Death Note: The Last Name (Movie) (Viz Media 2006)

Whooooo. This starts right off from the first Death Note. I suspect that Part I and Part II were all filmed as one movie and then split up for times’ sake. Both are between 130-140 minutes and since the director is NOT Peter Jackson, he doesn’t get one 4 1/2 hr movie.

There will be small spoilers, but nothing that I consider huge. Because Death Note has some seriously huge spoiler material, that is for sure. It makes it rather hard to discuss with someone who hasn’t seen it. Kind of like The Sixth Sense. The twist at the end impacts everything that came before. There isn’t that same twist, but some things just as big do occur.

 

The rivaly between Light and L starts to intensify. L begins to attend the same college as Light and Misa Amane begins dating Light. Misa is another Kira, after being saved from a stalker by a shinigami named Rem. Misa realizes she isn’t as smart as the original Kira but wants to help out. When she finds out that Kira is Light, she gives her cooperation on the terms that Light will be her boyfriend.

Shit gets real when Kira II begins killing people on live tv who oppose Kira. Mostly innocent police officers who happen to be on the scene. This ramps up the feelings on the Kira Task Force and L begins authorizing highly illegal activity, such as the kidnapping of Misa Amane on suspicion of being Kira II.

It is still all a game to Light and he plays with peoples’ lives like pieces on a chessboard. Just like in the manga.

There are some really cool twists and turns, involving multiple Death Notes, multiple Shinigami, memories, Eyes of the Shinigami and continued move and counter-move by both Light and L. While some of the specifics are not exactly like the manga, they are exactly like the manga in spirit.

Now, I’d read the manga twice before watching this or Part I, so I’m not sure how that affected my viewpoint. It would be interesting to get someone’s perspective who hasn’t read the manga, but only watched the Netflix Death Note.  Cough,BookCupidity,Cough.

The whole storyline with Near and Melo gets cut out, but honestly, that would require at least another 2 movies, so it isn’t a surprise it isn’t included. This movie wraps up the storyline and shows the ending of the Death Note manga like it was intended. My only other quibble is that Light doesn’t have bleached blonde hair tips. I know that is an odd thing, but that is ONE detail that the Netflix version got right that I was happy about.

To end this ramble, I enjoyed these Death Note movies immensely. I don’t know how well someone who isn’t already familiar with the franchise would enjoy them, but they do a MUCH better job of portraying Death Note than that Netflix bastardization did.

The main cast of Death Note: The Last Name. I’m not even going to say how many of them die.

 

I’m including my thoughts on the Death Note manga below from when I reviewed them in ’14. Just be aware, they’re as spoilery as anything, as is my tendency.

 

1. Death Note Vol. 1-3
2. Death Note Vol. 4-6
3. Death Note Vol. 7-9
4. Death Note Vol. 10-12