Credit: Death Note
If you don’t at first succeed, then try again. Originally, Netflix made a Death Note adaptation in 2017 with Adam Wingard (You’re Next, The Guest) helming the feature film. Despite a talented cast that includes pre-Oscar nominated LaKeith Stanfield and the always awesome Willem Defoe, both critics and fans simply hated the movie. Clio Chang of The New Republic pretty much sums up the general consensus of the anime adaption, “Director Adam Wingard has robbed Death Note of its identity, messing up nearly everything that made the original series so compelling.”
To recall, Death Note is about Light Yagami, a college student who finds an odd notebook on the ground. Light soon discovers that if he writes someone’s name in the book, he/she will die. This Godlike power goes to Light’s head, and he kills those he deems unworthy of life. However, a detective becomes suspicious of the strange murders and is determined to stop his reign of terror.
Though Death Note finished its entire storyline within a single 37-episode season, many fans and critics deem the anime as one of the best (if the best) shows ever made. Adaptations are hard, to begin with, and the biggest issue with the Netflix movie was that they changed the setting of the film (which is a culture within itself), most of the character motivations, and the movie felt very Final Destination-like.
Credit: Death Note
The good news here is that the latest adaptation is a series. Originally, the news was revealed by Deadline back in July under Stranger Things creators Matt & Ross Duffer’s company Upside Down Pictures. Given the massive success of Stranger Things, it is not a surprise that the Duffer Brothers have a Netflix deal overall. Now, Halia Abdel-Meguid has been hired to write and executive produce the new Death Note live-action series. The Japanese manga was penned by Tsugumi and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. Unfortunately, neither man is tapped for the reboot.
Netflix is surely playing with fire here. While anime adaptations can turn out to be great under the right hands, Hollywood doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to live-action adaptations of anime. Too much was changed in the Death Note feature, and it was essentially a weak imitation of the classic that inspired it.
Changes happen, and given the fact that Death Note is an anime, its not surprising that things wouldn’t translate well over to live-action, but when you change the most important themes and character traits of a story, then it’s impossible to get what Tsugumi did so wonderfully in one season.
Credit: Death Note
A live-action series gives the creators an opportunity to slow down with the series and really tackle the themes that the original did. The Duffer Bros haven’t yet commented on the return of the adaptation so it’s not clear what their vision of the series is. One can only hope that Matt and Ross want to recapture the same magic that the anime brought out over 15 years ago.
The Duffer Brothers are on a hot streak with Stranger Things, though there are not many credits to Halia Abdel-Meguid’s name other than Miss Annity and a couple of shorts. Either way, it should be interesting to see how this latest adaptation turns out. There’s also a chance of the series being too faithful to its original counterpart.
That’s ultimately what doomed Cowboy Bebop. The themes and character motivations should always remain intact, but making an exact carbon copy feels unnecessary and worthless. At the moment, there’s no word on when production will start with the new series, but we’ll keep you updated on when it does.Adam Wingard
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