Another Note: Fallacies and what-nots
I first read Another Note in 2009, and I'm rereading it again. The first time I read it I was like, "cool! Almost a perfect crime!" and came to the point of comparing it to Dostoyevsky's or Doyle's works.
But yesterday, when I reread it, I realized, yes, it's good, but it's not the best detective story in the world. My reasons? Keep on reading , I'll let you know.
1. The victims have [overly] ridiculous names. Okay, we know Mr. Ishin (Another Note's author) is a japanese, and that japanese names have meanings, like Yagami as "night" and "god" that can be taken literally. But Backyard Bottomslash? Quarter Queen? They have the worst parents in the whole wide world. It's like, "hey Quarter, do you have a dime?" Really now guys, they will not grow as normal adults because their childhood will be a nightmare. 'nuff said.
2. Misora was asked destroy her laptop after reading L's message. Well, I understand L's security is the security of the world, but destroy the laptop? You can just reformat it. Or run a new OS to overwrite the other.
3. The crossword Puzzle. Misora had a little suspect on Ryuzaki having the possession of it, but if I were her, I'd tell L I've got the killer contained, basically because only the police has it. L got a copy because of his connections, but a 'un'private detective? No way. That only means he's the killer.
4. Akazukin Cha Cha. So much of a coincidence that Ryuzaki's favorite manga is Akazukin Cha Cha, a manga that proved to be substantial in knowing the message of the killer. And the fact that he knew the number of pages. Misora should have told L that.
5. BB and QQ. Misora said the killer might have had difficulty in finding a person with the initials BB for the second and third time, that;'s why he resorted to a QQ instead. However, I'll wager my savings that QQ is harder to find than BB. I mean, there's a lot of names and surnames starting with B, like, Barry Battlefield, or Bianca Bern, or Blythe Brunswick. The setting is in America after all. A BB initials is not uncommon. And I tell you you can count on your fingers people with names starting with Q, much less with Q surnames.
6. The victim's death coincided with the killer's plans. Even if he does have shinigami eyes and he can see everyone's death, it's so coincidental that the right victims had death dates coinciding the 9-4-9-9 pattern of the killer. Mathematically, that's an impossibility.
7. The killer's own act of terminating his own life. Now this is a big gamble for the killer. Ishin said that "the killer saw Misora and her remaining life, which is still long, so killing her will be a failure". The killer scheduled his suicide, but that doesn't mean it will coincide with the numbers on the top of his head. Persons with shinigami eyes can't see their own death date, or another person's if he has Death Note wth him. So him winning? 0.001%
-Just my couple of cents.
~LL