SCI FI PI

Available on DVD
Director Tetsuro Araki
Released Feb 13

Amime fits into a small, very particular niche in the Sci Fi world, but when it's accepted by the fold, there's usually a very good reason.

Death Note is one of the classic Manga stories that has made the trip from Japanese back-to-front comics (yes, Manga) to anime to live action. Both the anime TV series and the live action versions (in two movies) are now available from Madman.

The anime version has (as you'd expect) startling visuals. But for once, it also has a coherent plot.



The Death Note is in fact a Death Notebook. You write a person's name in it, and they die. It's originally from the world of the dead, and usually belongs to a God of Death. In this case, an errant Death Note has been dropped into the hands of a teenager. His name is Light (c'mon it's anime!) Yagami and he's an A-student. He follows the instructions and finds to his awe that the death note actually works. And so he starts eliminating the world of criminals.

After a couple of deaths, he's visited by his own personal god of death (as is usually the case), who's bemused by this spunky homicidal teen. Poor old god of death Ryuuk is so bored by his realm that he he doesn't mind a bit of chaos.

And chaos ensues. Especially when Light finds out he can not only cause the usual Death Note heart attacks, but the manner, time and events leading up to the death.

As he gets more homicidal and more prolific, the police start wondering why all the criminals of the world are starting to die, for no particular reason. The internet's abuzz with a new hero worship for Kira, the unknown, unseen 'god of death' striking down the wicked. He's called Kira because it sounds like the Japanese transliteration of the English 'killer'.



The cops have to bring in a super sleuth - the reclusive and mysterious 'L'. But Light cannot kill you by naming you in his notebook unless he's seen your face and knows your real name. And L likes to hide behind proxies (unlucky for them) and not reveal his real name

So L and Light are head to head, vowed to destroy each other.

All the while, the god of Death is having a whale of a time, enjoying earth's apples. Only seen and heard by Light (nice freaky Beautiful Mind moments there), he keeps upping the ante, and slowly spilling the beans about his abilities, and the death note's abilities and limitations, making the plot ever more complex.

Unfortunately, Volume 1 of Death Note is only the first chapter in a story of 9 volumes. So you'll have to wait for them as they're released over 2008. However, the story becomes more and more engrossing as you go along (in just the first four episodes), and whilst there are some moments of typically light and clumsy psychological moments, for the most part this plays very well for a western mind. Surely if you're a fan of anime's vivid illustration style, this is worth a look.

If you can't wait for the anime to come out to see how the story ends, you can catch the live action version (in a two volume set) which retains much of the storyline but has a lighter, more cartoony (even though it's live action) feel.