I love the lyrics in the Japanese production but the English version of Where is The Justice is much better than the Japanese version. The Japanese version much more about how justice is undefinable while The English version is about Light calling out the flaws of the justice system, establishing his character better.
Thanks for your comment, Joseph. In the version I watched the English version was dubbed over that number, so I didn't know what the Japanese translated lyric was. Good to know; from what you say I'd agree the English lyric is a stronger opening.
You mention the english and japanese lyrics murphy wrote the english lyrics so who wrote the japanese lyrics How did the two differ. Did murphy use the other lyrics or translate japenese into english
I have a soft spot for When Love Comes. Since musical Rem is more feminine than anime Rem, some audiences might not grasp the nature of her feelings for Misa (no, I don’t understand it either) and think it’s friendship or maternal love, like some argue re: the anime. The song makes it explicitly clear she’s romantically in love with her. There’s also the novelty - how many songs are there about women loving women in musicals? Additionally, it allows her to show her true emotions now she’s saying goodbye and Misa will have no memory of her. I agree that the American version of this song is fairly generic and could be any old love song; the Japanese one is much more specific. Another reviewer made an interesting point re: Rem - that other than Soichiro, she is the only sympathetic, noble character in the play, and this song does a good job of showing that. After all these songs about power, mind games and obsession, here’s one about love and sacrifice, setting her up as the tragic heroine of the show. Re: Misa scattering her remains - I always thought this was more symbolic than anything else, showing her as the third casualty of a fickle god’s whims.
Thanks for your comment, Rachael! Maybe it's because I discovered the anime recently, but I always got that Rem's feelings for Misa were more than platonic. It's a good point that making that relationship overt is a great opportunity the writers took with the musical. And the representation of romantic feelings/relationships between female character is something that is lacking in theatre in general. Like everything when it comes to art, things are rarely completely amazing or completely terrible - there's always a new way of seeing things 😊
I heard that they made the English lyrics less specific, so it would appeal to a broader audience, but ehhhh, the Asian versions seem much more poetic and touching. If they ever do an English run, I still suuuuuper wanna watch it tho. My younger self was obsessed with the songs, especially the Korean version of Hurricane.
@@mollypeterson6575 Even though I do like this show, I have no doubt that an English production of Death Note: The Musical would flop on Broadway, performing for either the same amount of performances as Bonnie and Clyde (another musical composed by Frank Wildhorn) or even less.
On the subject of Shinigami interacting with the physical world when people can't see them, one of my favourite moments in the 2017 production is right after Light tells Rem to kill L, when Sayu interrupts them to tell him that dinner is ready. Sayu barges into Light's room without knocking... and sees the Death Note floating in the air as Rem holds it. She has this AMAZING moment with Light where he just glares at her, and tells her he'll be down in a minute. The unspoken exchange between them is acted BEAUTIFULLY by both Lights and Sayu. It's that older brother "if you tell mom and dad, you're dead" vibe, but you can believe he might literally kill his own sister.
This was a really good video! And I agreed with you on a majority of what you said, but I would like to say a few things from perhaps a different perspective on a few of the problems the musical has. I have a theory on why the English lyrics don't quite hit as hard. All we have of the English version is the demo, not the finished product. From what I've been able to find out when it was announced a musical adaptation of Death Note was in production, western audiences were not wanting to give it a chance. People said it was a bad idea, that something like Death Note wouldn't translate well to the stage. Social media bashed it before it got the chance to even crawl, this affected the future of the musical and is theorized to be why it was never picked up in the states or any other English-speaking nation. It was however picked up in Japan where it was given the time to be fleshed out. Had the English version been given a chance I think we would have seen some changes to the music and lyrics to be more along the lines of what we eventually saw in the Japanese and South Korean productions. Of course, this is mostly theory based on what occurred during production and writing that we can't be sure of unless it is one day picked up somewhere we could see those changes. I also wanted to touch on the pacing issues you had, as someone who is a writer who hopes to one day publish my books, I don't have experience with writing screenplays but I do deal with pacing. For starters 'When love comes' storywise might not be quite as useless of a song as you might think. It could use to be cut in length, 2 minutes would probably plenty for it rather than the whole three minutes it has now but it represents vitally important character growth in Rem that you didn't quite touch on. Before this moment every time Rem sings, she sings about how she doesn't understand love or that it is foolish. But in 'When love comes/foolish love' she has finally found the meaning of what this love humans and Misa especially are so obsessed with. This is the end of her character development and while it could be expressed in words and in some ways is before the song ever starts, it is still a musical, and key character moments usually come in song. By cutting down the time and honing the lyrics I think the pacing could be improved. As for the final confrontation, I actually felt very differently, especially on my first watch-through. L's death is never meant to come as a surprise the anime and musical just have very different ways of going about it. The idea of making it ambiguous whether or not Rem really will write down his name is a good change though. When I first watched the moments leading up to L's death in both the anime and musical this feeling of dread just filled me, in both you know exactly what is going to happen and that there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. The anime makes it a bit more ambiguous as until it happens you have no idea what the tipping point will be just that Rem is willing to sacrifice everything for Misa. 'The way it ends/Last moments' I think is meant to build on that dread at least that's what it did for me. But that might be personal bias as it is one of my favorite songs in both Japanese and English. Unlike in the anime, until that point, L knows the game is about to end but has no idea it will end in his loss. Light wants him to know exactly what is about to happen, that he's won the game, specifically how he did it. The song doesn't really pause the scene things still move along but I can see how it can feel that way if you aren't into it. If I were to change anything, I would want L to be closer to knowing the truth and be the one to bring him down instead of Ryuk perhaps through a note he left for the police force or some kind of video. He still dies but brings Light down with him, and Ryuk like in the anime writes down his name knowing how boring things will be if Light is captured. This turned into a whole essay which I didn't really intend but as the thing that got me into Death Note in the first place, I have a lot of feelings about it.
