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TV Death Note Trailer and Updated Cast List

7/6/2015

Masataka Kubota as Light Yagami in the TV adaptation of Death Note

More information has emerged about the Japanese television adaptation of Death Note, not least an updated list of the characters and cast.

They are:

Light Yagami - Masataka Kubota
L - Kento Yamazaki
Near - Mio Yuuki
Misa Amane - Hinako Sano
Sayu Yagami - Reiko Fujiwara
Soichiro Yagami - Yutaka Matsusige
Akiko Himura - Megumi Seki
Touta Matsuda - Gouki Maeda
Shuichi Aizawa - Tomohisa Yuge
Kanzo Mogi - Jiro Sato
Watari - Kazuaki Hankai

So this does look very much like the main Death Note story being retold, yet still with an ominous omission in the form of Mello.

However, there is a shift in the timeline. Light Yagami will be a university student, not at High School at all. Hence my theory regarding Near having flashbacks just got a hit.

We do have some trailers though. Ready for a look? Yeah, so was I, but for some reason my YouTube unblocker has failed me. The videos are only available in Japan. *sigh* Here are the links anyway: First Video Second Video

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Death Note Lawliet Film on Official Hiatus

4/6/2015

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Apologies for the late notice on this one - I've known about it since receiving a heads up on May 22nd. But better late telling you than never, eh?

The headline pretty much says all there is to know about the current status of Lawliet - a short Death Note movie hitherto in production over on the US West Coast.

An exploration of L's character, motivation and mindset on the eve of him taking on the Kira case, filmed as live action with Ray Evangelista in the eponymous role.

This project is (or was) the brainchild of Ricardo Arechiga, who kindly came to t ell us all about it last September. When life is slightly less yampy my end, I'll see if I can track him down again find out what's gone so wrong that he's been forced to call a halt.

However, it should be remembered that this was always a labour of love for him, with everything limping along on a shoestring budget, fitted between all the paying demands of real life.

I hope - for his sake as much as ours - that Lawliet will be back on track sooner rather than later. But in the meantime, here is the official hiatus message, as announced on the Death Note short film's Facebook page:

Screenshot from Facebook (May 22nd 2015)

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The Mathematics of Death Note: Hard Science Examination of Realism in the Plot

3/6/2015

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Death Note's gifted and talented
Wammy's House kids

Are you the sort who likes a bit of academia with your Death Note?

One who can make allowances for fictional elements in a fictional world, but otherwise demands that the realism stands up to scrutiny, consistent within the mores of its own universe?

I wouldn't be at all surprised if you were. There are a lot of us around.
All to be expected when our common denominator is readership of a story wherein intelligence is glorified.

Death Note is all about cleverness, pitting wits against wits, problem solving and staving off boredom with innovative new ways of looking at the world.

Most of the major characters aren't merely smart, they are professed geniuses. Light Yagami is Japan's highest scoring student. L, Near, Mello and Matt - his antagonists - were all raised in Wammy's House for Gifted and Talented Orphans. Whichever team you cheer along, the act you're cheering on is bound to be rooted in high performance brain power.

It's the nature of the game.

So it should also be expected that Death Note itself represents the pinnacle of story-telling at its artistic best, resplendent in tightly crafted plot-lines crammed with a plethora of ideas, solutions, tactics and practices of breath-taking ingenuity. That every reference checks out; the formulae are feasible; the strategies employed are the wisest that the human brain could conceive; and no short cut is ever taken within its own internal structure.

*snort*

I've written 11th fan-fiction novels based upon the plot-holes, inconsistencies and scuffed over leaps of narrative, which I uncovered approaching from Death Note from a humanities perspective. Great central construct; pity about the execution.

It seems that the hard science of Death Note equally fails under scrutiny too, as Applied Computer Scientist, researcher, programmer, scholar and statistician Gwern has discovered. (S)he has laid it all out in the recently updated essay Death Note: L, Anonymity and Eluding Entropy.

