Doctor Who season finale? Nothing to add. Back to the other current obsession! :D

[amanuensis1]

Watched the first two of the live action Death Note films...
I liked them! Lots. The measure of an adaptation really shouldn't be "was it perfectly faithful to the source material?", nor should it be "did they leave all your favorite bits in?". Rather, it shouldn't neglect the elements that make the source material beloved (so there should be at least some of the audience's favorite bits) and it should work in a way that captures the tone and intent of the original. So I thought both films worked very well.

I mentioned before that the anime episode where Light weasels Naomi Misora's real name out of her is one of my favorite moments in the entire story, so it seems blasphemous to watch that storyline be tampered with in the first of the live-actions--except that it worked so well. It explored a twist of the Death Note rules that even the source material hadn't addressed--how to make one death affect the deaths of others without violating the rules--so, in providing the audience with extra surprises, I have to give it full marks. It amuses me to think that perhaps the death of Light's girlfriend was included to make the audience less fond of Light by the end. Honey, ifwe don't already have the full measure of Light by the time he offs Raye Penber, no basketload of dead girlfriends is going to make the picture clearer.

Ditto the second film. Oh, they got so much in there. And I was so prepared to be disappointed by the ending--I expected L to defeat Light in this version, given the structure and the time allotted for this film (though they did give us two hours twenty minutes! wow, that delighted me!). And L's fate in the original manga/anime is perfectly structured from early on, so, I thought I was going to be unhappy to see that tampered with. Surprise! Another twist of the rules that wasn't addressed in the original! I remember early on in the anime thinking, "Light, darling, it might not be a bad idea to write in that note of yours, 'Light Yagami: Dies at age 120 years, having lived a long and happy life, in the bed of someone considerably younger than him.'" And after the 23-day rule was learned, it did occur to me that someone in desperate straits might write his own name into the book in that fashion, i.e., "Dies 22 days from now," and then see if he can find a loophole in the next three weeks. So we never got to see that in the original but we saw a version of it here.

And, of course, L does die, so the emotional impact of that is somewhat preserved. While I can't imagine the L of the anime/manga going to his own death in this fashion, I can believe it of this L. I couldn't be as fond of this L, either--most of my love for L is wrapped up in the vulnerability he self-cultivates around Light, and there just wasn't time to develop that. But I'm satisfied. Good job.

I have meta regarding L's death in the original manga/anime, but I think I'll take it over to the death_note comm.

Comments

[painless-j.livejournal.com]

Mmm, I see Manga Updates says that the manga's complete and completely scanlated. I wonder if I should sample it. Sounds intriguing.

Is the ending very sad?

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Hmm. How to answer. Well, I cried copiously, but not just for what happened at the end--for what happened along the way that I couldn't cry for until I finished finding out what was gonna happen omg, for a lot of the characters, and mostly for being so caught up in the thing and having it END. "Very sad" is not the phrase I'd use. "Huge emotional catharsis" is what I'd call it for me.

I experienced it first as the anime and I'm really happy I did it that way. Between the animation and the voices and the music (the music's awesome), it's a hell of an experience. But I know a lot of people suggest the manga as one's first exposure.

[painless-j.livejournal.com]

Ok, I think I'll try it, when I'm feeling brave.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Do. I will love you so much if you do! &hearts

[rachecho.livejournal.com]

oh, you definitely should, when you have the time, and mindset.

if you can take all the twists and turns and the 'OMFG!!', then you're ready. but i guess by warning you, you already know ^^

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

Misa's captivity had a lot more impact in me in the live action version, I found.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I was much fonder of Misa this time around! Seeing the scene where Rem drops the Note on her and Misa's reaction ("Awesome.") just hit a note that gave me the giggles.

In the anime/manga I think Misa is a fantastic character and I hate her. Because I'm meant to. She just f**ks Light's world up so badly!

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

I just feel so bad for Misa. Because she does love Light, the poor girl, and all he ever does is use her.

[ojuzu.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I shall go and see those live-actions now (. . . after I finish watching Legend, of course). I also hated Misa until I realized how cool she could be with the right prodding.

