badger11’s take on anime

How can you like a show that has a junior employee telling the female lead (and a senior employee) not to change his work, have her be glad not to see her boyfriend because she’s tired and then complains about not having sex for three months? How can you not?

Hatakari Man shows us the life of magazine writer/editor, Matsukata Hirokko (Hiro). Hiro is basically a workaholic, the kind of person who rushes even when she’s not late. A junior writer/editor, Tanaka Kunio doesn’t want her reviewing his work since he knows that its already perfect. In the opening episode, Hiro gets to interview the Foreign Minister about his “celebrity” lifestyle. Instead of the hour that she was promised, she only gets 15 minutes and even that time is cut in half as the Minister is running late (or deliberately blowing her off). The next evening, she’s still at work when she receives a phone call from her boyfriend apologizing for the cancelling their date the other night. She also receives a phone call from a woman who works for the Foreign Minister. She wants to meet with Hiro to talk about the Minister. Hiro thinks that she might be a whistle blower. As she leaves, Kunio makes a comment about work coming before private life. Ignoring him, Hiro meets with the woman who tells Hiro about the Minister misappropriating funds. The next morning, Hiro tells the senior editor and chief editor. They get excited by the scoop. After they approve the new article, Hiro goes into super writer mode where she works three times as fast and is utterly focused on her work.

The next morning Hiro watches a TV news report shows the fallout from Hiro’s article about the Foreign Minister. The woman that Hiro interviewed turns out to be the Minister’s secretary. The minister is shown blaming the secretary. Hiro gets a phone call from someone who threatens her life for “telling lies”. The senior editor takes the phone from and hangs up. He warns her that she could be in trouble from people following her. The chief editor walks in and complains about having to clean up the mess that the article created. On her way home that night, Hiro flashes back to the interview with the secretary. Hiro asked her why she was willing to blow the whistle on the Minister. The secretary points out that Hiro was angry at the shortened time length she was given to interview the minister. The secretary had days like that. As she continues to walk home, Hiro realizes that she’s being followed. She fakes a loud phone call to her boyfriend, Shinji, and runs into her apartment building. As Hiro gets to her apartment, Shinji calls her. She tells asks him to come over because she was followed and is scared. He can’t because he has to leave the city for a business trip. Interestingly enough, Hiro thinks that if she were a man, she’d say the same thing. Later on, Hiro thinks about how scary politics can be and how her article can cause a lot of trouble.

Hiro is arguing with the senior editor because she wants to write an article defending the secretary. The editor points out that its against policy to disclose sources sine Hiro would have to reveal the secretary as the source. They found the possible abuse by the Minster interesting. That’s the only reason why they let her write the article. Hiro calls the secretary, trying to convince her to be named in a follow-up article. The secretary still refuses. She’s allowing herself to be seen as a criminal as a punishment for not stopping the greedy minister earlier. The following day, Hiro is still making her case to write a follow-up article. The senior editor is still adamant about not naming the source as it will damage the magazine’s reputation for protecting informants. The editor asks her if she’s still receiving threats and is she willing to receive more from the second article. The chief editor arrives and gives his approval for her second article. A little while later, Hiro is trouble writing the article. She’s suffering from writer’s block until she realizes that she wrote the article in such a way that didn’t clearly implicate the minister. She kicks into Hatakari Man mode and starts writing.

Overall, I liked this episode. And I can see the potential some pretty interesting office politics and conflicts between Hiro and Kunio. Kuno comes off as a laid back, cocky kind of a guy. I imagine that his writing has to be pretty good for him to tell Hiro not to edit his work. The remaining characters aren’t seen much except for the chief editor who seems to be a gruff stand-up character type, the senior editor who appears to be well-balance and doesn’t raise his voice often. And then there’s another junior editor who’s eager to make her way. She also has tendency to describe everything as a disaster. Hiro was great to watch and I can’t wait to see more. Her eyes still freak me out little, but I think she’s a great characte to follow.

