Death Note Rip-off Becoming Popular With South Korean Schoolchildren
According to a Japanese TV news report from earlier this week, a red notebook that is based on the notebook found in the popular manga/anime/movie Death Note is becoming a hit with South Korean schoolkids:
The notebook, which has been released under the title “Red Notebook,” does not claim any connection to Death Note, but given the popularity of Death Note in South Korea, it would be pretty hard to claim the Japanese series didn’t inspire it. Just like the magic notebook in Death Note, if you write the name of a person in the “Red Notebook” along with a description of a a horrible incident that will befall them, it is said that it will definitely happen to them. According to the Japanese report, “Red Notebook” is particularly popular among South Korean schoolchildren, who can vent their frustration against bullies by writing in the notebook about how and when the bully should die. They take a look at the inside of a “Red Notebook” written by a 5th year elementary schoolgirl, and find that she has written “I want X to die in a traffic accident so that he/she will no longer be able to say ‘elementary schoolers don’t think about anything,’ to me again.” Within one page, the girl has written the word “die” a total of 9 times. The publisher of the notebook has stated that it should only be used for fun, but it’s hard to see any good in this kind of product. I really hope it doesn’t catch on in Japan…
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I wonder if the Koreans would get their own version of Jigoku Shoujo too?
Hmmm. How many notebooks are filled with “Japan should sink into the East Sea because they won’t recognise our rightful claim to Dokdo”?
Too many to count!
This issue was immediately raised in Japan when Death Note became popular, that imitators could so easily turn the idea of the fate-spelling notebook into a tool of bullying and harassment.
Thankfully this didn’t turn into a big issue in Japan, but I do have to wonder what the Koreans were thinking when they marketed this item directly to kids. I guess I just have to assume they didn’t care what happened as long as the notebook sold…
Also, this seems to be becoming an issue in China as well.
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20070511-00000007-rcdc-cn
It’s already becoming a problem with the voodoo dolls in China. I read a report where little kids would buy those dolls and stick needles in them, all the while imagining them to represent the people they hate. I can see how this phenomenon can be psychologically healing for some, but damaging for others. Worst of all, it may prevent kids from getting professional help but instead breed hatred within their fragile hearts.
The issue of the video wasn’t that it was a ripoff of a Japanese story. Even as a Japanese, I would have to argue that this isn’t a copyright infringement. There have always been stories about notebooks or chainletters and stuff that will curse you or kill you. Death Note wasn’t unique to come up with that. Death Note’s popularity came from the characters, not the death note itself.
That having been said, I think notebooks like this have always existed at least in Japan (so I wouldn’t be surprised if they surfaced in Korea). But never were they sold as a product to children…. that’s just terrible.
I guess these notebooks will make for handy evidence for the police, should one of these kids suddenly go postal.
…i have a deathnote….
i only write my friend’s names in it as fun, and make them die in strange ways like “getting hit by a candy truck” or “drowning in a giant vat of pudding”.
hehehehe kuroi desu noto, aka desu noto hahahaha such crazy, insidious ideas these =P