Is This the Biggest Manga Ever? Death Note All-in-One Has Huge Page Count
Out now is the super-sized Death Note All-in-One Edition. That’s 12 volumes’ worth of manga, 2400 pages, in one binding and a matching silver slipcase.
Death Note was first released in English from 2005-2007. It’s the story of a high school student who meets a shinigami, a god of death, and so anyone whose name he writes in a special notebook (the “death note”) dies. It’s written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, a team who also worked together on Bakuman and Platinum End. Obata has also drawn Hikaru no Go and All You Need Is Kill.
It’s addictive storytelling, as the student (named Light) plays cat-and-mouse with a socially awkward teen detective. Light thinks he’s working for good, while everyone else is freaking out. (I gave up when the series resets halfway through just to keep going; plus, the women come off pretty badly). There have been a number of adaptations in other media, most recently an American remake on Netflix (that doesn’t seem to be very well received). There was also a previous box set, collecting the 12 separate books with a 13th volume called “How to Read” that contained background information and interviews about the series.
On the other hand, it’s convenient to have the whole story all in one lump at such a reasonable price, even if I have concerns about how much of it would get lost in the crease or how long the binding would hold up or how one needs a special table for reading it. Of course, the economics only make sense because they’ve already made money on the previous serialized volumes. But gift-giving season is coming up, and this is an attractive presentation (particularly for under $25, as it’s priced at Amazon right now).
Just in case customers were on the fence, this new edition “contains an epilogue chapter that has never before been published in English.” Buy it again for new material, kids!
