Essay :: Characterization III

Characterization III (Obata Takeshi, Death Note)
by Telophase
original text

SPOILER WARNING. Plot and/or ending details follow.

Part III of the Characterization essay, using the intro panels of DEATH NOTE characters. Read Part I for the introduction to DEATH NOTE, why the names I'm using differ from the names in the panels, and why the image quality's bad. Panels are from Chapter 59, but no plot spoilers.

And this is the essay that finally clears up my comment in the first character essay about lamps growing out of people's heads not being a mistake. You were just dying to know that, weren't you?

The previous two essays dealt with the page where Mello and Near are introduced. Here's another full page from that chapter.

The first panel really hits home the truth about Mello and Near's relationship with the other kids in the orphanage. Here comes this flood of kids, sort of boiling around Mr. Roger in one big mostly light-colored mass. Then there's a space. Then Mello, in black. Bullying another kid, by the by. You can just see Near's butt in the room beyond in the space between Mello and the other kids, remaining apart from the crowd. The blank white expense of wall and the mostly-light clothing of the kids combines with their movement to give an indication of happiness and activity. Then you get to the dark area of the picture - the door into the next room It's greyed out, partially to give the sense that it's receding and is on a picture plane behind the kids in the foreground, partially to frame Mello, and partially to make Near darker than the other kids. He may not be the bully that Mello is, but he's not really a part of the throng.

The aide is saying "Oh, Mr. Roger" to let us know that this guy is someone important, probalby the head of the orphanage, and also to set up something that will hit home on the next page. I'll be bringing this up again later: just remember the aide saying the line.

Onto the next panel, a closeup of the interaction between Mr. Roger, Mello, and the bullied kid. I can't tell whether this is the same kid that Mello hit with the soccer ball earlier because of the quality of the scan, but it doesn't really matter. The kid's smaller than Mello, and I'm interpreting what's going on as the kid being angry and attacking Mello, with Mello holding him off by just stiff-arming him in the head, so that the kid's swinging his arms wildly, but they're never quite reaching because he's smaller.

Note also that the aide doesn't seem to care about what's going on, and that while Mr Roger is separating them and placing a comforting hand on the kid's head, Mello isn't getting reprimanded as such. Mr. Roger's expression is sort of sad, but because of Plot Reasons I can't tell you why I think hs expression has more to do with other things and not Mello's bullying. Mello also isn't concerned that he's going to get punished or lectured; his response to Mr. Roger is just "Hm?"

The third panel is from the room behind them; Mr. Roger's getting Near's attention, while still hanging on to Mello, possibly in an attempt to keep him from running off (does it look to anyone else like he's got Mello's other arm now? I can't tell from the scan). Mello's still an active triangle while Near's again more solid and stable - his body is drawn up, but his right arm is extending to wident he base of the triangle. The lines in this panel all lead to Mr. Roger.

Also note that the jigsaw puzzle is almost complete - that was a pretty big puzzle, and for a kid to complete it that fast...? Pretty impressive kid.

Here's the visual flow through the page:

There's no really strong path through the entire page, but Obata tends not to do that - he'll put strong visual lines through groups of panels instead, which is what he's done here. He's also separated the top panel from the bottom ones, to strengthen the break in the visual continuity.

Now, the top panel from the next page:

This is a really strong panel, compositionally and textually. Remember how the aide said "Mr. Roger?" There's Mello, this kid, calling the principal of his school "Roger," with no honorific. And he's not getting reprimanded for it. From what I understand about the Japanese language and how the honorifics work, this is very strong. Not only that, the speech balloon is dead center. You're supposed to notice immediately that something is not right about the power dynamics here.

The composition minimizes Mr. Roger. He's sitting down and blocked behind a desk, and he's looking down, not looking the kids in the eye. He's not reprimanding Mello and not trying to get control of the situation back. The camera is looking up from floor level, making Mello the dominant figure. He's a triangle again, a long tall one. Mr. Roger, in contrast, is really a rectangle. Near is also a triangle.

The desk is diferently lighted - it's lighter behind Mello and darker behind Near, but this is to make them both pop out of the frame at you. Same reason that there's lighter books behind Mello and darker books behind Near in teh bookcase - that's not something tha tpops out at you as strange unless you're deliberately looking for it, and you're left with the impression of a bunch od undifferentiated books.

I say Mello is dominating the composition, but he's actually sharing the dominance. Near by all rights ought to the a minor part of it, because he's crouched so small, but he's in white, which draws the eye and balances him out with Mello. Near's still dominant over Mr. Roger, too, thanks to that lamp. See how it's growing out of Near's head? Not an accident. Normally this would be a mistake: photographers are cautioned to make sure lamps and street signs and things aren't growing out of the heads of their subjects, but in thsi case it would ahve been a simple matter to either not draw it, or to slap some tone on it and fade it into teh background. Instead, the artist leaves it white. This increases the perceived size of Near, making him bigger to balance Mello and to dominate Mr. Roger. It also balances the composition of the panel, and keeps it from visually falling over to one side.

Here I colored in the major elements of the panel:

And here it is again, without the panel behind it, so you can look at the composition without getting distracted by the details:

See how Mr. Roger is hemmed in and trapped by the boys and the speech bubble? And how Mello's still got an arrow pointing to his head, created by the space between his legs? And how the most important elements of the panel are encased within the darker shapes of the bookcase, desk, and carpet, which is then framed by the lighter windows?

The situation here of a powerful man talking to supposedly less-powerful individuals is turned around. Usually when you're standing in front of a desk and someone is seated behind it, they're the person in charge of the situation, and you feel awkward because you're taller and exposed. Not these kids. Mello's taking control of the situation physically and verbally, with his informal "What's up?" type line.

Near is still a strong presence, but he's in control for an entirely different reason. He's takent eh opportunity to seat himself, despite the lack of a chair, and ... he's paging through a book. When you were a kid and you were called to the principal's office, did you bring a book and take it out and start reading in front of him when he was talking to you? Knowing some of you on my friends list, you probably did, but didn't you expect to be called out for it? And Near's not reprimanded. He's got more power than Mr. Roger, the supposed adult in charge. [ edit ]

ahsirakh pointed out in the comments that I mistook the thing on Near's lap - it's the jigsaw puzzle, in a wooden frame as you see in a panel which I didn't post here because there's a wee bit of potential spoilery stuff in it, and he's got it all finished except for a few pieces (what was reading as a page to me is Near's thumb, from the hand holding the final pieces). It doesn't change the effect - the principal calls him into the office, and he brings the puzzle and sits there on the floor doing it instead of paying attention to Mr. Roger - but it adds a bit more depth to the scene because of said Spoilery Stuff [TM] in the panel below it.

And one more thing before I close this out: while Mello is connecting verbally with Mr. Roger, I think he's still antagonistic. He's in a defiant stance, using deliberately casual language, and he's visually separate, with dark clothing. Near, on the other hand, isn't paying any attention to Mr. Roger, but the lamp, Near, and Mr. Roger's pants are the brightest spots in that big dark area. I think this is to show how Near is still allied with Mr. Roger, even though he's not obviously attending to him.

So that's it for Mello and Near for now. If I come up with any more ideas or anyone else has any, I'll make even more posts. :) Have fun!