I really love this musical! My fave song is the Mortals and Fools reprise, with Ryuk taking Rems place and trying to warn her but also his laughter like he wants to see what happens. I do like When Love Comes as for me it kinda completes Rems journey through her songs of being curious about love to warning Misa off it to realising she has kind of fallen in its 'trap' to finally just openly admitting she loves Misa and will happily die to save her life. Honestly I just love Rem in the musical she is my fave character even though i am not a fan of her in the anime. Also I just love when Ryuk kills Light and then just rolls his body over like it is nothing to get the apple from his pocket. That just sums up Ryuk's opinions of humans really, they're nothing but entertainment to him.
Thanks for your comment! I agree that Rem's character is much more compelling in the musical. I'd not thought about how "when love comes" fits in with her whole ark - that's an interesting point. I also agree Ryuk turning Light over is totally in character for him. On the whole I think all the characters translate well from the anime. 😊
Hello! My favorite is *Mortals and Fools,* but I find *There are Lines* and *Where Is The Justice* lovely as well. And *Borrowed Time* in general is absolutely lovely. I adore the way Misa is portrayed as well, simply because it's so much easier to see why Rem and Gelus fell in love with her. You can see just how dedicated she is to Light and her love in that song.
24:26 I listened to the soundtrack before watching the musical so I didn't have that thought about Rem's solo. It was actually one of my favorite songs. But in context, I can see how it would slow things down too much.
Regarding the Korean lyrics, I am fairly certain the Korean script and lyrics were translated from the Japanese rather than from the English. Also, I would kill to have Hong Kwang-Ho's beautifully dark and rich voice. He actually has a handful of performances on UA-cam of him singing Broadway tunes in English!
Thanks for your comment. Translating the Korean from Japaneses would explain the similarities. Also, I'm now going to binge watch Hong Kwang-Ho singing all the things. Thank you for my upcoming Tuesday evening! 😂
My school is actually doing one of those non-profit productions of it using the concept album. It's going to be very, very interesting to say the least.
@@yazmatazz06 it was called off due to covid complications sadly, but we did block most of the songs all nicely. I played L, and the girl who played Light was very talented. The rivalry was definitely there
When I first heard there was a DN musical, I wasn’t looking forward to listening to it, because it didn’t seem like something worth listening to. After all, it doesn’t really seem like a good setup for a musical. Oh, but when I listened to the English concept album I was blown away at how amazing it was! The music was so well done, and the more I read comments, the detail in the lyrics and music, instruments chosen amazed me. Okay, and the 2015 Japanese version? That’s amazing! The actors who play Light (I prefer Hayato Kakizawa more) and L do so well, and their songs represent them and their conflicts so well, and I enjoyed how Ryuk was presented and Rem’s songs. I wasn’t anticipating Rem would have a song, let alone two, but “mortals and fools/a cruel dream” is so good. I could go on and on, but I loved how the lyrics were changed from the English demo in the Japanese version, so Light starts as more sympathetic but at the end it’s clear he’s Kira. In the Korean version (2015) I really enjoyed the small script and dialogue changes from the Japanese version, which tightened up the plot and put more humor in. That was great. The choice for the singers to change their singing style so drastically though.... Light’s reference to Hallie Belle (why they changed it from Ray Penber...) and how he found out his name was a nice nod to the movie. One of my favorite parts was that characters we don’t know a lot about in the anime or manga get songs in this: Soichiro (Honor Bound-and kind of Secrets and Lies) Sayu (We all need a Hero/Hero) This song is so depressing bc Sayu is explaining why her brother is her hero and role model....oh it’s so painful. Ryuk (They’re only human, Kira) Rem(They’re only Human, Mortals and Fools, When Love Comes) Oh, and they redeemed Misa! Her obsession with Light is explained so much better, and she’s an actually likable character! I was so happy that I actually liked her in this. She also gets some songs. Okay, and then L gets three songs I think? 3 solos in the Japanese and Korean version, “the game begins” and “the way things are +repsrise” which is when he realizes Shinigami are real. Okay, the actor for L in the 2015 Japanese version is my favorite. He legitimately played L from the anime, like he stepped out of the screen, and made L singing and gesturing seem like the most natural thing in the world. And I love his performance so much! It made “the way it ends” so much worse because....it just hurts. Didn’t mean to ramble, but I love musical theatre so much, and this is my favorite anime so I’m just...very into it. About the ending: I liked how the conflict of Light vs L was ended. In the anime and manga, Near and Mello get introduced and plot is skewed into something it’s not, at least not when L was alive. So I really liked how they aren’t even in this (I do like the charcters), and it ends with Light and L confronting each other. L’s first stanza in the English version adds such a nice, tragic touch to the whole ending, like the rain scene in the anime where it’s clear L knows he’s lost. Just the fact he knows he’s lost but can’t do anything to stop it was such a good touch. And then Light’s lines were really good, and-okay, after the music ends and L has his last line (Japanese 2015 version) it’s so in charcter for him, I loved that. I think Ryuk ending things, and Light’s final “you can’t kill me, I’m the god of the new world” part was a good ending. It’s one of those “this has been a tragedy, and it’s all pointless and yet not” things, which leaves the audience with a much more satisfying ending then the anime. I also liked how they incorporated Light beging Ryuk not to kill him from the manga.
Agreed re: keeping the manga ending. The anime made Light too sympathetic in the end, as though he was a hero in a Shakespeare tragedy. This ending emphasises what a worm he is, begging Ryuk to show him the mercy he never granted anyone else.
