#the themes and writing and honestly everything is really different from Western European or American authors

[arsonistman]

Trying to read Metro 2034 but the focus is not there so I might continue the other book I started yesterday

[santaclausdeadindian]

Sorry for doing it this way, I think OP deleted their post or blocked me like a mature, balanced person would, so I have to tag you in

@mr-laugh

Oh boy, lot to unpack here.

So you didn’t even know there were that many subgenres of fantasy, one of the most popular classifications of fiction on the planet... And you think you know enough to tell ANYBODY what classic fantasy is?

And where exactly I attempted to do that, huh?

If you don’t even know the most common subgenres of this vast pool of fiction, why are you jumping into this discussion? You just admitted you don’t know anything!

There is no discussion, there is a stupid ass post. Don't flatter yourself, you don't know jack shit.

Me not knowing what exactly are the precize subgenres of a genre of literature, which, btw, are completely arbitrary and for your information, sword&magic is a legitimate category, has absolutely nothing to do with what that post you were so keen on agreeing with above. It was you who said pretty much any classic fantasy is like that: some poorly written, self-indulgent and borderline racist.

Did ya read the link, buddy? Howard talked about knowing what burning black man smelled like. He was quite approving of these things! And the books are pretty racist, it’s not hard to see, unless you ain’t looking.

Yes, I started reading and by the end of the first paragraph I was convinced he was ahorribly racist man. And? Still doesn't change the fact, that for my 12 year old self, there was nothing racist about it. I definetly wasn't looking for it, that much you got right. If I'd read it again, I'm sure I'd catch on to it now, that I know what kind of asshole he was. So the implied racism would be there. You got a point for that.

Rugged individualism? It always amuses me how that argument always pops out of the mouths of guys who are aping what they’ve heard their buddies say. If ten thousand mouths shout “rugged individualism”, how individualistic are they?

Then you should amuse yourself by looking up why this thing crops up as of late. It's coming from certain, supremely racist yet unaware of it publications that claim ridiculous shit like "rugged individualism" is a hallmark of white supremacy, among other, equally laughable things, like punctuality. It's a joke.

Again, I will give Howard to you, if someone that racist writes a black man saving the hero of the story, I bet there was something else still there to make it wrong.

Conan’s not some avatar of rugged individualism.

Uhm, yeah, he pretty much all that.

He’s as unreal and unrealistic as the dragons are,

It's called fantasy for a reason, buddy.

but more dangerous because White Men model their ideas of reality on Big Man Heroes like him;

Glad you are totally not racist, yo!!! It's such a relief that White Men are the only ones with this terrible behavior of looking up to larger than life, mythic superpeople and nobody else. Imagine what it would be like, if we would have some asshole from say, hindu indian literature massacering demons called Rakshassas, by the tens of thousands, or some bullshit japanese warlord would snatch out arrows from the air, or a chienese bodyguard would mow down hundreds of barbaric huns without dropping a sweat, or some middle eastern hero would fight literal gods and their magical beasts in some quest for eternal life.

it's a poison that weakens us, distracting us from actually trying to solve the world’s issues, or banding together to deal with shit.

This is what you just said. It's up to the white man, to get their shit together, be not racist and solve the world's problems, because those poor other people's just can't do it. If we would just not be oh, so racist, then China would surely stop with the genocides they are doing now, or blowing more than half the greenhouse emissions into the athmosphere, the muslims would stop throwing their gays from rooftops or ramming trucks into crowds and would just start treating women as equals, India's massive rape problem would be gone, subsaharan African would be magically bereft of the host of atrocities committed there on a daily, yeah, you sure have that nonracism down, buddy!

A rugged individualist would be smart enough to realize that even the most individualistic person needs others; no man’s an island, and a loner is easier to kill.

Individualism doesn't mean at all what you think it means, it's a cluster of widely differeing philosophies that puts the individual ahead of the group or state, it's ranging from anarchism to liberalism and is also has nothing to do with my point.

