Death Note (デスノート)

Genre: Mystery, Psychological thriller, Supernatural thriller, Drama

Death Note (デスノート, Desu Nōto) is a manga created by writer Tsugumi Ohba and manga artist Takeshi Obata. The main character is Light Yagami, a high school student who discovers a supernatural notebook, the "Death Note", dropped on Earth by a god of death, or a shinigami, named Ryuk. The Death Note grants its user the ability to kill anyone whose name and face they know, by writing the name in the notebook while picturing their face. The series centers around Light's attempt to create and rule a world "cleansed of evil" as "God" using the notebook, and the efforts of a detective known as L to stop him.

Death Note was first serialized in 108 chapters by Shueisha in the Japanese manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 2003 to May 2006. The series was also published in tankōbon format in Japan starting in May 2004 and ending in October 2006 with a total of twelve volumes. The series was adapted into live-action films released in Japan on June 17, 2006, November 3, 2006, and February 2, 2008. The anime series aired in Japan from October 3, 2006, to June 26, 2007. Composed of 37 episodes, the anime was developed by Madhouse and directed by Tetsuro Araki. A light novel based on the series, written by Nisio Isin, was released in Japan. Additionally, various video games have been published by Konami for Nintendo DS.

Viz Media licensed the Death Note manga in North America and has published all the twelve volumes from the series, a 13th volume which serves as a "reader's guide", as well as the light novels. The episodes from the anime first appeared in North America as downloadable by IGN. Viz later licensed the anime series and it aired on Bionix. The live-action films briefly played in certain North American theaters since 2008. However, none of the video games titles have thus far been published in North America.

Several publications for manga, anime and other media have added praise and criticism on the Death Note series. The series was banned in a few Chinese cities due to piracy.

On April 30, 2009, Variety magazine announced that Warner Bros. acquired the rights for the Death Note manga to be adapted into a live-action movie in the United States. Warner Bros. has hired screenwriters Charley and Vlas Parlapanides to adapt the manga into a screenplay. Unlike the Japanese Death Note live-action movie trilogy, the US-version will be directly adapted from the material in the manga and will not follow the storyline of the Japanese movie adaptations. On January 13, 2011, it was announced that Shane Black has been hired to direct the film, with the script being written by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry.

Daphne in the Brilliant Blue (光と水のダフネ)

Genre: Action, Comedy, Mystery, Science Fiction

Daphne in the Brilliant Blue (光と水のダフネ, Hikari to Mizu no Dafune) is a 2004 anime series animated by the studio J.C.Staff and produced by GENCO. It was licensed by Geneon USA in 2004. However, Geneon USA had ceased operations in September 2007 and lost all their titles. In 2009, Sentai Filmworks had picked up the license and re-released the series in two complete collection sets.

A manga version was drawn by manga artist and character designer Satoshi Shiki titled "I - Daphne in the Brilliant Blue" (アイ〜光と水のダフネ〜, Ai ~Hikari to Mizu no Dafune~), featured in Young King OURs magazine.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_in_the_Brilliant_Blue

Count Cain (Earl Cain, 伯爵カインシリーズ)

Genre: Gothic horror, Mystery

Count Cain, also known as Earl Cain (伯爵カインシリーズ, Hakushaku Kain Shirīzu), is a gothic shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Kaori Yuki. Earl Cain consists of five parts or "Series": Forgotten Juliet (忘れられたジュリエット, Wasurerareta Jurietto), The Sound of a Boy Hatching (少年の孵化する音, Shōnen no Fukasuru Oto), Kafka (カフカ, Kafuka), The Seal of the Red Ram (赤い羊の刻印, Akai Hitsuji no Kokuin), and the sequel series Godchild (ゴッド チャイルド, Goddo Chairudo).

