Topic: Death Note anime/manga/movies comparison

[Tom]

This is a little experiment of mine. I love the manga and the two live-action movies of Death Note and I think the anime is also a good adaption of the manga. And I always wanted to analyze a little the differences between the original manga and the two adaptions.

The pace will probably be slow, as I can only move along, when I can spare enough time to watch a episode, read the next manga chapter(s) and put down the differences.

I am also not sure if I will (or can) follow through with this analysis.

I am doing this mostly for myself, but I thought that maybe others have a little interest in it as well. Maybe it peaks some interest in the ones who do not know it at all. Or is of some interest to those who know the anime or the movies and are a little curious about the original manga.

I will try to not spoil stuff which are happening after the discussed episode. I also will use spoiler tags, when writing something about the movies, which vastly differs from the manga and will spoil twists in the movie not present in the manga and anime.

[Tom]

01. Rebirth

Light, a very bright, but bored, High School student finds a notebook, which promises that for each name written in this notebook will kill that person.
Ryuk, the death god who has dropped this notebook on earth to have some fun, is also introduced. Only Light can see him, because only people, who have touched the Death Note can see and hear him.

Rules introduced in this episode:
- the person written into the death note dies after 40 seconds of a heart attack if no cause of death is written down
- if a cause of death is written down, you have another 6 minutes and 40 seconds to specify the circumstances
- you have to know the face of the person whose name is written down
- touching a death god's death note will enable you to see and hear him

Manga:
This episode covers chapter 1 of the manga. Generally in the manga, Light is very collected. In the anime he is very hot-headed, even in his inner monologues.
In the manga, the order of the scenes is this:
- Ryuk decides to drop the book in the human world
- Light finds it
- jump five days ahead and Ryuk introduces himself to Light and is surprised how many people Light has already killed
- Light tells about his first try-outs of using the book and coming to the realization, that it's the real thing
- he tells Ryuk of this plans of using the notebook to get rid of all evil in the world

In the anime, these happenings are told linear. We see him finding the book, trying it out and then the visit of Ryuk. As far as I remember, this observation in difference can be made a lot. In the manga, we often see Light doing something and then after it is finished, we get to see his preparations. In the anime we first get to see his preparations and then the pay-off.

Movies:
In the movies, Light does not start off as a high school student, but is already a law student, who gets frustrated with the Japanese law system. This is when he finds the notebook. His first tests with the notebook and his first encounter with Ryuk are similar to the manga/anime.

[Achim]

Sounds like a cool idea! I don't know the manga but I am a fan of the movies as well and will be able to complete the anime series in March. I guess I'll be reading this thread with each episode I watch.

[Tom]

02. Confrontation

The public names the person (Light), who is responsible for the many deaths of criminals, "Kira" (coming from how Japanese pronounce the English word "Killer").
The police contracts the mysterious detective L to investigate the strange deaths. Nobody has ever seen L, nor does anyone know his real name. L has already deduced, that the deaths are murder by a person, who does not even need to be in contact with the victim. With tricking Kira, he already proves this in this episode and also that Kira is living in the Kanto region (Tokyo area).
L challenges Kira, and the great cat and mouse game begins.

Manga: In the manga, the trap and challenge by L comes first (chapter 2), then Light helps his sister with her homework (chapter 3) and then he builds the booby trap (chapter 4).
My comparison project already proofs to be getting hard. Although the anime stays close to the manga, it already shows, that it switches a lot of stuff around. In manga chapters 2-4 there are already a lot of other important things happening, which are not touched upon by the anime yet.


Movies: The first movie covers the complete trap for Kira set by L.
The movie omits the booby trap Light is building to hide the Death Note, which is not really essential to the plot.

[Tom]

03. Dealings

This episode catches up with the missing scenes from the previous chapters and continues with the fifth chapter of the manga.

