Death Note the series a showcase ultimate battle of good versus evil.
Light and L engaged in this battle with to discover which was truly justice.
No surprise that the Death Note author has mentioned how he made L the smartest
character in this series. The plot required L to be this clever. If
everything had gone according to plan Light would have ultimately failed. This
however comes in conflict with the official numbers assigned to characters
intelligence from the series. Surprisingly the intelligence of L was
rated to be 8 out of 10. But both Near and Light scored above a
more than 9 out of 10. This does bring into question what exactly this covers.
When later asked a question about which what the smartest character the author
gave out L and the artist for the series gave Near instead. So what do you think
who do you think was the smartest character in a series?
You know that lovable apple eating Shinigami as Ryuk. hH's pretty carefree
and looks like a demon wearing a trash bag with wings. Interestingly Ryuk's
appearance you see in series is completely opposite to what was
originally planned. The artist Obata had initially made Ryuk look much more human.
Take a look! If you look at his face he even resembles Light a bit. The rest of
his body however looks like something you see out of Frankenstein. It seems
that this Ryuk is made out of one single body only pieces and chunks have started
to decay, but anyway why was this ultimately changed? The
author Oba felt that having two very handsome leads would distracted the audience
from focusing on Light. Poor Ryuk he wasn't allowed to look human in the end.
Death Note originally could have been a much different series. The pilot for
Death Note focuses on a thirteen-year-old boy. This kid finds the
Death Note one day and accidentally ends up killing his bullies. The detectives in
the series were also able to relate these various heart attacks back to a
case in the 70s. So it seems Ryuk got bored every couple
of years. Notably in this series there was also this extra rule that the owner
could not die via their own notebook.
That would have definitely come in handy.
If you've seen the recent live-action Netflix movie you saw that there was
actually a way to save people from The Death Note but they didn't do it first!
The Death Note pilot shows Ryuk offering the Death Eraser. This handy item made it
possible to revive people whose name had been written in the notebook. The only
condition was that their body had to not have been burned yet. Overall the series
just gives glimpses of what the series eventually became. It quickly ends with
the Death Note getting burned.
If you're watching this you've definitely check out the Death Note anime
and who knows it might be in your top ten anime! The man you could give thanks
to giving you such an awesome series is Tetsuro Araki. His name may not
sound familiar but I just bet you that one of his other series could be one of
your favorites! Araki has directed boobs and zombies
otherwise known as High School of the Dead. The action-packed Black Lagoon. The
mess that was Guilty Crown. That Attack on Titan clone on trains Kabaneri of
the Iron fortress and of course attack on Titan in season one and season two. He
also did work on the Levi's No Regrets series, and yes Araki is coming back for
Attack on Titan season 3 and season 4! By the way Araki has worked on SAO too!
Pretty awesome! The physical Death Note is perhaps one of the most iconic items
from anime. The series includes a lot of religious themes so it's interesting what
beta ideas included for the notebook designe.
Originally the artist Obata suggested for the Death Note to be a Bible.
According him this is something you would instantly think would be an instrument
used to kill others other. Possibilities for Death Note book were also pretty
interesting. One idea including the death not changing in style based on the time
period. Shinigami should have been around forever
so naturally the Death Note wouldn't have started off as an actual notebook.
During Roman times or Ancient Japan the notebook could have been a death scroll.
Medieval Europe would have had something similar to the Old Testament and who
knows. It's possible that these ideas could still be used later on in the
future. You may see a Shinigami with the Death iPad later on!
Death Note provides you with a lot of religious imagery and themes. The series
notably has a very prominent use of crosses. They're practically everywhere
if you read the manga. With the anime however it seems like they chose to dial
it down a bit. Perhaps this was a case of self-censorship. One of the characters
most affected by this was Misa. You see Misa wearing these generic earrings and
necklace. The manga version of Misa prefer to go all out. She had cross
earrings, necklaces, and sometimes a collar too. Oh and this is even getting
into her wardrobe! Interestingly you do get a glimpse of Misa with her original
necklace in the first Death Note opening. In the second opening however they
decided to go back to her generic earring and necklace.
Perhaps they chose to get rid of these crosses later on in the production.
