Japanese Drama Review: Death Note (2015)

 

Drama: Death Note

Country: Japan

Year: 2015

Episodes: 11 episodes, 45 minutes

Genre: Psychological, Thriller, Supernatural, Mystery

Starring: Masataka Kubota, Kento Yamazaki, Mio Yuki, Hinako Sano, Yutaka Matsushige, Reiko Fujiawara, Kazuaki Hankai

My Rating: ★★★★★ out of 5

You can find a list of my Japanese drama reviews on my Japanese Drama and Movie Reviews page.  

I've read just enough of the Death Note manga to get the basic gist of the story, and I watched the original live-action films from 2006. So I know what the story is supposed to look like.

This is not that.

This means diehard fans might not be happy with the liberties taken, but I think the changes make the characters, particularly Light Yagami, more relatable. 

Masataka Kubota as Light Yagami developing his righteous purpose in episode 2 of Death Note.

When an insane increase in heart attacks among criminals begins happening for no apparent reason, law enforcement agencies around the world are concerned. The deaths are being attributed online to an entity called "Kira," which happens to be the Japanese Romanization of the word "killer." And so the hunt begins for this mass murderer who has an insane amount of support from the general public because the only people he kills are criminals.

Specialized detective L (Kento Yamazaki) and his compatriot Watari (Kazuaki Hankai) begin nosing around and narrow the likely location of Kira down to one province in Japan. He partners with some of the local authorities, including a police detective named Soichiro Yagami (Yutaka Matsushige), and in so doing, he encounters Yagami-san's son, Light Yagami (Masataka Kubota), a humble college student with no real ambition and an over-abundance of convenient innocence. L's instincts kick up a notch and with no real proof, he immediately zeroes in on Light as his prime suspect. Which, naturally, is correct.

Kento Yamazaki as L beginning to be seriously suspicious of Light Yagami in episode 2 of Death Note.

But the question foremost in L's mind remains. Exactly how can you kill a criminal with a heart attack? Even the ones behind bars?

The answer, of course, is simple. With a Death Note and a Shinigami (god of death).

I appreciate battles of good against evil, particularly if sometimes the lines get hazy. There are times I want to agree with Light and times I dislike L's methods. Death Note shows that nobody is wholly evil or wholly good.

Light and L meeting in person for the first time in episode 4 of Death Note.

Kento Yamazaki and Masataka Kubota are a dynamite pairing as L and Light.

I already knew Kubota-san would make an incredible Light from some of his previous work. He always performs with intensity (and just a touch of crazy) and my high expectations of him were completely justified in his role as Light. Yamazaki-san was new to me, although he's probably the most popular young male actor in Japan right now. I first watched Death Note last year, pre-Alice in Borderland hype. He exhibits calm stoicism and restless emotionalism at the same time, bringing a unique version of L to life. Together, Kubota-san and Yamazaki-san light up the screen in their race against time and their battling of each other with the entire world and its population as their chessboard and playing pieces.

Hinako Sano as Amane Misa, the girl who partners with Light Yagami, from episode 5.

The secondary performances are all topnotch. An actress named Mio Yuki plays Near, L's compatriot, and I believe that Near is actually supposed to be male in the manga and the anime, but I never got far enough to meet the character so I can't say for sure. She's excellent. Hinako Sano plays a very fluffy, foolish version of Amane Misa, the pop idol star who partners with Light and falls in love with him. She's pretty in a pouty sort of way, and she partners well with Kubota-san.

Yutaka Matsushige as Light's father, Soichiro Yagami, in episode 6 of Death Note.

The police force group is incredible, all of them, and I deeply respect Matsushige-san's performance as Light's father. He and Kubota-san really connected in their scenes together, bringing a necessary emotional intensity. And then there is Kazuaki Hankai as Watari, an assistant/guardian to L. Hankai-san feels like a grandfather figure, the only parental influence in L's life. There's a tenderness in the character's treatment of L. He kept up with Yamazaki-san's energy levels and was always a smidge sarcastic when responding to L's "willful" requests.

Kento Yamazaki as L with his faithful assistant Watari (Kazuaki Hankai) ironing white shirts in the background.

Here's where fans of the manga/anime/original movies may not like the changes whereas I do.

