Just finished watching the anime yesterday, all I have to say is that it was badass!
Yes the legendary chip munch scene!
The potato chip scene didn’t seem so silly in japanese. “And…I’ll eat A POTATO CHIP!!!”
Woah woah woah???
Am I correct in reading that people feel the English voice over for Death Note is decent or even acceptable?
I just watched some dubbed clips from the adult swim site and the dubbed episode 2 and I will honestly say this is some of the WORST VO I’ve ever had the displeasure of hearing, and this kind of shit is exactly why mainstream Western outlets will never take anime seriously. Death Note is one of very few anime series with REAL artistic merit and a clever and provocative storyline, which isn’t a sad and pathetic rehash of X giant robot bullshit and Y stupid pointless fan service scenes.
I’ll admit I have a VERY basic understanding of spoken Japanese, but even with this I could tell that the actors, in particular Light, L, Aizawa, and Takada, put a lot of time and effort developing these characters, exploring a wide range of emotional and psychological nuances (something all PROFESSIONAL actors of any language do) and bringing this to the show.
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think any of the above performances deserve an Academy nomination, but compared to the laughable “Saturday morning cartoon” disaster that is the English VO for Light or the equally atrocious and undeniably campy VO for L; complete with one of the most pathetic attempts at a faked British accent in recent memory.
I mean seriously did anyone watch the notebook hiding scene? This was a great scene in it’s original form, not because the Japanese performance stood out as anything spectacular, but because of how it develops Lights character and foreshadows his crazed sense of infallibility by showing the questionable measures* he takes to protect his secret (*referring to the gasoline). This scene is completely ruined in the dubbed version thanks to the blasphemous abomination that this Yagami’s voice work. Watch as he explains the inner workings of his device with the intellectual cunning of an inbred gorilla and the delivery sounding like a 3rd grader read it off a teleprompter broadcasting a Q card.
I can’t imagine how badly this is going to hurt Death Note and its appeal with Western audiences. This guarantees that it will fail to receive any notoriety for its controversial and touchy subject matter, as it is passed off at first glance as Naruto for teenagers. Honestly this is one of the only anime series that isn’t plagued by the banes and conventions of it’s medium (like I stated earlier; no flying robots, no shameless fan service, no giant shoulder pads, no reading power levels, no scenes of violence where 12 times a characters body mass in blood and guts spills out of a minor flesh wound), and I felt it had a shot to move the genre’s integrity forward in Europe and North America had it been handled correctly. The only solace we can take is that we may see a trend of progression in artistic integrity across the Japanese language tracks for upcoming series due to Death Notes local success. Although if morons keep eating up the low budget audio hacks whom desecrate the credibility of otherwise legitimate titles in the West, it is unlikely we will ever see an improvement in the quality of the English VO.
Anyone who watched and enjoyed the original language track before this BS will most certainly attest to the same feelings. And if you still cannot see a massive drop in quality from one version to the next I urge anyone to watch Lights performance in the final episode (37) of the subtitled version, while paying close attention the subtle (and not so subtle) changes of tone and emotion in the performance, even if you can’t translate it word for word (I certainly can’t). Like I stated earlier, the Japanese language track is not going to win awards anytime soon but you certainly will understand why I’m so incredibly distraught over the abortion that is the English language dub.
^^^
Wow. That’s a bit over the top. Worst dubbing? Your standards must be incredibly high.
The english dub is just fine IMO. I’m not about to write a essay about why I think so.
I’ve been watching the sub simply because I don’t have the patience to wait, and I just can’t but help wish I could watch every ep in english. Misa has the most ANNOYING fucking voice in existence(worst than lady who voices goku in jap). If she sounded like that in english, I’d have to watch it in mute with subs.
For someone who doesn’t know a lick of japanese, how am I suppose to know how much emotion someone is supposedly putting into a scene while I’m reading text at the bottom of the screen?
Honestly I agree about the original voice work for Misa however $10 says her english dub will be even worse. Fortunately she’s not a major plot point past episodes 12 and 13 (at least in terms of screen time) so for the sub I just muted the scenes where she took center stage.
But I would say my standards are above anything reasonable although I’ll admit I haven’t watched a dubbed series in a while now so it’s possible the collective standard has gone down hill (either that or nostalgia is coloring some terrible VO in series I’ve enjoyed previous).
Well, I just completed it.
I won’t spoil anything just in case. But I will say, it’s quit evident SOMEONE decided the series was too short and needed to continue for another 13 or so episodes.
The whole point of the anime was the ongoing duel between Kira and L. It should have stayed that way. Without spoiling it’s hard to go into details. But…I feel that they just got lazy, and because of it, the ending wasn’t as good as it could have or should have been.
It was originally a manga.
^^
Well did it end the same way in the manga?
Yes pretty much the same way (some minor differences but the same overall situation). Death Note was more about human nature and Light’s perspective than the duel between him and L imo (although admittedly, L’s charisma did help propel the series to the heights it reached). As unconventional as it was Light was really the protagonist the entire time.
I understand that much.
I just would have liked to see a clear winner between those too in an epic finale. Not some WWE style interference courtesy of a random shinigami.
The show could have ended just the same without the SPK.
I loved it regardless. I think I just built up expectations that I can’t seem to shake now.
There’s an unofficial book based on Death Note arriving Wednesday in comic book shops English called “Death Note Lethally Fun Facts.” Sometimes fan made books like this are cool and other times they don’t tell you much and it is full of stuff you already know. Lol I’m a sucker for anything Death Note related… I’ll tell you how it is once I read it… 
Just finish the series. One of my favorites no doubt.
The voice of L and Ryuka suck in english.
Just watch it in japanese.
WTF, I go to hot topic and see deathnote shit all around of course like i predicted it to be. So i ask one of the chicks that works there.
Yo where’s the Yagami Light shirts!!??
HTGirl: We have L, and Ryuuk shirts…I mean L is a lil cooler than Yagami Light so–
Prime: I didn’t ask all that, but thanks–it’s ok L is gonna get his soon enough.
Htgirl: what do you mean??
Prime: I’ve seen the whole series already. Its just coming here to the states…
Htgirl: Really?–
Prime: dont worry i wont spoil ya whole word by telling you what’s gonna happen to L…ha ha ha ha…lol
Then i peaced myself out, damnit i was so hyped to cop a Yagami Light T. I can’t cop that Ryuk shirt not too many black peeps can get away wit rockin that shirt. oh well.
^LoL. She prolly Wiki’ed or Youtubed it when she got home [if she watches it].
kuro-hana released the DN special yesterday.
Fucking hot topics.
What do the Ryuuk shirts look like?
Finished reading the Death Note Lethally Fun Facts book and it was pretty dope! Lots of information, all of the rules of the Death Note featured in he back and they talk about the differences between the manga and the two live action movies too. Lots of things presented that were speculated by Japanese fans are addressed and some interesting speculations presented in the book itself about many things dealing with the manga. There’s a free bonus you get just for purchasing the book if you register online, I haven’t gotten around to doing it yet so I have no idea what it is, when I do I’ll let you know.
Only downside, there are some spelling errors here and there, but they are very minor for the most part. The Glossary section is spelled “Glossaly.” I wonder if that’s just an Engrish pun of sorts.
The other draw back since this book isn’t sanctioned by Jump in any way whatsoever is that there’s no artwork in the book. Most of the images are black silhouettes of the characters of Death Note, that’s how they got around that issue. LOL I swear sometimes I think no one in Japan ever gets sued over anything.