Tag: Prison Break

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

April 13, 2019
Authors K-O (By Surname)Fiction

Title: Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata

Author: Death Note: Black Edition Volume IV

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 417

Rating 3.5/5

 

 

I am still enjoying this series, but it’s starting to get samey by this point – and dare I say it, predictable? I don’t know, it’s just starting to feel a little bit as though the authors are trying to make it more complex at the expense of the actual story. Plus there was a character death that kind of bummed me out, although I kind of knew it was coming. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they turn out to not be dead.

I’ve compared Death Note to Prison Break in previous reviews, partly because each of these Black Edition bind-ups feels like a season of a TV show and partly because each individual issue ends up on a cliff hanger. It works, at least for a while, but at this point of the series the formula is starting to feel a little thin and I was kind of hoping for some extra innovation.

Still, I’m still enjoying reading through each of the different books in the series, it’s just that they went good, great, pretty good and then okay. That doesn’t fill me with much hope for the last two books in the series, but hey ho. I’m invested enough at this point that I want to see it through, and I also have a feeling that I’ve predicted a few of the twists and turns that the story is going to take.

 

 

I think another of the reasons why I gave this a 3.5/5 instead of a 4/5 or even a 4.5/5 is the fact that it’s getting hard to track who each of the death notes has belonged to. That then had the knock-on effect of making it difficult to theorise about what might happen next because there were too many different threads going on. But at the same time, I can see why that might appeal to some people.

All in all though, the series is pretty good and even though this isn’t the best installment, it’s worth reading and continuing on. There are only two more Black Editions to go now, and I will admit that I’m curious to see how it will end. I just think that at this rate, when I look back at it, it’ll be the first couple of editions that I think of. So yeah.

 

 

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

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

April 7, 2019
Authors K-O (By Surname)Fiction

Title: Death Note: Black Edition Volume III

Author: Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 416

Rating 4.5/5

 

 

After rating two installments in this series in a row a 4.5/5, I was kind of hoping for a 5* read with this one. Unfortunately, it went the other way, but that might just be because I’d read two of these back to back. It could also be because this is towards the middle of the series and so it could have the manga equivalent of middle book syndrome.

Still, it was an excellent read and I’m definitely enjoying the series, and I can’t wait to keep on reading and to finish off the second half. I’ll also be interested to see how the events at the end of this are resolved, as well as a few other story lines that have been ongoing. Death Note does that well – I’ve said before that it reminds me of Prison Break, in that each issue ends with some sort of cliff-hanger that keeps you going and that there are constant call backs to things that happened earlier.

It leaves you, as the reader, with the feeling that everything has been thought of beforehand. In the same way that the A Song of Ice and Fire books only work because stuff that was mentioned in one book is referred back to many books later, Death Note leaves you with that feeling of a master planner at work. It’s beautiful, like a painting or a tapestry.

 

 

What’s interesting about this part of the story is that the nature of it changes slightly. We still have the concept of Kira killing people by writing their names in a notebook, only it’s a different Kira and with a different motive. It almost becomes a tale of corporate crime, and while that might not be for everyone, I thought it worked pretty well and I enjoyed it.

All in all, so far the series has been so good that even if takes a dip in quality from here on out, it almost doesn’t matter. I’ll still recommend it no matter what, and I’d recommend this book no matter what too. Just make sure that you read them in order, because this isn’t the kind of series that you can dip in and out of as standalones. The good news is that you can get a pretty cool box set that brings them together.

 

 

Click here to Death Note: Black Edition Volume III.