Two reasons the Netflix version fails:
1. No potato chip scene
2. No tennis match

"and then there's the Netflix version..." says everything

For a successful adaptation, they just have to take the manga








AND READ IT!!

You know what they need to do for the perfect adaptation?
They need to take a potato chip.................. AND EAT IT!!!!!!!!!!

Ryuk is my favorite character in Death Note so I wasn't really a fan of him being more obviously monstrous in the latter two, I like the fact that Ryuk is just on a completely alternate plane of morals to normal humans in the Manga and Anime, he's not malicious, he's just so long lived that everything Light ever does basically amounts to a half hour distraction. Making him a cackling demon with particular expectations of humans is less interesting because there are dozens of characters like that.

The Netflix one felt very much like 'what if Light wasnt the bad guy? What if it was everyone elses fault?'

I would like to see comparisons of all the different L's and Misa's and maybe even ryuk.

I love the anime adaptation, but as you pointed out, the way it depicted Light in the first episode missed something subtle but crucial from the manga. While the things both Lights do and say are nearly identical, the way they act while they happen is different, especially after Light uses the Death Note. Anime Light comes off as confident and ecstatic in what he's doing, while manga Light comes off like he's trying not to lose it. When he first meets Ryuk in the manga, his bold claims of becoming a god and the embodiment of justice seem like something he's trying to convince himself (and Ryuk) of, rather than something that he already believes wholeheartedly, as it seems in the anime.

It's not a huge difference but it does impact how you view Light's character as he sinks lower and lower, since manga Light seems like he would've been an okay guy if he'd never found the Death Note, while anime Light seems like there was already something off about him.

Nice work! I particularly appreciate your refusal to condemn certain versions of Light just because they stray from source material, and instead your explanations of why those changes don't work.

I personally liked the 2006 movies the best. The FBI agent's girlfriend had more to do in that version and her death had a much better impact than even the original manga (where she was written to just wander into a dark corner and die). Light using her to kill his girlfriend to give him sympathy and Ryuk's response to just how cold he's become since they first met, as well as L pulling out the potato chips to symbolize that he's officially suspect #1 really made the first movie one of my favorite Asian films that I've ever seen. The second film, while not as good, did provide a great service to L in figuring out that Light was Kira and using the Death Note's own rules against it. I was never really fond of Near or Mellow, so L sacrificing himself to expose Kira rather than ultimately succumbing to him was a better ending than just having his successors beat him, since we've spent two movies with L and would need a third movie to do the timeskip, and, really, Near wasn't nearly as interesting as L.

Netflix version just sucked. Light doing all of this just to impress a girl really made him look stupid.

Netflix: "What if all of Light's evil deeds... weren't really his fault?"

A lot of the adaptions don't understand that what makes Death Note interesting is that Light is a villain protagonist from beginning to end. He has a moment in the middle where you see the person he could have been, and his persona is relatable without justifying his actions. That was something people get confused on. You can be wanting Light to "win" without morally agreeing with him because his character is compelling and unique.

The thing I really liked about the 2006 films was the ending. It's honestly the only ending where Light loses that I can buy. By the end of the manga and anime they had built up Light's intelligence and forethought SO much that the only way for him to lose was for him to make dumb mistakes he never would have made in earlier chapters. But L tricking him by sacrificing himself? THAT I can believe

I'm gonna be that person.  The Death Note did not corrupt Light.  He was already corrupted in his heart, and the book just allowed him to express it.  The way he instantly had a plan, was utterly bored by life and contemptuous of his peers, and defying Ryuk to make his own world indicate that he'd been thinking about these things for a long time.  While Ryuk doesn't actually claim to be a god, Light shows contempt as though the shinigami ruled the world and wants to show them up.  Light is making assumptions about the shinigami because he wants to, because it suits his worldview and what he wants to do.  Light was corrupt from the beginning, even in the manga.

Those early CG Shinigami are super uncanny but I kind of dig it. It definitely highlights that they're not of this world.

So here are my thoughts:

- I always liked the simple motivation of boredom, hubris, and morbid curiosity fueling Light's initial actions because I feel like it covers a deeper, more universal aspect of human nature. We've all had a moment where we did something simply to prove that we could. Stupid, harmful, even pointless things, just to satisfy a craving. It reminded me of what Tucker said to Edward in Fullmetal Alchemist. That yeah, a part of him performed human transmutation for his mother but another part of him did it just to prove he could. Part of him did it as a symbol of pride, because even HE told Al when they first started, "Don't worry. It's perfect."

Both Light and Ryuk were bored, and the book was a way to kill off some of that boredom.

I don't think it's necessarily wrong to make him sympathetic in some ways, as even the anime (and maybe the manga?) implied that had he not picked up the note, he could've grown up to do something far more positive and productive, like becoming a partner along with L, solving crime. Light starting off with an actual motivation to stop some injustice and being powerless to do so before the note is dropped before him is a perfectly valid way to go about adapting the story.

But I've always liked the juicer idea that the note simply allowed Light to fulfill desires he already had. Doffy and Arlong were the same way in One Piece. They were never "good guys", not even with tragic pasts. Doffy and his family were literally tortured, their house burned down, and their mother dying while they were living in squalor, but Doffy's superiority complex was already there, only made worse by the mistreatment. Once he was given POWER, he used it purely to become a king and act out his violent fantasies. Arlong had the deepest hatred of humans, even amongst the Fisher Tiger pirates, and retaliated by being just as racist and cruel towards the humans, in particular, Nami's innocent village.

Huh, hadn't really read the manga so I learned something new today. You made me see the Light.

An analysis of the various Death Note adaptations? I’ve been waiting for one of these for a while. I am disappointed by the lack of a potato chip, but it’s absence makes this better already. Great review!

I was always bummed that the anime never ended the way the manga did with regards to light's death. It is so visceral and intense. I remember having to put it down before I continued.

Truth be told, the ending to the anime series was my favorite part of the Death Note franchise. While the Near/Mello arc may have flaws, I found the ending to be emotional and powerful. Throughout the series, Light had become corrupted as he continued to kill and become desperate in hiding his true identity. By the end of it, he has completely fallen both morally and mentally. The ending scene, in my opinion, beautifully reflects the tragedy of his downfall and death.