Oo! New icon! It gives me giggles, as most of yours do.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

weremutt made that one! Kills me, and it's so universal, too!

[shiraz_wine]

I know you're obsessed with Death Note right now, but you should write a DoctorDonna fic.

Please?

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I don't think I can. I felt so emotionally detached from the last two episodes. I LOVED Turn Left, but it was also so satisfying that I don't feel the need to say anything more about that. I also dislike memory loss endings (hate them with a passion), but the last two episodes were such fat overblown spectacle that I can hardly credit anything that happened in them. It's like they didn't mean much, so I can't take them seriously enough to write fic for them.

I suppose I'm sort of satisfied that the Rose chapter is closed, and in a way that may mean a true measure of happiness for her. There could be a lot of fic about that, a LOT. But I don't think I'm the one to write it.

[shiraz_wine]

Hmm, maybe the emotional detachment for the last two episodes came from the fact that the only reason they existed was to essentially retcon the entire fourth season. And also to show that Mickey and Martha are going to Torchwood. (I'm not too pleased that that's the reason they killed off Tosh and Owen.)

I'm glad Rose is FINALLY gone. She always irked me but now she can be happy with her own Doctor and can stop being on camera.

Aww, I wish you could write a DoctorDonna fic. I think you would actually do the characterization justice; you know, keep the Doctor and Donna separated and yet integrated at the same time.

On that note, is there a place where you have all your non-HP fic in one spot? I really love your writing style!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

There are just bits and pieces of non-HP fic, and I don't really have a spot for all of them! I should remedy that one of these days. I think my most memorable is my fishslash. Finding Nemo fic, Gil/Nemo, called An Interlude on Mount Wannahockaloogie (http://www.amanuensis1.com/aninterlude.html). :D

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Squeeble!

My first recommendation would be http://www.veoh.com . You don't have to download a THING, just watch it in your browser. For files that have an "18+" listing (of which many Death Note episodes do) you will need to be registered, but that requires very little effort. If you do a search for "death note 01," "death note 02," etc., you will find lots of hits for each; just look in the description for the language and whether it's subtitled, etc., and you can pick and choose. Users demon60000 and DarkGnomeCaster have good subs in their episodes, but you have lots to choose from.

(Some Veoh videos are deliberately uploaded so that you get only the first few minutes in your browser, and must download the video in order watch the whole thing. If that is the case you must install the Veoh Player. I did do this, a long time ago, because there were a lot of things I wanted to see that forced me to do that, but I've never regretted it. Veoh downloads are SO fast, and you don't have to watch them in the Veoh Player if you don't want, but can watch them on anything that plays avis and such. However, if you don't want to do this, I found all of the Death Note episodes available for full play in the browser, so you don't have to worry.)

If Veoh does not please you, check out this site: http://www.anime-eden.com . You will need to register there, and some of their series are premium series and require that you become a premium member--Death Note is, I think, one of those, but you can become a premium member on the site for $5 for a whole month, payable with paypal and it activates immediately, and you get unlimited downloads all month. Pretty nice for $5!

Those sites are where I got all my Death Note. Let me know if you need something else or need help with the sites!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Omigod, yes, totally watch the anime first--it follows the manga almost exactly, so you're getting the original storyline that way. The live actions are fun, but they cobble together endings for the films that reflect the feel of the original while being somewhat different. I liked them, no mistake, but I love the original more.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, and--Yes, I adore Light. There's so much to love about that guy.

[painless-j.livejournal.com]

Amy, you don't tag!

I remembered you posting about these films and went to see what you thought. I liked them. I thought (naive pj, bad researcher) that they were the first two in a long series of films, not unlike HP. Imagine my surprise when I watched film 2!!

I liked the cast and I LOVED Shinigami. OMG pretty :) What I liked best though was that they were long and seemed even longer :)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

o_O But I do tag! There's a tag on this very post!

