Review: Death Note (Anime)

I love Death Note the manga, I like the movies (including L: Change The World) and I also enjoy the anime version.

So far, I find that the anime is one of the most faithful adaptation of manga. Maybe it is because Death Note has a heavy and complicated plot. The anime production company will not able to cope with inconsistency if they attempt to change too much. There is also a possibility that the production of the anime starts after the end of the manga series, but I'm just too lazy to find out.

L

I bought the DVDs a couple of months before and enjoy watching them for quite sometime. But I stopped in the middle. Right before the episode where L will be killed, I stopped. I plan to proceed, but I never really like the idea of L being killed, and be replace by Near the annoying kid. Near is never as charismatic as L, and sometimes I think Mello is much cooler. You maybe not know but initially, Near's end design was meant for Mello and vice versa. Somehow the manga production editor or crew get it mixed up. But this is not important now.

Near

Mello

Another reason may be because I think the best plan that Light has come out with is over. My favourite plan is the whole "reject the ownership, work with L and reclaimed back Death Note". This is just awesome. Light can precisely predict how he without the memory of Death Note will react, think and achieve. This cannot be done if one is not confident about his own ability.

One of the best part about the anime is, it save me a lot of time reading the monologues in the original manga. They somehow manage to condensed the monologue parts for the sake of pacing. The anime also use a lot of CGI graphic but with cell shade type coloring (most of the anime is starting do this). This usually is used on objects like vehicles, buildings and that those speeding car, car crash, helicopter stunt scene can be made more realistic and close to the book.

Unlike other manga based anime, Death Note's does not has any filler episode. Compare to action manga like Dragon Ball, Naruto, Bleach etc. The whole action scene in a volume length of manga when converted into anime, maybe can only last for half and episode.That is because in action manga, most time is spend on fight, and the plot never really advance very fast. Sometimes the anime production will overtake the manga. So before they get the new story from the original, they have no choice but to put in some filler episode. Get Naruto on some mundane mission, create a new enemy for the Shinigamis etc. But for a plot based manga like Death Note, one volume can be made up to maximum three episode.

I personally really like the first opening track for the series, and the mise-en-scene they used in the "MV". The second one is nice, but the impact is less than the first. It is more like to let the viewers know which arc we are getting to and what new character is coming.



When will I proceed the viewing? No idea. I can hardly accept it when L was killed in the manga, don't feel quite like it watching him dead in the anime. I like the way he died in the movie better. It is very sentimental and emotional; highlighting the relation between L and Watari.

L...sigh...

*You may already know, Gelus in the anime is voiced by the actor who plays L in the movie.