#basically i love misa and L and while i love light's character...he can go die <3 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dumbassdisaster · 3 years

Note

Ooo if you’re still doing the character ask how about L, Light Yagami, and Misa from Death Note :o

OH HELL YEAH. answers are under a read more bc it got LONG

Light Yagami

do I like them:

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh no*

*he IS well-written, and I love him as a character. I just also really, really hate him

5 good qualities:

potato chip

he’s actually very smart even if he doesn’t know how to apply that intellect literally at all (high intelligence low wisdom king)

he plays mario golf with ryuk which is very cute

doesn’t know how to act straight even when he thinks he’s acting straight. I respect that

he lives for the Drama of everything he does. very dedicated to the aesthetic of having a Rival and Enemy

3 bad qualities:

extremely manipulative, and he treats the women he dates like shit. actually, he just doesn’t treat women very well in general (sees naomi and thinks “well, she’s a woman, so I could physically overtake her if I need to.” yikes.)

who wouldn’t like Misa she is a gift, fuck you light

god complex, and he kills for no reason but convinces himself there’s a reason

favourite episode/etc:

“New World” because he dies <3

otp:

Light / death <3

brotp:

honestly, I love Light and Ryuk’s dynamic. Light gives him apples and plays video games with him, and Ryuk makes fun of Light while also doing all his weird shit

ot3:

none

notp:

Light and any girl tbh, it makes me uncomfortable

best quote:

I can’t think of the EXACT wording, but when he’s on the bus with his fake date for the bus jacking, and the girl he’s with is UNDERSTANDABLY freaking out because there is a guy WAVING A GUN AROUND, and Light just looks at her and is like, “What’s wrong?”

Light,,, you’re trying to act like a normal high school student,,, at least Google how people tend to react when threatened with a gun, jesus christ

head canon:

mario golf is the only video game he owns, and he just has it to seem like a normal teenager, but he doesn’t actually enjoy it

BUT he also has to be perfect at it so he’s clocked in like 500 hours of gameplay before he even met Ryuk

also, he’s gay

Misa Amane

do I like them:

MISA!!! I LOVE HER!!!!!!!!!! GOTH QUEEN!!!!!

5 good qualities:

in love with love, which is very romantic of her

have you SEEN her??? an absolute fashion ICON!!!! she knows what style she likes and she ROCKS IT!!!!!! good for her! good for her!!!

she’s very loyal, even if that’s also a negative, since it causes her to be blindly devoted to Light despite him not treating her well. BUT, she’ll do anything for the people she loves. Misa would be the friend who you could call at 2 am to help bury a body, and she’d do it. She’d also kill anyone you asked her to, especially if they wronged you

she’s really smart!!! but people don’t expect her to be smart, which lets her weaponize her intellect. she can take those who doubt her by surprise and put them in a grave

she’s very friendly and sweet!! she’s willing to be friends with anyone as long as she thinks they’re a decent person, and I love that about her

3 bad qualities:

blind devotion, as I mentioned before. Misa, just because Light killed the person who murdered your family doesn’t mean he’s worth your time :/

doesn’t respect people’s personal space, especially when she’s excited

doesn’t dump Light’s ass for Rem, which is a CRIME, Misa, please, you have that amazing monster girl romance potential, why waste it

favourite episode/etc:

I actually really like “Performance”?? It’s when Misa is meeting with the Yotsuba group. The scene between her and Rem in the bathroom is really good to me, and I like seeing Misa’s acting skills in all their glory

otp:

Rem / Misa. Rem is literally willing to die to keep Misa safe,,,,, hhhhhh it GETS TO ME, dude ;-;

brotp:

Misa and L!!!! All their interactions are really cute, I think. Also, I like Misa and Mogi. they’re fun

(I’m going to push my p5 / death note crossover agenda and also say Misa and Akechi <3)

ot3:

none

notp:

Misa and Light. Misa, I love you, and you deserve better

best quote:

When Rem tells Misa that the only way to kill a Shinigami is for them to fall in love with a human, and Misa says, “What a wonderful way to kill.”

head canon:

she only listens to evanescence. also, she’s pan

do I like them:

Absolutely, L is fantastic

5 good qualities:

determined, and will go great lengths to accomplish what he thinks needs to be done

even though he WILL do things that are morally questionable (or just straight up immoral), he doesn’t like putting people’s lives at risk

his posture is a Mood

extraordinarily smart, knew Light was Kira basically immediately and never gave up on that theory even after they started getting close. get his ass, L

king of one liners imo

3 bad qualities:

does go too far with his methods, even if he thinks they’re necessary (the way they held Misa in custody, for example)

please for the love of god eat a vegetable

gets worked up a little too easily sometimes… as he says, he’s childish and hates to lose, and that can work against him

favourite episode/etc:

“Silence.” I really love the entire tone of the episode where L dies, and his urgency when Rem starts killing… holy shit

otp:

L / a very long, good night’s sleep

brotp:

as mentioned before, I really like L and Misa!! I also like the dynamic he has with soichiro yagami?? all the conversations they have about Light are phenomenal, they make me feel Emotions

ot3:

L / a very long, good night’s sleep / being alive

notp:

hmmm, I’m not really in the death note fandom, so I’m not aware of what ships are Popular for him besides L / Light, but…. I don’t like the idea of L / Misa existing :/

best quote:

when Misa is twirling them around with ~let’s all be friends together~ and he just goes “wee, yay, fun.” I quoted that ALL THE TIME in high school sdjlkhfksjdhf

head canon:

L sometimes puts his hair into little pigtails like Misa’s, because he thinks it’s cute. let him have nice things

also, he’s nonbinary (he / they) and gay

#andi answers #THANK YOU FOR ASKING ABOUT DEATH NOTE OH MY GOD #i've never read the manga bc manga and comics are hard for me to read tbh so this all comes from me watching the anime #but dude i love death note SO MUCH thank you for asking me about it jsdfhsjdf #basically i love misa and L and while i love light's character...he can go die <3 #death note

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deddeathanddeyond · 3 years

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Twenty-Two Reasons Why L is as Evil as Light

for all the people who love slandering light while praising L:)

-disclaimer: L is my favorite character-

1. In the beginning, L sacrificed a criminal, Lind L. Tailor, just like what Light did, except L did it for his own benefit and to solve the investigation.

2. Later on in the story, L was about to let another criminal die just to test a rule in the Death Note (the 13 days rule).

3. When L caught Misa for suspecting her of being the second Kira, he interrogated her for extremely long periods of time that consumed much of Misa’s mentality (torture).

4. He also deprived Misa of sleep (torture).

5. He repeatedly disallowed Misa of basic necessities, including being able to go to the bathroom and having water (torture).

6. He deprived Misa of many of her senses (strapping her blindfolded: torture).

7. He strapped her to a metal contraption for hours on end (torture).

8. He definitely left an imprint on Misa’s mentality during this interrogation, even going so far as to tell Watari to do “whatever it takes to make her talk” (torture).

9. Misa even screamed, “Just kill me!” which shows that she was being forced into such a stressful situation by L (torture).

10. After the Misa interrogation, L even had a mock execution set up for Light, which can also be considered torture for Light as well as Misa, who was a bystander.

11. L was always condescending towards Misa, while Light never actually called her “stupid” in front of her face.

12. L manipulated Misa into helping him with the investigation.

13. Even Light himself thought that it was wrong to manipulate Misa into helping them:

14. L lied about Light being his first friend, which shows that he is capable of manipulation.

15. Over sixty-four surveillance cameras were placed in Light’s room alone by L, not to mention more in Light’s household and the household of the deputy director. Note that none of the households were aware of this (except for Soichiro) and, at this time, L doesn’t even have any concrete evidence to even have a permit to do this.

16. In fact, L does anything he can do to solve the case, which is described above.

17. This scene:

18. L repeatedly calls Matsuda stupid, while Light never does to anyone.

19. In fact, L pretty much deems the entire task force (except for Light) as stupider as he is. In chapter 13 of the manga, L investigates the current task force to see if they are Kira, who he has previously said as extremely smart, but determines they aren’t. You can see how the task force reacts to this subtle condescension:

20. L only takes on cases that he finds interesting. He is not the “hero” that saves the world from “all evil” but instead he is just pursuing his personal hobby: solving cases.

21. That being said, he even called himself evil by saying, “If you measured good and evil deeds by current laws, I would be responsible for many crimes.” and “That is why I only take on cases that pique my interest. It’s not justice at all. And if it means being able to clear a case, I don’t play fair. I’m a dishonest, cheating human being who hates losing.”

22. Whereas Near simply calls Light “a murderer”, L actually never does. In fact, if we were to call the second death note movie as canon, L calls himself the worst type of monster (a lying monster).

sources: 3-9. eyecicles on tumblr, 14. 13eyond13 on tumblr, 21. death note one-shot special

#death note #l lawliet #light yagami #misa amane #watari #soichiro yagami #near #meta

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unstoppablepug · 7 years

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Netflix's Death Note

Okay let’s get some shit down for everyone who watched the anime and those who don’t know why the adaptation was so bad.

Just to be clear beforehand, I do realize this is somewhat harsh and that the original series is much too amazingly complex to shove into one movie and that directing something like this is difficult and stuff would but cut anyways but then again that all goes to an extent.

Immediately from the beginning of this show, our first glimpse of this “edgy”, “misunderstood” teenager with eventually shown mommy issues is just already so off. If they were going to dye his hair, why not make it a little more candid and cover those ugly ass blonde highlights with the actual brown color? The first scene where we witness the horrible corruption of Light’s character is when he attempts to stand up to Kenny..If netflix attempted to even showcase Light’s actual character, they would know that the real Light was completely confident, smart, and a literal genius. He always knew what would happen and wouldn’t be stupid enough to get himself into a situation like that or at least get out of it. The whole point of Light Yagami wasn’t his fear over the death note’s power or Ryuk. Being that crazy genius was what made him the only person capable of using the Death Note without losing his shit completely. Netflix completely destroyed Light’s character and the notion of evil behind it.

Secondly, Ryuk!!!! Just another butcher case. What happened to the sometimes funny and joking to the sometimes objective and cold character? Ryuk was supposed to be a shadow mostly, his point was to only watch how Light transformed the world with the Death Note for his own entertainment. He never threatened Light to make him murder. He never chose his victims. And most importantly there was never any extra rules written in the death note that magically were always appropriate for the next problematic scene. They only diminished Ryuk’s character to a scary death god used to further push along the story and add to the obvious gore intended theme.

