The Deviant Art’s Otaku Spot (THE DAOS!)
Issue Ten: Oh, For The Love Of Death Gods!

This week, the DAOS, in honor of the Cartoon Network release of the anime series, we will be talking about Death Note! Read it to find out about it!

Missed an issue? James Kyoya-Sama, friend and part-time columnist of the DAOS, has graciously allowed us to use his DA as the place where all of our past issues will now be held. He also will be the one where all of our latest news and updates about the DAOS will now be! So go and watch him for all the latest DAOS Project news!

--Is The Magical Portal Key! Tell him Miss Red Rose Sent Ya!

Manga Review Of The Week! By --Our New Resident Reviewer!
Rozen Maiden Volume 6
6 Volumes published by Peach Pit

Plot Summary: In a deep sleep, Jun is mistaken by Suiguintoh for her own father, the doll maker Rozen. Meanwhile, Canaria finally manages to enter the Sakurada house, only to find herself welcomed by the ever-accommodating Nori. And the mysterious girl in Jun’s dreams… is she the seventh maiden? (Taken from the back excerpt)

Pros to the Manga: The artwork was up to the Peach Pit standards. Their use of tones and the downright hilarious expressions was amazing. The sequences with Suiguintoh and Meg were masterfully expressed and you couldn’t help but feel for the two of them. The character development was executed to near perfection; you can tell exactly who’s speaking even without speech bubble tails. That is how you can tell that personalities are build up so well. The end of the volume was great as well, it keeps me wanting more! Too bad the Seventh Volume comes out in January.

Cons to the Manga: Though they did a great job of the building, each characters personality, and speech bubble tales were a hard thing to come by. Sometimes they would use them and sometimes they wouldn’t. Some of the action seemed to happen to fast and I had no idea what was going on and the lack of speech bubble tails compounded this problem. Some of the panels appeared to be after thoughts and they just scribbled some stuff in there, this was somewhat lame. Also, when I started this manga, I had to go get volume 5 to try to figure out where they left off. I actually thought “Did I forget to read volume 5?” It was that confusing at the start.

Damaged Thoughts: The Rozen Maiden manga series is really a lot of fun to read. The character development is wonderful and the artwork is amazing. Volume 6 is no different. The biggest problem I see is that I have to refer to the anime to get what is going on. The action is not portrayed well and sometime it just happens way to fast. Luckily, this series has Suiseiseki so all of the downfalls are forgotten whenever she starts to talk.


Issue Ten: Oh For The Love Of Death Gods!

It’s been banned in China, sparked many arguments for and against fan subs, and has even been linked to a murder in Belgium. What are we talking about? The series known as Death Note. Death Note was first serialized by Shueisha in the Japanese manga magazine “Weekly Shonen Jump” from the first issue in December 2003 to May 2006, with 108 chapters in total. The series has been published in its entirety in 12 manga volumes in Japan and in North America. The series also has 2 live-action films released in Japan on June 17, 2006 and November 3, 2006, and an anime series that aired in Japan from October 3, 2006 to June 26, 2007. It also has been the talk of the entire otaku community since it’s inception. Why? Well you have to know the basics first, so let’s get down to it.

So what exactly is Death Note about?
So, Death Note opens up with an introduction to Light Yagami. Light (or Raito in Japanese) is an extremely intelligent young man who resents the crime and corruption in the world. His life undergoes a drastic change however when he discovers a mysterious notebook, known as the "Death Note", lying on the ground. The Death Note's instructions claim that if a human's name is written within it that person shall die. Light is initially skeptical of the Death Note's authenticity, believing it is just a prank. However, after experimenting with it and killing two criminals, Light is forced to admit that the Death Note is real. After meeting with the previous owner of the Death Note, a Shinigami (meaning Death God) named Ryuk, Light seeks to become "the God of the new world" by passing his judgment on criminals.