Absolutely one of my the best moments from the musical is the adapted death of the Raye Rember stand-in. Not only was the way that they interpreted the train very visually cool, but the reprise of Light's song when he first gets the death note. The repeated lyrics "I am prepared for sacrifice... it's for that shining world." change meaning so spectacularly. In the first song Light is talking about HIMSELF. He's willing to sacrifice his own heart and sanity as a teenager committing murder, criminal or otherwise. But in the reprise? No, "I am prepared for sacrifice." explicitly means that he is READY and WILLING to sacrifice innocents. It's so good.
About Rem knowing L's real name: She is a Shinigami, therefore she has the shinigami eyes and can see people's real name above their head. Yes, you could argue "How would she know that HE is L?"... L's real name is literally L Lawliet so... yeah she would know... Granted I agree that they could have explained it better, but it is not really a plothole. Just wanted to pause to explain a bit. Love the review so far, I will keep watching now! ^^;
When I was in school we did a version of Death Note for our final project(music and arts program) and I played Ryuk. Let me tell you, it is one of the hardest things I have ever done. I was told that it would be easy and to just have fun, but it was not easy at all. Running around being way too energetic, whilst singing. It was still fun though and it will always be my favorite memory from school. It is nice to see a review from a musical actor rather than just a Death Note fan. Also Honorbound is also my favorite song from the musical. I cry almost everytime I hear it. Fun fact: In the Korean version of the musical, L was played by Kim Junsu, who is a big kpop star and from one of the biggest groups of the first/second generation kpop(still don´t know which the are under) DB5K. This year is his 18th year as an artist. He is also seen as one of the best vocalist in South Korea. The 2017 Misa Amane is also played by a singer named Ben. (My user name actually is based on DB5K's(Junsu's group) fandom name Cassiopeia. I've been a fan of his since 2010).
29:59-30:03 That would be a hilarious take on Millennial Light🤣 "Honour bound" is my favourite too, and one of the rare songs on the album that translated well across all 3 language mediums of English, Korean and Japanese. I would have liked a reprise from Sayu & Soichiro at the end of the musical, instead of Requiem. Although I liked the Greek chorus tragic element at the end, there was a missed opportunity to showcase Light's family and bring them full circle . Although if Soichiro reprised Honour bound again, I'd probably start bawling😭 A great review and analysis, as we all (literally) descend into Death Note musical hell👨🎤
Thanks for your comment! A full circle moment with Soichiro and Sayu would be so poignant, but I would probably be bawling too! Glad you enjoyed the video 😊
I'm here to feed my obsessive fangirling. I was so ready to throw hands if the song that officers sang wasn't mentioned 😅 I always get teary on that one And honour bound lives in my head rent free. But playing his game? Epiiiic Agree with all your points. (Maybe replace Rem's song with a short mortals and fools reprise with changed lyrics) Also, you're so gorgeous what the hell this is unfair
Haha! Thank you for your comment - I'm glad you approve of the review 😊 Also good shout on a mortals and fools reprise - that could have worked so well in that moment!
This was an amazing video and I’m totally here for it I agree with the points you made about breaking the pace of L’s death with a song. I love “The way it ends” , but it really feels like they just slapped it in there. I personally would have liked if the end of the song was closer to L’s death, or even if it was in it. (The gunshot interrupting the song would have been absolutely great too!) I can’t believe you didn’t mention Kira’s last moments. Hayato Kakizawa absolutely blew my mind, I could feel his desperation through the screen in a way that was painful to watch, yet I couldn’t look away. (I don’t know if that makes sense lol). Also, when Light has finally descended into Kira, when the ensamble was singing was such a powerful moment, I got the biggest chills. My favorite part of the musical is definitely Teppei Koike. His L is brilliant. I don’t even have words to describe him, I love him so much. Not to mention, that he sang almost all the way hunched, which is so hard to do. I can’t help but skip “When love comes” in the production. The song is great but at that point, as you said, I’m more interested in how the story ends with L and Light, knowing the final confrontation is so near. I wish they had worked it in somewhere or somehow else. So far I’ve only seen the first Japanese production, and heard the English album, but I’ll be sure to check out the Korean version too! I’m sorry for the long comment , and English isn’t my first language so I hope it’s understandable lol. Again, great video, you’ve earned yourself a new subscriber :D
I agree with you so much! The Japanese actors were amazing, and yes, maybe interrupting “the way it ends” with a gunshot would’ve been better. However, I feel like hearing both L and Light’s perspectives through the song, and then L’s last spoken line has much more of an impact. Also, ending it in the song would’ve cut him off when he had more to do like the anime and it would’ve been too much pain. Yes, the actors for Light and L were so good! They’re my favorites and I keep coming back to the recorded production to watch them again.
Thank's for your comment! You're right about Lights final moments. It was brilliantly acted and so disturbing yet gripping. An singing hunched?! I do not envy Teppei Koike having to do that!
I found out about this musical today and I've been trying to consume as much of it as possible! I can't believe I didn't find it sooner when death note was my first anime which I watched back in 2016 and I'm a total musical theatre nerd!! Great video, it helped to quench the thirst for more death note musical
Wow this was finally recommended to me! I just started the video but before I forgot I wanted to say thank you for this video, Death Note really deserves more attention! I used to be mutuals with people who did a lot of the work recovering the English demo and script, I miss working on it tbh. Now I've moved on to other lost media and musical projects. I'll let you know if I have more comments once I'm done with the vid! :D
I love and agree with all of your points! And I love this video! If anyone's interested into the history of the show or the process of recovering the English version let me know.
On another note, if you're interested in making another video about an obscure lost musical I'd love to talk to you about my current lost media revival project Rag Dolly! It's a musical from the 80's about Raggedy Ann and flopped on Broadway after only FIVE PERFORMANCES due to bad reviews and parents complaining about dark themes. It's got quite the controversy behind it.
