I’ve loved Death Note for over a decade now and have enjoyed the original manga and many of it’s adaptations over those years. This includes the musical which had its cast recording released back in 2015. This was actually the first musical I really fell in love with so I’m going to be somewhat biased here. That being said, Death Note the musical was a magical experience!
Death Note tells the story of Light Yagami, an academic prodigy who feels disgruntled with the criminal justice system allowing so many criminals to get away scot free. That is until one day when he stumbles across the titular Death Note which allows the user to kill any human simply by writing down their name. Light takes this opportunity to take the law into his own hands and change the world. He takes the alius of Kira who is hunted down by the police, including Light’s own father, the chief of the police and L the greatest detective who always solves his cases.
This adaptation takes some liberties from the source material like introducing some characters early and even changing the ending but it still manages to tell the story in a new, emotionally compelling and intriguing way. I wouldn’t call this the best way to experience the Death Note story but it’s certainly not the worst way either and it stands on it’s own as a legitimate adaptation rather than just an elaborate advert for the original manga or anime.
Despite there not being a lot of musical adaptations of manga and anime franchises I think the two have a lot in common. They are both stylistically and emotionally heightened mediums compared to your average film or novel. Death Note is a great example of this with it’s anime framing writing in a notebook like it’s a climatic battle and now this musical recreating a similar tone and atmosphere.
As much as this show is being marketed as philosophically and morally challenging I think the real strength of Death Note is how the story is told. That puts a lot of pressure onto the songs here to pull the audience into it’s admittedly strange premise. I think they pull this off though. The songs range from catchy to heartwrenching to even funny at times. The new songs added to this run are a welcome treat that add to the story rather than feeling like filler.
Visually the show manages to be enthralling and capture the aesthetic of it’s source material. The lighting is appropriately moody, the costumes are stylish and the set is dynamic, moving the cast around on rotating platforms which feels very reminiscent of the anime throwing the camera around to make the simple acts of writing and theorising feel grand.
When it comes to adaptations casting can be a sensitive subject. Fans of Death Note will be familiar with the outrage that the 2017 Netflix adaptation got from it’s trailers featuring characters that looked nothing like the ones they were used to. Going into this I honestly felt somewhat uneasy. Xander Pang looked a little too kind and gentle for Light and Colin Ryan didn’t look unkempt like L. Initially I felt like the two should have swapped roles but after seeing the show it became clear that this was most likely the reaction they wanted me to have. Light and L have always been portrayed as two sides of the same coin. They even sing about walking in each other’s shoes! This casting adds a whole new layer to that dynamic. Stephanie Zaharis does an incredible job as Misa! She doesn’t really feel like the Misa from the anime or even the 2015 production of the musical but Stephanie brings her own energy to the role, giving Misa a more standoffish persona which works shockingly well. Telly Leung provides equal amounts of levity and dread with his performance of Ryuk, Paolo Montalban portrays Soichiro Yagami exactly how you’d imagine the character from reading the manga and Grace Mouat is graceful and glamorous as Rem.
As for criticisms I don’t have many but I will bring up that you can feel the pressure of having to condense the story into a couple hours. The pacing has to be fast which does create an exciting energy but it doesn’t give the emotional moments much breathing room nor does it give the audience much of a chance to ponder their own thoughts on Light’s actions. You certainly don’t need to read or watch the source material to enjoy this musical but it would help you process what’s going on without feeling overwhelmed. Likewise there are a few story beats that don’t feel clear because of this rushed pacing. Namely Light’s plans and L’s deductions can come across as just magically knowing the best course of action rather than discovering it through intelligence when there isn’t the time to explain how each character comes to their conclusions.
Finally I want to give a quick mention to how nice the program is. Not only is it the bulkiest program I’ve ever bought but it’s packed with behind the scenes photos and information. Death Note is too important to me for me not to have strong feelings on this musical. I knew going in that I would either love it or hate it. As you can probably tell I loved it. I hope this will bring in new fans to the franchise and introduce anime fans to the world of musicals like it did for me back in the day.
Mark
Leave a Reply