- we learn that the head of investigation of the Kira case is in fact Light's father (chapter 3)
- L and police find out, that the times, people are killed probably fits the non-school time of a student. Also that Kira needs to know the face of the victim (chapter 3)
- Light logs into the police computer with his father's password and finds out the status of the investigation (in the manga, Light learns the fact, that the police suspects a student doing the killing from his father during dinner, chapter 3)
- Light kills the next criminals at full hour intervals (when writing down the cause of death, he can specify a time) (chapter 3)
- L sees this as a proof, that Kira can manipulate time and is in fact aware of the police investigation. L sees this as challenge by Kira. (chapter 4)
- Light did this, to make L suspicious of the police and vice versa. He wants L to start investigating the police and expects the police to react negativelly to be investigated by someone, who doesn't even show his face. (chapter 4)
- investigation team members quitting because they fear to be killed by Kira (chapter 4)
- L has FBI agents following the family members of the police investigation team (chapter 5)
- Light finds out, that he is being followed (chapter 5)
- Light learns from Ryuk (the death god), that death gods write down the names of people in their death notes, to get the remaining years of the victim's life span added to their own. But this does not work for a human writing down the names. He also learns, that death gods can see the names and remaining life span of the people they are looking at. He offers light a deal. A death god's eyes in exchange of half of his remaining years. (chapter 5)


Movies: Everything happening in this episode also happens in the movie.

[Tom]

04. Pursuit

- death gods in the death god realm discuss Ryuk, how he has to stay in the human world until the current owner (Light) dies. And also that Ryuk has two death notes, which is not normal. This means, currently there are at least two death notes in the human world (chapter 3)
- Light refuses Ryuk's death god's eyes deal (chapter 6)
- Ryuk complains about the meaningless of being a death god. Light sees it differently. In his opinion death gods have great effect on the human world. (chapter 5)
- Light tests on inmates how much he can affect the behaviour of this victims with manipulating their cause of death (chapter 6)
- Light finds out the results of his tests through the police files (in his father's files on his computer in the manga, chapter 6)
- Light asks out a girl in his class, because he needs her for his plan to get to know the name of the FBI agent following him (chapter 6)
- they both take a bus, the agent follows them. A criminal, manipulated by the death note, hijacks the bus. Light tricks the FBI agent revealing his name (Raye Pelber). The hijacker dies in an accident when getting of the bus (according to his death note entry)
(chapter 7, end of volume 1 of the manga)

As chance will have it, the first disc (four episodes) of the anime covers exactly the first volume of the manga.
The manga has 12 volumes in total, the anime has 36 episodes.


Movies: About everything of this episode happens in the movie. Main difference is, that in the movies, Light has a girlfriend, who is used here in the bus scene. Even though in the manga it is made clear, that Light does not have girlfriend, because noone is good enough for him, it makes scenes to give him one in the movies. For one thing they don't need to introduce another character for just one scene. Also some discussions with the girlfriend he has in the movies are telling stuff, he only thinks in the manga.

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Also the girlfriend is used in great affect for the ending of the first movie, which makes up for the fact, that they had to cut out a lot of other stuff. Also you get a nice new twist for those who already know the manga

[Tom]

I decided to rewatch the Death Note movies to have them fresh in mind for this thread. It is now the fifth time in one year, that I am watching them (but the last time was over half a year ago)

The following review is a repost of my last review of this movie.




Title: Desu nôto
Year: 2006
Length: 126 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1, Japanese: DTS 5.1
Subtitles: English, Japanese, Korean

My Thoughts:

OK, so I couldn't wait any longer to watch this movie
I have read the first 5 volumes of the manga so far and it was enough to not spoil later volumes by watching this movie. I had lowered my expectations for this movie because of this thread but I must say, that this wouldn't have been necessary. I really liked this movie adaptation of the manga. Of course the movie deviates from the manga, but I think they made the right choices. The manga is mostly characters talking. Which is great for the manga, but would have not been fitting for a movie. Plotwise the first half of the movie follows more or less the manga. The second half uses a lot of elements from the manga but leaves out a lot and changes a lot of things.
Regarding the two main characters:
Light: In the beginning I almost thought they had ruined this character. He was too hot-headed. But I think during the course of the movie he becomes closer to his manga counterpart.
L: He was surprisingly true to his manga counterpart! He was also the main reason I couldn't wait to take a look at this movie. When I saw screenshots of him in the booklet, I was surprised to see how closely he resembles the character of the manga. So I wanted to see, if his mannerism is also true to the manga. And yes, it was