Central Europe?  What, Germany?  Because let me tell you, historically they are SUPER concerned about race!

Germany traditionally considered western european, central europe would be the people stuck between them and the russians, to put it very loosely. We are equally nonplussed by the self-flagellating white guilt complex and the woe me victim complex of the west. We did none of the shit those meanie white people did to the nonwhites and suffered everyting any poc ever did and then some. We don't give a shit about your color, we care about what culture you are from and if you respect our values.

I’m an American from a former Confederate state; trust me, race is everything.  It always is.

No it really isn't. How old are you? Asking without condescension, genuinly curious, because if you are in your low twenties at most, it's understandable why you think like this.

See that hike? Do you know what happened at that time that made virtually all american media suddenly go all in with racism?

Occupy Wall Street, that's what. It's a brilliant way to sow victimhood and hate and desperation amongst the people who have one common enemy, the powers that be, the banking sector, the politicians, the megacorporations.

Can't really blame you if you are in your early 20's at most, you grew up with this bullshit hammered into you. If you are older, step out of your echochamber please!

If you actually believe, that mankind doesn't progress naturally towards a more accepting society purely on the merit of there being more good people than bad and sharing a similar living with all the hardships in life, seeing that our prejudices inherited by our parents are baseless, that's how we progress, not virtue signalling courses and regressive policies. I was raised as any other kid, I had a deep resentment towards the neighbouring nations, I said vile, racist shit against people who I actually share a lot of genes with, of which fact I was in deep denial about, and then as I gradually got exposed more and more actual people of these groups, I started to realize I was wrong and everybody should be judged by their individual merits. It works throughout the generations, my grandma was thought songs about Hitler and how all jews are evil in school, she legit thought all black people at least in Africa are cannibals and shit, my mother stillsays shit that would get her cancelled in the USA, and I will probably have a mixed race kid as we stand now.

This whole racism is an eternal problem is laughable and disingenuous and I am actually sorry for you that you feel like that.

Moving on. As for Dany, the “noble white girl sold to scary dark foreign man” is a very popular trope, especially in exploitation films, which Martin draws on much more heavily than most authors do.

No, he fucking doesn't. I already wrote a bunch of examples from the books you seeminly ignore willfully. First of all, she is sold to those olive skinned savages by a white man, who is a terrible, increadibly evil man. He want's to fuck the then 11-12 ish Dany so bad, she picks his slave most resembling her and rapes her repeatedly, "until the madness pass." He also maimes children and traines them as disposable slave spies by the hundreds. There is no boundaries colour here, GRRM prtrays all kinds of people as reprehensible, evil and disgusting. Just like you can find plenty of examples to the opposite.

What is he drawing from your exploitation movies exactly? He writes about the human anture, he writes about the human heart at war with itself, that's his central philosophy of writing.

ASOFAI is basically just a porn movie with complicated feudal politics obscuring it, which is probably why it worked so well as an HBO series (up until the last two seasons or so.)

There is no gratuitous sex scene in the books, the rapes are described as rapes, they are horrible, they are very shortly described and usually just alluded to.

The people commiting them are not put into generous lights and one of the single most harrowing stories hidden behind the grand happenings of the plot is a girl named Jeyne Poole, whose suffering although never shown, is very much pointed out, along with the hypocrisy of the people who only fight to try and save her, because they think her a different person.

Honestly, if you actually read the books and they came of to you as porn, you might want to do some soulsearching.Btw, the HBO series was a terrible adaptation, it immedietly started to go further and further from the books with every passing season and the showmakers made it very clear to everybody, that they didn't understand the very much pacifist and humanist themes of Martin. And neither did you.

