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Death Note: Another Note- Los Angeles BB Murder Cases


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ANBUx3



Joined: 13 Oct 2006
Posts: 187
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 12:16 pm Reply with quote
So, I just finished reading it, and was a little disappointed. I feel that NISIOISIN really didn't connect with what the Death Note manga had already established.

I thought that a human being born with spoiler[shinigami eyes] was too ridiculous. Seriously, spoiler[a shinigami dropped its eyeballs into the human world?]

And the whole thing being narrated by Mello, who is spoiler[already dead], just seems like a random tack-on to include the character.

It probably would've been more believable for Naomi Misora to narrate. And on the subject of Naomi, she's pretty much led by the hand to figure out all the clues left by the murderer. She's a top FBI agent, but she has to be spoon-fed clues?

Not to mention that the author didn't bother to research foreign names. Backyard Bottomslash? Believe Bridesmaid? I half expected someone named 'Krispy Kreme' to pop up. The crazy names really hurt the suspension of disbelief needed to take the book seriously.

The best thing about this book is that it looks really, really nice. I love the cover, and the interior illustrations are cool.

I feel this is not on the same quality level as the manga. I'd had some hopes for it, but it fell flat. It didn't add anything to Naomi's character, or L's, or Mello's. It didn't offer new insight to the world of Death Note, I felt it actually muddled it.

So, I'd like to hear what you guys thought of it.
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Rika-chama



Joined: 19 Feb 2008
Posts: 87
PostPosted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 8:20 pm Reply with quote
I haven't read it but thanks to your review now I won't. The whole plot sounds kinda...stupid to me Confused
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Oronae



Joined: 05 Oct 2006
Posts: 165
PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 10:46 am Reply with quote
I felt the novel was weak. spoiler[The use of Shinigami eyes didn't really serve any purpose since BB, by virtue of being Ryuzaki, already knows Naomi's real name in the final confrontation and shouldn't have even been brought up since Mello couldn't have known BB had them.] Also spoiler[I felt that L's appearance at the end was stupid and pointless.]

That isn't to say the novel was a complete waste of time. I did enjoy reading it. The interaction between Naomi and Rue Ryuzaki was interesting.
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Faiga_Raisa



Joined: 24 Feb 2008
Posts: 283
PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:40 am Reply with quote
I have to agree with ANBUx3. It was a really shallow novel with spoon feeding and ridiculous names (who would ever name their kid Blues-harp Babysplit, it even has a hyphen in it!). I did enjoy the conclusion where spoiler[ we thought that Ryuzaki was L but it was B.B. and she put him under arrest when he was the last victim. ] That just took me by surprise but that also made me think that spoiler[ the L we know and love actually just took the image that B.B. was playing, hence the reason L asked Misora if he [Ryuzaki/B.B. was "cool" ]. That also makes the very first color picture in the book make sense (the one after the wax paper).

On page 170, it talks about the other 2 cases L had such as the Bio-terror base with the 3 great detectives and X and Z as well; the meeting of Watari and L 8 years prior with the Winchester Mad Bombings after WWIII that established L as L. Does that mean there will be 2 other light novels released? One for each case. I would really enjoy seeing L as a kid. Since L died in 2004, that makes him 25. The B.B. murder case was solved in 2002, so he would have been 23. Minus 8 years to meeting Watari so he would have been 15. That would be soooooooooo weird, what the crap happened?

Also, I wanted to add something stupid. On page 50, line 3, there's a spelling error. There needs to be a "y" attached to end of "Ever" and the space between the "i" and "b" in "fi ber" needs to be closed.
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someone00



Joined: 06 Mar 2008
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 4:33 am Reply with quote
Neutral hmm i would have to say i disagree with you on that this is quite a good book (for a spinoff novel) the names were indeed silly but the book it's self was as i said good ...the whole fact that misora had to be "spoon fed" the umm clues n stuff was key tp the story it's self as it said that if she was not guided she would have figured it out herself (whitch would have been bad ..i wont go into that no spoilers 4 u ) umm hmm all that being said the end was truely a great twist that will make you wonder how you could actualy have thought what you did (or didint) think ...hmm well i cant say my one positive opinion on the book is better than all your 2and a half negitive opinions on the book i must however say that you could possibly be better off just getting the book and seeing how good (or bad) it was for yerself ...well ......cya enjoy reading it if ya do
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Jobs248