Hiya! Thank you so much for your comments (just catching up!). I'm glad you enjoyed the video. How did the process of recovering the English version work? Would love to here more. Also I've never heard of the musical Rag Dolly! but it sounds interesting. Will have to do some googling...
@@MichaelaBennison For a while there were only five English songs available, I don't know who from. They were likely made public by Ivan Mitchel since he's the one who released the rest later. Almost all of the work contacting Ivan, organizing the versions, and editing the best subtitled video of the show was done by T. F. Allen. They have a doc with extensive documenting of the process (I'm referencing it now) and how they put together the video since there's a lot of inconsistencies between the script Ivan released, the demo, and of course the Japanese. Back in the day you had to have the link to even listen to the 13 new demo songs, I think I was the first person to put some of them up though halfway through a Frank Wildhorn dedicated channel made some without lyrics. The japanese was available before then but you had to search hard for the lyrics and translations. Everything was released by Ivan Mitchel over twitter (music and script) and the demo crew seems to support us, even if it's bootlegged. Though I think we've only talked to him and Michel Lanning (Soichiro) I may be wrong. The issues were with the company that recorded the Japanese production, especially the proshot. So T. F. Allen's work got taken down a lot. There's a constant rotation of partial-dubbed & subbed versions online, though there's a decent subbed-only one up now and I can contact Allen for their most recent version!
Really cool to hear your review - i'm a huge fan of the anime and musical, but know nothing about music/music theory/principles of writing theater, so I loved hearing your thoughts on the music/lyrics. It would be so cool to have Rem & Ryuk's songs musically differentiated more, and to have the English lyrics be more character-driven. There are some instances when the English lyrics hit me hard ("I don't care who gets hurt now, as long as I get one more shot") but that could have happened MUCH more frequently
The songs that I thought were so intelligent with their lyricism would probably be The Game Begins which both adds in L's and Light's theme in the beginning while adding in L's thoughts on the kira investigation (how he thought it was a game), Mortals and Fools which works out Rem's love without taking out her whole inner personality, and They're Only Human was the best thing ever with Rem and Ryuk in english ahfkshvdok but like the way they put in their personalities while also putting them together was so amazing and they way they compare and contrast is both morbid and beautiful, it's so underrated in my opinion and nobody talks about it enough.
I love with your 3rd idea for the change with The Way It Ends. I personally wouldn't cut the song because I find the first part (L's verse) CHILLING. I love him realizing his actions aren't fully his own but having no choice to do them, which I don't think you could keep even if you kept the song but didn't know about L's death. But having the gunshot in the middle? That would be SO good. Personally, I wouldn't put it directly in the middle, maybe right after L's verse ends before Light starts his monolog? I think that would make Lights part feel more earned and bring back the tension for the rest of the scene.
Plus it would make the first "is this the way it ends now?" in L's section more of a point of intrigue because with the gunshot in the middle we wouldn't KNOW. The musical already changed the ending, so who's to say it WONT end with L having just enough control to kill Light, showing them more as equals, right before L's killed by the death note? It would be so intriguing. Then, when the real ending occurs, I think that the gunshot being planned by Light would feel more like an actual reveal, one final moment of hope for L immediately wiped out by despair, instead of being as straightforward as in the real musical
This is my favorite musical. They did a production in Moscow, and I’m not 100% sure but I believe casting wise, they alter the line about broadcasting in Japan, to Russia, and therefore can more easily cast.
Noooo I love The Way It Ends. I don’t think it’s unnecessary at all, it starts with L singing instead of Light which I like because the former is the one who’s gonna die so it’s cool to hear his thoughts on what’s happening to him before his enemy’s. Also the fact that he’s being manipulated by the notebook, drawn to this warehouse to which he doesn’t want to go and has no idea how to stop it is really messed up. So for that reason I don’t think the song is unnecessary! But, maybe it’s just the L/Light duet lover in me 😜 However I do agree that the plan for L’s death should have been revealed at the end! They should have played it out like how Light killed Shiori (his dead gf) in the 2006 movie. We didn’t know she was gonna die but when the whole plan was revealed I remember being quite shocked.
Hi. I never felt that Misa is pouring the "ashes" of Rem at the end. It is more like a metaphorical figure showing that Misa lives out her remaining half "sand of time". Depicting that the other half was sacrificed totally in vain, as she was unable to save Light with this sacrifice. And for me, this is the toughest part, because she gives it up without hesitation, still it has no use at all, it does not matter. Also in the anime, she halves her lifespan twice unknowingly, which is much more horrific. Otherwise, you have some good points to think about. The pace, the dramaturgical arc, they make sense. Thank you.
20:00 I disagree that the song is unnecessary. I do completely agree that L's death would've been more impactful if it came as a surprise, yes. I think they should've had that sneak up on us and L's opening lines in the song be more about how he feels like he's close to catching Kira, but that something feels off. But I think the adding of a song there, and specifically the contents of The Way It Ends is soo good! It's such a tragic song and as it goes on you can hear L losing hope and accepting that he's about to die before he finally does. And I think that if we hadn't known he was going to die before that song, it would've been a major tear-jerker (even more than it already is lmao)
Conclusion: Yes it is, the music is interesting and describes the characters perfectly in the plot. The way the story is told may be a little too forced, but they had to cram a 39 episode anime into 2 and a half hours, but I think it's totally worth it, specially if you like the anime.
For me, the reason why they cut a lot of scenes from the anime is because: 1. There might be some minors watching the musical. 2. It's musical. So there are many songs included which would take a lot of time. 3. There are some parts (I guess) that was taken from the movie and live actions wherein the plots are a little bit different from the anime. 4. I guess in the Musical they just really introduced the characters though.
