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Rating: 9.5/10

Impressions:

Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this episode because of the intensity of the scenario and great music accompaniment. However, I was disappointed still that Mello’s insightful thoughts and conversation with his partner were cut out almost completely, as well as the even-better monologue by Near. Likewise, Light was also meant to have some amazingly interesting thoughts, but luckily at least half of it came through in the anime. This was expected though, and the episode flies through five chapters, concluding the 10th volume out of 12). If Death Note had kept an appropriate pace, I would still be engrossed regardless of the fact that I have read the manga.

In the anime, Light meets Kiyomi only once before getting to the other Kira, but in the manga he meets her twice. If you’re thinking that it was way too coincidental for Kira to just phone Kiyomi like that, I suggest you read the manga. To some it up quickly, in the first meeting, Light instructs Kiyomi to make an appeal to Kira regarding what the NPA should do to co-operate with him. In doing so, Kira gets suspicious of Kiyomi’s motives and calls her during Light’s second meeting with Kiyomi. After a lot of internal debating and such, Kira tells Kiyomi to give Light the phone, from which they finally get in touch. Kira (or in fact Light) then orders the removal of the bugs.

Anyway, moving on from that…Mikami, the new Kira, is really such an amazing character, being able to read Light’s thoughts and act appropriately. While his goal is really only to reform the world, he lacks Light’s desire to be superior which allows himself to be controlled so easily. Regardless, the two make a frightening team. Both Near and Mello are meant to be hot on Light’s tail (though the anime failed in showing this), so things are becoming quite intense. While I still dread the coming of the ending, it’s nonetheless exciting to see how things work out to reach the final stage (even though the anime is doing quite poorly in this respect).

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