We also get no indication Essos will eat it when Winter comes; hell, they seem to not know Winter exists, given the way people act, even though that is also unrealistic and weird.  Essos was just super badly designed, and Dany is a terribly boring character.

to be continued

[paulisweeabootrash]

2020 mini-review pack

Di Gi Charat (1999)

Episodes watched: 7

Platform: VRV (Hidive)

Di Gi Charat (pronounced like “carrot”) is a series of fast-paced 4-ish-minute shorts nominally about Dejiko and Rabi-en-Rose, rivals trying to be Earth’s greatest idol.  Who are, respectively, a catgirl and a bunnygirl.  Oh, and also they’re aliens?  That’s... uh... certainly a premise, I guess.  The actual show consists of self-contained gag-filled episodes with no ongoing story, in almost a sitcom kind of way, throwing the characters into situations without context, but with a stable “baseline” situation (unlike, say, Pop Team Epic, where the characters serve more as stock personalities playing different roles in different sketches).  Dejiko is a snarky schemer.  Rabi-en-Rose is a snarky schemer whose main activity seems to be bothering Dejiko at work.  Puchiko is a small and quiet child and behaves accordingly.  And Gema is... something?  I have no clue, honestly, and neither does the fan wiki.  Other recurring characters fill stock roles such as “manager” and “otaku”.  A lot of the humor centers around poking fun at fandom.  It’s a show by, for, and about otaku from an era before our current internet culture, and since I’m a millennial and not from Japan, that makes it unusually hard to evaluate.

W/A/S: 8/2?/5?

Weeb: Chibis.  Catgirls.  Idols.  Kappas.  Kawaii verbal tics.  Akihabara.  Low-detail background characters who look like blobs or thumbs with faces.  Kanji left on-screen but untranslated.  Particular sorts of highly-exaggerated facial expressions we may have become familiar with through emoji, but which still haven’t made their way into American media generally.  This is ludicrously Japanese.

Ass: This really isn't that kind of show.  Although it is certainly designed for adults, as evidenced by the presence of phrases like “naughty doujinshi”.

Shit: The art is fun.  It has style shifts from comic strip to watercolor painting to mainstream 90s anime, and looks better than some of its contemporaries that were, uh, “real” shows.  The opening takes up about a quarter of the total runtime and gets annoying quickly (but that's because it’s clearly designed for being part of a broadcast block, not binge-watching).  Still, unless I’m missing hidden cleverness on account of not having the background knowledge, there’s not much to it.  It’s just okay.

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First Astronomical Velocity (band, active 2011-present)

Platform: Spotify, surprisingly

Okay, this one is a bit different, and I’m jettisoning the whole format for it.  Remember how I said the music-centered episodes of SoniAni were actually pretty good, even though the modeling-centered episodes were so offputting I never finished the show?  Well it turns out that First Astronomical Velocity, Sonico’s band, has released several IRL albums.  Physical copies may be a little hard to come by, but official uploads of a lot of their music can be found on Youtube and Spotify.  Do your musical interests include at least two of: string arrangements that would be at home in a particularly sappy movie soundtrack, 90s-00s alternative rock, synthesizer beep-boops, and that constricted cutesy Japanese women’s vocal style (you know the one I mean)?  Then this is for you.  They’re a pretty good... uh... alt-pop-rock band, I guess is what I’d call them.

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Interspecies Reviewers (2020)

Episodes watched: the entire 12-episode season

Platform: I plead the 5th.  But it’s getting a video release soon, so it will finally be legitimately available in English!

I started this year with a plot-light fanservicey animal-people show, and now I’m ending the year with... a plot-light fanservicey animal-people show.  But unlike Nekopara, this show had me cracking up, eagerly clicking “next episode”, and not complaining about the premise.  I’m sure a lot of people do have a problem with this show’s premise -- which centers almost entirely on various forms of sex work -- and I understand and respect that they will want to skip this show.

But for the rest of you: Interspecies Reviewers is a wildly-NSFW comedy about a group of fantasy world adventurers who gain fame and fortune reviewing brothels of different species.  I expected excessive nudity and fantasy tropes, but I didn’t expect to also get serious thoughts.  Like showing, in the golem and Magic Metropolis episodes, some of the unsettling problems that are looming IRL as deepfakes and sex robots are in development -- note especially the contrast between consensually and non-consensually basing automata on real people in those episodes.  Or the discussion in the last episode of how much riskier sex would be in a world without magic (i.e., ours).  This is a much smarter and more interesting show than you’d expect, considering that it has so much sexual content that it got dropped by two of the networks airing it and even its US distributor.

