This is the weakest volume so far. It has some value for setting up future events, but you probably would not lose much skipping it. There is enough context and repetition in the series to do so, since the original publication expected you to read it across a span of months not hours.
Light and Misa have been arrested. Light and L are working together to find Kira. Light and L are working together to find a new Kira. I'm not even trying to have this make sense without the context of previous volumes.
This volume is a change in direction, likely just a detour. That is less then thrilling when the main plot is sitting there in the same room, watching the detour happen.
We have an entire issue of Light sitting in a cell and not confessing to being Kira. It is not exciting reading.
We have more comedy added with increasing character development for Matsuda. It is fine as far as it goes, but I appreciate shorter bits of comic relief. We already have Misa, who has been reduced to a one-joke character. This is not the best mix of cerebral plotting and slapstick.
L, in the art and with some good characterization, is becoming more child-like and less creepy. He eats a lot of sweets and has an innocent if tired look. It is an enjoyable approach to a master detective.
Light falls off the map. Much of it is justified, but his character has been gutted for this volume. Even given the justified gutting, I expected him to be more active, less Wesley Crusher. Light's shadow is hanging about the plot, literally chained to L.
The development of the rest of the police cast is good. It took a while for them to be meaningfully distinguishable, and by the end of this volume they are all established characters, even Mogi. This is the most worthwhile part of the volume.
The side story itself is the main problem. It is a long digression from the main plot, with the main plot put on hold and left in plain sight. It is not as good as the main plot. While it is interesting and potentially worthwhile to consider what someone else would do with a death note, I don't know how much I should care about The Eight. It is a clever approach, making a new Kira a (bounded) mystery to the reader and to his associates. It gives us, however, eight people to try to learn and maybe care about in a short period of time, with the expectation that most or all of them are going away very soon. Mix in their exposition, give them time to do anything interesting, and we are running out of pages while still very much aware the main plot is on hold. Collectively, they are an interesting character, but The Eight is eight flat characters, and adding more of those to what had been a tight game of psychological fencing does not enrich the matter.
Aiber is immediately appealing, and his art is enjoyably different from the rest of the cast. We might someday reach a dozen non-Japanese characters. That is the great lesson of The Eight, right? The fate of the world is not always in the hands of gifted Japanese students; sometimes it is in the hands of corrupt Japanese businessmen.
Wedy is yet another disappointing female character. I know this is a boy's manga, but is Rem really as close as we get to a strong female character? Even Misa plus Rem were only mildly competitive in the intellectual games.
The physical moments with Light and L are enjoyable as well. There are a few good plot moments, particularly with the use of Misa and Matsuda. There is some set-up but no pay-off for long plots, so we are stuck with quick tricks.
Blanks do not work that way. The boy is now horribly scarred if not dead. For comedy value, imagine that for the rest of the series.
collected edition
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