The show starts with Oland waking up in a sleeping bag under a bridge where he apparently sleeps at night. It jumps to Alice waking up in a lush big bed. At breakfast, one of her sisters makes comments about Alice’s uniform being to manly for her. Alice points out that its a military uniform. Her father asks her how long does she intend to play her “army games”. Alice mentions that its family tradition to be in the military. Another sister points out that the war has been over with a for a few years. Alice states that the real struggle is to help the people recover and that its the job of her unit to help bring relief to everyone who needs it. Her father points out that while people are going hungry, she’s been eating well. At the office for her unit, Oreld gets there late, but realizes that Alice is also late. Machs points out the lipstick on his chest. Later, Alice still hasn’t shown up and Oreld points out that she’s rarely late. Stekkin makes a comment comparing Alice to the habitually late Oreld. Alice then enters, out of breath from running from her house to the office. Alice says that commoners don’t have carriages to take them back and forth like she does. When Stekkin offers her a glass of water, Alice hesitates, asking if commoners drink water. Machs and Oreld wonder if anything happened to her. After Alice apologizes to Captain Hunks for being late, he sends her and the team off to repair the Su-13 tunnel in the south.

Travelling by train, Oreld is complaing about rebuilding the tuneel. Machs explains that a rebuilt railroad will bring money back into the empire. Alice agrees and is enthusisatic about having her team work along side the commoners. Just then, her stops growls, causing her to become embarassed and Oland to ask if she’d eaten anything. When the train gets to the tunnel, Alice wants to use the tunneling train to bore directly into the rock that had collapsed into the tunnel. Oland thinks that the tunnel would collapse further if they did. They hear Oreld shouting and turn to see him holding onto a young boy who has stolen some food rations. The boy complains that the military gets to eat well. This hits a nerve with Alice who lets the boy keep the rations in return for taking her to his village. At the village, the boy’s father, the village leader, refuses to help Alice and her team. He explains that when the tunnel collapsed five years earlier, the military hired them to repair it. Instead of being payed for their work, the villagers recevied an exemption from serving in the military. With bad crop harvests and no money, people died. Alice asks him to trust her but he won’t help her repair the tunnel.

Alice decides to go ahead and start the work by herself and orders the rest of the team to help. Oland then comes out with lunch but Alice refuses, ignoring her growling stomach. Alice can’t eat, thinking about people all of the people going hungry while she grew up having food. The same boy, Peter, from before shows up, playing on the tunneling train. Alice explains that it isn’t a tank like he thinks it is. Its a shield train. It was sued to knock down barriers and fences in front of soliders during combat. It’s been modified for drilling the tunnel. Peter apologizes for his father, but Alice understands that he won’t help based on promises. Alice starts working in the tunnel by herself, but since she hasn’t eaten, she collapes and dreams about her grandfather. We see a young Alice asking her grandfather if he feels lonely living in a huge house by himself. He tells her that all nobles are somewhat alone. She wakes up, with Oland sitting next to him. Alice slaps him. When Oland asks why, she admits that she doesn’t know why. She then refuses the dinner that Oland brought. Talking to no one in particular, Oland mentions that the country is wretched, suffering from a disease that he calls “war damage”. Alice compares the people of the country to patients suffering from the disease. She goes on to say that their unit is the doctor, working to cure the country. Oland tells her that the paitents don’t want the doctor to be a friend or to share their suffering. They just want the suffering to end. Alice starts to understand that ignoring meals has no affect on helping the country to recover.

