Not Pictured: Poor Acting Skills

If you were single and male about fifteen years ago, there’s a good chance you were watching Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” shows. One of the things they offered during that block was different anime, and a particularly interesting one was Death Note. Death Note followed the story of Light Yagami, and brilliant young man of high school age who discovers the eponymous Death Note and its strange keeper the Shinigami Ryuk. The basic nature of the Death Note is that if one should write a name in that book while picturing the face to that name, that person would die. Once Light discovers this power, he quickly sets about trying to right the wrongs of the world, serving as a judge, jury, and executioner for the criminals of the world.

Of course, once it’s suspected that these criminals’ deaths are not natural an investigation ensues. An independent sleuth who only goes by the name “L” takes the forefront. The show proceeds as a deadly game of cat and mouse. “L” closes in on his target while Light seeks to further his aim in becoming a de facto deity of justice while at the same time evading the law. Both the characters are brilliant and calculating and they go in circles around each other. Despite the fact that the second half falters after a rather major turning point in the plot, the overall series is rewarding and asks interesting questions regarding justice and how far we must go to pursue it. Thus, I was somewhat interested that Netflix was releasing a movie version of the series. Of course, I admit I didn’t have high hopes at all, and I’m afraid to say that my expectations were fully realized.

The movie version takes place in Seattle, and receives the full “Americanization” of sorts. Light Taylor is the protagonist of this tale – his weird given name is lampshaded by mention of his hippy mother who had been murdered in the past. He is supposedly a brilliant student as well, but in the course of the film he rarely shows his predecessor’s intuition and only has a moment of calculation. Moreover, it’s as if the film’s writers are uncomfortable with movie Light’s inspiration. In the anime, Light is cool and calculating. He realizes what the Death Note can do he begins his course without too much hesitation. Once he’s under investigation, he turns the Death Note on his pursuers as far as he needs to avoid capture and exposure. In fact, we watch anime Light go from something of an anti-hero to villainous as he sacrifices more people, and as his sacrifices come closer and closer to home.

Movie Light starts to use it for justice as well, but needs to be prodded. He refuses to use it against the authorities. He is uncomfortable with dealing death. There is no clarity of purpose held by anime Light. He uses some of the same language as his predecessor, but he shows a lack of conviction. It takes his girlfriend to provide that, to eliminate the pursuers who would stop Light in his great pursuit of temporal justice. Light makes sacrifices only when it’s reasonable to make them – when someone has shown to be worse than he ever was with the Death Note. It’s as if we aren’t trusted with morally troublesome decision-making from the protagonist. Thus, they avoid asking any real questions on his character. Is he a good guy? Well of course he is, he’s the hero of the story, right? The true bad guy here is his girlfriend Mia and Ryuk. 

Ryuk? Oh yes, he is the Shinigami – a “god of death” – in both stories. In the anime, Ryuk behaves as an observer and tempter. He wishes to be entertained by the use of the death note and thus offers bargains in the process. He leaves everything to Light’s free will, but encourages the human on the dark path. In the movie he’s far more sinister, not so much tempting as shoving Light and Mia towards darkness and death. He’s not a passive observer and commentator as an active participant in the story, demanding of Light. Willem Defoe is the perfect choice for the voice of Ryuk, but even the brilliant casting doesn’t save the changes to the characters.

“L” is a fascinating character in the Anime. He is quirky, strange, but again, brilliant. Artistically this strangeness is played up as a contrast to the upstanding, ambitious young student Light. They are two sides of the same coin, both pursuing justice but each with disagreements on how it might be pursued. Movie “L” again has elements that call to the source material, but in the end they take that away from him as well. The movie’s conclusion hints at things that could make it worse. The contrast between the two is gone. “L” isn’t Light’s opposite in the movie, he’s just a brilliant and eccentric private investigator.

If you’ve never watched the show, I suppose the movie could be entertaining, but those of us who have seen and enjoyed the series will find the movie lacks so much that made the movie great. On the bright side, the movie does lack some of the strange moments of grand melodrama such as this:

But lacking in that melodrama does not save the movie. By changing so much the writers lose the depth of the source material for a shallow Americanized version of the story. Instead it comes off as a horror film with a couple of polished effects but otherwise an uninspired tale that leaves too much unresolved. The characters are flat and uninspired. I’ve little reason to sympathize with any of them, even those presented as sympathetic characters. Fortunately for my readers, both shows are available on Netflix. I highly recommend the Anime. I cannot say the same for the movie. I find the latter to be a poor adaption of the source material.