The search for Kira stumbles as Light strikes at the police investigating him. L sheds his seclusion to re-organize his remaining footsoldiers. L and Light both look for Kira clues and loose ends, one to unravel them and the other to cut them off.
Light is coming into his own as a villainous magnificent bastard. His manipulations are delicate and devastating. He starts making good on his promises to kill anyone in his way. While he occasionally works on the omelet, Light is spending more of his time enjoying breaking eggs. Because if you want to be a dark god of justice, reveling in your own brilliance and the fall of your enemies is half the fun.
I will not spoil the more brilliant and subtle plot points, nor even gesture towards them (nor to others that are less successful) to avoid tipping you off on where to look.
I was disappointed that Naomi's arc had so much build-up for so little payoff, although its significance could grow in future volumes. Its pacing at center stage is problematic for the manga, combining with the below to make much of this volume a lull. I hope that the anime used it for a tension-packed episode rather than an arc sub-plot. And as I said, future use of the points made here could redeem any problems.
L also gets to take center stage. His time is a mix of very slow action and very quick thought. He is Sherlock Holmes, with keen observation and intuitive leaps. He has an entire team of Watsons to explain things to. Putting him in a more central role lets him develop as a character and have a weight closer to Light's. His big reveal, however, happens parallel to Naomi's arc, so it shares the slow feeling; half this volume takes place on the same day, which means that conversations span multiple issues, and it must have been torture to read that on the original release schedule.
The art on L is creepy. This is a series where a death god hovers behind the protagonist, and he plays as comic relief. The heroic antagonist is the one who looks alien and haunted. The darkness and lines around his eyes are very effective. The way he sits could be insectoid or childish with just a tiny variation, suggesting both. While Light conveys meaning (and dispenses death) with his hands, L's toes are suggestive; if you have seen Firefly, you can imagine why Summer Glau comes to mind when he is being unsettlingly otherworldly. His body language is different in the light than it was as a shadowy specter. He contrasts brilliantly against Light's classic anime bishounen, and all these dark bits create a better contrast when he has a single frame of unalloyed hope and idealism.
Naomi's art is good, a solid female figure that looks good without being unnecessarily sexual or exploitative. The absence of fan service is notable. Light is starting to look more like a serial killer with a few art adjustments. His eyes have less of the megalomania, more of the hunter or the hunted.
He will surely get back around to the megalomania, as we see him setting up future plots and continuing to manipulate a god to his benefit. Notably, one of L's insights is spot on in more ways than he knows: as Kira, Light has a need to show off, to win and to be seen winning. You can see it working against him at points and how it might go badly at others, but you also see him using his childish mistakes to his later advantage.
Does the dramatic need to show him laid low for his pride outweigh his ability as a popular series protagonist to escape problems? Okay, that question was probably a lot more compelling in the original publication, which could have been cut off at any time, when you did not know how many volumes were left, and when you did not have sequels in which the publicized presence or lack of characters would be spoilers. On the other hand, the series has a built-in method of keeping things rolling even if it kills off the entire cast, so the author has at least the option of throwing everything in a new direction at short notice. Personally, I am sticking around for the convoluted schemes, and knowing who wins does not make stories about the strategy and tactics involved any less fascinating. Indeed, individual issues anticipate this by showing you the outcome and then going back to show how they pulled it off.
Amazon link
collected edition
If I might ask a question of you, Light? A critical part of your plan (not a spoiler, this continues from the previous book) involves depending on a high school girl to keep secret that she went on a date with a cute boy who is also the #1 student in the entire country. You're gambling your life on that, genius? If he neither kills her nor suffers for that, the author is too kind to his protagonist.
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