http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/03/deathnote_cheerfully.htmlSo I'm just today getting into the Death Note series. Haven't read the manga, but the anime is fun. Of course, the rights were scooped up after episode 12, so episodes 12-30 are poorly subtitled. But that's the breaks.
It's now been made into two movies, which I haven't yet seen (but am downloading), and, of course, there'll be an American version. Given that the story is about a Japanese death god dropping his notebook, I'm wondering how the American version will work? Sarah Michelle Gellar stumbles across an...ancient...Japanese artifact...and... Then... We stop writing the script and throw in a scary ghost girl and buckets of blood and leave it open for a sequel after trimming it down to 80 minutes and praying it'll make at least 60 million. Which it always does, because that's Sarah Michelle's secret superpower. She's the Gen X version of Sean Connery -- a moment of greatness, then a long, downward, self-mocking spiral that, somehow, never fails to make a mint with every appearance.
Actually, we'll need a guy for Death Note. Someone to play a meek and thoughtful genius who decides he can become the god of paradise if only he gets rid of criminals and people with criminal thoughts, even though the death god warns him that, you know, "you'll be the only bastard left, in that case."
I think what I enjoyed most was how that was the only warning at the start. Just a sort of, well, you're a fucking fruitcake, human. Jesus. Otherwise -- no angst. The god doesn't care...he's bored senseless. We get a tiny little bit of "Oh, no, I killed a man." But it's quickly glossed over because our boy decides to focus on criminals...and there are plenty of them out there.
