Carnage Consumes Japan Once More In The New Teaser For Manga Adap, DEATH NOTE: LIGHT up the NEW world!
My own consumption of anime this year led me to the throes of the paranormal with world presented in the Araki Tetsuro’s treatment of Death Note, as inspired by Ohba Tsugumi’s 2003-2006 Shueisha manga. Needless to say, Light, the main character of the story, pissed me off the most with a purpose that was far from noble despite his intentions, and the occult he drew from it.
Point in fact, I have a look on my face anytime friends tell me how much they sympathized with Light as I somewhat come to liken him with typical religious charlatans of today. He’s a quiet menace shrouded in promise, good looks and intellgence with an occult that has driven society to the brink of its own moral imbalance when it comes to dispensing justice in the face of evil. Such was the quagmire that was eventually illustrated in Kaneko Shusuke’s 2006 live-action film that transpired with actor Fujiwara Tatsuya leading the way as Light, a disaffected student who stumbles upon a mystical book which enchants him with the ability to speak to its owner, an otherworldly demon named Ryuk who initially lost the book. Eventually, Ryuk abetts Light’s use of the book which allows him to kill people with the stroke of a pen. The story grows even more compelling when Light, in the course of trying to maintain his anonymity while moonlighting as his alter-ego, Kira, finds a fan in another Death Note user while his freedom to kill is trampled on by the threat of L, an eccentric introvert whose genius crimesolving skillset becomes the backbone of the Kira case.
The rest, of course, history if you’ve read the manga or seen the series and other film treatments thereafter. At any rate, the franchise in its fruition is taking Japan by storm once more in the new sequel, Death Note: LIGHT Up The NEW World, which now sees an impending threat with six Death Notes making the rounds, opening a new chapter filled with supernatural intrigue, suspense and danger.
Gantz and Library Wars helmer Sato Shinsuke directs with a cast that stars Higashide Masahiro as a cop leading the Death Note task force, along with Ikematsu Sosuke as L’s successor and two more characters I will enjoy hating, Suda Masaki as a cyberterrorist following in Light’s footsteps, and actress Kawaei Rina who plays a menacing Death Note user who is the complete opposite of Light – I’ll probably end up hating her even more. Goodness…
Oh, and we get the blissful return of Nakamura Shidou as the aloof, grim-yet-friendly Shinigami, Ryuk, among others.
The film comes in the wake of Netflix’s own efforts which begin filming a North American adaptation with Adam Wingard at the helm and Nat Wolff starring and time will tell how that one works. In the meantime, the fanbase has Sato’s latest to look after, and it opens in Japan on October 29…and all because these clumsy Shinigami’s can’t hold onto their shit. Crazy.
Check out the first teaser below.
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!