorbell indicates that their father has come back home. Because of this Light goes down to greet his father....who turns out to be the Chief Inspector. As the family have dinner, Light makes a comment that his father looks tired so the Chief tells him that he's involved in a tough case.
Later on Ryuk asks Light if his confidence comes from the fact that his father is a policeman. Light confirms this and tells Ryuk that he can use his computer to access police files via his father's computer. Light then asks Ryuk if he gets the rules correct: If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing a person's name, the person will die in that manner. If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a hearth attack. After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds. Light tells Ryuk that this means if you write 'heart attack', you can still put conditions on the death. He thinks with this, he can entertain Ryuk just a little bit longer. A few days later, criminals die on a consistent basis even when Light is in school. The police quickly finds out that 23 people have died yesterday and the day before. This means that each person dies every hour in the past few days.
The police starts to doubt their theory that the killer could be a student but L tells them that it's likely that Kira just want to show them that he can kill whenever he wants. L suspects that Kira knows what the police knows and this is basically a challenge for him. Meanwhile, Kira informs Ryuk that the reason he changes the police suspicion from student to a someone related to the police is because he wants to find L. He explains to Ryuk in human society, only a few people trust each other. Light believes that there is little trust between the police and L because how can anyone fully trust someone whose name and face are mystery. After finding out about the investigation leak, L would surely want to investigate him but Light believes the police won't allow him. Although L and the police are with together, the truth is L investigating them in private and vice versa. Light plans on letting the police finds L and once that happens, he'll erase L.
A few days later, some detectives resign from their posistion for fear that they'll be targeted by Kira. They know from L that Kira has a power that can kill anyone without laying finger on the victim. The detectives even claim that if they were Kira, they'd certainly kill everyone that is after them because otherwise they'd be the one who's executed. They also point out that although L was taunting Kira to kill him, L has never revealed his name or face to the public. On the other hand, they find out that every single Kira's victims have had their photos released in the media. Because of this, they believe that they too could become a target. That night, while Light is in cram school, a bored Ryuk notices that someone has been watching them from a distance. As it turns out, the guy is an FBI agent requested by L to investigate the police. There are 141 people related to the case and L believes that one of these people or their immediate family is Kira.
As Light goes back home from cram school, Ryuk asks him if they can talk. At first Light refuses and reminds Ryuk that he's told Ryuk not to talk in public. Ryuk, however, tells Light that Light simply has to listen to what he has to say. He then goes on to tell Light that he doesn't hate him and in fact feels that he's the perfect owner for Death Note. In addition to this, he can't leave Light until Light dies or the Death Note is filled. Having said that, he is also not on Light or L's side. When Light tells Ryuk that he already understands this, Ryuk replies by saying that he doesn't care if Light is commits right or wrong thing. However, since they're going to live together, he feels he has to say this. Light is annoyed to hear this since Ryuk suddenly feels compelled to tell him this info. Ryuk informs him that he's not doing this for Kira, he just feels uncomfortable if he doesn't say it. The Shinigami then laughs and tells Light that he's been followed by someone.
This stops Light in his track for a couple seconds. He, however, decides to walk again and tells Ryuk that he'll get rid of the guy as soon as possible. Light is also not worried because out of 50 or so people that are being investigated, L has no chance of finding his identity as Kira. However, if he ignores this for a few months, he will become a main suspect. Because of this, Light decides to find out the name of the person who's been following him first. As if capable of reading Light's mind, Ryuk asks him if he should tell Light something good. He then goes on to say that there are two main differences between a Shinigami and a human who uses a death note. Ryuk then explains that a Shinigami writes a human's name into a Death Note so that the Shinigami can use the human's life. For example, if he puts a 60 year old person down as 40 year old person in Death Note, the 20 years that is missing from that person's life will be added to the life of the Shinigami.
Because of this, as long as a Shinigami doesn't become lazy, he'll never die. However, since Light is a human, this is not applicable to him. This is the first key difference that he was talking about and he thinks the 2nd one will interest Light. Through their eyes, a Shinigami can find out a person's name and lifespan by looking at a person's face. Therefore, the 2nd difference between humans and Shinigami lies in their eyes. Having said that, when the person who touched the Death Note and the Shinigami make a deal, they can trade eyes. The price of a Shinigami's eyes is half of the person's lifespan. If, for example, the person has 50 years left, then the exchange will reduce his life to 25. Light guesses that since Ryuk is neither on his or L's side, he wouldn't tell him. Ryuk confirms this, saying that is another rule of the Shinigami. Ryuk then tempts Light to give half of his life in exchange for being able to see the name of anyone whose face Light sees.
