If you missed it and are somehow incapable of watching re-runs, I hope this helps!

***

The girls are doing community service for “tampering with evidence”, even though the cops suspect that they are the murderers (Spencer’s mom, helped them, being a lawyer and all).

Emily wants to make a deal with A and gets in a fight with Spencer about it while Garett watches (somewhat creepily) from the shadows.

Everyone is upset with Hanna for messing up her dad’s marriage. Hanna’s mom is also concerned about the girls drifting apart, with special concern about Emily (who is still living at Hanna’s place).

Mike has been seeing a therapist and seems okay with it. Aria has an awkward run in with Ezra. Aria’s mom thinks that Spencer and Ezra are hooking up, and that’s interfering with their relationship. Well, that and the fact that Jackie is kind of/sort of threatening Aria, forcing her to dump Ezra.

Garett is on the phone when Spencer walks in. Spencer is suspicious of him and Jenna (she’s snippy about it). She thinks it’s weird that they were framed for murder right before Jenna and Garett went public, also his former friendship with Jason (who has been missing since their arrest) strikes her as notable.

Emily is healthy again (ulcer cleared) but her swim coach still doesn’t want a criminal on the team.

A texts Emily. The text says that  she’s her favourite and asks to make a deal. Emily sees a monologue written on the school blackboard and circles the word “yes”, assuming that A is watching. She then receives a note in a book (borrowed from Spencer) that says “10 tonight”.

Lucas is trying to get pics of Hanna off of the internet, and she’s grateful considering how horrible she looks picking up trash in an orange jumpsuit.

Toby and Spencer meet by his truck. Spencer seems annoyed at Emily and hates being told about their friendship. Toby made a rocking chair for Spencer (for some reason). She refuses it, but Toby says he’s not giving up. In a blow-up, Spencer yells about how Jenna is dating Garett, and she did not make it sound flattering.

Emily enters a sketchy green-house place, but instead of A, the other girls show up. As it turns out, they were setting a trap for A so that he/she  would come after Emily. They have a plan that involves fake evidence.

Caleb shows up and makes-out with Hanna in front of Lucas.

Toby asks Emily about Spencer, but she doesn’t say anything. He feels like everyone is shutting him out.

Aria is caught by Jackie, who threatens her when Ezra shows up (awkwardly). Ezra now knows why Aria broke up with him (because of Jackie, btw). Ezra wishes he had told Aria’s mother about them when he had the chance.

Caleb thanks Lucas for keeping an eye on Hanna. Caleb says he still feels like an outsider when he goes home to his real mother. He says he’ll stay in Rosewood until he finishes school. Lucas says it’s still okay for Caleb to stay at his place, but he’s acting weird.

Spencer and Emily have a fake fight about “the box” (evidence). Emily receives a text from A that says “see you tonight, bff”.

Ezra and Aria tell Aria’s parents about their relationship. They don’t take it well. They try to kick him out when Mike comes down and punches Ezra in the face. Ezra leaves.

Aria’s mom seems suspicious about where Aria got the idea to get involved with a teacher (her cheating dad, hint hint). Aria is sent to her room, which is bad considering she has to meet the girls and possibly A soon.

Ezra banishes Jackie, claiming that he won’t let her do anything to Aria.

Spencer and Hanna are getting ready to go when Toby shows up to confront Spencer and Hanna’s dad decides to come over. Toby feels like Spencer has replaced Alison’s bitch leader position. Hanna’s dad says that him and the new family are moving to Rosewood.

Emily shows up to the meeting place, alone.

Mike helps Aria sneak out.

Emily is face to face with A, threatening him/her with the box which supposedly has evidence in it. When Emily reveals that she is without evidence and that the whole thing was a trap, A flips sh#t and tries to take out Emily.

Fortunately, Spencer and Aria show up. Unfortunately, A distracts them and escapes. After running outside, A is hit by a car (Hanna’s) but continues to run away.

A escapes and Spencer is pissed. That is until she realizes that when Hanna hit A with her car, A’s cellphone fell on the ground.

***

I’m gonna be honest, I was expecting a little more from this premiere. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t as intense I thought it would be. Then again, the finale of the last season was really intense and kind of hard to compete with XD

Okay, that still sounds pretty awesome, but I’m sure there are still people who feel like they’ve forgotten how to enjoy christmas. To help those people, I’ve decided to create a list of things to do this holiday, even though christmas is technically over. Why am I doing this? Well, it certainly has nothing to do with what I got for christmas. I mean, it’s not like I got a laptop and am looking for an excuse to type on it or anything. Pshhhh, what are you even talking about? I’m doing this because I care about people! I’m not in a better and more christmas-y mood because I got a MacBook Pro or anything! GET OFF MY BACK!

