Death Note (Drama)

Episode 7

The Third Kira Arc is in full swing now. Light and Misa have lost their memories and are helping L and company to try to catch this new Kira. This turns out to be relatively easy, because the third Kira is too proud not to tell the world (or at least pretty girls) about it. This arc plays out pretty similar to its anime counterpart, give or take some characterization differences. There's one major change, though: Near is already part of the game and plays a key role in this arc. This sets up the pieces very differently for everything to come.

Before that, I have to once again commend this adaptation for distilling Death Note down to its essentials. The Yotsuba Arc had a lot of great aspects, particularly in the character department. Seeing Light, L, and Misa act as comrades helped the audience understand their relationships with one another under more normal circumstances. However, I thought the raw plot was needlessly complicated for how simple the ultimate reveal was: the new Kira was a greedy doofus being played as a complete puppet of the shinigami (and ultimately Light), while believing that he had all the power. The myriad ploys to discover his identity were the few moments the original version dragged, so I'm glad that this version of Death Note condensed that.

Instead, the story added some new elements, like the mysterious "Babel" who's communicating with the Yotsuba Group. At first, it seemed like this person might also be the Third Kira, somehow taking on an L-like identity to throw them off. I also wondered if this character was this story's version of "B" from the Death Note canon: the hilariously-named Beyond Birthday, a Wammy's House boy gone bad who drives the light novel Another Note. Instead, it's Near, who's basically manipulating the Third Kira, Higuchi, in the same way that L did to Light in the beginning of the story. He (we know Near is a "he" now, despite being played by a girl) isn't sure that Higuchi is Kira, but he has a good idea. He's a much clearer target than Light ever was to L, because Higuchi makes the game so easy.

Of course, Light is an easier match than he ever was in the anime and manga, because he's not the same character, and this arc really drives that home. While Amnesia Light in the anime/manga was just as coldly calculating as L, this story takes pains to distinguish him from his rival's way of thinking. While L is cruelly unconcerned with who anyone he has to hurt that might get in his way, Light can't bear to hurt the innocent. I thought it was telling that he joined the Kira fight because of how Kira had upset his dad—the same motivation that drove Light to become Kira in the first place. Meanwhile, Light finds himself concerned with how easy he finds it to condemn others to death. He's a different enough person that it's no wonder his transformation at episode's end (upon rediscovering the Death Note) is so disturbing and drastic. Anime Light was just smirky and self-satisfied when he realized he'd "won" and his plan had gone off without a hitch. This Light completely loses it, to the point of not realizing that he's more or less revealed his identity to L and his father thanks to his haste in killing Higuchi. (He doesn't leave behind any concrete evidence, but there's no disguising the change in his behavior.)

Back on the subject of Near, he provides another example of how this version of Death Note improves in adaptation by fleshing out more neglected characters, even if it had to sacrifice L's character to accomplish that. Near's multiple-personalities shtick might seem like a silly cliché, but it's already made him more compelling than he ever was in the original work, where he was just a perfect and emotionless detective. This also owes a lot to Mio Yūki's acting, as she nails the transition between Near's delight at helping L catch Kira, to his despair as Mello "resurfaces." Mello is also more interesting as Near's "Mr. HYDE" than the pretty bad boy he was in the anime. I always thought Mello and Near's rivalry could have been way more interesting than it was by making them both into more complex characters. This Death Note sets up that rivalry, but also adds an additional dimension to make it more fascinating. They're not just vying to be the one who gets Kira, but vying for control of a single body. Whoever "wins" will define everyone's fate—including Light's.

Still, I was mostly wrong about Misa's potential in this version. I could also be wrong about how well this show does with Near and Mello. Just the fact that they're doing something different is refreshing, and their mere existence forces the show to stay on a divergent path. If the next episode of Death Note pulls the famous twist from the original show—which, based on the preview, looks pretty likely—Light's prior awareness of Near's existence will completely change what happens going forward. Originally, he was able to grow in confidence and build his worldwide cult—and sabotage the Kira investigation—precisely because he thought he'd defeated his last opponent. Now he already knows that there's another. Additionally, his very different reaction to recovering his memories means that instead of going into the next arc with a clean slate, he's made everyone that much more suspicious of him.

This episode makes for a permanent shake-up in the Death Note story. After a string of episodes bogged down in familiarity, that's exactly what this show needs.

Rating: A-

Death Note (Drama) is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Rose is a music Ph.D. student who loves overanalyzing anime soundtracks. Follow her on her media blog Rose's Turn.