I am going to write a review of these two films with the perspective that they have been combined to make one single film...because that is basically what they are in a way...the second is an immediate continuation of the first!!I also think that it would not be right for me to split what is ONE story into two chunks just because they had to do that for the film adaptation.
My first encounter of the Death Note franchise was when I was in year 12. My friends and I would sometimes use our free lessons (gosh, I miss those!) to read the magazines in the library (we were hard workers :P). We would always be sure to look at Neo Magazine because it's devoted to manga, anime and Japanese culture in general.
I remember being intrigued by an advert in the mag for the film L: Change the World, which had been released that year. My friend (Safi again) then told me that one of my other friends, Yousra, had watched it and enjoyed all three films.
I set out to search for the film online when the webpage loaded and I was greeted with a message above the videobox (check out the terminology there...)
It said that it would be strongly recommended that I watch the anime series before I watch the films because the films would "ruin it for me". So, whilst being unsure if I would even try the films anyway as they were able to ruin things, I went to watch the anime beforehand.
I am not a HUGE fan of animes, to be honest.
I think part of the reason for that is simply because the series are so bloody long that it puts me off from the word go, I also have only just learned from a friend about "Fillers" in animes and consequently realise why Dragonball Z always took so long to get ANYWHERE at all.
However, after watching the 37 episodes of the Death Note anime (not too bad I suppose), I can say that I am very glad that I did.
Anyone with common sense will know that, if a live-action drama or film has a manga or anime predecessor, one should really read/watch that if they want to get a real sense of how the story is.
Of course, because that is how the original makers intended it to be seen!
I understand that, when making a real-life adaptation of an already existing story, things will need to be chopped up and messed about for practical reasons....but yeah, my point still remains.
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Death Note (created by writer Tsugumi Ohba and manga artist Takeshi Obata) is the story of the 17 year old high school student Light Yagami. He is an extremely talented, good-looking and intelligent individual who aims to follow in his father's footsteps and become a member of the police force...but, right now, he's BORED!
Meanwhile in the Shinigami (Death God) Realm, the place were Shinigamis look over the human world and take the lives of those who live in it in order to extend their own, the Shinigami Ryuk is also BORED.
Ryuk decides to drop the Shinigami instrument of murder - the Death Note - into the human world in order to cause some chaos for his entertainment.
Light finds it and decides to use it to become the "God of the new world". A world in which there would be NO criminals
BUT the world's best detective, known simply a L, is on the case...and it is set to become a battle of intellegence until the very end.
ENJOYED- The casting of EVERY single character. I feel each actor/actress matched up really well with their given role. This is a real achievement for the producers of the films as it shows they had a really in-depth knowledge of the original story. Even though I wasn't entirely sold on the choice of actor for Light at first (Tetsuya Fujiwara), he really shut me up because he played the very complex character very well indeed. I also think that the peopld casted to play L (Ken'ichi Matsuyama) and Misa (Erika Toda) were also pretty spot on.
- The voice of Ryuk (Shido Nakamura) was also very well cast and his character was very well played.
- I kind of liked the fact that the original character Melo was not included in the film. I thought he was just a whingey kid who threw a tantrum and went crazy because he wasn't destined to be L's prodigee. The simple manipulation of the narrative to render his part unecessary proved how useless he was to the story, in my opinion. (Ohba-san tou Obata-san tou - Gomen nasai~!)
- Police officer Matsuda was one of my favourite characters in the anime just because he is so useless in such an adorable way and this was translated quite well in the films. (Even though, I would have personally enjoyed it if this had a bit more coverage).
DISLIKED
- I did not like the fact that a girlfriend was added in for Light from the very beginning of the first film. Shiori (Yuu Kashii) was really quite a pointless inclusion. If producers wanted to cut down the time it took for Light to get former FBI agent Naomi's (Asaka Seto) real name then they should have just included a chopped down version of the quite lengthy process. Incidentally, I thought it was a mistake not to include that part as I feel it furthers displays Light's great intelligence, ability to think quickly and to manipulate others for the information he wants.
- I kind of did...but really didn't like the fact that L didn't die when he should have. He is my favourite character in the series and I was devasted when he was killed off, but that was how it was and the complete changing of that slightly annoyed me. However, I do see reasons why the makers did that. (One of them being that L is a very popular character and they wanted to milk that cow dry in the release of a third film showing L's final case).
- I would have also liked to see more funny lines given to Ryuk.
After being initially quite frightened of the character and mistaken that he was the bad guy (which he kind of is....sort of), I began to really like him as a result of his funny commentary on the situations that transpired. (He didn't get an AWFUL lot of lines in the original story either though, so....)
- Another character I would have loved to see in the film adaptation would be Teru Mikami, purely because he is a seriously messed up guy that I find really hilarious!! I would have also liked to see the Shinigami Sidoh for basically the same reasons, even though his part is very small.
OVERALL
I think it is safe to say that I am a pretty big fan of Death Note and I did really enjoy both of these films. The second film is my preference but I think that is only because you really get to see L and Misa in action in it and, obviously, the film has a much faster pace because the boring job of character and setting introduction has been previously dealt with in the first instalment.
I am aware that there are a lot of fans of the manga and/or anime out there that hate the films with a severe passion. However, I would like to ask them to calm themselves down. Film adaptation of a pre-existing story always has and always will be a very risky business. Yes, as a film producer, you are certain that you will already have a solid fanbase that will probably pay your wages for a while afterwards, but it is for that precise reason that you are in such dangerous territory.
You risk upsetting/angering/confusing a whole LOAD of people.
However, the fact of the matter is, with animes and novels especially, the stories are long. There are situations that would be impossible or too expensive to recreate in real life and there are characters that are often not important enough to be needed after a little tweaking of the narrative...and no one can say they would be up for paying an actor or actress for a role that is not completely needed!!
Of course, producers do sometimes completely butcher a story in an attempt to gain a wider audience, but in my experence, this does not happen too often.
I would definately recommend these two films to anyone who likes crime thrillers and films that can make them think about a whole range of issues (For example, is it morally correct to kill criminals?) I also find the fact that we are focussed on the anti-hero - Light, as oppposed to the good guy - L very refreshing to offer a very refreshing perspective.
Death Note really is a great and intelligent story full of clever twists and turns and, like I said, read the manga and/or watch the anime if you want to experience the full power of the amazing story...or just sit back and watch the films, as they are pretty damn good by themselves.
ALSO, there are many rumours on the internet about a Hollywood version of the films being made. As expected, many fans are horrified by this prospect, but I would love for a Hollywood version to be released because...
1) I am very curious as to how they would go about it and as to whether or not it will live up to the original story,
2) Even if it is a huge disaster, it would raise the profile of the original franchise and possibly gain it some fans that would have never initially given it a chance.
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