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Death Note: The Last Name

Death Note Movie Theater

Well I just got back from seeing the Death Note movie in theaters, and I’m going to try not to reveal any of the plot for those that haven’t seen it yet. But let me apologize first in case I do.

I got there at around 7:10, and figured that there would be a lot of people there. I was right. I was lucky enough to find a good seat, but the theater was already packed. I could hear everyone talking about Death Note, and knew I was among fans.

As soon as the movie started though, I was a bit disappointed. I don’t remember VIZ saying anything about the Death Note movie being dubbed. Yes, that’s right. Dubbed. Even though, once I got over the fact that I was hearing an English voice over, I got wrapped up into the story. I think that is what VIZ was hoping. By not having subtitles — which I still perfer — it allows the audience to fall deeper into the story… especially by the type of audience they were hoping will see the movie.

That audience… I should of known. Now I expected to be among fans. What I didn’t expect was that at every important moment in the movie to be assaulted by girls screaming that sorta scream you would hear when a group of JPOP fangirls see’s Jun Morimoto, or any member from Arashi for that matter. The females in the theater went crazy when we first saw Light… when we first saw Ryuk… when we first saw L… when we saw L eat a piece of candy… and every time L ate a piece of candy from here on out. I’m interested to see if anyone else that saw the movie had the same sorta fan base in your theater.

What I did like about the movie is that they were able to successfully adapt the manga/anime into a live action movie. One thing that I hate about anime going to live action is that they usually shorten the story and twist events in order to save time. I can tell you that in the whole movie, only one or 2 minor things are changed, and they did a good job about staying true to the manga/anime.

The credits are worth staying for if you are a true fan of Death Note. They announced there was a special behind the scenes documentary after the movie, but half of the theater left as soon as the credits hit the screen. I would also recommend staying because somewhere in the credits they let you know something that you may already expect during the last scene.

Tomorrow is the last day to see the Death Note movie in theaters, so if you havn’t, head over to Fathom Events to purchase your tickets and find out what theaters Death Note is playing at near you.

What do you think?

Written by xorsyst

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22 Comments

  1. Sup i agree with ya, lol we had people here screaming at every major moment of the movie was kinda funny but we cos played L Ryuk Light and Misa as soon as we walked in we had people running up to us and a standing ovation was pretty cool ROFL but was a pretty damn true movie cant wait for The Last Name….keep me informed

  2. @jamaipanese: Yea, I had every intention on watching a fansub of it, but for some reason never got around to doing so. It was nice being able to watch it in a real theater. I am going to watch the Bleach movie on June 11th even though I have watched a fansub. I think it’s important to support these types of events in order to not only help out the anime industry in the states, but also make it worth Fathom Events to bring even more titles to the big screen.

    @justin: I wish I could of seen that. It’s cool that you cosplayed. The most we had were teens dressed sorta like they belonged in Shibuya.

  3. Hellz yeah we had the same fangirlism…I was one of them xD
    I went to the regal theatre in union square NY. Me and my friend Cat were there, and I was running around looking like Misa. Actually, on the fathom events website, they wrote it would be dubbed. Besides, at least they used the voice actors from the english version of the anime, and I always thought Viz did a great job on casting with DN. L was sooooo cute…I loved his candy-eating, he captured L’s mannerisms perfectly.

  4. Ah, i must of missed that on Fathom’s website. I have never watched the English version of the series, so that didn’t click either. Thats good to see though, keeping it true to the English speaking audience. I have to agree with you that casting Kenichi Matsuyama as L was a really good choice. In fact, all of the cast seemed to be spot on. I thought Light’s father could of been a little older though.

  5. Yeah I definately agree. Kenichi and Tatsuya are both so freaking gorgeous…it was perfect. Misa was cute too. I’ve been saying this all day “Fatten your love rivals with crossiant pudding!”, and “Apples?” and “for all you love rivals, piiiig OUT!”

  6. Surprisingly my theatre, full of fans and cosplayers as it was, had a really well-mannered audience. There was some wolf-whistling when L was introduced, but it was kept to a minimum. Everyone was so wrapped up in the movie that they didn’t dare spoil it for anyone else. Except for this one jerkoff that kept playing with his cellphone, so he found his seat constantly getting kicked by the people behind him, and eventually left.

    They laughed at the appropriate scenes, gasped at the appropriate scenes, and at a certain (thankfully unimportant) part of the movie when the idiots running it suddenly turned the sound off for some ungodly reason, there was more good-natured joking than complaining.

    “Shhh!”
    “…”
    “Shhhh! I can’t hear what they’re saying!”
    (laughter)
    “SOUNDS LIKE A PERSONAL PROBLEM”
    “SHHHHHHH!!!!”

    It was a wonderful atmosphere. It was weird, though, because as soon as people piled out (and they call themselves fans, not staying for the credits and after-credits, honestly!), they returned to being the unfriendly jerks that this area is known for. I mean, at Otakon, everyone is friendly to you both inside and outside the convention, it’s like “hey, we’re both in this community, this fanship! let’s be buds!” No, not here. Sadness.

    But it was a good experience, and a good movie. I’m surprised you didn’t mention that the dubbing was done by the original voice actors – who, despite lipsyncing as wonderfully as old-time classic Japanese samurai/horror films, did a good job portraying the characters and characters’ emotions IMO.

    Looking forward to Bleach next. Maybe I’ll see you there.

  7. ha i went to see it and there were more people than expected, and some cosplayers WHICH WAS AWESOME. like 2 lights and 2 misas. i thought it was gunna be subbed but whatevr. im in new orleans. i was one of the fangirls making random comments…it was pretty hilarious. alot of old women were there 0_0…

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Going to see Death Note

Bruce Lee musical coming?