Death Note ep.06

November 9, 2006 | 18 Comments

I just read the spoiler for the 2nd live action movie at Animesuki and found out that it comes with an original ending that is different from the manga. I think those who are disappointed in the manga's ending will find this particular ending to be more palatable. I personally think it's an interesting ending but I never really mind the manga's ending so either way it works for me. The question is, which version of the ending would the anime follow? Since it's been sticking to the manga very closely, I assume that it'll follow the manga's ending. As a side note, I just noticed for the very first time that the OP features Light posing in front of what looks like a painting of an Angel. When you look closer, however, it's actually a portrait of a specific Angel: Lucifer. I thought it's a rather fitting imagery considering how deep Light has fallen from the grace.

The episode begins with the Japanese detectives looking shocked when they see L scratching his left leg with his right left like a monkey. They probably think that they're going to find a bishounen detective waiting for them but unfortunately L is not exactly that. While the other detectives try to reconcile the image that they have about L with the reality, Yagami Souchiro pulls out his badge and introduces himself to L. Upon seeing this, the rest of the detectives follow suit and introduce themselves: Matsuda, Aizawa, Mogi, and Ukita. Upon hearing this, L pretends to shoot the detectives with his finger, angering them in the process. He, however, tells Souchiro that if he was Kira, everyone here would have been dead by now. Since Kira must know the victims' name and face, he warns them against giving out their name and asks them to treasure their life. Matsuda is surprised to hear this since he thought that Kira only needs to see someone's face to kill his victim.

Souchiro informs Matsuda that the criminals whose names were unknown or wrong survived the killings so the HQ came to this conclusion. L then invites the detectives to come inside his living room but he first wants them to place his cellphones and laptops on top of a table. The detectives are angry since they think L doesn't trust them but as it turns out, L simply doesn't want their conversation to be disturbed by phone calls. Having said that, he doesn't want them to record anything that they'll talk about today. As the group enters the living room, they notice that L sits is squatting on the couch like a monkey. He also brews himself a coffee and puts a lot of sugar cubes inside it. When Matsuda tries to address him by calling him L, L asks him to call him "Ryuuzaki" instead. Because of this Matsuda tells "Ryuuzaki" that if Kira needs the names and faces of the criminals, then maybe they should stop the media from releasing these details.

L disagrees with the idea, claiming that if they were to do this, then Kira will kill innocent people instead. He believes that the reason is because Kira is an immature sore loser just like himself. This is why he can understand Kira quite well. He explains to the detectives that when he publicly challenged Kira on national television, Kira killed the fake L without hesitation, breaking his pattern of only killing criminals. In addition to this, when he pointed out that Kira is probably located in the Kantou region, the killings became concentrated in Japan. Because of this L believes that not only Kira is not afraid of their attempt, he also counterattacks accordingly. He thinks that if they stop showing the face of the criminals, Kira will react accordingly by killing minor criminals or innocent people and make the entire world his hostage. L also believes that Kira will then blame the deaths on the police because they've been hiding the criminals' face from him.

Having said that, L still thinks that the mass media could be of use to them. He thinks they should announce something like the US government is angry about the murder of the FBI agents. The world leaders are also angry with Kira so the United Nations have sent 1500 investigators to Japan to assist in the capture of Kira. L believes that by announcing this, Kira's enemy will no longer be just the FBI but also everyone that he meets out on the street. He believes this will add pressure on Kira. The detectives are impressed to hear this and think they should go ahead with this. L then decides to share his thoughts on Kira. He believes that judging from the previous report, Kira works on his own. The reason is because Kira needs the name and the face of the victims and can control their time/actions. L asks everyone to remember what he said earlier and to listen to what he's going to say. He then begins to use a marker to draw a diagram on top of a table.

In the diagram, he indicates that 14th of December was the time when 12 FBI agents entered Japan. On December 19th, Kira used criminals to test his control over the victims' action prior to their death. That means Kira noticed the FBI agents in between these two dates. In order to eliminate agents whose faces and names are unknown to him, Kira needed to test how he can control his victim. The scene the switch to Kira aka. Light who mentions that on December 27th, using the result, he managed to gathered the names and photos of the agents and sent it to every single one of them. The reason was so that no one can tell that he met Raye Penber on the 20th of December. He also realises that he made most of his moves between the 19th of December and the 27th of December. Back to L, he points out that there were 23 other murder but the victims are only suspected of crime or had a criminal records. This is clearly different from Kira's usual victim.