Next, Misa Misa. I absolutely loved her in the anime. I was shocked to see her as some emo, obviously-hangs-with-the-wrong-crowd cheerleader. Misa’s character was meant to be a girl who idolizes Kira and is completely in love with Light. She would never be so crazily stupid as to write his name in the death note in order to take it from him. Her relationship with the death note was never supposed to be as important as deciding who would die. She only ever followed Light’s demands and he was the one who made these decisions. She was never supposed to kill the detectives because that was a scene in which amplified Light’s wits and HIS ability to easily overcome obstacles thrown by L. As well as that, the love she and Light had wasn’t real. Their “love” was supposed to showcase Light’s character in terms that he had become cold and merciless to even his own family due to his priority of accomplishing his main goal of cleansing the world, no matter what. On the other hand, I understand this is a hollywood movie and couldn’t go without romance but the scenes of them making out and etc were shown so awkwardly in between their killing.

To the last character, L. Most fans were either of L’s side or Light’s. “Good vs bad”. Cat vs mouse. Their whole intended relationship. And the fuzzy borders of who was who. Netflix did attempt to showcase their battle of wits..except without the wits and gave us instead an amusing little game of chasing? Oh and can someone please tell my why L wore a ninja costume basically the whole movie? Where was the classic white tshirt and jeans. Was also saddened by the missing weird voice change to hide his identity. One good thing was that L wasn’t just another white dude. But, just like everyone else they eventually took away his cool calm nature. We know that he was obsessed with Light and it is indeed portrayed to an extent but he never lost his shit. Chasing light with a gun? Chasing a highschooler with a gun? Really? I do appreciate the insomniac characteristic still being there though. Although impractical, it would have been cool to see him completely barefoot the whole time. Yet great job crushing his secretive, analytical and genius character. At least his back story is the decently accurate except for the whole part where he was trained as a kid.

Lastly, the whole fault in the actual movie production. The whitewashing, completely unnecessarily gory deaths, and lack of the morality problem. I’m not sure why they further had to make mia’s name white instead of just leaving it as Misa? What happened to Light Turner’s brother Timmy lmfao. For a second, when Turner read that page with the oh so scary warning about Ryuk, I really thought they were going to go the whole movie mispronouncing his name. They should have wasted less time on a 10 minute chasing scene or making out to further build the completely necessary relationships in Death Note! Instead they rushed the movie. It seems that the director had trouble mixing in his own concept while trying to keep it accurate to the original story. He portrays Death Note as some teenage romance story with supernatural elements. Something I did appreciate,even though it really doesn’t fit with the original, was the visuals. I appreciated the aesthetics of the neon and dark scenery. But in the end it’s much too deep to condense into this movie without rushing it and leaving the audience confused.

To conclude this, RIP the chip scene and Light’s famous maniacal laugh.

#death note #deathnote #netflix

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jinjojess · 7 years

Note

Could you elaborate on what you dislike about Death Note? If you feel like doing it, of course! I always enjoy your unpopular opinions so I would like to hear more about this. I personally liked many aspects of it, but I can also see many flaws, and the second part of the story is way less fun. Also: "Remember how I can't stand characters transparently designed to appeal to a certain kind of fan" PLEASE GO ON. I need a serious critique of the characters!

Oof, I don’t know if I have that in me, but here’s a semi-short version.

Death Note has a lot of objective stumbles, but honestly the thing about it is that it’s very much Not For Me and that’s where I have the most issues.

Spoilers for the entire series, just in case.

Edit: This got really fucking long, I’m so sorry mobile users…

Note: This will be manga-based since I read the entire manga, but have only seen a few of the anime episodes.

So I was very on board with the series in the early chapters of the manga, because I liked how it was exploring the way that Light starts off as this really eager do-gooder who gets corrupted by power. In the early chapters he looks younger and adorable, and you can see a physical change in the way he carries and presents himself as he becomes more Kira than Light. Loved the idea of presenting a protagonist and then turning him into the villain and testing the reader to see if they would still side with him or not. That was cool.

I probably would have enjoyed his rivalry with L more if I didn’t find L so personally obnoxious. A lot of people like him (to the point where I feel like I am the sole dissenter) and I don’t think he’s necessarily the worst character, but just like…I dunno. Something about him and the way he’s treated in the series just feels so…I don’t know how to put this…wish fulfillment-y? Like he’s this dude who really shouldn’t be attractive because he’s gaunt and pale and clearly doesn’t take care of himself at all, plus he’s got all these nervous tics that would probably be at best politely tolerated while everyone talks about how awkward he is behind his back but like…I don’t remember that ever happening really.

Like if the police force were like “Jesus, dude, just sit like a normal human being for once,” I’d have found him more believable as an actual character instead of this guy conspicuously being weird to show off how “different” and “special” he is. Plus he’s also athletic, despite not ever being shown practicing or going to the gym or anything–he’s just super good at martial arts and a tennis champ, guys. Like sorry, but for those of us in the real world, we have to adhere to social codes and actually work for that kind of shit, and while some people find comfort in this sort of idealized escapism, it’s always just pissed me off from a personal standpoint.

Basically L feels like he was created to appeal to socially awkward fangirls who could squee over him and be like “he’s weird and socially awkward just like me! but everyone would be jealous of me if he was my boyfriend because unlike me everyone loves him!” Which in and of itself is not inherently Bad or anything, but it gives me a sense of unbearable second-hand embarrassment so I just cannot deal with that.

Let me be clear here: those kinds of fangirls completely deserve to have media aimed at them, and Death Note fills that niche pretty well. Again, this complaint is from a place of personal preference, and is just to get you to understand why Death Note turned out to not really be my cup of tea.

(Plus also where is the storyline where L gains weight or gets type 2 diabetes from surviving on sweets? Oh, it’s because his brain burns too many calories. Fuck that guy.)

Misa is similar in that she’s basically Yamato Nadeshiko: Goth Edition and that just ain’t my thing. Like don’t get me wrong–I love me some tragically loyal people, but I usually prefer that they also be capable in some other way (Pekoyama can swordfight like a badass, Sakakura is a world-class boxer, Mukuro is…well, Mukuro, etc.). MisaMisa is kind of a fuck up. Plus iirc she’s an idol and sorry, if you are not part of Maizono’s posse I have zero time for you.

Anyway, the fact that the reader is supposed to feel less sympathy for Light because of his treatment of Misa is interesting, but it’s kind of clouded by the fact that Misa is so annoying to me personally that I just wanted her to fucking die already and get out of the narrative. Rem, you are too good for this shit.

I did find the police force itself pretty charming, though. I was rooting for them for most of the story.

Ryuk was great too. A nice provider of very needed levity, and probably the most consistently good point of the series, at least until the very end which I’ll get into in a second.

Anyway, the more technical issues I have with Death Note are with its pointless meandering. There’s that famous tennis scene where it’s supposed to be really exciting because Light and L are trying to figure each other’s psychology out, but the things they’re thinking aren’t at all realistic. Like trying to win a tennis match proves you’re competitive ergo you must be Kira? What? It’s overthinking very mundane things that would have too many variables to ever be conclusive proof of anything, and it turns out to be pointless since they both reach that conclusion at the end of the game anyway.

So yeah, my biggest issue with Death Note was that it wasted so much of my time. It feels a little like the V3 trials, where you’d be purposefully led down this boring, clearly incorrect route so that the reader could be “surprised” when it turned out that something could be Occam’s Razor’d. There are entire volumes where nothing happens. And I don’t mean like, nothing physically happens, but the characters are having intense debates or whatever. I remember reading volumes where only two real conversations were had, and the rest of the time was everyone imagining and mentally preparing for said conversations.

Maybe my memory of the series is too patchy, since I read the manga over a decade ago in 2005, but I remember a LOT of padding.

Something I did think was handled well was how Light defeats L. That was pretty great because at heart I do love super smart villains with stupidly complicated plans, and that one was pretty great, especially since I figured that L wouldn’t be going anywhere.

However, the series should have ended here. It should have ended with Kira winning out over L, but the law being closer to figuring out who Kira is, leaving the reader in a state of uncertainty about the future of this world and Light as a character.

Would that have wrapped up all the loose ends? No. But it would be way better than what we got in the second half of the series, I think most people would agree.

So let’s talk for a second about Near and Mello.

To touch again on the “this was clearly for a certain kind of fan” subject, how hard do you think the publishers shit themselves when they realized that L was going to die but the series wasn’t over? L was and still is by far the most popular character from the series, and the fangirls were probably not going to be pleased that their husbando got ejected from the narrative.

So what do we do?

Replace him with more of the same!

While L was annoyingly teetering on Gary Studom, Near is basically that just with an added dose of “precocious child” which doesn’t really help the situation. I hesitate to call him Shouta L, even if that’s how it feels sometimes, but I just felt like Near was way too similar to L to be his own character. He felt more like L was reborn as a kid for the Death Note Babies spin-off.

Mello was a lot more interesting, with the inferiority complex and his tendency to, you know, actually do things. The only part of the latter half of the series I remember liking was when Mello kidnapped Light’s sister and there was this tiny glimmer of humanity left in him where he didn’t want her to die. However this was always offset for me by the fact that he was running around with an exposed midriff because yeah we need to have fanservice somewhere man. (Again, not inherently Bad and fangirls deserve their fanservice too, but like…not my thing, at all.) It just felt very…calculated, if that makes sense.

What would have been way more interesting to me would be Light finding out about these orphans being groomed to take over for L and there being some kind of commentary on how the side of “good” is using these really dubious and unethical methods to catch Kira, bringing up the question of whether or not they’re actually any better. Like let’s talk about that.

Okay so. The only thing left to talk about is the ending. And holy shit, that fucking ending.

I was still trying to be on board with Death Note even in the second half where I had very little desire to finish it but felt like I’d already invested the time and money so I might as well. I was trying so damn hard, and I was still kind of enjoying the ridiculous lengths Kira was going to get a one-up on his pursuers, with the fake out girlfriends and the cult, and the fucking pieces of Death Note pages inside the secret compartment of his watch and shit…it was so dumb but in like a fun way.

And to be clear, I’m fine with Light losing in the end, and being undone by his own hubris.

But to only have it happen because Ryuk decides to conveniently help the police? Like, that’s dumb. The entire thing hinges on Ryuk deciding at that very moment to fuck Light over–sure, whatever, he’s not on a side, sure. I don’t expect him to actually pull a Rem, but he must have fucking known that the lackey’s book was fake (who, by the way, should have planned to do away with everyone one at a time, using the power to determine how people die to make it look like an accident, and then he would have noticed that his notebook wasn’t a real one). At least hint toward Ryuk getting fed up, or bored, or something so that this doesn’t seem so frustratingly convenient.

Though Ohba apparently once said that L was the smartest character because “the plot needs him to be” so there you go. That’s his approach. Plot contrivances are the order of the day.

So yeah, anyway.

That’s why I’m not that fond of Death Note. Part of it is because of personal biases against certain kinds of characters that are not appealing to me, and part of it is because the entire story feels like it’s taking itself too seriously and is trying to be more clever than it is. As a more compact narrative I think it would probably get a pass, but the fact that it’s so bloated and sprawling really makes it hard for me to consider it objectively good.

…Turns out I did have it in me.