Soon, the number of inexplicable deaths of reported criminals catches the attention of the International Police Organization and a mysterious detective known only as "L". L quickly learns that the serial killer, dubbed by the public as "Kira" (derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the word "Killer"), is located in Japan. L also concludes that Kira can kill people without laying a finger on them. Light realizes that L will be his greatest nemesis, and a game of psychological cat and mouse between the two begins.

Who is involved in this?

Light Yagami (Also known as Raito)
The protagonist of Death Note, Light is an extremely intelligent but bored 17-year old student. When he finds the Death Note, dropped in the human world by Ryuk, he decides to use it to kill all criminals and earns the title Kira. His ultimate goal is to cleanse the world of evil to create a utopia and then reign over this new world as its God. He calls himself Justice.

L
L is the world's three top-rated detectives (through two additional aliases), tasked with tracking down and arresting Kira. As such, he is Light's archenemy. His disheveled appearance masks his great powers of deduction and insight. L has many quirks, such as sitting in an odd manner (he squats on the edge of his seat, with his knees up by his chin), snacking on sweets in the middle of meetings, and holding his cell phone and other objects in a peculiar manner. He often takes drastic strategies to confuse and force his opponents, and on several occasions, he has willingly disclosed several of his weaknesses to Kira at the risk of his own life in the hopes that he would lure him into a trap.

Misa Amane
A girl with an immense crush on Kira, Misa is a popular idol in Japan, and tends to wear clothing in many different styles, depending on what she is doing. She is immature and tends to refer to herself in the third person in an attempt to be cute. Misa is completely devoted to Light, and she once said that she loved him at first sight. Light, however, only views her as an asset to his plans because of her Death Note and her Shinigami eyes. Kira, explaining her devotion to him, had punished the murderer of Misa’s parents.

Mello
Mello is an orphan who grew up with Near in Watari's shelter for gifted children. Like Near, Mello is one of the candidates to become L's successor. Similar to L's fondness for sweets, he is often seen eating bars of chocolate. Although Mello is quite intelligent, he often lets his emotions get the better of him.

Near
Near is a primary candidate to become L's successor and calls himself N during the course of his investigations. He shares a number of similarities with L. Much like how L plays with things such as sugar cubes and forks, Near is frequently shown playing with toys or his hair. Near also sits in an unusual manner similar to L, but with some slight differences.

Teru Mikami
Mikami is selected as a substitute Kira by Light, after Light decides that it is too dangerous for the Death Note to be near Misa or himself, since he and Misa are under investigation. A prosecution attorney and adamant supporter of Kira, Mikami shares many of the same ideals, thoughts, and priorities as Kira, and is ecstatic when he discovers that Kira, his God, has chosen him, proving that God is on his side and watching.

Why should I check out this series?

James View
I first came into Death Note from a friend who was writing an essay on the effects of television in human culture. It was at this time, that he mentioned Death Note as one of the shows that challenges our ways of thinking and our determination as to what is right and what is wrong. Therefore, as any tech-savvy kid, I look it up on Wikapedia. And just the summary of the plot made it interesting. So, that same night, I ran over to my local Borders, and bought the first volume. It was an instant hit personally for me, and so I began my acquisition of the entire series. Now I own the entire manga series, and I have slowly, begun to watch the series via Viz’ personal downloading website (I missed the opportunity to see them fan subbed, but it’s worth paying $1.00 to download them an episode at a time.)

This series challenges the way everyone defines what is right and what is wrong. It furthermore gives us a seriously deep look into what we as humans, even for less than half a second think about. What if, we had the power to eliminate crime, evil and destruction? What if we had that power to seriously mold and shape an entire world by killing off all those we think that are evil? Would we do what Light did, and vow to rid the world of evil? Or would we use it for our own personal advancement? This is one of the many thoughts that will be in your head when you read or watch this series. (Although, I prefer the manga to the anime.)

Miss Red Rose View
This is one of the series, which I have to admit to watching illegal fansubs to. (Don’t bother trying to find them now, it’s useless.) I came to see it the series fan subbed at my first anime convention this year. I literally had to beg and stall my best friend who was also the driver for the convention for as long as I could in order to get her to stay and check it out. But as soon as the opening credits came on, I was officially hooked, and so was she. After coming off our serious Fullmetal Alchemist addiction, it was nice to find another anime series that had the same intensity if not a lot more than FMA. And so, I dove right in after the convention, and began avidly watching the series, while my friend, began reading the manga. I watched the subs, all the way to the original end of the series in Japan this past June.