Joined: 08 Mar 2008
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 12:56 am Reply with quote
Faiga_Raisa wrote:
I have to agree with ANBUx3. It was a really shallow novel with spoon feeding and ridiculous names (who would ever name their kid Blues-harp Babysplit, it even has a hyphen in it!). I did enjoy the conclusion where spoiler[ we thought that Ryuzaki was L but it was B.B. and she put him under arrest when he was the last victim. ] That just took me by surprise but that also made me think that spoiler[ the L we know and love actually just took the image that B.B. was playing, hence the reason L asked Misora if he [Ryuzaki/B.B. was "cool" ]. That also makes the very first color picture in the book make sense (the one after the wax paper).


No, it says in the novel that B wanted to be like L. That's obvious from the fact that L was the original, and B was constantly trying to surpass the original. So B was the one copying the look from L, not the other way around.
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chibizisa



Joined: 25 Mar 2008
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:26 pm Reply with quote
I just finished the book yesterday and I really enjoyed it. I'm going to go buy my own copy soon (I borrowed my best friend's book, so I can't double check to make sure I have all the details correct). Now here are my thoughts. The novel is a spin-off of the series so of course there are going to be some points that are iffy, but it still fits with the theme of Death Note. Having Mello as the narrator served as a sort of medium. spoiler[ B was supposed to be one of L's successors, by having Mello--another successor,one that actually had a legitimate chance of surpassing L without losing his mind too much--narrating the book was able to give a different POV and gave some insight on Wammy's House and, indirectly, L. ] Misora while brilliant at her line of work, didn't know anything about Wammy's House or the true nature of the case. spoiler[She couldn't have understood what was really going on and she was dead when this was written (according to the prologue). Mello said that he was writing to Kira meaning that the novel was written after Mello was involved in the Kira case (sometime during manga 7 and after episode 23 of the anime, i think i really don't want to go check) so Misora is already dead as well as L.] Mello is the best choice for narrator because he has had direct contact with L, while Misora never believed that she had. Now i have to admit that the ending scene was rather pointless, BUT it was needed so that there wasn't a contradiction between what actually happened and what was implied in the prologue (and at other points throughout the novel). spoiler[ In the prologue it had said that the case was important because it was the first time that L used the alias 'Ryuzaki' that was said for two purposes. One was so that readers (especially those that were intimately familiar with its characters) would instantly assume that Rue Ryuzaki was L. And two because it had been implied that Misora had met L before, even if she had died believing that she never had (again to make readers think that Ryuzaki is L. ] Also the book isn't made to clear up anything in Death Note. Nothing about the series is supposed to make it easier to understand; it is entirely about questions of morality and society. The book brings about more questions because all the series does is open up a can of worms. 'Is it alright to kill if the person is a criminal?'; 'If I do kill someone that is a criminal, am I a criminal or am I doing what is right?'; 'Who decides who is a criminal and who isn't?'; etc. Questions like that are the basis of series. The book does give insight on the characters that are in it though. Mello is understood better because of the struggle of his predecessor, L is proven as maybe not being perfect (and he showed a little emotion of some kind), and Misora is given more screen time. spoiler[ (I'm really not sure if this is really a spoiler, but the authors of Death Note loved having Misora as a cool female character, but they had to kill her off because she was too smart and if she had contacted L then the case would have progressed faster and Light probably would have been caught by book 4 (i'm not even gonna try to estimate for the anime).] This novel leaves so many open ended questions, but that's why I liked it. I felt that I understood the series so much better, but at the same time was totally confused and I loved it. But I do have to say that spoiler[ the shinigami eyes thing was a bit odd. ] I understood the need to have it to explain how B's mind worked but really, it was stupid. spoiler[ It did bring up questions like, did B really kill because not only were those people going to die at that day and time anyway, but there was no sign of struggle. A major theme is the book was the fact that humans are hard to kill (B's attempted suicide) so it shouldn't have been as easy for him to kill those people as it was portrayed (but the start of the book clearly stated that B definately killed Bottomslash).] Something to think about. But back to the eyes, I just think that was ridiculous. And I'm assuming the only reason they were mentioned was becaue spoiler[ B confessed that he had them when he was locked up] but because of his personality, I highly doubt it. I think I have written a bit too much at this point, so I'm going to stop. These are some of my thoughts on the book, I hope you found them informative (and for an FYI that would explain some of my thought processes, I'm studying to be a psychiatrist so I enjoy reading about and analyzing the human mind). And yes I truly, without a doubt, believe that the names of the victims were all stupid. Even I wouldn't name my kid any of those and I plan on name one of my kids 'Anonymous.'
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stuckinfresno



