Halloween Special: My In-depth opinion about "Death Note"
Hello and happy Halloween!
'tis the spooky season and what way to celebrate it but with a spooky themed article.
I shall delve into the world of Death Note, a worldly famous franchise that talks about homicide by letter, as the great Samurai Miyamoto Mushashi once said "Like a sword, a word can wound" and for the most part, this quote doesn't have a direct relation to our topic today, I just wanted to include it because it sounds extremely cool and it has something to do with letters *smirks*
Before we begin, I just want to place a disclaimer right here, which goes as follows:
Death Note & Death Note: The Last Name
Released in 2017, duration is 1 hour and 40 minutes.
For the most part, the synopsis was somewhat similar, some factors were changed such as, only the owner of the book can see the reaper, which overall I guess that point was fine to change.
Come with me on this journey of ranting and relief.
First: the name, from Yagami Light to Light Turner, wait, wut?!
I for one did not think it fit, but I guess they wanted to keep the name, yet because this name exists, it became somewhat a joke, technically when you think about it, this is practically Fairly Odd Parents, but dark and gore....no wonder that parody exists, and to be quite frank, I am not mad , I am impressed.
How about the CGI? to be honest, it is fine, I am not impressed though, cause at some point it is obvious that they added the Asian gore effects and for some odd reason....I do not think it fits.
They changed Ryuk's overall look, to the point that it does not feel like Ryuk, the editing on his voice is perfect though, William Dafoe truly did amazing and served justice :p
Let us get back to the star of the show, Light, I'll say this in points, so I don't drag this far:
Now before I end this, can we talk about St. Martin aka the secretive "Future Detectives House"?
I know it is a norm to place controversial matters like potential cult symbols and such, which this place carried left and right, making the abandoned home wreak of horror and discomfort, yet it fit the setting of the movie, I still remain uncomfy to the visuals, something just told me I do not wanna be brought up there, but that's just me...I guess.
In addition to this, I feel people should give the Netflix adaptation a chance, it may not be as per what we are used to, but how the movie was made fit the criteria it serves and has it's own charms in that matter, I won't say that I liked it, but I also cannot say that it was necessarily a bad production, the ending has opened up a window of thought on whether they will produce a part 2 of the movie, did L go crazy? would Light's father forgive Light for what he did? would Light suspend himself from committing crimes now? and if so, would Ryuk try to find a new Kira? is that how they would introduce Misa, if they introduce Misa?
'tis the spooky season and what way to celebrate it but with a spooky themed article.
I shall delve into the world of Death Note, a worldly famous franchise that talks about homicide by letter, as the great Samurai Miyamoto Mushashi once said "Like a sword, a word can wound" and for the most part, this quote doesn't have a direct relation to our topic today, I just wanted to include it because it sounds extremely cool and it has something to do with letters *smirks*
Before we begin, I just want to place a disclaimer right here, which goes as follows:
- All that I shall mention here are purely my own words and opinions, feel free to agree or disagree, but please be thoughtful and don't @ me :p just kidding, all this is up for debate, I would love to here your thoughts on the matter.
- For the most part, it shall be an un-bias look over the matter, especially when it comes to the live action adaptation(s)
- In regards of scenes that I may potentially use within this article, mainly is for visual aid and a mind refresher, ALSO KNOWN AS "Fair Use Disclaimer" copyright disclaimer under section 107 of copyright act 1976, allowance is made for fair use which has the following: criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and/or research (and yes, I stole this disclaimer from Tea Spill, hehe, if you are into drama and the latest news within the beauty community, I say check them out :3 click on their name to get redirected to their page)
- Assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of this site. The information contained in this site is provided on an “as is” basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness or timeliness
- All rights reserved to the original Authors, Producers and owners of the franchise
- SPOILERS AHEAD, READ WITH DISCRETION
- Wikipedia helped out with the names of the cast , so thank you Wiki
- In regards of identifying the Netflix Light from the Japanese Light, I shall refer the Netflix version as Light and the Japanese version as Lighto
Now that is aside, let us start this bloodbath *wink wink*
The plan for the article is as follows, so feel free to skip to an intro that you would like to read about, if you wanna go straight into my raw-opinion, you may, but if you wanna read a certain part, the article will split up accordingly:
- Manga History (Canon and non-canon)
- Anime History
- Live Action(s) History (Death Note, Death Note: The Last Name, Death Note: Light Up the New World, Death Note: Netflix)
- Overall opinion
- Curiosity Inquiries
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This a story of a boy, who has his own ideals of justice, that comes from a family that are law-abiding citizens and a mysterious book, that drops within the boy's gaze, how skeptic he reacted to it, the rules of using the book and how it changed his life forever.
