Some enterprising soul(s) — sneaky Shinigami? — have created an online replica of a Death Note notebook which anyone can use. This thing is very nice, though I haven’t tried it out to see whether it is fully functional or not — too high of a price. It is an interesting bit of webwork though!
And for the bad news: There are now over 3,000 (!!) pages filled out!
BusinessWeek has a good article in their April 23rd issue which talks about the coming wave of manhwa (Korean for comics, a la Japanese Manga). The article, entitled “Forge Manga. Here’s Manhwa” may be a bit premature in dismissing Manga, but I do believe many of the Korean titles will see success here in the States, especially if they win in the race to the web:
Netcomics caters to the U.S. audience’s customary means of consumption with print titles, but it’s the company’s online delivery system that has potential to change the face of comics publishing in this country. Visitors to the publisher’s website can sample the company’s growing roster of titles for roughly 25 cents a chapter. Chung estimates that by this spring, Netcomics will have 75 volumes of 25 series in print, and more than 120 volumes of 30 series on the web.
I love having the paper version in the collection, but there are other titles I will want to try without having to plop down the full cover price, and at 25 cents a chapter, one can certainly preview as many title as one wants.
No, not the manga, though that is present there as well, but “real live” death notes. It appears as though there is at least one company in China producing Death Note notebooks and selling them to students. Unfortunately, teachers in schools have been finding them with the names of students and teachers filled in! Now, school officials are confiscating them:
According to the director of Wuhan’s Publication Bureau, a copy of the confiscated “Death Note” has already been sent to be processed and checked. As soon as the notebook is declared illegal, the authorities will begin taking further actions against “Death Notes” sold around schools.
It all started in late March, when a parent found a “Death Note” in her son’s (currently in elementary school) backpack. The parent was shocked to find names of her son’s classmates and teachers inside the notebook, complete with gruesome descriptions of their deaths.
While I’m not surprised that students would emulate the actions of the characters in the popular series, I hope it doesn’t affect the ability of whichever company is distributing Death Note in China to continue to sell it there.
Source: ComiPress