#ask #anon #opinions #long post #criticism #Death Note #no seriously it's long #you've been warned

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cviperfan · 7 years

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OKAY DEATH NOTE 2017 THOUGHTS

Under a cut for length not spoilers because honestly who fucking cares

-So the movie commits many sins but principle among them are two 1) The Death Note is basically just a vehicle for gore porn, pretty much indistinguishable functionally from any other 'Cursed Object' type horror movie. There's lip service paid to the suspense trappings of the original work but Wingard is clearly much more interested in the kind of brutal deaths that can be extracted from the Death Note's flexibility of options and far less in the moral quandaries that such an object would create, and Wingard's pre-release interview that expressed an interest in creating a Hard-R version of the story was at least for me a clear indicator that he was Wrong for the project, since grisly deaths are not what makes the story interesting, or in fact are even a priority. The fact that the default way the Death Note kills in the original canon is a heart attack (by all intents a fairly 'clean' method of death) is there for a reason, as is the 2017 version's curious decision to specifically omit that detail.

(In Wingard's interview he expresses a desire to include the "adult themes of anime" which specifically include "nudity, swearing, tons of violence" to him, which suggests that his familiarity with the medium starts and ends with Ninja Scroll and nothing else and that he probably didn't actually watch Death Note outside of a cliffs notes he had an intern scribble out or something)

2) And this is much more fundamentally antithetical to the original work, but Light's transition from Villain protagonist to Reluctant Misunderstood Anti-Hero.

in the original canon it's certainly possible to find Light's end goal aspirational, even if the actual empathy with Light himself doesn't last very long, and part of the paradox of the manga/anime is Light being a pointedly and unmistakably Terrible Person while also being a compellling and interesting protagonist. Even if you don't necessarily want Light to succeed, watching him operate and maneuver through various obstacles on the path to his goal is fascinating on its own terms.

Death Note 2017!Light, by contrast, is given great, excruciating measures to make him Highly Sympathetic to the audience, and indeed we are meant to interpret him specifically as a Good Kid Who Took A Wrong Turn and is now Way In Over His Head. His mom died at the hands of Joe Chill a crook who got away with it, giving him a nice clean Batman justification, he's bullied at school, is extremely concerned with his actions being percieved as good and perhaps most crucially, tries to limit his body count outside of criminals (American!Light reacts extremely negatively to the mere IDEA of killing his dad when he calls Kira out, whereas canon!Light, while certainly not enthusiastic about the idea, was right there weighing the pros and cons, reasonably prepared to do so if he proved to be enough of a problem).

He doesn't even use the Death Note initially of his own volition; Ryuk has to be there to straight-up Devil on His Shoulder-him into it (in a hilariously over-the-top introduction, more on that later), and Misa (sorry, MIA) is constantly pushing him to go darker when his resolve wavers, and indeed seems way more into the idea of using the Death Note on a visceral level than Light is.

All of this is contrary to one of the crucial points of Death Note in its original form-- Light was a person of privilege surrounded by a loving family and with infinite potential who had absolutely no reason to have become a power-hungry arbiter of "justice" with a god complex, and yet when a bit of power happened to fall into his hands that's exactly what he became. He didn't need a traumatic event or a bad situation to become Kira, just the possibility that he could do it and get away with it.

But even in a Death Note adaptation where the first death we get is someone's head being cut off at the jaw with a fucking ladder, this seems like too dark a conclusion for Adam Wingard to come to, so even when his body count starts rising we get constant excuses and reminders that he's A Good Kid, Honest, He's Really Trying To Do The Right Thing He's Just Got So Many Bad Influences That Pushed Him This Way and in the face of the original work's frankness (and Wingard's talk of "adult themes") this just comes off as cloying and toothless.

Nevermind that in light (heh) of the extremely whitewashed nature of this adaptation, the almost fetishistic effort of the writing team to sanitize Troubled White Teen Boy Light Turner (Who Has His Whole Life Ahead Of Him) of as much active culpability as possible is certainly quite telling isn't it

Okay that out of the way, time for some just Random Bad Shit lol

-just so we know exactly what we're dealing with and what director Adam Wingard thinks is cool one of the very first shots of the movie is Misa (sorry, MIA) at cheerleading practice but see she's not like THOSE OTHER SHEEPLE who are all ACTUALLY PRACTICING AT CHEER PRACTICE SHE'S A COOL DISAFFECTED REBEL BECAUSE SHE DOESN'T WANNA PRACTICE AT CHEER PRACTICE god look at these PHONIES all having fun and laughing OUR GIRL IS SO COOL SHE'D MUCH RATHER SMOKE AND LOOK BORED WHAT A BADASS -And like later in the movie she's all to Light "I'M A CHEERLEADER nothing i ever did mattered before i met you!!" like then WHY ARE YOU A CHEERLEADER WHY WERE YOU THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?????? YOU CAN DO LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE MY KIDDO -So the Light/Mia relationship is kind of a mess because not only do they try and play it up as the emotional lynchpin of the narrative (no, for real) but the reversal with Mia being the one who becomes super obsessed with the Death Note (even to the point where she tries to set up Light to die so she can get it) and her being the Other Bad Influence on Light really manages to make even the original Death Note's bad track record with its women fucking shine by comparison. If the original Light/Misa dynamic was basically a Joker/Harley setup written by someone who understood that it's an abusive relationship, new!Light/Mia is the Hot Topic Romanticized Joker/Harley but also Joker is the Real Victim here apparently -Like they literally get off to using the Death Note together and make out while scanning the internet for targets-- like there COULD absolutely be a place for there to be commentary on Bored Well-Off White Kids abusing power for the fun of it, but again there's no room for insight when there's those practical gore effects to throw around -Dear god there is not a HINT of subtlety in this fucking thing, an especially egregious stylistic choice when the manga/anime is (while ofc prone to Light's.... extreme and borderline comically evil reactions) overwhelmingly grounded with-- especially compared to many anime and manga in general-- comparatively moderate supernatural elements and touches, especially in terms of its visual detail and art direction. Wingard's Death Note on the other hand, has thunderstorms AND flickering lights that accompany Ryuk's appearances until they... don't (ARE YOU PICKING UP THE SUBTLE FAUSTIAN ELEMENTS HERE AUDIENCE????????), a trip through a Spooky Dark Abandoned Mansion that features a close-up of a busted doll accompanied by a creepy child's laugh NO REALLY IM SERIOUS and deaths that frequently end in torrents of blood because that's what we're really here for apparently -Speaking of a lack of subtlety, while I get the logic in casting Dafoe for Ryuk he ends up being both underutilized and a sadly uninteresting choice, since the apparent direction for him to go more Norman Osbourne really takes away any degree of ambiguity Ryuk has as a patently neutral party in the whole thing (at least as far as the original goes; this really wants to set him up as a Red Herring possible antagonist in a thread that goes absolutely nowhere and ends up meaning nothing). Like I think he could have worked if the performance was a little lower-key and he had not-terrible writing to work with, but at least someone's having fun in this mess so wth -L fans are gonna be fucking pissed off because HOLY HELL they didn't not fuck him up either -Canon L: Sherlock Holmes but with sweets instead of hard drugs and also he sits weird sometimes -Death Note 2017!L: Fucking Weirdo Asshole With Bizarre Rituals galore and also he can't sleep without Watari awkwardly singing the greatest hits of Celine Dion SHUT UP IM SERIOUS because okay -So the wierd race bullshit definitely doesn't stop at Light because the framing of L (who is played by Keith Stanfield, a black actor and OH BOY I CAN ALREADY HEAR THE IMNOTRACISTBUTS COMING IN) is pointedly, aggressively antagonistic. Rather than giving Stanfield the collected, analytical, somewhat awkward detective characterized in the source material, Death Note 2017's L's erratic tics and behaviourisms are meant to make the audience find him uncomfortable rather than compelling in his own right, because autistic-coded super detective is such an interesting and not at all gross and played-out formation of a character. Because again, the movie has no real interest in being suspenseful or focusing on the cat-and-mouse game, L figures out that Light is Kira with very little deduction or buildup, and indeed aside from a pointedly brief midpoint conversation and a completely stupid and pointless chase scene near the end, the two barely interact, so the whole aspect of two strong wills directly competing within inches of each other is tossed aside. -Also WHO THE FUCK THOUGHT A SCENE OF A YOUNG BLACK MAN BEING SLAMMED INTO A TABLE AND NEARLY CHOKED OUT BY A WHITE COP WITH ANGER ISSUES AND A SELF-RIGHTEOUS STREAK IN DEFENSE OF A GUILTY WHITE KID WHO ULTIMATELY GETS AWAY WITH IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TASTE WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT -Speaking of poor taste we couldn't find more than one Japanese actor for a speaking role (Watari, natch, with barely a handful of lines) BUT WE CERTAINLY COULD FOR THIS SEX CLUB SCENE WITH A ROOM PACKED FULL OF DEAD JAPANESE PEOPLE IN FETISH GEAR -Ryuk himself also looks Fuckin Bad and they know it since the overwhelming majority of his shots are him BLURRED THE FUCK OUT IN MIDDLE DISTANCE OR OFF IN THE CORNER -"many people have tried to write the 4 letters in my name into the Death Note but nobody has gotten farther than 2 :)" your full name was literally in there but ok -"all the deaths have to be physically possible" Ferris Wheel magically collapses for no reason to facilitate a death -"I need L's full name to kill him, I'll just take control of Watari with the Death Note EVEN THOUGH WATARI IS A FUCKING ALIAS" and also if this was in fact his real name and L knew it WHY WOULD HE HAVE LET HIM GO AROUND WITH HIS FACE UNCOVERED LIKE????????????????????????????????? -Reveals L without ceremony during the nightclub murder investigation/pretends like there's a mystery and a reveal to be had for the audience and awkwardly attempts to re-enact bits of the original introduction to the character anyway

Ultimately there's more that I'm probably forgetting but wow Death Note 2017 is just impressively dumb. Like, original Death Note could get pretty dumb especially in the last half, but that was more a case of working itself into a corner over time and its reach extending beyond its grasp on occasion. This just has no aspirations to even try.

Like, shit, I honestly don't like Death Note all that much but I can at least appreciate that it has some weight to it and made an effort to build a complex character-driven narrative while proposing a thoughtful moral paradox, which is more than I can say for the 'fans' who wanted to adapt it and decided this was the best possible approach lmao

#death note 2017 #WHENS THE RIFFTRAX

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skateurgency · 7 years

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Netflix Death Note 2/10

I watched this POS. I watched all of it. I forced a friend to watch it with me because I couldn’t go through it alone.

I couldn’t go more than 5 minutes without pausing it to sCREAm at how poorly it captured the original. I dented my wall guys. I became so enraged seeing one of my favorite series brought this low. It destroyed its source material and left behind the worst adaptation yet of Death Note and just an all around poor quality film. If you haven’t seen Death Note and are afraid of spoiling the source material with this film, don’t worry! Maybe 7% is the same. Maybe. However, there will be spoilers below.

