Let’s focus on the Death Note Covers instead of the film itself. After watching this film version of the death note, I thought that it would be a good time to showcase some covers for The Death Note anime. Not because I was overcome with nostalgia for the anime, Death Note. Not because I loved the cinematic film in front of me. Nope. Because I wanted to get the remakes’ taste out of my mouth and take a sip of something that was remade with some reverence for the original.

Reviewing Death Note (2017)

I watched the Deathnote movie last night with my roommate. Both of us have watched the anime and were excited about the American adaptation. On the plus side, the cinematography was well done. The actual filming of the movie was rather gorgeous. In that sense, I can appreciate the film.

Unfortunately, I didn’t like the film. From online comments and discussions about the film, this is a rather common opinion. Personally, it was a bit disappointing overall as someone who has watched the anime and that likes continuity. There were issues as the plot points, and character personalities didn’t match up at all between the anime and the movie.

The very first thing we noticed is that it went by extremely fast. They missed out on a lot of events. But they missed out on the chase. They seemed to dumb down the intellectual war between L and Light, which was a bit of a letdown. They left out the actual task force, and the second Death Note, among other things.

Then we noticed that the characters didn’t exhibit the things that made them, well,  them. Light was more of a dark brooding teenager, who seemed to think more with his penis than the overinflated ideals of justice and power. I personally found this version of Light a bit annoying and less relatable. L was emotional, as was mentioned above, and didn’t have the same slightly arrogant intelligence.

Ryuk and L are my favorite characters in the anime, but they didn’t deliver in the film, unfortunately. I was excited for Ryuk to be excited about apples, as he was in the anime, but he wasn’t. I was excited to see all (or at least most) of L’s quirks. There were some but not enough in my opinion. Both of their personalities didn’t match the ones from the anime, which is what I loved about them.

I think it may have been better potentially if they had made as a movie of what happened after the anime. It could have been after everything that happens, the death note is given to another human in America. Then the story can continue from there. Although somewhat cheesy, it would have made some of their choices understandable as artistic licensing. Even the changes of the rules in the Death Note could have been explained away in a logical way.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed but I’m going to rewatch the anime now and listen to its cover songs. That’s something good to come out of it.

Death Note Covers

The World By Amy B

The World by Paulo Cuevas

Misa’s Song by Cammie Mile

Misa’s song by Music Box Covers

Zetsubou Billy by the Kira Justice

Nightmare Alumni by Cansu Genç

“The World” by Jonathan Young

And for some fun, here’s a death note parody of Taylor Swift’s Blank Space by Nathan Sharp

In the comments below, tell me what you think about the Death Note film, the anime, and these awesome Death Note covers.