Anyway…

1. Eat Food

Food is good and food will always be good. If you’re on holiday, visiting people, or chilling at home, EAT UNTIL YOU CAN NO LONGER STAND IT! I do believe it was Louis CK who said, “The meal is not over when I’m full, the meal is over when I hate myself!” 

Words to live by. When it’s christmas time, there is never a shortage of food. Ever. There’s something about eating food that makes you less cranky, especially when its good food, like pie and ham and a sh#t load of mashed potatoes. It’s really hard to be in a bad mood when you’re eating mashed potatoes.

2. Talk to People

Is it fun to sit in your room all day and play Skyrim? Yes, I’m sure it is, but if you really want to feel a little christmas-y, you should probably talk to people. Whether it’s family, friends, or hobos, talking to people about christmas or around christmas time can drastically improve your mood. I’m not saying you have to chat with the *shiver* in-laws all week, just don’t act too distant or you immediately become grinch-like.

3. Watch Holiday Specials

Do you hate cheesy holiday specials? Good, so do I. However, there are some people who enjoy the really cheesy ones, and I encourage those freaks people to indulge this time of year. For people like me who don’t like cheesy specials, find non-cheesy specials (usually on comedy channels) or watch something that’s not christmas-y at all, and yet still reminds you of christmas for some weird reason.

OR you could watch a marathon of some sort. I know for a fact that the Comedy Network is doing a Big Bang-athon, a Corner Gas-athon, and some leftover Celebrity Roasts this holiday season. I think there might be a South Park and a Simpsons marathon as well.

I don’t know if you people share my love of marathons, but they always feel very holiday-ish to me.

4. Watch a Holiday Movie

Again, some people hate cheesy holiday movies, and again, there are other solutions. For example, during the holiday season several movies are played often even though they have little to no christmas content. Just the other day I watched The Sound of Music. Well, part of it at least.

One of my favourite sort-of-but-not-really-christmas-movies is About a Boy. For those of you who have not seen this movie, it’s about a really rich bastard who does nothing for a living. His dad wrote a famous christmas carol a while back, so he just lives off of the royalties. Meanwhile, there’s this kid named Marcus who is kind of poor and lives with his suicidal and divorced mom. When Will (the rich bastard) tries to hook up with a sh#t load of single moms, he ends up meeting Marcus, and then (surprisingly) funny stuff happens.

Wow, what a descriptive summary. Seriously though, it’s really good. Probably in my top ten favourite movies of all time.

Like I said with the holiday TV shows, it doesn’t have to be related to christmas, it just has to make you feel like christmas.

5. Buy Stuff For People

One of the best things about christmas is receiving presents. Unfortunately, you can’t force people to buy you stuff, but you can buy stuff for people. Think of it this way, if you want a present and you give someone a present, in an alternate backwards dimension you are actually receiving a present since someone (yourself) got you one.

…It makes a hell lot more sense in my head.

Also, don’t be afraid to shop for yourself a little. There’s nothing wrong with buying something you really want like a new MacBook Pro when it’s christmas

Suddenly, christmas comics.

I swear to god, this is my family

Every damn time!

The future is bright

HOLY SH#T THIS IS MY CAT!

I'm sorry, but I had to include it!

If you were a flavour, what would you be?

Something really powerful. As much as I would love to be one of my favourite flavours (grape and strawberry, or if scents are included, vanilla and lavender) I really don’t think that they’re  good indicators of my personality. I would probably be a lemon-y flavour, really strong and mind zapping. Actually, I could probably get away with calling myself cinnamon; also strong, but more universally pleasant, not as harsh.

Man, I’m kind of flattering myself here. Thinking objectively, someone who had a single conversation with me would while I’m in a very me-ish type of mood would probably describe me as mint-y; pleasant in some ways and a little overpowering in others…and questionable when paired with chocolate >_>. Someone who had a conversation with me when I wasn’t in a me-ish mood (ex. someone I’m not comfortable talking to) would probably call me spinach; mild, not good, but not bad.

Create a new law that will make the world a more fun place.