Oh Boy. It was hard to get through. There as just so much wrong with it. Light’s a little bitch. Ryuk is barely there. Misa, aka Mia, is one of the most unlikable charterers I have seen in a long time. Granted, I didn’t care much for Misa Misa in the manga, but Mia took it from indifference to strong dislike. Mr. Turner (Light’s dad in this version. I can’t recall a first name) is such an unlikable man. Also, a plot point is that Light’s mom is dead and he doesn’t have a sister so you know right there that the whole Mellow arc is basically scrapped.

Now I know that this was an “adaptation” of the manga, and an Americanized version. There may have been a few too many creative liberties used because almost nothing followed the source material. It seemed more like a bad high school drama than Death Note. Hell, an important scene takes place at a homecoming dance. Light Yagami (Turner) at a homecoming dance. Talking about the Death Note in BROAD FUCKING DAYLIGHT.

After watching the film I made a comment to my friend that you could have taken out Ryuk from the film and it wouldn’t have changed the plot one bit. Except we would have been spared the scene of Light shrieking in fear and cowering under a desk. If you’ve made a Death Note adaptation that could easily remove the shinigami and nothing would be different, you know that you messed up right there.

Speaking of Ryuk, he is an odd presence in the film. He is no longer bound to the owner of the death note, instead it seems like he comes and goes while he pleases. Also, now he can only be seen by the owner of the death note, not just anyone who touches it. Thus Misa (Mia) can never see or talk to him throughout the film, which leads to some odd exchanges. Unlike the manga Ryuk, this one never goes in to the boredom speech. Remember when Light asks what he did to receive such a great power and Ryuk tells him it was just dumb luck that he picked it up, Ryuk just dropped it because he was bored? Yeah, there was none of that. There isn’t the scene of Ryuk telling Light that if he uses the death note that he won’t go to heaven or hell, and that Ryuk will be the one to kill him in the end. I always liked that scene in the manga, it gave Light’s choices more weight. Ryuk honestly... doesn’t do much at all. He eats some apples, that’s pretty neat. Ummm... he has a nice line at the very end of the film... I think that’s it, asides from Light screaming or threatening him a few times.

Which really bothered me. Like, REALLY bothered me. This movie screws up shinigami death, along with a lot of the rules of the death note. Light tells Ryuk he’ll write his name down in the death note, and Ryuk just tells him “the most anyone ever got was two letters.” You can’t kill a shinigami by just writing their name down. There’s only a handful of beings that know how to kill one, two of them being Ryuk and Rem, who isn’t in the film at all. Yes, a shinigami can die if thery forget to put names down, but a way to kill one is by having a shinigami extend the life of a human they care for when that human’s life was supposed to be up. Rem’s friend does this for Misa Misa and then brings her his death note per his request. Not like any of that comes up in this film. Misa (Mia) never gets a death note, never becomes the second kira, and never gets there eyes. Because oh yeah, something key like the shinigami eyes and this girl being so in love she quarters her life span for a guy doesn’t make it in to this film.

A few other rules are off though, such as the way ownership works. The film makes it no longer Ryuk’s death note and has a scene about how it will pass from human to human (I don’t remember the specifics and I’m not about to watch it again) after a certain amount of days. I also do not think the owner loses their memory. There’s also this odd clause that if you write a name down but later destroy the page before it happens the death will be cancelled. But you can only do this once. This becomes a major plot point for the film when it isn’t at all in the manga (that I recall. Feel free to correct me on this.) Also, you apparently don’t need the right names because Light fucking writes down Watari as fucking Watari AND IT WORKS. WHAT. WHAT THE FUCK. WHY?

This is getting very long winded because I have a lot of rage, so I’m going to break this down by issues I had with each character and how off they were from their manga counterparts.

L - I’ll start of positive. For the most part, I liked L. The actor was much better than his rival, and made L seem human. His performance was a highlight. My main issue with L was the weird limo scene with some odd neon shades and asking Watari to sing him to sleep. It also upset me that he showed his actual face in a press junket. They focused more on his candy than how brilliant L actually is. Both he and Light don’t seem to be anywhere near as intelligent as they should be. In the film there is scenes of L coping with the loss of a friend that wasn’t in the manga since L and Watari die at about the same time. It was actually nice to see and made L seem a little more warm and human.

Watari - Good actor, gave a good performance. Odd casting choice in my opinion? Watari was one of the few Japanese actors in the cast when he’s playing the only non Japanese character. Watari was an old English gentleman. His name is Quillish Whammy for fuck’s sake. The actor gave the roll a good go, unfortunately it was just written poorly and most of his scenes take place at what looks like an old horror movie set.

Ryuk - I already touched on Ryuk previously. The VA did a fine job, he actually looked pretty decent. Sadly, his lines are all pretty worthless and for the most part he just makes Light nearly piss himself when he shows up.

Mr. Yagami (Mr. Turner) - This man is such a fuck. I disliked him so much. I really respected Yagami in the manga. He made tough decisions and was ready to do what he must to catch Kira. In fact, he quits the police force in near disgrace to fight Kira. That scene where he asks L to confine him as well because his son is confined in suspicion of being Kira? That scene where he is prepared to shoot his son and then himself? His father trading for the eyes but never using the death note on Mellow because he still wants to redeem him? Yagami being a good, developed character? Yeah, none of that. Instead we got tense conversations between him and Light because they don’t like each other. We get him choking L out at a family dinner because L says Light is Kira and Yagami abandoning L to protect his son at all costs. He even finds out his son is for a fact Kira and does nothing.

Misa Misa Amane (Mia) - Boy did I dislike Misa in this film. The first scene is her being a cheerleader but being too “over life” to do the cheers? God, she is such an unlikeable, uncharasmatic bitch in this film. That’s such a big change from bratty but cute and bubbly superstar model Misa Misa. The actress had very little charm in her delivery. A lot of her scenes were of her trying to convince Light to kill more. A lot of them. Most of her scenes in the later half of the movie. She seemed to be going for a Harley Quinn vibe, complete with a “normal people scare me” hung up in her locker. Misa steals pages from the death note (since she doesn’t have her own) and sneaks behind Light’s back to kill the FBI agents trailing them. She also writes Light’s name down in the death note, to try and gain ownership of it. It honestly seemed like Light and Misa’s personalities were switched from what they were in the manga. Maybe it was to try and make her a strong female character, but it fell flat. What I found was one of the major characteristics of manga Mia was that she loved Light. She would do anything for Light, such as trading for the eyes twice or giving up her death note and memories when Light asks her to. This Misa seems to care much less for Light and more about the death note and killing. It doesn’t make her endearing to the audience, I don’t know what they were trying to do with her.

Light Yagami (Light Turner) - Where to begin. The acting was quite weak. The boy can scream and cry and beg, that’s for sure. However, he’s playing Light. There should have been no need for any of that. If only. I think what upset me most was that this film didn’t make Light seem smart. He does people’s tests for them at school and... that’s it. That’s where you’re supposed to infer that he’s a brilliant top of his class, getting primed for great things. Film version Light isn’t liked at school where as manga Light isn’t super popular, but he has friends. He has girls ask him out a few times. There’s some dialogue between Ryuk and Light about how popular he is with the ladies. Whereas Film Light is pretty much alone except for deranged Misa. There’s also no secrecy about the death note. He fucking has it in his lap during gym class, just chilling there. Misa asks what it is and he shows her how to use it. Just like that. They talk about it and killing people constantly out in public or in classes. It’s so unrealistic. Light doesn’t try to hide anything. On his first time meeting L he confesses to being Kira, just like that. He confesses it to his dad later on as well. He has a few exchanges with Misa about how much he wants to give up the death note and run way together because he loves her. After all, there was a montage of them making out while writing down names, it’s true love. The climax of the movie has Light writing down “if Misa takes the note book from me she will die” and Light telling her “it’s the notebook or me.” She chooses the notebook and you see him sob “I never thought you would take it!! I thought you loved me!!” and it’s so very manga Misa Misa. Light acts like the worst parts of manga Misa. He’s always ready to just give up and cry under a desk. The only good thing he does in this film is kill Misa.

One of the brilliant things Death Notes does is it challenged the reader about what is truly good and evil. Reading it for the first time I remember siding with Light up until he makes the jump to killing anyone after him. Then I was with L and the SPK. But then L dies. The leader of the “good side” dies and Light has his iconic “I win” panel. The whole world turns to Kira in support, and the reader does once again. He won out, he must be the good force after all. Then Near and Mellow show up and once again the reader is unsure of who to support. Mellow uses such underhanded tactics and causes Mr. Yagami’s death so he can’t be good. Near was a little kid so by virtue he had to be good, although personally I dislike Near. L and Mellow grew on me, Near didn’t. At this point Kira can’t be attributed solely to Light as he has Mikami and Misa working for him, but Kira is the bad guy again to the reader. The reader is thrown back and forth with who they support as things develop, but the characters themselves still fully believe that they all are what is good. The side of justice. The SPK thinks that they are in the right by bringing Kira down. Kira thinks that he is right by serving out justice and acting as god. It makes the reader really, really question what they think about right and wrong.

This movie version stripped that away. I never got the feeling that Light believes he is actually doing the right thing. He constantly is questioning their actions and wanting to stop. The viewer never thinks Light is in the right for a second, the viewer never wants him to win. You never have to question is Kira’s justice right or wrong.

I think what sums it up better than I could is the difference between these two scenes (Please note I do not have my copy of the book on hand and I’m not rewatching the film so this is from memory. Words may not be exact but the overall sentence is). In the manga Light comments “They have chosen to call him Kira. I don’t particularly like it as it sounds similar to the American word for killer, which is not what Kira does, he is justice.” In the film, Light states “I chose the name Kira because it’s close to the Japanese word for killer.” There ya go. Light chooses (CHOOSES) the name Kira because it sounds like a nice edgy name that is a word for murderer, which Light views himself as.

Bottom line, don’t watch it unless you too want to be upset. L, Watari, sometimes Ryuk, and the plethora of awful snapchat stickers my friend and I got were the highlights.

2/10 - just not no chip scene, barely any scenes from the manga.

#death note #netflix #review #death note review #fucking awful #long text #sorry guys this got away from me #I had so much to hate tbh #shoutout to strategictree for watching it with me #2/10 what a pos

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yeahfoxesforever-blog · 7 years

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American Death Note

It’s. So. Bad.

It’s worse than the American Dragon Ball.

Let me list for you, all the ways that it is bad. Spoilers, obviously.

Characters

By the way, I know these original/american screenshots I’m doing already exist, but I’m using screenshots from the actual movie - not of the actors from other non-movie sources.

Light

In the original, Light’s primary characteristic, the pillar of his character, is JUSTICE. He wants a world filled with only kind, honest people. He is inspired by his father, and they have a mutual respect for each other. He genuinely has no interest in money or romance at all - making the world a better place, before and after the Death Note, is the pillar of his character.