From another corner, lays a mysterious figure, an eccentric investigator with a sweet tooth and a loyal right hand personnel, a mysterious past, a penchant to solving almost impossible cases with a high success rate, lingering for a ....friend...
A broken-hearted female that lingers through life on her goal of helping out the figure she worships in completing his goal, revenge and maybe finding a place to call home
A father that was tasked to handle the case of the mysterious killings and determined to wipe his son's name clean from any accusation, but to what cost?
A tall dark figure, mischievous intent, twisted smile on face, the reason why the main protagonist is on the path of "illusionary justice" and loves apples...
Manga History:
Introduced in the Japanese magazine Shōnen Jump airing weekly from December 2003 to May 2006, with a total of 108 chapters, later on were organised into 12 separate volumes, By April 2005, Death Note was approved for publication in North America by Viz Media and the first English language volume was out in October 2005, 3 years after a one-shot special was released, with a story that followed 2 years after the first story, having a character that follows and later is aspired to be the new Kira and how the main characters reacted to his appearance. The series was written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata.
I believe you know all of this, though I would like to point out something that you may, or may not know about the manga, Before the series that we know today, an epilogue known as " Death Note manga pilot" was given to editors as a test drive of concept and style, it received positive reviews and went into the serialization mode, it follows a boy who found a note one day dropped within his gazing area, he was clueless of the English word "Death" but he knew of the English word "note", innocently and cluelessly he decides to pick it up and use it as a substitute for his worn out notebook/diary, since he started using the Death Note as a diary, he confined his daily life struggles within it, writing names of bullies and whatnot, yet he got nervous when he realized that after writing names into the Death Note, those people started dying, of course at one point he met Ryuk, a shinigami that dropped his Death Note out of boredom to see what would happen, Ryuk noticed the boy's -BTW his name is Taro Kagami- mismatched feelings, which inclined him to introduce an artifact called the "Death Eraser" which revives victims of the Death Note after erasing their names with that magical rubber, which helped Taro to bring back the people he killed, I will not mention anymore, just to leave you some space to go search it out yourself, sadly some aspects of this concept was erased ...ba dum tissss
hahahahahoksorrykthnxbye
Anime History:
Death Note is a 37-episode anime series based on the manga series of the same name. Death Note aired in Japan on the Nippon TV (NTV) network every Tuesday, from October 3, 2006, to June 26, 2007. The plot of the series primarily revolves around high school student Light Yagami, who decides to rid the world of evil with the help of a supernatural notebook called a Death Note. This book causes the death of anyone whose name is written in it and is passed on to Light by the Ryuk after he becomes bored within the Shinigami world.
An episode duration ran for approx. 20 minutes per episode.
Cast members include:
Live Action(s) History:
Death Note & Death Note: The Last Name
Both movies were released in 2006, I wont say much about this, because I'll just be repeating myself, and I do not wanna bore you, but I actually saw this a few years after the anime, of course there were some changes done to it, but overall it was a good film, the manga to film adaptation were split into 2 parts and tried to contain as much of the original as possible.
The first part follows Lighto's story while the second part follows Misa's story on how she became the second and Kira and Lighto joining the special forces and how he managed to clear Misa's name in the eye of justice.
