You're A Devil in Disguise!

[handful_ofdust]

So: Watched the rest of the live-action Death Note and Death Note: The Last Name, and…I may have to admit I was wrong. Which I’m happy to be, actually! It’s still not a perfect adaptation—skips some things from the manga I consider really key, plus not carrying over stuff the anime added that I really like, as well. But OTOH, it comes up with some really neat squishes and clips to compact the action into two two-hour chunks. I enjoyed how Light had turned back into the Light I remembered by about the halfway point on Part One, with a brilliant sort of making-this-a-movie twist just before the end credits, which finally bring L and Light together.

Less satisfying is the way that, again, the writers and director seem to be bending over backwards to de-gay-ize the Light/L interaction, to the point of removing most of the stuff that makes Light and L equally scary, apart or in combination. But the dude playing L is suitably Kabuki-freakish (as well as surprisingly tall), and I really liked Erika Toda’s version of Misa, which I didn’t expect to—I think she’s a concept/character who definitely benefits from being translated from a Goth-Lolly fetish doodle into a genuine person. (I also loved that the English-language dub uses the voice actors from the anime! Watching it like that improves the dude who’s playing Light’s performance a hundred-fold.)

In conclusion: The CGI creation on Ryuk is wonderful, which makes up for the blah-ness of their Rem and Gelus; overall, however, the person who comes off looking best is Soichiro Yagami, Light’s Dad—who’s just as bad-ass and wearily/effortlessly moral as he is in any other version, but comes to a considerably better end. Not a bad investment, therefore—and it’s certainly got me thinking about Death Note-related stuff again, thus perhaps leading to some much-needed forward movement on The Mercy Seat.

Speaking of forward movement, meanwhile—

A Book of Tongues:
Words added to Chapter Six today: 503
To date: 4,003
Words overall: 32,458

I’m pushing to break 1,000, then start poking at “Signal to Noise” again (since I do, in fact, have some new notes to enter). Managed to push my tax appointment back, so I suppose I might as well work towards that Ad Astra deadline. While I can, I mean.;)

Amended to add: I don't know why I keep forgetting to post about the fact that Cal's latest obsession is with Disney's The Jungle Book. In a way, this is great--it creates automatic free time, and he's rapidly moved from not being able to stand watching anything but the musical numbers to wanting to watch scenes without singing, so long as they involve Phil Harris' version of Baloo. It's teaching him about long-form narrative, which is obviously wonderful. My personal problem is that while I can appreciate the classic line-animation, especially the movement that absolutely comes from life-observation of real animals, I'm about as huge a nerd about Kipling's Jungle Book as Steve is about Lord of the Rings, so the shout-outs to beatnik culture, the Beatles and the Monkees, etc., get old pretty fast.

(P.S.: And that ending is creepy! Especially so because while the real Mowgli did indeed eventually hook up with some chick and go back to the Man Village, that was when he was nineteen, not NINE. Also, why would a nine-year-old girl fix bindi? Perhaps because a bunch of white male animators from California didn't bother to find out any better?

Oh, wait a sec: Maybe she's meant to be already married, despite singing about how she'll tend the fire and cook the meals when she is grown. Which, though potentially accurate for the time-period--see Deepa Mehta's Water--doesn't negate the creepy, exactly.)

Comments

[sovay]

the person who comes off looking best is Soichiro Yagami, Light’s Dad—who’s just as bad-ass and wearily/effortlessly moral as he is in any other version, but comes to a considerably better end.

May I inquire? I am very fond of him.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Basically, he gets to be involved in the climax, to confront Light directly and tell him straight out that he does NOT approve of his actions as Kira. Unfortunately, he also gets to see Light die...but a One Year Later epilogue implies that although none of the Yagamis are exactly unscathed, they at least have each other. (Light's little sis Sayu is considerably less of a chess-piece here, too, which also rocks.)

[come-love-sleep.livejournal.com]

I really like Keniichi Matsuyama, the fellow who played L. Beautiful boy.
(Fun in Sexy Voice and Robo, too.)

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

He is indeed beautiful. And huge. Either that, of the dude playing Light is tiny, which might also be true.;)

[come-love-sleep.livejournal.com]

The dude playing Light(who is fun in the old drama Shinsengumi! from what I have seen of it, blood-thirsty and smiley) isn't too tall, but yeah--Matsuyama is enormous. Which I liked, 'cause it meant he could slouch correctly and still be intimidating. :P