When Gods of Death get bored

Ryuk, a death god has lived so long and life in the dry world of the death gods has become boring. So he drops a death note in the human world. A death note being a notebook, which looks like a normal notebook, but if you write the name of a person in it and picture their face in your mind, the person will die. This book falls onto the human earth and into the hands of genius best student of the year - Yagami Light, son of a police officer. Light decides to cleanse the world of evil and starts to take out numerous criminals by means of the death note. Soon - and totally in line with Lights plans - the world takes notice and the governments make L, the most famous of all investigators look for "Kira" as the killer is named. L is a genius himself, but will a human who does not know of the existence of death gods and their notebooks ever get to the truth of this case? A battle of minds ensues.

Death Note, a manga and later also an anime series made furore. The story is very excitingly told with numerous twists and turns and unexpected events. The art style is excellent, the characters outstanding. And very importantly: Death Note, both the manga and the anime appeal to a wide audience. Even my husband, a man who belittles my interest has shown an interest in Death Note. For everyone who would like a first small visual impression, I found a short AMV at youtube:





I liked the story very well, even if I did not believe it completely without fail. The middle of both the mangas and the anime has a little sag in the story, where I got a bit impatient and wanted the plot to proceed faster and to "get to the point". Still, it overcame that stage and it did get to the point. It was also made in a very appealing way with good graphics.


My favourite Death Note Characters are:


L. Of course. The reasons are simple: He's a mastermind and very cute. He's outstanding and I like his naked feet and crouched way of sitting. And the look of challenge and fun in his eyes.


Mello. This one is more difficult to explain. He's a bit of a villain after all. I liked him because he seemed rebellious and difficult to handle. And because he had the most outstanding fashion sense in the series ... well, maybe after the death gods. Also in the later part of the series Mello has half of his face covered in burn scars. And he's one of those people who look better with scars than without. They add to his character, before the scars he looked like a sulky teen, with the scars he has finally grown into his own role.


Ryuk - the Death God. He's mischievious, selfish and heartless and doesn't bother to hide it. Ryuk is just fun to watch.


Mikami Teru. I know this one is really difficult to explain. Another villain. But I prefer Mikami to Yagami Light, because even if he deceives himself about the means to achieve a better world he just fell for the whole "Kira = God"-thingy. I admire him for his strict, stoical habits and his discipline. And - let's be honest - I thought he was the best looking man in the series.

Hey, most of my favourite characters are baddies!!! Hmh ... I wonder - does that say something about me?

There were also characters I hated. Most of all Amane Misa. I hated her already in the manga for her stupidity and her dumb-is-cute-attitude and her totally misplaced believe in Light. I hated her even more when I saw the anime because she had a horrible high pitched voice that I could not endure for long without getting headaches.

No matter if it is the manga or the anime, Death Note would suit almost anybody with a mind open enough to try something new.

And just to prove my point - of course there is Death Note Doujinshi yaoi, lots of yaoi fanfiction and fanart out there! Check it out:

Cat in the box

I was reading the manga "Extra Heavy Syrup" (see picture) by Ogawa Yayoi lately and it got me interested in the concept of quantum mechanics and the thought experiment of Schrödingers cat. I'm not a scientist and I like to transfer difficult ideas into a context that I can understand. I can not claim to understand quantum mechanics, but I found the idea of it and the experiment of Schrödingers cat fascinating. Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961) was an austrian physicist who apparently had a very lively imagination and a disturbed relationship to cats. In 1935 he came up with the following theoretical experiment: Imagine a closed box in which you put a cat and a canister containing poisonous gas which is triggered by a device with an unstable radioactive nucleus with a 50% chance to decay within one hour. Leave both for said hour. If you think in the lines of the typical human brain you would expect that after that hour the cat is either dead or alive. If you are a follower of quantum mechanics there would be a state/time at which the dead cat and the living cat co-exist. The intent of Schrödinger's modell was to prove the absurdity and/or paradox of quantum mechanics, which was based on the behaviour of atoms and obviously does not easily translate into our every day life.



I like to think of Quantum Mechanics as "anything goes as long as we can't see it". (because "every possibility that is not proven to be wrong must hence be correct" just sounds a bit too wild). Let's say I lock my children into their room and leave the house for an hour for a quiet walk around the romantic November scenery of northern Germany. They could completely destroy their rooms (most likely scenario) or they could sit patiently and wait for me to return. Does that mean in terms of quantum mechanics I have two sets of three children for the time of that walk? Three realistic seeming children who would completely misbehave and go for each others throats and another set of three children who sit quietly to be released from their room possibly while reading Dostojewski? As much as I would like to see that, I know I am stuck with the first set. And of course I know that my ideas are far from Schrödinger's - his idea of the cat being simultanously both alive and dead was referring to the quantum superposition which goes back to the theory that unstable nuclei undergo a in-between state of transition in which they are both decayed and undecayed. It is a theory that does not go down easily in every day reality.
Just imagine my face if I would ever open the door while realitiy is still in quantum mechanical modus and see 6 children sitting in the room - all mine. Or wait - who says that only two possibilities can co-exist. There could be a third set of my children performing open heart-surgery on the goldfish. And a fourth set talking swedish and discussing the best investment strategies and the future of world finances. The more I think about it the less inclined I feel to ever go on a walk all by myself.