Complete with proper citations, appendices and transparent mathematics (where appropriate), Gwern not only highlights all of the occasions when Light, L et al got it woefully wrong, but follows through with how they might have approached the same problems with a modicum of success. Or, at least, some kind of regard towards real world laws of probability, differentials and other such terms that mere historians like me only barely grasp as a concept.

Moreover, Gwern points out all the noob errors that should have had Light arrested within about the first two chapters. Better still, the essay includes invaluable tips on anonymizing oneself online and maintaining personal privacy.

Forget Death Note! This is priceless information to take on board ourselves, applicable as good practice regardless of whether we're attempting to cover up mass murder with a notebook.

I thoroughly recommend going to check it out. Thanks, Gwern!

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Death Note Hits Live Notes as Musical Airs Worldwide; S(e)oul Sold Out Performances by Light & L

2/6/2015

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JYJ Junsu recording as
L in Death Note Musical

Tickets for the Death Note Musical Showcase sold out in seconds.

At least they would have, if they weren't being given away for free. All five hundred of them, handed out to fans set to fill the audience seats at Seoul's Floating Island auditorium on June 1st 2015.

Seoul sold out - soul sold (to shinigamis in order to become the God of this New World and/or get one up on rivals). Out performing said rivals - performing songs from the show. Get it?

Honestly there was way too little headline room for the wealth of dual meanings here. I nearly ran with S(e)oul Full Songs from Light and L (scroll to the end for them), but for the fact that their performances aren't soulful as much as rock belted out from the heart. Plus I ran into Kira's problem - adding L messes up your note.

Nevertheless, Seoul was full. Practically as soon as event places became available, the venue was filled.

The popularity of these hot tickets was in part due to the fact that it's Death Note - let's face it, we'd have been first in line, if this was happening in our 'hoods - and also because they were free. Any undecided theatre-goer might take a punt on 'free tickets', not to mention random passers-by looking for a cheap night out.

But both of those factors paled into consideration next to the fact that Korean boy band mega-star JYJ Junsu is playing L. The clamor for tickets was downright swamped by his fans, hence the give-away lasting mere moments before any more chances to attend were gone.

The lovely Mr Junsu aside, what were they rushing for the opportunity to see anyway? Something quite exciting for us all - even those nowhere near Korea.

Live Broadcast from Seoul - Death Note the Musical, Prologue Part 2: Showcase

In conjunction with Korean broadcasting station Naver, the promotional event for Death Note the Musical will be aired live as it happens. Not just in Korea, but worldwide. The latter probably online rather than via terrestrial television.

Some news sources are reporting that it's the whole theatrical performance of Death Note that we're about to view. But that's highly improbable. Not if the promoters actually plan to sell tickets for the actual showings.

More likely it will be what's sketched out elsewhere - a scattering of scenes complete with tunes belted out by attendant Korean cast members; the actors - and possibly director, composer, promoters and others behind the scenes - involved in a Q&A session; audience participation segments; and other stunts designed to whet our appetite for the real thing.

If you do happen to speak (or at least read) Korean fluently, then some clues may reside in this extensive poster for the event:

Meanwhile, you may be wondering where Death Note the Musical, Prologue Part 1: Showcase disappeared, given that this extravaganza is part two.

That happened, but it was much more low key. It was an exhibition. Basically some pop up stands shoved up and staffed by promoters - no word on if any of the cast were even there - providing information about the show.

I guess you had to be there at the time. I mean literally, because no-one was beaming that live around the world.

And finally in today's Death Note Musical Korean news...

Korea's Musical Kira Sings Death Note

Hong Kwang-ho is in fine voice as Light Yagami in this taster video, released by composer Frank Wildhorn, for the Korean theatrical performance of the Death Note Musical. The song is the eponymous Death Note.

To my ears, the arrangement sounds much rockier than its Japanese equivalent (second song in the first video), hard-hitting and dark as befits Kira.

Is that just me?

However no-one in Korea will care, because by all accounts they'll be too enthralled by his colleague's performance to notice anything nor anyone else. Prepare yourself to bounce around, screaming in your seat.

Ready? Here's JYJ Junsu!!!!! Or L, as us old fogey, non-Korean Death Note fans will forever know him.

Korea's L Sings Let the Game Begin

At least we now know why the Korean musical Death Note has taken the unusual step of interpreting L as having turquoise hair. It's because JYJ has turquoise hair and who are the show's stage and casting directors to mess with perfection?

Great voice though, and again a much more intense rendering than we've heard before in either the Japanese or English demo versions. I like it. How about you?

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TV Live Action Death Note Cast Revealed - Near Played by an ACTRESS

1/6/2015

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More information has begun trickling out about the Death Note television drama scheduled to begin airing in Japan from July 2015.

Weekly Shonen Jump (issue 26, May 25th 2015) ran with a promo page, in this latest edition, announcing who's been cast in the three main roles. This has raised more than a few eyebrows.

Not the characters in the frame - Nihon TV, the company behind the television Death Note adaption, already revealed that Light, L and Near comprise the core canon personae - but which actors have landed those plum parts.

Or more specifically, the ATTRIBUTES of those actors.

(l-r) Kento Yamazaki as L, Masataka Kubota as Light
and actress Mio Yūki as Near.

Death Note TV promo page in Weekly Shonen Jump

Death Note TV drama cast
Weekly Shonen Jump No 26

In short, Kira's too old; L's too associated with romantic comedies; and Near's too female. Oh! And they're messing about with the story again.

Kubota Masataka Cast as Death Note TV's Kira

Kubota Masataka will star as Light Yagami, a high school teenager. Yet the actor is twenty-six years old. Mind you a glance at the even more recently released photograph above shows him to be quite baby-faced.

A few disgruntled whispers and quibbles have sounded across the Death Note blogsphere and fandom forums, but nothing too loud. He appears to be passing muster at the moment, with all due judgement reserved until we see actually see him acting in the role.

Those who are familiar with his work - especially his performances as Yuto Kuronaga in the movie series Gachiban or as the troubled Shinji in N no Tame ni - are quick to reassure the rest of us that Kubota will make a credible Kira. Maybe even an exciting one.

Personally I'm wondering about the assumption that he'll be playing Light as a student.

Death Note didn't end with Mr Yagami Jr's graduation. He was twenty-four by the time he was head to head with Near in the Yellow Box. Suddenly his actor's age seems not only in accord with his characterisation, but a big clue as to his role within the Death Note television adaptation.

Proposed Plotline of Death Note TV Drama

I think Kira will only be there in flashbacks. I still think this is fundamentally going to be Near's story, continuing pretty much from where the usual canon Death Note tellings fall off.

There's nothing in the latest round of information to contradict my previous musings regarding plot here.

The show's producer has already said that, while the television adaptation of Death Note will ping off the original canon tale, it's a 'totally different story'. NTV want to create a drama which even old school fans will be able to watch without knowing what happens next.

Worst case scenario is that they start from the same place as the manga, but reinvent the story along another tangent like Ohba's version never existed. If it doesn't mesh, then the fandom refuses to make it canon. (We're all looking at you, live action movies.)

To my mind, the wide open gap left by Mello not appearing on the cast list precludes that. Surely he would appear in a retelling that includes Near? Even if it's only as a young girl. (Still looking at you, Death Note film trilogy.)

I'm still going with Near's memories of Light and L requiring actors for those parts. He's just not having flashbacks involving Mello. Obviously therapy is helping him there then.

Anyway, back to the Death Note TV casting news and gossip.

Kento Yamazaki as L in Television Death Note

Kento Yamazaki has been cast as L. At twenty years old, the actor is five years younger than L was during events told in the main Death Note story.

Unless I'm seriously reading too much into this, then flashback scenes could be facilitated here too. Assuming that Near spent most of his childhood at Wammy's House, then five years prior to the Kira case sounds about right for him to have shared those corridors with L.

Insofar as I can recall, there are no recorded canon incidences of Near and Lawliet being in the same place at the same time. But they were both raised at the orphanage. That a seven year old Near met a twenty year old L there doesn't seem beyond the realms of possibility to me.

What most in the fandom are discussing isn't Kento's age, but his acting credits to date. Those in the know usually expect him to turn up in romantic comedies.