L believes that Kira killed these people to eliminate the FBI agents. In addition to this, out of the 23 minor criminals, most of them served as a cover (for the ex-rapist that he killed near the coffee shop). Between Kira's experiment and the killing of the FBI agents, there is 8 days difference. L believes that Kira used these days to allow the agents to investigate other suspects so he won't be noticed. Because of this, he believes that Kira is among the people that were investigated at that time. L then hands out the list of suspects that the FBI was investigating at the time. The detectives become excited upon seeing this and think that they can find common points between the 23 victims and the 12 agents. Souchirou, however, has one question for L. Since L said before that he's a sore loser, Souichiro wonders if he considers showing his face in front of them as failure. L admits that this is true because he feels that the death of the FBI agents is his fault.

However, he thinks that he will win in the end since this is the first time he's risked my life to catch a criminal. Besides, he believes that Justice will prevail. Having said that, he now wants to speak to every single one of them individually to determine that they are not Kira. The Detectives are dismayed to hear this but Souchirou agrees with L's request, saying that Kira has been getting his info from the police so he may still be here. While the police agreeing with their Chief's decision, L looks out of the window, assuring himself that this is fine although there's just one more thing left. At the same time Light tells himself that if he makes just one mistake, he will lose his life. L seems to agree with this sentiment. Light assures himself that he's going to be okay since the biggest risk was the bus highjacking. Meanwhile, Light's sister, Saya, protests when her mother asks her to deliver change of clothes for her father.

Light who wants to find out what the police are doing immediately offers to take the clothes instead. As a precaution, Light rips a page out of Death Note, telling Ryuk that he's been doing this for a while. At the same time, Raye's fiancée, Naomi is tracing Ray's step the day he died. She remembers Raye telling her that he was going to Shinjuku on that day. On that day, 4 relatively innocent people died of heart failure. In addition to the bus highjacking, Naomi starts to believe that this is not a coincidence. She also thinks that Kira can kill people using other ways than heart attack. Her investigation leads her to the police station where she tries to talk to the investigation team. Light, who also fails to contact his father, happens to enter the station at this point and becomes suspicious of Naomi when she starts asking questions to the helpdesk. Light decides to introduce himself to her and even mentions how it's spelled in Kanji - 「夜神月」

Naomi introduces herself as Maki Shouko, which is written as「間木照子」in Kanji. Ryuk giggles upon hearing this but Light continues to BS his way by telling Naomi that he thinks Kira can control the actions of his victims. Naomi agrees with this and tells Light that Kira can also kill using other methods than heart attack. She then mentions that she had a friend who might encountered Kira and this friend was one of the FBI agents who got killed by Kira. After Naomi mentions the bus highjacking incident, Light realises that Naomi is Raye Penber's fiancée. Light becomes even more horrified when Naomi suggests that Kira might have controlled the bus highjack and that his fiancée was forced to show his ID to someone. Light, however, tries to remain calm by telling Naomi his theory that it means Kira was the person who saw her fiancée’s ID. Deep down, however, he realises that he will be in danger if Naomi tells this to the police.

Impression:

The detectives' reaction when they saw L was also my first reaction when I first read the manga. I really thought that L will look.....different. I was particularly amused to see him scratching his legs and sitting on the couch like a monkey. It's undeniable, however, that he's one clever individual who can outmatched Light when it comes to intelligence. I think Light's plan has managed to go on this far because until L and Naomi appeared, he never had to face off with a nemesis that is equally analytical and persistent. It also doesn't help that Light left some traces of his action in an attempt to kill the FBI agents. He did his best to multiply these traces so that it'll confuse the police but in the end, he could not hid them. As a result, when someone with analytical mind like L and Naomi get involved in the case, they can start seeing an emerging pattern using simple deductive logic. The way he describes his name to Naomi is a good example of this.

What kind of a person goes out of his way to give out details unless they are being asked? The answer is a person who is guilty of something and tries to steer the suspicion away from him by offering information that is not necessary in the first place. I think Light simply puts himself under Naomi's suspicion by mentioning how he spells his name in Kanji as opposed to just telling her his first/last name. But then again, he was trying to get her name so he's stuck between a rock and a hard place. Having said that, it's undeniable that Light is thorough in his action. I didn't expect that he'll kill other minor criminals after he killed the suspected rapist from the coffee shop on last week's episode. I also suspect that for each FBI agents that died, Light ensures that there is a criminal died near the agents so that no one can figure out which FBI agents was approached by 'Kira' on that day. Oh well, at least L is now aware that the killer is one of the many people that the FBI were investigating at that time.

Preview

On next week's episode: Light will try to kill the fly that is Naomi.

© memento 2003