Viz Media has announced that a new collection of short stories by the original writers of Death Note will see release in Summer 2022, and among them is a strange and controversial story starring a character seemingly based on the forty-fifth President of the United States, Donald Trump.
Despite its manga run having ended in 2006, Death Note has remained a popular series across the world. After live film adaptations both theatrically in Japan and from Netflix, interest in the series peaked again, prompting the series' creators Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata to return to the franchise. This culminated in the release of the anthology book Death Note: Short Stories, which came out in Japan in February 2021, and included among these shorts is the newest work in the series' universe, "The a-Kira Story."
"The a-Kira Story" first debuted publicly in 2019, during an expo in Japan celebrating Ohba's 30-year-long career. At the time, it was unnamed, and thus has been referred to by fans as the "Never Complete One-Shot," taking its name from that of the exhibit. The story involves Ryuk returning to the human world with the Death Note, hoping to find someone who will be as much fun to watch as Light was. The boy he offers it to this time, Minoru, asks for a two-year delay before taking possession of it, and decides over that time that he'll auction the Death Note off to the highest bidder. Of course, such a potent weapon draws the attention of many powerful people, including the then-president of the United States. While Donald Trump isn't named in the story, the American president's appearance is unambiguously that of Trump. Now, Viz Media has announced the compendium will release in summer 2022.
Since the story was available in such a limited form, it has mostly managed to avoid scrutiny from American media, but an English translation may change that. As with other Death Note stories, it plays up many of its characters' flaws and worst behaviors, and the former president is certainly no exception to that. His portrayal is far from flattering, and the story's resolution seems to be a very pointed shot, as the president refuses a new stipulation that says he will have to die for America to take ownership of and 'safeguard' the Death Note, resolving to simply lie to the world about possessing it instead. Manga rarely gets into current events, so this marked departure from the norm seems to imply that Ohba had some strong opinions about Donald Trump that he needed to express.
"The a-Kira Story" was the first new Death Note material created in over a decade, as Ohba and Obata had been busy working on Platinum End, among other projects. Other shorts in the collection include the original Death Note pilot chapter, two brief shorts about Kira's detective adversary L, and one called "The C-Kira Story," which pits L's successor Near against an imitator of the original Kira. Many of these stories have not been translated or officially released in English before, including Donald Trump's appearance, making this the biggest release of new Death Note content outside of Japan in years.
Source: Viz Media
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