Under the  orders of me, myself and I, all citizens of the world have to sing a note or a series of notes in extremely emotional situations. As much as we lover hearing standard emotional noises such as “OW!”, “Gah”, and *gasp*, I think we as humans can better describe our emotions through musical notes rather than pointless gibberish.

That being said, the notes that are sung in emotional situations are permitted to lack lyrical content and simply be a musical noise created to sum up a situation or one’s feelings. If your created song does contain lyrics, keep them simple and clean. Unoriginal songs are also permitted. For example, if you receive a laptop for christmas and feel the need to sing a portion of ‘I’m Walking on Sunshine’, feel free to do so.

Emotional songs should not be longer than 30 seconds, because at that point you’re just annoying people.

The reason this new law is being put in place is because people have a natural need to express themselves, and if they must do so it might as well be a little fun

Do you usually remember your dreams?

Nope, and I’m happier that way.

Let me explain to you the inner workings of my brain.

When I’m dreaming, I’m working. When I’m dreaming, 1 out of 59 times will it be a beautiful and entertaining dream, the remaining 58 are dreams where I am either:

a) Being chased or terrified by spiders/werewolves/creepy people/lunatics/TV characters.

b) Working on some sort of huge, stressful school/company project that is usually late and/or done poorly.

So, as you can see, when I remember my dreams I wake up exhausted and stressed, and that’s just no fun.

Before you all flip out and call me insane for dreaming of this sh#t, let me remind you that these are only the dreams I remember. More than 80% of the time, I wake up with nothing, and I like it that way. If I wake up and I feel like I spent the past 8 hours doing absolutely nothing but resting in a comfy bed, I definitely feel more relaxed and well rested.

Let me explain to you how a normal person’s brain works (myself included).

When we sleep, are level of awareness is lowered, so we’re presumably less likely to remember what the hell was happening to us. We tend to remember dreams best if we wake up while they’re still occurring, so if you forget your dream immediately, it’s probably because you finished it. According to some guy named Hobson, people forget about 95% of their dreams.

Yeah, I’ve never been a huge dreamer. Ever. I’ve had some people who get really pissed off when they forget their dreams, and I guess I can understand how they want to remember their own little fantasy, but I don’t share their pissed off-ness.

TANGENT: I remember when I was younger I periodically had these dreams where waking up (in real life) was actually part of the dream! Those were annoying as f#ck! I could always kind of/sort of remember what happened in those dreams, but it was always fast and confusing, like I had taken cocaine in my sleep. I would hardly get any sleep because the dream would quickly force me awake. I would fall back asleep in a matter of seconds and continue the dream, but they were so horrible and confusing that I would spend an enormous amount of strength trying to stay awake.

Like I said before, I wake up exhausted when I dream.

Okay, just in case you need some context, the Killers are my favourite band in the history of ever. The reason; they aren’t any one style. They have songs that are meant for clubs, songs that are peppy, songs that are sad, songs that are f#cking intense, and even the occasional song that is hilarious.

A couple of years ago, they announced that they were “taking a break from music”. At first, I was sad, then I was optimistic and believed that they would eventually reunite. Then Brandon Flowers and Ronnie Vannucci released solo albums and I lost all hope for humanity  –_–

BUT I recently heard that they group is getting back together and working on a new album! According to Vannucci, it’s going to have a heavier sound than Day & Age, which I’m really looking forward to!

In a way, this is an early christmas present since I’m finding out about it now, but since I won’t have it for a year or so, it’s also my late christmas present (hence the title…just in case you were wondering).

Now I think it would be appropriate for us to listen to the greatest christmas song (with the greatest video) ever; “DON’T SHOOT ME SANTA”!!!

Oh, the happiness

Oreo Quiz (Killers Edition)

So, as promised, I am giving away my prized dessert Oreo to the person who answers this question (for those of you who are confused, I promised my high school friends that I’d have a little quiz so they could win some of my Oreos, which are really amazing).

Questions

1. List all ten songs on the album, Day & Age. (Worth two Oreos for incorrect order, three for correct order.)

2. Bonus: Name all four Killers albums and what year they were made. (Worth Oreos for six days if answered with the first question.)

3. Double Bonus: What’s my favourite song from Day & Age? (Worth Oreos for fifteen days if answered with the first question.)

Rules

1. Answers must be submitted through comment section.

2. The first one to answer the first question wins.

3. Yes, you can use Wikipedia.

4. If you don’t know me and still want to play, feel free. I can’t give you Oreos, but I’ll write a post about whatever you want me to AND you’ll get the satisfaction of beating my friends and making them miserable.