While I do love the soundtrack, I do see the issues you pointed out. I find myself listening to sounds like I'm Ready, Mortals and Fools, Hurricane, and Stalemate as just separate songs with out any context. Frank Whildhorn has a tendency to write beautiful music, but his musicals don't always feel like their own unique sound. For instance, I love Jekyll and Hyde which is probably his most popular musical. However, he doesn't seem to give a musical theme for anyone. I feel like distinguishing the sound between Jekyll and Hyde would help sell the idea that these are two separate entities with very different interests. Same goes for L and Light. He seemed to try and give L a more piano based sound, and Light a bit heavier rock theme. Yet, it's not a consistent enough sound for the two, to really distinguish their personalities. As far as the climax, I've only heard the soundtrack to the musical, and I never finished the anime, so I can't say too much about it. However, I didn't love how L just dies 2/3rds of the way through the anime since it feels like it should stay a battle between him and Light. Once they introduced the new characters, I lost all interest and couldn't bring myself to finish it. So, I do prefer how the musical cuts that section from the anime, but I also feel they didn't really know how to end where Light is defeated in a satisfying way. All in all, I think it needs some reworking to really make the show better, but I still love the music
It's interesting to see the English Lyrics from a theatrical point of view. Death Note was my first theater musical ever, so I'm not well versed in how it usually done. I listen to the English Lyric as a standalone song (as in not part of a story) compared to the Japanese lyric. To be fair, I can't read nor understand Japanese well. What I noticed is the English Lyrics is more focused on making the song more rhyming and poetic. I love some amazing choice of words bit such as "pawn upon a board" and "bends as Light refracts" (the last one is from Honorbound, which I agree is a very amazing and touching piece). To me it seems like the English lyrics is trying not to 'dictate' the story and simply tries to give an 'illustration' of the events. I'm not sure what the situation on the US production when the concept album was made. But, I was under the impression that the song is created first before the script was done. If that's true, then it quite make sense why the lyric sounds broader since it would means that it still not really clear where the song will be inserted into the script. Of course that's just a speculation. And I agree, after this review, that the Japanese version is more personal than the English version. Also, Kakizawa Hayato KILLS as Light (pun obviously intended). His acting really amazing, especially his descent into madness. Really love your review. It's rare to see a review from a person in the industry. So it open my views.
Thank you for your comment. Glad you enjoyed my review! It is true that there is some lovely imagery in the English lyric (I love the line "bends as light refracts" too!). Though there may be some in the Japanese and Korean lyrics as well, that's been lost in translation (I don't speak either language, so I don't know). And as stand alone songs, they are great. But as a performer who works in musical theatre, I think specificity in lyrics makes for better storytelling, both in giving the actor something to play and giving the song a dramatic purpose.
Last time I checked you can also find a Korean stage recording of the musical on youtube. So far I’ve watched it three times or something. I love the Death Note musical so much, it brought me into the anime.
@@MichaelaBennison The UA-cam one got removed unfortunately :( But the translator and uploader was kind enough to provide a download link for the full video: drive.google.com/file/d/1N7u1DIHSyFW48OMb-b-9_G7nXL3t2hAm/view?usp=sharing Apparently this is also an edited of two different videos to get all the best angles and lighting quality. Enjoy!
I found a pro-shot of the 2017 production of the Death Note musical and while it is the same show, there are some differences in the lighting, cinematography, and music arrangements that make me prefer that production over the 2015 production.
There are also a couple of slightly different scenes. Most notably, the dialogue interlude in "Hurricane" is revised to show the police discussing the news of the Amane family murderer's death, and Soichiro identifies that as the latest in a trend of criminal heart attacks.
@@MichaelaBennison it’s what I love about theater in general: there is never one definitive version of a show. There is always a new cast and crew to bring their own visions of a show to life and it is always a treat to see another vision of the same show.
you made so many good points!!! i totally agree with you on the music. the music's good, but it didn't really stand out much, especially when you compare it to the soundtracks in the anime which are super memorable and distinct, like L's theme for instance, but nonetheless i really enjoyed the musical. and this video!!! :o)
I understand your point and i kind of agree with the last scene between L and Light, but i liked the songs. Actually i feel it has more build up to bring back the song of their confrontation at the end like that, than if there were no songs at all. I watched the musical multiple times because i'm obssessed with it 😅 and i think the reason they went with that ending is that L is not exactlly portrayed as a good person either... The chief sings multiple times about how he thinks that L is kind of like kira, which in that way could make sense that they did what they did... But the thing that nobody talked about but that i really liked is the scene between Light and Ryuk at the end. I think it is really cool to see Light so panicking and begging like that, because he went from confident god to just being a ridiculuous and vulnerable human... As for the pacing and the time they take between some scenes... i kind of agree but i think that it is the japanese way of doing things. If you've watched anime movies like a silent voice, colorfull and that kind of things you can really feel that the pacing of those movies are much slower than what the western audience is used to. So maybe it's that. Overall, i think they did a pretty good job in adapting the manga into a musical, i love the songs, the actors, their voices and i prefer the setting of the stage of the japanese version to the english version the're doing right now in london. But that's just my preference.
This is an excellent review and video. Now that I’ve found you I’ll be looking forward to new vids. I agree with practically everything you said in your review, except maybe for When Love Comes. Also the director of the revival of the musical in Tokyo on 2017 (with the OC) agreed with you about the silly jokes about not seeing Shinigami but yet ignoring blatant things they were doing like moving Soichiro. All those instances were removed in the redo. Also stay away from the 2020 version. They decided to try it with a new cast and they we’re definitely amateur hour compared to the OC. Dreadful in my opinion. Mercifully the run was cut short by covid. Again, thank you for your your review. As a lover of everything DN (not Netflix) I appreciated you taking to time to do it.
