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vampiremonday.
So, I never watched Death Note in 2007. I saw, like, scattered clips with no context, and I wrote it off based on a very incomplete impression and somehow managed to live an entire life with 0 context about it. Like... to the point of big gaps in my understanding of certain cultural cues, both in nerdy US circles and here in Japan. (Example: a few months ago I found a weird Ryuk with an apple charm on the floor at the school where I work and asked, 'Is this anyone's... ugly... little guy?' and asked a Japanese adult coworker when the kids didn't know who said, 'Death Note???')
Anyway, I started watching it at a friend's suggestion and mild insistence.
In a way, I feel like it's good that I didn't watch it when it was new and I was still a teenager. It feels like it strikes a chord in me that is very... aesthetically coherent with who I am as a person in a way that I did not realize at the time that it was popular and new.
It is so resonant with me, here as a 35 year old watching it for the first time, that it is actually making me think about how it might have affected my interests, desires, and choices, had I chosen to watch it when it was making its first rounds in America. I know that sounds silly, but I almost do feel that it would've been a butterfly wing in me making different life choices somehow, even if I have absolutely no idea how it would've panned out.
I'm to a point now where I love the people I still have in my life enough that I wouldn't want to risk not knowing and loving them, even though there are a handful of moments in my mid teens and early 20s that I sometimes wish I could test-run to see how things went if I had done things differently, but it's just a fun and eerie little feeling to experience.
Sure, a lot of my fandoms seem to sort of... click into place like "oh, I am glad I found you," but this one feels... weird. Like a chunk of missing time.
Anyway, I am watching Death Note and really into it and I know I'm 19 years late, but I might write these creatures in some situations later.
So, I never watched Death Note in 2007. I saw, like, scattered clips with no context, and I wrote it off based on a very incomplete impression and somehow managed to live an entire life with 0 context about it. Like... to the point of big gaps in my understanding of certain cultural cues, both in nerdy US circles and here in Japan. (Example: a few months ago I found a weird Ryuk with an apple charm on the floor at the school where I work and asked, 'Is this anyone's... ugly... little guy?' and asked a Japanese adult coworker when the kids didn't know who said, 'Death Note???')
Anyway, I started watching it at a friend's suggestion and mild insistence.
In a way, I feel like it's good that I didn't watch it when it was new and I was still a teenager. It feels like it strikes a chord in me that is very... aesthetically coherent with who I am as a person in a way that I did not realize at the time that it was popular and new.
It is so resonant with me, here as a 35 year old watching it for the first time, that it is actually making me think about how it might have affected my interests, desires, and choices, had I chosen to watch it when it was making its first rounds in America. I know that sounds silly, but I almost do feel that it would've been a butterfly wing in me making different life choices somehow, even if I have absolutely no idea how it would've panned out.
I'm to a point now where I love the people I still have in my life enough that I wouldn't want to risk not knowing and loving them, even though there are a handful of moments in my mid teens and early 20s that I sometimes wish I could test-run to see how things went if I had done things differently, but it's just a fun and eerie little feeling to experience.
Sure, a lot of my fandoms seem to sort of... click into place like "oh, I am glad I found you," but this one feels... weird. Like a chunk of missing time.
Anyway, I am watching Death Note and really into it and I know I'm 19 years late, but I might write these creatures in some situations later.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-05 09:49 pm (UTC)From:I don't think that sounds silly. I know I would be a different person if I had seen Sailor Moon as a kid but I didn't get to watch it until college.
… and your post is making me want to finish reading Death Note. I got spoiled for a very big and important twist when I was 3-4 volumes in and I couldn't bring myself to keep reading.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-07 06:02 am (UTC)From:I am very curious about what this spoiler was, but I am generally... kind of aware of what's going on. I'm on like episode 23 or so of the anime, I think.
Generally, I do not care about spoilers, but SOMEHOW I managed to almost completely miss any cultural osmosis except what a death note was.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-08 04:59 am (UTC)From:I looked up the spoiler - I read the manga, I've never seen the anime - and it hasn't happened yet as of E23 so I won't say anything! I'm not usually put off by spoilers but two manga I'd been reading had been spoiled for me in a big way totally by accident in 48 hours and this one was a doozy.
I saw some Death Note gacha in Nakano Broadway yesterday and thought of you!
no subject
Date: 2026-02-08 07:05 am (UTC)From:I got to what I think is probably the big spoiler, because there seems to be a timeskip and an AO3-archive-warnable thing happened.
I'm going through it.
Part of my early involvement in fandom, I think, was that I started being homeschooled for a while in 4th grade.
ETA: it's so sweet that you thought of me at all. I often think of myself as relatively impressionless except with those people I'm VERY close to over many years. <3