If you could change anything about Death Note....

[Akiko-infinity]

New here, and haven't introduced myself yet. But I would change quite a few things. In all reality, the second half of the series felt rushed to me. It was like they were running out of time and had to wrap it up or something. I would make it longer, with more struggle from the boys (Mello, Matt, Near), and add some bits from the manga.

It felt like they killed Mello and Matt because they had worked themselves into a corner or something. The deaths were...dare I say...pathetic?

And I love the Matt avi in this forum!  

[Dynaswhore]

Honestly, nothing. Yes, it was sad the characters we love and adore died. But Sometimes its better to keep it original. One small change i would have made was keep Matt in there longer, there's really no point of creating a good character if he's gunna be killed off before we even blink so yeah....other than that, keep it the way it is.
I honestly don't know whats gunna be kept original in the warner bros movie though. <.<  

[xBitta Sweetx]

I'd change Light and L's death  

[jhblakes34]

Akiko-infinity

New here, and haven't introduced myself yet. But I would change quite a few things. In all reality, the second half of the series felt rushed to me. It was like they were running out of time and had to wrap it up or something. I would make it longer, with more struggle from the boys (Mello, Matt, Near), and add some bits from the manga.

It felt like they killed Mello and Matt because they had worked themselves into a corner or something. The deaths were...dare I say...pathetic?

And I love the Matt avi in this forum!

As revealed in both the Director's Cut fo the anime, and Book 13-How to Read by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, the Near and Mello Ark WAS rushed.

Shonen Jump only gave them a contract for 109 chapters, so they had to cram in as much cool scenes (such as Mello blowing up his own base) as possible to keep readers captivated.

and Mad House, the producers of the anime, only had a 37 episode ciontract, so they had to rush as well.  

[DomaDoma]

jhblakes34

As revealed in both the Director's Cut fo the anime, and Book 13-How to Read by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, the Near and Mello Ark WAS rushed.

Shonen Jump only gave them a contract for 109 chapters, so they had to cram in as much cool scenes (such as Mello blowing up his own base) as possible to keep readers captivated.

108 chapters. One hundred and eight. I ruddy well dare you to tell me that Ohba and Obata were responsible for Chapter 109.

Most manga readers said the second arc dragged. Me, I think it's about perfect.  

[jhblakes34]

DomaDoma

jhblakes34

As revealed in both the Director's Cut fo the anime, and Book 13-How to Read by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, the Near and Mello Ark WAS rushed.

Shonen Jump only gave them a contract for 109 chapters, so they had to cram in as much cool scenes (such as Mello blowing up his own base) as possible to keep readers captivated.

108 chapters. One hundred and eight. I ruddy well dare you to tell me that Ohba and Obata were responsible for Chapter 109.

Most manga readers said the second arc dragged. Me, I think it's about perfect.

EVERY single chapter of Death Note was written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, even the Special Death Note One-Shot that takes place as Near finally officially takes on the name of L, and refuses to do the Kira case.  

[DomaDoma]

jhblakes34

DomaDoma

jhblakes34

As revealed in both the Director's Cut fo the anime, and Book 13-How to Read by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, the Near and Mello Ark WAS rushed.

Shonen Jump only gave them a contract for 109 chapters, so they had to cram in as much cool scenes (such as Mello blowing up his own base) as possible to keep readers captivated.

108 chapters. One hundred and eight. I ruddy well dare you to tell me that Ohba and Obata were responsible for Chapter 109.

Most manga readers said the second arc dragged. Me, I think it's about perfect.

EVERY single chapter of Death Note was written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, even the Special Death Note One-Shot that takes place as Near finally officially takes on the name of L, and refuses to do the Kira case.

Very well. You asked for it.

A cursory analysis of the art in Chapter 109 will prove that Takeshi Obata, at least, was not on board for the project.

For instance, at the first appearance of Near's logo, it was in Cloister Black font:

Panel 1

But it quickly changed to Olde English, likely in order to visually distinguish the SPK from the NPA and to give a subtle nod that Things Are Different Now:

Panel 2

And when Near becomes L, his font is still Olde English:

Panel 3

But in Chapter 109, we are inexplicably back to Cloister Black.

Panel 1

This is Near in Chapter 108, age eighteen.

Panel 4

This is Near in Chapter 109, age twenty. Apparently, he caught the puberty train a bit... late.

Panels 1, 2 and 4

And then there are the just plain amateurish mistakes, like the fourth panel here:

Link

Now, Ohba is harder to pin down. Writers can and do screw up. However, there are pretty egregious changes that I certainly hope Ohba didn't make.

For instance, is this guy (and I'm just going off my cursory memory here)...
Link One
Link Two
Link Three (okay, that one was a gimmie)

...likely to say something like this?