W/A/S: 5/10/4

Weeb: Although heavily influenced by the Western fantasy media canon of European mythology and Tolkien and tabletop RPGs, familiarity with the tropes of fantasy anime will help you “get” this too, as will familiarity with the -sigh- character dynamics and censorship practices of hentai.  Especially because it’s a comedy, there are probably also instances where I have completely missed topical references or wordplay that a Japanese person would get, but I can’t think of any specific instances right now of “there was clearly supposed to be a joke but I missed it”.

Ass: Look, this could not possibly have more sexual content without unambiguously becoming porn.  Genitals are (almost) always carefully hidden by viewing angle or conveniently-placed glowing (something lampshaded in one episode as an actual feature of one of the species they review), but otherwise, expect lots of nudity and almost nonstop crude humor.  Do not watch this with children.  Do not watch this with your parents.  Do not watch this with friends you don’t know well enough to know how they’ll react to something like this.

Shit: This show is better-made than it deserves to be.  It’s pretty dumb at points, but it’s fun enough to make up for it.  The art is consistent and pleasant, and the opening and ending themes are extremely fun, but it’s not a serious standout in any of those departments.  Also, I swear the background music is stock music, but I don’t remember what other show(s) I’ve heard it in before.

Stray thought: Crim is a precious and relatable cinnamon roll and I love them.

-----

OreSuki OVA (2020)

Platform: Crunchyroll

So, I know I didn’t cover the whole season in my initial review, but I still want to mention the hour-ish-long finale of this show, which was released straight to streaming.  Short version of the rest of the season: Joro starts to actually fall for Pansy, but a new challenger, Hose, appears.  He is irritatingly attractive and effortless at maintaining the right persona for the situation, leading Joro to describe him as “the main character”.  Hose is the sociopathic manipulator Joro wishes he could be, and Pansy, who has a bad past with him, clearly wants nothing more than for Joro to stand up to him.  But, since this is OreSuki, it’s not going to be handled simply.  No, instead, strap in for a grand finale of Joro and Hose competing in, and trying to manipulate through rules-lawyering, an absolutely ludicrous competition to win the right to date Pansy.  And, on top of it, we also get to finally see how Sun-chan got to be the way he is and what happened at that pivotal baseball game that set off the whole plot.  What has Joro learned from the experiences of the past season?  You’ll see!  And you’ll facepalm about it!

Really, you must watch this if you watched the regular season.

W/A/S: 6/5(!)/4ish

Weeb: Basically the same as I said before.  Gags referencing other Japanese media, anime and otherwise, and it's better if you’re familiar with the high school romcoms and harem comedies Joro thinks in terms of.

Ass (and slight content note): -sigh- Why does the camera need to be there?  Also, Joro, you just committed a little bit of sexual assault for the sake of this contest.  Stop.

Shit: I want to rate this overall better than I did the regular season because I think it’s an excellent finale overall because, even though it ends in a very “let’s leave everything unresolved” way that’s common in media that rely on absurd relationships to propel the plot, it does so in a way that makes sense in character.  I personally think it would’ve been stronger if it had, well, confirmed its title, and at least some of the other “challengers” had lost interest in Joro, but I guess they probably want a Season 2, since they have so much more source material to work from.  There are... oh god 14 light novels?!  That is too many.

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Your Name. (2016)

Platform: DVD

Two high schoolers -- small-town girl Mitsuha, from Itomori, and big-city boy Taki, from Tokyo -- find themselves in each other’s bodies for a day.  They both think at first it must be a very vivid dream, but when it happens again, and they start finding clues like notes they don’t remember writing and comments by friends and relatives about their out-of-character behavior, they realize the body swap is real.  This begins a relationship of mutual understanding that nobody else can really understand -- or would even believe (except Mitsuha’s grandmother, who is... familiar with this phenomenon) -- and the plot then pivots to a tense adventure where they use their connection, some crucial information Taki has, the skills of Mitsuha’s friends, and the intervention of Itomori’s patron deity, to save the town from an impending disaster.

