Did The Death Note Trailer Light Up The World?

The New World and The New Death Note

Recently Netflix released a teaser of their new property Death Note, but as a fan of the anime I can't help but compare. For those unaware Death Note was a sensation that began as a manga, and grew from there due to its immense popularity. It later became an anime that brought it into the main stream and later a live action movie series released in Japan that also saw a spin off. Later, this popularity sailed over seas garnering the attention of Warner Brothers, who bought the rights to re-imagine it. This was a dead end however, and Warner Brothers chose not to pursue the project so Netflix later bought the rights, and here we are.

Bare with me, because from here on I will make the assumption that you've seen or know of the anime, and will give my review of the teaser through comparison. I want to start by saying that I am absolutely ecstatic to finally see this world come to life and I have trust in Netflix to put a good team behind the project. And it may be because of this fact that I can't help but be a bit harsh and detail oriented.

Let's start with the main focus of the trailer, our introduction to Light Yagami. We begin with the falling notebook, landing behind him as he seems to be alone in a park, and this small detail is where I have my first issue. Lets go back to our source, the anime. Light is a generally popular, and incredibly intelligent student who has good friends, swooning girls, and a happy family. Netflix seems to have painted a picture of a loner, who doesn't fit in, and may be a closet genious. Where have we heard this before?

Netflix might be trying to steal the light from the popular show Mr. Robot. The issue is that Death Note's strength came from the slow progression of Light Yagami decaying from a stable and intelligent young man into a psychotic genius drunk with power. That progression is shot when Light already seems a bit unstable, and doesn't seem like someone aspiring to follow in his father's footsteps as a detective. If anything it may be the fact that his father is a detective that gave the team behind the Netflix project to have Light rebel and follow his own path.

After all, I understand that Netflix needs to make some creative differences and shortcuts to make this anime series into a Netflix Original film. My hope is that they keep what made Death Note the great story that has brought it here in the first place. And in my opinion, it's the subtle aspects to the show that made it great. The constant cat and mouse mind game between Light and L is intoxicating. While the philosophical debate of right and wrong coats every action, letting the viewer decide who the good guy and bad guy truly is. It's a psychological thriller at its core and hopefully it stays that way.

This brings me to my main worry. There are scenes in the trailer, the main one pictured above being the most worrisome, that led me to believe that they are adding to the story. And by changing the story they're shoehorning action packed scenes into a story that's not only better then that, but it's more then that. I say more because Death Note is above all, thought provoking, not a typical action packed drama that are a dime a dozen these days. And if they are already creating shortcuts, I have to ask, is there room in the script for such dramatic scene additions? It makes me wonder what are they cutting from the script to fit large pivotal scenes such as this. It better not be the tennis match between L and Light! I swear if I don't see some nail biting tennis action metaphorically giving a physical representation of the battle between the two, I'll riot.

In all seriousness though, I'm happy to see progress being made, and I'll be anxiously awaiting the premier this August. I'm cautiously optimistic at the moment, but hopefully that will grow into true optimism once we learn more. There are still many layers to this show that have yet to be revealed. Layers such as L, Light's father, Misa, and of course Ryuk.

That brings me to my favorite aspect of the trailer and one of the better choices they made, the choice to hide Ryuk. If Ryuk doesn't look right it may kill a lot of interest in the show, so they need to make sure he's done right and hopefully isn't the CG mess that was in the Japanese live action. This was a great choice and I look forward to many more great choices that will bring this manga, anime, and sensational story to America. However, the key phrase born from this teaser would have to be, cautiously optimistic.