Impression:
I am starting to wonder if Light really is that genius after watching this episode. For a genius, he sure left a lot of hints that lead the murder to him. I supposed he feels that the Death Note gave him anonymity but his murders clearly have a rather well-defined pattern that is rather easy to trace. When the police was saying that the murder mostly occurs during 4PM to 2AM at night, that's a dead giveaway that the person is most likely either a student or an unemployed. This is especially easy to guess if applied to a working condition in Japan, where most working people spend their time working from around 8AM to 6PM (if that person lucky and does not have to spend extra hours at the office). The exception to this are the gaijins who teach English and normally work from 6PM to 10PM. To make things worse, all of a sudden he changes his killing method as opposed to thinking about it right from the start. If anything, this move will simply make the police suspicious.
I think the majority of Light's mistake can probably be attributed to his arrogance. He thinks he can get away with many things such as hacking into his father's police database and not getting caught. Instead of widening the number of suspects on Kira's list, he instead narrowing them. In addition to this, he could have stopped now and get rid of the note but his pride as the new 'God' prevents him from doing this. Anyway, leaving that aside, I find it interesting that Ryuk starts to offer some of these interesting yet dangerous deal to Light. It's this kind of moments that often causes me to question Ryuk's motive. If what he really seeks is excitement and he thinks Light provides him with one, then why would he offers Light something which could cut his life in half? The only explanation I can think of it is that he gets bored quite easily or he has ulterior motive in offering the deal. At the moment, I'm more inclined to believe that the later is true.
If I think about it, Ryuk reminds me of the Snake featured in the Genesis chapter of the Bible. He offers Light (a human), something which he should not have taken in the first place, let alone use it to his heart content. As a human, however, Light could not resist the offer of power that is presented by the creature in question. What if a human can become a 'God', would you take the opportunity to become one? The problem is, Light does not realise that his power is limited to what is given by the Death Note and its many rules. This makes me wonders who invented the rules in the first place. I know that Ryuk wrote it in English but did he create the rules or was it the King of Shinigami who created it? Interestingly enough, these rules have been written in a way that it offers loopholes to its users. Next week's episode will be a good example of this. Speaking of next week's episode, I want to know if they'll keep the name of the detective who follows Light as it was in the manga or if they'll change it into a Japanese name like the live-action version.
Preview
this chapter was awesome!. Kill all of them Kira-sama!!
Hopefully the series will move at an even faster pace if not it will be boring.
Well, in the manga, Light tells Ryuk that he has purposefully been using the DN during those times to make the police think it is a student, and then he changes it simply in order to confuse them -- and in the manga, it works perfectly. I'm not sure if this carries over to the anime, however.
IMO, that method would work well if Light is a self-employed person who's at home most of the time. However, since he's a student, the act is akin to pointing a finger at himself. I always think that the greater the list of suspects, the more difficult it'll be for the police to catch anyone.
The Snake in Genesis comment reminds me that Ryuk is constantly eating apples in the first couple of episodes. I wonder if that's an allusion...
I can't help but wonder what the King of Shinigami will do once he finds out what Ryuuku's up to. Even with the rule about the Death Note belonging to the human world once it's dropped there, even with all the shinigami doing nothing but napping and gambling, I have to wonder what the King of Shinigami will do once he finds out that the Death Note is used so frequently and recklessly. Is he like the other shinigami and simply won't care or even encourage it out of laziness?
actually, i'm under the impression that people would like for the anime to stop halfway since everyone seems to hate the 2nd half of the death note manga. i know i would.
I agree with you wackedfoo. After the first half was over, I stopped reading it. I wonder what happened in the end...
At this point, it covered 5 chapters of the manga. I will agree with both wackedfoo and Rilicious about how everyone hates the 2nd half of the manga. Despite myself hating it, I am still willing to finish it since I started it. Anyways, the pace is fine...but I do wonder about how many eps are left. If it is really 37 eps, I expect they either cover the first half of the manga or they make an alternate anime ending. As a fan of the manga (at least the first half) and L itself, I prefer an alternate anime ending.
