Death Note?

[concoidialfracture]

I know, I know, a notebook that can cause the death of anyone whose name is written in it seems a rather morbid premise for a story, but I had to mention it as one of my favorite stories ever. It's not so much about the use of the notebook as it is about the foreseeable consequences of the use, and it's got an amazing format, beautiful art, and rather intriguing characters. The only thing I have a problem with is the exposition regarding the instructions on how to use the notebook, which I thought could have been done better.

Just throwing it out there to anyone who wants to discuss it, or as a recommendation, if nothing else.

[Patches]

I really enjoyed the Death Note series. I thought it was one of the most intelligent series since Fullmetal Alchemist. Though it should have ended much sooner than it did, but the publishers wanted to milk it for all it was worth, and it ended up dragging.

The creators of Death Note have just started running their new series called Bakuman. So far only a single chapter is out, and it seems to be... a manga about manga. Doesn't seem quite as breakthrough as Death Note, since there's already umpteen self-referencing series out there, none of which I like. But it's hard to judge it just on one chapter.

[rikana]

I agree with Patches. Death Note is the most intelligent anime/manga out there right now. Japan has really milked it for all it's worth though will all those movies. Personally, I love the movies based on the manga itself, but I'm pretty sure they had two other ones that were complete subplots. Like "L Change the World". I've watched most of that one, and all it really was was fan service for the L fans. It was a great movie, but it just shows that Death Note is being stretched to it's point.

The animation for the anime was exquisite, though, even with those freaky faces Light made all the time.

[concoidialfracture]

Ah, Light's weird faces. Some of the best moments in anime/manga history in my opinion.

I think one of the best things about Death Note is the fact that they don't make Light out to be a GOOD guy. I think they make him out to be more of a nut case than anything else, who apparently hasn't paid any mind to any sociology course he's ever taken in his life. I often wondered where in the world he got off thinking the world was simply about good people and rotten people.

But I digress. The animation is definitely very pretty, and you can tell they worked fairly hard on the show.

What's with the live-action movie, though? Was that something they simply did, or did the fans demand it?

[rikana]

Aug 21, 2008 9:35:08 GMT -5 concoidialfracture said:

Ah, Light's weird faces. Some of the best moments in anime/manga history in my opinion.

I think one of the best things about Death Note is the fact that they don't make Light out to be a GOOD guy. I think they make him out to be more of a nut case than anything else, who apparently hasn't paid any mind to any sociology course he's ever taken in his life. I often wondered where in the world he got off thinking the world was simply about good people and rotten people.

But I digress. The animation is definitely very pretty, and you can tell they worked fairly hard on the show.

What's with the live-action movie, though? Was that something they simply did, or did the fans demand it?

From what I've heard in Japan, there's a couple stages to every manga that goes up in popularity. If it's popular enough as a manga, they make an anime. If it's popular enough as an anime, they make an animated movie (this step was completely skipped for Death Note. A better example would be the Inu-Yasha series). And if the animated movie does well enough, they go to live action. Death Note has had three or four live action movies, one of them off the original plot and the other a prequel to the series.

I learned this from a friend, who went to Japan and lived with some family friends there, who told her this. I don't know how true it is, but it makes sense, none the less.

[concoidialfracture]

Hmm, I've never heard of this "stages" thing. So, is this last stage of the Inuyasha manga manifested through this musical thing that came out?

[Sayuri]

Ah, Death Note. I have two wall scrolls in my living room.

I rooted for Light and was sad when he died.

[concoidialfracture]

You know, it's funny, I didn't root for anyone in that seires. I didn't really like any of the characters, not because they WEREN'T good characters, but because they WERE. I found that the types of personality in the series was so beyond what I would identify with that I almost hated some of them.

[Sayuri]

I've been called psycho for rooting for the bad guy, but to be honest, there are times I feel exactly as he did, that criminals got off too easily because of loopholes or flaws in the system.

The only character that drove me nuts was Misa, for obvious reasons. She was too stupid to be using a Note. She was just stupid.

[concoidialfracture]

I found that Raito wasn't all that hard to relate to, and that's what made him so utterly terrifying to me. I just wasn't all that impressed with him because he seemed to oversimplify the solution to just killing people off. My ideas fall more along the lines of changing the system so that it's not such an easy thing to hurt others in the process of getting what you want or need. I have a whole rant that goes off of that (sociology minor *points to self*) but I'll refrain from boring you all to death.

Misa made me laugh. HYSTERICALLY. I thought she was one of the funniest characters in the series, and I appreciated her for it, but I suppose I never really liked her either, to tell the truth. She was such a good character that it was realistic to hate her, in a way, kind of like all the other characters.

[Sayuri]

I think one of the main points was that the system doesn't change. Snitch on someone else to avoid a harsh penalty for whatever it was you did? Please. Or lawyers, who find tiny loopholes that don't even have to do with the case, merely the procedures that weren't followed, and someone gets off. The legal system sucks, and it's not gonna change without something drastic.

[concoidialfracture]

But the point was also that Raito didn't TRY to change the system. He just killed off whoever he thought was a bad apple, which is okay if you're trying to scare people, but that solution doesn't ever last very long, because people often swim with the cultural tide; they do whatever is easiest to survive in their society. When your society encourages stepping on others and competing for everything...? It'll take a lot more than killing people to change that.

Raito sucks at social movements, lol!

I think it's a bit funny that this series came out of a place that has a significantly lower murder rate than the United States.

[Sayuri]

Maybe the US was the inspiraton?

You have a point about not trying to change the system. Maybe he didn't intend to, it would take too long. Besides, he's an egomaniac, so becoming a "God" suits him just fine.

Too bad he wasn't smarter than a 5th grader....

[concoidialfracture]

Yeah, that is too bad. The way my sister raved about him, she made him sound like the smartest person to ever be drawn on paper. I wasn't all that impressed, actually.

As for L, he wasn't all that much better. He was a Sherlockian character, through and through, and therefore his deductions were all very showy, but with little to no substance to back up the ONE and ONLY conclusion he could come up with.

Not that I could do any better, mind you....