And that’s all I’ll say about that, because I really do think this is something you should go into blind.  My only remaining comments are that (1) the red string of fate is critically important imagery, and is particularly interesting to me here because, if I took a particular scene correctly, Mitsuha made her own red string of fate from sheer necessity, which is a very different twist on that trope, and (2) I am now curious about the history of the body-swapping phenomenon in-universe.

W/A/S: 4?/2/2

Weeb: As mentioned above, symbolism of the Red String of Fate shows up throughout the movie, as do the occasional distinctly Japanese quirk like a wildly out-of-place vending machine or a café with dogs, and but for the most part it’s a cross-cultural story of understanding and dealing with someone else’s life, and of forming a connection other people don’t -- can’t -- truly understand, and to some extent of divides between urban and rural and modern and traditional that I think could play out in any country with just the local symbolism tweaked.  The significance and content of Shinto beliefs and practices depicted, particularly kuchikamizake, are made pretty explicit, so although foreign to the vast majority of the non-Japanese audience, I feel like this movie also has nearly no barrier to entry for people not familiar with the cultural context, so I don’t want to rate it very high on this scale.

Ass: Look.  It involves teenagers switching bodies.  What do you think they do?  Especially Taki?  But it’s played for laughs, not titillation.

Shit: This movie is beautiful and punched me in the feels and was very satisfying.  The closest I have to a complaint about any aspect of it is that the musical breaks that I guess are supposed to mark acts of the movie almost make it feel like binge-watching a short series instead of watching a single self-contained movie.

[ladyimaginarium]

Random PSA's that need to be pointed out:

Please respect the pronouns of transgender muses and non-binary muses OOCly! If it's something your muse does be it intentionally or accidentally, that's fine as that can potentially make things more realistic as unfortunately not everyone is supportive of that mindset or sometimes mistakes can happen. As long as you as a mun don't intentionally misgender them, then you're doing fine.

"Asian" is really vague, just like "African" or "European" or "American" is really vague. These are entire continents with several different cultures, religions and ethnicities, especially in the case of Asia and Africa. When having a muse, especially of African or Asian descent, I highly recommend looking up the diasporas and the cultures, history, ethnicities and religions of said continents in order to make your muse look more plausible and thought out. Not every person of African descent look the same, not every person of Asia look the same, not every Asian is pale just as not every African are dark skinned. In fact, those of African descent have a wide variety of skin tones!

When writing a biracial / multiracial character, make sure to have a bit of both family's cultures into the mix in your character's backstory ( unless if they're like adopted or something ).

Always make sure your character has weaknesses and flaws, even if they're very powerful / overpowered characters.

Not every culture of Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas or Oceania are the same. There's a big difference between, for example, Nordic culture and Greek culture or Egyptian culture and Saharan culture or Mongolian and Han Chinese culture.

When playing any muse, but this goes especially for muses of color, please try to avoid harmful stereotypes!

It honestly doesn't matter what kind of theme your blog has or if you use a psd over everything or not, your writing is what makes your blog and you yourself are what's most important. And honestly? From my experience, most ( note: not all ) people I've come across that oversaturate everything with PSD's and aesthetics ... aren't really THAT good of writers anyway.

The muse does not equal the mun. We do not have to spoonfeed you on what is right or wrong.

"Squicks” are the equivalent of “ew I don’t ever want to read or touch that subject again” while "triggers" cause all out panic attacks and the like - please note the difference.

Always have a rules page or a bio for your muses, I'm not talking about a wiki page, that just makes you look lazy. Put some effort into your characters' bios, even if they're canon!

Romance isn't everything. There are many other relationships that muses can have.

Don't sexualize LGBTQIA+ muses! This is very harmful to the community!