In this new one, Light is a CHEATER, a horn dog, and is drama-time with his dad. The very first scene of him is doing someone else’s math homework for money. Simultaneously, he’s watching girl’s cheerleading practice because he’s in love with one of the cheer leaders. He is basically the opposite of himself in that very first scene. He has a terrible home life - he has no sister, his mother was killed in a car wreck, and he and his dad constantly fight. Oh, and he has blond highlights. WTF?

Mi(s)a

Much like Light, Mi(s)a is basically the opposite of herself. In the original, Misa is absolutely in love with Light and she’ll do anything for him. She cut her life in half for him - twice. She cares about Light’s mission because her family was killed by an un-punished criminal, until Light punished him. She’s adorable, a model, and gothic lolita.

Mia, however, is a cheerleader (?!), dark hair instead of blond, has NO backstory at all, and doesn’t appear to genuinely love Light at all. She writes Lights name in the Death Note to make HIM give it to HER. Misa would never do that! In fact, Mia is more like Light, and Light is more like Misa in this version!

In the original, L (and also Watari) are English. He is always collected and he doesn’t FIGHT people, he outsmarts them. Traps them by their own actions. Many people rooted for him over the main character, Light. Although I was a Light supporter, I really enjoyed the Japanese live-action movies where L was the winner. I also read L: Change the World and enjoyed it. He is genuinely an awesome character.

In this one, we’re lead to believe he’s smart, but we don’t see that many smart actions from him. He has deductions that, in this story, make no sense. More than anything, the scene where he learns Watari is dead and snaps, steals a gun and a police car, and goes running to kill Light, is completely ridiculous. L would not do that. Also what’s with their clothes? The original L is always dressed in jeans and a white long-sleeved shirt. But American L looks like he’s going as a Ninja for Halloween and couldn’t get his mom to buy him a costume.

Others

Ryuk isn’t a big player in this movie, but he wasn’t done well, either. Like pretty much all the others, his motivations are wrong. In the original, he drops it in the human world randomly because he’s bored. That’s it. In this one, he deliberately drops it for Light, although I don’t think it’s ever explained why, and later he says Light could give it to someone else “or better yet, give it back to me.” If you wanted it back, why did you give it to Light in the first place...? Also, he’s flying around spreading the Death Note all over the human world. Light is NOT the first (human) owner of the Note.

I basically already complained about Soichiro (/James) - we’re lead to believe that he and Light fight constantly, which is not their character. I appreciate that they tried to include his weakness of adhering to the law 100%, where Light disagrees with that. Maybe they were trying too hard to make you notice that characteristic, that it completely took over everything else? Soichiro’s wife was killed in a car wreck, but the law couldn’t bring the killer to justice. He’s sad, but it doesn’t eat him up because the law is the law. But Light won’t stand for that.

I liked that Watari was Japanese, but why wasn’t L? In the original, L and Watari were both English, while Light and Misa were Japanese. So in this one, Light and Misa are American, so Watari was made Japanese. That’s fun, but if we’re doing that, then why isn’t L also made Japanese?

Death Note

I’m including the Note as a character because it is also very different. The original only had a few rules - 12, I think? But this one has ninety-six. In the original, anyone that touched the Note could see Ryuk. Not this time. The name written with no cause of death is a heart attack. This time it’s “dealer’s choice” (being Ryuk for some reason??). This one’s from out of left field: a person’s name can be written, be controlled for 2 days, then the page can be burned and the person will live. But you can only burn a page once! Oh, and names written in the Death Note don’t necessarily die. There are two idiotic scenes, where Light is reading what was already written in the Note (because it came with stuff written in it from other humans....), and he notices a line “Don’t trust Ryuk”. Layer, Ryuk says anyone that’s tried to write his name in the book has only gotten as far as two letters. Well, no, your name is in there. You should be dead. From what I recall in the original, a Shinigami can’t be killed by having his name written, anyway. But here, Ryuk leads us to believe that he can. But his name is in it. So he’s not. But he should be based on this movie’s rules.

Wrong

I’m basically going to just do bullet points here of all of the that-wouldn’t-happens or contradictions from this movie. They’re roughly in order.

Light Cheats

As stated earlier, Light wants a world free from dishonest people and has no care at all for money. So he would never sell others homework. This is purely ridiculous.

Light loves Mia

No. As I mentioned above, Light’s motivation is Justice, not romance. Originally, Misa came to him because she was given her own note by Rem, she took the Shinigami eyes, and was able to find him. He kept her around because she was useful. This Light has the notebook, and TELLS MIA ABOUT IT. Just because he likes her and thinks it’ll make her like him. NO. That’s too risky. Light would never do that.

Mia is a Cheerleader

Misa is an honest, adorable gothic lolita model. Not a cheerleader. I wonder if this was done to American-ize it. Cheerleaders are the ideal female in American high schools and in American movies/tv shows, so we won’t be able to identify unless she’s a cheerleader. But she wasn’t even blond, which is the stereotype. So why are they half-stereotyping here?

Mia smokes during cheerleading practice

This one is more of a hit on movies that portray american schools, but in what school can a teenager smoke in the middle of practice and a teacher isn’t going to immediately run out and expel her?!

Mia is boring

Misa is supposed to be so fun, and cute, and dressed adorably, and have energy, and everyone loves her (eh, except Light). She stands out. Mia is generi-american-high-schooler. She’s nobody.

Light gets in a fight for Mia

Mia tries to stop some students from bullying another student, so they push her. Then Light interferes and gets punched. There was even a scene like this in the first episode of the anime where a student is being bullied for money and Light doesn’t care to interfere.

Light gets Detention

I mean, WTF. In the original, he’s the smartest student in Japan. He’s not getting detention!

Light panics when Ryuk appears

Ryuk starts coming at him like a freaking ghost, knocking over shelves and tables and blowing paper all over the classroom. Meanwhile, Light is hidden under the teacher’s desk and screaming. Originally, Ryuk just appears, Light screams, and then says “oh hey, I was expecting something like this” and is calm as a cucumber.

Ryuk makes Light use the Note

No. Light is supposed to find the Note, and gives it a test just to see. Then he goes on the crusade - solo. But here, Ryuk has to explain that it’s real, even tells him to specifically kill Kenny (I think that was the name?), and seriously has to pressure him into using it.

Light and his dad fight

I think this phenomenon has two motivations: 1) Americanize. All teenagers fight with their parents, duh. We can’t identify with Light unless he thinks his dad is soo stupid. 2) To highlight what Light perceives as a weakness in his dad’s version of Justice. His wife’s killer got away, and there’s nothing he can do about it. Light wants to do something about it. Still, ridiculous.

Light kills someone on the local news

Because Light is so in love with Mia, he wants to prove to her that the Note works. So he goes to the computer, searches live crime scene, pulls up a newsfeed ON THE INTERNET of a hostage situation, and kills the suspect. In the original, this scene took place in Light’s bedroom, and he was watching the news on his T.V., which was only broadcast locally. This is how L is able to suspect Kira is located within that district. In this one, he’s watching this ON THE INTERNET. WHERE ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET CAN ALSO WATCH IT. Yet L still claims he must be local to Seattle because of it. That makes no sense in this context and is a ridiculous deduction.

Light comes up with the name Kira

Originally, the people came up with the name Kira, which is the Japanese pronunciation of the English word, Killer. But in this one, Light comes up with it himself in a method so ridiculous, I have to post the screen caps

BECAUSE NO ONE KNOWS LANGUAGES FROM OTHER CONTINENTS SO SNEAKY.

L makes the deduction that he needs a name and a face

I don’t remember specifically how he came up with this in the original. But I do remember he had the press conference with a criminal, pretending to be L, with the criminal’s name and face visible. He dared Kira to kill him, which he did. This confirmed Kira could kill from afar and was watching. Then the real L came on voice-over and dared Kira to kill him. But he couldn’t. This confirmed Kira needed a name and face. Oh, and it was only broadcast to a local region in Japan, so it also confirmed the region in which he lived. Triple-wammy, you’re amazing L!

But in this one... it isn’t clear how he comes up with the name/face theory. HE goes onto television, with his face partially covered (the screenshot of L above), and dares Kira to kill him. But he doesn’t. So ha ha - you need a name and face! But....that proves NOTHING. He hasn’t proved that Kira can kill from afar. He hasn’t proved that Kira is even watching. He also didn’t prove that Kira was local because everything is broadcast on the internet, anyway. So this deduction makes no sense in this context.

Light won’t kill his dad

You may recall from the original, that Light actually did kill Soichiro. James goes on T.V., with his name and face visible. MIA wants to kill James because he’s taunting Kira. But LIGHT won’t let her. This is backwards.

Light must be Kira because he didn’t kill his dad

L has not proved that Kira can kill from afar, or what the rules are, or that he’s even watching, so this isn’t a valid deduction.

Death of the FBI Agents

This was an amazingly clever set up in the original. In this one, Light doesn’t want to kill them. So Mia walks up behind one of them in a parking garage, tazers him, and tells him to write the other agent’s names. And he does. So clever.

Writing Watari works

No, it freaking doesn’t. First, Watari wouldn’t have shown his face on T.V. like he did. So that alone wouldn’t happen. Second, you need a name. A nickname doesn’t work. Even if Watari WAS his real name, Light doesn’t have his last name. So he still couldn’t write him in the Note and have it take effect.

Light has Watari call him using their own cell phones

Okay, seriously, you guys? Light is supposed to be a genius. L is also a genius. You’re telling me, that Light would have Watari, who is about to go missing, use his own cell phone, to call Light, on his own cell phone? And he wouldn’t think that MAYBE that’s traceable? You’re also going to tell me that when Watari goes missing, L wouldn’t have thought to trace his cell phone? That is absolutely insane. This might be the most idiotic thing in the whole movie.

Light confirms he’s Kira to L

There’s a scene where L finds Light in a cafe and accuses him of being Kira. Light’s response is basically “No, I’m not - okay, yeah I am. You can’t prove it, though”. Again, would. not. happen.

Here’s a series of quotes from the conversation from Light. He suggests to L that maybe “they” (Kira) is as ready to see the killing end as L is.

The suggests L should start helping Kira instead of hunting him.

L says criminals will beg when they’re caught for a deal. Light replies he isn’t begging, but telling L that he doesn’t understand his motivation.

Then L says “you flew too close to the sun, I’m just here to make sure you burn” and Light replies “Well, if that’s how it has to be”. Basically saying “okay, you’re on.” You don’t do that if you aren’t the one he’s trying to catch!! The whole conversation is just ridiculous.

L races off to murder Light

When L is told that Watari was killed, he steals a gun and a police car, and goes on a rampage to murder Light. This goes against what L stands for - he needs proof and makes people reveal themselves. Which he even says in the conversation I mention above. But no, he goes off on a rampage. Maybe this is American-ized again. You can’t have a climax without action. And action means someone with a gun chasing someone without a gun!

