Eiga Reviews (2010-2019): Death Note: Light Up the New World (2016)

Fans of the live action “Death Note” films will probably enjoy “Death Note: Light Up the New World”. The film is more action-driven and for an original storyline, the film does work. But just not on the same level as its predecessor. Still, it’s a “Death Note” film worth checking out!

TITLE: Death Note: Light Up the New World

FILM RELEASE DATE: 2016

DURATION: 120 Minutes (Death Note), 140 Minutes (Death Note: The Last Name)

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Subtitles: English

COMPANY: Funimation

RATED: TV MA

RELEASE DATE: January 22, 2019

Directed by Sato Shinsuke

Based on the Bestselling Japanese Comic by Ohba Tsugumi and Obata Takeshi

Music by Yamada Yutaka

Produced by Sato Takahiro

Starring:

Fujiwara Tatsuya as Light Yagami

Matsuyama Kenichi as L

Higashide Masahiro as Mishima Tsukuru

Toda Erika as Amane Misa

Sawashiro Miyuki as the voice of Ama

Suda Masaki as Shien Yuki

Ikematsu Sosuke as Ryuzaki

Nakamura Shido as the voice of Ryuki

Nakai Noemie as the voice of J

Ohsako Ippe as Uragami Mamoru

Fujii Mina as Nanase Sho

Kawaei Rina as Aoi Sakura

Sergey Kuvaev as Roger Irving

Aoyama Sota as Matsuda Tota

Funakoshi Eiichiro as Mikuriya Kenichi

Kaneda Akio as Sugahara Junro

Kuromoto Susumu as Takei Ryosuke

Ten years ago, a man named Light Yagami shook the world to its core. Taking the pseudonym Kira, he worked towards creating a new world by using the Death Note to kill those who didn’t belong. But he was stopped—or so everyone thought. Now, delighted by the reign of Kira, the God of Death orders his reapers to find a replacement. Six Death Notes are placed on Earth and picked up—who among them is worthy of becoming the new Kira?

With the help of world-renowned detective L’s successor, the police work tirelessly to fight the new killers and contain the rampant Death Notes. One trail leads them to a cyberterrorist who claims Kira is God, while another leads them to a familiar face. But in the end, they’ll find that the light of justice won’t die easily and one among them holds the true key to Kira’s plan.

Inspired by the popular manga and anime series “Death Note” that has captured the attention of viewers worldwide, “Death Note: Light Up the New World” is the sequel to the live action films and the three-episode online series on Hulu titled “Death Note: New Generation”.

“Death Note” was a popular manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata and focused on Yagami Light (portrayed by Fujiwara Tatsuya), who discovered a notebook called “Death Note” that had specific rules:

-The human whose name is written in this note shall die.

-This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person’s face in their
mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will
not be affected.

-If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person’s name,
it will happen.

-If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart
attack.

-After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

-This note shall become the property of the human world, once it touches the
ground of (arrives in) the human world.

-The owner of the note can recognize the image and voice of its original owner,
i.e. a god of death.

-The human who uses this note can neither go to Heaven nor Hell.

Light used the Death Note to reduce crime by writing the names of criminals and killing them and found a way to get justice and does what he can to rid the world of all evil and become “the God of the new world”. Light, together with the owner of the Death Note, a shinigami (God of Death) named Ryuk, would work together.

Light who uses the name “Kira” generated a large fandom of people who support Kira’s goal of eliminating criminals. A mysterious person that goes by the name of L (portrayed by Matsuyama Kenichi). An intelligent detective who has an unorthodox way of catching criminals and so far, has been very successful with his cases worldwide and was responsible for catching Kira.

In the second film, “Death Note: The Last Name”, we learn that another individual has the “Death Note”. Her name is Amane Misa (portrayed by Toda Erika), a pop star and TV talent who has shortened her life span for the eyes of the shinigami. This allows her to see the names of the individuals and thus easy to write them down on the Death Note. She is a follower of Kira and all she wants is to be with him. And thus, she murders innocent people in order to get the attention of Light.

Upon meeting Misa, Light realizes that with her “eyes”, he can use her to finally kill his nemesis L. But with L and the police suspecting Light as Kira and Misa as Kira II, Light devises a plan. With Misa Amane captured by the police force, he submits himself to being captured and being held by the police.

In the end, thanks to the quick thinking of “L” but who ended up sacrificing his life to out Light as Kira, Kira was eventually killed.

A third film which was a spinoff was released titled “L: Change the WorLd” (2008) was about the final 23 days of L’s life.

In 2016, a three episode series titled “Death Note: New Generation” debuted on Hulu. The series focused on three people, Investigator Mishima Tsukuru (portrayed by Higashide Masahiro), the leader of the Death Note task force who is also a “Death Note otaku who tries to take on a case about criminals who are dying and a new Kira who has appeared 10 years after the death of Light.

The other episode introduces Ryuzaki (portrayed by Ikematsu Sosuke) as L’s successor, known for solving difficult cases and is a famous international sleuth and takes on the “Death Note” case and the other is about a cyber terrorist named Shien Yuki (portrayed by Suda Masaki), who is a follower of “Kira”, who was set free from trauma after Kira eliminated the killer who brutally murdered his family. He also gets his hand on a Death Note.