Joined: 21 Aug 2007
Posts: 223
Location: Fresno, CA
PostPosted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 11:46 am Reply with quote
Well just to throw out my opinion...

The novel falls into the catagory of interesting, but not fantastic. In fact I would have rather had a story about the other cases our narrator mentioned. The other L stories (especially the mention of L's battle to overtake the other top detectives) sounded even more interesting. spoiler[Also, in this novel, it felt like the shinigami issue was forced with the eye thing. An interesting idea, but implausible. Perhaps, the biggest problem with it is that L was surprised that a thing like a shinigami could exist. (He fell out of a chair!) If he knew that shinigami eyes existed wouldn't the Kira gone completely differently?]

That said I did like the choice of narrator spoiler[Mello]. It fit because there is no way L would have written anything about himself.

Next, the names were terrible. Horrible to a point I at first didn't believe that they were names. Since this one was already thrown out Backyard Bottomslash! I mean come on! How about Betty Brown? It's boring, but its a real name. spoiler[Admittedly, the QQ name would have been hard. I can't think of anything right now.]

Since I'm not sure: spoiler[The L moment at the end was good. It established when he began to use the alias Ryuzaki. Also, it was a total L moment. Just like all of his other weird moments with Light or Misa, it fit his curious personality. I really could see him jumping Misora just to see her "moves". Don't ask me to spell the name of the South American martial arts school starts with c followed by a string of letters I can't remember.]

Next to Faiga_Raisa. I noticed the "fi ber" typo too. (Some how missed the other one or forgot it.) It's annoying. After all books have copy editors for a reason. They are supposed to catch those mistakes. Granted its not a big deal but for a retail price of $17.99, I would have expect more.

All in all, I did enjoy the novel. It was entertaining despite some flaws. I would L fans would like it simply to read more about L. I don't know if more light novels are written, but I would like some of the other stories mentioned to printed. I would have liked a novel with L just being L in a normal criminal case spoiler[no shinigami required].
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VincentOMoh



Joined: 16 Apr 2008
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 1:07 pm Reply with quote
ANBUx3 wrote:

Not to mention that the author didn't bother to research foreign names. Backyard Bottomslash? Believe Bridesmaid? I half expected someone named 'Krispy Kreme' to pop up. The crazy names really hurt the suspension of disbelief needed to take the book seriously.


Actually, NisiOIsin is known for using strange names - Many of the names of Japanese characters in his stories are deliberately odd.
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Aofie Nightshade



Joined: 27 Jan 2008
Posts: 5
Location: Wisconsin
PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 10:07 pm Reply with quote
VincentOMoh wrote:
ANBUx3 wrote:

Not to mention that the author didn't bother to research foreign names. Backyard Bottomslash? Believe Bridesmaid? I half expected someone named 'Krispy Kreme' to pop up. The crazy names really hurt the suspension of disbelief needed to take the book seriously.


Actually, NisiOIsin is known for using strange names - Many of the names of Japanese characters in his stories are deliberately odd.


Really? I'm actually am in the middle of reading it. But so far I think the book is really intresting. Expecially with the crossword puzzle. Well this is the very first book i picked up by NisiOIsin. I do agree the victums' names are quite odd. But other than that I really like the book. Very Happy
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ANBUx3



Joined: 13 Oct 2006
Posts: 187
PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:11 pm Reply with quote
VincentOMoh wrote:

Actually, NisiOIsin is known for using strange names - Many of the names of Japanese characters in his stories are deliberately odd.


