Rated: T+ Older Teen
Price: 14.99 USD
The Death Note phenomenon has been just that. A phenomenon. This 12 volume series got people who didn't usually read manga into manga in Japan, and led not only to a successful animated series (now being released on DVD in English) which is one thing, but also two...no, make that three...successful live-action movies. The Death Note craze not only stormed Japan, but the entire world.
But unlike Naruto, Bleach, and some other massively popular titles, Death Note is a title with a beginning, middle and end...and a TON of twists on the way.
So if the Death Note story ended at Volume 12, what's up with lucky number 13?
The heftier price tag for Death Note: How to Read is because this isn't a manga, per se, but a self-described encyclopedia of everything Death Note. But calling it just an encyclopedia is actually selling it short. This big volume has an in-depth character guide, interviews with the creators, explanations of chapter titles, breakdowns of plotpoints, a guide to rules and tricks, and it goes on and on. Volume 13 closes with a short but surprisingly satisfying bonus manga with Ryuk and a 13-year-old named Taro Kagami who learns the English meaning of "Death" from the Death Note he finds the hard way. This story is actually a prequel and is the original Death Note story, wirtten before the serialization of the Death Note story we are familiar with.
Since the series has ended, I worried that this supplemental volume would be a poor excuse to squeeze every dime from the Death Note name. Thankfully the comprehensive but light-hearted nature of this book dashed those fears within a few pages.
Bringing this to English must have been a superior pain, so I have to give a kudos to Akira Shiwawa's expert translation.
This is a Death Note fan's dream-come-true. The higher-than-average will be more than worth every penny for Death Note conspiracy theorists and those that love to analyze DN minutiae like a "Lost" nut. It's also great for those that have read the series and want so see some behind-the-scenes (as much as that is possible for a manga) action and fill in the blanks, answer lagging questions and complete the experience...
Except that Volume 14 has been released in Japan. Viz hasn't confirmed that it will be brought to English, but it's hard to doubt that it won't, and we can only hope that it adds to the Death Note folklore as well as Volume 13 does.
9.5