Death, Noted: The Main Failure of Netflix’s New Film

Trek
Trek
Aug 26, 2017 · 3 min read
Spoilers, obviously.

Listen. Netflix! I got what you were trying to do here. As a reformed devout weeb that spent most of their teenage years finagling their parents into watching anime (eventually creating a backrub-based barter system that exchanged honestly lackluster massages for episodes of Full Metal Alchemist), I know the difficulties of trying to get your average, non-weeb American audience’s eyes on the screen. English dubbing a Japanese production rarely cuts the mustard; an entire Americanization is usually required. We mocked 4kids for making onigiri into doughnuts, but they did what they had to do to bring in an American audience. So, I was willing to give Netflix’s take a shot. And I was on board with this crazy train. Right up until the end.

Dying is the apotheosis of Light Yagami’s story — it should have been Light Turner’s, too. Without the culmination of all of Light’s terrible actions being the ultimate punishment, he ends up being… unpunished. Sure, his father knows he’s killed 400 people and doesn’t seem overly happy about it — but he seems willing to become complicit in hiding his son’s crimes. L, the true hero of the story, has hit his lowest low and seems ready to end Light’s reign of terror — but we are not shown if that will be the case. For all we know, Light’s reign of terror does continue, and though L is surely hot on his trail once again, it’s hardly the sound condemnation of Light’s worldview that the narrative desperately calls for.

I honestly felt that, until the very end of the story, Netflix was doing very well with making Light a white guy. It was going just about the way I’d thought it would: instead of being the suave Japanese schoolboy sociopath we all know and love, Turner is a pushed around little twerp who spends a great deal of the movie looking like he’s five seconds from shitting his pants. He has Mia, but she’s not exactly the prize Misa is; she’s a cheerleader, and vaguely popular, but that’s not really the globetrotting superstar Yagami has hanging off his arm. Mia is also a sadist with her own devious intentions, unlike Misa’s righteous, undying blind loyalty. Their deaths reflect their different characters: Misa commits a “romantic, tragic” suicide over her lost love, while Mia gets fucked over by a desperate asshole. Until the moment the chase began, I was sure Netflix was heading for the ending I had imagined for it: the shitty white boy getting knocked down a peg by reality. Instead, Light gets the chance to explain himself. The last thing anyone wanted or needed.

Everyone is going to have their own opinions about the show. Some hate it before even watching it, despising yet another whitewashed fiasco from a clueless Hollywood — and they’re right. Some will love it, either as a faithful love letter to a long-loved canon or an entirely new experience — and they’re right, too. And some will enjoy the massive dumpster fire that is this show and everything surrounding it — and they’re the most right ones of all.

So, that’s how I feel about it.

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Trek

Trek

Cuban-American. Genderqueer. Socialist feminist.

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