4 ms·

Ah, Death Note, one of my favorite manga. I read it in the original Japanese and it was very thrilling. Unfortunately, the anime adaptation was rather poorly do

Ah, Death Note, one of my favorite manga. I read it in the original Japanese and it was very thrilling. Unfortunately, the anime adaptation was rather poorly done. The second half, IIRC, really went off the rails. Edit: the author of the linked post also has an analysis of Death Note Endings[0], which talks about some of the reasons for the manga and anime endings and the incentives for why they ended the ways they did. 0: http://www.gwern.net/Death%20Note%20Ending http://www.gwern.net/Death%20Note%20Ending

trinovantes 14y ago
I enjoyed the original Japanese films more than the manga. Despite the mediocre acting, the movie was much better than the anime.
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  I've never seen the live action films, I'll have to check it out. I see that Toda Erika, one of my favorite Japanese actresses, stars as Amane Misa. Apparently it was her debut film, so it'll be interesting to see how her acting back then compares to now (I just started watching the spring 2012 dorama Kagi no Kakatta Heya yesterday, in which she isn't all that bad).
- neltnerb 14y ago
  Agreed. The films ended far more sensibly, and the plot was better thought out.
  - Rovanion 14y ago
    But keep Death Note III away yourself. It's just bad, like really bad.
    - neltnerb 14y ago
      I will pretend that I never saw someone mention this. I had never heard of this movie, and still haven't.
- lmm 14y ago
  I liked the way they resolved the conflict, but it wasn't enough to make up for the terrible acting.
tinco 14y ago
Although it went a bit off the rails, I wouldn't say it was poorly done. As an anime compared to others it stands amongst the best in my opinion. I agree though it is always a pity when something has the potential to be perfect, and some directorial decision is made to make a big dent in it (see almost every book to movie adaption).
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  > As an anime compared to others it stands amongst the best in my opinion. Well, my opinion may have been tainted by having read the manga first and expecting too much faithfulness to it out of the anime adaptation - a rather common problem. And on the whole, it's definitely one of the better anime in recent years. Unfortunately, there has been a strong trend these days to go for the moé/fanservice crap, likely in an attempt to drive DVD/Bluray sales among the hardcore otaku in the face of declining mainstream viewers and ad revenues. I think I lost my patience somewhere around when Highschool of the Dead came out. Nowadays I watch a lot more K-dramas, which have rapidly picked up in cinematography and acting over the last few years - they are definitely in a Golden Era right now, and the internet makes it so easy to rapidly obtain them, no matter where you are living. The K-drama fansubbing community is absolutely amazing, and it has been a TON of fun learning Korean through Japanese and seeing the similarities (and differences) between the languages. But there's so much good anime from back in the day that doesn't get enough attention. Legend of the Galactic Heroes particularly stands out in my mind as a wonderful OVA (though it is quite atypical among OVAs, at 110 episodes). The use of a space opera setting as a backdrop for political commentary was very poignantly done. I've been meaning to read the novels the series is based on, but as science fiction novels are wont to do, they will no doubt be chock full of vocabulary that will probably require me to break out my Japanese-English dictionary.
  - tinco 14y ago
    Yeah if you're a drama fan I can imagine the past few years have not seen a good trend in Anime lately :P I'm more of an action adventure kind of guy, there's not many good new stuff in that genre either as far as I'm aware. The most recent one I really enjoyed was Steins;Gate which is really quite brilliant! Also I'm jealous you're able to read Japanese, I've not had the discipline to really learn it yet.
GuiA 14y ago
Interesting- I only watched the anime back in high school (darn, has it been that long?!), and absolutely loved it. I just ordered the manga box set on Amazon :)
rkwz 14y ago
[SPOLIERS] > Unfortunately, the anime adaptation was rather poorly done. The second half, IIRC, really went off the rails. I think(for me) it went down the moment L dies. Is the manga ending good?
- plorkyeran 14y ago
  It's identical. The only real change the anime did was to double the pace for the second half due to how much worse it is. The entire second half was tacked on at the request of the publisher due to how popular the series was, so it's not surprising that it didn't work all that well.

trinovantes 14y ago

I enjoyed the original Japanese films more than the manga. Despite the mediocre acting, the movie was much better than the anime.

w1ntermute 14y ago
I've never seen the live action films, I'll have to check it out. I see that Toda Erika, one of my favorite Japanese actresses, stars as Amane Misa. Apparently it was her debut film, so it'll be interesting to see how her acting back then compares to now (I just started watching the spring 2012 dorama Kagi no Kakatta Heya yesterday, in which she isn't all that bad).
neltnerb 14y ago
Agreed. The films ended far more sensibly, and the plot was better thought out.
- Rovanion 14y ago
  But keep Death Note III away yourself. It's just bad, like really bad.
  - neltnerb 14y ago
    I will pretend that I never saw someone mention this. I had never heard of this movie, and still haven't.
lmm 14y ago
I liked the way they resolved the conflict, but it wasn't enough to make up for the terrible acting.

tinco 14y ago

Although it went a bit off the rails, I wouldn't say it was poorly done. As an anime compared to others it stands amongst the best in my opinion. I agree though it is always a pity when something has the potential to be perfect, and some directorial decision is made to make a big dent in it (see almost every book to movie adaption).

w1ntermute 14y ago
> As an anime compared to others it stands amongst the best in my opinion. Well, my opinion may have been tainted by having read the manga first and expecting too much faithfulness to it out of the anime adaptation - a rather common problem. And on the whole, it's definitely one of the better anime in recent years. Unfortunately, there has been a strong trend these days to go for the moé/fanservice crap, likely in an attempt to drive DVD/Bluray sales among the hardcore otaku in the face of declining mainstream viewers and ad revenues. I think I lost my patience somewhere around when Highschool of the Dead came out. Nowadays I watch a lot more K-dramas, which have rapidly picked up in cinematography and acting over the last few years - they are definitely in a Golden Era right now, and the internet makes it so easy to rapidly obtain them, no matter where you are living. The K-drama fansubbing community is absolutely amazing, and it has been a TON of fun learning Korean through Japanese and seeing the similarities (and differences) between the languages. But there's so much good anime from back in the day that doesn't get enough attention. Legend of the Galactic Heroes particularly stands out in my mind as a wonderful OVA (though it is quite atypical among OVAs, at 110 episodes). The use of a space opera setting as a backdrop for political commentary was very poignantly done. I've been meaning to read the novels the series is based on, but as science fiction novels are wont to do, they will no doubt be chock full of vocabulary that will probably require me to break out my Japanese-English dictionary.
- tinco 14y ago
  Yeah if you're a drama fan I can imagine the past few years have not seen a good trend in Anime lately :P I'm more of an action adventure kind of guy, there's not many good new stuff in that genre either as far as I'm aware. The most recent one I really enjoyed was Steins;Gate which is really quite brilliant! Also I'm jealous you're able to read Japanese, I've not had the discipline to really learn it yet.

GuiA 14y ago

Interesting- I only watched the anime back in high school (darn, has it been that long?!), and absolutely loved it. I just ordered the manga box set on Amazon :)

rkwz 14y ago

[SPOLIERS] > Unfortunately, the anime adaptation was rather poorly done. The second half, IIRC, really went off the rails. I think(for me) it went down the moment L dies. Is the manga ending good?

plorkyeran 14y ago
It's identical. The only real change the anime did was to double the pace for the second half due to how much worse it is. The entire second half was tacked on at the request of the publisher due to how popular the series was, so it's not surprising that it didn't work all that well.