The next morning, Alice and Oland return to the village. Alice drives her dagger into the table causing everyone to think that she’s going to use the threat of violence to get them to help. Alice removes the handle from the dagger, revealing the Emporer’s crest. Alice explains that this isn’t a normal military sword. The crest indicates that she’s the next in line to succeed to the head of the Malvin family, one of the 13 Appointed Families of the empire. She then swears an oath that the villagers will receive the money owed to them for the work they did five years earlier. Orled runs in shouting that Peter drove the Shield train into the tunnel and that it collapsed. Alice and the village leader crawl into the tunnel and find Peter. The tunnel entrance becomes completely sealed, trapping the three of them inside. Alice tells them that her team will get them out. The village leader is amused by her faith in her team. He doesn’t understand why a “well-off” person like her would risk her life. Alice tells him that its because she’s well-off that she risks her life. He then tells her that the tunnel collapsed when the villagers were working on it and that the nobles in charge of the project left without helping. Alice gets a premonition and shoves Peter and his father out of the way as a boulder starts to move. Just when its about to hit Alice, it explodes. Alice then sees a blue light and realizes Oland shot destroyed the boulder with his anti-tank gun. Alice wins the trust of the vilalge leader and the villagers start helping the Pumpkin Scissors team to repair the tunnel along side of the team.

There really isn’t much to say about this episode. It was nice to get some background on Alice. We see that Alice’s father and sisters are typical nobles and that she’s the idealistin the family. We also learn that she will succeed her father as head of the Malvin family. Despite that, it was a predictable episode. And instead Oland shooting tanks, he shoots a boulder. I know this is only the third episode of the show. I don’t know how many episodes the show is scheduled to run for, but I hope a fair amount of them don’t end with Oland using his anti-tank gun and blue lantern to end things. Its not a bad show, but so far, it hasn’t become a great show to enjoy.

Happiness is on my watch list because a high school comedy romance seemed like a nice choice after some summer shows that ate my soul *cough* StrawberryPanic *cough* and dissapointing Fall shows *cough* CodeGeass: LelouchoftheZzzzzz…snort *cough*…huh? Umm, yeah, okay. And besides, with a title of Happiness, how can you not feel …happy. The show opens up with (yet another character named) Haruhi, a magic student at Hogwarts…a school were the magical students are separated from the regular students (Yeah, I know, its not an original joke. But who comes here for the jokes anyway? The bots sure don’t. ) Haruhi is demonstrating her powers in class. After class, she and her friend/rival(?), Anri are walking down a hall, being observed from a window in the regular students building. Watching them walk are Hachi, Jun, and the male lead, Yuumi.

The next Haruhi is buying St. Valentine chocolates to give to Yuumi as its implied that he saved her from bully’s when they were little children with, interestingly enough, magic. Anri is also buying chocolates because she thinks that this is how Haruhi become popular. Hauhi has a stash of St. Valentine’s day chocolates, presumably for Yuumi, that she’s failed to give in the past. Jun is buying also buying chocolates and dragged Yuumi and Hachi along. while their friends are shopping, both Haruhi and Yuumi decide to go outside and wait for them They both come to a park and see some boys bullying a little girl. Yuumi talks to them, but they don’t listen and break the little girl’s box of chocolates. Haruhi uses magic to fix it.

Haruhi and Yuumi are about to talk when Jun and Hachi show up. As Yuumi, Jun, and Hachi are walking away, it gets revealed that Jun, despite looking and sounding like a girl, is actually a guy dressed up as a girl because the clothes fit so well. haruhi goes home, saddened because she still didn’t give Yuumi her box of chocolates as a St. Valentine’s Day gift. The next day, Anri is demanding to know how the chocolates are for. She uses magic spells against Hauhi who dodges the attacks. Anri loses control of the spell and it breaks through a window. At this momemnt, Yuumi, Jun, and Hachi are walking by the building when the magic spell blows up a patch of the ground in front of Yuumi. Harhui runs out to see if he’s okay. As the two groups part, Haruhi manages to give Yuumi her box of chocolates. When Haruhi and Anri get to their dorm, Anri makes a joke about how great things would be if both schools were merged together.

Later that night, Yuumi is watching TV when a news report announces that the magic section of the school has burnt down in a mysterious fire. The next day, the magic school students are transferred to the regular school. As Haruhi and Anri are walking to their new class, Anri denies having anything to do with the fire. When they reach the room, Haruhi sees that Yuumi is in the same class.

