An Apple a Day…

As I have noted before, I do not like anime. It’s all down to the way stories are told, and whether it’s cultural differences, tropes of the genre, or sometimes just the way the series are dubbed (and generally all three) I just can’t get into most anime. My wife, however, has a number of anime shows and movies she likes and, because of that, I’ve picked up a few different productions over the years. The anime shelf in my collection isn’t big (horror massively dwarfs it in all respects) but it has steadily been growing.

Now, while I don’t like anime I do have a deep love for truly shitty movies. When it comes to Death Note, there are good productions and bad productions, as per the fans. The 2006 anime is a good adaptation (at least, up to a point, which we’ll get to eventually). On the bad side of the scale, though, is the 2017 NetflixOriginally started as a disc-by-mail service, Netflix has grown to be one of the largest media companies in the world (and one of the most valued internet companies as well). With a constant slate of new internet streaming-based programming that updates all the time, Netflix has redefined what it means to watch TV and films (as well as how to do it). adaptation. Fans of the series (and the manga) absolutely hate the Netflix version, although I will admit that I didn’t think it was all that terrible when I saw it a while back. That is, of course, because I hadn’t seen the anime, hadn’t read the manga, and knew little about the story in general. That seems like the perfect opportunity to go back and watch some Death Note.

That’s exactly the pitch my wife made to me just a week ago. “If we watch the anime you can go back and watch the terrible Netflix film and review them both.” That was really all the incentive I needed so, despite my general reservations about anime, we loaded up the original anime series and started in. And, yeah, I can kind of see why this was popular. Don’t get me wrong, this will in no way make me a convert to the genre. There is, though, something interesting about this series that makes it almost watchable. It is, however, also very over-the-top, silly, and meme-worthy. I’m enjoying it for what it is, but this isn’t an instant classic by any stretch of the imagination for me.

For those (like me) that know little of Death Note, the anime (as with the manga before it) follows Light Yagami (voiced by Mamoru Miyano in the Japanese release, Brad Swaile in the English dub), a Japanese high school student at the top of his class who is reading for final exams on his way to college. It is expected that he’ll do great things once he graduates. Except Light’s life takes a turn when he finds a notebook on the ground outside his school. On the cover are the words “Death Note”, and with the opening pages are instructions. If a person’s name is written on a page within the notebook, while the writer has that person’s face in their mind, then 40 seconds later that person will die. Unless it’s otherwise written what the cause of death will be, they will die of a heart attack. No exceptions.

At first Light dismisses the notebook as a hoax. There’s simply no way that a notebook could kill someone. But then he tests it out, seeing a news report about a hostage situation. Light writes the hostage taker’s name down in the book and then, 40 seconds later, the person dies of a heart attack, the hostages fleeing the building. Light is shocked by the result, and then even more shocked when a demon, the owner of the notebook, appears to him. The demon, Ryuk (Shidô Nakamura / Brian Drummond), tells Light that now that he’s used the notebook, his soul will never reach Heaven or Hell. That’s fine by Light as he plans to create a perfect world, killing all criminals until the world is at peace, with Light ruling over it like a god. And he begins the process, writing hundreds of names into the book, ensuring they all die of heart attacks so it’s too hard to ignore. This quickly catches the attention of the elusive L (Kappei Yamaguchi / Alessandro Juliani), the world’s greatest detective, who lends their services to the Japanese police to catch this mysterious killer, who the media have dubbed “Kira”. Light and L will soon find themselves at odds as they play a game of cat and mouse over the course of the investigation.

Like a lot of anime, Death Note is both densely packed with content and, somehow, slowly paced as well. Pacing is a big issue I have with a lot of anime series as it feels like the shows will frequently spend way too much time on setup when we could already be engaged in the action. This is especially true early on in Death Note as Light comes up with his plan to build “utopia”, explaining the plan to himself, and then to Ryuk, and then having Ryuk ask questions about the plan that he should already know, then asking questions about events he’s already witnessed. It gets worse when L gets involved and then we have both Light and L with internal monologues telling us every tiny thing they’re thinking about… it’s a lot.

