Mecha Mecha Multi-Media
A Look at Death Note and Blood+ as Two Finite Stories which Stay Alive through Multiple Media

Fans of anime titles like Bleach and Naruto can relish in the never-ending nature of their beloved titles. For stories with such popularity, it is almost guaranteed that the reader will grow out of the series before it ends. But what happens with titles that have a beginning, a middle, and an actual ending? Here I take a look at two long stories that have stayed alive in different media, even after their original publications finished at the end of the tale.

No readers of this blog are unaware of the phenomenon known as Death Note. But just in case you landed on Earth yesterday...originally a manga by Tsugumi Ohba (drawn by Takeshi Obata), Death Note is about what happens when high-schooler Light Yagami discovers a “death note” dropped to Earth by a shinigami, or god of death. Whoever’s name is written in the deadly notebook will die at the exact time and in the exact way the holder of the death note decides. Light decides to use the death note to rid the world of its nastiest criminals, but when a master detective named only “L” determines this killer of killers (nicknamed “Kira”) is in Japan, the challenge for Light to hide his identity is on.

Death Note was, and still is, massively popular in Japan and across the world. The tale of moral ambiguity is full of so many clever twists and turns it is no wonder the Death Note franchise lives on beyond its obvious lifespan. After the end of the 12-volume manga series came two live action movies which ambitiously, yet over simply, retold the battle between Light and L. Official releases are not yet available stateside yet. A mostly faithful animated version was released in Japan, and is now in the middle of its 5-volume DVD release in the US. In February the movie “L: Change the World” was released in Japanese theaters. This story tells a coinciding tale with the Light/Kira story and focuses on L, a character made even more popular by young actor Ken’ichi Matsuyama in the Death Note live-action films. I was in Japan last in March and took the time to sit through a showing of “L: Change the World”, and I wish I could say it was a worthy member of the Death Note series, but sadly it has almost none of the intelligence and dark humor that makes Death Note so compelling. A focus is made on L’s quirkiness, but that can’t carry a movie, and despite the obvious marketing to younger fans, there is more violence than most American parents will likely feel comfortable with.

However, American fans still looking for an “L” fix will likely enjoy the recent light novel release of Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases. This would have made a much better movie than “L: Change the World”, as it maintains the clever twists and CSI-style frank analysis of a series of bizarre murders in Los Angeles. With a unique narrative voice, Death Note fans new and old will want to pick up this hardback set before the timeline of the Kira murders. Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases is available in English now.

Also available on American shelves now is Death Note 13: How to Read. This is not a 13th chapter to the story, but a sort of encyclopedia of everything Death Note manga related. With in-depth character studies, artist and creator interviews and close-up analysis, How to Read is a must read for fans. It is hard not to enjoy the bonus short manga story at the end of this title.

The other series you have been reading me talk about a lot lately is Blood+. The first Blood+ release is actually 2000’s theatrical release of the animated movie “Blood: The Last Vampire”. This visually stunning, but mostly unexplained single story of a vampire-slaughtering shojo named Saya set in the 1970s demanded a more expanded story, which led to manga and then light novels. Later, the Blood+ anime picks up with the immortal Saya in modern times, and light novels and manga were produced as companions to the televised anime series. 2008 is a great year for Blood+ fans in the US, as the anime, manga and novels have all recently started their releases. On top of that, an international live-action production of the original “Blood: The Last Vampire” is hitting theaters later this year.

Blood+ tells the story is of Saya, a high-school student in Okinawa who remembers none of her life beyond the previous year. She lives with her adopted father, George, and his two sons. It doesn’t take Saya long to realize something about her is very different, and her interactions with the cold American, David, and the mysterious and handsome cellist, Hagi, lead Saya on a country-hopping adventure to rid the world of the monstrous Chiropterans.

I have been working on the translations for the Blood+ novels for Dark Horse Books, and was proud to see both the first novel and first manga come out back in March. The second volume of the manga just came out, and the next novel comes out in July. As a fan, this is the ultimate in multi-media story telling, as each facet (the manga, the novels, and the anime) is linked to the others, but they also can be enjoyed independent of each other. The Blood+ manga feels a little more mature than the anime, and takes things in a slightly different direction. The novels follow the original anime more closely, but are written in a unique style. Narration is mostly written from the perspective of a certain character in every scene, where the anime is, obviously, omnipresent. This allows for a lot more insight into the characters and history, and small details, like Van Argeno’s love for sweets, for example, are fleshed out to very entertaining ends. Even more impressive is the inclusion of real life characters throughout history that are only touched upon in the anime. This attention to detail is surprisingly effective, and the story can be enjoyed on levels most solo anime doesn’t allow for. The first volumes of the anime DVD, novel and manga are available now.

(altered column originally published in The Yuuyake Shimbun April, 2008)