I was thinking about the death note musical and how it just had such a simple and smart adaptation ending…like it’s pretty well agreed that the second half of Death Note is weaker, so the fact they have Ryuk just kill Light because he knows it will be boring with now that L’s gone is pretty funny, but also fits in pretty well with Ryuk’s general ‘only after something entertaining’ idea.. But I think it was especially clever the fact they set it up so it seemed like it was Light killing Rem that crossed the line for Ryuk. That the play had them sort of hanging out at the beginning, and Ryuk shows concern when Rem sacrifices herself and tries to talk her out of it. It seems like he thought of her as a friend, and mildly cared about her, but the fact Light would kill a death god not only sends off alarm bells, so this kid isn’t worth it anymore. Light was very much hoist by his own petard still, thinking he could just kill off a god and not get any consequences. He didn’t consider that Ryuk might have feelings about it.
It doesn’t change anything fundamental about Ryuk or what he represents in the manga- he’s still uncaring towards humans, still a neutral tempatation, he just has depth.
But mostly I like it as a change because it means someone actually gives a shit about Rem, whereas in the manga she dies alone and unmourned, and in the long run only bought Misa a couple extra years. Here, someone cares, and her death matters beyond being a device for Light to win. Here, she actually succeeds in protecting Misa permanently (since in the musical, Light dies before Misa regains her memories, so she’s fine, actually.) The musical is more explicit about Rem’s feelings for Misa romantic (and treats them with a LOT more weight that the original did), so Light actually getting direct comeuppance for laughing at her feelings for Misa leaves less of a bad taste too.
And the original mangaka would have never made that choice though because it would meant empathizing with and caring about a female character and her feelings for another woman. So you know. Adaptations can be good.
#Death Note#Death Note: The Musical#there was a musical?#I’m not being Goncharoved#am I?
You are not, and it’s actually pretty good. Enjoy if you want!
You are not, and it’s
actually pretty good.
Enjoy if you want!
Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.