There was a spin off in relation to L, and it is called "L: Change the world" which follows the original story line of the manga and was released back in 2008, it focused on the last 23 days days of the detective's life and him researching a group of terrorists that are spreading a virus to wipe out as many of humanity as possible, this movie was criticized heavily yet it still managed to earn its own series spin off that follows Matsuda Touta, a novel and a photobook, talk about success and satisfying the fandom, that is dedication!
The first part follows Lighto's story while the second part follows Misa's story on how she became the second and Kira and Lighto joining the special forces and how he managed to clear Misa's name in the eye of justice.
There was a spin off in relation to L, and it is called "L: Change the world" which follows the original story line of the manga and was released back in 2008, it focused on the last 23 days days of the detective's life and him researching a group of terrorists that are spreading a virus to wipe out as many of humanity as possible, this movie was criticized heavily yet it still managed to earn its own series spin off that follows Matsuda Touta, a novel and a photobook, talk about success and satisfying the fandom, that is dedication!
Death Note: Light Up the New World
Released in 2016, duration is 2 hours and 14 seconds
Cast:
- Masahiro Higashide as Tsukuru Mishima/Ryo Nakagami, leader of the Death Note task force, who pursues to secure all 6 death notes.
- Sosuke Ikematsu as Ryūzaki, a world class private investigator and the original successor to L.
- Masaki Suda as Yūki Shien, a cyber-terrorist and worshiper of Kira.
- Erika Toda as Misa Amane, a former death note holder and love interest of Light Yagami.
- Rina Kawaei as Sakura Aoi, a mass murderer who believes she is better than Kira, regarded as the deadliest death note user.
- Mina Fujii as Shō Nanase, the only female member of the Death Note task force.
- Nakamura Shidō II as Ryuk, (voice) a shinigami, who returns after 10 years to find the successor of kira.
- Sota Aoyama as Tōta Matsuda, a young detective, who experienced the Kira case 10 years ago.
- Eiichiro Funakoshi as Kenichi Mikuriya, a Supreme Court Justice in possession of a Death Note.
- Miyuki Sawashiro as Arma (voice), a white female shinigami, created based on Sidoh's design.
- Tori Matsuzaka as Beppo (voice), a golden shinigami.
- Kenichi Matsuyama as L, was the greatest detective in the world, who defeated the original Kira.
- Tatsuya Fujiwara as Light Yagami, worldly known as "Kira", a serial killer of criminals and former death note holder.
- Kensei Mikami as Teru Mikami, the guardian of Hikari Yagami and Misa's prosecutor.
I feel like the title itself is a pun to the situation, if you get what I mean hehe, the movie begins with a Russian Doctor treating a very ill person that wanted to die to relief himself from all the pain, prior to the Doctor's visitation a black notebook drops from the sky, curious and skeptical of the note's self proclaimed power and authenticity, he write's his patience's name in.....the story begins...
But no, that is not our protagonist, but I shall get back to this guy later on, of course I enjoyed some scenes from the first Death Note films, this showed us that this movie is in fact a continuation to the first 2 movies and not a new story on it's own, this sequel is around 10 years after the first 2, with new rivalry introduced, this new rivalry has its roots from the original duo Light Yagami and L, neo-kira and Kira against The successor also related by DNA, respectively.
This actually follows a manga spin-off, kira secretly had a son, yet due to the safety of the son and grooming him to be the next kira, Light had an accomplice to godfather and become the gaurdian of the child, with due time the child became obsessed with the power of the Death Note, the godfather had to kill him and devised a plan to find a new kira, yet being a placeholder for the time being.
This actually follows a manga spin-off, kira secretly had a son, yet due to the safety of the son and grooming him to be the next kira, Light had an accomplice to godfather and become the gaurdian of the child, with due time the child became obsessed with the power of the Death Note, the godfather had to kill him and devised a plan to find a new kira, yet being a placeholder for the time being.
My few thoughts on this are:
- This follows the sequel manga with some edited parts in and out of it, which just raised a few questions, will mention them later on.