Please be considerate to your disabled rpc members and listen to what they have to say!

Muses don't always have to stay the same or as canon dictates!

You can't always expect people to come to you, sometimes you have to be the one to approach someone else!

Every single culture, especially in the case of African, Asian and Native cultures are distinct and unique, though many share similarities, and lumping them together is ridiculous. Don't homogenize them, every culture of theirs are beautiful and unique and deserve to be treated that way.

If you're writing a character with a disability, especially with mentally ill characters, please do your research and don't write them as walking stereotypes!

African Americans and Han Chinese/Japanese/Korean people aren't the only people of color. East Asian ( Mongolians, Taiwanese, etc. ) Central Asians ( Afghanistani, Uzbekistani ), Southern Asians ( Indians, Bengali, etc. ), West Asians ( Persians, Turks, etc. ), Southeast Asians ( Thai, Cambodians, Vietnamese ), Polynesians, there are also hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples all over the Americas and Oceania!

There's more to Europe than Western Europe. When writing a character in Europe, try to write up a character from a European country that doesn't get a lot of attention like Croatia, Estonia, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, Iceland, etc. There's a lot more to Europe than just the U.K, France, Spain, Italy and Greece.

Africa is a very diverse continent, with each country, or even each part of a country having its own unique culture. While some people in the West refer to Africa as if it were a single country, one should remember the sheer size of the continent, and that Africa is not one country but 54 different countries, meaning that it is impossible to make generalisations of Africa as a whole.

Africa today is a vast continent with many bustling metropolises, some of the friendliest people you'll ever meet, and amazingly diverse and beautiful landscapes. While there are places resembling the stereotypical Africa of war, famine, and poverty, most of the continent is peaceful.

There is more to North America than just the United States of America. There are Canadians, Central Americans ( Guatemalan, Honduras, etc. ), Mexicans, Greenlanders, and those of Caribbean descent.

Not all cisgender males have to be masculine and not all cisgender females have to be feminine.

European conquest was primarily English, French, and Spanish, though the Dutch, Danish, and Russians controlled some territory as well. Originally, it was small outposts to produce valuable crops like gold, cotton, tobacco, fur, and sugar, but over time as the settler population grew, farming and logging grew to become more important, particularly in the English and French areas. The French lost the vast majority of their territory in the Seven Years War (1756-63), but the economic cost of that war, among other causes, led much of the British areas to rebel in 1776 and eventually form the United States of America. Rapid decolonization followed in the 19th century, either by rebellion (as in cases like Haiti and Mexico), or by peaceful agreement (as in cases like Canada).

North America is primarily populated today by immigrants and their descendants - indigenous peoples are less than 10% of the population. The United States and Canada in particular are nations of immigrants, with waves of people from all over the world moving there over the last few centuries. As such, they are the most multicultural places in the world, particularly in larger cities like New York and Toronto.

Don't make villain characters exist simply for the sake of “being evil” - they all have their goals, dreams, passions and ambitions and hobbies - and make your more good leaning characters do horrible things at one point or another, make them do something questionable!

If your character is an experienced warrior, let them lose a battle. If your character is mostly right, let them be wrong. If your character is a villain, let them do something not villainous for a change. If your character is religious, let them question their beliefs.

Don't be afraid to have completely different characters from completely different verses interact —you'd be surprised on what can happen!

Respect original characters— especially fandomless original characters — remember, your canon muse is an original character of the author!

Sideblogs are valid!

Specify who you want in an ask or in a starter call when it comes to multimuse blogs!

Don't ignore a multimuse blog's original characters for their canon muses!

Guilt tripping someone into replying to you is only going to make them want to interact with you less.

Soft characters do not equal weak muses!

Most rp blogs double as ask blogs so make sure to send in questions icly or oocly to your partner's muses! Their answers, however, shouldn't affect your character's storyline or events.

Female characters shouldn't be toned down for other people. Female muses don’t have to be easy. They don’t have to be cute, they don’t have to hold back their drama. They aren’t interesting despite their chaotic personality, but because of it.  Female muses who are powerful, multi-layered and complicated are awesome.

