Death Note ep.21

March 7, 2007 | 19 Comments

I'm sorry for the late review. I'll cover D.Gray-man and Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori as soon as possible after this. I've just been really busy and not in the mood to write any review. Plus, Heroes has been distracting me in the past few days. That last episode was awesome. I want to talk about it but I can't even keep up with my daily blogging task as it is now. Anyway, this is a decent episode as far as animation goes. I think the majority of the time the character design remains consistent. I guess they've recovered their budget after spending so much of it in the new opening/ending on last week's episode. Another thing that impressed me about the technical detail is how quick the pace has been in the past few weeks. At this rate, the writers will really end the first season either in episode 24 or 26.

Continuing from the previous episode, the Yotsuba group receives information from Coil that there might be a connection between Misa and Kira. Because of this, Coil suggests in his report that the Yotsuba group hire her to obtain some information. Some members dislike this idea because it seems as if Coil wants them to get info from her themselves. Another member suggests that they should ask Coil to come so Kida makes a phone call to Coil (Aiber). In response, Aiber pretends that he's not happy that Kida contacts him and wonders if there is something important. Upon hearing what Kida said, however, Coil tells him that he has an idea. Inside the 3rd Kira's home, 'Kira' whines about how he still has criminals to punish even after meeting and being 'Kira' is a busy job. He is sure that Misa is the 2nd Misa and was captured by L. He thinks because of this, she had no choice but to forfeit her note and as a result, she lost her memory.

Rem is shocked when the 3rd 'Kira' tells her that he intends on making Misa his wife. He thinks everyone will be jealous if he has wealth, power, and a beautiful wife. Once they are married, 3rd 'Kira' intends on investing a lot on her life insurance. Rem is horrified to hear this and once 3rd Kira disappears, Rem decides to rip part of the note, saying that this is the only thing that she can think of to help Misa. Inside the hotel, Aiber and Misa are trying to practice the roles that they'll play in front of Yotsuba. Aiber begins by accusing Misa of coming to Tokyo to see Kira. L immediately smacks her with his microphone, asking her not to overdo the line. Misa claims that was a first class acting but L doesn't care and asks her to do it again. Not wanting to be outdone, Misa calls him "Big Director Ryuuzaki", prompting L to tell her that he'll kick her unless she takes this seriously. Yeah, I think they have the hots for each other too. j/k

Later on while driving Misa to Yotsuba group, Mogi is informed by the girl that he can't seem to smile. In response, Mogi suddenly becomes cheerful, creeping Misa in the process. He tells them that although the trip is for the advertising job, this is also their investigation mission. Misa assures Mogi not to worry because she's aware of this. Because of this, she wants Mogi not to forget his role either: that of a happy manager. Be afraid, be very afraid. Mogi holds up his words and plays it hyper as the two of them greet the Yotsuba reps. After the Misa is courted to go inside, however, Mogi thinks that he's not suitable for the role. Aiber, who now sits along with the Yotsuba group as Coil introduces himself as 'John Wallace'. Aiber goes straight to the point and tells Misa that he's found out that Misa worships Kira, who punished the robbers who killed her parents. He believes that Misa has come to Tokyo with the hope of meeting Kira.

Misa feigns surprise and asks Aiber/Coil/John who told him such a thing. Aiber tells her that her facial reaction proves him that he's right. The Yotsuba group seems to be impressed with Coil's method of investigation. Coil then tells Misa that she has something else that she's hiding: the fact that she was captured by L. Misa pretends to be nervous and tells them that it is true that she was questioned by L about Kira but she explained that she's not 2nd Kira nor has any connection with Kira. She also tells them that she didn't see his face because the voice was coming from a speaker. After a while, Higuchi becomes impatient and tells them that this starting to feel like interrogation so he excuses himself because he wants to go to toilet. Upon hearing this, Misa decides to go to the toilet as well but unknown to her, Rem has sneaked the piece of paper that she ripped from Death Note into her hand. This effectively allows her to see Rem.