Panel 4

And is this guy...

Whole Page

...likely to respond to the above OOC moment with more apathy than anyone else?

Whole Page

And if the statement in the first panel here is true...

Link

..then how the heck did this happen?

Whole Page

For that matter, if that statement is true, how do you reconcile it with this statement, which is also in Chapter 109?

Panel 4, Sentence 2

So, in conclusion: in the unlikely event that the TOs were involved, they certainly took great pains to let us know they were unhappy about it.  

[FoxMarcello]

DomaDoma

jhblakes34

DomaDoma

jhblakes34

As revealed in both the Director's Cut fo the anime, and Book 13-How to Read by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, the Near and Mello Ark WAS rushed.

Shonen Jump only gave them a contract for 109 chapters, so they had to cram in as much cool scenes (such as Mello blowing up his own base) as possible to keep readers captivated.

108 chapters. One hundred and eight. I ruddy well dare you to tell me that Ohba and Obata were responsible for Chapter 109.

Most manga readers said the second arc dragged. Me, I think it's about perfect.

EVERY single chapter of Death Note was written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, even the Special Death Note One-Shot that takes place as Near finally officially takes on the name of L, and refuses to do the Kira case.

Very well. You asked for it.

A cursory analysis of the art in Chapter 109 will prove that Takeshi Obata, at least, was not on board for the project.

For instance, at the first appearance of Near's logo, it was in Cloister Black font:

Panel 1

But it quickly changed to Olde English, likely in order to visually distinguish the SPK from the NPA and to give a subtle nod that Things Are Different Now:

Panel 2

And when Near becomes L, his font is still Olde English:

Panel 3

But in Chapter 109, we are inexplicably back to Cloister Black.

Panel 1

This is Near in Chapter 108, age eighteen.

Panel 4

This is Near in Chapter 109, age twenty. Apparently, he caught the puberty train a bit... late.

Panels 1, 2 and 4

And then there are the just plain amateurish mistakes, like the fourth panel here:

Link

Now, Ohba is harder to pin down. Writers can and do screw up. However, there are pretty egregious changes that I certainly hope Ohba didn't make.

For instance, is this guy (and I'm just going off my cursory memory here)...
Link One
Link Two
Link Three (okay, that one was a gimmie)

...likely to say something like this?

Panel 4

And is this guy...

Whole Page

...likely to respond to the above OOC moment with more apathy than anyone else?

Whole Page

And if the statement in the first panel here is true...

Link

..then how the heck did this happen?

Whole Page

For that matter, if that statement is true, how do you reconcile it with this statement, which is also in Chapter 109?

Panel 4, Sentence 2

So, in conclusion: in the unlikely event that the TOs were involved, they certainly took great pains to let us know they were unhappy about it.

I heard they originally wanted to end the series at L's death, but the fans or the editors or somebody wanted more so they decided to kill off light as quickly as possible  

[DomaDoma]

FoxMarcello

I heard they originally wanted to end the series at L's death, but the fans or the editors or somebody wanted more so they decided to kill off light as quickly as possible

I have also heard they originally wanted to end the series with L catching Kira in like episode fifteen. Both theories are probably bunk. (In the manga, the second arc took up 46% of the chapters, so "as quickly as possible" is purely an anime thing.)  

[jhblakes34]

DomaDoma

FoxMarcello

I heard they originally wanted to end the series at L's death, but the fans or the editors or somebody wanted more so they decided to kill off light as quickly as possible

I have also heard they originally wanted to end the series with L catching Kira in like episode fifteen. Both theories are probably bunk. (In the manga, the second arc took up 46% of the chapters, so "as quickly as possible" is purely an anime thing.)

About that big list of you're little 'errors'.
ALL chapters, EVERY last one of them, were written and illustrated by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata.
The constant changing of the font is the translators mistakes. The translators choose the font.
In japanese, L's name would not appear as the letter L, but as 'Eru'.
So, you're wrong.
The changing of the fonts for L and Near's names when on the computer and TV screens is different as well.
On the computer, L's letter is different then it is on the TV.
Near's different font is simply a mistake made by the translators.
I ahve every Death Note book, and I'm looking through them right now.
Every single one, 1 threw 12 of the manga, the 2 guide books, Death Note 13: How to Read, the light BB Novel, the light ChaNge The WorLd novel, and all the anime discs.  

[DomaDoma]

jhblakes34

About that big list of you're little 'errors'.
ALL chapters, EVERY last one of them, were written and illustrated by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata.
The constant changing of the font is the translators mistakes. The translators choose the font.
In japanese, L's name would not appear as the letter L, but as 'Eru'.
So, you're wrong.
The changing of the fonts for L and Near's names when on the computer and TV screens is different as well.
On the computer, L's letter is different then it is on the TV.
Near's different font is simply a mistake made by the translators.

