Death Note has become one of the best manga and anime worldwide. The concept overall was genius and thought-provoking to the point where we question our ideas of justice and crimes. The main character Light Yagami was just a simple high school student who was incredibly smart, but bo🉐red. Then one day, he found a notebook falling from the sky and saw that it had potential. Because of his newfound “power” he wanted to become the god of the world he wanted to create. However, he would face a challenge in the name of L.
With its huge success in Japan, live-action movies were created and while it had different stories, they were just as good as the manga and anime. After that, America thought, “How about we make our adaptation of Death Note?” The idea of th꧙at either ticked off a lot of faithful fans or made people worry about whꦑat the adaptation will bring.
Sure enough, Netflix ordered an American live-action adaptation of Death Note and it was released worldwide on August 25th, 2017. The trailers looked interesting despite having controversy behind them, and much to everyone’s expectations, it was received poorly. In all honesty, it is a better American adaptation compared to Dragonball: Evolution and Fist of the North Star. However, it still had a lot of problems.
Whether you love or hate Netflix’s live-action adaptation, there are a lot of interesting facts. Here are twenty-five mind-blowing things you didn’t know about the garbage Death Note movie!
25 🌌 Future Concerns For Whitewashing
Now, this one might not be entirely related to Death Note, but because of the film’s release, there are a lot of concerns for future American live-action adaptations. There is a certain beloved anime movie that was regarded as one of the best of all time, eventually becoming the highest grossing animated film of all time in Japan after Spirited Away, and that is Your Name.
Recently, J.J. Abrams is attached to the American live-action adaptation.
He will be the director of Your Name and people are freaking out. When it comes to American live-action adaptations, there will be a term commonly used known as whitewashing. Since the original source is from Japan, having American actors play Japanese characters makes it controversial and very concerning. Thanks to Netflix’s Death Note, we are💞 worried about how films based on an anime will be like now.
24 What A Rotten ♋Rating
Like with a lot of American live-action adaptations of anime films, they tend to be on the rotten ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. Netflix’s Death Note is one of them. The fans who oppose the film definitely had the last laugh, while movie critics only judge the film as a movie instead of comparing it to the original source material. Compared to Dragonball: Evolution, it is a better adaptation, but Ghost in the Shell ranks higher by four points on Rotten Tomatoes.
Death Note currently holds a 41% rating.
Movies based on video games also get this tre🤪atment, but that is because video games are a different type of media. When it comes to manga and anime, it is like adapting it from books and cartoons in America.💙 Ratings do not matter all the time, but in this case, the critics and audience are fair for this movie.
23 🅷 Some Things Stayed The S🐲ame
When a movie is being made based on another property, it has to stray away from some ideas to keep the movie from being an exact copy of the original source. Some can be creative and work well, while others are downright terrible and annoying to sit through. Death Note is guilty of this, but there are 🍸some𒁏 things that managed to stay the same.
What are those traits? Well, L still has his love for sweets while Ryuk still adores eating apples. If the film did not acknowledge this, then it would have made the characters L and Ryuk completely different from their original counterparts. And hey, at least L, Ryuk, Watari, and Light still have their name♐s, even though the latter has a different last name.
22 T🐼he Director's Expertise
When it comes to filmmaking, the director has the toughest job of all. They would have to make everything perfect to create a sce𒊎ne that is either exciting, scary, romantic, or heartbreaki🎐ng. Since Death Note is a psychological horror live-action movie, a director who has the qualities of making a film around that would do perfectly.
If anything, Adam Wingard is a decent choice to direct the film. His directorial roles in You’re Next and The Guest were critically acclaimed and very horrific to watch. In some parts of the Death Note film, there were some scary parts, but at the same time, there were so𒀰me really cringe-worthy moments that were just strange. Wingard did a great job in capturing the horror in the film, but it was not enough to impress film-goers and fans alike sadly.
21 🥂 Interest♔ing Origins
Let’s talk about the man who portrayed Light Turner. His name is Nat Wolff and he is an incredibly talented actor, even if some of his moments as Light are questionable at best. He got his big break in starring films based on John Green’s novels such as The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns. Here’s a real kicker from his resume:
This man was part of Nickelodeon's The Naked Brothers Band.
If that is not hilarious, then we do not know what is. Nat and his brother Alex still sing and make music to this day, but the idea of a kid who used to be on Nickelodeon and star in a film based on the manga is just crazy! Nat has quite the r🌊esume that will remain with him for all of his acting career.
20 🃏 That Sounds... Lazy
Ever since Light picked up the Death Note and used it for the first time, he was shocked to the point where he thought he was going insane. When he did it the second time, that🐽 was when he decided to use the notebook for justice. The live-action film follows the same route, but there was one thing that made us shook our heads in disappointment.
Light and Mia had to look up the name Kira.
In the anime and manga, loyalists to Ki💞ra made the name for Light. They created websites in tribute to him. It makes us question ꩲhow the people even got Kira as a name in the American live-action adaptation. Did they just pick it out because it was Japanese or what?
19 🍒 These Two Are Somewhat Canon
Light and Misa are not what we call a perfect couple. Misa wanted to find the one who avenged her parents after their lives were taken away from them, and it just happened to be Light himself. She pretty much owed him her life for what he did. Ever since she got her own Death Note, she wanted to help Kira and rebuild the world. Unfortunately, Light did not feel the same way to her at all🅺, which is heartbreaking for Misa.
In the live-action film, however, he actually has the hots for her. As the film progresses, they eventually ended up together and become the dangerous couple as they write down names of criminals in the Death Note. Tog🉐ether, they would make a new world.
18 𝐆 Voice Actor's Blessing ꦏ
Whenever casting is announced, people seem to either be okay with it or absolutely despise the choice of who would portray the character. Even though the movie was overall underwhelming, there were some really great choices in Death Note. Not all🧜 of the original English voice actors have their saying for the casting, but Brian Drummond, the v൲oice actor for Ryuk, had something to say regarding Willem Dafoe as Ryuk.
He voiced his approval in the casting choice.
Brian that he was bummed about not being able to portray Ryuk, but Willem Dafoe was an excellent choice to play Rꦚyuk, the apple꧅-loving Shinigami who guided Light throughout his journey. If the original actor has nothing to say but praise, then that is considered a good thing.
17 ♍ Strong Perf▨ormances
Netflix’s Death Note is a mixed bag, mostly consisting of negative reviews, but even bad movies have some strong highlights that help the movie a bit. If there is anything the critics pointed out, it would have to be performances of a couple characters. Willem Dafoe was the role everyone really looked forward to, and to everyone’s s🎉urprise, he was fantastic as Ryuk.
Another performance that shocked us was Lakeith Stanfield as L. Despite his race, he did an excellent job in portraying Light’s rival. Th🔜ere were some traits that did not exactly fit L, and that is being emotional, but for what Keith had to portray, he did a fantastic job. There is a saying that goes, “a diamond in the rough,” and these two actors are exactly those diamonds in the rওough.
16 ✨ Social Media Shock 🎀
Advertisement for a movie comes in many forms. ꩲTrailers are the most important ones, but with social media becoming huge, there are different ways to adverti𒁏se for a movie. Other than Facebook pages, there are sites like Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram. One of those sites will be talked about on this entry, and it is surprising.
Ryuk has his own Twitter.
If only it was a joke, but the Shinigami himself has a social media account. It is questionable for a god like him to have one, but it is kind of hilarious. It would be fu🦩nny if he were to post his love for apples. However, a post has not been made since September𝕴, but then again, the account was only used for advertisement and nothing more. It was entertaining while it lasted.