Death Note Drama – An Update

After 9 episodes of NTV’s version of one of the best manga stories ever, I can only say, the drama sucks big time.

First, I was wrong about the casting. L wasn’t as bad as I had thought he was when I eventually got used to it but Kubota as Light was a bad choice. He looks awkward when he does the evil laughter. Instead of a genius going up intellectually against L, he looks like a man you usually see in straight jackets.

But the main problem lies in the story.

Light being Misa Misa’s fan aside, in the latest episode, L confronted Light without solid evidence. He called Light out one night and tried to make him confess by pretending to attempt to kill him with the fake Death Note that he got Watari to create. Light got desperate and fought L. With his un-L-like stupid choice of streaming their initial exchange live to the secret headquarters, Mikami, who happened to be raiding the quarters saw L’s name with his traded grim reaper eyes and texted Light L’s name. This is the only version of the series where L’s name is revealed in the middle of the show. In the original, L’s name was never mentioned. The only way to find out his name was if you read the additional volume 13. So Light tries to kill L and upon writing L’s real name in the fake Death Note, Light confesses that he is Kira, but 40 seconds later, L remains alive. When the rest of the crew arrive, L is about to tell them Light is Kira when he actually dies because Mikami decided to write L’s name as well just in case. So no, L was not killed by Rem in this version of the story and Rem didn’t perish.

Next, Mello doesn’t actually exist in this series as a person. What does that mean? In the drama, Mello is the split personality of Near who carries a doll of the original Mello. OMFG! Which idiot came up with that?

If you’re curious about the story, go ahead and watch it. If you’re looking for a good story, I suggest you watch me brush my teeth.

My remaining consolation is Near looks beautiful.

Search Yuki Mio if you’re interested.

Here’s her blog.

Death Note Drama

Death Note’s drama version started airing a couple of weeks ago, and as you can see, this is the best casting of Yagami Light so far. As for L, it’s a little 微妙 acting skills wise. Matsuyama Kenichi did a better job, I feel. Casting for Light’s father is shit. He looks nothing like the original comic version and holds less than half the magnitude he should have. That might be because I only saw him in Solitary Gourmet which is a very different character from what Yagami Soichiro should be.

No, that’s not it. Yagami Soichiro is not so skinny.

I first came into contact with Death Note when I watched the movie version back when I was in university. I loved it and watched the anime, and found out that the story ends differently and even better than the movie. That made me love it even more. Then, I bought the comics and read it through. Then I had thought about catching the musical but didn’t do it in the end. Now, the drama is out, I’ve been following the past 2 episodes. This is about the only story that I can watch again and again and followed every spin-off so far except for the musical, which I intend to catch if the chance comes.

Due to the nature of Japanese dramas being really short, the story proceeds very quickly in this new take on the story, which is perfectly fine for me. When I heard that the story is a little different from the original, it bothered me a little but not too much. I was keen to see how it has been changed and if it did as good as the movie version.

But I soon realised my dislike for the altered storyline. Apparently, the writer decides to make Light a fan of Misa-Misa right from the start and tries to save her. WHY!? JAPANESE PEOPLE!?

Having said that, I’m still going to try following the series till the end. Let’s hope it will be salvaged somewhere, somehow. If not, we can always remember that this drama version has a better Yagami Light than the movie. That’s it.