It is very common to see that most animes have a different ending compare to the manga. This is mainly because the manga is ongoing. Animes like Chrno Crusade, Yakitate!! Japan, and most likely NHK ni Youkoso had alternate anime endings because the manga was ongoing. This is different. Death Note manga finished during the summer (possibly earlier).
But....I remember this clearly...when Midori no HIbi aired, it had an ending itself that was exactly the same as the manga...even though the manga was still ongoing when the anime finished.
Possibly by popular demand and the hate of the 2nd half of the manga, fans would most likely ask or even demand an alternate anime ending. It's too early to tell if it's heading that direction.
whoa...its up already...
that's really fast...
thanks for the summary...
If they change the ending il write "madhouse" in my note.
in my opinion light didn't want to make a deal with ryuk with that 2 deal
but even the episode right now is 3 why L didn't show up i think in manga L show up early than anime
i'm looking forward how's the end because only 37 episodes
Light is showing his major weakness: his pride in his own intelligence. He didn't expect to have a real rival. He assumed that all of the people investigating him would be like his father.
2 General questions:
-Even though people cannot see Ryuk, once Ryuk takes (and eats) an apple, would others just see the apple disappear in mid-air?
-Since Light needs to actually see the person before killing them to avoid name confusion, it doesn't really apply to L, does it? Seriously, how many people in the world are going to named L? There should be another rule explaining "if the name of the criminal is extremely rare and extraordinary, the person does not need to be seen."
Apollinair:
>Even though people cannot see Ryuk, once Ryuk takes (and eats) an apple, would others just see the apple disappear in mid-air?
Yes. This becomes a plot point later.
>Since Light needs to actually see the person before killing them to avoid name confusion, it doesn't really apply to L, does it? Seriously, how many people in the world are going to named L? There should be another rule explaining "if the name of the criminal is extremely rare and extraordinary, the person does not need to be seen."
"L" is a fake name, so even knowing the face won't help. This also becomes a plot point.
-----
I agree with people above. I would be ecstatic if they don't do the 2nd half of the manga, or if they change the ending to the something like the fan end. The manga totally falls apart later, but is pure gold up until then.
Also, Light seems much better characterized and noble in the manga. He truly, absolutely thinks he is making a much better world. He isn't using the Note for himself, to gain political power or money (as others do). He is willing to use destructive means to achieve his ends, which many will certainly find fault with. But his ends themselves are noble, and the manga (at least until it turns to shit, but even then somewhat) leaves this question pleasantly presented on both sides. If eliminating the serious criminals, not jaywalkers but murderers/rapists, really did cut down all premeditated crime, would that be worth it?
for a real criminal who has been proved guilty, the justice system will apply the equivalent penalty, whether jail term or death penalty, and hence death note is not needed.
for suspects, they are not yet proved guilty, and use death note on them is wrong cos they could be innocent...in fact most countries never show a suspect's face on TV...
i cannot see how Light can make a better world in this way, if he just uses the media and the police database for his source of criminals to kill, these channels could be manipulated by someone easily, and Light will just end up as a killing machine for whoever has control over media or police for their own purpose
Woah, it's already up and subbed... :O
I just quickly checked the site to give a link to a friend and noticed the new episode entry here...
Now that I've seen the episode for myself, I have a couple of questions.
How did that detective catch on to Light so fast? And won't he hear Light talking to Ryuk? Well if he ever does get caught, he can use the insanity plea and it would be very convincing I guess.
wackedfoo wrote: actually, i'm under the impression that people would like for the anime to stop halfway since everyone seems to hate the 2nd half of the death note manga. i know i would.
Yeah, me too, since
*Spoiler Starts*
*Spoiler Ends*
FFS stop the major spoilers Ayuka! DELETE!
Android,
There are 141 police related to the case of "vicious serial murders."
Kira is only one of the main case that they are working on.
These 141 police have family and friends which will add a whole lot more numbers to it. Not to even mentioned that they may leak out some information while they eat with their colleague or while in the process of gather more info.
Now. What we see is only "one" detective following light. If you read what I said above, "one" detective could not possibllity be able to follow all 141 of them, one by one.
If you watch carefully, someone called L and said that the FBI has aready entered japan.
Put this two together, you will have the answer.
As for Light genius/stupidility
There is this saying that said,
"The most dangerous place is often the most safest place."
