The influences behind Death Note

2003

Death Note

Tsugumi Ohba

Heisei. Japan. Written in Japanese.

Death Note (2003-2006), written by Tsugumi Ohba and drawn by Takeshi Obata for Weekly Shonen Jump, follows a student, Light Yagami, who finds a shinigami's notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it, and the detective L who hunts him. It joins a cat-and-mouse detective duel to a Faustian bargain with a death god and a Raskolnikov-style theory of justified murder.

Where it came from

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1887

A Study in Scarlet

Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian. England. Written in English.

First Sherlock Holmes novel, introducing the eccentric consulting detective and his chronicler Dr. Watson.

What it handed down

To Death Note (2003)

Thematic kinship, probable.

L is a reclusive genius detective with odd habits, deductive leaps and a contempt for ordinary police work, a type Doyle fixed with Holmes. L's aged assistant Watari, who handles his practical affairs, occupies a Watson-like position. The detective genre conventions reach Death Note through this line rather than through any stated debt.

To Arsène Lupin versus Herlock Sholmes

Direct source, well documented.

Leblanc borrowed Holmes himself, with Watson, renaming them Herlock Sholmes and Wilson after Doyle objected. The book sets the master thief against Doyle's detective in a series of matched contests.

Where it came from

Find “A Study in Scarlet” on Amazon

1869

Monsieur Lecoq

Émile Gaboriau

Second Empire. France. Written in French.

Novel of a young police detective who reconstructs a crime from footprints and traces, a key model for the scientific detective.

What it handed down

To A Study in Scarlet (1887)

Direct source, well documented.

Gaboriau's detective, who reconstructs events from footprints in snow, gave Doyle a model for scientific trace reading. Holmes names Lecoq in A Study in Scarlet and calls him 'a miserable bungler', acknowledging the model while claiming to surpass it.

Where it came from

The line stops here: minor branch.

Find “Monsieur Lecoq” on Amazon

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Death Note (2003)

To Arsène Lupin versus Herlock Sholmes

Where it came from

What it handed down

To A Study in Scarlet (1887)

Where it came from

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