Appearing as serials in the Japanese manga magazine Hana to Yume, the chapters of Forgotten Juliet, The Sound of a Boy Hatching, Kafka, and The Seal of the Red Ram ran from 1991 to 1994, and the Godchild chapters appeared between 2001 and 2004. Together, the series spans 13 tankōbon volumes, with five for Forgotten Juliet, The Sound of a Boy Hatching, Kafka, and The Seal of the Red Ram and eight for Godchild. Two drama CDs based on the series were also released. Set in 19th century England, the series focuses on a young earl named Cain Hargreaves who solves murders while encountering his father's secret organization, Delilah, that experiments with reviving the dead.

Earl Cain is licensed for English-language release in North America by Viz Media, which published Forgotten Juliet, The Sound of a Boy Hatching, Kafka, and The Seal of the Red Ram as The Cain Saga. The first volume of The Cain Saga was published in October 2006; the final volume was published in June 2007. Godchild was released simultaneously, as well as being serialized in Viz's manga anthology Shojo Beat from July 2005 to June 2006.

Yuki began the manga inspired by "the darker, grislier side" of the Victorian upper class and her admiration of films set in the Victorian time period. For Godchild, she traveled to London to do historical research and visited seven historical sites there. In the series, she refers to the Bible as well as real-life literary works, films and people. Earl Cain features several themes such as "the darker side of love" and a tainted childhood. Critical reaction to The Cain Saga was mixed: some felt that the mysteries were well-done with detailed art, while others found the art crude and the short stories confusing and predictable. Reviewers praised Godchild as an overdone, entertaining series with detailed and distinct art.

Format	Manga
Title	The Cain Saga
Written by	Kaori Yuki
Published by	Hakusensha
English publisher	Viz Media
Demographic	Shōjo
Magazine	Hana to Yume
Original run	1991 – 1994
Volumes	5
.	.
Format	Manga
Title	Godchild
Written by	Kaori Yuki
Published by	Hakusensha
English publisher	Viz Media
Demographic	Shōjo
Magazine	Hana to Yume
English magazine	Shojo Beat
Original run	2001 – 2004
Volumes	8

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Cain

.hack//Sign

.hack//Sign

Tsukasa (front), Aura (right), Subaru (left).

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Mystery, Science fiction

.hack//Sign (trademarked as .hack//SIGN) is an anime television series directed by Kōichi Mashimo and produced by studio Bee Train and Bandai Visual, that makes up one of the four original storylines of the .hack franchise. Twenty six original episodes aired on TV and three additional bonus episodes (Intermezzo, Unison, and Gift) were released on DVD as original video animations (OVAs). The series features character design by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, known for his work on Evangelion, and screenplay by Kazunori Itō, who penned the screenplay for the first Ghost in the Shell movie. The score was composed by Yuki Kajiura, marking her second collaboration with Kōichi Mashimo.

.hack//Sign is influenced by psychological and sociological subjects such as anxiety, escapism, and interpersonal relationships. The series focuses on a Wavemaster (magic user) named Tsukasa, a player character of a virtual-reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) called The World. Tsukasa wakes up to find himself in a dungeon in The World, but he suffers from short-term memory loss as he wonders where he is and how he got there. The situation gets worse when he discovers he is unable to log out and is trapped in the game. From then on, along with other players Tsukasa embarks on a quest to figure out the truth behind his abnormal situation.

The show premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo between April 4, 2002 and September 25, 2002. It was broadcast across East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Latin America by the anime television network, Animax; and across the United States, Nigeria, Canada, and United Kingdom by Cartoon Network, YTV, and AnimeCentral (English and Japanese) respectively. It is distributed across North America by Bandai Entertainment.

The storyline moves at a leisurely pace, and has multiple layers — the viewer is often fed false information and red herrings, potentially leading to confusion until the true nature of events is unveiled towards the end of the series.[9] It relies on character development and has few action scenes; most of the time character interaction is presented in the form of dialogue. English language reception to .hack//Sign has been generally positive, but some of these sources have negatively criticised the series as a result of its slow pacing and character-driven storyline.