GO!

“You don’t have to believe me
But the way I, way I see it
Next time you point a finger
I might have to bend it back
Or break it, break it off
Next time you point a finger
I’ll point you to the mirror.”

–Paramore (“Playing God”)*

So, as I’ve mentioned many times before, I got accepted into what is known as the “advanced” program a few years back. This program is meant to accept the most eager, wise, and classy students who wish to broaden their academic experience. Because we are a part of this program, we tend to have rather engaging class discussions and/or debates about various issues such as politics, war,  and climate change.

Every. Damn. Time.

Why are people so STUPID!

Honestly! I’m sick, and I mean sick of this crap!

You know what, it might even be okay if we ripped each other’s throats out during the actual discussion, and then forgot all about it later. But no!!!! We all (sometimes including me) have this strange and far too human desire to continue debating fighting over this crap between classes, during lunch, and at any other time that suits out fancy!

Why does this piss me off to such an extreme, you might ask? I have prepared a list of  (one) logical reason explaining why this drives me crazy.

1. Assigned sides/topics

“Okay class, today we are doing a debate on global warming and weather or not (pun absolutely intended) it’s man-made. You can either support that it is or support that it isn’t. Go.”

Sounds like a good idea, right? Supposedly, this way everyone can choose the side they wish to debate and it’s all good.

LOL no! Each side has to have an equal number of people, so a lot of people get stuck on the side they don’t want and have other people think that they chose it! Then we start fighting over stupid arguments followed by fighting over who started the stupid arguments (because apparently that matters)** and then we have the janitor come in and dispose of the dead bodies.

Then there are the less painful debates where you have to research and argue both sides of an issue and only find out which one you’re actually debating a few minutes before the debate. These haven’t been so bad in my experience, but who knows since I’ve only done one of them.

Somewhere in between these two lies the your-groups-are-assigned-as-well-as-your-topic debates. They’re not quite as ugly as the “lol, we are judging you based on your chosen group” debates, but we still have a tendency to argue them long after the final bell.

Dude, the teacher told me which side to take! These are not my actual opinions! Let it go!

You know what? Maybe it’s just me.

I mean this seriously; I personally find no enjoyment in fighting/debating for the sake of doing so, but for some people, I’m sure it’s a good stress reliever or a strange source of entertainment. If that’s the case and you happen to find another person who shares your love of debating, awesome. Just don’t debate and try to destroy everyone you see; chances are you’ll piss some off. (Plus, I don’t want you going around and debating people just because you know you’ll win. That’s just wrong and really annoying.)

When I really think about it, it’s not just school debates. Sometimes people in my class will have casual conversations about religion, and I really can’t stand it when anyone says something like, “This person is religious, therefore they are stupid.”

T__T

I’M PRETTY DAMN SURE BELIEF HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH INTELLIGENCE!

We see radicals and some examples of such people on TV and accept that as the norm. That really, really makes me want to punch a kitten.

Unlike the whole “debate if you feel like it” thing, I don’t think there’s any excuse for dissing someone’s religion, no matter what religion it is***. I once made the mistake of getting into a religious debate, and I’d probably compare it to getting wasted at a wild party; it was ugly and I sure as hell regretted it the next morning.

Well, I hope some of you found this either helpful, enlightening, or entertaining.

(Footnotes)

* DAMNIT! Two Paramore quotes with only a few posts in between…

** If anyone reads this and decides it’s a good idea to bring it up at school/in the comments, I will kill you. I am beyond sick of hearing about the utterly stupid debate.

*** To be more specific; it is never okay to insult someone’s religion, but if someone does, you have every right to defend yourself through words. Also, if your religion involves singling out a minority group (ex. Catholicism and gay marriage) try to keep your opinions to yourself (or change them), because no one wants to fight about that.

I promise, this will be my last DN post…for now XD

I just see a normal car crash---WAIT A MINUTE!

Stalkers: Now making anime

DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT!

Portal + Death Note. Your argument is invalid.

RIP Childhood

And yet, he couldn't beat a kid with who plays with dolls.

Really? I thought it was pretty effective...

...F#ck you!

??????????

Cheezburgers are SO last year.