Thank you so much - I'm glad you enjoyed the review! I've heard that the 2017 version had some changes. A shame about the 2020 production not being up to the same standard...
I think the sand thing is similar to how Misa remembers she is in love with Light even though she lost her memories of him being Kira...'cause her feelings are there even when her memories are gone. and/or a piece of symbolism, yes.
i so agree with what u said about the depth of the english versions of the songs! also, as much as i love the actors chosen for the english concept album, i felt like the choices for misa and sayu were weird? the japanese versions of their songs are immensely better just in terms of tone
I definitely agree with what you said about the musical’s ending being both sensible and flawed at the same time. Imo, the 2006 movie has the best ending. Not only is it sensible and flawless but it’s also satisfying to watch. More satisfying than the anime I would say. Everybody is split on the anime ending because half of us wanted Light to win and the other half wanted the Wammy boys to win, but the movie ending is the best because if there’s anyone that everybody would have wanted to win it’s L. And he wins in the movie that’s why that ending is the best and most satisfying one, even if they both have to die in the end.
Hi there. I know this is an old video, but I've only watched a cut of the pro shop musical last night. It had been edited so that the English concept album cast was basically pasted over a lot of the Japanese singing, which for this blind girl saved my life. I could actually take a slight break in straining my eyes over the subtitles as I watched it. I have been curious about death note for years, especially once I discovered its existence partly through the Netflix movie which I haven't watched because I know it's s***. I haven't been able to sit through even the first episode of the anime, but I thought if I could get myself to sit through the musical maybe that would give me a small leg up into understanding the anime better no matter how different it was. My criticisms are that Frank wildhorn's pension for major sweeping pop ballads altered itself just enough to be obviously more poppy, but it's still a show overlaiden with ballads. That's not necessarily a bad thing because I absolutely worship Jekyll & Hyde which is 2/3 pop ballads lol. But I felt it more in this show. I felt like Light's... Corruption? ... Was a bit too fast. It gave me whiplash. Especially when it felt like L the really f****** creepy detective was right on course with the exact same frame of mind. Seriously, L felt like every Japanese villain I've seen in any anime or manga. Not that I've seen a lot I really really haven't. But he felt like the creepiest creeper to me. Other than that I wasn't terribly impressed by the show, but I'm sure it had a lot to do with the format in which I watched it. It was enjoyable, I will probably go back to it or listen to the English demo. And my favorite song was the one that Misa wrote for Kira.
My only “big” problem with this musical was that how the hell does Misa get to have 3 FLIPPIN SOLOS where as my boy L only gets 2???? And only one of those two songs have an English cast recording?? Like bruh?? I’m Ready, I’ll Only Love You More and Borrowed Time all have English recordings but out of The Game Begins and The Way Things Are only the former has an English version. That’s where I agree with you that Borrowed Time and When Love Comes should have been one song. Yes, Misa is a pop singer which is why it makes sense to give her more solos but then again her “singer song” that we know she releases as part of her discography is I’ll Only Love You More. Which is why that song should be her solo. But Borrowed Time and When Love Comes should have been a duet somehow.
Deathnote has finally come to London stage theatre. Are you going to be watching, or has your interest in the story waned over the past couple of years?
I thought the sand was just a symbol of the rest of her lifespan sort of fading away because Light has died so for her life dosen't matter that much anymore, lets it fall like sand. I can see now what you mean and how that would then not make sense.
I was a fan of the anime and the manga when I saw the musical and I also love it! I enjoyed all the songs and I love how they changed some stuff because I actually prefer the musical's ending over the original ending. It's also really fun to see the different lyrical interpretations between the japanese, korean, and english versions.
Hi Eliza, thanks for your comment! It is really interesting see the differences between lyrics in the other languages. And I do think the musical ending is good - I think I just saw the musical and the anime too close together! 😊
@@MichaelaBennison honestly, I think the reason I prefer the musical's ending more is probably because I mostly lost interest in the manga when Near was introduced. I don't hate him like most do but I don't like him very much either so it was refreshing to see the musical take the shorter turn and just have Light die after he defeats L. Although, if it was up to me, I'd have preferred it if Light didn't die immediately and we instead get to see a world where Kira truly reigns with no one to challenge him. (Would it be the utopia that Light envisioned or the complete opposite?)
I’m sorry… what?? I was with you for a while on this but your commentary on the music totally threw me off… what do you mean no difference between the humans and the shinigami?? What do you mean nothing unique or special or specific?? There are so many Easter eggs and references not only to the anime but to the personalities of the characters. The music in this anime is so extremely detailed and well thought out; I can’t believe you said that I don’t mean to seem harsh or mean but seriously you missed a lot in the music
Just watched the entire review after UA-cam recommended it, since I've been listening to the musical for over a week now after seeing the uploaded version. I really enjoyed hearing your opinions on it, you have actual knowledge, your ideas are well organized and the editing is really good, I'm past surprised that you only have a couple hundred suscribers. If you upload more reviews I'd probably watch them. In The Heights was released recently, or Hamilton last year on Disney+. If you don't mind a tiny bit of unsolicited advice (or constructive criticism), I'd say you should put a square in one of the upper corners of the video where you could put images, examples or short looped scenes (to avoid dmca) of what you're talking about. It makes watching the video as entertaining as listening to it is. If you know the Overly Sarcastic Productions channel, you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, great video, it really shows you enjoyed the play even despite all that nitpicking.
I love the lyrics in the Japanese production but the English version of Where is The Justice is much better than the Japanese version. The Japanese version much more about how justice is undefinable while The English version is about Light calling out the flaws of the justice system, establishing his character better.
