The wacky rivalry of Near and Mello

[blinkytreefrog]

So lately I've been reading and watching my way through Death Note, a manga and anime with a concept that had always seemed rather interesting, so I'm not sure why it took me so long to get to it.

Anyway, I've made it to the dreaded second half of the story, with plot and character developments that produced a pretty divided fandom and are still controversial to this day. And I can certainly understand them, and even share them to a degree. I can't be totally negative, though, because the second half has the wacky graduates of a school/orphanage that seems to have struggled to produce alumni who spent more than 20 percent of their time on the same planet as everyone else.



Sorry for blurriness in a few scans. I used my own graphic novels with the 'official' translation and was trying not to break the spines.

So, quick plot run-down. Engagingly sociopathic high school/college student Light Yagami found a notebook dropped by a death god that killed anyone whose name was written in it. He decided to kill off all the criminals in the world and also become its god! Mwahaha! And if you think the laughing is over the top, you haven't seen the chip eating scene. L, the super cool and seriously oddball mega-genius detective at the centre of the investigation of "Kira", criminal killer extraordinarie, spent the first half of the story playing an exciting game of cat and mouse. And then came the halfway point, and Light killed him.

That was unexpected by pretty much everyone.

So, who was going to defeat Kira when the main investigator was gone? Enter Wammy's House, an orphanage with a rather large secret; it was grooming its genius inhabitants to be the next L. The main candidates for the position? Their names were Near and Mello, and they were pretty much the definition of fire and ice, with large amounts of lunacy thrown in.

(Remember, manga, read right to left, etc. etc...)





I love how the artist managed to convey "I would rather slit my own wrists while setting myself on fire than even contemplate that idea" in one simple expression.

You see, Mello has a... problem with Near. I could try to describe this problem, but I think this wonderful fan-comic by SilentReaper sums it up much better than I could :-).



Mello doesn't like being second best. Especially being second best to an effortless genius who doesn't actually seem to care whether he's hated or not. So Mello runs away from the orphanage and decides to take down Kira his own way.



His own way involves making himself over as a mafia gangster with a chip on his shoulder and a fetish for chocolate and tight leather. As you do.

Meanwhile, Near enlists the help of the US to put together his own team. Near has his own 'little quirks'. He has his matchstick towers...



His dartboard...



He's really very bad at that.

Then we have the robots...



And the train set, and the marbles, and the finger puppets, and also the whole "doesn't change out of his pyjamas" thing...



And the whole 'I want you to fly to the US from Japan, in order to meet up with me and escort me back to where you were in the first place' thing. Near is special in his own way, essentially.

Anyway, later on, Mello is nearly caught, and proves just how far he's willing to go.



He survives; they were in the 'safe room' when he set the explosives off. Unfortunately, the door was open, so he didn't come out unscathed, as we can see when he meets up with Near a bit later.



This goes about as well as can be expected. Although at least they parted on... civil terms.



Interesting place for your gun there, Mello.

Anyway, I could post more, but that kind of sums up them up, frighteningly intelligent, frighteningly weird, and in Mello's case, frighteningly pissed off.

Of course, there are also brief appearances of other Wammy graduates, one of the most significant being Matt, who turns up for about 12 panels to help Mello near the end.



Fandom, of course, has decided that this means they are totally into each other. Though to be fair, Matt is one of the few people that Mello expresses any kind of apologetic feelings towards in the whole series, so I suppose for Mello that is practically a declaration of eternal love. Anyway, although he was apparently third in line to the whole 'L' legacy, Matt's only distinguishing features seem to be general apathy and a love of video games.

This, however, means that he wasn't putting himself in competition with Mello, and it therefore makes me think that Matt was probably the most sensible one of the lot. Yay for Matt!

Comments

[greenmask]

Mello's hair is just so cute. So puffy!

I confess, I started to get bored when these two came in. Killing L was a bold move and it worked for a while, but the tension just wasn't the same any more. Visually, as well as plot-wise. Light needed a dark-hair to wrassle with, not two blondies..

[drakyndra]

While I agree Light vs L was the best part of the plot, I admit I have a distinct fondness for Mello, just because in a series all about I know you know I know you know mind-games, it's so refreshing to have someone who decides to get things done by blowing shit up.

[punishermax]

Near:The Man with the Power to not give a fuck.

