death note ends

[mayoraasei]

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...Didn't want to jam this in with the other post because it will probably drag out longer than I intend (as my posts always do).

After watching 37 (the last episode)...it was good, it was almost faithful right up until the end, and the high-budget animation maintains that perfectly eerie fluidity. I suppose the nihilistic tone of the original disagreed with the producers (as it does with me), and so they gave Raito a more peaceful ending.

Highlight for spoilers on original manga:

After Raito is shot, he writhes on the ground screaming at the world, "Someone! Takada! Misa!" and in the very end, calls on Ryuuku, yelling at Ryuuku to write everyone's names in his book. Ryuuku smirks and says that line, "on the day we met we had a pact, on the day of your death I shall write your name in my book". With everyone watching and Raito still screaming and moaning, Ryuuku writes Raito's name in his book, and Raito dies in front of everyone. Ryuuku then says, "I told you before that humans who use the note goes neither to heaven nor hell, your answer back then was correct"..."There is nothingness after death."

The final chapter is set a year later. The world has gone on without Kira, although it's still recovering. And the final, final scene which I didn't get, was of a row of people wearing white hoods and holding candles, roaming over a hill. They stop and congregate in a circle. Then, a girl that we have never seen steps into the centre and clasps her hands, saying, "Kira-sama." The end.

Since I read that a year ago, my memory's a bit fuzzy on the details. It struck me as a really...pessimistic way to end the series, and a bit too much of "shove in your face" philosophy.

But I'm not sure if I like the anime version better. It's all very poetic of course, "I pass by myself by the old train track as the sun sets, he not knowing who I had become, and I no longer able to return"...etc. But it came across as a blatant last minute (though) well-intentioned attempt to reprise some sympathy for a main character who's left a terrible bloody trail in 37 episodes, but almost unnecessarily. Death Note isn't a popcorn shounen like Bleach or Naruto, people who've stuck with it can think for themselves.

They are perfectly capable of recalling that wide-eyed righteousness and that conceited conviction that first motivated this extraordinarily gifted child onto the path of murder. Not living in Japan, I'm not sure of the exact social comments the series is trying to make - that Raito had everything at his feet: the smartest student in Japan, a doting supportive family, considerable wealth, and I suppose, good looks. A child this loved, this gifted could this easily stray to calculated yet rational killing (although one could argue because he had everything, he was motivated to do it)...is it a warning or a reflection, or simply fiction?

Though the anime has ended, the franchise hasn't yet (L spin-off movie...*twitch*), but it's time to pack the memory away. One thing everyone seems agreed on is that in a few years time, DN will no longer be a hit, but a classic.


Totally off-topic: Miyano Mamoru love! XDDD I actually didn't like him much as Tamaki, but he was perfect as Raito.

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[luna-rainbow.livejournal.com]

OTZ = Orz = look at my icon for instructions to perform the perfect OTZ ^0^

*Clears throat*

*Puts on sage voice*

Back in yon days of old, when bittorrent didn't exist and no one had the money to host direct downloads for long, when IRC was the key to getting anime, but only if you have the patience to leave your computer turned on for 5 days in a row.........

................

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To cut a long story short, I got into manga first. Not online though, friends were into it and they lent me some.

I always consider manga the original, not "anime and manga are two of the same thing". So...I usually end up preferring the original.

How did you get into anime anyway? =P