Mia and Light go to a dance

THEY ARE NOT INTERESTED IN ATTENDING A DANCE. I think this is an American-ized thing again. Americans can’t understand a story that takes place in high school unless they go to the dance that everyone cares about!

Look at us being sassy teenagers - tee hee we’re so cool!

Mia screws up Light’s plan

Light wrote Watari’s name, intending to burn the page if he didn’t provide him with L’s real name before his death time came up. But Mia wanted to make Light give her the notebook with the same threat, and since you can only burn one page (which the rules on this aren’t explained - is it one page per writer or one per Note? Because it seems to be neither), then Watari’s can’t be burned, so she steals it. Misa loves Light, and does everything he tells her, to the letter.

What is with that Burn rule?

We’re told that you can write a person’s name to control him using the Note, then burn the page. The person still will have done those actions, but he won’t die. But you can only burn one page. So here’s where my problem is. If it’s that one page per book can be burned, and we KNOW that Light isn’t the first owner, then why would he bank on this? That one page may have already been used. So that implies that it’s one page per owner. But that contradicts the plot above. If Light writes Watari’s name, then burns the page, Watari lives. Then if Mia writes Light’s name, then burns the page, Light will also live because it was not only written by two different people, but would also be owned by two different people when the burning takes place. So I feel like that wasn’t thoroughly thought-out

Light freaks out and gives up his plan

When L is chasing down Light, he corners him, and Light shouts out this ramble:

Light would never shout out such an obvious clue. Especially given what we know about his plan. Namely that he has no plan to kill L, and the calculus book with the page in it still exists and he won’t be there to protect it.

So, I think this comes from the final scene in the original where Light thinks he’s won, confirms that he’s Kira, and then finds out he didn’t win. The problem is that in this version, Light doesn’t think he’s won yet. He could very well be shot right then and there by L. Additionally, he’s just babbling from panic - he’s not being taken down by his own hubris. So if this is supposed to be a translation of that scene, it’s a poor one.

Light kills Mia

This one is more confusing than anything. In the beginning, Light loves Mia. He eventually discovers that she just wants the Note, so he decides to kill her and comes up with this clever-ish plan, which mostly works. I guess the confusing part is the final conversation between them where Mia takes the Note, which we already know she wants to do, but she knows that means he wrote her name in it. But he says he didn’t think it would work because he thought she loved him. But he already knows that writing the name down in the Note will mean that person dies and will do things he wouldn’t ordinarily do (as already proved with Watari trying to oust L’s identity). With the flashback explanation later, we’re lead to believe this part was totally planned out. Maybe this is meant to make him more cold-hearted, basically Mia’s killing takes the place of Soichiro’s.

A newspaper clipping proves Light is Kira

James finds a newspaper clipping about his wife’s killer in Light’s room. That newspaper clipping was supposed to be in HIS room! And the wife’s killer died. Therefore, Light is Kira. Makes. No. Sense. He’s telling me that there’s no way Light could possibly keep newspaper articles on a subject he’s interested in? Or that he could have pulled it out to read after he heard the killer had died? You’re telling me that if someone in my community dies, and my computer shows I recently read an article about that person, that I must be the killer? There is literally no connection there.

I think the big downfall, for me, is that they tried to Americanize it. And American media about high school is complete garbage. Not everyone is in love with the cheerleader. Not all parents and teenagers fight. Not all teenagers like thinking they’re bad and flipping off the camera. Not all boys just want the girl. Not all teenagers are obsessed with dances. We don’t constantly need popular songs playing to be reminded to pay attention. I don’t know if I’m being harsh because I generally don’t like American media about high school or if it’s because I’ve seen the original and was so drastically disappointed by it. I actually thought the American DragonBall was kind of fun. It was different, but clearly did have some influence from Toriyama. But in the American Death Note, the characters are completely wrong, the style is completely wrong, and the plot genuinely makes no sense. The original is about the two being so clever and constantly trying to out-smart the other. But this one has huge plot holes such that they BROKE how it used to make sense.

If you’re a big Death Note fan and really want to watch this, here’s my suggestion: get a group of other Death Note fans together, get some vodka and shot glasses, and make it a drinking game. Have the video easily pausible to take a drink and shout at the T.V. and be mad together. If you can’t watch it this way, don’t watch it at all.

#american death note #whyislightmisa #whyismisalight

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ramblesandmumblesofanerd · 7 years

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Rambling Reviews: Netflix’s Death Note

Welp, the day has come. As you can see, the Netflix version of the popular anime Death Note has just been released. And, as I said I would, I saw it. What are my initial opinions on the subject? Well, through the filter of professionalism I have put upon myself for this blog, I can certainly say that the film is dull, boring, ignores all of the rules of the source material and leaves you questioning as to why this film exists. If I were to remove this filter, all you could hear would be the incoherent screaming of a nerd who has been thoroughly wronged by whoever thought making this movie would be a good idea. For a better understanding of why this is the case, allow me to both make a few comparisons between the film and the anime/manga and also briefly talk about the film as a whole.

So, what is the plot of this particular version of Death Note? Well, one day at high school, Light Turner (ugh, that feels so wrong) comes across an old notebook which can kill people according to the onslaught of rules held within and the Death God Ryuk who practically forces the young man to try it out on a two-dimensional school bully. After he discovers the power he holds, Light and his high school sweetheart Mia Sutton decide to take it upon themselves to become KIRA, a God who will “never disappoint” and kill as many criminals as they possibly can. Eventually, the detective known as L gets involved and declares that he will capture and execute KIRA. And thus the story focuses on the struggle between Light being KIRA and also being a high school student all while trying not to be caught by L.

Firstly, things in this film just happen. The film never takes a moment to take a breath and calm down, every moment just races by at the speed of sound and smacks you in the face. Not even a full minute and thirty seconds pass until Light gets the notebook. No build up, no establishing characters, just: BOOM, Death Note. Also, the Death Note’s appearance comes with a lot of horror movie fanfare, as it comes on the breeze of a storm and causes all of the lights to flicker whenever it is being used. The same goes for Ryuk, especially in his initial appearance when he just messes around and scares the excrement out of Light. You expect big things to happen in this film, dramatic reenactments of iconic scenes lifted from the source material, but they fly by so fast that you're left wondering “...was that it?”. You wouldn’t have even known this was Death Note at the beginning of the film until you saw the title sequence.

So, I guess I should start talking about the characters at some point, shouldn’t I?

Well, Light was absolutely boring and was the complete antithesis to his predecessor. Light TURNER is just a punk high school student who helps other kids cheat on their tests for cash because his mom was killed. Oh, yeah, they go that route. One of Light’s first targets of the notebook was his mom’s killer, but I just couldn’t give a care. At all. Light Yagami was never driven by revenge (at least not until L started messing with his vision, and even then not by much), he just saw injustice in the world and his seventeen year old mind decided that if he uses his Death Note to eliminate all of the evils of the world, he will assume the mantle of a godlike being. He does not care about anything else so long as it doesn’t benefit his vision. Granted, Light Turner eventually came to the same conclusion, but only after he got revenge and his girlfriend told him to keep going from there.

Meanwhile, there is Mia Sutton. “Who?” You may be asking? Well, she is Netflix’s version of Misa Amane, the Second Kira from the source material. She was a Japanese Pop Star who wanted to personally thank Kira after he killed the man who murdered her parents. By sheer coincidence, she came to possess her own Death Note and even more power than Light, thus how she was able to find him and become his girlfriend. Many people complain how she was not entirely necessary for most of the story, and I am willing to agree. Her character in the source material never seemed to go beyond “Love me, Senpai” and thus her intelligence in the later seasons suffered greatly. In the film, ironically, Mia is more like Light Yagami than Light Turner was for most of the film. She was the Id to Light’s Ego, as she constantly strived to eliminate all opposing forces, going so far as to plan ahead for certain scenarios. She was manipulative towards Light and vindictive to all who opposed KIRA. This would have made for an interesting twist, but by the time the climax was happening and everyone was going all in, I just couldn’t bother to care anymore.

Speaking of not caring, that is exactly how I believe the writers felt about the original, true version of L; they didn’t care, so they just made their own version. L in the source material was an orphan with a brilliant mind, one very similar to Sherlock Holmes. His soon to be butler and father figure Watari raised him at an orphanage where other children would soon be raised to succeed him should the need ever arise. This was due to the fact that L soon became a detective of then unparalleled genius and determination, solving all sorts of previously difficult or unsolved cases left and right until the day when KIRA became a looming threat. He is seen as secretive, emotionless, analytical, and deceptive in spite of his disheveled appearance. He is the perfect man to take on a mysterious psychopath like KIRA, be it from the shadows to keep his identity a secret, or face to face under a slew of fake names and aliases. Now, take all of that, and completely ignore it in this film. Netflix L is an overemotional child who openly mocks and taunts KIRA in the open without any form of protection other than a mask. He just comes out and says “HI, I will be your L for the evening!” And don’t get me started on him emotionally freaking out about losing control over the case to the point of actually holding a gun to Light’s head.

But what about Ryuk, the one character I was actually looking forward to seeing on the screen? Well, he is a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, I do actually like the way he looks, the effects are mostly practical and you do believe he is in the room...from the neck down. From the neck up, in spite of some moments, you can tell that the CGI isn’t registering as realistic to your eyes, so all you’re thinking is that Ryuk is just a man with either a green face mask or motion capture dots on his head. As for his character, Ryuk has apparently been a traitorous backstabber who has been passing down the Death Note for generations who constantly taunts Light for not just simply killing everyone who opposes him. All he’s really meant to do in this version is exposit rules about the notebook (most of which don’t even exist in the source material), laugh a bit and look scary. And yes, while the original Ryuk did that, he never came off as a threat rather than an interested bystander. Ryuk was a shinigami who just got bored in his world one day, as all you can really do in a world full of immortal death gods is gamble and sleep so long as you write enough names in your notebook to keep yourself alive. He sees how Light uses the Death Note and basically hangs around to watch the show and laugh at the funny humans until Light either gives up the notebook or dies. That’s what I like about the original Ryuk, he’s just a spectator and is thus an odd reflection of the audience.Netflix Ryuk is just a spiteful spirit who is more interested in Mia than Light.

So, you have failure across the board for all of the iconic characters, Not even the secondary characters like Light’s Dad or Watari get a pass, as they either have no character at all or the character we are given is so poorly written or overdone that we just do not care about them. Every character just felt so two-dimensional that I felt like I was watching a film starring a cast of cardboard cutouts. The only one who gave somewhat of a good performance was the tag team of Willem Dafoe as Ryuk’s voice and the poor shlub who had to physically be Ryuk.