Not a bad episode, but nothing really that stays with you. I expect some funny moments from the show. I hope they keep doing the will-they-won’t-they routine. The novelty of Jun, a boy who looks, dresses and sounds like a girl will wear off fast. Its the kind of show that I’d eat popcorn with.

This weeks airing starts with a view of snow falling (wouldn’t be Kanon if there wasn’t snow falling now would it?) outside of a window. A girl’s voice claims that she’s in a dream. In fact, she’s in the same dream with the same scenery again and again. She makes a wish that the next time she opens her eyes, the scenery will be different. After the show’s opening scenes of the Girls of Kanon with slowly moving hair in the wind, we see Yuuichi sleeping in bed. He hears Nayuki’s voice saying “Good Morning. Let’s eat breakfast and go to school”. He soon realizes that her voice is coming from the alarm clock that he borrowed. He then hears loud noise coming from Nayuki’s room. He bangs on her door and then enters. The noise is all of Nayuki’s alarm clocks going off at the same time. Quickly shutting them off, he has to shake Nayuki awake.

At breakfast, Nayuki asks why Yuuichi is eating toast dry, without any jam/jelly on it. He explains that he doesn’t like sweet things like jam. Akiko, Nayuki’s mother, hears this and says that she makes jam that it sweet. Hearing this, Nayuki bolts from the table, saying she has full and has to finish getting ready for school. Bringing out a jar of glowing yellow jam, Akiko spreads some on a piece of toast for Yuuichi. He starts to eat it and has a reaction to it. Asking what kind of jam it is, Akiko says its a secret. Being polite, he says the jam has an original taste to it. Nayuki returns saying its time to go. Akiko asks Yuuichi if he can stop at the store on the way home to buy some ingredients for oden that she wants to make for dinner. As they walk to school, Yuuichi asks Nayuki what kind of did of jam Akiko make. She doesn’t know and warns him to be prepared for the unexpected.

On the way the stop in walking and Nayuki asks if Yuuichi remembers the area of houses that they’re in. He doesn’t and isn’t concerned by not remembering. She encourages him to remember and says that if there is someone out there who wants him to remember, then he should make the effort. Realizing that they’re going to be late on his first day at school, they run, barely making it in time. In the hallway he’s panting for breath and asks her why she isn’t. Nayuki reminds him that she’s the Captain of the track team. After making his introduction to the class, the teacher lets Yuuichi sit next to Nayuki, Kaori and Kitagawa. Nayuki is claearly happy that Yuuichi is in the same class and at the seat next to hers. Kaori tells Yuuichi that his introduction was very normal. Yuuichi responds that if there were any introductions that weren’t normal he’d like to see them.

With school over, Kaori asks Nayuki if she’s got a club meeting. Kitagawa asks Kaori if she wants to go somewhere with him, but she ignores him telling Nayuki that she has a club meeting too. As she leaves, Kitagawa runs after Kaori, telling her that he’ll wait for her. Yuuichi asks Nayuki not to tell anyone that he’s living at her house as it might cause some nasty rumors. She tells him that she’s already told people. She jokingly runs away from him. As she’s running down the stairs, she slips and crashes into Mai and Sayuri, two seniors. Yuuichi tells Nayuki that he’s going to explore the school before going home. Nayuki points out the school is big and cautions him not to get lost. He gets lost. After getting lost and finding the computer lab, library and an art room with a naked male model, Yuuichi runs into Kaori. We here him say that as he turns around, Kaori is standing in front of him. Kaori asks why he’s narrating the scene and it becomes clear that this isn’t his normal internal narration. As they walk through the school, Kaori tells him that she thinks that he’s a spy. Yuuichi tells her that he’s an ordinary transfer student. She points out that he could’ve asked for directions from someone. Yuuichi claims that he’d still get lost because of all of the corners and non descript hallways. Kaori laughs telling him that he’s exactly how Nayuki described. She also tells him that Nayuki looked the happiest that Kaori’s ever seen her when Yuuichi joined the class. As they get to the school gates, Kaori calls him melodramatic and realizes that Kitagawa was waiting for her. She shrugs off that thought and tells Yuuichi good-bye and heads home. Yuuichi tells himself that she’s a very cool girl.

