Are the Death Note manga volumes different in Japanese and English?

Here is the honest verdict, earned cover by cover below: Takeshi Obata's twelve tankobon covers are the same paintings in Japan and in English. Viz did not commission new art, crop the compositions, or redesign a single volume. Put the Japanese and English editions side by side, as this page does for all twelve, and the illustrations are identical, volume for volume, from Boredom to Finis. What differs is the book built around the painting: the credits language, the publisher's banners, the paper sash Japan wraps its books in, and the formats each market invented afterward, which is where the real differences, and the collector interest, actually live.

The Japanese tankobon is a Jump Comics paperback with the title in the series' fractured logo, the authors credited in Japanese, and, on copies that kept it, an obi: the printed advertising band folded around the lower cover, carrying the publisher's boasts and tie in announcements. English editions have no obi and never did; the sash is a Japanese retail custom, and its presence on a Japanese copy is a completeness point, not an edition marker. The English book instead wears the Shonen Jump Advanced banner and English credits in the same positions. Same painting, two retail cultures.