Give some disabled characters some loving, too!

Older muses ( I'm talking about 60+ ) and younger child muses need to be seen more!

Please give transgender muses some loving, too! These people work really hard on them!

If your muse has a disability, don't romanticize it and don't just write it for the sake of "angst"!

All body types are beautiful! Not all characters have to be super skinny or super buff! Respect characters of larger body types and don't reduce them to stereotypes of being a comedian!

Don't be afraid to have your characters have noticeable scars!

Female characters aren't just shipping facets!

Don't be afraid to have your characters if color be strongly attached to their ethnicity and culture!

Don't be afraid to interact with nonhuman characters, either!

[drowning-in-dn-hell]

Me picking distastefully at the Death Note Live Action

(Totally not a blog I wrote on Amino that I copied here)

*Inhales deeply*

BOI

Iz yo local Lanthenides juliani’s pinky toe here, your all-time most dependable Death Note fangasmer, with a long rant.

The sky has fallen, the sinners in Death Note hell are screaming, and DN fan trash like me are creating Dead Seas with our sheer salt.

Why?

The 2017 Death Note Netflix remake released its trailer.

Woah woah, back up a bit m8. Let me get you guys up to date on what this whole fuss is about.

The Death Note Netflix remake… Where to begin.

Essentially, Netflix is making an American “adaptation” of Death Note. But oh boy, they aren’t sticking to canon. Here’s an overview list of some… “interesting” changes.

🍿The theme of the movie is now “revenge”.

🍿Light Yagami™, with his signature “imagaY” last name joke, has had his name changed to Light Turner. Played by Nat Wolff, currently struggling through a pimple outbreak.

🍿Consequently, his father, Soichiro Yagami, is now James Turner, played by Shea Whigham.

🍿Misa Amane is Mia Sutton, played by Margaret Qualley, a cheerleader grill who falls in steamy love with Light-friggin’-Turner, because the director wanted to keep the “adult themes of Death Note”

🍿Evidently the director never watched nor read Death Note. In an interview, he confirmed that, to keep the adult themes and dark atmospheres, there will be a lot of gore, a lot of nudity, and a lot of language.

🍿I’m not sure about you, but that doesn’t sound like the psychological thriller we know and love.

🍿Keith Stanfield as L.

🍿If you don’t know: Kieth Stanfield is AFRICAN AMERICAN. Not to be racist here, but a big part of L’s character is his alarmingly pale skin and scrawny frame. Suddenly, we have this hoodied black man walking in oublic and attending interviews. Real canon of ya, Netflix

🍿HE’S IN PUBLIC

🍿The producers trashed the basic plot of Death Note and opted for something more… redeeming. Details are not provided, but it is known that it will be more Westernized. While that may be a welcomed change, it’s make or break at this point.

🍿THEY ALMOST REMOVED SHINIGAMI

“Our vision for Death Note has always been to…introduce the world to this dark and mysterious masterpiece. The talent and diversity represented in our cast, writing, and producing teams reflect our belief in staying true to the story’s concept of moral relevance — a universal theme that knows no racial boundaries.”

“Oka, one of the producers of the Netflix Death Note

Okay. So I’m not going to even try to protest Death Note getting another adaptation (I mean, it’s not like it has three live action movies, one live action drama, one musical, three video games, three short live action mini episodes, one long live action New Gen. series, etc., etc., ETC.,) but seriously.

Are they even trying at this point?

Let’s check out the cast first.

Nathaniel "Nat” Marvin Wolff as Light Turner

This dude played Isaac in the Fault in Our Stars, and Quentin in Paper Towns.

Take a moment.

This kid did some great things, I’ll give him some credit. Starred in some romance movies, raised money for 9/11 as a young kiddo, wrote some cool music.

But is he a fitting actor for Death Note?

I say no.

