Editing Death Note (section)

===Concepts===
====The notebooks====
The core [[plot device]] of the story is the "Death Note" itself, a black notebook with instructions (known as "Rules of the Death Note") written on the inside. When used correctly, it allows anyone to commit a murder, knowing only the victim's name and face. According to the director of the live-action films, [[Shusuke Kaneko]], "The idea of spirits [[Kotodama|living in words]] is an ancient Japanese concept.... In a way, it's a very Japanese story".<ref name="wired.com">{{cite magazine|title=Death Note Manga Spawns Movie, Crime Wave|url=https://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/news/2008/05/death_note|magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]|date=May 19, 2008|access-date=August 24, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130809001934/http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/news/2008/05/death_note|archive-date=August 9, 2013 }}</ref>

Artist Takeshi Obata originally thought of the books as "Something you would automatically think was a Death Note". Deciding that this design would be cumbersome, he instead opted for a more accessible college notebook. Death Notes were originally conceived as changing based on time and location, resembling scrolls in ancient Japan, or the [[Old Testament]] in medieval Europe. However, this idea was never used.<ref name="HowtoRead140">{{cite book|last1=Ohba|first1=Tsugumi|last2=Obata|first2=Takeshi|title=Death Note 13: How to Read|year=2008|page=[https://archive.org/details/deathnote00ohba_0/page/149 149]|publisher=[[Viz Media]]|isbn=978-1-4215-1888-6|url=https://archive.org/details/deathnote00ohba_0/page/149}}</ref>

====Themes====
Writer Tsugumi Ohba had no particular themes in mind for ''Death Note''. When pushed, he suggested: "Humans will all eventually die, so let's give it our all while we're alive".<ref name="HowtoRead69">{{cite book|last=Ohba|first=Tsugumi|title=Death Note 13: How to Read|year=2008|page=[https://archive.org/details/deathnote00ohba_0/page/69 69]|publisher=[[Viz Media]]|isbn=978-1-4215-1888-6|url=https://archive.org/details/deathnote00ohba_0/page/69}}</ref> In a 2012 paper, author Jolyon Baraka Thomas characterised ''Death Note'' as a psychological thriller released in the wake of the 1995 [[Tokyo subway sarin attack]], saying that it examines the human tendency to express itself through "horrific" cults.<ref name="JJRS_Thomas_2012">{{cite journal|last=Thomas|first=Jolyon Baraka|title=Horrific "Cults" and Comic Religion|journal=[[Japanese Journal of Religious Studies]]|volume=39|issue=1|pages=127–151}}</ref>