What Edition of Death Note Should I Buy?

[4kUltraBD]

Hello all,

As you may (or may not) be aware, I made my first manga purchase with Akira vol 1, then ordered the other 5 volumes from Right Stuf, and then ended up ordering the Akira box set from AMZ.

While I am an Akira fan, I would have preferred to have only purchased one set of books, to save money and shelf space.

I watched the Death Note anime (a while back now) and liked it so much, that I eventually picked up the series on BD.

Now that I have kick started my manga collection (if you can call it that yet), I have decided I would like to get the manga for Death Note.

However, Death Note is currently available in three different "formats" (so-to-speak). First, there is the box set, that contains all of the single volumes in a nice looking cardboard box. Secondly, there is the 2-in-1 Black editions, that condense the 12 volumes into 6 volumes, and has bigger pages. Finally, there's the low cost all-in-one edition, that shrinks down the size and thickness of the pages, to fit it into a hunk of a single book.

As someone who has never read the manga before, I am leaning toward the box set or black editions. I am afraid the all-in-one edition may not hold up well, and my old man eyes would appreciate the larger (easier to read) bigger pages of the standard or black editions. Also, and I may be wrong about this, but the black editions seems to be a more premium (nicer) set than the regular individual volumes from Viz? I don't know if that's true, or just YouTube talk.

Alternately, I like the idea of having each volume be it's own individual book, I think the box set comes with the companion volume 13, and I like the idea of having the nice cardboard box to store them in.

Because of these reasons, I am really torn on what direction to go here.

What say all of you?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Talal86]

Probably too late, but I think I would've gone with the black edition because of the bigger pages if i had the choice

I have the boxset, but I bought it before there was another edition

[GeoffOliver]

Get the black edition. It's easy and simple to collect, looks gorgeous, has all the color pages, and isn't bulky like that weird edition that compiles the entire series in one book.

[InuYashaCrusade]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

Get the black edition. It's easy and simple to collect, looks gorgeous, has all the color pages, and isn't bulky like that weird edition that compiles the entire series in one book.

I like how the black edition pages won't turn yellow over time.

[gloomranger]

I’ll go against the grain and recommend the All-in-One Edition. It may not be the most practical way to collect the series, but if you ever find yourself traveling or just somewhere you can enjoy a good book, then the All-in-One Edition is for you. It’s compact and can fit into any bag without too much trouble. I will warn that my recommendation is not the best case scenario however if you’re a collector.

[InuYashaCrusade]

Originally Posted by gloomranger

I’ll go against the grain and recommend the All-in-One Edition. It may not be the most practical way to collect the series, but if you ever find yourself traveling or just somewhere you can enjoy a good book, then the All-in-One Edition is for you. It’s compact and can fit into any bag without too much trouble. I will warn that my recommendation is not the best case scenario however if you’re a collector.

How does the spine hold up though?

[gloomranger]

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I’ve heard the spine holds up well enough, but you should expect some creasing if you do intend to actually read it.