[fifthie]

I mean obviously the orphanage that raised the singularly brilliant detective who had perfectly hidden his real name would turn out to have two more singularly brilliant detectives who had perfectly hidden their real names just you know, lyin' around somewhere.

[fifthie]

And they're both really fucking smug annoying douchey children.

[fifthie]

I was watching this series and my friend who'd seen it already was like yeah you might wanna drop it at about the 2/3 mark and I was like what do they, kill L and then replace him with M and N and she was like NO NOTHING LIKE THAT

and

WELP

[punishermax]

At least it didn't spawn a bunch of creepy people who though Light was a hero

oh wait

[nezchan]

I didn't think he was a hero, but after L's understudies took the stage, I no longer gave a shit if the real good guys won. Might as well let Light have his way and see what happen.

Which would have been better than the ending they did get.

[pseudo_tsuga]

....I did not get that until this comment. I AM AN INTELLIGENT CONSUMER OF MANGA.

[ian_karkull]

Yeah, this. All of this. Word for word.

[mullon]

I always liked Near and Mello and tohught they were good replacements for L. It's not like the guy had much of a personality anyway.

[grazzt]

"His own way involves making himself over as a mafia gangster with a chip on his shoulder and a fetish for chocolate and tight leather. As you do."

That may be the greatest summary of Mello ever. Have a cupcake.

[blinkytreefrog]

Yay! Cupcake!

[blackruzsa]

Also the kinkiest description of Mello. Funny how no one ever pointed that out.

[beoweasel]

I could never bring myself to like Mello or Near, I'm too much of an L fanboy. :P

[janegray]

In my very personal opinion, after L died, the series didn't jump the shark. It jumped the megalodon. Make that a pack of megalodons.

YMMV.

[nezchan]

AN EXCESSIVE NUMBER OF MEGALODONS!

[jaybee3]

I think the story shot itself in the foot a bit when L was killed since he was the break-out character of the manga. And then in the end {SPOILERS...] they had Near, who was the least interesting IMO of the Wammy House boys, defeat Light was almost anti-climatic.

I believe the original plan of the writers was for Mello to defeat Light (even though Near was "better") but they scrapped that, which I think also hurt the story. Of all Light's antagonists, Mello was clearly the most pro-active and not just willing to play mind games and could not clearly be labelled a "good" guy. To have the kind of character defeat someone who thought himself a omnipotent GOD would have been more fitting.

[blackruzsa]

I must be one of the few people who liked Mello and Near more than L.

Well, more Mello. But the two were much much more interesting than L himself, so welp...

Also, raise of hands to those who loved MATT!!! THE FOURTH CHILD GENIUS OF THE ORPHANAGE, THE VIDEO GAME CHILD, THE ONLY ONE MELLO EVER LOVED who got like five panels screen time dammit.

[big_daddy_d]

I admittedly liked Mello, but Near..eh...honestly prefered Light winning because seriously..I wasn't convinced that there would be anyone even more intelligent than L and Light..which I liked L, down to his weird movements like..just dropping sugar cubes in his coffee while planning or eating a bad of chip..just..liked those small things. Once they killed L..who the hell could they have used? N just didn't convince me.

[cyberghostface]

I have to agree with those who thought the series took a dive after L's death. It's a shocking moment sure, and the one of the best episodes of the anime (with the final moments between Light and L in the rain, sadly not in the manga) but after that...

And was I the only one who thought Mello was a girl at first?

[janegray]

And was I the only one who thought Mello was a girl at first?

Don't be silly. We can't have a competent, independent female in Death Note.

Up to L's death the series was so good that its flaws, like the blatant sexism, were unnoticeable. But when the series took a dive, they started becoming painful obvious.

[thanekos]

at least with Naomi, it was " oh shit, I wrote myself into a corner with her, hang on.. "

[ian_karkull]

Death Note could've ended comfortably after L's death. The second half always seemed to me like it had been tacked on to give Light's his comeuppance and/or milk the cash cow that is Death Note a bit further.
Consequently

[ian_karkull]

Oops, hit reply to fast...
Consequently Near and Mello have never been more than personalityless, alternately boring and irritating carbon copies of the one truly original character in the story for me. The overall quality of the storytelling vastly decreased in the second half as well, imho.
Also, their character design is ugly as sin.

[cyberghostface]

IIRC the writer had intended it to be 108 chapters from the beginning because of the number's significance in buddhism.