I hate to say it, but the fifth volume of “Death Note” is not on par with the first four volumes.

In episodes 17-20 (“Execution,” “Ally,” “Matsuda,” and “Makeshift”) we find that Light (and Misa) are still being imprisoned by L as he suspects them of being the two Kira killers. Little does L know that Light has now given away his Death Note book and has had all of his memories revolving around his murderous deeds erased from his mind. Now in possession of the Death Note is a greedy corporation named Yotsuba whom are killing off other business people. A little ways into the episodes, L finally lets Misa and Light go, but keeps them under heavy surveillance. The rest of the episodes deal with L, Light and gang trying to investigate the Yotsuba corporation.

For the first 16 episodes of “Death Note,” I was completely riveted and shocked by how the writers managed to pull out so many intense plot twists and turns. Sadly, that fast-paced energy is absent in these four episodes as the Yotsuba subplot is merely filler to stall/prolong the series. I’m hoping this plot does not overstay its welcome as it would be a shame for the series to lose its way.

Another issue I had was with the focus on the bumbling character Matsuda. It’s fine if the writers want to give a secondary character a larger role, but having him screw up and be a nuisance is merely annoying to watch. You would think the brilliant L would have fired him and removed him from the case by now.

The 16X9 widescreen picture is generally clear, although I did notice a few of the quick character movements caused the image to be blurry. Viewers can watch the show in Japanese with English subtitles or an English dubbed version. The audio on both tracks is perfectly audible. The two tracks are presented in Dolby Digital Stereo.

Extras include production art, an 11 minute behind the scenes featurette on voice actor Chris Britton (who does the character Soichiro Yagami) and commentary on episode 17 by Chris Britton and Karl Willems.