I saw both Death Note movies and loved them, so the next step was to read the manga. What follows are some thoughts that completely spoil basically the whole series, so I would not proceed unless you’ve also read it, seen the anime (I’m assuming here that the anime, which I haven’t seen, sticks to the manga closely, so click at your own risk), or just don’t care. But in that case, why would you read this?
To briefly review it first, I’d say that this is well worth reading if you liked the films. The first movie is fairly close to the beginning of the manga, but the second movie goes in a rather different direction. The manga is certainly more epic, and is in some ways deeper as well. But overall I think the changes made in the second film were wise, and I’m going to explain why with all those spoilers I was just warning you about.
The death of L, and the appearance of Near and Mello: this undeniably greatly weakens the second half of the manga. It’s still good, don’t get me wrong – my heart was pounding all the way through the end – but it loses the underlying emotion that the first part had. Maybe I’m exaggerating the importance of the relationship between Light and L, but to me it elevated Death Note from being an exciting supernatural thriller to something more poignant. As L says, Light is, really, his first and only friend, and though Light would never admit it to himself, L seems to be his only friend. They are equals, and neither has ever experienced that kind of equality with another…
After L dies, he’s replaced by Near and Mello, two characters that stick out as being easily the blandest in the series. Let’s ignore to start with how far fetched and cheesy it is that L is apparently breeding eccentric geniuses to one day replace him. Near is just a less interesting version of L – they even look vaguely similar – and without L’s rich and complicated relationship with Light. And Mello…I’m not sure what the point of Mello even is. I was really expecting him to do more; as it is, he feels more like a sketch than anything else. Unlike L, neither of these guys ever feel like they could be real people, and Light is just a villain to them.
The way Light was defeated also bothered me in comparison to the film. If I’m understanding things correctly Near basically won by accident. He did not outsmart Light, and he admits it himself. It doesn’t feel right…in the film’s ending, L outsmarts Light, but does so at the cost of his own life, and there’s something very touching about the whole thing.
Anyway, despite these complaints the manga was excellent. I’m looking forward to seeing the anime eventually, but I should probably wait a while so as not to overdo it.
