DEATH NOTE / First Impressions

Summary:

Although Misa is happy that Light is going to be her pretend boyfriend, she still asks to see his Shinigami, so Light lets her touch a piece of his Death Note. After meeting Ryuk, Misa then tells Light about how to kill a Shinigami. Since she still has materials to make more videos, Light decides to have Misa send one more where she promises to not talk publicly about Kira anymore, pledges to punish criminals for Kira in the time being, and finally says that she’s willing to share this power with everyone willing to help them. Light wants to use that last part to panic the investigators into thinking that there could be potentially more of their type. In addition, he also makes Misa promise never to say anything about each other or the Death Note if she’s ever captured.

With all these things Light wants her to do, Misa has one condition for him too: one date per week. He tells her that this is impossible because L suspects him of being Kira. Light also just can’t bring her to see L, so he needs to find a way to let her see L’s face. Thus, he’ll need to meet with Misa often, but in order to allay any suspicion, he’ll also need to date other girls. Misa adamantly refuses on this last point and vows to kill any other girls. As a result, Light gets to where he threatens her life since he has both their Death Notes now, but then Rem steps in. The Shinigami won’t let Misa be harmed and promises to kill Light if he tries. Light points out that Rem would die too, but Rem is fine with it. They’re then interrupted by Light’s mother who tells them of how late it is. After leaving Light’s house, Misa is appreciative of Rem, but asks the Shinigami not to actually kill Light.

After Misa is gone, Light takes the time to look her up and finds out that she’s a celebrity because of her modeling work. Instead of worrying about what to do about her though, Light decides to focus on using her to kill L. The next morning, he tells his mother and sister not to tell anyone about Misa since she’s a famous model. At school, he sits next to a beautiful girl he asked out because he’s pursing his strategy of dating other girls despite Misa’s objections. When he gets to the hotel where L is staying later, Light learns that they’ve gotten another videotape from the second Kira that says everything he told Misa to say. However, after watching this video, L feels that the second Kira has already contacted Kira. He noticed that the Second Kira was not talking about meeting Kira anymore, and also that the second Kira was going to punish criminals now as if he or she didn’t think of it before.

Still, L thinks that if the two Kiras met, then the chance that Light is Kira has decreased because Light would have had the second Kira force L to appear on TV. Hearing this, Light decides to tell L that that’s not what he would have done if he were Kira because he knows L’s personality, and L would never show himself on TV. L agrees with this assessment and then says that if Light really is Kira, then he’d feel troubled because Light is his first friend. On the way home, Light thinks to himself that it’s more dangerous to meet Misa now that L figured out that the two Kiras have met. He then gets tackled by Misa who ran into him by chance as she was on her way to see him. After taking her home, Light first confirms that Rem cares about Misa, and then says that if Misa would be happy if he’s happy. Thus, he wants Misa to ask Rem to go kill L and justifies the request by suggesting that their happiness would be threatened if either of them got arrested by L. To Light’s surprise, Rem actually agrees to do it and notes that L is just an inconsequential human to the Shinigami.

Preview:

So, Light can do whatever the heck he wants with Misa, but the one thing he’s not allowed is to see other girls. Misa sure has her priorities straight. Of course, none of this really matters if L is dead and Light didn’t have someone suspecting him. If only it were as simple as using Rem to kill off L, Light would have no trouble manipulating Misa to get rid of all his enemies. Unfortunately for him, L won’t be taken down so easily, as we’ll find out next week.
Animation quality felt like it went down a little this episode when compared with last week. It’s been fairly consistently as of late, but the way the characters – particularly Misa – were drawn this time felt off. It’s not a big deal, though hopefully next week will be a bit better.

29 Comments

  3. Ahhh, I’d forgotten about L saying Light was his first friend. I’m still not sure whether that comment was L playing mind games with Light or not. On the one hand, L probably considers Light to be a rare person who’s actually his intellectual peer (and they even tend to think the same way, aside from their big difference on ideas of ‘justice’ and ‘right’). On the other hand, I don’t think L’s above using almost any possible trick to try and gain an edge on Kira, including telling Light the lie about friendship to test Light’s reaction or to gain a psychological edge.

    Still, such a thing for L to say…. It would really be great if they were on the same side, as they’re both quite impressive.

    GDP
    Reply

  12. “http://www.omni.fullgod.com/image/DEATH%20NOTE/DEATH%20NOTE%20-%2014%20-%20Large%2014.jpg

    Hey, if Code Geass can have Pizza Hut ad placement, why can’t Death Note have Google Image Search ad placement?

    Seriously, when I saw that I thought of KyoAni. I was reminded of the spot-on Windows-pimping of SHnY, most notably in Day of Sagittarius and any time Kyon whipped out the “miruku” folder. I work on computers for a living, so any time I see a good representation of the interface, as opposed to that obviously fake Flash-based take on it that so many cheap commercials do, I get a kick out of it. And Madhouse’s take on http://images.google.co.jp/ even had the “More results from…” links. Slick.

    quigonkenny
    Reply

  18. being that i can speak Japanese, and with the anime now licensed and no one subbing it this is the only way ill know the series… Thanx..
    (its not that im cheap that i cant buy the series but don’t have a credit card and i live in South America :'( )

    sacw
    Reply

  24. I DON’T UNDERSTAND?!
    Why would Rem die? Misa would die if Light were to kill her, so if Rem kills Light, her life force can’t be given to misa since she’s alreaady dead. And it seems to me Rem’s in love with Misa, or is in the very least attached?! but in an earlier episode, Rem said she wouldn’t fall in love with Misa.

    Drumstick
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *