Death Note Live Action
January 23, 2008
This is a purely Japanese adaptation.
I tend to be rather harsh where adaptations are concerned but I guess that’s normal reaction? Afterall, its human to claim the anime or manga is always better. Death Note is another pipping hot 2006 adaptation due to the popularity of the series, so I’m not going to be kind on the casting XD.
Yagami Light
I am still waiting for Light to appear! The angelically-devilish high school student, whom girls would kill for. I wouldn’t kill for Tatsuya Fujiwara even if he gave me a million dollars and promised to make me King of his New World Order. Fujiwara is a good actor and his Raito has a passable evil smirk – but he is not definitive. He falls short in terms of physical resemblence, height or ruthless charisma. Related Post: Casting Raito!
L Lawliet
The actor whose current claim to fame is having acted as L. Matsuyama Kenichi bears about the same amount of resemblence to L as Tatsuya Fujiwara does to Raito, but he quickly became the one to watch out for. He was assisted by two things in his portrayal of L: meticulous make-up and hairstyling and L’s very obvious, distinctive personality quirks. The fly in the ointment is the overcareful crafting of his appearence to match the manga, because he does not look in the least messy, untidy or insomnic as L does.
Amane Misa
Toda Erika manages to convey Misa’s devotion to Raito (not difficult) and presents a cute exterior (not difficult either) with a touch of sweetness, but she is less of a siren that Misa was. Perhaps she isn’t the right pick to play the character yet she does manage to endear ‘Misa’ to the audience with her sweet smile, so I won’t pick a fight over her portrayal. They could have improved her hair and make-up though.
In conclusion, I am still waiting for the right cast to reprise these roles, although not at the expense of acting skills. We need a really hot devil’s advocate to play Light, a slatternly-looking L (Matsuyama looks rather neat in the film) and an innocent-looking Misa wth a touch of underlying wildness.
