DEATH NOTE / First Impressions

Summary:
In the aftermath of the hijacker’s death, Ray Penbar wants his involvement in all this kept a secret because of his own mission. Fortunately, this works just as Light had planned because he doesn’t want his father or L to know about it either. Ray returns to his hotel room where he tells a woman who used to be an FBI investigator about the incident. She’s worried that it wasn’t just a coincidence, but he doesn’t want her to play the part of the investigator anymore because she’s his fiancée now. Light meanwhile still hasn’t written down Ray’s name in the Death Note because he doesn’t want to arouse suspicion so soon after meeting the agent. For now, he decides to send L another message through a prisoner. L immediately notices that the top line of the new note continues with a sentence about the Shinigami.
It is on December 27th that Light enters a crowded underground shopping area with Ryuk. He’s been conducting some experiments which have taught him that you can write the circumstances and cause of death in the Death Note ahead of time. It will still work when you fill out the name later. As Ryuk is thinking that he didn’t know this, Ray appears, so Light hides himself. Light’s plan starts when he gets behind Ray and introduces himself as Kira. To prove who he is, he kills what seems to be a random employee from a nearby store, though Light later explains that it was a rapist who was never convicted because of insufficient evidence. Light suggests that there’s someone important to Ray that he can take hostage, making Ray think of his fiancée.
After he gives Ray an envelope that contains a transceiver, Light walks off so that he can communicate from a distance. He has Ray get on a train and sit in a seat by the door where he then interrogates Ray about the other FBI agents in Japan. Light has Ray write down all the agents’ names on special sheets of paper, before giving the instructions to leave the envelope with papers and transceiver on the train. As soon as Ray disembarks the train, he gets a heart attack. Ray turns around to see the door closing on Yagami Light, but this realization comes too late. At home, Light inspects those special sheets of paper, which were actually pages of the Death Note. Ray had filled in names into the right slots, but what were hidden from him were the descriptions of death circumstances.
The news of the FBI agents’ deaths soon reaches L, who gets a call from the head of the FBI. They are pulling the plug on their investigation in Japan, and the head also inform Light’s father about it all. Given the lack of trust with L and with the deaths of the FBI agents, the Japanese detectives on the case are getting uneasy about their involvement. Around this time, L is notified of another note that a prisoner left. This time, the hidden message talks about only eating apples. As Light knows, the entire sentence put together is asking if L knows that the Shinigami only eat apples. At home, Light’s father tells his family about his involvement in the dangerous case. His wife and Sayu are very worried for his life, but he vows not to give up on it. Light declares that he’s proud of his father and says that if something were to happen, then he’d personally send Kira to his death.
The next day, after having grieved over his death, Ray’s fiancée interviews the bus driver from the hostage incident. However, the driver doesn’t remember anyone other than Ray, leaving his fiancée little to go on other than her suspicion that Kira was among the bus passengers. Light’s father meanwhile is giving all of his men the option to leave because of the danger of the mission. In the end, only five of them stay – six if he counts himself. L believes that only they have a strong sense of justice, but the men still don’t trust in L. Light’s father suggests that L come to the police headquarters, but L has a different plan. Since he only trusts them, he types them a message on Watari’s computer. In it, he asks them to keep what happens from now on a secret. He is considering meeting them, but he wants them first to go and decide if they can trust him or not.
In their discussion outside the police building, Light’s father suggests that L has been waiting for it to become like this so that he could have a group that he could trust. However, one of the remaining five doesn’t want to work with L and decides to leave. After Light’s father and the other four return to Watari and the computer, L tells them the hotel that he’s at. He wants his hotel room to be their true headquarters, and asks them to come in two groups. From that room, L thinks about how this will be the first time he’s shown himself to people. If Kira finds out, he’ll get closer, which is what L is hoping for. At the same time, Light is thinking about if he had any mistakes with all the moves he’s made these past few days and what he should do next. The real battle begins from this point forward.

Preview:

While on some levels I can understand Light’s idealistic views, every time he kills someone innocent (so to speak), I lose some respect. I don’t think Ray Penbar deserved to die since he was just doing his job, but I guess that job was threatening to Light. You could say that Light’s mind is so warped that he’s willing to kill anyone who stands in his way. For now, it’s now up to Ray’s fiancée Misora Naomi to avenge him.
Next week, they’re finally going to show L’s full face! Ok, so I don’t really care that much since I’ve read the manga, and the anime so far has shown more than enough of him for you to figure out what he generally looks like. It’ll be more interesting to see all of L’s mannerisms animated.

