JOE SHEPPARD gives into the “puerile logic and cult factor” of Death Note and its sequel, Death Note: The Last Name, brought to us back-to-back under the auspices of Ant Timpson’s That’s Incredible Cinema.


WITH THE MANGA explosion finally hitting the shores of the South Pacific, there will only be two kinds of people at the Death Note double-header: the crazed fans of the hugely successful Shonen Jump series, and everybody else. The former will be giggling stupidly the whole time as they jot down any quibbles on themed stationary, while the latter may well leave wondering what on earth they just witnessed.

Death Note has a puerile logic and cult factor similar to Battle Royale (also starring Fujiwara Tatsuya). A mischievous Japanese death god, Ryuk, drops his magical exercise book, found by our antihero Yagami Light, who soon discovers its power: write anyone’s name on it and they’ll die in forty seconds. Light seeks to use his new ability to free the world of criminals, who start dropping like flies, but attracts the attention of the greatest detective on the planet, known only as L. The game of chess that unfolds between these two prodigious intellects is leavened by the fanatical reaction of a public that obsesses over the deadly contest, in a way that you hope could really only happen in Japanese pop culture.

More detective story than J-horror, the Death Notes are not so much psychological as cerebral thrillers, and the closest they get to a white-faced spectre is the eccentric insomniac L, a shambling sugar-junkie who can’t seem to do anything the normal way. Eternally watchable and always up to something, he easily beats Ryuk as the most entertaining character in the film. (Keep an eye out for the spinoff in the works, with Ringu’s Nakata Hideo to direct). It’s difficult to feel much sympathy for Light though, who isn’t just cold and calculating but a real dick to boot. Perhaps part of the problem is that there’s no way to communicate the internal monologue that the manga relied so heavily on.

But the rest of the translation to celluloid was easier than writing down the name of that bully at school. The horror-punk shinigami Ryuk is exactly what Obata Takeshi’s original design would look like with some CGI thrown in to give him a third dimension, and he instantly brings back surrealism and craziness whenever things threaten to get too sensible. The pulp pages of the manga might have got pretty creepy when Obata’s layout appeared to be reprinting pages of the death notebook, but the film has the edge in the technology stakes – integral plot details include CCTV footage from the Tokyo subway, miniature spy cameras, news bulletins and vox pops, and even a pirate television feed from a talking laptop!

The female roles are sadly a little token – especially Misa-Misa – but I guess that’s only to be expected when the real battle is between two boyishly handsome brainboxes. The FBI might be no match for Kira (i.e. ‘Killer’ in your best Japanese accent), but can Light hide his murderous alter ego from his pesky little sister and his preachy girlfriend? With the Death Notes you’re guaranteed a good time one way or another, but you might want to check any adulthood you’re carrying at the door on the way into the theatre.