I pity those of you who have not read The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases

O.O

]]> http://liac333.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/suddenly-death-note-posters/feed/ 1 liac333 irl anime haters the names cake handy dandy mello wrong the game danger apples BB near http://liac333.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/5050-movie-review/ http://liac333.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/5050-movie-review/#comments Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:15:01 +0000 liac333 http://liac333.wordpress.com/?p=1710 ]]>

“My body tells me, ‘no’
But I won’t quit
‘Cause I want more
‘Cause I want more”

–Young the Giant (“My Body”)

I just saw this movie over the weekend and found it incredibly interesting.

The film is about a young man named Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who discovers he has a rather serious tumor in his spine. With the help of his rather profane friend, Kyle (Seth Rogen) and his young, inexperienced therapist (Anna Kendrick) he tries his best to get through this horrible situation in a surprisingly comedic fashion.

The film itself forces you to adopt a whole different view on a cancer movie. In fact, this is basically a “cancer comedy”. The dialogue between Kyle and Adam is just priceless, and although some of the situations are incredibly morbid, some of them are freaking hilarious and some of them manage to combine both (I hate to say that I peed my pants laughing when a very stoned Adam started giggling when he saw a dead body, but…)

Gordon-Levitt’s acting was amazing. He’s got a very warm and inviting quality about him. He also has the rare and fantastic ability to create a laughable scene one moment and an intense, tear-jerking scene the next. Rogen’s character wasn’t responsible for as many emotional scenes, but he just nailed the comedy. His comedic timing was brilliant and his lines were ridiculously entertaining. At times, I felt that Kendrick was a little awkward in her scenes, but after watching more of the film I realized that she just had a really awkward character. Even so, it wasn’t a shining performance from her, but it wasn’t bad either.

Reiser and Rogen

The film was based on a true story about a man’s struggle with his disease. This man’s name is Will Reiser, author of the script for 50/50. Basically, it’s his own, slightly fictionalized account of what he actually went through a few years ago. Rogen (who was sort of playing a version of himself) urged Reiser to turn their experiences with the disease into a comedy. The result; this ridiculously amazing film.

I think the movie carries a really entertaining story that has the potential to help all of us realize that even when sh#t gets real, all of the crap that we’re feeling is somewhat psychosomatic. I’m not saying that everyone should just cheer up when it all goes to hell, I’m just saying that you should take a moment and think about where your story is going before you decide it’s all gone to hell.

A truly wonderful job all around. 5 out of 5 stars.

Let me explain. Last year, I joined my school’s cross-country running team. I wasn’t the best runner, but I wasn’t the worst.

I really enjoy the feeling of x-country because: A) You don’t need that much coordination (which is something that I don’t have). B) You have a lot of time to think about stuff when you’re on a half hour run. C) There’s no sitting on a bench and waiting to be put in. You’re always moving and you’re never waiting to be part of the action. D) After you get out of your post-run-death stage, you feel really accomplished and are able to sleep really well. E) MY SCHOOL HAS A KICK-ASS TEAM!!! We just won our seventh consecutive city meet, meaning we’re one win away from breaking the city record. We’re a pretty big school, so we have more runners/supporters than a lot of the other teams (we also cheer like maniacs before each group goes).

Anyway, last year when I joined the team, I skipped the first race since I didn’t think I was in good enough shape to run it. I believe I ran the second race, but by the time the third race came around my ankle started hurting.

A lot.

There were hills involved. Steep hills.

So, I went to my uber amazing coach, and she deduced that I had f#cked up my achilles tendon. As it turns out, something in my leg was messed up and it was causing my ankle to hurt like all hell. When my amazing coach was trying to see what was wrong with me, she kind of had to press on my calves to isolate the tendon.

When she pressed on the calf with the sore ankle: OH MY GOD!!!! THE DEVIL DOESN’T EVEN KNOW WHAT TORTURE IS! THIS IS THE MOST HORRIFIC THING I’VE EVER EXPERIENCED!!

When she pressed on the calf without the sore ankle: Oh, this isn’t so bad…

When she switched back to the calf with the sore ankle: DEAR GOD!!! WHY!!! T_T

So yeah, I had no intention of running the next few races. Because of this, I didn’t qualify to go to the city meet  T_T

This year had a promising start. I ran a race, I was working out, I was getting in shape, and I was ready.

Suddenly, OW!

A few hours before I ran my second race, my foot started hurting. A lot.

Naturally, I started icing it and babying it. After about a week of my foot being in intense agony, I went to my amazing coach. I do believe her exact words were; “If you run on this, you’re screwed.”