Downtown, Yuuichi is thinking about shopping for the oden ingredients when he hears Ayu’s voice shouting to get out of the way. Turning around, he sees Ayu running right at him. Telling her to move to the side that she hold uses chopsticks with and he’ll jump to the side that uses chopsticks, they’ll both avoid colliding with each other. They both jump to the same side and collide with each other, only Ayu is the one getting knocked to the ground this time. She tells him that she’s left-handed. Getting up, she grabs him and the start running again. Yuuichi realizes that she stole more taiyaki again. They wind up running into a park that niether recognize. Yuucihi complains that all he’s been doing since he came back to the city was running. He asks Ayu why she stole more taiyaki. She tells him that she forgot her purse again and was frightened by the taiyaki seller again. Because she was scared, she ran away with the taiyaki again. As they walk through the park, both are eating the taiyaki. Yuuichi explains that they’ll have to go back to the taiyaki seller and apologize. Again.

They both realize that they’re lost since they were just walking with each other. Yuuichi tells here that since she’s a local and doesn’t know the area, how can she expect him to know the area since he’s just moved back. Ayu recognizes him as the boy that she used to play with when they were little. She tells him that and claims that he moved back, just like he promised. Hearing this, Yuuichi also recognizes Ayu as the little girl he used to play with. Ayu closes her eyes and runs toward Yuuichi who jumps out of the way. Ayu runs smack into a tree. Yuuichi apologizes for jumping out of the way. As Ayu is crying, they hear a shout. Turning around, they see that a younger girl had been knocked down to the ground from the snow that fell from the tree that Ayu ran into. They go over to her and see to if she’s alright. Yuuichi blames the accident on Ayu running into the tree. Ayu blames Yuuichi for jumping out of the way. It was supposed to be a dramatic reunion moment and that she’s not the bad guy that he’s making her out to be. Yuuichi claims that Ayu has scared the girl speechless. He helps her up and starts to help pick up her groceries. He implies that trustworthy. Ayu who reacts to this jab and claims that she’s trustworthy too. Yuichi then says she shouldn’t have stolen the taiyaki.

As the three walk in the park, Ayu notices that the girl bought a lot of groceries. The girl explains that she doesn’t get out much so she buys in bulk. Yuuichi uses this moment as another excuse to tease Ayu about the taiyaki. Ayu thinks that Yuichi is intentionally trying to make her look like a bad guy. Ayu claims that she’s a good girl but Yuuichi stills says that a good girl wouldn’t steal taiyaki. Ayu remembers that Yuuichi was this sarcastic when they were younger. She claims that its destiny that brought them back together and he says its bad luck that chained them together. Ayu asks the girl whayt grade she’s in . She tells them that shes a freshman. Ayu mention that the girl is a year younger than she is. Yuuichi is surprised to hear that Ayu the same age that he is. The group reaches a fork in the path and the girl tells them that her house in down the other path. As she’s leaving, Yuuichi stops her and begs her to tell them how to get out of the park.

After Ayu and Yuichi are out of the park, the pay and apologize to the taiyaki seller, again. After they leave the taiyaki stand, Ayu wants to meet again. Yuuichi agrees. Ayu pinky swear like they used to as a kid. She starts to pull the glove off of her left hand, but stops and pulls off the glove on her right hand instead. After they pinky swear, she runs off. Yuuichi shouts at her, wanting to know how to contact her, but doens’t get an answer. He then walks into the grocery store to go shopping for Akikio’s dinner. As he walks out of the store, a figure in a blanket jumps in front of him. The figure declares that it finally found him and that it’ll never forgive him. It then pulls the blanket off, revealing that its a young girl under the blanket. Yuuichi is surprised by this and says that he doesn’t remember angering causing anyone to have a grudge against him. The girl says she has a grudge against him and takes a swing at him with her fist. She starts hitting Yuuichi, but since her punches are so weak and feeble, they don’t hurt him. Yuuichi sarcastically asks if she can try harder, but she says she’s so hungry that she’s weak. She starts to walk towards him, but trips and collapses to the ground.

