Hey guys, I’m Kya and ‘Death Note’ is the best shit ever.
It’s my one of my favorite animes, and no matter how I feel about the American remake,
I’ve at least got to watch it for Willem Dafoe as an angel of death who’s literally addicted to apples.
The concept is pretty f*cking weird, even for Japan, so before you check out the movie here’s four things you need to know about 'Death Note.'
1. There are rules
‘Death Note’ is the story of Light Yagami, a brilliant high school student fed up with injustice in the world.
One day, he finds a black notebook on the ground with two words on the cover:
“Death Note.”
When Light opens it up, he discovers that it has to power to kill anyone on the planet.
All he has to do is write down a name and they’re toast.
Kind of. It’s a little more complicated than that.
For one thing, you have to know the victim’s face.
Police have now identified the suspect as 42 year old Kuro Otoharaga, currently unemployed.
Then, you’ve got forty seconds to pick a cause of death, otherwise they just die of a heart attack.
Once that’s done, you’ve got six minutes and forty seconds to jot down any little details to make your murder as complicated or simple as you want it to be.
I'm basically doing an informercial. For the low price of six apples you can get your own Death Note!
By the end of the original manga, there were over 100 rules covering every possible aspect of the Death Note user experience.
Like, if you misspell someone’s name four times, they become immune to the Death Note forever.
But if you spell it wrong on purpose, then you die.
And if you somehow get your hands on two Death Notes, it’ll still work if you write someone’s name in one and the cause of death in another.
It’s a lot. Like a lot.
Rules are a major part of Japanese culture, and they’re a huge theme in the J-Horror genre.
Based on ideas from Shinto and Buddhism, there’s a lot of Japanese horror that centers around the idea that the universe is governed by a set of rules beyond human understanding.
‘Ringu’ is another great example.
You watch the video, you die seven days later.
Unless you make a copy and show it to somebody else. Like a killer chain letter.
[Whispers] Puns.
We know it’s seven days because that’s how long the psychic girl was in the well,
But beyond that there’s no big magical explanation showing exactly how it works.
You die because the rules say you have to.
Just like ‘Death Note.’
2. No one knows who created it
So before it became an international hit, ‘Death Note’ started out as a manga in the hugely popular ‘Shonen Jump’ anthology.
This is the same magazine where ‘Dragon Ball,’ ‘Bleach,’ ‘Naruto,’ and dozens of other legendary series got their start.
But unlike most of those manga, we have no idea who created ‘Death Note.’
It’s credited to a writer named Tsugumi Ohba, but that’s just a pen name.
Their real identity has never been made public.
Even ‘Death Note’ artist Takeshi Obata barely saw them.
They collaborated almost entirely through an editor, though they did meet at least once, a year after the manga started.
Ohba has done some interviews, and they have a vague portrait and bio in the ‘Death Note’ collections.
That’s how we know they collect teacups.
And that they have a habit of sitting in the same trademark pose as L,
the eccentric genius detective who hunts Light throughout the series.
Which is cool. Like if they loved sweets too that would just be dope.
Anyways, there are rumors that Ohba is actually Hiroshi Gamo, a writer best known for creating a wacky superhero manga called ‘Tottemo! Luckyman.’
But that’s just speculation based on some background visual gags.
For now, Ohba’s secret is safe, and that’s fine with me.
The mystery fits perfectly with the creepy vibe of ‘Death Note.’
3. Real world controversy
Right now, the big to-do about ‘Death Note’ is whether the Netflix movie is yet another whitewashed anime adaptation.
It's not though. Everyone's comparing to 'Ghost in the Shell' but that's not correct.
They're trying to do a Western adaptation. They take the concept of someone getting a Death Note and put it in Western culture which is vastly different from Japanese culture.
And seeing what effects it would have. They changed everyone's races, they changed everyone's names and it's different and it's a cool concept!
I don't know. Whatever. It's fine.
No it's not.
But that’s just the latest crazy controversy that’s surrounded this series.
For one thing, kids keep trying to copy it.
Impressionable youth from Alabama to Australia have gotten into deep shit making their own Death Notes at school.
I don’t understand the appeal.
The girl told authorities she was copying a children's TV show 'Death Notes...' and the list was not meant as a threat.
When I was a kid all I drew in my notebook were shitty comics about a talking cat and those ‘S’ things that looked like 8’s.
Like I don’t know why you can’t just make a burn book like Regina George?
A few American schools have tried to ban the manga,
And in Russia, a parent group tried to have the books regulated after they were found near a teenage girl who committed suicide.
Those bans never went through, but I wouldn’t try reading ‘Death Note’ in China.
It’s officially banned in most of the country, for “misleading innocent children and distorting their mind and spirit.”
Most of this is your usual ‘parents just don’t understand’ overreaction, but there’s been at least one real-life murder linked to ‘Death Note.’
In 2007, two pedestrians found a mutilated body in Brussels, Belgium.
Nearby, they found a note written in bad Japanese that said: “I am Kira.”
That’s the same name Light becomes known by in ‘Death Note.’
The Belgian media named the case Mangamoord, or the Manga Murder.
For a while, people didn’t know if they were dealing with a serial killer, or some medical students playing a sick prank.
But finally, four people were arrested for the murder in 2010.
This crime is the most fiendish, cold-blooded, inexcusable case the world has ever known.
4. Other adaptations
Honestly, I wouldn’t have lost sleep if this American ‘Death Note’ never happened.
I mean, it’s not like we’re hurting for adaptations.
I guess I should feel guilty, but I don't.
On top of the incredible anime from Madhouse, Japan has already made four live-action movies and a miniseries based on the manga.
Not only that, but an unrelated live-action ‘Death Note’ series aired on Japanese TV in 2015.
What more could we possibly want?
A f*cking musical?
Lol I do. So lucky for me, they made one of those, too.
The songs were written by Broadway composers, but so far it’s only been performed in Japan and Korea.
So until it comes overseas, the only American ‘Death Note’ we’re getting is the new Netflix movie.
It’s been in the works for a long time.
In 2011, Warner Brothers hired Shane Black, the man behind 'Lethal Weapon' and 'Iron Man 3,' to direct.
But the WB wanted some changes.
In the manga, Light becomes a power-mad, emotionless killer who wants to become the new god of a world built in his image.
But the studio insisted on making him more of a clean-cut good guy. Which is stupid.
Like the who thing is getting all this power and seeing how it corrupts a person even with good intentions.
And making him a straight-up good guy doesn't make any f*cking sense because that ruins the whole entire theme of the manga.
They also wanted to leave the shinigami Ryuk on the cutting room floor, so good luck explaining where the damn notebook came from.
Also Ryuk is the best part of live actions.
Like no matter what, if there’s an adaption of 'Death Note,' I’m watching it for the Ryuk visuals.
Anyway, Black fought against the changes, so he was gone by 2014.
‘Good Will Hunting’ and ‘Milk’ director Gus Van Sant was attached for a while, but that fizzled out too.
The project finally landed with Adam Wingard, the director of ‘You’re Next’ and the new ‘Blair Witch.’
His filmography is kind of a mixed bag, but I’m trying to keep an open mind.
I think you might be capable of great things, but if you don't think you can handle it, that's fine.
It’s such a sick concept and I’m such a huge fan, I’ve got to at least check it out.
And if the facts from the video sounded cool to you, you should give it a shot too.