There's a lot you can say about L, but 'romantic' and 'comic' aren't generally in the top ten associations. Nor perhaps the top fifty. Unless it's Light/L slash fan-fiction, or people mistaking cocoon bondage of an abducted woman for perfectly acceptable courting rituals in the case of L and Misa.

Though I suppose that L's quirky nature - eating habits, dry one-liners and posture - can be quite funny on occasion.

The feeling I'm getting out there is that Kento's roles are normally a little too light-weight and insipid to feasibly pull off L. He's the mushy High School love interest on the other end of Hibino's first kiss in Kyō; while, in Another's Koichi, his character's on-off-will-they-won't-they High School flirtation with Mei Misaki was half of the storyline's main appeal.

However, the other half was all about curses, supernatural happenings, dark pasts and people dying in solution of a mystery. Much like Death Note then. If Kento can pull that off, then maybe he will make a decent L too. And embrace this as his big chance to step aside from the stereotyping inherent in his roles thus far.

Either way, it won't really matter what he does. He's not Ken'ichi Matsuyama and, as far as most of the Death Note fandom is concerned, that's game over before he's even begun. Poor love.

And Near is a Girl...

Sixteen year old Mio Yūki has been cast to play Near in the live action television Death Note drama.

He was around 17-18 years old during his confrontation with Light during the manga's grand finale. Sixteen plays straight into my theory that this TV adaptation of Death Note picks up where the rest stop. Hence my glee now, and my utter embarrassment when you all hold it against me later.

But, of course, nobody is talking about Mio Yūki's AGE.

Not when you've got the much more eye-widening, finger pointing, WTFness of her GENDER to take into consideration.

Everything else is present and correct. There's Near's hair - colour, style and finger twirling a lock - exactly right. Pyjamas - baggy, white, buttoned - all as expected. Only with the unexpected addition of chest bumps - two thereof - curving the cut of said pyjamas.

So Near's now female then.

Unstintingly without explanation, the Death Note television show has given him a sex change - performed by the simple expediency of casting a teen actress to play him. Perhaps they took one look at Kento's track record and thought, "Ooops! Where can we ninja a High School love interest into this story?!"

I'll just pause to let the implications of that settle into your imagination. A retelling of Death Note straight from the pages of L/Near fan-fiction about to become canon.

Sorry, I'm from the Mello/Matt gang and we're in bits. We're returning all that Near fans hurled our way, when the live action movies did precisely this to Mello. At least you lot got to keep the general look, all we retained was the IQ and the bob.

In fact, glancing around the rest of the Death Note blogosphere, the main reaction is that of amusement coupled with looking on in wry interest to see where the show's makers are taking this. There's not really anything in Near's canon story which hinges upon his gender - he could take down Kira as a boy or a girl - so the only real worries on that score are what could be added instead.

And just in case anyone's missing plot-lines to worry about, Mello's fandom can be relied upon to churn them out at a rate of knots. You're very welcome.

If you ask nicely, we might even provide the popcorn to nom, as you watch High School Near in first crush mode receive her awakening kiss in the arms of dreamy L. Then spend the rest of the series dripping IQ points, going 'squee' and generally being someone pretty to stand in the background, making L look good. Before greeting him with a cheer and a lingering kawaii embrace for the finale's closing scene.

The adaptation part of it being the omission of chapter 25, thus negating any need for Mello to give up his studies - and thus no casting necessary, as he's still in Winchester doing his PhD - or Near to exhibit possession of a single brain cell. After all, it'll be L leading the showdown in the Yellow Box now. Near just has to keep him in good home baking long enough to get there.

Salted, sweet or buttered? I'm talking about your popcorn.

The worst of this is that the more I consider it, the more convinced I become that I'm not even joking. And if that's how it plays out, then sod the popcorn, our chocolate bars will be down on the table too.

It would be a travesty. Not merely for Near, but for womanhood and a world in which the most ridiculous scenario, we can concoct in advance for hilarity's sake, turns out to be the cynical truth.

Watching on with interest to see how you play it, Yūki. I hope they really did give you Near, and that my theory about the continuation of Death Note post-Kira transpires to be the correct one.