I enjoyed this episode, but that’s not really a surprise. There was a lot of humor in this episode starting with Nayuki’s alarms clocks, her reaction to her mother’s jam, Kaori and Yuuichi comments about his class introduction, Kaori nonchalantly blowing off a waiting Kitagawa, and the scenes with Ayu of course. This episode’s given us a questions already. A fe blogs have mentioned that neither Ayu nor the girl they knocked over in the park have were seen at the school. And obviously, the girl who attacked Yuuichi and her grudge are mystireies. But I also noticed that while Ayu said she was left-handed, she used her right hand to pinky swear with Yuuichi. We see her start to pull off the glove on her left hand, but stops and then pulls off her right hand glove. I think that’s the bigger issue and should come into play later in the series.

After deciding not to commit suicide, the off-line group, Yamazaki, and Hitomi’s boyfriend, Jougaskai, are cleaning up after themselves, preparing to return to the mainland. The youngest member of the group makes the comment that he didn’t think that he had any other choices other than suicide. The man who owns the island replies that people with tunnel vision can’t think of any other solutions, even when there is one in front of them.

Satou is sitting by himself when Misaki walks up to him and asks if he’s glad he lived. Satou jumps up and raises his fist. In a flashback, Misaki sees another figure raising its fist, ready to hit her. She falls and curls up, protecting her head. Satou stops and lowers his fist. Satou raises his fist again and she covers herself again and has the same flashback. She mutter “Please stop”. Satou storms off saying that he was more scared than she was.

Everyone gets on the boat and heads off. Once they get off the boat, a man with a flag asks them if they’re the off-line group. Jougaskai explains that he contacted the resort, figuring that everyone would want to relax for a bit. The group excluding Misaki get on the bus. Saotu and the guys are in a hot springs room when a janitor walks in. He asks if they’re the group of fools who tried to kill themselves. To throw away their lives is the mark of a fool. He asks what they would have happened if they actually succeed. He points out that there would be a huge search for them which would involve the local fishermen. their deaths would disrupt the fishermen’ work, the local hotels and inns would have to have to spend time dealing with inquires about the group. And what would happen if their bodies floated ashore onto a beach. Tourists probably would avoid the area. He asks if they understand how many people would have been affected by their deaths. He implies that he was the same sort of fool.

At a group meal, a waitress tells two of the members, the ex-medical student and the teenager, that their families are here. After an emotional reunion, the teenager hands satou a coupon for an on-line video game that he usually plays. He mentions that one of his game friends is also a hikikomori and makes money by trading items that he’s earned in the game for money.

Satou rejoins Hitomi, Jougasaki, and the island owner. Satou were Yamazaki went. Jougasaki tells him that Yamazaki had an appointment. Satou realizes that today’s the last day of the Natsucomi. Satou wonders if Natsucomi is more important than Satou’s life. Jougasaki mentions that Misaki also left. Satou mutters that he doesn’t care about her. Jougasaki and Hitomi offer Satou a ride back to Tokyo, but declines. Hitomi apologizes for bringing him out to the island. Satou passes it off, telling not to worry and to be happy. The island owner offers Satou a ride to the train station. On their way to his car, they see his son. The son tells him that his ex-wife let the son come to see him.

