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Death Note How to Read 13 (Death Note (Graphic Novels)) | 
 enlarge | Author: Tsugumi Ohba
Creators: Pancha Diaz, Andrew Mckeon, Sam Elzway, Eric Searleman, Takeshi Obata, Masumi Washington, Akira Shiwawa
Publisher: VIZ Media, LLC
Category: Book
List Price: $14.99
Buy Used: $4.38
You Save: $10.61 (71%)
New (30) Used (9) from $4.38
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 40529
Media: Paperback
Edition: English Ed
Reading Level: Young Adult
Pages: 192
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 1421518880
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.56952
EAN: 9781421518886
ASIN: 1421518880
Publication Date: February 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Tear on the spine; Creased cover; Bent pages; Some dirt; the rest in good shape!
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Product Description
The Ultimate Death Note Encyclopedia! Here, in one authoritative volume: everything you need to know about Death Note, the best-selling manga series. Featuring complete character biographies, detailed storyline summaries, production notes, and behind-the-scenes commentaries. Death Note 13: How to Read also includes exclusive interviews with creators Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata and a bonus manga chapter of never-before-translated material. Unless you own your very own death note, it doesn't get any better than this!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 The Official Death Note Companion Would Have Been a More Obvious Title February 14, 2008
Mister Myst (Corona, California)
23 out of 23 found this review helpful
Officially, this is considered the final book in the Death Note series. However, it's really more of a companion book than anything else. Not that that's a bad thing at all. In fact, it's nothing short of awesome.
Within these 200-odd pages, you'll be treated to all kinds of goodies.
For starters, all the unresolved plotlines (especially the fate of Misa) are addressed. You also get every single piece of Death Note trivia that you would possibly want to know. So not only do we finally learn L's real name, we learn everything he ever ate during the course of the seires (Oh boundless joy!). Also, perhaps to give us a break from how serious the series has been, many of the characters pop up occasionally and break the fourth wall by providing some amusing commentary of their own. At least one even comments on their own in-series death.
However, as good as all this is, there are two places where this book really shines.
First, a lot of this book goes behind the scenes as Ohba and Obata give us a satisfying peak at their creative processes. My favorite part was where Ohba talks about where he got the idea for EACH chapter title. Man, this guy gives a whole new meaning to the term "detail-oriented".
Second, this volume wraps up with the series' pilot chapter, aka the FIRST Death Note manga ever written. It has the same basic concept as the series (a deadly notebook), but takes it in a more "Stephen King-ish" direction. Also, other than Ryuuk, it stars a completely different cast of characters. That said, one of these "newbies" bears a striking physical resemblance to a certain, insane prosecutor-turned-Kira-worshipper. If you're a fan of the seires, you probably know who I mean. Like the series, the pilot was a great read. In fact, I think it would make a great movie (much easier to adapt than the series, I'd think).
The only negative thing about this book was that, on 1 or 2 pages toward the end, Misa was even more exposed than usual. I wasn't quite expecting this and it made me feel somewhat uncomfortable. However, this really isn't enough to cost it a star. It's just a few pages; easy to skip over.
This is highly recommended for Death Note fans who know when to stop taking things too seriously.
Also somewhat recommended for Stephen King fans or Horror fans in general (due to the aforementioned pilot chapter).
Amazing and Informative February 20, 2008
Heavenly Faye-Faye (GaAUSA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I only recently bought this book and read it in a whole day. It's really informative - it tells me pretty much everything I ever wanted to know about the series and the characters! I particularly enjoyed "Ryuk's Human Observation Journal" - it was so funny that I had one of the most cheerful moods I've ever had all throughout the day! :D
I was surprised to see the original pilot to the series in this book; even though it's very different than the series, it's nonetheless entertaining. There are quite a few differences in the two stories...
If your a huge Death Note fan, I definatly recommend that you get your hands on this book as soon as possible!
 Great series, dissappointing extras. Good stuff at the end March 12, 2008
Carol (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
Honestly, I didn't know what to expect from this, having read all twelve volumes of Death Note and being disappointed with the last few.
I've loved the series as a whole, and was very excited to see this released. However, it is definitely a disappointment as a whole.
Basically, it tells you everything you already knew about Death Note if you've read all the way through, but it is no substitute for the real thing.
Pretty much the only parts of it worth reading are towards the end, where they have some nice interviews and a few pages of bonus manga tangentially connected to the main story (yonkoma and a oneshot). That, and the fact that there is a shiny, shiny card with L's real name on it right after the front cover are the only real reasons to buy it.
Most of the stuff comes off as unnecessary or overly cheesy (towards the middle), and really is not worth a purchase except for the diehards.
A must-have for the hardcore fan, a luxury otherwise March 27, 2008
A. Stephenson (UK)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
On the whole, an attentive reader of all 12 volumes will already know nearly all the information in this book. As such, the main reasons to buy it are the new elements:
The interviews with the author and artist are fantastic. Which well-known Tim Burton character inspired Ryuk's design? Which ubiquitous piece of Death Note iconography turned out to be a red herring which the artist took seriously? What deeply meaningful statement by L, on which entire interpretations of his character have hinged (including mine, alas) was actually a barefaced lie? This sort of information is both genuinely interesting and otherwise inaccessible.
The rest of the bonus material is either for completists only (like finding out characters' birthdays and skill evaluations), for people who weren't paying total attention in the first place (like step-by-step breakdowns of the storyline) or just for fun (a list of all the sweets L eats over the course of the manga; a series of 4-panel omake comics; a guide to the shinigami one barely sees, and their ranking system).
And by the way, the L name card is very neat, but poorly thought-through. Over the course of the storyline, two characters (but not the reader) find out L's name, and in one case, if it had been this, the story would have gone very differently from that point.
Overall, Death Note 13 is definitely worth buying if you're a fan of the series wanting to find out what its creators were thinking, and to fill in every gap in your knowledge (which the book does admirably). Just don't expect a revolution in terms of new material. Or to find out about L's background (one of the main reasons I bought it, but the subject barely gets a mention).
A little something more. June 12, 2008
S. Darrow
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was very sad to finish the last installation of the Death Note manga series, and How to Read filled a little bit of the void for me. It was terrific to learn more about my favorite characters, to enter the minds of the author and illustrator, and just spend a little more time in the world which I grew to love through the manga. Highly reccomended to Death Note fans.
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