). It's probably more a case of the anime producers not 'getting' the original script... Though I could be misremembering >>
It appears, miss, that nobody is free from stupidity. Not even you, reasons below;Shiny Koi said:Wrong wrong wrong. I guess you're entitled to an opinion, but your understanding of writing is shoddy if you didn't pick up on what was so important about the Mello/Near arc. Also, this would be better off in the off-topic section. I don't think a rant is a review. You didn't review the series, you just stated what you thought was wrong with it.Accountfailed said:I recently watched the entire DeathNote series and I really have to say, of all the anime's I've watched over the years, DN was potentially the best, and absolutely the most disappointing of them all.
Why? Here's why.
THIS IS THE PART WHERE YOU STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT BECAUSE THERE ARE (many)SPOILERS.
/rant.The ending, that's why.
Right, so we spend some 20 or so episodes watching Light and L duke it out in a clever game of intellectual/detective warfare, which was really fucking good. It was a joy to see the now memory-lost Light trying to (unwittingly)find himself so he can clear his own name, but L is still in the picture, and still suspects Light, and for a safety measure, shackles himself to him.
And then they kill off L.
That was the "sos" signal of anime burnout I guess, killing off the most interesting and like able character by far, but I could accept that, if it was in the name of a good story.
And then this asshole happened.
That's Nier, the supposed 'replacement' for L. This is the most annoying, nonsensical and straight up **** of a character I've ever seen shoehorned in to something.
The first thing he says, the first impression given by this character to the audience is "If you don't win, you're a loser." You think this kid is a dick from the start and only to make things worse in comes Mellow an even bigger, dumber Nier who's rocking so many transsexual vibes he might as well be voice acted by Lady Gaga.
similar hair too.
But I digress, LOOK AT THIS DOUCHEBAG. And Mellow's 'substantial' role in the plot is to pooter about being generally antagonistic, scarf chocolate all day, every day(seriously, there is maybe 2 scenes in the entire series where he isn't stuffing his pie hole.) and then die, That's it!
Which is of course, completely different from Nier's role, which is to pooter about being generally(but more so) antagonistic, playing with fucking toys all day, every day, and then SOLVING EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE USING MAGIC DETECTIVE POWERS.
Oh but the worst is yet to come, the biggest affront to my intelligence and a middle finger the entire audience as a whole. Nier, that **** I keep ragging on because he's a ****, WINS, by pulling some completely stupid piece of additional info out of his ass at the last minute, the whole ending was so badly handled that they had to defy both Light's and his doppelganger, Mikami's personalities to fit in this stupid "crime doesn't pay" ending. Nier wins, Light PANICS(the one thing he never ever does), Mikami pretty much rats him out by SPEAKING DIRECTLY FUCKING TO HIM AND REFERRING TO HIM AS "GOD" and they both die by gunshot wound. THE END.
The worst part of that for me was that Nier 'Winning' didn't even make any sense. Because of Light's actions, crime worldwide was down 70% and both the Japanese and the American government (the two governments funding and legally backing Nier's and L's operation) had accepted Light's rule, meaning that not only were they not funded or supported by any branch of government, effectively making them a terrorist group at that point, but their entire motive and moral stance was made moot as well.
Nier and L were trying to "uphold the law" and prove they are the greatest detectives by catching the big bad guys at the moment. But by the end of the series Light's rule IS(or pretty much anyway) law, and as such "arresting" Light(had he of simply said "okay, bring me the fuck in, see what happens"), would not only have done nothing(as the police would have just gunned down Lights arrogant-ass kidnappers when they brought him in.) but would have breached the law and landed them as the criminals.
And the show just ignores that big fundamental hole in this apparent genius' reasoning, and continued to roll the credits as if it all made sense.
What a waste of a good show, all to a stupid climax "holy shit fix everything before we accidentally make a good point" ending. It was almost as if somebody burst into the script writer's office, slammed his down on the table and said "you will change this message to CRIME DOES NOT PAY or else!". But there you go, if you haven't actually seen death note and are reading this anyway(you bastard) then I suggest you do give it a look, but stop after say... episode 20 or so. Honestly, even an "and they all lived happily ever after" ending would have been better than the crap they tossed out at us.
EDIT: Do let me know of any grammatical/punctuation errors you find, it's late and google chrome's spellcheck is a bit bananas.
