Takeshi Obata, the renowned artist of Death Note and Hikaru no Go, made his first U.S. appearance earlier this month at New York Comic Con, where he participated in a couple of panels, met with journalists and signed autographs. Viz Media, which played host to Obata, was on hand to capture video (below) of the artist banging out sketches of Death Note characters Ryuk and L for undoubtedly ecstatic fans.

Obata spoke with ROBOT 6's Brigid Alverson at the convention about character design, saying, "The clothes I put the characters in obviously become part of the characters, so I am really careful about how I dress them, for sure. I take a lot of care in that."

However, he admitted that occasionally, as with Death Note's shinigami, he creates a design that becomes too much of a challenge to draw. "I always end up drawing something really detailed in the beginning," Obata said, "and it gets really difficult as I keep doing it and I think I should have done something a little bit simpler."