Sometimes A Masterpiece Can Be Appreciated by What it’s NotSo, you might’ve heard that N

Sometimes A Masterpiece Can Be Appreciated by What it’s Not

So, you might’ve heard that Netflix dropped a teaser a few days ago for their new film adaptation of the legendary anime Death Note. Or you might not have, in which case, I’m sorry for being the bearer of bad news, but… it’s bad. But maybe not in the way you’d think when I told you that.

I think you could guess the main issue that’s causing such an uproar just by watching (namely, the white-washing of characters that are Japanese), but what I meant is that the execution isn’t bad.

Director Adam Wingard clearly has a style and atmosphere in mind that he wants to bring to life, and for what it wants to be, it looks like an intriguing action movie.

But the problem was there from day 1 of the story meetings: the ideas driving this adaptation are totally off-base. The execution on those ideas might be fucking rad for all we know, it’s just that from what we cansee, they missed the point in fundamental ways.

And obviously we can debate about the white washing and race-changing (it’s not seen here, but another beloved character that’s Japanese originally, L, was changed to black) and how it steals potential roles from Asian-American actors, and whether or not it effects the narrative (I mean, why would Light be nicknamed ‘Kira’ if this isn’t set in Japan? And if it is, well, it’s not like Japan is completely one race, but it just begs the question: ‘why make the change at all?’)—but I feel like that’s already been well-covered. If not by other analytical sources and entertainment news hubs, then by comment sections and forums all over the internet.

Instead, I’d much rather focus on what a fantastic series the original Death Note was, because aside from the white washing issue, that’s the reason people are so up in arms over this adaptation missing the point—They were very good points to begin with.

So, what do you say we go over what this movie seems to be getting wrong that the original anime got so incredibly right?

1. Death Note is Not an Action Series

To me, it seems like both the series and the movie are trying to be a thriller, but the ways in which they go about it are completely different.

The big-budget action scenes in the Movie’s trailer look impressive, but that’s not at all where the vast majority of the tension came from in the original series.

What makes Death Note truly outstanding is the gripping descent of its main character and the brilliant back and forth between Light and the forces of the law, in particular, of course, L. The tension came from the fact that these characters were often several steps ahead of each other, and remarkably, even the audience. The game of cat and mouse couldn’t be more satisfying to follow step by step as it unfolds in perfect time to when we figure out what’s going on.

2. Death Note is Complex

In adapting anything to a 2 and a half hour format, you’re usually going to lose a lot of the nuance and subtlety when the source material was something much longer, like a book series or a manga. There’s just a lot more time to pace things out.

It can be done and done well, but it’s extremely difficult to communicate all those important elements without rushing the pacing.

That’s why it’s hard to understand where they want to take the Movie’s story. It’s not impossible for it to be good, but it’s… perplexing. It’s clearly got scenes that weren’t in the original anime (I never read the manga, so I can’t say for sure it’s not something from there), so changes willbe made to adapt to the time limitation, it’s just hard to say where they’re going to take it.

It also makes me wonder why they wanted to re-adapt Light’s story instead of setting this in the same universe and centering it on a different character. That would at least give a narrative reason to the white-washing, even if it’s still not great in my opinion, and it could be cool to revisit Kira’s world in a different continent. Like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was to Harry Potter, except instead of magical whimsy and wizardry, there’s just more death.

But whatever, that in itself is a derivative idea, I’m just saying that with all these changes being necessary to fit this story into a 2 hour time-frame, at some point you do have to ask why retell this story instead of a new one?

Because Death Note’s story was paced so well. I mean, my favourite part will always be the arc with L and Light facing off—I can sort of understand the impulse to find a way to wrap it up there somehow and make that the movie—but there’s still a lot of great elements all the way up until that legendary ending.

I would hate to lose any of that methodical, well-thought out story or the subtle symbolism worked around it, so that’s just another aspect the Movie makes me appreciate more in the anime.

3. Characters and Atmosphere

I’m jamming these sections together because it’s hard to talk about both of them when all we have to compare to is a small teaser.

But my point is that I’m a bit bummed not to hear that classic Death Note score yet. You could argue that they’re adapting the manga, not the anime, so they don’t have to draw any elements from the anime if they don’t want to. And hell, they might even benefit from trying to differentiate themselves.

But… nostalgia goggles are blinding, you guys. It’s just hard for me to feel like I’m watching Death Note without a score even at least a little reminiscent of this. Maybe that’s just me, but when you’ve got some iconic music already attached to the property, why not use it? 

Granted, the trailer music might just be the trailer music, and they might even have the kind of musical nod I’m hoping for, but until then, I’ll stick to the original. The tension and dark, Gothic style can’t really be beat.

And speaking of things that can’t be beat, here’s to hoping we’ll get something even remotely similar to the character depth we got in the show. There’s so many iconic characters that have stood the test of time to come from the show, losing any of that richness would be such a shame.

Overall, there’s a lot of elements that I would miss from the show if we lost them in translation to the movie. And for the record, yeah, you can tell I’m someone who does consider this white-washing, so even though I’d love to see Nat Wolfe try a really challenging role just to see what he can do, I don’t love the premise I’ve seen in general.

I guess that means I’ll be rewatching the anime this summer, huh? Fine with me. It’s truly one of the classics, and nothing can ever really take that away.