Oh, did I mention the bruising? What about the swelling? Yeah, it didn’t take an expert to tell me that my foot was f#cked up.

I went to the doctor’s the following week and got an x-ray. GUESS WHO HAD BEEN WALKING AROUND ON A BROKEN FOOT FOR TWO WEEKS!

XD XD XD   :’(   :’(   :’(   T_T   T_T   T_T   T_T   –__–

^ Story of my life.

So, now I have to wear this black thing on my foot until November. Woo.

Bet you can't guess which one is broken

Seriously, the cast is ridiculous. It’s kind of like; let’s put this thing together with velcro and then velcro on some straps that fasten with velcro. While we’re at it, let’s secure the foot with more velcro straps and put some velcro there just in case the other velcro isn’t velcro-y enough.

Good god, I hate velcro.

I hate it.

Sorry for the insane randomness of this post, but this blog is for me too, bitches.

I was going through some old cheezburger favourites when I discovered these. Since I’m really missing House right now, I decided to post them.

.

YOU FOOLS!!!! It’s never Lupus!!!!! I made a graph explaining the matter!

…Yeah, I really miss House. If my memory serves me correctly, the new season starts in October.

What’s weird is we’re watching The Dead Poet’s Society in English and it stars Robert Sean Leonard (AKA Wilson). Weirder yet, we’re watching this film in history about Woodrow Wilson, and he had this friend…or partner…or something (I don’t really pay attention in history) named House. So you get phrases like “People preferred Wilson over House” and then it’s like my brain divides by zero because I’m like “IT’S LIKE HOUSE EXCEPT NOT AT ALL!!!!”

Suddenly, horoscopes.

According to this I’m a Wilson, though I see myself as a Masters.

What are you guys/do you match your character?

“You’re not a judge but if you’re gonna judge me
Well sentence me to another life.

Don’t wanna hear your sad songs
I don’t wanna feel your pain
When you swear it’s all my fault
‘Cause you know we’re not the same,
Oh we’re not the same
Yeah, the friends who stuck together
We wrote our names in blood
But I guess you can’t accept that the change is good”

-Paramore (‘Ignorance’)

WARNING:

**THIS POST CONTAINS A LOT OF SPOILERS. DO NOT READ IT IF YOU WANT TO READ THE SERIES FIRST**

Okay, I’ve tried to read a couple of manga series, but none of them have really spoke to me. They’re all either too young, too girly, or too violent for my taste*. But Death Note is different; the plot is intense, the characters are interesting, and the drawings are lovely.

The story is unlike any story I’ve ever heard before. First of all, the main character is the bad guy. More interesting yet, he doesn’t start out as the bad guy, but rather becomes a villain over time. One of the ‘good guys’ has the last word in the manga, making his views seem like the ones the author was trying to get across in throughout the entire series. However, the ending forces the reader to consider that this ‘good guy’ was corrupt in some ways. The ‘dumb’, obsessive girl in this series can actually think and plan ahead more efficiently than most people, and the comic relief shows a deeper and edgier side towards the end.

There’s no such thing as black and white.

Because I am a creepy and obsessive person, I have decided to dedicate a really long post to this series. Within this post I want to show you guys the covers (since they give you a minor sense of the story at a glance and you won’t feel obligated to read the whole post and/or series…they’re also pretty), discuss the content and plot line of the series, and talk about all of the really intense and somewhat controversial themes in the manga.

(For the record, I have not watched the anime.)

Covers

Boredom

Confluence

Hard Run

Love

Whiteout

Give-and-Take

Zero

Target

Contact

Deletion

Kindred Spirits

Finis

Love, Zero, and Finis are my favourites (books, not covers).

Content

Okay, this is where some major spoilers are going to come in.

Light Yagami is an extremely intelligent and very popular high school student. His father works with the Japanese police and sometimes Light helps them solve cases (because he’s cool like that).

One day, Light receives an unexpected visit from a Shinigami Death God. The Shinigami, Ryuk, gives Light a Death Note; a notebook that kills any person who’s name is written in it provided that the writer knows what the person looks like. Light decides to use this Death Note to rid the world of evil. The Death Note can control how people die, so Light begins killing convicted criminals using heart attacks, hoping that people will notice the deaths and start treating each other better to avoid being killed.

People do notice that criminals are dropping like flies due to heart attacks. Unfortunately for Light, one of those people happens to be the mysterious L.