This leads us to the 2016 film “Death Note: Light Up the New World” which was directed by Sato Shinsuke (director of “Gantz”, “I Am a Hero”, “Bleach”).

Ten years, deaths are happening at a repeated rate around the world, and cyber-terrorism has hurt many people. We see a physician in Russia, Roger Irving (portrayed by Sergey Kuvaev) who receives a Death Note and uses it for doctor assisted suicide and we see Aoi Sakura (portrayed by Kawaei Rina) wanting to surpass Kira.

The “Death Note Task Force” led by Mishima Tsukuru continue to find out who is responsible and when they try to see who is causing a murder spree in Shibuya, Mishima spots Aoi Sakura but she is stopped and tranquilized by the mysterious and odd Ryuzaki and both sides don’t trust each other. But when they check on Aoi Sakura, she is dead, not by Ryuzaki but someone must have written her name on a Death Note.

As the Task Force tries to find out who is responsible, they use Aoi’s Death Note which the task force each touches and summons the book’s shinigami, Beppo. And they ask Beppo questions which reveal that only six Death Notes are being used right now and that is the limit. If there are more, it wouldn’t work.

So, while they have one, who has the other five Death Note books?

Meanwhile, a video comes out to every monitor and smartphone of Light and the person behind it is the cyber-terrorist Shien Yuki, who is trying to acquire all the Death Note books, as he feels he is on a mission to continue Light’s mission of a New World and it is revealed he has Light’s Death Note and is contact with Ryuk.

Amane Mina, who has since become a successful model returns to her dressing room and receives a smartphone from Light to meet at a location. She opens a present which is a Death Note and revives her memories. She ends up meeting with Shien Yuki who wants to know where Light is hiding. She knows that Light died ten years ago and refuses to cooperate with him.

Shien continues to look for the other Death Notes, while we learn that the mysterious Ryuzaki has a Death Note which he refuses to use but is in contact often with his shinigami, Arma.

But will Mishima and the Death Note Task Force be able to find the real culprit who is responsible?

VIDEO:

“Death Note: Light Up the New World” is presented in 1080p High Definition. Detail for the shinigami has surely improved in the eight years since the original film. Ryuk has more textures for his costume and looks more wicked, while the other shinigami also have great detail via CG. Overall, picture quality is very good.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

Death Note: Light Up the New World” is presented in Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1. As for the lossless audio, this is another highlight of the Blu-ray version as I found the dialogue and musical soundtrack to be crisp and clear through the front and center channels. It’s important to to note that there is no English dub for this film.

The gunshots and crowd and overall ambiance (doors latching, stairs being climbed, etc.) is well-featured throughout the film through the surround channels. As well as the music, especially Amuro Namie’s “Dear Diary” ending theme!

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The “Death Note: Light Up the New World” comes with the Japanese trailer and CM spots.

EXTRAS:

“Death Note: Light Up the New World” comes with the film on Blu-ray and DVD but also you can add the film via a Funimation Digital Copy code on Funimation’s website.

For those who have been wanting more “Death Note”, “Death Note: Light Up the New World” is an original story that fans of the original series may be enjoy. While creator Obata Takeshi had a hand in the design of the shinigami Arma and the film featuring “Dear Diary” and “Fighter” by JPOP queen, Amuro Namie, I was entertained by the film but while a “Death Note” film by name, it felt a bit different.

I guess the best comparison would be the “Terminator” films, as the first two James Cameron films are awesome, while the other films that came out were more or less, entertaining but felt different from the original.

That’s how I felt about “Death Note: Light Up the New World”.

For one, I wished the three Hulu episodes were included as a special features as the three episodes to set things up for the three characters in the film. While watching the series is not needed to enjoy the film, it would have helped give more clarity to the characters of Mishima, Ryuzaki and Shien.

While I don’t want to reveal why six Death Notes landed on Earth, I will say that the short incorporation of videos in the film of Light Yagami and L were good, and also the return of Amane Misa was another major plus. While this is primarily for the movie universe, I know there are many who wanted to know what happened to Misa after the death of Light. And this film has its story of what happens to her character.

And while the film started off strong, by the second half of the major revelation, I felt that was when the film changed and the pacing went off. Part of the excitement of the original “Death Note” revolved around the strategy of Light vs. L and this film tries to incorporate some of that but somehow switches to a more action-driven film and because of that, it kind of made my feelings for the film dwindle a bit.

If anything, this film leads to the potential of more “Death Note” films in Japan being created and because of the popularity of the manga and anime series, as well as the live-action films, “Death Note” will surely continue on.

Filmmaker Sato Shinsuke did his best to create a mystery/action film but if there is a continuance, I hope for a more captivating storyline that is not driven by all-out action better character development.

Overall, fans of the live action “Death Note” films will probably enjoy “Death Note: Light Up the New World”. The film is more action-driven and for an original storyline, the film does work. But just not on the same level as its predecessor. Still, it’s a “Death Note” film worth checking out!

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