32 Comments

  7. @tensai_otaku

    When in doubt, “Cardiac Arrest of unknown origins”. 😀

    I’ve heard that that’s actually the default “Cause of Death” for an autopsy report, if they can’t figure out what is wrong… (Feel free to double check that, as I have no real basis for this statement, other than *thinking* I heard it on a CSI: episode.)

    otakufan
    Reply

  12. The pace does seem quicker, but the complex story has to fit somehow into 30 something eps, and depending on where it will end, it could get even pacier.
    Usually, 8 volume manga can accomplish 24/26 episodes, but Death Note seems to have more material per volume than a standard manga. weEird

    Ryan A
    Reply

  17. I’m really iffy about continuing this anime. I prefer the manga so much more for its pacing and suspence.
    Or it could also be that the influx of other animes are just kicking my butt (Code Geass, cough).

    emi
    Reply

  18. Well if you have read the manga it really gets boring at parts, I just love the speed of the epsiodes. They do practically nothing in the manga half the time, spouting out ridiculous percentages of “who is” and “who is not” around half the chapters. They will get through the manga in the 30+ episodes because there isnt much content in some of the chapters in the manga.

    N
    Reply

  19. hmm… this episode marks the end of “good guy” Light. Ending evil and creating a utopia is pretty much understandable. Afterall who doesn’t want a world without evil? But now he starts killing so that he can protect himself and that shows that all along Light only cares about himself and nothing of the so called utopia he wants to create. IMO, Ray Pembar and his fiance do not deserve to die.

    Also, right now I am hoping that they animate the entire 12 vols into the anime(so that I can see Light’s downfall) but something tells me that 37 eps will only get us as far as L’s death.

    cyw1988
    Reply

  21. I like Light he’s so cute with his corrupted self…I just seem to like Crazy Idealistic people who go around pretending that there some kinda of god and that they are the only “right person” in the world…that damn Light is so Egocentric, but i guess that’s what makes him such a dumb ass lol how Ironic… I guess all those years of cramming books and being the top student in all of Japan finally got to him lol!!!

    terelildevil
    Reply

  24. OK… Now Light has really spiralled off the deep end. Ray is a law enforcement officer, and the fact that he was willing to try to stop the bus hijacker demonstrates that he does take his job seriously. Light killed off a character who was trying to do good for society. Moreover, he had to choose the sadistic path, and have him unwittingly become an accomplice to his colleague’s murders. I have got to find the manga now and (hopefully) Light will come crashing down. Go L!

    Yuri rocks
    Reply

  27. Anyone considered this angle to add to Raito’s (Light) newfound cruelty? Remember when Ryuku said that the person who uses the Death Note can neither go to Heaven or Hell? Well, in this episode (5), Raito had Penbar use the Death Note.

    It seems, on top of killing off Penbar, Raito also doomed him to never enter Heaven or Hell. (Admittedly, that’s better than entering Hell though)

    A.Y.
    Reply

  28. A.Y.

    That is an interesting thought. So if Penbar’s scribbling the names counts as using it (after all he had no idea what he was doing, and Light filled in everything else, then his soul is doomed to wander for eternity. But then again, shouldn’t he have been able to see Ryuk as well? The bus hijacker merely touched the note and he saw Ryuk. Oh well, I’m hoping that Penbar did not meet that fate. IF so, I could think of someone who he should haunt first.

    My new ideal story arc: The ghosts of all those he killed come back, haunt Light, and then L takes him down.

    Yuri rocks
    Reply

  29. That is an interesting thought. So if Penbar’s scribbling the names counts as using it (after all he had no idea what he was doing, and Light filled in everything else, then his soul is doomed to wander for eternity. But then again, shouldn’t he have been able to see Ryuk as well? The bus hijacker merely touched the note and he saw Ryuk. Oh well, I’m hoping that Penbar did not meet that fate. IF so, I could think of someone who he should haunt first.

    It seems that Ryuku simply did not follow Penbar, or was present near Penbar. Since Penbar used the Death Note, I’d wager that he faces the same fate as Light.

    My new ideal story arc: The ghosts of all those he killed come back, haunt Light, and then L takes him down.

    Too bad there’d be no room for that. The anime’s supposed to stick close to the manga – and it’s only going to be 37 episodes long.

    I’m wondering though – for those that use the Death Note, since they neither enter Heaven nor Hell, do they become Death gods, shinigami, like Ryuku? That’s a notion I’ve been entertaining.

    A.Y.
    Reply

  30. I suppose that since Ray died in this episode it’d be a good time to point out that in the opening, there’s a brief shot of his fiancee Naomi holding his corpse. I don’t know if it’s just me, but the two’s positions looks a lot like Michaelangelo’s Pieta. Which makes sense, given all the Biblical references in the opening.

    IntegratedDataEntity
    Reply

  31. Probably very late of me to say this. I’ve only just started.
    Ray did not touch the paper from the Death Note. It was seperated by the cover Light used so that Ray won’t know what he’s doing.
    Interesting how Light used a series of hidden messages to keep L from noticing his actions to discover Ray. L’s intelligence got the better of him this time…

    regal
    Reply

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