Er, no. I assure you, the typical young Japanese person is perfectly familiar with the English alphabet. It's a paltry twenty-six characters, and occupation does that to a country's linguistics. That would be why, for instance, Matsuda refers to Hattori (huh, now I picture Hattori from Bakuman when I say that) as "H-san" during that dragged-out Kira special.

But more to the point, the scanlations and the official manga translations (of the main Death Note body, that is) have the same font changes in the same places. Also, the anime gives the SPK Olde English font from the getgo, but - funny thing - even in the fansubs, you still see Roman characters, not kana.

So... screenshots of L's logo being in kana, or it didn't happen.

And you say you've read Another Note? That counts as canon, seeing as it was mentioned in HTR13. So let me pile another point on top of the six others you haven't so much as touched: In that book, Mello explicitly states that he met L face-to-face, and it's heavily implied that B did as well. Why did Near get missed out?  

[xRyiox]

Zaige Delecroix

I would have Light win, but then Ryuk would eventually get bored and write his name down. That way, everyone would die and no one would win (except Ryuk). A happy ending for all! mrgreen

Would like for Light to win you say?  

[xRyiox]

I guess the one thing I would change about the series.

As a whole I would say the blatant sexism. All the women in death note are either ditsy, killed off, or useless.

Naomi Misora, apologized for speaking her thoughts on a situation that she ended up being right about all along, and he had even told her in response 'you're not FBI anymore, you're just my fiancee'.'

Misa. 'nuff said.

Sayu Yagami, sort of depended on men from the beginning, from help with her math homework to getting kidnapped by Mello, getting rescued and then when she was no longer of use, she fell into a state of traumatized shock and never appeared in the series again.

Light's Father snaps at Light's mother for turning off the TV, complete with a glare. And she complies to his anger by turning it back on with a look of dejection. A small thing, but once again showing men were more dominant in this situation.

Shiori Akino, manipulated by Light with false flattery. Killed when she was done being useful.

Mary "Weddy" Kenwood, stereotypical Hollywood style American woman. Also killed after she stops being useful, this time by plot device.

Other situations with Light blatantly saying things like "Why are women always /like this/?!" and "I never wanted to hit a woman so much in my life before."

I would also change the outlook on American's, I suppose that was a personal view of the author, with how weak and stereotypical the president himself looked and was as he basically handed the control of America over to Kira on a silver platter.

Just things like that, I feel like it would have made the series a little more...wholesome for me.

But I still like it, don't get me wrong. It's just stuff I would change if I could.  

[DomaDoma]

xRyiox

All the women in death note are either ditsy, killed off, or useless.

But I'll notice that you didn't list Halle. =D (And Raye is a jerk, but it doesn't keep Naomi from being competent and awesome. What it does do is ensure his own damnfool death. And if her death keeps her from being competent and awesome, then scratch out most of the cast.)

Still and all, though, you're right. Especially as Naomi apparently sees something in that schmuck to begin with.

As for the Americans... they're portrayed much better in the manga. The president prior to Marshal Petain over there was actually a pretty honorable guy. (Actually, what with the giant banner over Demegawa's newsdesk proclaiming "EVEN AMERICA HAS SUBMITTED!!" or somesuch, they rather flatter the Americans' resolve against Kira, given that we're a bit more chill with the death penalty than Japan is to begin with. But hey, I appreciated the flattery.)  

[Akiko-infinity]

DomaDoma

xRyiox

All the women in death note are either ditsy, killed off, or useless.

But I'll notice that you didn't list Halle. =D (And Raye is a jerk, but it doesn't keep Naomi from being competent and awesome. What it does do is ensure his own damnfool death. And if her death keeps her from being competent and awesome, then scratch out most of the cast.)

Still and all, though, you're right. Especially as Naomi apparently sees something in that schmuck to begin with.

As for the Americans... they're portrayed much better in the manga. The president prior to Marshal Petain over there was actually a pretty honorable guy. (Actually, what with the giant banner over Demegawa's newsdesk proclaiming "EVEN AMERICA HAS SUBMITTED!!" or somesuch, they rather flatter the Americans' resolve against Kira, given that we're a bit more chill with the death penalty than Japan is to begin with. But hey, I appreciated the flattery.)

Puh-lease. Naomi Misora handed her real name over to a stranger because he said he was working with L. If that doesn't make her an idiot, then Misa Amane is a genius. stare

Granted, she was still probably in some shock, grieving over the loss of her husband (why, I'll never know), but it was still an amateur mistake, one that cost her her life.