Death Note | Week 3 Discussion

Chapter 2 - L

Start Date: 05th February
Previous Week: Chapter 1 part 2
Next Week: Chapter 3

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8 Likes

This was definitely the most challenging chapter so far. Especially the ICPO parts had some grammar points that I had never heard of.

Page 56

「そうだ。大犯罪者だろうと死刑囚だろうと殺せば殺人だ!」

I had never seen (or at least don’t remember seeing) だろう used in this way, so I looked it up.

Appareantly its meaning is very close to AでもBでも関係なくCです。So we could substitute it in our original sentence to get to

「そうだ。大犯罪者でも死刑囚でもと殺せば殺人だ!」

This だろうと can be written as であろうと and some other forms that you can read up on in the sources.

Sources:

11 Likes

Definitely. Death Note lives up to its name as a wordy manga. :joy:

But, it’s a great chapter. We’ve made it fully into the main plot of the story. ^>^ I love how L turns Light’s ability to kill against him, proving his location just as Light thought he had outwitted him. :grin: I’m with Ryuku on this one: it’s gonna be fun watching these two go at each other, trying to expose who the other is!

13 Likes

I must admit that after some frustrating minutes I just decided to skip those entirely and just read the rest of the chapter. :flushed: After I was done, it was less annoying to slog through that first part.
But yes, the plot thickens :smiley::popcorn:

8 Likes

To be fair, Raito’s monologues can also be lengthy :sweat_smile:

I just started reading so let’s hope I can catch up with you guys for chapter 2 and 3.

EDIT: Well, just almost done with chapter 1.

6 Likes

The 〜であれ also made an appearance in the second part with the ICPO (the flashback) and had me stumped quite a bit, but now I get it (I think). Thank you for sharing the links!

3 Likes

geez that was painful… it’s taking me about 1 hour for 2-4 pages but in about 10 hours and lost of research, finished…though had to just accept that this is above my level and let some stuff go…

this far in…also thinking this would have been better as an intermediate pick… :laughing: but heck I’m still not behind and populated the vocab list … so woo hoo… I’ll take the small wins…

6 Likes

Thanks for pointing to this! I saw the 〜であれ〜であれ later as well and in both cases context helped a lot, but I wasn’t completely sure of the nuance.

The chapter felt a little long, because I was reading it aloud in different voices, but otherwise wasn’t so bad :slight_smile: . Following the ICPO sections in the anime, without subtitles is definitely hardcore.

I agree. Considering that the general theme is very mature and the language used scrapes N2 and N1 at times. It’s difficult to pick stuff for beginner clubs, though, because it can’t be too easy as well :slight_smile:

5 Likes

This is where I fell off all those years ago when I first tried to read it on my own :grimacing:
My bookmark was in mid chapter 2.

But anyway, finally caught up, and have now surpassed where I was! Must admit I just glanced over that first half, not caring if I missed some things. But the second half of this chapter is pure fun!

8 Likes

I hate じゃない and other negative formations because it seems like half the time, they are not actually doing any negating. Example: p. 59, panel 4.

Dialogue:

しかしLは自分が興味を持った事件しか動かないわがままな人物というじゃない

Translation based on DeepL and scanlation for double-checking: But L is said to be a selfish person who only works on cases he’s interested in.

Shouldn’t というじゃない mean NOT-called?

Or is this just an example of a negative ending meaning more like, “isn’t it?” or something?

5 Likes

I would say “However, isn’t he a selfish person who only moves on/for (?) cases he himself holds interest in?”

3 Likes

Yes, it’s an “isn’t it” thrown in after the sentence. For comparison, to express the negative meaning (“not-called”) technically one could use といわない (i.e. with a negative verb) but I’m not sure if this is a common usage; I think I’ve seen といえない (“cannot be said that”) more often. (But please, have some salt with what I said…)

Generally speaking, if you have something that could be negated but isn’t, and if you then have じゃない after it, then it usually means “isn’t it”. The tricky part is when you cannot tell the difference :sweat_smile: e.g. in これは犬じゃない (“This is a dog, isn’t it?” vs. “This is not a dog”). I have yet to find out how to distinguish those in written text :cold_sweat:

8 Likes

I think there are better ways to make your intended meaning explicit to the listener, when you mean “This is not a dog”; like “これは犬ではありません” or something like that. :thinking: So, it’s probably avoided if possible.

Or at the very least, the emphasis in speach would land on これは犬じゃない! like this, so make it clear in context, or これは犬じゃないそ!

2 Likes

Does Light know the existence of L before the big L letter appears on the screen? Or, is it just a nickname for Tailor?

1 Like

Lind. L. Taylor is named exactly that, it’s not a nickname. From how the Death Note works, we know this is the man’s real name. Light doesn’t have to know about the existence of a detective known as “L” to the police and I assume he don’t. He only sees someone presenting themselves as a detective on TV and decides to get rid of him.

4 Likes

Perhaps he did, as he said 間抜け。すぎるぜ、L…。もう少し賢ければ面白くなったかもしれないのに…

Just before writing his name.

Perhaps his daring is in part due to his public acquiescence and popularity, as shown in the website, earlier in this chapter.

I think you’ve missed that during the very first presentation (page 68) Lind L. Tailor introduces himself as a detective who moves the world’s police forces, and that he’s known as “L”. And so, later Light refers to him as L.

3 Likes

指名手配 's reading surprises me. Why the heck is the third Kanji using Kun reading? (The rest are On.) There is also this word in the end of Chapter 6, but without Furigana.

nvm, there seems to be 手配 as well.

2 Likes

You got it. It’s because the root word it is based on is 手配. If you look up words beginning with 手 in Jisho lots of them read 手 as て despite being two kanji compound words.

3 Likes

Nah. If the second Kanji isn’t On (despite 手 being Kun), it doesn’t count. Still, there are a lot that match the said criteria.

  • 手錠
  • 手帳
  • 手配
  • 手本
  • 手順
  • 手相
  • 手製
  • 手職