Death Note Black Edition #1 [2010] (Random Comics Theatre)

Random Comics Theatre

Death Note Black Edition #1 [2010]

In general my taste in Japanese comics runs to older material. Tezuka, Nakazawa, Kojima/Koike. I used to try a lot of modern stuff, especially as it's become so readily available from the library both in print and digitally, but a lot of it leaves me cold, and even stuff I start off enjoying I get a little bit tired of three volumes in, and looking at the vast expanse of thousands of pages it'll take to finish the series I give up. Sometimes I tell myself I'll try again when the series ends, but usually by that time I forget. I did enjoy some of Urawawa's work (MONSTER, 20th CENTURY BOYS) to the end, and should probably catch up on his other stuff. It's been a while since I've tried a new series

But my favourite modern Japanese comic is easily DEATH NOTE by Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba (originally serialized 2003-2006), enough that after reading it from the library I ended up getting these omnibus editions, which consolidate the twelve original volumes into six thicker books with a larger page size and smarter design (you do lose a few colour pages from the smaller books, but that's a fair trade).  I've probably read the series all the way through at least four times, and will sometimes just pick a volume up and read a random chapter.

For those unfamiliar, the series is about a Shinigami (God of Death) named Ryuk who decides to have some fun in the mortal world by dropping his Death Note for a human to find. It falls into the hands of Light Yagami, a high school student, who is alarmingly quick to exploit the possibilities of a notebook which can cause the death of anyone whose name he writes in it. While initially he's strict about only using it on criminals who "deserve" it, his actions quickly draw the attention of the police, including a famed reclusive investigator called "L", and Light unsurprisingly quickly drops all pretense of righteousness and shows he's the pure villain of the piece, nicknamed "Kira" by the public, willing to use the notebook on anyone who gets in the way of his goal to be the "God" of a world he'll mold to his desires.

Just a really enjoyable series. This first book quickly sets up the situation, including some of the intricate rules of the Death Note, and also sets up the investigation into Kira by "L" and the Japanese police. It's especially rewarding to re-read these early chapters knowing where things are going to end up. It's also, despite the dark subject matter, one of the funniest comics I've ever read, with the humour popping up in some unexpected places.

And that reminded me to check and I see that PLATINUM END, another fantasy series by Obata/Ohba recently ended, so I should give it a try. I tried their BAKUMAN series (non-fantasy about the life of Japanese comics creators), but it didn't grab me. If I like PLATINUM END I may give it another try. And I just saw that there's a short story collection for DEATH NOTE which was recently released. I'll have to give that a look. Fortunately my library has some copies, all praise and thanks to the concept of public libraries in general and the Toronto one in particular...