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Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata – Death Note Black Edition: Volume V | Review

Title: Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata

Author: Death Note: Black Edition Volume VI

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 426

Rating 4/5

I’m almost at the end now, and I’m pleased to report that it’s picked back up a little bit and I enjoyed this one more than the last. It’s still not quite as good as it was when it first started out, but it’s still good enough and it’s definitely worth reading, especially if you’ve made it this far.

I think part of the reason that I enjoyed this was that you could tell that we were getting near the end game and so the stakes felt a little higher. The authors have also shown by this point that they don’t mind killing major characters when it serves the story, which leaves you as the reader feeling like pretty much anything could happen.

Other than that, I’m not too sure what else I can say that I haven’t said in previous reviews. As always, the artwork is gorgeous, so big props to Takeshi Obata for that. Tsugumi Ohba does a great job with the story, too. He’s clearly a master storyteller, and it’s impressive how much he manages to convey through just dialogue and the image briefs that he gives to his illustrator.

If you’re thinking about reading Death Note, I’d definitely recommend picking up the Black Edition books. They’re not super expensive (I think I paid around £30 for all six of them), and they’re beautiful little artefacts in their own right. They’ll look great on your shelves, but they also look great in your hands and the quality of the print is good enough to highlight all of the details from the original comics.

The only thing that I will say is that when I first started reading the series, I didn’t know who I wanted to win because I liked both sides. Now, though, I don’t know who I want to win because I don’t really care for either side, which is probably a bad sign. I’m just not as invested in the series as I was when I first started out, and I can’t tell whether that’s because of the story or just that I’m flagging.

Click here to buy Death Note Black Edition: Volume V.

Tsugumi Ohbi and Takeshi Obata – Death Note: Black Edition Volume VI | Review

Title: Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata

Author: Death Note: Black Edition Volume VI

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 426

Rating 4/5

Well, the adventure has come to an end, and while there was a little bit of a bounce back up in quality here, it just wasn’t quite as good as the first couple of installments in the series. Still, it was good to see the denouement of the story and to have it all come to an end, and I have to admit that it was kind of satisfying, even though it turns out that I already knew how it was going to end from somewhere. I think I watched it in one of the Japanese movies back in the day.

For my first introduction to manga, I don’t have much to complain about here. The writing and the artwork were excellent throughout, even though the quality did start to dip here and there after a while. Kudos to the authors for resisting the temptation to keep on milking the story and dragging it out to make more money. They could have done that, and it would have ruined it.

Looking around online, it seems as though a lot of people were disappointed with the series after a major character death towards the middle, and I can totally see why. That doesn’t mean that it’s no longer worth reading, though. You just might want to take your time after the first half, instead of forcing yourself to finish it, which is what I did. That probably didn’t help, either.

But you have to hand it to the Death Note series: they came up with a fascinating concept and they executed it in such a way that they could keep on planning in as many twists and turns as they wanted to. It never felt as though the story was slowing down, even though there were bits of it where I wasn’t as engaged. Stuff was still happening, I just didn’t care too much.

And then we get to the end of this volume, where everything all kicks off and gets tied together. I’m not sure if it’d be less predictable if you hadn’t had any previous experience with the series, but really there was only one way it could have ended, and that’s what happened. I liked it though, because it worked. It also had just the tiniest bit of ambiguity– not enough for it to be annoying, but enough to make you think.