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Will Death note be the Death of You?

When I began to watch anime, I was taken with it so much so that I sought out to watch every anime I could ever watch. I eased into it, first watching bubbly fun genres, slowly moving to drama and then finally to thriller/horror. I never really knew that anime could be deep, emotional and dark all at the same time until I came across Deathnote.

This anime, in my opinion, is a classic and should be viewed by anyone that is looking to dig deeper into the anime world. I was over the moon when I heard that there was going to be an American live action adaptation coming to Netflix in the form of a television series; that was until I viewed the trailer. Here is a synopsis of the anime for people that have no idea what it is about. Light Yagami is the child of Soichiro Yagami who is Chief of the NPA and later becomes the chief police officer that heads the Japanese Task Force.

The Yagami household is a well to do home, and Light is a very bright and exceptional student far surpassing his peers.  Light does, however, have a very skewed look on life and is often very cynical especially when it comes to the justice system. One day while walking home he comes across a notebook that is ever so curiously titled Death Note.  The most interesting thing about this notebook though is that it kills the names of people that have been written into the book. This anime then turns into a drama-filled suspense that will have you asking so many questions.  Now, do we see why this is a move? It’s just pure genius.

Now onward to the trailer, in the anime, Light Yagami is a young, good-looking man with light brown eyes and hair which wasn't conveyed in the trailer; the horribly over processed, bleached blond hair is a mess and let’s be honest he looks like he just doesn’t fit at all. Now I know a lot of people on social media are going on and on about the supposed whitewashing of this show as they have another Netflix show Iron Fist.

As I dug deeper, I found out they changed his last name to Turner, which doesn’t bug me but irritated many people adding to the issue of whitewashing.  Now if you are familiar I had used the word adaptation when talking about this show because that is what it is an adaptation, meaning that Netflix can adjust things to their liking or settings. I was kind of disappointed when I did not see an Asian actor cast as the main character, but that is something that I can get over quickly.

picture of Light Turner courtesy of Netflix

picture of Light Turner courtesy of Netflix

What I can’t get over is that this actor just doesn’t fit, he reminds more of Chris Angel from Mind Freak, and we can all do without that.

Light Yagami and Ryuk from Japan's 2006 Death Note film

Light Yagami and Ryuk from Japan's 2006 Death Note film

However, if I must be honest the Japanese live action adaptation didn’t look that great either, but I guess it was a little bit more on par. 

I do have to give them credit where credit is due though they found a perfect fit for Shinigami Ryuk. William Dafoe has not only the physical attributes going for him with this character, but he also has a unique air about him that would easily give you the impression as he dropped out of the sky just to mess with us mere humans down on earth.

William DaFoe will be playing the shinigami, Ryuk, in the Netflix series

William DaFoe will be playing the shinigami, Ryuk, in the Netflix series

All in all, I have high hopes for this new Netflix addition simply because I am just such a fan of the original Deathnote, but I have a little bit of skepticism as well. Will this actor that plays Light be such a good actor that we will see beyond the failed attempt to picture his anime self? Will the story be so enticing that I will see past all the discrepancies that do not tie into the anime and manga? Only time will tell.  All I can do is wait, and binge watch the anime which as we all know is on Netflix.

~Evette Suarez