Netflix is filming Death Note. What is the reason for the excitement and how to survive until the premiere?

What happened?

The American company Netflix, which gave us Orange Is the New Black, the BoJack Horseman cartoon and a lot of TV series based on Marvel comics, announced that the film adaptation of the Death Note manga will be released on August 25, 2017.

Moreover, judging by the information received, it is not a series that is planned, but a full-length film. It was planned to start its creation back in 2011, but the process has stalled. In 2015, Netflix bought the film rights from Warner Bros., and things started to get better.

Now fans of manga and anime are eagerly awaiting the premiere of the film, revisiting the first trailer.

What is the reason for this hype?

Death Note is one of the greatest works of the world of anime and manga. Death Note ranks as the tenth best manga of all time according to the Japanese Ministry of Culture.

Released in 2006, the anime adaptation also became a cult classic and gained an army of fans around the world. For many, this is the first anime in their life, which aroused interest in the works of Japanese culture.

Why is Death Note worth seeing?

This is a deep work, combining detective story, mysticism and psychology, starting from the ideas of Nietzsche and Dostoevsky, filled with numerous references to Eastern mythology and religious allusions.

If you are a fan of a gripping plot, charismatic characters and love to reflect on human nature at your leisure, you will certainly love Death Note.

So what is this story about?

Yagami Light, a capable high school student, a girls' dream and a parent's pride, finds a mysterious notebook. On the first page of the notebook is a list of rules.

The person whose name will be written in this notebook will die.
The notebook will not work if the person writing the name does not know what the face of the one who is about to die looks like. Thus, people with the same first and last names do not die.
If the cause of death is not specified, the person will die of a heart attack 40 seconds after the name is written.
If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds after writing the name, then the person will die that way.
After writing down the cause of death, the details should be written into the notebook in the next 6 minutes 40 seconds.

At first, our hero decides that this is a stupid joke. For the sake of interest, he checks the notebook in action on a convicted criminal. And here the funniest thing begins: the young genius gradually blows away power, he begins to carry out lynching, striving for his great goal - to cleanse the world of "bad" people and create an ideal society.

At the same time, an exemplary Japanese schoolboy does not forget about homework and admission to college, helps his younger sister with mathematics and communicates with the god of death - the original owner of the notebook and a great lover of apples, whom no one but Light himself sees.

Interpol is interested in the killer, sending to the aid of the Japanese police a mysterious L - a brilliant detective, whom almost no one knows by sight.

Well, then - investigations, secret plans, attempts to outwit fate, intellectual confrontation. Everything you need to firmly adhere to the screen or manga pages.

What to expect from the American adaptation of Death Note?

The director of the upcoming film, Adam Wingard, is known for his horror films, which gives hope that the atmosphere will be preserved. Despite the plot-focused and comic moments, anime is very often intimidating. And who, if not the director of horror films, should he pass it on?

Adam Wingard says he is not going to deviate much from the original plot. In this case, the action of the film will take place in America.

In the role of a schoolboy with a god complex, we will see Nat Wolfe, who has not yet had time to become familiar on the big screens. He is not very similar to the secretive and cold-blooded Light Yagami, although time will tell: maybe all this is just a disguise.

Mysterious detective L, originally thin as English porcelain and just as pale, will be played by Lakeith Stanfield. This man should be diligently hunched over, eating cakes and looking anemic.

Judging by the cast and the trailer, in which fans of the original noticed a lot of differences from their favorite work, including epic Hollywood destruction, everything is not as rosy as one might have hoped. But it is too early to judge: perhaps we will have an interesting reading of the cult story.

What to see and read before the release of the film?

Thirteen volumes of the manga, which was officially published in Russian. You can find them to this day, the main thing is desire.
Anime series, consisting of 37 episodes - over 13 hours of gorgeous graphics and great music. The characters are drawn in a very high quality, they differ from each other not only in the color of their hair and costumes, and you will not soon forget the insane expressions on the faces of some of the characters.
A full-length anime that includes additional scenes - without them it would be just a compilation of episodes of the series. Suitable for those who are already familiar with the "Death Note" to refresh their memory and not spend forever on it.
Three Japanese films, a miniseries and a musical that many don't even know about. While waiting for the premiere from Netflix, it is quite possible to watch them: the play of Asian actors may seem unusual, but addictive.