Misa Amane (Erika Toda) finds herself with a new Death Note. Photo courtesy of VIZ Pictures

by SHINTARO TANAKA
Hokubei Mainichi

The popular Japanese manga series “Death Note” was made into a movie, the story in the first half being shown throughout the U.S. in May.

Now the sequel, “Death Note II: The Last Name,” will be showing at over 400 theaters throughout the nation on Oct. 15 and 16.

The “Death Note” series is a story that revolves around the notebook of a god of death, a shinigami. If a person’s name is written in the notebook, that person dies.

One of the main characters is Light Yagami, a brilliant university student who receives the Death Note from a shinigami. He comes to be known as Kira, and using the notebook and his incredible intelligence, sets out to kill criminals and create an ideal world with no crime.

But in his quest to do this, he is forced to deal with anyone that gets in his way, even non-criminals. In order to solve these unsolvable crimes, the police bring in the famous detective L, who begins to trace the trail to Yagami.

In the second installment, one of the characters that holds an important key to the outcome is Misa Amane. She becomes a believer in Kira, after his deadly judgment on the criminal that murdered her parents.

By an unexpected coincidence, she obtains another Death Note and becomes a new Kira, and she too begins snuffing out criminals.

When Light realizes he’s not the only one with the ability, he begins to try to collaborate with Misa. But Misa’s crimes are not as planned and calculated as Light’s, so L begins to get closer and closer. L then begins to draw the hunter closer to him.

In a serious predicament, Light takes a course of action that is totally unpredictable.

The first film remained pretty faithful to the original manga, and this second installment does that too for the first half. But the flow of the story in the second half of the film suddenly accelerates and although it goes off into a totally different ending, it doesn’t sacrifice any of the fun that is “Death Note.”

The first and second films together run about 270 minutes, which is pretty long, but the battle of wits between Light and L is thrilling to the last. The last part of this film is especially creative, filled with a feeling of suspense that you’re not going to want to miss.

Translated by Lefteris Kafatos