It has been over a decade since you were blessed with the Deathnote anime. It's
become one of the most popular series of all time. There's a good chance that it
might have been one of your first too. Naturally that note has been adapted
into live-action. The first two Death Note movies tell a condensed version of the
series. Mello and Near were never introduced. It was completely focused on
Light versus L. oh and spoiler L manages to beat light
in these movies. After this you got an L spin-off with L change the World. This
tells you what L was up to before he dies. The final and latest Death Note movie
was Death Note new generation. It tells you what if story, what would happen if
Ryuk got bored again and dropped more death notes after light and L's battle.
Oh and did I say final movie? Unfortunately there's one other. In 2009
Warner Brothers bought the rights to make a live-action Death Note film, a
western version. The project wasn't going anywhere for years so they decided to
cancel it in 2015. If you're watching this you might have already suffered
through the Netflix Death Note movie. They bought the rights to the project
and took over. Unsurprisingly this Western Death Note version has not been
loved. This movie had an estimated forty to fifty million dollar budget. One just
wonders where the money even went to!
A huge popularity isn't always great, this is especially true for Deathnote.
The series has been banned in China for themes presented in it. It all began with
students in various regions taking self-made Death notes and then teasing
their friends and teachers about writing their names in it. I'd imagine that most
of these kids were just being kids and screwing around but unfortunately a
decent chunk work done in malice. Although this is not a unique story
especially here in the u.s. Perhaps the most infamous crime around the series
occurred in Belgium in something called the Manga murderer. In 2007 two notes
were found saying "Watashi wa Kira desu", this meaning I am Kira. They
were found next to a mutilated body and by body I really only mean the torso and
thighs. It was such a mess that the detectives had trouble identifying the
victim. Luckily two of the guys were caught in 2013 and then a third one
later on in 2015 so they were brought to justice but it took quite a while.
Thankfully the worst of these was stopped early on. In 2015
someone got caught with a Death Note that had the names of teachers and
students in Australia. Of course it detailed how he wanted to take them all
out. The notebook even detailed his master
plan and how he was set up bombs around the school and kill as many people as possible.
Once again I'm really glad someone caught this guy very early on.
You may recall Mello and Near introduced as L's possible successor.
What's interesting is that early in design their names were actually swamped.
The name Mello and Near were supposed to represent their different personalities.
Mello was a calm white-haired kid that you know as Near, and likewise Near was a
blonde guy nearing insanity. You know him as Mello. Something even
more interesting about both of them has to do with their origin.
You know them as orphans but originally Mello and Near was supposed to be
related to L. In fact they were supposed to be L's twin sons. The reason this
got changed in the end was due to the series creator not being able to imagine
L having sex ever! ouch!
As with most manga or anime series there's quite a lot of ideas being
thrown around in the editing room. Death Note is no exception.
Fans of the series in general love everything up until L's death. The
fandom is then split on what happens after with Mello and Near. There's
such a shift in a series so what was the reason for this? The following series
after Death Note by the author strongly hints at an answer. You might be familiar
with it Bakuman. If you never seen the series just know that it involves
creating manga. During the series there is this placeholder for a certain manga
series. They mentioned how they're pressed by the editor to continue
dragging on the story past the main rivalry. hmm
Sound familiar? Finding out that Death Note was really pushed and forced past the
Light versus L conflict wouldn't be surprising at all. This would mean that
Light's world would have been a reality after L died. No one would have been left
to oppose Light. It would have just been him and fun times was his blonde
girlfriend. But get this, another possible ending has
been confirmed. Originally Mello was supposed to be the victor at the very
end. Near winning, that was really just a last-minute change, and what makes this
even more weird or funny is that both the author and artists preferred Mello a
lot more to Near. If either of them had disagreed about Near surviving then they
would have gone with original ending of making Mello the winner. In either case it
is worth wondering about what could have been. Imagine a world where Light is a
supreme victor, or perhaps a reality where Mello takes over as L. Perhaps the
best case scenario would have been L winning and simply carrying on as usual.
But what do you think? It has been over a decade since the series ended so which
character did you originally root for to come out on top?
Is anyone out there still mad about Near winning? Hey guys thanks for watching!
Please be sure to leave a thumbs up and subscribe!
Especially if Death Note is one of your favorite anime. Fun question of the day
for you, which is your favorite Death Note character? Was it Light, Misa, L maybe
Ryuk? Also did you get a chance to see the
Netflix Death Note movie? Post your thoughts down below if you survived it! I
do suggest checking on my recent facts video on Kimi no Na Wa and I'll see you
guys later