Now I will have to wait until June, when the 12th volume of the manga is released in Germany, to be able to see the second movie. I will probably become weak long before then


Rating:

[Tom]

Repost of my review of the second Death Note movie after just having watched it again:



Title: Desu nôto: The last name
Year: 2006
Length: 140 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1, Japanese: DTS 5.1
Subtitles: English, Japanese, Korean

My Thoughts:

I also enjoyed this sequel to Death Note and it is a great conclusion to the story. I was surprised how close it stayed to the manga. To shorten the story, most changes affect the second half of the movie. The biggest change was of who

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got the Death Note after Light gave it up

. I think it was a good change as the storyline of what happened in the manga here would have filled another (and probably a boring) movie and even then they kept some of the stuff of the manga intact.

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I liked the way L dies better than in the manga. The manga death has been used as a ruse in this version. In the manga, L dies halfway through the storyline. Therefore a lot of material has been let out of the movies, but IMO the L storyline is the more interesting one anyway.

After reading some reviews on the internet about the Death Note movies I noticed, that most reviews which were unfavorable were of people who first saw the anime before seeing this movie. But I do not think that you can compare those two. Whereas the anime tells the story of the manga almost line-by-line (I had the chance to see the first six episodes so far) that would have not worked for a live-action movie. In my opinion they have transferred the material to the screen in a very good way.
And I think that they only got a chance to have so many episodes green-lighted to tell the manga in anime form because the movies were such a great success.


Rating:

[Tom]

05. Tactics

- Raye Pelber asks Light not to tell that he was on the bus, because he is on a secret mission in Japan
- We meet Naomi, Raye's fiancé and a former FBI agent. Raye tells her about he bus hijacking. She starts to ask that maybe the hijacking was not a coincence, but Raye puts her in her place, to have her behave like the perfect little Japanese housewife instead of a FBI agent
- Light plays with L by having vicitims leave messages for L
- Light confronts Raye (he doesn't let him see him) outside the subway station. Proves that he is Kira and gives him an envelope with a transciever in it and tells him to board a specific subway line
- On board he asks him to take out some sheets from the envelope, let's him open his notebook PC, where he got an email with name and faces of the other FBI agents involved in the case, and does let him write down the names of the agents on the sheets.
- After having done that, he is to leave the envelope and the sheets on the train and exit the train. He then dies of an heart attack with his last person he sees being Light and comes to realize that Light is Kira
- The sheets are revealed to be from the death note, with instruction that all the FBI agents, which were put down, are killed at the same time. Raye got the email, because his death note that, the he gets this email from his superior (along with the other agents)
- L learns of the deaths of the agents. Yagami (Light's father) finds out that L had FBI agents following people and confronts him
- We see Naomi who knows that Raye was killed by Kira
- Yagami tells his family that he is in charge of the Kira investigation, and that Kira killed the FBI agents involved in the case and that therefore he will also be in danger
- Yagami offers the people still involved in the case the possibility to resign from the case
- Naomi starts investigating the death of Raye, starting with the bus incident
- We see, that only five people are left on the case. They ask of L to trust them and show himself to them. He accepts.
- Before meeting L, another one drops out, because he doesn't trust L and does not want to work with him
- The rest are going to meet up with L


Manga: This episode covers chapters 8-10 of the manga. The ordering of the scenes are different. It switches around more between the scenes.
Additionally Light has Raye call another FBI agent to get the list of the agents on the case. Also more scenes with Light's family are shown.
The scenes were the agents resign from the case is a little different. In the anime, Yagami offers the possibility and when we next cut to him, the resigning agents are already gone. In the manga Yagami leaves the room while the agents are deciding and then comes back with only five people still there.


Movies: Essentially everything is here. Yagami is present in the room while most of the agents resign and we see them leave the room one after another (I like this addition). When leaving to meet L, no other agent decides to resign.
The actress playing Naomi is a real hottie and to me seems a littler tougher than in the anime.
Light does not meet up with Raye outside the train, but let's him get on the train and getting the envelope through his death note instructions. Now a change I really like.