Thanks for your comment, Joseph. In the version I watched the English version was dubbed over that number, so I didn't know what the Japanese translated lyric was. Good to know; from what you say I'd agree the English lyric is a stronger opening.
You mention the english and japanese lyrics murphy wrote the english lyrics so who wrote the japanese lyrics
How did the two differ. Did murphy use the other lyrics or translate japenese into english
@@MichaelaBennison I like where is the justice in English but I'm ready is way better in Japanese
Fun fact: Soichiro was played by Takeshi Kaga who also played Soichiro in the 2006 live action film.
This was a really fun review!!
Hi emilygracey, fun fact indeed! Glad you enjoyed the review 😊
@@MichaelaBennison Another Fun Fact: Takeshi Kaga is also the first Jean Valjean in the japanese version of Les Misérables.
I thought I recognized him!!! Screaming! 💖💖
I have a soft spot for When Love Comes. Since musical Rem is more feminine than anime Rem, some audiences might not grasp the nature of her feelings for Misa (no, I don’t understand it either) and think it’s friendship or maternal love, like some argue re: the anime. The song makes it explicitly clear she’s romantically in love with her. There’s also the novelty - how many songs are there about women loving women in musicals?
Additionally, it allows her to show her true emotions now she’s saying goodbye and Misa will have no memory of her. I agree that the American version of this song is fairly generic and could be any old love song; the Japanese one is much more specific.
Another reviewer made an interesting point re: Rem - that other than Soichiro, she is the only sympathetic, noble character in the play, and this song does a good job of showing that. After all these songs about power, mind games and obsession, here’s one about love and sacrifice, setting her up as the tragic heroine of the show.
Re: Misa scattering her remains - I always thought this was more symbolic than anything else, showing her as the third casualty of a fickle god’s whims.
Besides, we know Eponine is in love with Marius as soon as she’s introduced, yet she still gets a whole song about it.
Thanks for your comment, Rachael! Maybe it's because I discovered the anime recently, but I always got that Rem's feelings for Misa were more than platonic. It's a good point that making that relationship overt is a great opportunity the writers took with the musical. And the representation of romantic feelings/relationships between female character is something that is lacking in theatre in general. Like everything when it comes to art, things are rarely completely amazing or completely terrible - there's always a new way of seeing things 😊
I heard that they made the English lyrics less specific, so it would appeal to a broader audience, but ehhhh, the Asian versions seem much more poetic and touching. If they ever do an English run, I still suuuuuper wanna watch it tho. My younger self was obsessed with the songs, especially the Korean version of Hurricane.
Thanks for your comment! I'd like to see an English language run too 😊
Book writer Ivan Menchell mentioned on twitter that if Death Note should ever get an English production, the show would open in the West End first.
@@theassortedhobbyist I don't blame him. West End doesn't treat Wildhorn like trash. Broadway critics always seem to be ready to tear down his work.
@@mollypeterson6575 Even though I do like this show, I have no doubt that an English production of Death Note: The Musical would flop on Broadway, performing for either the same amount of performances as Bonnie and Clyde (another musical composed by Frank Wildhorn) or even less.
On the subject of Shinigami interacting with the physical world when people can't see them, one of my favourite moments in the 2017 production is right after Light tells Rem to kill L, when Sayu interrupts them to tell him that dinner is ready. Sayu barges into Light's room without knocking... and sees the Death Note floating in the air as Rem holds it. She has this AMAZING moment with Light where he just glares at her, and tells her he'll be down in a minute. The unspoken exchange between them is acted BEAUTIFULLY by both Lights and Sayu. It's that older brother "if you tell mom and dad, you're dead" vibe, but you can believe he might literally kill his own sister.
This was a really good video! And I agreed with you on a majority of what you said, but I would like to say a few things from perhaps a different perspective on a few of the problems the musical has.
I have a theory on why the English lyrics don't quite hit as hard. All we have of the English version is the demo, not the finished product. From what I've been able to find out when it was announced a musical adaptation of Death Note was in production, western audiences were not wanting to give it a chance. People said it was a bad idea, that something like Death Note wouldn't translate well to the stage. Social media bashed it before it got the chance to even crawl, this affected the future of the musical and is theorized to be why it was never picked up in the states or any other English-speaking nation. It was however picked up in Japan where it was given the time to be fleshed out. Had the English version been given a chance I think we would have seen some changes to the music and lyrics to be more along the lines of what we eventually saw in the Japanese and South Korean productions. Of course, this is mostly theory based on what occurred during production and writing that we can't be sure of unless it is one day picked up somewhere we could see those changes.
I also wanted to touch on the pacing issues you had, as someone who is a writer who hopes to one day publish my books, I don't have experience with writing screenplays but I do deal with pacing.
For starters 'When love comes' storywise might not be quite as useless of a song as you might think. It could use to be cut in length, 2 minutes would probably plenty for it rather than the whole three minutes it has now but it represents vitally important character growth in Rem that you didn't quite touch on. Before this moment every time Rem sings, she sings about how she doesn't understand love or that it is foolish. But in 'When love comes/foolish love' she has finally found the meaning of what this love humans and Misa especially are so obsessed with. This is the end of her character development and while it could be expressed in words and in some ways is before the song ever starts, it is still a musical, and key character moments usually come in song. By cutting down the time and honing the lyrics I think the pacing could be improved.
As for the final confrontation, I actually felt very differently, especially on my first watch-through. L's death is never meant to come as a surprise the anime and musical just have very different ways of going about it. The idea of making it ambiguous whether or not Rem really will write down his name is a good change though.