On the one hand, this is really terrible writing. I’m sorry to all the Death Note fans, but I’m sure you know it’s true. The common adage is “show, don’t tell,” but Death Note loves to tell. It talks to the audience constantly, with running internal monologues for every major character. People in the show can’t just do things, they aren’t allowed to act on instinct. They have to think about it, explaining it all to us for five minutes, just so they can then go do the thing they told us about, telling us about it again while they do it. I swear, if they cut out a lot of this overexplaining the series would only be 15 episodes instead of 37.

At the same time, though, there is some charm to be had by these moments. In a trashy, meme-worthy kind of way (and yes, I have seen a ton of memes about this show), the back and forth between Light and L can be quite engaging. There’s a scene that perfectly summarizes this, where Light and L decide to play tennis. It can’t just be a tennis match, though, as each serve, return, and point scored apparently means something. “If I win this match does that confirm to L that I’m Kira because only Kira would go in for the kill. Or does that confirm to him that I’m just Light because I once was a tennis champion when I was younger and as a tennis champion I would want to win even if it’s been years since I last played.” L then has the same kind of conversation in his own head, then we cut to Light, then to L, and then Light wins the match and… nothing is actually accomplished. This happens a lot.

Frankly, it’s stupid. It is funny, though, and that’s why I’ve enjoyed it. I think if I watched this series on my own I would have shut it off after the first three or four episodes. The pilot episode isn’t bad, moving the story along at a brisk pace, but once the internal monologues start kicking in, from episode two onwards, the pace slows down a lot. If these conversations between the characters weren’t so overblow, so easy to mock (as my wife and I did, watching this series together), I’d find it all unwatchable.

Now, in fairness to the series it does actually pick up. By about halfway into the first part of the series (Part I covers episodes 1 through 26, and then Part II finishes out with episodes 27 through 37) the internal monologues begin to be less prevalent and the characters of Light and L begin working closely together. The cat and mouse game remains, even if the show throws new twists on to it (that I don’t want to spoil here). For the back half of the first part, I found myself legitimately engaged with the story… up to a point. The show went from mockable to, dare I say it, good? But then it all falls apart.

There’s a big change to the status quo that happens in the last couple of episodes of this first part of the series (which, again, I am not spoiling despite the age of this anime) and it completely changes the dynamic of the show going forward. Episode 26 especially feels the brunt of this as it has to set up where the second half is going, and to do this the whole first half of that episode is just a recap of the series we watched up to that point. It then introduces new characters, a new dynamic, and the final throughline of the series and it just doesn’t work. All momentum was lost and I felt myself slipping away.

Maybe that changes as the second half plays out. Maybe it doesn’t. I was already warned by fans of the show that Death Note shifts dynamics drastically and it’s just not the same after, so I won’t keep my hopes up. As it is, though, this first half is very nearly what I was pitched: a decent show that’s worth watching. Yes, I had to get through ten episodes of cringy material to get there, but eventually I was hooked. The issue is that I’d never want to go back. I’ve made it this far so I’ll finish the show, but the idea of watching those first ten episodes of the first half ever again would keep me away. The show isn’t good enough in its first arc to make me want to watch it and, because of that, I can’t really recommend it to anyone else.

That is unless you have a big group of people that would be willing to Mystery Science Theater 3000First aired on the independent TV network KTMA, Mystery Science Theater 3000 grew in popularity when it moved to Comedy Central. Spoofing bad movies, the gang on the show watch the flicks and make jokes about them, entertaining its audience with the same kind of shtick many movies watchers provided on their own (just usually not as funny as the MST3K guys could provide). It became an indelible part of the entertainment landscape from there, and lives on today on Netflix. the series. Then, in that case, Death Note would be totally worth it. The show is great fun to mock all because of how overblown it is. Just try not to take it too seriously.