Death Note, Volume 2: Confluence

This, the second volume of the manga Death Note series starts off pretty much where volume one left off. Light is still experimenting with the Death Note, finding out new and varied ways to kill people and making it harder for the police to trace him.

The police are also finding it hard to find people willing to work on the case, especially when "Kira" (as Light is known) kills off all the FBI agents who have flown to Japan to help the local police with their investigation. Luckily the rather odd L is still on hand to help them out.

I think the moral of this rather black series (so far) is: Shinigami demons should not just drop their Death Notes to earth, no matter how boring life is and how much this will spice things up. (Or if they do, maybe someone less clever and amoral than Light should pick it up.) ( )

This review is also on my blog at: http://abnormallyparanormal.blogspot.com/2011/11/manga-review-death-note-vol-2-b...

Because this is a serialized story, it's hard not to write some spoilers of what already happened in the previous volume. If you haven't read Volume 1, I'd suggest you NOT read this review. You don't want to get spoiled if you plan on enjoying it.

*WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD*

Light has taken down the FBI agents with the Death Note because, at this point, he's starting to learn how to manipulate the people whose names he's written in the notebook before they die. Their actions can be controlled if he writes what they will do leading up to their deaths, so long as it's not humanly impossible. Light is so painstakingly careful about his actions, and thinks of just about every possibility in order to keep himself free of suspicion, it's like he's got OCD.

But, he encounters women's intuition in the form of Raye Penber's fiancee. Naomi Misora figures out Kira's involvement in Raye's death. She used to work for the American FBI, and had previously worked with L, so when she tells Light all this, it only makes him determined to eliminate her, since she poses his biggest threat to being caught, yet.

Meanwhile, L finally decides to show his face to the few Japanese police who are willing to risk their lives to catch Kira. L is a very socially awkward and eccentric fella, but you love him because he's so cute. Creepy for sure, but adorable, nonetheless. He's beginning to catch on to Kira killing Raye and the FBI agents, although, slower than Naomi. He decides Kira has to be one of the people Raye investigated before the bus-jacking incident, and that narrows it down to two families. One of them is Light's family.

Light, being the ridiculously perceptive kid that he is, notices right away that someone entered his bedroom while at school one day. The volume ends with him concocting a scheme to find all the surveillance cameras around his bedroom. So, we are left wondering how he's going to kill criminals in his home knowing he's being watched by the police, and not be able to do anything about it. It'll be interesting, indeed…

If you still haven't caught on to Death Note, do yourself a favor and get this manga right away. It is probably the BEST manga in existence. ( )

Not quite as good as book one, in my opinion, but good none the less. Light takes a major turn early on (in the last pages of book 1, but moreso here). It stung to see that Light was willing to go as far as he does, and against those who had put their lives on the line for him. I hope for this to ultimately be the act that undoes him.

I was a bit surprised by the blatant sexism plotted into a 2004 manga - but this is early in my experience of Japanese writing, so others may roll their eyes when I say it.

The increasing intricacy of the Death Note rules is starting to chafe. Hoping they don't get any more ridiculous than: "Whether the cause of the individual's death is either a suicide or accident, if the death leads to the death of more than the intended, the person will simply die of a heart attack. This is to ensure that other lives are not influenced." Not really wanting my reading experience to require that degree of memorization of legaleese.

So - the good - Light is brighter than he seems at times, and it is refreshing to see him demonstrate it. L seems to be closing in rapidly, and that tension has been building nicely. Hard to imagine the dynamic continuing to play for more than another couple volumes - but I'll give it a go.

Taking a break between this one and #3 - because I'm feeling a little repetition fatigue and don't want the series spoiled for me because I was too eager to read it through. Rating this one a 3, I rated the first one higher.

More Ryuk would help this volume. ( )

Reading Volume 2, what struck me is that the only actually believable and interesting character was Ryuk, the Shinigami. Light and L are both just annoying twats and don't really carry the plot.

Bechdel: Lights mother and sister talk about cleaning. I don't think that counts, particularly combines with the overall sexism of the writing and characters. Fail. ( )

Some of the pages in the print I had seemed out of order. It could be I just missed some clue in transition. Setting up some nice tension, it's becoming clear that Light is attracted to the Death Note by the power, or at least it's twisting him. Very good, just wish the rest of the series was available at my library right now.