- Beppo looks like Ultron (the main antagonist, metal head boii from Avengers: Age of Ultron) at first glance, plus why Beppo? this name is sooo cute for a badass Shinigami.
- I think I found another Shinigami favourite of mine, I am talking about Arma, the lady in White, roach-chan, kind hearted, caring & loyal, grape loving shinigami, she is so fancy and classy and beautiful, she fits to be a model on a runway, I was left devastated after knowing her end mirrored another favourite shinigami ....Rem.
- The plot twist, albeit expected, or so I feel like it should have been, still caught me off guard.
- One of the characters told the other "you are the only one that did not go crazy over the Death Note", but that is technically not true, when they were mentioning how the other Death Notes, we know that himiko Touga got hers taken first and she went crazy with it, Wolf of Wall Street used his Death Note to eliminate his adversaries, surely that's greedy of him, the only one who still used it yet it was for...dabatebly for "good", was the Russian Doctor, who eased off terminally ill patient(s), of course we had Ryuzaki who promised his predecessor that he wont write a name in it... but thats a different case.
Prior to this part, it was knows that there were 3 Death Notes in the Earth Realm:
- Ryuk's Note
- Gelus' Note which Misa had
- Sidoh's Note which Light had
Yet the plot of this movie had released 6 Death Note's into the Earth Realm, we do not know the Owners of all but let us speculate
- Beppo had released one
- Arma had released one
- Ryuk...of course is wreaking havoc here and there
These are known, since Misa had been given hers and it was stated it is her note, that mean's Gelus' note was somehow going around (we all know that Gelus sacrificed himself for Misa in the timeline story, then Rem presented his note to her), Sidoh's note was also going around but it was not confirmed.
Still, we did not see the Shinigamis that helped out 2 Death Note holders, one being the Russian Doctor and another being a Wolf of Wall-Street, no, it was not Leo DiCapreo, it would be cool, he can kill off those who handle the Oscar awards for not winning any all his life...I keed!
Along side this movie, a spin-off, 3 episode extra was released in the same year, it presents itself as a gap minimiser to help the audience understand the story and timeline, each episode revolves around a pivotal character, those characters are:
- Mishima
- Ryuzaki
- Shien
How they connect to each other and how they are who they are, I have yet to watch the miniseries, so I cannot comment much on this topic, sorry....
For those of you that want to check it out, it is called "Death Note: New Generation"
Death Note: Netflix
Released in 2017, duration is 1 hour and 40 minutes.
For the most part, the synopsis was somewhat similar, some factors were changed such as, only the owner of the book can see the reaper, which overall I guess that point was fine to change.
Come with me on this journey of ranting and relief.
First: the name, from Yagami Light to Light Turner, wait, wut?!
I for one did not think it fit, but I guess they wanted to keep the name, yet because this name exists, it became somewhat a joke, technically when you think about it, this is practically Fairly Odd Parents, but dark and gore....no wonder that parody exists, and to be quite frank, I am not mad , I am impressed.
How about the CGI? to be honest, it is fine, I am not impressed though, cause at some point it is obvious that they added the Asian gore effects and for some odd reason....I do not think it fits.
They changed Ryuk's overall look, to the point that it does not feel like Ryuk, the editing on his voice is perfect though, William Dafoe truly did amazing and served justice :p
Let us get back to the star of the show, Light, I'll say this in points, so I don't drag this far:
- He is somewhat emo and a bit of a downer, unlike the Lighto kun, who is more of an introvert and a loner.
- Libido-driven
- I feel like he fits to be a close version of Taro Kagami
Now let us see our heroin, Mia........Mia who? she is the complete opposite of Misa, yet I guess that is a good thing, Turner needed a girl as confident and strong and all about the anarchy, like her, but let us be honest.....she was more Kira like than the actual "Kira"
I do understand the changes are made to satisfy a different group of people, it is the Hollywood formula: shy boy with a messed up train of thought, a badass girl, intercourse......lots of intercourse, some intense action scenes.