Misa is freaked out upon seeing the Shinigami but Rem manages to cover her mouth before she can scream. She knows that Misa's memory won't return from her touching the scrap paper. However, this at least allows Misa to see her form. Rem then tells Misa that she's in a dangerous situation and asks her to listen to her. Misa, however, is more afraid that 'monstrous' Rem will kill her. Rem tries to tell her that she's her ally but Misa is not convinced about this. Meanwhile, Light comes to the realisation that there's a big difference between the previous Kira and this new Kira. The current Kira kills anyone who's reported of killing someone. The previous Kira, however, didn't persecute those who didn't have intention to kill or accidentally killed someone. For example, people who inadvertently killed someone else in an accident. Light thinks that if he were Kira, he would think this way. After a while, however, Light shrugged this off and claims that he's not Kira.

Back inside the Yotsuba group's office, Rem tells Misa that Light is the real Kira and wonders what he's currently doing. After letting go of her hand so Misa can talk, Rem tells the girl that she's a Shinigami and that they've met before. She then informs her about Death Note, which can be use to kill other people by writing those people's name on the book. With this note, Light killed criminal and was known as "Kira". Misa also had the same power and with this power, she managed to get close to Light. Upon hearing this, Misa realises that what L said was right. Upon hearing this, Misa tells Rem that she believes her and that she still loves Light until her death. Rem realises that Misa's feeling still has not changed at all. She also warns Misa about the current Kira, which she feels is the worst human being. When Misa returns to the interview room, she looks at the person who sits in front of Rem and realises that the new Kira is Higuchi.

Later on, Misa finds out from Light that the plan to lure Kira out has been cancelled because it's too dangerous for Misa. L is surprised when Misa simply tells Light that she'll follow whatever he wish. Misa is grateful to Light for being worried about her but she has a plan. Tha plan is to switch into a nursing costume with her friend so Mogi won't notice her disappearance. Misa then goes into a car with Higuchi and then telling him that she's the 2nd Kira. In order to prove this, she agrees to kill a person. Unknown to Higuchi, it's Rem who actually writes the guy's name on Death Note. Higuchi immediately declares that he wants to marry Misa and that he's Kira. Misa refuses to believe this unless Higuchi can prove that he really is Kira. Since his note is at home, she wants him to stop killing criminal until she tells him to do it again. The episode ends with Misa reporting to others that she got a recording of Higuchi admitting that he's Kira.

Impression:

I am amused seeing Mogi acting like he's a happy manager. A person who never smiles always tend to be kind of scary when he suddenly laughs. Apart from this, however, the episode is pretty serious in tone. The major point of this story seems to be Rem involvement in helping Misa out of a problematic situation. Speaking of which, did this rule exist in Ryuk's Death Note? I don't remember Ryuk knowing about this and writing it on the note. Anyway, Misa is surprisingly clever in this episode. She actually figured out how to extract a confession from Higuchi. Speaking of him, due to his prominence in some of the shots, it's quite easy to see that Higuchi was the 3rd Kira. The most obvious clue here is his hair, which looks quite unique even when it's obscured by shadows. It's interesting that in comparison to Higuchi, Light seems better personality-wise. Higuchi is also rather dumb even when compared to Misa.

Speaking of Misa, I just realised that she's actually an example how the note doesn't always corrupt the owner. The reason Misa uses the note to kill others is not because she finds pleasure in it nor because she has the ambition to be the ruler of the new world. She just did it to please Kira, whom she feels indebted to. This makes me wonder if robbers didn't kill her parents and she never feels indebted to Kira, would she still use the note? My guess is that she'll probably use the note in superficial way but I don't think she'll go out of her way to use it to change the world. One factor that is persistent in all of the Death Note users is that they don't seem to feel remorse for the murder that they've committed. I wonder if this is because the note, which looks like a normal book, allows them to feel disassociated from their victims. Since they don't get their hands dirty in direct murder, it makes it hard for them to realise the extent of their action.

Preview

On next week's episode: Higuchi is revealed as Kira already?

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