L is very different. He is still obsessive-compulsive, but it manifests itself differently. L subsists solely on nutritional drinks, tea, and what appears to be shortbread but is likely also a nutritional supplement. He doesn't eat anything else, and the nutritional drink is always the same one, hundreds of them. He dresses solely in white, changes his shirt religiously if it gets smudged or splattered, and all his decor is white. It makes for a very striking character design, and I like it better than the L who eats nothing but candy and ice cream. No offense to the original mangaka.

Masataka Kubota as Light Yagami in episode 1, being confronted by Ryuk on a rooftop.

Light Yagami is also uniquely different. I never liked Light in the manga or in the original movies. He was never relatable to me on any level because he always felt cold, teetering on the brink of ruthlessness anyway. But this Light starts out as a kind, somewhat weak, sort of character. He's gentle and compassionate and not very driven to make anything of himself. The Death Note brings him purpose and that's when his transformation begins. It allows me to grow to like the Light Yagami that he was and grieve for that loss as he transforms into a ruthless killer. There needed to be a solid distinction between the original Light and the changed Light and this drama provides that.

Light's mother in the drama died when he was a child and his father wasn't there when she passed so there is a rift between Light and his dad. In the manga, she's still alive. I also think that Light had a girlfriend, if I'm remembering right, in the manga and the original movies, and she ends up dying because of Light, which is another reason why I could not bring myself to like him.

Ryuk in episode 1, doing the confronting of Light Yagami on the rooftop.

So yes, there are several changes to the story, probably many more than I'm fully aware of, but because I was never invested in the original story needing to be laid out in stone and depicted word for word, I see the changes as positive ones.

What can I say other than the screenplay authors Yoshihiro Izumi and Tetsuya Oishi did a stupendous job. The story never flags, it just keeps moving right along. Every episode has a solid foundation on which to build until the final outcome of the story. Now, as to how much they changed, as I said, I don't fully know. I have no idea if the climax is the same. It may not be. But I feel that the message of Death Note remains the same, regardless of the little things that might get moved around.

Light Yagami falling deeper under the spell of the Death Note in episode 3.

This is a violent show and a lot of characters end up dead, either from heart attacks, shootings, or accidents. The deaths are not particularly gruesome (nobody is dismembered, etc.). The two leads have very little respect for human life, even L, which might surprise viewers, but he and Light are similar in that they will do anything and sacrifice anyone to achieve their end result. A father threatens to shoot his son as a means of stopping him. Inhumane methods of restraint are used on Amane Misa and Light Yagami at one point. There are terrifying supernatural beings known as Shinigami (or gods of death) that play with human lives. There's a stalker after Amane Misa at one point (a common theme in Japanese entertainment). Misa and Light share a kiss a couple of times. A character clearly has dissociative identity disorder and manages the second identity through the use of a puppet (very disturbing). Minor swearing.

Mio Yuki as Near, compatriot to L, and his backup, a moment from episode 9.

Death Note is in my top 10 dramas list and for good reason. It's a chilling supernatural thriller that reminds us that no one person has the right to be judge, jury, and executioner. I love the visible contrast between Light (who dresses in black and whose Shinigami dresses all in black) and L (who dresses all in white).

I didn't really get into it earlier, but we do meet gods of death, called Shinigami. These are the ones who drop the Death Notes and once you touch a Death Note, you can see the Shinigami it belongs to. Every person whose name is written in the Death Note adds years to the Shinigami's life. It's a creepy and disturbing mythology and the Shinigami are frightening. Light's Shinigami is named Ryuk and just like Light as the story progresses, Ryuk is dark and ruthless.

Near and Watari at the end of episode 11, the final episode of Death Note.

Death Note is full of glorious moral complexities. Light wants to cleanse the world of criminals BUT, he also does not hesitate to kill anyone who gets in his way, even if getting in his way is their only crime. He is playing God with human lives and he has no right to do so. L is equally guilty of the same thing. He puts people in peril as a test to "Kira" and if those people die, oh well. He's very cold with very little capacity to feel human emotion, although there is a wistfulness to L that gives the impression that he wishes he could understand relationships. Overall, the characters are chillingly similar and the entire world is caught between them.

Enjoy this neat music video from Youtuber Closed. [Forever].