Death Note: Tokubetsu-hen

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Death Note was a fantastic manga and anime series--sometimes, in the entertainment industry, really successful works get the creators thinking: "So many people liked this. What can we do to keep making profit off the fans?" This usually spawns a sequel, but a general rule of movies/books/etc. is that sequels for profit just don't work. Death Note is one of the latest victims of this, with a one-shot "follow-up" that leaves the readers wondering what was the point.

Story: This is Death Note, after all. The story, limited as it was, involves another Death Note killer. Three years after the ending of the original series, people ... begin dying mysteriously once again. However, this murderer's victims are very different from the original Kira's. The story revolves around that to an extent, but there isn't half as much drive or suspense as in the original. I suppose that is to be expected from a one-shot, but the way it was presented was quite uninteresting. The only thing worth reading was a short flashback of L speaking with the Wammy's House orphans, which gives a little more well-deserved insight into L's character.
Beyond that interesting little tidbit, the story played out like a really bad fanfiction that happened to be written by a professional. The professional, actually: Ohba's still the writer here. This is surprising because you would expect it to be so much better, being written by the original author.
The whole concept of another Death Note user just seems to ruin the whole idea for me: the series' ending was wonderful as it was. I, for one, was perfectly content with how it ended, and to be honest, the original idea of Death Note can only be used once: after that, it's being recycled and is not as good.

Art: The art was way off this time; the characters we know and love all look different, and not just because it takes place three years later. For instance, the adults. The way they were drawn, they just looked...different. I can't think of a better way to describe it. It seemed like the artist decided to slop his way through it, or maybe forgot how to draw the characters since it's been a little while. But that's unlikely.

Character: Terrible. Ohba wasn't thinking straight, because most of the characters are unforgivably "OOC." There are one or two new characters, but the others have weirdly different personalities all of a sudden.
I'm not condemning the characters because of their lack of development--since this is a one-shot story, that's to be expected--but for how out-of-character everyone was.

Enjoyment: I'll name the two enjoyable things: the orphanage flashback, and the fact that Near is now building a Card House Empire that fills up an entire large room. Even better than the original Dice City that I liked so much.

Overall: Since the whole purpose of this one-shot was to make the creators money, and they didn't seem all that interested in keeping to the original series' pace and tone, and felt like majorly messing with the story's canon, there is very little merit to reading this. Unless you want to demonstrate how very, very bad sequels can get, skip it. You'll be no less of a Death Note fan for doing so.

To be honest, the only thing I liked about this was the art. I like how Obata Takeshi draws.

The rest, though... *sigh*

I don't like Near, so I guess I really shouldn't have read it. But I was curious about what would happen after the events of Death Note and...

Surprisingly, NOTHING happens. When you think something interesting is about to happen, the story cuts itself short and you're left wondering why did you waste time reading it and why did the creators waste time writing/drawing it in the first place.

I think it's best to just leave Death Note with the original ending, this is just a ... "plus" for hardcore fans (and even so, I doubt they liked it).

Quick version: Read for the characters, but definitely not the story

As someone who has loved Death Note for a long time, I was pretty excited when I found out there were 2 one shot spinoff chapters that I hadn't read yet.
It was fun to see some of the characters again, and they feel like the same characters they were in the original series, even though the only ones who I felt really got to say anything worthwhile were Matsuda, Near and Ryuk. Not only that, but this story also serves as a way to show that L and Light were on whole levels above ... everyone around them in the way it portrays the characters that now try to fill their respective shoes. The characters are the only reason I would recommend reading this.
Unfortunately, despite seeing all the classic characters again, this story was pretty boring for a pretty simple reason; nothing really happens. The entire thing feels like a set up to something else until the last couple of pages where everything gets resolved instantly. None of the mind games, suspense, crazy plot twists or long term plans that made the original great are in this, so don't go in expecting it to be anything like it.