Ranked #360

Death Note Rewrite: Genshi Suru Kami

For all those who've seen the main TV series, this "Special" is essentially a summary of all the events leading up until the end of L's arc in the overall story.

Story (8): Nothing new really. It simply takes the events of the main TV series and compresses it into the space of a little over 2 hours. I gave it an eight simply because it is essentially the overall story line which I was already familiar with. At first, I was a little bored to some extent with the story as I felt it was simply a bit of a cheat from the makers as, although it is meant to be the story told from the point of view of Ryuk, it just seemed like a shortened version of the story and didn't have the Ryuk-oriented spin which I expected. It does have some new scenes in there but they probably only constitute for about 15mins of the 2 hour 10 min running time. Unavoidably also, is because of the inevitable shortening of length you sometimes miss out on some of the more comical aspects of the show (in particular, that related to Matsuda and Misa).
However, if you can get past those facts, you can actually start enjoying it. If you watch it as though it is a summary of L's arc, then you'll likely enjoy it more than if treat it as some new item.

Art (9): All the same kind of animation from the show (which was very good), since it uses mostly the clips from the show.

Sound (9): Again very good. Uses all the original music and has the same voice actors for all the new, added parts. What I did like was the way that they managed to creatively use some of the music from the series to enhance certain scenes (e.g. the use one of the themes in the scene when chasing down the Yotsuba Kira).

Character (7): I gave this only a seven as I didn't feel the characters developed as wholly as they did in the series. For example, you didn't really get to the 'cleverness' going on in the battle of wits between L and Kira.

Enjoyment (7): I would say I enjoyed it a fair bit, but as mentioned above, it was nothing much new that I hadn't already seen.

Overall (8): If you're a fan of the series then I would say that this is probably a good recap for those who want to watch the series again but perhaps don't have the time to watch it all. A few more new scenes and maybe told more from Ryuk's point of view and it would have been a 9, but otherwise still a relatively enjoyable couple of hours. read more

This review contains spoilers from Death Note.

The first Death Note Rewrite is really nothing more than a clip-show to summarize part of the series in a smaller amount of time. However, it can still be considered a "director's cut"version because it does have some new material. It starts off with Ryuk telling Light's story to a younger Shinigami who is interested in the human world.

The first change that I noticed was how L reveals himself to Light. In the original, he does it when Light starts college and then the story goes on with both of them being in school, with the tennis match and things like that. In the Rewrite, L does it much earlier. He has Light enter an empty theater where he immediately states that he is L and he wants Light to be a member of the task force. Then L has Light watch the Second Kira's tape sent to the police, and it goes on from there as it normally would. Surprisingly, this change actually works. There isn't really a whole lot that affects the story in the college part that they took out, other than Light and L's mysterious tension between each other. However, they do show L in school, but they act as if that's how it always was and that Light had already met him before. As for the scene itself, it was pretty hilarious to see L's facial expressions and body positions a bit more than usual. I don't know if they made him look silly on purpose, but I found it amusing.

There was one other scene that I did not remember from the original series, and that would be L's funeral. The rewrite closes with L's death, arguably the end of the first major story arc, and it does a good job with the conclusion. They put in a very subtle scene where the detectives and Light have a small memorial for L, and tell him that everyone still believes he is alive and helping the police like always. Then everyone leaves except for Light, and this is when he starts to go a little crazy and crawls on L's grave announcing his victory. They don't overdo it, but it's just enough to show the start of Light going mad with power and creating a new world in the second arc of the series.

Other than those two extra scenes, I did not notice a lot of other new material. Yes, it does have some editing work done to enhance some parts, and it also adds in some music, new and old, but there isn't anything that shouts "must-see". I think some of the music they put in worked out, but then I think some of it was just awkward to throw in there.

The big question is whether this can replace the first part of the series (from episode 1-25), and the answer is no. Death Note is a series where a lot of the little details matter, so it is definitely one that should be seen in its entirety. The first Rewrite is a nice trip down memory lane, but that's really all it is.

Overall Grade - 7/10

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Thank you for reading ^.^
~Vari read more