And the effects...lordy the effects. When it comes to the deaths in this film, they are somewhat gruesome if not ridiculous. The first two deaths are reminiscent of Final Destination, as they are executed through what I can only describe as a Rube Goldberg Machine of Coincidence, and when the payoff comes watch out! There’s so much blood and gore, I’m surprised the town wasn’t painted red by the end of the movie. While death is kind of a big deal in this franchise, the way the film executed it was quite silly if not sickening.

So, in the end, Netflix’s Death Note was not a good film. It’s not even good in the “so bad, it’s good kind of way.” Fans will hate it because of how much it gets wrong and casual observers will just be bored and confused by it. I understand that when it comes to making an adaptation, some things need to be changed or erased, but when die hard fans of the source material leave your film feeling so much agitation that they want to make an entry in their sub-par blog(s) to talk about why it doesn’t work by repeatedly comparing it to the source material, perhaps it would have been better not to make your film in the first place. So, unless you like torture, avoid this film.

In the meantime, never stop rambling, TM

#Death Note #Netflix #review

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writingmaniaa · 3 years

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Death Note review~

Okay so before we get into the review, I just want to warn you guys that I haven’t written many reviews so don’t be surprised if this is a disorganized mess. I’ll try to gather my thoughts the best I can but I can’t make any promises.

Anyways, I finished Death Note last weekend and I thought I’d share my thoughts! Death Note is a very well known show, and I’d heard of it before I ever got into anime. The concept seemed pretty interesting to me, but my judgmental idea of anime combined with my absolute loathing of subtitles stopped me from ever getting around to it. I finally caved in and watched it, and I’m so glad I did!

I’ll include a brief explanation of the plot as well as a spoiler-free section in case any of you haven’t watched it. After that I’ll get into some of my more spoiler filled thoughts later.

Basically, one day a bored “god of death” named Ryuk drops a magical notebook into the human world to see what will happen. This notebook, known as the Death Note, will kill anyone whose name is written inside. The notebook is found by an average high school student named Light Yagami. It doesn’t take long for him to start using the notebook’s abilities to do what he believes is the right thing. He decides to use the notebook to kill criminals and create a crime-free utopian world. The story follows Light as he tries to evade being caught by the police, led by his father and a detective named L, while enacting his plan.

This show does a really good job of twisting the plot in directions I wasn’t expecting. As I mentioned before, the concept of a killer notebook seemed interesting to me, but I was skeptical if the show could keep its intrigue for 37 episodes. A couple episodes in and it felt like Light was already caught. However, the close game of cat and mouse between Light and L is what kept me hooked for so long. I was always on the edge of my seat, waiting for Light to slip up one too many times and be caught by L. Another thing I found very interesting was Light’s descent into madness as his god complex grew as the story progressed. Light went from being an average teenager to a serial killer frighteningly fast, and I loved watching him struggle to keep his “normal kid” persona intact.

Another thing I liked about the show was actually something that made me hesitate to watch it in the first place. Anime is known for being over dramatic at times, and I’d seen people point to Death Note as an example of this. Many scenes, particularly the potato chip scene (you probably know the one even if you haven’t watched this show), seemed tiresome at first. I absolutely adore them now, and I think that the intensity and drama of scenes like the potato chip scene really add to the show.

I can’t really go into depth about the things I didn’t like about the show without spoiling some things, but I’ll try to sum things up the best I can. The later episodes did seem to drag a little bit, and from what I’ve heard many people agree with me on this. That’s not to say that they were awful, but there was definitely a drop in quality for the last twelve or so episodes. Another thing I didn’t like was the female characters, especially Misa. Her entire character revolved around her obsessive love for Light. All she seemed to do was get manipulated into doing his bidding. Overall, it felt like she was just in the story for fanservice, and her obnoxious personality was rather irritating at times. One of the few other female characters, Kiyomi Takada, also had a similar problem. Her entire character revolved around her loyalty and adoration of Light; she seemed to have no story of her own without him. I’ll go over more things I disliked in the spoiler section, but that’s all for now.

Other than those problems, the show was pretty great! I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who likes intense shows like this. It’s on Netflix if you haven’t watched it, so go check it out!

Now I’ll be getting into some spoilers, so proceed with caution!

As I mentioned before, there definitely seemed to be a change in quality around episode 25, namely due to L’s death. He was always my favorite character, and when I realized that he was going to die I was somewhat disappointed. As for Near, he felt like a cheaper version of L. He wasn’t completely awful, though. I liked seeing him succeed in places that L failed, but it almost seemed like the writers regretted killing L and they wanted to bring him back in a way. There was a point where Near said something along the lines of “there’s a 7% chance that Light is Kira,” and I actually had to close my computer and take a deep breath because of that (is it normal to feel such a burning rage towards a fictional character?). Despite how emotionless L was at times, Near was much colder and calmer than him, which is why he was able to catch Light in the end. His character wasn’t completely awful, but he felt like a cheap addition to the story at times.

I want to talk about the ending and the last episode, because I have a lot of thoughts on that. From episode 1, I could tell that Light was going to die at the end of the show, so it was no surprise when he actually did. I was, however, pleasantly surprised at how undramatic his death scene was. For a show that overemphasizes mundane things like eating chips and playing tennis, I was expecting some grand monologue from Light accompanied by him dying in the most exaggerated way imaginable. I was definitely not expecting him to die silently in a stairwell from a heart attack, though it felt very poetic that Light was killed by the Death Note in the end.

In regards to the actual events that lead up to his death, I really liked how one tiny slip up on Light’s part led to his downfall. It really made me think about how differently the story would have gone if small details had been changed early on. Would Light have never been caught or would he have been discovered much sooner? Intriguing questions like these are why people are still theorizing about this show fifteen years after it came out.

There were a couple other thoughts I had on the last episode. First, I absolutely loved Matsuda shooting Light like ten times in a row (though I still don’t understand how he was able to run away after being shot so many times). It was great to see him stand up against Light and his reaction seemed very natural for the situation.

Speaking of reactions, I feel like we should have learned what happened to Misa after Light’s death. Her entire life was centered around him, so obviously that would have been a big deal for her. The most we got was those shots of her sitting alone on a train during the credits, but we were never told what happened to her after the story ended. I would have liked to see a little bit more of her, especially toward the end of the story, when it felt like she was just written out of the plot.

I really loved Ryuk’s final words as he writes Light’s name in the Death Note, along with him ending up being the one to kill Light. Ryuk never really seemed to care about Light, he was just hanging around because Light had the Death Note, but with Ryuk’s final words, it did feel like he enjoyed spending so many years with Light and that he would miss their time together once it was over. Like I said earlier, it felt very poetic that Light was killed by the very thing that started the story in the first place.

I’m not the type of person who cries over shows and movies easily. There have been times where I forced myself to cry over a certain character’s death, but I rarely genuinely cry over these things. However, if you slap a sunset in the last episode of a show, I’m going to tear up. There’s something so final about sunsets. To me they represent the end of an era, as well as a bittersweet sense of longing and regret. When Light was running from the warehouse, I did start to feel myself tearing up. Everything from the quiet swelling of the music, to the flashbacks to the first episode, to the sounds of Light’s panting and crying just really hit me in the gut. This scene was so great to me because of what it didn’t have. There was no monologue, no haunting chorus or intense music, no dramatic action shots. This scene conveyed the regret and longing that Light felt in his final moments through the visuals of the sunset, the quick flashbacks, and his body language; as well as the subtle yet emotional music and Light’s desperate panting. I think it’s a great way to close a great story.

Despite its flaws, Death Note excels at telling a memorable and captivating story. That’s why you see clips of the show being used as TikTok audios a decade and a half later. Everything from the characters, to the plot, to the soundtrack and animation add up to make a great show. I’d probably give it four out of five stars. I had some issues with the show, but overall it’s definitely something I’ll be rewatching in the near future.

#death note #light yamagi #l lawliet #anime #review

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carraisaunicorn · 7 years

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My thoughts on the death note live action by the Netflix

*Breathes in* BOI DO I HAVE I LOT TO SAY

I came into this with the lowest expectations possible, as a fan of the original source material I was happy at first when I heard Netflix was going to bring life to an already great story, and I was hyped for it. But then I found out about what they changed Light’s name to. Seriously LIGHT TURNER. Did you just finish watching fairly odd parents before deciding on his name? I get it you had to westernise the name to appeal to a wider audience but like at least choose a name that doesn’t make it sound like a job. like “ELLO I AM THE LIGHT TURNER,I TURN OFF THE LIGHT, I TURN ON THE LIGHT”. But then I was like okay maybe it’s just the name it’s alright I can look pass that. But then I found out about the casting.... And everything just kept on going down hill. Especially when the trailer released and my fear was realised. They weren’t going to stick to the original source material at all, but I still hoped in my heart they would at the very least keep the core parts of the story. But sadly they didn’t.

I’m gonna start with the most basic thing I want to address.

The Characters.

None of the characters were done right. Maybe ryuk was but I dunno he wasn’t as assertive in the original source material plus he wasn’t in the film as much as I hoped.

Let’s start with the people who I think should have been in it that weren’t included.

Light’s Mother and younger sister. Light didn’t need to have the whole back story where his mum was killed by a criminal who wasn’t prosecuted. In all honesty I feel like them giving such a cliché and predictable backstory took away so much from his original Character. Light was a Sociopath even before he got the death note, and him having the picture perfect family might have been one of the reasons that side of him developed. everything about light was supposed to be perfect, his grades and his looks were all incredibly above average, his dad was a chief officer, his mum was the perfect house wife and his little sister was your normal adorkable little sister who looked up a lot to his brother, Light himself was the perfect son, he was an honour student probably even the smartest person in japan at that time. (or atleast until L came into the picture) he was bored of his perfect life, and already felt like he was above everyone, anyway i have more to say about Light later. I’m just saying, having them there would have added more complexity to light’s character overall. We really didn’t need the whole angsty relationship between light and his dad. It just made the film feel like it was trying too hard to be edgy.

The rest of the Kira investigation team, Matsuda and the others added a lot of things for character development not only to Light but most definitely to L as well. This was the first time he started working with other people besides watari, where they actually met and talked in person, before then he would work alone only communicating through watari and or a computer screen. towards the end of his arc you could tell he was starting to enjoy working with them and seeing them as friends. Not to mention the whole scene where they finally meet L and L was just like “bang, if I was Kira you’d be dead.” being one of my favourite L moments ever,along with the whole “I couldn’t live in a world without Light” “yes that would be very dark”conversation

The female FBI detective whose name I completely forgot. (I haven’t rewatched death note in a while cut me some slack) (her names Naomi Misora I looked it up. Lol) the scene where Light met her before she got in contact with L was an amazing part of the original. Plus the way Light manipulated her into giving him her real name was a perfect way to portray how much of fucking genius Light was, I swear they completely missed out with not adding that to the movie.

