Death Note 27/28 - A double dose of suck
In the interest of getting caught up, I’ve opted to make this a double entry. Don’t worry, there was more than enough material to find fault with in each episode. Really they should both probably have had their own, but…I’ve fallen behind and it’s lonely back here.
Remember where we are? At the orphanage. So, Mello and Near fight to the death to decide who will take over as L. Not really, but that would have been awesome. Near plays with his puzzle and Mello has a hissy fit and stomps out. He’s soooo fourteen.
Something that they did very, very poorly in this episode is situating the viewer in time. From the first scene with Mello and Near to the later scenes with Mello’s Merry Gang and Near’s SPK, four years have passed. So now Mello is about 18 and Near is six or seven. That’s a pretty huge jump and it wasn’t set up at all.
Actually, that’s not entirely true. Matsuda changed his hair, Afro-san grew a beard, Light wears a suit now and the little sister is all growed up. That, I guess, is supposed to let us know how much time has passed. But, again, very poorly executed.
The big drama in this episode was the kidnappings. First, the director of the Japanese police, then Light’s all-growed-up sister. The director’s kidnapping was supposed to be a device to show us how smart Near is, but it failed miserably. He sends in one of his agents wearing a wire and when this agent mentioned the Death Note, Yagami-san assumed that he was one of the kidnappers. So he attacked him, raving about the director and kidnapping, etc. And because Near has such massive brain hidden inside his tiny child’s head, he was able to put two and two together and figured out that the director had been kidnapped.
Again, poorly executed. Near, honey, it doesn’t make you look smart to parrot back what someone has already told you. That’s not detective work. That’s listening.
(I hate Near like I hate monkeys. A lot.)
Anyway, other stuff happened, Near sucked it up at darts, and Light’s sister gets snatched. I about fell out of my chair during this part. Whoever draws this stuff must have some serious issues with depth perception. That cellphone is the size of a suitcase!
Again, poorly executed. I’m sensing a theme.
Then Light and Near talk on the phone. Oh, suspense!
In episode 28, Near says he’ll let Light handle the trade of the notebook for the sister. Light gives a moving speech about how his Dad can’t let himself die, blah blah blah, then he decides to invite Misa along. He might have use for her. No, not that kind, the eyes, remember?
This episode is basically Light looking like a stupid douchebag for 20 minutes.
Right away Light’s plan gets messed up and he has a little freak out because it’s impossible for a genius to adapt. Nice. He has to eat shit and ask for help from Near. I bet that hurt. The plane lands in the desert, but luckily only really easy-going passengers are on board and nobody whines about it. Sure.
Then it turns out the criminals are kind of smart, because they figured the cops would be watching them on satellites. They go ino their secret underground lair. Light didn’t expect that, either, and he gets bitchy. But he does yell at Misa a little and I’m a fan of that.
And now the Bad Guys have the Death Note, in a missile or a helicopter. Oh, crap, Light! You didn’t see that one coming, either! Then they lose the signal! What to do, what to do?
Sweat. Grunt. Mope. Abuse Misa. Nice job, Light. Hats off.
This episode’s overbearing metaphor was Near’s dice towers. The dice fall down as the SPK members are killed off one by one, crashing to the floor or exploding off to the side very dramatically.
The episode closes with a conversation between two Shinigami in the Shinigami realm. I think it was supposed to be foreboding and ominous, but it sounded more like:
“I think today I’ll walk in the park.”
“That’s nice, come over for tea later.”
It was fantastically underwhelming.
Maybe it will get better…? Could it get worse?
Next time: some bitches gonna get whacked! I hope one of them is Misa.