I didn't know that! I suppose that makes it a little less strange...

Still can't help being bothered by it, though.
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LXMelloXNearXMat



Joined: 31 May 2008
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Sat May 31, 2008 7:36 pm Reply with quote
Aofie Nightshade wrote:
VincentOMoh wrote:
ANBUx3 wrote:

Not to mention that the author didn't bother to research foreign names. Backyard Bottomslash? Believe Bridesmaid? I half expected someone named 'Krispy Kreme' to pop up. The crazy names really hurt the suspension of disbelief needed to take the book seriously.


Actually, NisiOIsin is known for using strange names - Many of the names of Japanese characters in his stories are deliberately odd.


Really? I'm actually am in the middle of reading it. But so far I think the book is really intresting. Expecially with the crossword puzzle. Well this is the very first book i picked up by NisiOIsin. I do agree the victums' names are quite odd. But other than that I really like the book. Very Happy
does anybody know a site on the internet where i can read this book for free? i've been looking for a long time, and i don't care how bad it is, i just want to read every death note copyright thing there is, and death note related (i can't accept L's death until then)
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stuckinfresno



Joined: 21 Aug 2007
Posts: 223
Location: Fresno, CA
PostPosted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 10:15 am Reply with quote
LXMelloXNearXMat wrote:
does anybody know a site on the internet where i can read this book for free? i've been looking for a long time, and i don't care how bad it is, i just want to read every death note copyright thing there is, and death note related (i can't accept L's death until then)


My suggestion is to buy it. Yes it is a little pricy because it is hardbound, but if you love Death Note then it is worth actually purchasing it. Moreover, any site that anyone might suggest would be illegal because there is a copyright on the text. (And ANN edits those posts for good cause) As my previous post states (if you read through the spoliers or not), there are plot holes but the book is still enjoyable - even more so now that I know the name thing was intentional. Plus you get more info on L and that's always a good thing.

All in all search the internet places like Amazon or Overstock are always discounting their stuff. Also check your brick and mortar books stores, you never know when a hardbound gets placed on sale.
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LXMelloXNearXMat



Joined: 31 May 2008
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:11 am Reply with quote
[quote="stuckinfresno"]
LXMelloXNearXMat wrote:
does anybody know a site on the internet where i can read this book for free? i've been looking for a long time, and i don't care how bad it is, i just want to read every death note copyright thing there is, and death note related (i can't accept L's death until then)


[quote]My suggestion is to buy it. Yes it is a little pricy because it is hardbound, but if you love Death Note then it is worth actually purchasing it. Moreover, any site that anyone might suggest would be illegal because there is a copyright on the text. (And ANN edits those posts for good cause) As my previous post states (if you read through the spoliers or not), there are plot holes but the book is still enjoyable - even more so now that I know the name thing was intentional. Plus you get more info on L and that's always a good thing. [quote]

ok then, i'll see if barnes and nobles have it, then borders. if they don't have it, i'll just look on ebay. thanks for the illegal part by the way. Anime catgrin
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Stefnick



Joined: 26 Mar 2005
Posts: 48
PostPosted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 7:26 pm Reply with quote
In my opinion I thought the novel was really good and capture the spirit of Death Note. There was a few things that bothered me, like spoiler[B being born with the shingami eyes] and the names of the victims (although I shouldn't be surpise by the off names), which I believe was intentional by the creator, and I also remember reading a interveiw with the manga creators and the stated that they want to give their characters names that no one would have in real life. But over all I found it good, it was fun to read, but I times I wish that the novel was in manga form. I found it interesting the way the novel would refer to things that happen in the manga setting that will take place 2 year later. And the fact that spoiler[Mello narrates] it makes me love his character more. Some stuff I saw coming and some I didn't. The way that the story is written is unique one way or another. Although the setup of the novel is that the character realize something first and then Mello explain to you what just happen and how the got to their realization, is both awesome and annoying. I overall likes the writter style and hopes he makes novels for the spoiler[other two stories that L told Mello]. I don't know why but the fact that the book was hardcover and had a string book mark made me happy. I recommend this book to all fans of the manga series Death Note
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