Firstly, Light is portrayed in the manga and anime alike as a handsome, clean, and upkept young man groomed for success. He has severe god complex, and is the very definition of “perfect” in the eyes of others. I just don’t really see that in Wolff. While I will not criticize him for his appearance, I do believe in something for live actions: Same, or different. Not both. Stick to canon or change everything. Don’t give us a haunting afterimage of the Light Yagami we all knew.

Keith Stanfield as L

Okay. So-

No, not okay. This is not okay.

If you did a next generation of something of Death Note, sure, go ahead, I don’t give a flying fu-firetruck about the detective L being black.

But the original L?

No.

L’s off-putting appearance is destroyed by Keith’s natural appearance. Keith is a friendly-looking man, but L is supposed to look malnourished, like a living ghost, He is scrawny and underweight, 110 lbs at 179 cm (don’t ask me how I know off the top of my head). His pale complexion like he has never seen the Sun is a key compartment of his character, and while I do think diversity is good, I feel Keith cannot do justice to L’s character.

Onto acting.

Why the HECK is he standing behind a podium with a hoodie and his head dipped.

Let’s see here. Male, I can estimate his height, African American, both eyes intact, hands intact, probably can get fingerprints off the podium, people taking PICTURES of him and being able to capture some facial features…

No.

L is mysterious, paranoid, keeps to himself. He uses a goshdarned voice synethesizer for God’s sake, it’s what makes his appearances so epic. WHY are you putting him out like that? Just… why?

Oh, and he’s a rapper.

Margaret Qualley as Mia Sutton

Sigh.

Paul Nakauchi as Watari

I’m actually not minding this one too much, though his loving, fatherly aura got swapped for a more severe one.

Other characters

Can we just pray…

My Opinion

I honestly don’t have much to say. I’m not too excited, in fear that this whole thing may ruin what I love, but I guess it’s a new and innovative take to the anime. The “whitewashing” I can sort of understand, since this is a film in English, after all, and it’ll be easier casting characters this way.

For months, the Death Note fandom has raged about black L. I would once again like to say that I don’t mean to be racist, as even many of my black friends agree with me; I am a minority race myself in America. L is one of the only characters who are in this film who originally was of European descent (¼ Russian, ¼ British, ¼ Japanese, ¼ French or Italian).

The legitimate ONLY character they can get away with “whitewashing” for, aside from Watari.

But no.

Forget sticking with canon. Let’s take Death Note for its established fanbase, and just use its title and its character names to bait viewers, what a great idea! Give them something completely different that marginally may be good, but forget about canon, we’ve got to break everything they’ve ever known about Death Note! Change the plot and make it rated R too, how about that? Because no one cares about the fact that that’s not what Death Note is about.

This thing will either be complete sh- poop, or somehow succeed solely due to its $40-$50 million budget. But in all honesty, my problem here isn’t it itself. It’s how they wanted to be different and the same at the same time.

Anyhow, here’s the promised trailer. Tell me what you guys think.

AND NOW FOR THE FUN PART

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･’(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)‘･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

Comment highlights from Death Note Amino

“WHY IS A MAN WHO IS JAPANESE BORN AND RAISED, LIVED IN JAPAN, AND IS A JAPANESE CITIZEN, BEING PLAYED IN THE LIVE ACTION MOVIE BY A WHITE GUY?” - 🍰 L Lawliet 🍰

“Bullsh*t, what’s what it is” -matsuda

“*Incoherent screaming*” -The Leader of Death Note Amino

“I’m gonna be the most optimistic one and give it a chance.” MyHeroMacadamiaNuts

“Honestly, the live action remake is supposed to make the fans happy. This, however, put the fans in a rage. I mean, the guy who plays Light looks so unintelligent. Light is supposed to be a well-organized man, but instead they made him into this messy guy with pimples whose name is "Light Turner”. Did they seriously have to change the name too? It’s not even death note at this point. Just some crappy rip off.“ -Rae

"Wait, that’s Death Note?!?” -k i a r a

MAY AUGUST 25TH BE KIND TO US ALL