Wasn't it great, how long the second film was? They got so much in there! And I like the spirit of the second film--cobbling together an ending that still preserved L's original fate in a way. I still think Light is too quickly caught and punished by the ending they chose, but it works.

And I actually liked Misa in the live-actions! I think she's a great character in the anime, but I hate her the way Light hates her. Irritating bitch messing up my plans! ^_^

[painless-j.livejournal.com]

Huh? Very strange! I can see the tag when I'm inside the post but not when I load your journal's recent entries.

I really liked L'd death in the film (well, except "I don't know my parents" or however he says it in English -- I watched it in Russian with Japanese in the background). It's so quiet and lonely :( And having a hand fetish of sorts, I sooo appreciated his death shown via his hand!

I liked Misa a lot in the film because it somehow emphasised it for me that she's messed up rather than annoying and psychotic :) And she's pretty. I'm no fan of Light, except how he's drawn. But I did like film!L. His mannerisms and quirks are as much fun as in the manga, as for me. I think I'm going to watch it another time.

Oh, a question, as usual: when L delivers his explanation, Misa asks him when he swapped the notebooks. And what he answers is as loud in Russian as in the background Japanese, so I can't get what he's saying however many times I listen! Waaah! Could you tell me what he says?

Am watching the anime now and I come to the conclusion that I simply like manga MUCH more than anime as a genre. Maybe it will change in a year or so.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the odd thing about the Generator style--tags don't show up in the journal format! But one can load "/tag/" and still see 'em all.

I LOVE the way his death is shown. And I really liked how they incorporated their version of Takada to stand in for the Yotsuba arc.

*goes to watch that bit again* Ah, thank goodness for subtitles! Misa says that all the criminals whose names she wrote down are dead, but L says, Only on the first day. That proved Misa was a Kira, and that the 13-day rule was false. Watari switched the notebooks on the second day. They had surveillance on Misa and watched Misa write the names from that point, and broadcast fake news of their deaths.

[painless-j.livejournal.com]

Ah! Didn't occur to me.

Thank you, hon! It was driving me spare! I got the general meaning from what he says further on but I wanted to know for sure and in detail :)

I can't believe the death of a protagonist is my favourite scene from a film *shakes head at self*

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

When people ask me if I like L, I tell them, "I liked him so much, and then he did one thing that solidified my love for him." And if I'm not spoiling them, I'll tell them "He died."

[painless-j.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Same here.

Did you post about why you like Light? I'd like to read that, if you did.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I probably said something about it in a comment somewhere but not anything in depth! I love Light just because I do. It likely has its basis in his being the protagonist, in the way he's a bright, likeable kid dragged into a flawed vision, in the way he sees himself martyring himself to the cause ("someone has to do this, and I can--even if it costs my own soul, I have to do this"), in the way I can see that happening to anyone. We'd like to think we're above such temptation, and maybe some of us are, but we never really know until we're in the situation.

And of course, I love that he's so clever. If his plots didn't work, they'd be far-fetched and silly. But because the plots aren't revealed until after they've succeeded, they come off as brilliant. And they make me want to see more. And to do that he has to keep getting away with it, over and over, until I'm in an ecstasy of Yes yes more more more!

When he took out Raye Penber, my reaction was ten kinds of Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa mixed with ten kinds of Ah ha ha ha ha ha, voiced, as "Light, you brilliant bastard, somebody has got to put you DOWN, boy. I love it."

[painless-j.livejournal.com]

Figures that you write bad boys so well! :)

Thank you! It doesn't make me love him but it does help me look with a more understanding eye on him.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I just found this as one of my replies on an earlier post:

No argument that Light had to eventually get what was coming to him, but, OH, the joy of watching a clever and gutsy young soul go from "Someone has to take on this burden" all the way to "MUAHAHA" before the first episode ends! I was hooked from that instant.

I have great fondness for those kinds of characters. It's as if I think to myself, "Yeah, you think you wouldn't do that if you were placed in the same situation, but, oh, no one's as noble as they like to think they are, are they. Heh heh heh."