All smarties or all who commited a crime would always try to leave as little clue or not even a sinlge clue that will lead to them.
As mentioned by L before, the very first victim of heart attack is an experiment conducted by kira.
This tell you that kira is someone who will test things out before he really use it. He tested it to the extend of using mechanical pencil to write so that he can erase it if he choose not to follow the path that he is walking now.
What does all these add up to?
Kira is a very careful person.
If he is so careful, why would he leave such a big footprint in his murder case?
What is his motive in doing so?
Which idiot would do that?
I remembered this quote from Pearl Harbour.
"Smart enemy hit you where you think is safe"
Now, if he would to leave his footprint in the case. Why would he do that?
There are a few possibility. But I list only the 2 most relevant possiblity.
1) He had no choice. If he cannot do it in these timing, he might as well not be able to kill any criminals at all.
2) These timing are very carefully planned and executed to led the police think that kira is a student.
It could be 1 but that is not enough to label kira as a student because there is a possibility of 2. 2 arise becasue as I mentioned above. Kira is a careful person.
By this thinking pattern, L did not totally rule out the possibility that kira is not a student when the victims die at every hour. Instead, the possiblity of number 2 got an increase in percentage because of this.
If L did not cut in to say that kira could control the time of death,
the police could have gone into another thinking pattern such as.....
1) Death of the previous victims pinpoint of the possiblity that kira is a student.
2) Death of the every hour rule out the possilitiy that kira is not a student.
If I am Kira, I would play with them and make myself look like a different person at a certain period of time. Maybe someone who work on weekdays or maybe weekends.
Well....it will be a wild goose chase.
But as shown in the anime,
Kira utimate motive is to make L investigate the police and the police will in turn investigate L because there lies a possibility that L could just be kira in the police line of thought.
To me, kira is not stupid in any way. He is just letting out some weakness or loophole so as to lure the rat ( L ) out of the hole.
Due to complaints about spoiler, I've implemented a simple spoiler tag. From now on, if you want to post spoiler, please include that spoiler inside
<spoiler>write your spoiler here</spoiler>
Here's an example: Spoiler follows:
The spoiler tag won't appear when you preview it and it looks like your spoiler is not contained in it. But if you do the tag correctly, then it should be executed once you post the message.
Whoa!
This ep it's freaking me out, at first I didn't want to read the manga, because apart from the fact I am busy at school, and reading xxxHolic, I wanted to dp it after having watched the anime, so, kitto yomimasu deshoo, anyway, could you please tell me why you know there'll be an alternative ending on the anime...???
Hmm, I can`t wait to see L!! Can anybody guess, when he appears in the anime? His eyes seem totally emotionless.. and he looks kinda sick (physically) ^^! But that`s not the case, is it?
"I hope that the writers don't stop halfway through the series..."
I do. Everything after *insert tremendous spoiler here* fucking sucked.
I have to make a point of disagreement with wackedfoo, Rilicious, Kyouya, and Ayuka. I for one will be quite upset if they cut the series off at the mid-point. All three of my favorite characters came after the great moment of spoiler, and personally, I’ll feel a little cheated if I don't see Matt in color at least once. (I can recall reading the first part of the series saying, "is mello on yet? Is mello on yet?"
However doing the math; at four episodes one book's been covered. If they keep up this pace, then they'll cover up to about book nine. Considering that two of the episodes were about a chapter long however, one can only hope that they'll either do the entire series, or have a second season.
That you mentioned the story of the Snake in the Garden of Eden is very interesting. Especially since, in the opening of the DN anime, there is a painting of Light and Ryuk acting out Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam," with Ryuk as God, and Light as Adam. In the DN version of the painting, Ryuk holds out an apple to Light, who extends his arm upwards to grasp it. Hmm. ^_~
I'm with Basil: I actually hope that they do animate the second half of the manga. It can lag, but really, stick with it, 'cause it gets really good, IMHO! I admit, though, I really didn't like the second half at first . . .
SPOILERS AHOY:
Please more piccies of the black haired mystery bishie!( I know who it us but I don't want to spoil it for the people who didn't see the movie or the manga)
If the series ends at the halfway point, I hope that the ending will at least be different from the manga. I think it would be interesting if they actually handled the ending like X/1999 where the manga, movie, and tv series all had dramatically different endings.
Note:
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