Rem. Rem added a lot more expedition into the death note itself, and how it came to be, and how it works. Not to mention Rem was one of my Favourite characters in the Series. She was a death god like ryuk. Who wasn’t completely crazy like Ryuk but more calm and observant, She was a genuine Friend to Misa (Mia in the Netflix version WHICH BTW I HAVE A LOT TO SAY ABOUT TOO BUT I’LL SAVE THAT FOR LATER). I won’t go into much detail on her but anyone who has scene the original source material knows why Rem was really important.

Shall we go on to the actual characters in the film now? Let’s take a deep breath.

Let’s start with Lights dad. Why the frickity frack is he like your average angsty cop dad in every fricken film. Light’s dad in the original was a clean,prim and proper dad, who had a strong sense of Justice and clear love for his family. He was never laid back, He despised what Kira was doing, he was so passionate about it that he even gave up his job as chief of the NPA. Plus he even went as far as taking the shinigami eyes, even though it cut his entire life span in half causing him to die a few days after. The dad in the movie however was just like your cliché cop, who was struggling to make connections with his son.

L and Watari,Watari isn’t Watari’s real name. Do you honestly think a super genius like L would let his extremely close Colleague Use his real name when he goes by a fucking letter. NO. HE. WOULDN’T. Plus L would never do a press conference himself he would have Watari show up in a trench coat and a mask hold out a Laptop and talk through that, with a voice changer on himself as well. That’s how he communicated to the public, He would never show up himself. However I would have to give credit where credit is due, The person who played L did a massive good job in portraying the weird quirky side of his. And that’s pretty much it. Halfway towards the end they took away a core part of L’s original character, The way L would never let his emotions take over, Logic would always come first. He would never go crazy and chase after Light he would calmly think of a way to corner him. That’s why he made Light Join the Kira investigation team in the first place. Plus they never mentioned why L sat that way or why he likes sugar so much, or how he doesn’t like phones. Also the way Light was his first friend even though he knew for a fact Light was Kira he just didn’t know how to prove it. If anything L’s character felt closer to Near and Mello to me.

Misa/ Mia, look the whole point of Misa’s character was that she was completely and utterly devoted to Light and his cause, as he, Kira, killed the man who murdered her family. Her whole thing was she loved Light with all her heart and was completely and utterly loyal to him, to the point that she would risk her life if it meant it would make Light happy, which the movie completely took away by making her betray him. NOT TO MENTION MISA IS SUPPOSED TO BE AN IDIOT. She’s not your cliché edgy popular chick who likes bad boys. I’m repeating myself here but Light is a sociopath, The only reason why he tolerated Misa and pretended to date her was because she was of use to him since she had shinigami eyes and she possessed another death note. In all honesty the romance in the netflix version ruined the whole thing for me.Not to mention the one thing Light made sure about is to not let anyone know about his identity the only times he did reveal it was towards the end during the time he made Mikami(i think his name is) write in the death note in his stead while he was working on the case against Near, but in the movie he just reveals it to this girl because he wants to bang her. Not to mention you lost a lot of Misa’s character and back story by not including Rem. Or the story about the shinigami who fell in love with her.

And now to the one I have the most to say about,

The #tooedgyforyou boi himself, Light Yaga- I mean Turner. Light turner, FUCK I HATE THAT NAME,

My biggest problem with Light Turner here is just the fact that he’s supposed to be Light Yagami. He is completely different. Light Yagami is a self righteous sociopath with incredible passion and determination (*megalovania blasts in the background*) he’s calculative and manipulative and he will do anything if it meant he would get what he wants. Only a complete and utter Sociopath would still try and make his Dying father use his lasts bits of strength to kill someone just to get one person of his back. He doesn’t give a shit about love, and he wouldn’t be dumb enough to leave opportunities for Mia/Misa to take the death note from him. He planned every move before hand, looked at every possible outcome before moving on to the next. He wasn’t someone who would give up his ideals of a perfect world for a fucking cheerleader who had a nice body. Heck I’m even smarter than the Light that is being portrayed in the movie. Probably even the L. In the anime Light picked up the death note read it and was like “eh that’s bullshit but I’m curious so I’ll take it home for now.” then while watching the news he saw that there was a hostage thing going on and he decided to just try it out. It’s not like there’s anything to lose, and it worked the person died of heart attack 40 seconds after. Even though it threw him off he was still sceptical, and tried it out again while he was at the convenience store where he saw a guy on a bike harassing a woman, He was talking really loudly and telling the woman his name tellin the woman to remember it, so he decided to test out the notebook again and wrote out the name but this time with a method of death, and when it worked again he realized that the book was the real deal, so what’s the first thing Light does? Write down every criminal’s name he could find, people who he thinks deserved to die. And by the time Ryuk showed up he has written over 400 names in the note. HE DIDN’T NEED TO BE COERCED. This shows that Light was a strong willed person. He had his own ideas of how things should work and how he wanted to use the note. He also expected Ryuk to show up. He didn’t freak out like Light turner did. he knew that if something this powerful existed then there must be a just as powerful being that it belonged to and that they would soon come in looking for it. He started with good intentions at first but as time went by he slowly spiralled into crazy. He started believing he was the new God of the world he was creating where there is no crime because everyone was terrified to meet Kira’s wrath. He went in too deep and that pride and arrogance was his downfall. (oh btw Kira wasn’t a name Light gave himself, Kira was the name given to him by his followers and he took a liking to it. he wasn’t like “kira, I’ll name myself kira. That names pretty dope it’s my name in Celtic” fuck off) Light turner was nothing compared to him. Light turner just seemed like your average emo boy who’s pretty good at academics that’s pretty much it. Like the only time he showed intelligence was when he was doing homework for other students which by the way is something the original light would never do. Light Yagami is a super genius, He even got a perfect score on his uni entrance exam, Light turner is just kinda good at math. Light yagami would not cry if Misa died. He would not spare his father if it meant leading to his downfall. He would never waver if it meant his goal was achieved. He would not be that stupid. Not to mention Ryuk isn’t that assertive and pushy he just kinda liked watching how things unfolded, he didn’t force people to write in the death note, or be so cryptic. He explained everything clearly to Light when Light would ask. They just made Light into the cliché underdog who hates school and everyone in it. The Ryuk the Netflix version created was nearer to joker than Ryuk anyway.

That’s enough of the characters let’s go into the scenes I think should have been in the movie that weren’t and plot points they missed.

The whole “I’ll take a potato chip and eat it” scene. you guys know what I’m talking about. In this scene Light was under surveillance by L and he new it so he planned everything he did, he bought this tiny portable tv, which he placed inside a potato chip bag which he ate as he did his homework. He did his homework with his right hand and wrote down names as they popped up on tv with his left. THIS SCENE MAN. It showed how cunning and intuitive both L and Light were. Though Light won that round as he was able to clear him of suspicion by not only giving him an alibi where he couldn’t possibly know the criminals whose names had only been released in the news that night but making people believe he was your above average nice guy.

The bus scene, Light new he was being followed by L’s men and he knew he had to get rid of him. So what does he do? Go on a date.this scene is one of my favourite scenes in all of anime, so I won’t go into much detail about it but let me tell you it’s fucking epic and the way Light was able to figure out how to extract the name of the FBI agent was amazing, this scene also portrayed how bloody brilliant Light is which is why I feel like by just having that one scene in the movie it would have added a lot more to Light character over all. If they had just kept at least one scene from the anime that portrayed the core parts of the characters personality I feel like the fans of the original source material wouldn’t be this disappointed.

L and Light’s time at the university. Just following the whole Light being a university student instead of a high school one would have been nice tbh. I don’t really understand why it had to be set in a high school was the writers that desperate into turning this into a movie that would appeal to a younger demographic that they turned it into a twisted cliché high school romance that was obviously trying so hard to be edgy with it’s soundtrack, gore and slow motion dancing, it basically felt like the writers just read Perks of being a wallflower and was like “you know what would make this better? murder.”

Don’t get me wrong I get it, you obviously couldn’t fit a whole entire series with over 30 episodes into a single movie so your gonna have to make some adjustments.I can also tell that the people behind it worked really hard into making it a decent movie. but to change something that was already good so much that you make it fail in comparison to the original is just disappointing at the very least.

The biggest problem I think with hollywood “adaptations” is that they think us fans don’t want to see the same shit over and over again. Which in all honesty is completely false, I can assure you every death note fan has seen the anime series at least twice. there’s a lot of hidden meanings and Easter eggs you wouldn’t have noticed the first time around. The whole appeal of an adaptation is that it’s for the fans who are massive supporters and just want to see new life brought into the characters we already know and love and for the people who has never heard of it and just want to try something new and maybe it’ll introduce them to new forms of entertainment.

To the creators of the netflix version of death note, if this really was the story you wanted to tell, here’s how I think you should’ve gone. Neither of the characters you created should have been the characters in the original. if Light turner wasn’t supposed to be Light Yagami you would have received a lot less backlash from the community, if L wasn’t L and if Mia wasn’t Misa, the comparison would never have been made and it would make people a lot less mad about the casting. The problem I think here is that you guys didn’t look at it from the Fan’s perspective and just wanted to see what you can do with an already famous franchise that has a pretty good premise, if I were you, the way I would have wrote it would be this way:

Instead of this being the original Kira case I would have set it a few years after the original series ended, Light turner could have been from a family of Kira supporters or His mother was one and that’s why his name is light, he was named after him, since I’m sure after the original investigation was solved Light’s name would have been released to the public, obviously they would keep the death note and the shinigami thing a secret, but I’m sure they would have released Kira’s true identity, Light turner receives the note and Ryuk, Now knowing what the human race is capable of becomes more assertive and manipulates Light turner into trying to replicate what Light Yagami did, Mia could be another Kira supporter and that could have been the thing that brought them together, L would be Near, I can assure you that if the person you cast as L was Near instead you would have received a lot less backlash, Why? you may ask. Character design. L’s appearance is a huge part of the reason why some of the community love him, he’s incredibly unconventional from his pale skin to the huge dark circles under his eyes to his messy emo hair. People in the death note community love L and hold him very close to their heart so to see him portrayed by someone who doesn’t resemble him at all would obviously upset them. as much as I think the actor who portrayed him did an amazing job with capturing his small little quirks I doubt he would look good with a huge black fringe. Near on the other hand was someone who was only introduced towards the end so we wouldn’t have that much of an affinity with him like what we have with L, You can play with his character a lot more and he would be already aware of the death note from the start adding more interesting twists to the story, also I can also see Near adopting L’s persona, and using his name as it’s totally something he would do.

The biggest problem I see with this whole think in my opinion is that it was supposed to be an adaptation. It wasn’t, if you had just told people from the start that you were never intending to make it resemble the anime then I feel like the backlash it would have gotten was a lot less. The fact the only parallels is how the book fell from the sky and the main protaginists’ names being L and Light and the existence of Watari and Ryuk kinda just makes me think you just heard about the show second hand and you dif not actually try watching it yourself.

The problem is this isn’t an adaptation. this was just another version of the story.

#death note #noteflix #netflix #netflix death note #just why

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