I adore whoever made this poster

L is a famous and brilliant detective who is always anonymous; he only speaks to the public through a computer and never shows his face or reveals his name. He has sworn to catch the criminal known as Kira (AKA Light).

L begins working with the Japanese police, despite multiple members quitting for they fear Kira will kill those who gets in his way (he’s done it before). L works closely with Mr. Yagami, and begins to suspect his son, Light, of being Kira.

And so it begins. L and Light are constantly trying to outsmart each other; L wants to prove Light is Kira and Light wants to fool L. Both are surprised when the Kira killings start developing new patterns. That’s when L and Light both realize that there is a second Kira.

Misa Amane (the second Kira) is a young model/actress who worships Kira because he killed the murderer who killed her parents. A female Shinigami named Rem gave Misa a Death Note that a dead Shinigami used to own. Misa also trades half of her life span for the ability to see a person’s name as soon as she sees their face (Shinigami eyes). Once Misa meets Light, she falls in love with him.

But the love is brought to a screeching halt when L finds evidence suggesting that Misa is the second Kira (which helps his theory that Light is the first Kira). When Misa is captured, Light realizes that the only way to prove their innocence is to give up the Death Notes and all of their memories involving the Death Notes. L has both Light and Misa in captivity when they start going insane. After 50 days, they are released since the killings went on even when they were captured.

The reason the killings continued is because Light got Rem to deliver a Death Note to someone else and ask them to kill criminals. Kyosuke Higuchi, who now possesses the Death Note, is a business man, so he also uses the book to kill his competitors.

After Misa and Light are released, L is still skeptical, so he has Light and himself chained together and has constant surveillance on Misa’s room. Since Light has no memories of being Kira, he desperately wants to help L catch the new Kira.

L is upset. He practically has proof the Light is not Kira, but he was so sure of his suspicion that he wanted Light to be Kira. Despite this want, L considers Light to be his one and only friend.

L and Light end up catching Higuchi, and when they take the notebook in for evidence, Light touches it and regains his memories of being Kira. He has Misa touch the notebook. She obeys, regains her memories, and trades half of her remaining life span for the Shinigami eyes. Light asks her to kill L since before they lost their memories she had seen his name, but it was such a long time ago that she forgot.

Light takes advantage of the situation, forcing Misa into a position of danger that tempts Rem (who cares for Misa) to kill L.

The plan succeeds. L dies knowing that his suspicion was correct; Light is Kira.

Years pass, and by this time Light has achieved a high rank in the Kira Investigation Team and has become the new L. The world is beginning to accept Kira and Light is on top of the world…

Sketches of Near and Mello

But Near and Mello won’t have any of that.

Near and Mello were both raised in a centre in the U.S.A. that was created to train people to be the next L. They were the top students at the centre, but Near was always one step ahead of Mello. Mello desperately wants to show Near that he can catch Kira first. To pursue this goal, Mello joins the mafia. Near takes on the role of L’s true heir and starts the Special Provision for Kira (SPK). One of the people in the SPK, Halle Lidner, is passing on information to Mello.

Near and Mello are aware of L’s death and know that the new L is an impostor.

Light is going head to head with Near and is afraid of getting caught, since Near suspects the new L of being Kira and has informed the Kira Investigation Team of his theory. In an attempt to save himself, Light passes on the notebook again. This time, he chooses the person to receive the notebook and he keeps some for himself so he won’t lose his memories. Ryuk gives the Death Note to a Kira worshiper named Teru Mikami.

By sheer luck, Mikami picks Kiyomi Takada as a spokesperson for the now highly worshipped Kira. Takada happens to be an old flame of Light’s.

Light uses Takada, along with Misa and Mikami, to help him kill so he looks as innocent as possible. However, right before Light and Near are about to meet, Misa is kidnapped by Near and Takada is kidnapped by Mello.

Alright, I’ve given you about a million spoilers, but I am not going to tell you how this masterpiece ends.

Controversy

Now, when I say “controversy”, I don’t mean random shiz like abortions and euthanasia. These are some of the topics I found in Death Note that have very specific justice/human rights themes in them.

Unfriendly Competition

I can’t help but wonder if it was right to train people to be the next L. I mean, the world definitely needed one after the original L’s death, but does that justify having kids and young adults compete to be freakishly brilliant?

I’m not sure/can’t remember if the people in training wanted to be there or were forced to be there, all I know is that is was disguised as a regular orphanage. If it was, in fact, a bunch of orphans who were competing against each other, I would call that a little wrong. However, if they were volunteers, I’d say it was a good idea.

