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Overanalyzing Anime
Blog Owner & Lead Writer
So, I just finished watching Netflix’s Death Note film and.. well, where do I begin? Let’s start back at the end of June, when I saw the first trailer for the film. My first impression of it was less than positive. With the dour appearance of our protagonist, Light; the strange take on the would-be masked hero, L; and the abundance of action, for which the anime was not known for… I couldn’t help but be weary of this Americanized retelling of the Japanese classic.
My weariness was compounded as the reviews started rolling in. While I avoided reading articles in their entirety – choosing to stick mostly to headlines and ratings – I could sense that the overall consensus from most reviewers was that the film was not only a weak adaptation, but that it was downright horrible. But still, I wanted to remain somewhat optimistic and not completely write the film off before seeing it for myself, which is why I waited until after seeing it to speak on it.
In short. I was right to be worried. I’ll explain.
While I don’t, by any means, spoil the main plots of the film or the manga/anime, I do discuss it in significant detail. So, I’ll put a SPOILER ALERT, just in case you want to hold off reading this until after you’ve seen the movie.
You see, I have a serious issue with amazing properties being claimed by the Hollywood machine and bastardized to the point that they are practically unrecognizable from the property it originated from. It’s one thing if the changes prove to be beneficial – that changing an aspect of the story serves to enhance the overall tale – but when it’s done haphazardly, and without any clear, logical reasoning, I can’t help but get upset. It’s happened time and time again – do I really need to bring up Fant4stic again? But, it seems to happen frequently with American interpretations of anime adaptations. Need I remind anyone of Dragon Ball: Evolution? I didn’t think so.
A friend and I recently spoke on the topic – on how the world of anime is often difficult to bring to live-action. How the characters and animation are often so bizarrly fantastical, that trying to find individuals to adequately portray them in the real world is often an impossible task – even with the use of CGI. For example, even one of the more simple aspects of an anime, such as a character’s unique hairstyle, can be hard to imitate in the real world. But, I digress.
The manga/anime, Death Note, does not suffer from the aforementioned problem. Not only does it take place in the real world, but all of the characters – aside from the few Shinigami who make an appearance – are normal human beings who behave, for the most part, normally. There’s not much that’s fantastical about the world of Death Note… I mean, aside from the book that kills people. But, you get what I’m saying. Not only that, but the story itself is perfect in almost every way – never falling victim to the occasional plot holes that plague some anime/manga. The story is as close to perfection as you can get, and yet and still, we were given this.
So what went wrong? You mean besides everything? I’m sorry. I’m going to try my best not to just rip into and actually explain the issues I have with the film. The first of which is, the character you see above, that’s not Light. Don’t misunderstand me, that young man’s name is definitely Light (Turner), but he is a shell (if that) of the man that Light (Yagami) was. Yagami was such an amazing character because of his incredible level of cunning and ingenuity - he not only used the Death Note for the first time through his own volition, but he mastered it before Ryuk initially appeared. Not only that, but he was intelligent enough to understand the risks that came with using it - he didn’t dare use it in the same reckless manner that Turner did. Yagami was so fun to watch because he was meticulous in his thought process, and never did anything without considering the potential consequences. He was, without a doubt, an absolute genius.
Turner, on the other hand, is careless. We’re led to believe he’s intelligent due to the fact that we see him, in the opening scenes, working on his other classmates homework for extra income. In fact, other than that implied intelligence, everything else he does throughout the film is incredibly stupid. The only time we see Turner reach the same level of ingenuity as Yagami is the end sequence, and that was such an unbelievable smorgasbord of ridiculousness that I can’t believe made it into this movie. Then again, I also can’t believe that this movie exists at all.
Well, it’s not meant to be a carbon copy of the original! Oh no, I understand that. But, I also imagine it’s not meant to be a steaming pile of.. ahem. Look, I completely understand that, as a director, it isn’t necessarily his goal to recreate the series in its entirety. For one, it’s not possible to do that within the scope of an hour and half. The series went on for thirty seven episodes - multiply that by twenty you have 740 minutes of story that needs to be condensed down to 90. It’s just not feasible, and so I understand that a great deal needs to be changed.
What I don’t understand is, why change everything good about it? Such as the dynamic between Light and Ryuk, between Light and L, between Light and Mi(s)a. I mean, every single relationship was changed in a way that only detracted from the overall story. One of the most dynamic relationships in the story is that of Light and Ryuk; how Ryuk wants to be entertained, and Light aims to entertain him by showing him the creation of a new world. The two develop a unique friendship, one formed out of necessity, but one that works nonetheless. This movie does nothing to establish that - instead, the two seem to be enemies, which is extremely bothersome.
Then there’s the relationship between Light and L; which lasted a considerable amount of the original manga/anime; however, in the film, it’s boiled down to a couple of scenes that don’t hit the mark they were aiming for - if they were aiming at all. And don’t get me started on little Miss Mi(s)a. She was perhaps the most different from her original character. However, she seemed to be more like “Light Yagami” than Mr. Turner - though, not by much.
All in all, the Death Note film is a wash. And, no, I’m not talking about race-washing - though it has issues with that too. The film was a bad idea simply due to the fact that trying to create a movie from a one hundred and eight chapter manga/thirty-seven episode anime series is just not practical. If something such as this was going to be attempted, it should have been a thirteen episode series. That would have at least given the writers more room to develop the relationships between characters and tell a much more cohesive and well-rounded story. But, that’s not what happened, and instead of something that might have been good we got.. well, we got Death Note.
But, let me know what you think of it. Did you love it? Did you hate it? Did it do right by the original series - or was it a disservice? I really would like to know. Also, if you like the content of the post, feel free to check out some of my other posts here. And feel free to follow my blog!
Also, other pet peeves I just really want to mention.
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