When Satou reaches his apartment, he sees a letter from Misaki stuck in his door. Ignoring the letter, he lies in bed in the darkness. Someone starts ringing his doorbell. Its Yamazaki and he’s back from Natsucomu and he’s drunk. And angry. He’s angry at the the convention attendees, considering them stupid for not willing to buy the trial version of their game, for not recognizing it as a masterpiece, that he couldn’t attend the opening day because he and Misaki were chasing after Satou. He blames Satou. Satou is thinking about Misaki’s letter which he had read earlier. She wrote that she’ll meet him in the park at the usual time. Satou gets up and leaves his apartment.

Satou meets Misaki in the park. Misaki doesn’t look at him, but holds up a copy of the contract. She says that he’s been absent from their meetings for several days and that there’s a penalty fee that he’ll have to pay. She goes on to sasy that she never told Satou were she lived (in the house on a hill where she could see directly into Satou’s apartment). Because of this, she waives the fee. Their counseling sessions will continue and that he has to come. Satou gets angry and as he rips the paper out of her hands he asks her who she is to decide these things. Misaki cowers like she did on the island and starts crying. This causes Satou to pause. As he’s standing there, Misaki tells him that she’s glad he’s back. Satou.

As Satou walks into his apartment, his phone starts ringing. On the phone is his mother and Satou thinks that she sounds depressed. As they’re talking, there are sirens in the background of the phone call.

The show has given very little information about Misaki. We know she lives with her aunt in a mansion on a hill that overlooks Satou’s apartment. We also know that she works part-time in a comic book shop. Other than that, we know nothing. But based on her flashback when Satou went to hit her, she’s been a victim of abuse. My guess is that the figure she saw in the flashbacks were her father.

This has also been a roller-coaster for Satou. He starts out the show to trying to change his hikikiomori lifestyle, he meets his senpai who he has a crush on only to lose her. He finds out that he’s been spied on by Misaki. And now there’s something gone wrong back at his parents’ house. I have to wonder that if he didn’t try to change his life, how things would work out.

Ok, based on the first two episodes of Death Note, I can honestly say, this is a great show. Let’s hope that the rest of the series will be as good. In episode 2, Light’s in school with Ryuk hovering about. Ryuk keeps talking to Light who can’t answer because people would wonder who he’s talking to. Because of the notebook, Light is the only one who can see or hear Ryuk. At home, Light starts writing down the names of criminals, including one who the t.v.names as a suspect in a murder. Ryuk is impressed that Light is working hard in writing names in the Death Note. Light explains that he has a limited amount of time to use the notebook. he has to maintian his high grades, go to school, go to cram school and go to sleep to maintain his health. Light reiterates that he will make the world into a crime-free utopia. His isister knocks on the door, asking for help with her math. Once he lets her in, she sits at his desk where he hid the Death Notebook in a drawer. Ryuk tells Light that if anyone touches the Death Note, they’ll be able to see him. Light is surprised to hear that and wonders why didn’t Ryuk tell him that before.

We cut to an Interpol office where there’s a conference going on about the recent deaths of convicts from heart attacks. One group doesn’t have problem with this while another group considers it murder, even after criminals have been caught and punished. Someone wonder if the should bring in “L” to investigate. A junior Japanese police officer asks his senior partner who L is. The older officer explains that L is Interpol’s secret weapon who only takes on select cases. No one knows who L is or what he looks like. But no matter how hard the case is, L always solves them. Before he can go any further, a mysterious figure appears and tells the officials that L is already investigating. The senior Japanses officer recoginzes the figure as someone named “Watari” who is also unknown and the only person who can contact L. Watari opens a laptop that’s connected to a wall screen. The letter “L” is shown and we hear a digitized voice explains the death of the criminals by Light is mass homicide and needs to be stopped. He asks for the cooperation of all of the police agencies from around the world, especially from the Japanese police. The two police officers from Japan are surprised to hear this and ask why. L believes that the killer or killers are either Japanese nationals or are currently living in Japan. He says that he should be able to provoke the killer(s) into action as a demonstration.