I think fans should check out this series, because of all the good reasons above, but also, this series carries a lot of twists and turns that fans will never be able to guess what is going to happen next. (Unless you go and find out online or through the manga) Just when you think that Light’s going to be caught, or L will discover the truth, something happens and the entire game changes. It’s a new play on the traditional cat and mouse chase, and fans that are looking for a series that is nothing like Bleach and Naruto, come check this series out.

Subbed or Dubbed?

Unfortunately, dub fans, while we think that the dub is not bad, all three of us are biased, and we all prefer the original voices to the English voices. Mike puts it best in his review!

Anime Review Of The Week
Death Note
Volume One on DVD on November 20
Twelve Manga Volumes Out Now by Viz Media

Pros to the Anime: I’m not going to lie, I was a little worried about this Anime being dubbed to English. Generally, I cannot stand dubs; they always seem to sound bad. Death Note though did a good job of dubbing. Also, I was thoroughly pleased to see the intro sequence staying true to the original, no changes here as I saw with FMA. The animation was very smooth and easy to watch. Death note also does a wonderful job of keeping your interest with its little twists and great cliffhangers throughout the episode.

Cons to the Anime: One of the biggest pet peeves I had with this was the explanations that Death Note has before and after commercials. They give you no time to read it. I would get about halfway through and then the show would just start up again. I had to pause my DVR to read it all.

Damaged Thoughts: The dub is not bad, actually I kind of like it. They picked some great voice actors for this and Ryuk sounds really awesome. I am also quite pleased to see that the Death God’s are still referred to as Shinigamis, this was a definite plus. To me it doesn’t look like Cartoon Network Screwed this one up but only time will tell.

So that should bring you all up to speed on the basics of Death Note. What you do with this information, is now up to you. Whatever we hope you do, please do it legally and use otaku responsibility. Buy the DVD’s, buy the manga and support the artists who have designed a well worthy series.

Next week, we’re going back to serious work, and we’re going to talk about art tools that all these artists use to make the beautiful pieces that they make! So we’ll see you all next week!

See you next week!
~Miss Red Rose~

Did you miss a previous issue? Check them out right here at the DAOS’s new home over at our fellow columnist James’ DA!

-- Is the magic site!

Upcoming Releases: Remember that all release dates and actual prices vary from seller to seller, so remember to look around okay? Good Otakus..

Upcoming DVD Releases for 10/22/2007
Basilisk - DVD Box Set (DVD 1-6 of 6)
Beet the Vandel Buster (DVD 4)
Burst Angel - Guardian Angel (DVD 6)
Burst Angel - Line in the Sand (DVD 5)
Galaxy Angel AA (DVD 3)
Hell Girl (DVD 1)
Hell Girl - DVD 1 + Artbox (DVD 1)
Inu Yasha DVD Movie Box Set Deluxe Edition (DVD)
Kasimasi - Bittersweet Decisions (Sub.DVD 3)
Le Chevalier D'Eon - Volte-face (DVD 5)
Mushi-Shi (DVD 3)
Pani Poni Dash! - Chaos Cum Laude (DVD 6)
Pumpkin Scissors - Honor & Blood (DVD 1)
Rozen Maiden: Träumend - Puppet Show (DVD 1)
Slayers - OVA DVD Collection (DVD)
Super Robot Wars Original Generation - (Sub.DVD)
The Prince of Tennis - Box Set 3 (DVD)

Upcoming Manga Releases for 10/22/2007
Vagabond - (G.novel 26)
Coyote Ragtime Show - (G.novel 2)
Garden Dreams (G.novel)
Heroes Are Extinct! (G.novel 2)
Vampire Hunter D - Yoshitaka Amano: Collected Art of Vampire Hunter D (G.novel)