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Okay, but these panels right here. I have been rolling them in my mind for some time. Mello claims one of the reasons why he wouldn't kill Soichiro and Sayu is that he doesn't want to earn the Japanese police's anger and cause any possible revenge. This is reasonable - his main concern is Kira. The less obstacles he has, the better. Plus, he's trying to earn Soichiro's trust. But I can't help but feel like... he's implying something. The fact that this line is cut to another panel where his face is visible makes it feel more personal.

While maybe not as accurate, in the famous fan translation it's "In the end there is no greater motivator than revenge." which could possibly mean that there are other readings to this line as well. Google translates the Japanese text as "The motive of revenge is a tricky one." Still, the question stays: how do you know that Mello?

It's easy to interpret Mello as someone who simply feels entitled to be the best just because. The fact that he spent a good part of his life in Wammy's House as the second best could also explain everything about his personality. Imagine getting constantly reminded that you need to do just a bit more, juuuust a bit more to be the world's greatest detective's successor - I would go crazy too. But I wonder if there's more to it. Like babygirl, has anyone hurt you?

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Mello's turn: Favourite Mello ship that isn't Meronia or Mellodramattic? 🫣

NearlyMellodramattic doesn't count as something else

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i wanted to make a point about the fact that if we ship soichello we should also consider mello/the literal U.S. president for mere fun, but i was looking through the online manga scans and i have noticed that at some point mello says "you didn't get to be president by luck". VERY sad, because i grew up with the official italian translation that says "non sarai mica diventato presidente per la tua bella faccia, no?" which translates to "you didn't get to become president thanks to your pretty face, did you?". italian mello doesn't hesitate

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| Art Instagram - @Nanalytix | 🤍

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i wish people had more fun with the canon adjacent concept that matt is inherently fucking SHIT at helping mello and mello’s just really chill about it

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Rester trying to get on his boss's level

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"careful old man," (condescending) "don't break a hip" (desperate to fuck the dilf within an inch of his life)

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Possibly one of my most ridiculous purchases yet considering I don’t even drink wine but whatever. Yes, this is real, official Death Note wine that I bought in a shop :’^) They also had bottles for L and Light, although they were sold separately as individual products.

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That Wammy Boy stare.

Or - eye colors, symbolism, and my head canon about L, Near and Mello's "weird dead eyes".

In Volume 13 Takeshi Obata reveals that because Ohba requested Near and Mello each have something reminiscent of L in their character designs he decided to express this by giving them the same eyes as L. As a result in the manga all three have black seemingly iris-less eyes.

So are we meant to understand that they all actually had pitch black pools where most humans and indeed everyone else in the manga had normal human eyes including the luxury of colored irises? On the other hand, in the anime L retains his familiar black eyes, however Near's are grey and Mello's are blue.

So why the inconsistency? In my opinion....BOTH are true.

It's not impossible to have eyes that are so dark brown they appear practically black, and the line between iris and pupils becomes hard to distinguish. But Near and Mello both have very fair skin and hair, it makes sense for them to also have light eyes.

My interpretation is that Obata's intent here is meant to be more symbolic than literal. Their black eyes may indeed actually be brown, grey, and blue respectively. But the similarity Obata tries to convey is not in the surface of their physical appearance, it's their essence that shines through. It's what I will call the "Wammy Boy stare" (admittedly something of a misnomer because it's really only a quality shared by L and his successors, but bear with me I wanted to use a catchier term).

The stare is the feeling those eyes project, the unnerving sense that they observe and analyze everything around them. That they can see into your soul, through and past you, and against your will can unearth your sins. That they know what makes you tick and just what buttons to push. That they know something you don't. It's in equal parts mysterious and alluring and intimidating as fuck. It's psychic damage, a feeling of exposure, a gaze that can make you squirm and stammer and reveal your secrets. Eyes that see everything but reveal nothing about the mind of their bearer.

Since I like to try to ground my theories in at least a crumb of source material, this ties in also to Near's comments in the C-Kira one shot where he said the reason L singled out himself and Mello and chose them as his potential successors was because of how they observe, and "the nasty look in our eyes".

In conclusion: Near has grey eyes, and Mello's are blue. But they are both distinctly L's.

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Idk what possessed me to draw this

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I know Mello wrote Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases after a conversation with L, but to my knowledge, we don't exactly know how this conversation was had. I somehow don't believe L would have visited the House just to talk to Mello, and somehow, even a phone call seems a little bit too extensive for someone like L to conduct for such a discussion. I imagine he and Mello sent several very long emails to one another, in which Mello flooded L with questions, and L answered them as succinctly as he was able. Mello would sit at the computer for hours, rewording his questions and deleting large paragraphs under the illusion that the detective had far better things to do than respond to him, especially given the tone of his responses.

What he didn't realise is that L would see these emails and always stop what he was doing to read them twice over, three times if necessary. He would tell Watari to reschedule any appointments he might have had and carefully word each sentence in a manner he thought would be as efficient as possible, so that this young successor of his wouldn't find the story tedious. He always found Mello's enthusiasm, all too clear in his queries, to be rather endearing, and for a brief time felt as though his work was interesting, as frustrating as it could often be.

The last email was sent by Mello, no longer interrogating L over the case as he felt his responses had been sufficient for him to begin writing his book. He had documented all that he needed to know, and had broken into a file cabinet in Roger's office to retrieve additional information about Beyond that either L would not have been aware of, or felt inappropriate to explain. Instead, he thanked L for his time and told him how hard he was working to be worthy of his position, eventually. He couldn't have been more grateful for the opportunity to follow in his footsteps.

L didn't reply, not out of lack of trying, but he could not bring himself to warn Mello of what his role really comprised of. That to be L was not an enviable title, and that he would only find pursuing such work disappointing and meaningless. As such, the email thread was concluded, and the next time Mello heard of his predecessor's condition, it was in Roger's office once it was confirmed that he had been killed by Kira.

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the thing is mello + near is a sibling dynamic. like once you see their limited canon interactions through that lens it follows a completely understandable estranged family arc that has beats and themes about alienation and intransigent rivalry and core identity tied to another person and tragedy and sacrifice and a bond that endures even if you don't like someone- that can be mapped out onto common story structures relating to the family unit. i think when you describe something as a sibling rivalry it is immediately understood as a complexity of bittersweet bonds and feelings that make their interaction at spk headquarters, near being certain that mello won't shoot him, mello realizing he's going to have to put his life at risk to save near, all make sudden sense without having to bend over backwards to explain why they acted the way they did. if the people who go all "ew you can't ship them they're siblings!" actually could make this argument i'd give them a "fine if boring" pass but it's just so much more heart-wrenchingly satisfying if you acknowledge that there is sexual tension in the text as well. even more so, imo, than a purely romantic classmate or even childhood friend connection. which to me - a romantic and sexual entanglement once they meet again as adults built upon this complicated foster sibling dynamic not only makes more sense but feels deeper and more real. and also hotter

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Whoever did the translation for the Death Note dub... good job with the Meronia meeting

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Alright Treasure Island fandom, what are your main ships? And I don't mean the Hispaniola or the Walrus.

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new year, new near (art) ✨

I hope everyone has a good 2025! 🎇

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Do you think Mello smoked with Matt? Or was he like a cigarette hater? I think that he had the occasional cigarette with Matt like twice every month.