As the conference is going on, Light and Ryuk are in an abandoned building were Light is working with chemicals. Light explains that carrying around the notebook is dangerous, and he might have to kill his family if he’s careless and they disover the notebook. Back in his room, Light shows Ryuk how he’s going to hide the notebook in his drawer. Ryuk is surprised that Light would hide it an easy spot until Light explains some security measure that he’s taken. One of them is a electrical current that will trigger a fire to destroy the notebook if someone doesn’t use the right key to open the drawer. Ryuk tells Light that hiding a Death Note was the biggest problem for other humans who had one. Ryuk cautions Light to be careful, that he could set himself on fire. Light mocks ryuk be saying that Ryuk is saying “strange things”. He goes on to say that merely having and using a Death Note is dangerous. He implies that if he’s caught, a small fire is better than a death sentence that could get.

We see people are talking about the deaths of the criminals, cheering on their killer. They’re calling the killer, “Kira” which sounds like “Killer” according to Light. He’s showing Ryuk websites dedicated to Kira (basically Light). Even though the media doesn’t acknowledge Kira, he’s being talked about all over the world. Light states that people all over the world can feel that someone is judging them. Light expalins who everyone is publicly forced to act the same, say the same things even though they are feeling and thinking different things. Criminals are afraid which delights Light.

A special news broadcast appears on the t.v. Light andRyuk are surprised that its from Interprol. A man with a nameplate of Lind L. Tailor, alias L appears, claiming that he controls all of the world’s police agencies. L addresses a message to Kira/Light,stating that he will be caught. Light goes over the edge and says its impossible for him to be caught. He also know that the police would eventually act. Light scoffs when L calls him evil, calling himself “Justice”, the one who protects the weak and a god of a new world. Anyone who opposes him are the evil ones. He writes L’s full name in the Death Note and waits for him die. He wishes that L was a little more clever so that he could have fun.

In front of everyone watching television, L has a heart attack and dies. Light stands there laughing until the letter “L” appears on the screen and the same digitized voice comes across the t.v. set. The voice on the t.v. claims that he couldn’t believe that Kira/Light could kill someone without being near them.The voice explains that the man who was killed was a criminal already sentenced to die that day and he was the real L still lived. The criminal’s capture hadn’t been announced. Ryuk laughs and tells Light that he’s been set-up. As Light is stunned, L taunts him. It tells Light to kill him if he can. L explains that the broadcast wasn’t world wide. It was just aired locally, in the Kanto region. L now knows that Kira(Light) is in the Kanto region. He started in Japan because of the death of Light’s first victim wasn’t widely reported. L reiterates that Kira (Light) will be caught. Ryuk thinks to himself that he was right, humans are interesting.

This was an episode with nothing but dialog. And it was good. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, based on the first two episodes, I like this show. The moral implications raised by the show of being a vigilante are great. Earlier in the show, Light writes the name of a suspect in the Death Note. The keyword here is suspect. The guy hasn’t been named as a criminal yet. Without any evidence or trial, Light crosses the line from executioner to judge and jury. Imagine if Light was watching the news with the sound off and he sees a police drawing of someone. Its not hard to imagine him deciding that this is a criminal and writing his name in the book. Now imagine if you were watching the same broadcast with the sound on. You hear that the person in the sketch is described as a witness. No suppose this was the only witness to a crime. Who is now dead because Light killed him without investigating further. What would Light’s reaction be? We’ve seen his willingness to kill a, as Light was given to understand, a police official (Lind Tailor). Based on that action, I’d be surprised if Light should any signs of remorse.What if you or I were in Light’s position? How many of us would react the same as Light? Or act differently.

Maybe I’m overreacting, but I want more of this show. And I want it now. I’m impressed with Light’s thoroughness in realizing that eventually the police would start to investgate him. And that he doesn’t flinch about the thought of having to kill someone in his family if they found the notebook.

Or maybe I’m reading way to much into the show.

I’m tempted to buy the manga, but I think I’ll hold off for a while. I’m enjoying watching a show I know nothing about. I just hope the show keeps being as good as the first two episodes.