A few points from me:
1) The Mello/Near synchrony was great. A lot of people were too taken aback by L's death to fully appreciate it. While their characterization could have been better (it is in the manga, admittedly), it is special because this is the implication: together, they could have surpassed L's brilliance. They are two pieces of the same puzzle, like yin and yang. Mello is supposed to excel where Near falls short, and Near complete Mello's picture. The writers said that Mello is driven and extremely strong-willed, but is emotionally impulsive and reckless. Near is calm and level-headed, but lacks in inspiration and empathy.
The manga does a better job of explaining their roles together. I was a bit confused when I saw the anime. Basically, Mello expresses an understanding of the fact that he might die, and literally risks his life to uncover the existence of the second note. L failed to apprehend Kira, but in that one moment that Mello and Near acted as one, they succeded where L failed.
That was the point.
2) L is less likeable than Mello and Near, in my opinion. In the manga and in the anime rewrite, we are treated to a scene where he practically destroys the dreams of the orphans at Wammy's house by essentially calling himself an unfeeling, unrelatable, lying monster: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1uSCnuCzwM
3) Near and L aren't trying to uphold the law. It's explicitly stated that L only takes on cases because he's interested in them and views them as a challenge for his own entertainment (the "justice" thing is a lie, L is apparently very much a liar according to the writers), and Near doesn't believe a man can judge another man's life or death (and views Light as a serial killer with a God complex).
4) You're forgetting that Ryuk was technically the one who killed Light, even though Matsuda shot him.
5) And that he flipped out when they were trying to arrest him. And even if he got arrested and went into custody, Ryuk would have killed him with the note anyway.
People who stopped watching the series around L's death are idiots. Simple.
Edit: Just thought of something else.
6) No, Near/SPK wouldn't have been branded as criminals. Again, your poor understanding of the series shows through. The nations never "accepted" Kira, they were simply neutral to him and withdrew from actively pursuing him. If nothing else made this abundantly clear to you, the president's address in one of the Mello/Near arc episodes should have made it lucid.
It was something like, a journalist goes "Does that mean you think Kira is justice?" and the president says something like "Justice? What, no. We're simply withdrawing from persuing Kira."
And an add on to point 1, since your feeling about Mello being pointless bothers me:
"As a result, Ohba did not give Mello a "large role" at the conclusion of Death Note and instead had Mello negatively affect Light "indirectly". Ohba gave Mello a "very plain" death, depicted in only one panel; he felt that if Mello had perished "dramatically" it would reveal the truth behind his death."
and
"While Mello is certainly a genius and more intelligent than most people, the concept of being only the second most intelligent person at Wammy's House, behind Near, fuels the inferiority complex that defines Mello's character. Mello verges on being amoral in his obsession with being the one to take down Kira and is willing to do "whatever it takes", tactics which include kidnapping and being an accessory to murder. In the manga, after Mello has successfully stolen a Death Note, he even goes so far as to attempt to blackmail the President of the United States via telephone into giving him funds and resources to aid his hunt for Kira, threatening that if his demands are not met he will use the Death Note to force the president to launch the United States' nuclear missiles and start World War III."
I feel like it'd have been better if they included this in the anime as well.
And one final word. If you're solemnly against the second arc of the story, you should read the light novel "Change the WorLd". It carries on from the plot of the movie. Yes, a whole alternative ending actually exists for people like you who decide to disregard the second arc, I am not making that up.
In it, L safeguards himself against his usual death in the series (at the hands of Rem) by writing his own name in the Death Note and writes his time of death as occurring in something like 23 days (the maximum time between the writing of the name and the time of death as allowed by the note's rules). Because his name has already been written, Rem writing his name fails, Light is apprehended and L wins. The novel is about L taking on one last case before his time is up, after Light was apprehended. It's very plainly written, but extremely sweet (I can't say too much about that, spoilerific) and pretty engaging. It ends with him dying any way, but he dies happy and fulfilled. I suggest giving it a shot.
I wanted to catch up with a point made among many here...Ian Caronia said:
Oh but that's just bad writing. Ignore that.CrystalShadow said:
Hah Not to burst your bubble, OP, but you've opened a can of worms that won't shut as easy as that. It's like if I made a thread talking about how the Batman comics fucking suck after they crippled batgirl and killed off Bruce Wayne.Accountfailed said:
