DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

MANGA DramaDEATH NOTE

REVIEWS

• 

  geovannyboss

  50/100
  A disappointing read for fans of the series.

  __Before starting the review of the novel... Spoiler Warning for those who haven't read the novel. __ Hmmm where do I start? There are so many things to talk about. First of all... Let's talk about Mello being the narrator. Unfortunately, him being the narrator did not make any sense nor made the narrating any different. The story told in Another Note takes place in 2002, L dies in 2004. Mello was 15 when L died, and he was still in Wammy's House. So, when did L see Mello and tell him the story about Beyond Birthday and 2 others? It does not make sense. In the book, Mello speaks as if the battle between L and Kira was over. Of course, he might be referring to L being dead. But he made it sound like he was writing all this after everything was over and everyone knew who Kira was. But he did not actually see Kira die. He died 2 days before Kira did. So, when actually did Mello write Another Note? The novel introduces Rue Ryuzaki as a side character. Ryuzaki presents himself as a private detective. Naomi is a bit suspicious of him at first, because he has strange manners (sitting around hugging his legs, eating sweets all the time and crawling around on the floor), but L tells her to work together with him, so she does. The thing is, the reader (as the he is meant to be) immediately assumes that Ryuzaki is L. This makes sense, because not only does L present himself as "Ryuzaki" in Death Note, but the way he acts is also strikingly similar. Of course, the author wants the reader to think that Ryuzaki is L, but Ryuzaki is actually Beyond Birthday, the killer. That would have been a great twist, had it only been logical. But it wasn't. Another Note clearly states that B.B. doesn't know L personnaly. Which means he doesn't know anything about his habits or about what he looks like. So how come he guessed all of it? - doesn't make sense. Also throughout the book Misora and Ryuzaki (I mean B) work together to solve the three crimes B has commited. Most of the time, Misora was led by Ryuzaki to find the answers. Even the smallest stuff, she needed Ryuzaki's help. I was frustrated because that's not the image she represented in the manga. She was originally portrayed as a very clever woman. Her needing Ryuzaki's help in every step she took did not make sense. (I must add that I actually liked the setup of the crimes. I only did not like the way they were solved.) This book could have been good if only the author had at least tried to be logical. I usually overlook that kind of thing, but in this novel, I simply couldn't. Death Note: Another Note was starts promising but end with failure.
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• 

  LlamaLopez

  90/100
  Fast paced, clever murder mystery with great twists & witty dialogue that could never be adapted to a visual medium.

  The 1st half of this review has NO spoilers and is intended for those who have not read the light novel yet.

  (Like the novel, there will be spoilers for the original Death Note manga/anime)

  The 2nd half will be marked as spoilers and is intended for those who have already finished the novel.

  Disclaimer: I’ll refer to this novel as Another Note and the original manga/anime as Death Note.

  ---

  When I was initially reading Another Note, I was wondering why it hadn’t been adapted to an anime yet. After all, I found it to be the perfect addition to the Death Note series.

  

  It manages to perfectly match the fast pacing and smart deductive detective work (try saying that 5 times fast) of the original while also drawing upon various elements of the beloved story. From larger aspects like the titular Los Angeles BB Murder Cases that are referenced in Death Note, to the character of Naomi Misora, to minor characterization of Mello, to small but fun details like showing how L learned the martial arts technique he eventually uses when fighting Light -- it adds to lots of background elements of the original Death Note.

  

  Naomi Misora stands as one of the highlights of the novel. Highly intelligent, harboring some past of her own that the novel alludes to, and just an overall badass, she serves as a great heroine with solid characterization in Another Note. Her interactions with L throughout the story are super fun and entertaining to see. The way they procedurally piece together the clues and close in on the killer is always clever, intricate, unexpected, and yet easy to follow and never drawn out. Plus getting to see Naomi Misora in action for an entire case adds a ton more weight to her death in Death Note.

  

  But to return to my original thought, why hasn’t Another Note been adapted to an anime? It’s perhaps my favorite aspect of the story:
  Narrated by Mello in the form of his notes, the novel takes full advantage of the fact that it’s in a written medium in a way unlike anything I’ve read before. It could never be adapted to a visual medium. (Unfortunately, I can’t really elaborate on this until the spoiler section.)

  The novel draws upon the reader’s knowledge of the original Death Note, provides interesting insight into background elements of the original story, and still manages to function as its own exciting murder mystery. Another Note more than justifies its existence, captures the same feel as its source material, and ultimately fits right into the Death Note series.
  I couldn't recommend Another Note more!

  ---

  SPOILER SECTION:

  Contrary to what others have said, there aren't really any major plot holes. This section is largely intended to clear some misconceptions I've seen.