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Light has Raye write the name of his superior on an extra sheet, where the instruction is hidden, that this superior will die after sending out the list of the agents

. Naomi had followed Raye (who by the way is made a Japanese instead of an American) on the train, because she was suspecting that something is happening when he was called away. She witnesses his death and runs up to him. Light sees her there.

[Tom]

I have now my Death Note sets back and I try to continue this analysis soon.
Karsten, can you include this thread in your series marathon list? It is essentially a marathon thread for the anime series "Death Note".

[Tom]

06. Unraveling

- the agents meet L for the first time. While introducing themselves, L points his fingers like a pistol at them and says "peng". He explains they would be dead now if he were Kira. He cautions them to not use their real names. L tells them of this theory that Kira must be among the people observed by the FBI in a specific time-frame
- Light and family discuss bringing his father a change of clothes. Light volunteers.
- Naomi goes to the police headquarters. Light and Naomi meet up. Light tells her, that he can help her with meeting the investigation team. Naomi tells him of her theories. Light notices, that she is very close to linking him with Kira.

Manga: The first half of the episode is covered in manga chapter 11, the second half in chapter 12

Movies: Very similar. I love how L potrays the "peng"-scene in the movie.

[Tom]

07. Overcast

- Light writes down Naomi's name in the death note
- Short scene with L and the detectives. L gets call from Watari
- Naomi doesn't die like Light expects her to, because she didn't tell him her real name
- Watari has shown up and meets the detectives. He has brought new police batches with fake IDs
- Light is trying to think about a way to get Naomi's real name without having to make the trade for the death god's eyes (which would half his life expectancy)
- detectives discuss the fake IDs. Watari gives them belts with tracking devices and emergency pager
- Light tricks Naomi to give him her ID. Light writes down her name for her to commit suicide (in a way that her body won't be found). Light mocks her by telling her that he is Kira


Manga: This episode is covered by chapters 13 and 14

Movies: Detectives also get new fake IDs, but no belt. Light fails to kill Naomi, because she told him a fake name. She then goes on at strongly hinting, that she suspects Light to be Kira. This means, that Light was not able to kill her at this point. Naomi now plays a big part in the first movie's ending, which is completely original to the movie.

[Tom]

08. Glare

- The detectives and L watch subway survaillence footage of Raye Penber's death.
- Light and Ryuk discuss one of the death note rules
- Watari and L receive a call and learn of Naomi's going missing. L concludes that she must have been onto Kira. And as she was Raye Penber's fiance, they are going to focus on the people Raye investigated. Among these was Light Yagami's family.
- They decide to put camera's and wiretabs in the Yagami house.
- Light notices that someone has entered his room and suspect that cameras were installed. Light tells Ryuk about this after they have left the house. He also tells him about all the tricks he has implemented to see if someone has entered his room. Only one of those has been discovered and resetted by the ones who entered his room. Light gets Ryuk to check for the positions of the cameras.
- Light looks at porn magazines in his room, so that the detectives think he checks for entry to his room because of these. L doesn't fall for this
- Yagami family has dinner and watches TV. L sends fake news report to check the reaction of Light. Light doesn't fall for it
- With a trick, Light can watch the news report without L knowing he has access to a TV. Light writes down names of criminals currently being reported
- L learns about the death of those criminals and survaillence is stopped

Manga: Episode is covered in chapters 16 and 17

Movies: Essentially the same but with some changes. Light only uses one trick to check access to his room and it wasn't noticed. Therefore the trick with the porn magazines is not needed. Also the survaillence takes about a week until Light can move suspicion away from him, instead of only one day. This is good for the character development of Light's father (the lead detective) in my opinion.

[Tom]

9. Encounter

- the conclusion of Light's survaillance by the investigation team
- Light takes the entrance exam of the Tokyo University. As does L.
- Now both are students at Tokyo University and L reveals himself to Light proclaiming that he wants to recruit Light for the investigation team.
- Light freaks out because he knows that L is onto him
- we also get a glimpse of the world of the death gods where the other death gods discuss Ryuk and how he is always with a human now

This episodes covers chapters 18 and 19 of the manga almost verbatim. The scene with the death gods is taken from the first few pages of chapter 20.

In the movie version, Light is already a University student. L also starts attending there and reveals himself to Light. The other death gods from this episode do not appear in the movies.

[Achim]