[painless-j.livejournal.com]

Heh, well, I think if I had to kill somebody, years of therapy would possibly put me back into shape. And I would never be able to play those mind games. I'm manipulative but very trusting, and very much 'live and let live' kind of person. So I think I know myself enough to assume that I would never use a DN. Another question is what I would do if I found it at 17. Scary! :)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I hope that if a Death Note fell into my hands, my first reaction would be to shove it back at the Shinigami saying, "Take this effing thing OUT of here, I don't want it and don't want it in the world!" Of course, if I learned that that would make me lose my memories (I don't know if we've established that you lose your memories unless you've USED the DN) I would be so distraught that I might say, "Well...can I just keep it around so that I can still see you? And just not use it?" But then the Shinigami would either pressure me to use the thing (because that's the Shinigami's job) or s/he might decide, "This sucks, I don't want to be around this wimp human for her whole life" and decide to kill me off so s/he could leave! So while I have no debates about whether I would want to use it (I wouldn't) I can envision circumstances under which I would want to keep it. And then who knows what would happen.

[painless-j.livejournal.com]

I thought you lose only your memories of being a Kira and using the DN, no? Misa didn't forget that she was a pop idol and that she loved Light. She forgot only that they were Kira and killed people.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

But if you lost your memories that the Death Note existed and that there were Shinigami...! Wouldn't it piss you off, knowing that there were Shinigami out there and that you were about to lose your knowledge of it?

[painless-j.livejournal.com]

I don't think it would :)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I'd be pretty unhappy. It would make me resist, if I knew that my memories of such a remarkable thing would be stolen.

[johnadreams.livejournal.com]

Just popping in to say, if you loved Death Note, you've got to (GOT TO) try Hikaru no Go. It's drawn by the same artist as Death Note and is amazing. It's a completely different genre--humorous, character-driven and not much killing/dying/mass murders, hah.

It's about the Japanese board game go and how a famous go-playing ghost from the Heian era is haunting the main character Hikaru and eventually inspires him to learn how to play go himself. Hikaru meets Akira who's already a prodigy at go and he begins to "chase" after Akira, trying to become his equal.

Here's a sort of humorous look at the series: http://bookshop.livejournal.com/877261.html Like the writer says, Hikaru no Go is an epic slashfic without the slash, haha. I definitely suggest reading the manga before watching the anime because the anime does one thing very wrong--it decides to "milk" as much emotion as possible from a pivotal plot twist by dragging it on from episode to episode, eventually killing all the suspense and surprise and making you wish they would just shut up about it already. The manga deals with this plot twist in a very subtle and gentle way, so I'd definitely suggest you try reading HnG first.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I have been reading Hikaru no Go (am up to volume 6 of the collected manga) and have just started to watch the anime as well! I wonder what plot twist you are speaking of? Nothing too twisty has happened up to this point in the manga, so, I guess either it's happening quite nicely and subtly or it hasn't happened yet. ^_^

(But I LIKE the killing/dying/mass murders... :D )

[johnadreams.livejournal.com]

You're far off from the twist--almost 10 volumes :) There probably a couple hints before it happens in the manga, but it absolutely takes over the ~5 episodes before it happens in the anime...not very subtle. Otherwise, the anime is wonderful.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, lordy, now I'm all impatient! :D

[the-gabih.livejournal.com]

I adored the DN films- though there were a few points that irritated me (for instance, I'd have thought they'd get rid of the whole 'everybody but L, Light and Watari is a PMSing woman at heart' with real actors and the like, instead they made it worse). Still, the way they handled the endings was good- the first one gave me the same reaction as Raye Penber's death gave you, and the second made me cry not only for the people who'd died, but also for those who'd survived, and that's a rare thing.

So... yeah. *goes off to watch them again*

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

for instance, I'd have thought they'd get rid of the whole 'everybody but L, Light and Watari is a PMSing woman at heart' with real actors and the like, instead they made it worse

Oh, man, that gives me serious giggles. XD

[the-gabih.livejournal.com]

It's because you know it's true. I mean, Matsuda tries to attack L when he does that 'Bang!' thing. XD