July 22, 2007
'Death Note' website shuts down; creepy Chinese youth seek new ways to be morbid
Shanghai Daily tells us that city officials have shut down Dofor.cn (now taken offline) - a portal here that's been posting videos of the Japanese manga and anime series Death Note which has been banned nationwide in China for supposedly promoting death fantasies:
The novel tells the story of a teenage boy who receives a special notebook. Whenever he writes the name of an enemy in the book, along with a description of how and when that person dies, the enemy dies exactly as described.
The book caused a major sensation in Japan which led many youths to start buying Death Note notebooks to describe the deaths of the people they hate. Not long afterwards, youth in China started to do the same, and the novel was soon banned nationwide. It took a little longer for officials to crack down on the Web 2.0 incarnation of the death wish phenomenon.
Westerners may note parallels to MyDeathSpace, the website that archives MySpace pages of the deceased, frozen with all the flashing graphics and cloying music present at the time of their death. Though originally interested in obituaries of the deceased (and raising the occasional flag on convicted killers with webpages), MyDeathSpace's forums became an outlet for youthful morbidity and general creepiness. And, of course, parental outrage and a collective cringe from pretty much everyone else.
Shielded by free speech laws, MyDeathSpace perseveres. Is China better off without its wishful-thinking version? If MyDeathSpace's 123 international members are any indication, even without Death Note, morbid members of the Chinese youth shouldn't have a problem finding new and exciting ways to express their totally creepy fantasies, much to the dismay of adults and non-creepy people everywhere.
Kenneth Tan contributed to this story.
Picture from Answers.com: The popularity of Death Note has led to its adaption as a movie, a novel and a Nintendo game.
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Hello?! what the?? have you ever seen Death Note?!?! Death Note is NOT morbid it is a fantastic anime! me and all my friends are proud to say that Death Note is one of the best anime's ever. Death Note is not morbid and i do not think it should be banned anywhere at anythime :)
thnx Beaner
plz do not delete this comment it is an opinion and none offencive.
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I would have to agree with you Beaner. I've watched the entire death not series in a weekend and yeah it "seems" a little morbid but if you think about it... its no different from a horror or suspense movie. People just need to sit down and watch it to understand. I wonder if the video game is any good also.
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of course people are going to take an idea like "deathnote" WAY out of hand.
The idea of the series is morbid but the way that the writer presents it can only be seen as a little twisted.
and of course Japanese and Chinese youth are going to take it too far, because they are seeing the idea of a deathnote as more than just fiction.
deep down in every single person, there is the sense of wanting to be stronger or more powerful than everyone else.
that is what the deathnote does.
it gives supreme power to the one that owns it.
to have the power to control someones life, and not only their life but the way they act before they die(to a certain degree).
it is....god-like.
I do not agree with them banning the series one bit, because it is a brilliant series.
but the people who made "mydeathspace" are the real morbid people.
why would u want to gather with a bunch of possible killers or death yurning youths.
and not only that, what would they have to talk about their that they couldn't just go to myspace or some other site and talk about.
I believe that todays youth morns for death(as brought to us by the "emo" stereotype)
that is why the youth is so morbid.
not from a manga or anime series.
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