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 MangaLife Spotlight: Death Note: L: Change The World
Written by Barb Lien-Cooper
Ah, Death Note: L: Change the World.
Good movie, not-so-good book.
SMALLISH SPOILERS from those who haven’t read the series, seen the anime, or seen the live action series. You have been warned.
Having thought that I’d been there, done that concerning Death Note, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the two live action films of that particular manga series have a sequel of sorts. L: Change the World takes a left turn from Death Note, the manga, insomuch as it features L, the strange, good guy foe of Light Yagami, the owner of the Death Note notebook that kills whenever Light puts a name in it. Well, if you’ve read the manga series, you know that L... well, I’m not going to go spoil it all for you, but suffice to say, L isn’t the person who ultimately goes head to head with Light in the manga. In the second Death Note live action film (Death Note II: The Last Name), L is definitely the one who does. Now, that’s way, way cool, as L is probably one of the best eccentric characters to come out of manga in a long, long time. I’m a big fan of the Death Note live action movies, as I’m fascinated by L. Tasuya Fujiwara, who also starred in the live action Battle Royale films (which I’ll admit I haven’t seen yet because they sound INTENSE), embodies Light in a way that is a joy to watch, but the real revelation is Ken'ichi Matsuyama's L (who apparently is also in the live-action based-on-manga movies of Detroit Metal City and Nana). Matsuyama’s got the idiot-savant uber-geek parts of L down! If you think he doesn’t, try walking in that odd question mark posture L has or try jumping onto a piece of furniture so as to perch there the way he does. It’s not easy (and, yes, I’ve tried it). Fujiwara plays Light as an arrogant little bastard, while Matsuyama plays L as Sherlock Holmes with Asperger’s Syndrome. The acting in the Death Note live action series is really what sets it apart from other live-action based-on-manga films.
When Death Note: L: Change the World was released, I wanted to see it. Then I read a review of it that didn’t like it in the least, so I hesitated. Whenever an anime goes OAV, or an anime series strays from a manga (e.g. Full Metal Alchemist, Naruto), the results aren’t pretty, most of the time. However, curiosity got the best of me, so when Change the World showed up on DVD, I rented it.
And enjoyed the heck out of it.
No, it’s not Death Note. This film isn’t for those casual viewers who’ve heard about the series and wondered what it’s about. Newbies will get totally lost if they start here---and they’ll wonder what the big fuss was about. Instead, Change the World is for big fans of the series who just want just a little more before they wave a fond farewell. On that level, the movie works admirably.
The set-up: L solves the Kira case (Kira is Light Yagami’s nom du villain), but at a terrible price. L only has 21 days to live. Since detective work is his life, he ends up going up against some slightly generic bio-terrorists, as well as getting involved with a young, plucky teenaged girl and a near-genius (math/science based genius, anyway) young boy in the process. Since L isn’t exactly emotionally intelligent, seeing him trying to deal with panicky but brave young people is the cheese in this film. Seeing how they bring out whatever humanity the human computer has inside of him is compelling… but really, only if you’re a big L fan the way I am.
On an objective level, I can only give this movie a B. However, the fan in me gives it a big B plus.
Now, before I go, I have to mention that the good people at Viz, knowing that Park and I are Death Note aficionados, sent us the novelization of Change the World. Once again, the novel is NOT the place to start with the series. The novel follows the live action version of the series, not the manga or anime, which may be confusing to fans of the manga, not to mention casual readers.
Now, I really don’t have a lot to say about the book, as I just saw the movie. Except… and I hate to complain, but… as a novelization, I really think it could have used an honest to goodness ADAPTER instead of just a translator and an editor who probably did as much adaptation work as possible on it. I know, I’m prejudiced, because I do adaptation work for manga companies, but as such, I can tell an adaptation versus a translation that’s been fixed up. Fiction needs to flow, which requires an adapter who knows fiction and has a lot of adaptation experience. Even great translators with good adaptation skills (I know several and admire their talents), even good editors with above-average adaptation skills, often get smashed on the rocks of manga fiction.
Death Note, because it lacks an adaptation that flows, also lacks an exciting authorial voice. It just doesn’t sizzle like the movie does, even though it’s based on the same events, more or less. You do find out interesting things, such as how the orphanage that spawned L came into being. I also liked the first scene with L… in a freaking bear suit, of all things. So, it wasn’t like this was a bad book. Indeed, in a few places, it was almost as interesting as the movie.
It’s just… prose style matters in novels. In manga series, you can sometimes get away with a good translator with adaptation skills. Heck, sometimes, you can even get away with an earnest scanner, if the series isn’t, for instance, a comedy that needs sparkling dialog. But prose needs oomph. As with many manga prose translations, this novel just doesn’t have it. The prose style has to make up for the fact that there aren't actors to act it-- the prose style itself has to be zippy, therefore, in order to give it the right amount of equivalency to the movie.
So, I have to give the book Death Note: L: Change the World a C Plus, although my fannish heart doesn’t like the fact.
It’s just… fandom isn’t GOOD fandom if it’s unquestioning. Fandom isn’t about being a lemming. It’s about admiring what is work of worth.
I admire L: Change the World, the movie. I just wish I could say the same for the book.
A review copy of the novel was provided by the publisher.
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