Completely bored with his everyday life. Straight A high school student Light Yagumi is about to experience excitement he has never dreamed of. After class, Light comes upon a black book lying on the ground titled Death Note. The user instructions describe if a persons name is written in the book, then that person would die from a heart attack in a certain amount of time.
After testing the book on an armed man during a hostage situation. Light learns that the book is far from a hoax. Now with the new power that was given to him. Light embarks on his one man quest to change the world. His plan is to rid society of all criminals, and make himself the God of the new world.
Previous Volume:
Death Note Volume 1: Boredom
Death Note Volume 2: Confluence
Light continues his "cleansing" by ridding the world of criminals, and his actions have earned him the name of "Kira"(translated to killer), which was given to him by the media. After dispatching many criminals in the Kanto region. The super detective named L, tricked Kira into giving up his location. The FBI have become involved in the investigation, and Light is now being shadowed by an agent.
After learning the identity of his pursuer, Light devised a plan to fight back. Meanwhile, after suffering a severe setback, L is forced to reveal himself to select members of the Japanese Task Force, which is led by Light's father Soichiro Yagami. Together, they devise a plan to learn Kira's identity in an attempt to bring him to justice.-summary
Death Note is a Japanese Manga written by Tsugumi Ohba, with the artwork being delivered by Takeshi Obata. The first volume introduced the main players Light Yagumi and L, along with their purposes to the story. This chapter begins to truly set the stage for the ultimate cat and mouse game. Light and L both realize what's at stake here, and the slightest slip up will cost the loser his life.
The writing in this volume continues to excel, by delivering an ample amount of character and plot development. The series also continues to further play on human emotion. Light's character only continues to evolve, and proves he's willing to go through any lengths to see his dream realized. Even though his purpose is to rid the world of criminals, which indeed appears to be a noble cause. Light has made it no secret that he's willing to eliminate all obstacles in his way, and he soon learns how to better use the Death Note, with his purpose being to properly battle his enemies.
The storytelling does a great job analyzing mans will to survive. Light managed to completely damage the morale of the police department, by proving that a majority of officers sense of justice wasn't as strong as their will to live. These are basic human instincts that I'm sure anyone who values their life can relate to, and the series speaks at a high volume on what one highly skilled and motivated individual, who is also very well hidden in the shadows is capable of accomplishing. This actually reminded me of the sniper scene in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, when only one person was able to keep an entire platoon under constant pressure. Light's tactics can even be compared with terrorism, and although the story itself is fictional, the concept is very real, such as being able to manipulate peoples actions through fear.
The story is very engaging and just plain gripping. The suspense factor can be very high. It's very possible that the reader could be tempted to skip through pages. The writing at times is that good. One chapter that truly stands out, is when one person actually figures out exactly how Kira can kill, which could very well lead to his defeat.
Lights character could never be fully developed without L. L quickly proves that he is a worthy antagonist, by utilizing superior guesswork to understand Light's personality. When the focus shifts on either of these two. None of the pacing is lost, and the suspense only continued to build for me. There was never a boring moment.
The artwork is still pretty good, although some character designs could have been better. Several weren't done with the same meticulous effort. However, the facial expressions in the artwork sometimes tells the story that is taking place at the time. One plot element that takes place, can easily be assumed to be a plot hole, unless the reader doesn't pay close attention to one facial expression. Characters dialogue are still distinguishable, this is due to the near perfect reading format of the word bubbles. I didn't have any problems keeping track with who was speaking.
The series continues to move in the right direction with good momentum. This volume is a very good follow up, but ends on a cliffhanger that requires the next volume to be picked up immediately. The book is 197 pages and is broken down into 9 chapters:
Chapter 8:Woman
Chapter 9:Slots
Chapter 10:Confluence
Chapter 11:One
Chapter 12:God
Chapter 13:Countdown
Chapter 14:Temptation
Chapter 15:Phone Call
Chapter 16:Handstand
Pros:
-Suspense continues to build, more character development
Cons:
-Can make you want to skip pages