Well, there is that one flaw; the competition. The pressure to do well there must be unbearable. Just look at Mello; one of the centre’s best and brightest and what does he do? He joins an illegal organization to ‘win’ against Near. In the end, that did sort of save everyone’s ass, but it could’ve just as easily gone wrong.

Misa’s Confinement 

Misa

Okay, it started out alright but then got sort of freaky.

L takes Misa into custody for he has evidence that she is the second Kira. He traps her in the area seen in the picture above. Her eyes are covered so she can’t see any faces, she’s strapped down and in a straitjacket so she can’t move her arms, her ankles are bound to make it harder to escape, and there are video cameras monitoring her every move. A lot of Kira Investigation Team members thought the set-up was a little harsh, but they didn’t do anything about it.

At first, Misa understands what is going on and knows that she is guilty of murder. Unfortunately, once her memories of the Death Note disappear, so does her understanding of the situation. Since she is an actress, she assumes that she’s been kidnapped by a crazy stalker who’s making a video of her and watching her pee (she mentions it, so I assume they were videotaping her every time she went to the bathroom).

She was held captive like that for 50 days…

THAT IS THE SCARIEST SITUATION YOU COULD EVER BE IN!

What really bothered me was that when Light and his father were confined, they both had nice, cozy cells all for themselves. They both had the luxuries of sight and movement. Then I remembered that the Yagamis volunteered to be confined while Misa had to be forced…but still.

The point is that confining dangerous criminals can be a good thing, but sometimes it can turn into something that seems a bit evil.

Testing the Death Note

At one point or another, pretty much every authority figure that held the Death Note wanted to test it out. There was always someone there to stop them, someone to tell them that any death isn’t justified. That’s when I began to wonder…What if it had been replaced with a regular notebook? 

Gee, that would sure suck if you were planning on trading it for ransom or examining it for evidence.

Although, I do see why many officials wouldn’t want to test it out; it would feel like an abuse of power and it might make them feel as if they’re on Kira’s level. But then someone brought up the fact that they could test in on a death-row inmate, since their fate was inevitable. Again, this is where I felt that testing the notebook would be a good idea. Though, I suppose than any officer with a strong moral compass would still feel that the killing is wrong.

The conclusion to this point is a question: How far should we go to solve a mystery?

Light’s Plan

Ah, yes. We’ve have finally arrived at the most important point.

So, what is justice?

I must admit, I sort of agreed with Light’s ideals in the beginning. I mean, I would have never been able to murder all of those people, but I was impressed that he chose to use the Death Note to make the world a better place instead of just using it to wipe out people that he didn’t like.

But, as time went on, Light was forced to take out innocent people in order to keep killing criminals. As Light killed more and more innocent people, I started to like him less and less. By the beginning of the seventh book I started to see him as a villain, and towards the end of the seventh book I thought he was a psychopath! He ends up using Misa and Takada shamelessly and he doesn’t seem to care when his family’s lives are in danger (not even when his father died did he seem upset about anything other than Mello’s escape).

Ignoring Light’s personal qualities, are his ideals still righteous?

Well, not according to Near. I think one of the most powerful moments in the entire series is when Near says…

“You’re just a murderer, Light Yagami. And this notebook is the deadliest weapon in the history of mankind. If you had been a normal person and had used this notebook once out of curiosity, you would have been surprised and scared of what had happened, regretted what you had done, and never used this notebook again. To speak of extremes, I can actually understand those who would use this notebook for their personal interests and kill a couple of people, and even think that they’re normal. But you yielded to the power of the notebook and the Shinigami and have confused yourself with a god. In the end, you’re nothing more than a crazy serial killer. That’s all you are. Nothing more and nothing less.” **

Wow.

Yeah, that’s kind of how I felt about Light near the end. But I am also haunted by the last page of the entire series.

The final pages depict a group of Kira worshipers, including the one seen in the picture above who says…

 ”Kira is our saviour.”

I guess the message then becomes that there will always be people on both sides of the story, even when the story is over.

(Footnotes)

* For the record, I did not mean to offend anyone’s taste in manga with this sentence. I said that most other manga didn’t match my taste. I didn’t say I had good taste.

** A big thank you to this website for helping me find the exact quote!

Update:

I found this adorable fanart on someone’s DA account. It makes my day!

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