Then I realised something, the reason Mia is more of Kira is because the crew working on this project wanted to materialise Lighto's more psychotic side, so they made Mia, also pronouncing her Kira, though one thing that disappointed me a bit, is the fact that she still couldn't see Ryuk, I felt that was a bit unfair for her.
Then I realised something, the reason Mia is more of Kira is because the crew working on this project wanted to materialise Lighto's more psychotic side, so they made Mia, also pronouncing her Kira, though one thing that disappointed me a bit, is the fact that she still couldn't see Ryuk, I felt that was a bit unfair for her.
How about L?
When news first came out, people were a bit shocked that a black dude would play the part, before i get into a few good points about this version of L, let me say whats in my heart:
- Not as quirky or eccentric
- The L tone is not there
- Cannot function unless Watari is there, otherwise...spazzout
- Gets mad easily
- Passive aggressive, if you are wondering when and how, access your Netflix account (or your relatives/friends) scroll to 1:00:20 and watch how reacts.
- Is somewhat incompetent and unable to do his job easily
- I feel that around the end he went crazy and I feel this could a villaneous build up for future sequels and how they would turn the tables around
Ok, I am chill, let us get into the good juice:
- The Actor from "Get Out" actually did a good job as L
- His character did provide some level of personality contrast to the rivalry
- He had his own flavour of quirk, but I still believe he can do better
Even though the pros are not as many as the cons, the weight of the pros is much higher.
Now before I end this, can we talk about St. Martin aka the secretive "Future Detectives House"?
I know it is a norm to place controversial matters like potential cult symbols and such, which this place carried left and right, making the abandoned home wreak of horror and discomfort, yet it fit the setting of the movie, I still remain uncomfy to the visuals, something just told me I do not wanna be brought up there, but that's just me...I guess.
Overall Opinion
This franchise is one of my most favourite dark themed works, to me it was the first of it's kind, in the sense of first protagonist being the antagonist, the chase intensity, the dark and humorous nature of spiritual beings, the confusion on whether the shinigam Ryuk is a good guy or bad.In addition to this, I feel people should give the Netflix adaptation a chance, it may not be as per what we are used to, but how the movie was made fit the criteria it serves and has it's own charms in that matter, I won't say that I liked it, but I also cannot say that it was necessarily a bad production, the ending has opened up a window of thought on whether they will produce a part 2 of the movie, did L go crazy? would Light's father forgive Light for what he did? would Light suspend himself from committing crimes now? and if so, would Ryuk try to find a new Kira? is that how they would introduce Misa, if they introduce Misa?
Curiosity Inquiries
With all that out of the way, a few things popped up in mind, I shall mention some and we may discuss them if you would like too :)- According to the rule book when getting the reaper's eyes, your life is shortened to half, How about we calculate Misa's life span, if she did not get the reapers' eyes?
- What if Ryuk was the actual Hell King, and he just got tired, which made him release 6 notes into the Earth realm in search for a new Kira, since he got inspired by the events that took place?
- What does the "just as planned" mean (the one from the after the credits roll in Light up the New World)?
- Whats one rule you do not understand?
- When the rumor of a new Death Note in which Lighto returns as a Shinigami came out and also people entertaining the thought of a "Life Note", what was the first thing that came to mind?
- Arma makes best waifu, don't you think so? :3
- Does changing your name legally effect what a Reaper's eyes user see?
- Can one person increase their life span with a Death Note?
- How did Ryuk be Lighto's Shinigami, when Lighto owns Sidoh's Note?
- According to the Manga, Misa Dies at an early age, but with a certain in the book, when a Shinigami dies out of self sacrifice, their life span goes into the person they sacrificed, Gelus and Rem both sacrificed themselves for Misa, which means she should have a lot of years left for herself, even after the reaper's eyes deal? is this a plothole?
- St. Martin or Wammy's House, which had a cooler ring to it? :p
Before I go, I know I am a day late than planned, I apologise, as I have been having connection Issues, here is an apple as a peace offering!
Awesome stuff
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words :3
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