Hi! I've heard here and there that Anime!L is not nearly as iconic as Manga!L I have read the manga and watched the anime and yet I fail to see this? I mean I do notice that anime!L is more sensitive and seems a bit too attached to light but idk I wanted to ask your opinion! in your eyes, what are the main differences between manga and anime L ? <3
I donāt know about iconic, but manga!L and anime!L are definitely different, largely thanks to that added scene in episode 25.
Most of the first half of the anime covers the manga very accurately and there are only little changes to Lās behaviour. I think what those changes all have in common is the attempt to make L... cuter? Itās not major, but I think it does change how the viewer perceives LāsĀ āsocial awkwardnessā. I donāt have evidence for this, but I imagine an anime-only viewer is overall more likely to view it as genuine cluelessness rather than disregard.
And this of course ties back into the rain scene in episode 25 where we see L experience some genuine grief and sorrow - and more importantly, acceptance of his death. In the manga, L never thinks he has lost until he literally hits the floor dying. Until the end, he is doing his thing, investigation. Anime!L for some reason knows heās going to die and just... makes his peace with it?Ā
Likely enough this is because anime!L actually has a negative view of himself. It comes up in the rain scene when he states that all he says is nonsense that shouldnāt be taken seriously and it is further elaborated on in the Monster Speech from the Relight OVA. While that OVA is non-canon, I do think this particular speech gives us an impression of what kind of psychology for L the anime-writers had in mind when they made episode 25.
The anime version of L sees himself as a monster posing as a human - he is resentful of himself for being incapable of building real connections and he sees himself in Light.Ā The monster speech ends like this:
If I were to encounter such a monster, I would likely be eaten by it, because in truth, I am that monster.
And contextualizes why anime!L accepts his death - all along, heād thought that if he met his equal heād wind up destroyed by his own sin reflected in another.
Absolutely none of this applies to manga!L.
Though manga!L is also aware that he is a bad person, he just truly could not care less. Manga!L is certain of himself to the fullest - he lives for himself, for his own entertainment, and heās perfectly fine doing so.Ā
Manga!L is, simply speaking, that bitch.
Heās rich, heās confident, he puts himself first, he does what he wants, he disregards social rules because they do not please him, heās just... honestly, we could all stand to be a bit more like that? A bit, at least.
I like him a LOT more than his anime counterpart.