  Understanding the brilliance of Another Note requires an understanding of its main plot device:
  Mello is an unreliable narrator. This is a narrative technique Another Note's author, Nisioisin, has used elsewhere in Monogatari and Zaregoto. It isn't an entirely alien concept, especially for Nisioisin.
  The audience is not receiving the story as a first-hand telling of the events. Rather, it is being relayed to the reader through Mello in the format of his notes. He says in the first chapter that the most likely person to read the notes will be Near. Ultimately, it can be assumed that the diary in total is somewhat directed towards him. From Mello's characterization in the original story, it's evident that he's extremely cocky, very competitive, and always trying to prove he's better than Near. Another Note is essentially Mello flexing the knowledge he was given from L that Near never received. But he's not just saying he knows more and calling it a day. No, Mello turns it into a sly murder mystery for Near to try and deduce while reading through the notes.

  Beyond Birthday never met L, so how could he adopt his persona and act like him?
  He didn't. But you know who did meet L? The person who's narrating the story. Mello is trying to flex his greater connection with L, their role model, to Near. That is the purpose of Mello describing BB as assuming L's mannerisms (which doubles as a clever trick by the real life author to mislead the reader). In actuality, BB may have been weird in his own way but not as similar to L as Mello describes.

  The state of whether Mello is alive or dead is perhaps the most vague. In the prologue, Mello says he "died like a dog" -- seemingly implying he's already dead at the time of writing Another Note. However, after saying that Near is the most likely to read his notes, he also states, "There's also a chance that Kira might read this... and I hope he does." This would seem to imply that Mello doesn't know Kira's identity (as he never refers to him as Light) nor has Kira been killed at this point. The most logical conclusion would be that he wrote these notes BECAUSE he was expecting to die in his final gambit to catch Kira. By the time anyone reads his notes, Mello expects to have long passed away. As I said before, though, it's open to interpretation.

  Another criticism I've heard is that Ryuzaki leads Naomi through the clues too much and it doesn't feel like she gets to display her own intelligence. I'm not really sure what to say to this other than it's literally the point of the story? BB is always stringing Naomi along because they're HIS clues in the first place. Beyond Birthday tests Naomi and concludes that L has selected a worthy opponent for himself. He's found an opponent intelligent enough for him to lead along as Ryuzaki. It's made clear that Naomi's ability to parse Ryuzaki's hints is extremely impressive. What he didn't expect was for Naomi to figure out that he was Beyond Birthday -- acting as further testament to her intelligence.

  Ultimately, I see Another Note as a surprisingly intricate murder mystery with a brilliant use of an unreliable narrator for its big twist.
  

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• 

  Nosavo

  91/100
  A great addition to the Death Note universe that I prefer in some ways to the original story.

  Death Note another note is a side story Light Novel retelling the events of the Los Angeles BB murders. This story is completely detached from the show aside from sharing characters and certain worldbuilding ideas. The main thing here is that if you love L, than you'll love this story. If you love classic murder mysteries, then you'll love this story. Though for this one, a requirement is watching or reading the original Death Note at least before you start this.

  This story follows the story of Naomi Misora, an FBI agent currently on leave for making a grave mistake. Her punishment is to be completely removed from her job, and this is where L contacts her about a series of murders taking place in Los Angeles. He needs her help, and that is the gist of this story. I don't want to spoil it because despite the short length of this novel, it is a very well written and thoughtfully put together detective mystery story. If you love L as a character and wanted to see more of him being a funny and badass detective, then this story is for you.

  __Now onto my very brief thoughts.__ I'd rather you read the story than a long ass review from me.

  This story is coming from the author of the Monogatari series, and it shows. The dialogue is one of the best things about this Light Novel. The back and forth between Naomi Misora and Ryuzaki are witty, funny, and most importantly, interesting. For a story like this to work, you need both the writing for the mystery to be air tight, and interesting. Mystery stories are not interesting if there are lots of plot holes, and they also aren't interesting if they're boring. There is a balance that needs to be struck to make a story like this work. Thankfully Nisioisn makes it work in spades. This story is probably one of the most interesting things I've ever read from Death Note. I was lost in the well crafted mystery, and it made me love Naomi Misora, a relatively worthless character in the original series.

  

  I'd say that the dialogue in this was better than the anime or the original manga. There is just something to be gained from Death Note being in this style. I'd love to see more Death Note side mysteries written in this light novel format, but I'm getting off point. Essentially this story adds more contextualization to Naomi Misora and L's relationship, and really makes what happens in ep 8 of Death Note that much harder to rewatch. I love Ryuzaki even more after reading this light novel and I think that this is a really solid read. If you love Death Note, I really think you'll love this light novel as well. Very simple, but executed perfectly.

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