When I first watched the moments leading up to L's death in both the anime and musical this feeling of dread just filled me, in both you know exactly what is going to happen and that there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. The anime makes it a bit more ambiguous as until it happens you have no idea what the tipping point will be just that Rem is willing to sacrifice everything for Misa. 'The way it ends/Last moments' I think is meant to build on that dread at least that's what it did for me. But that might be personal bias as it is one of my favorite songs in both Japanese and English. Unlike in the anime, until that point, L knows the game is about to end but has no idea it will end in his loss. Light wants him to know exactly what is about to happen, that he's won the game, specifically how he did it. The song doesn't really pause the scene things still move along but I can see how it can feel that way if you aren't into it. If I were to change anything, I would want L to be closer to knowing the truth and be the one to bring him down instead of Ryuk perhaps through a note he left for the police force or some kind of video. He still dies but brings Light down with him, and Ryuk like in the anime writes down his name knowing how boring things will be if Light is captured.
This turned into a whole essay which I didn't really intend but as the thing that got me into Death Note in the first place, I have a lot of feelings about it.
I really love this musical! My fave song is the Mortals and Fools reprise, with Ryuk taking Rems place and trying to warn her but also his laughter like he wants to see what happens. I do like When Love Comes as for me it kinda completes Rems journey through her songs of being curious about love to warning Misa off it to realising she has kind of fallen in its 'trap' to finally just openly admitting she loves Misa and will happily die to save her life. Honestly I just love Rem in the musical she is my fave character even though i am not a fan of her in the anime.
Also I just love when Ryuk kills Light and then just rolls his body over like it is nothing to get the apple from his pocket. That just sums up Ryuk's opinions of humans really, they're nothing but entertainment to him.
Thanks for your comment! I agree that Rem's character is much more compelling in the musical. I'd not thought about how "when love comes" fits in with her whole ark - that's an interesting point.
I also agree Ryuk turning Light over is totally in character for him. On the whole I think all the characters translate well from the anime. 😊
Hello! My favorite is *Mortals and Fools,* but I find *There are Lines* and *Where Is The Justice* lovely as well. And *Borrowed Time* in general is absolutely lovely. I adore the way Misa is portrayed as well, simply because it's so much easier to see why Rem and Gelus fell in love with her. You can see just how dedicated she is to Light and her love in that song.
24:26 I listened to the soundtrack before watching the musical so I didn't have that thought about Rem's solo. It was actually one of my favorite songs. But in context, I can see how it would slow things down too much.
Regarding the Korean lyrics, I am fairly certain the Korean script and lyrics were translated from the Japanese rather than from the English.
Also, I would kill to have Hong Kwang-Ho's beautifully dark and rich voice. He actually has a handful of performances on UA-cam of him singing Broadway tunes in English!
Thanks for your comment. Translating the Korean from Japaneses would explain the similarities.
Also, I'm now going to binge watch Hong Kwang-Ho singing all the things. Thank you for my upcoming Tuesday evening! 😂
My school is actually doing one of those non-profit productions of it using the concept album. It's going to be very, very interesting to say the least.
Sounds fab! Good luck with the production 😊
That's so cool, my school would never
@@yazmatazz06 it was called off due to covid complications sadly, but we did block most of the songs all nicely. I played L, and the girl who played Light was very talented. The rivalry was definitely there
@@yazmatazz06 Thank you!!
When I first heard there was a DN musical, I wasn’t looking forward to listening to it, because it didn’t seem like something worth listening to. After all, it doesn’t really seem like a good setup for a musical. Oh, but when I listened to the English concept album I was blown away at how amazing it was! The music was so well done, and the more I read comments, the detail in the lyrics and music, instruments chosen amazed me.
Okay, and the 2015 Japanese version? That’s amazing! The actors who play Light (I prefer Hayato Kakizawa more) and L do so well, and their songs represent them and their conflicts so well, and I enjoyed how Ryuk was presented and Rem’s songs. I wasn’t anticipating Rem would have a song, let alone two, but “mortals and fools/a cruel dream” is so good. I could go on and on, but I loved how the lyrics were changed from the English demo in the Japanese version, so Light starts as more sympathetic but at the end it’s clear he’s Kira.
In the Korean version (2015) I really enjoyed the small script and dialogue changes from the Japanese version, which tightened up the plot and put more humor in. That was great. The choice for the singers to change their singing style so drastically though....
Light’s reference to Hallie Belle (why they changed it from Ray Penber...) and how he found out his name was a nice nod to the movie.
One of my favorite parts was that characters we don’t know a lot about in the anime or manga get songs in this:
Soichiro (Honor Bound-and kind of Secrets and Lies)
Sayu (We all need a Hero/Hero) This song is so depressing bc Sayu is explaining why her brother is her hero and role model....oh it’s so painful.
Ryuk (They’re only human, Kira)
Rem(They’re only Human, Mortals and Fools, When Love Comes)
Oh, and they redeemed Misa! Her obsession with Light is explained so much better, and she’s an actually likable character! I was so happy that I actually liked her in this. She also gets some songs.
Okay, and then L gets three songs I think? 3 solos in the Japanese and Korean version, “the game begins” and “the way things are +repsrise” which is when he realizes Shinigami are real. Okay, the actor for L in the 2015 Japanese version is my favorite. He legitimately played L from the anime, like he stepped out of the screen, and made L singing and gesturing seem like the most natural thing in the world. And I love his performance so much! It made “the way it ends” so much worse because....it just hurts.
Didn’t mean to ramble, but I love musical theatre so much, and this is my favorite anime so I’m just...very into it.
About the ending:
I liked how the conflict of Light vs L was ended. In the anime and manga, Near and Mello get introduced and plot is skewed into something it’s not, at least not when L was alive. So I really liked how they aren’t even in this (I do like the charcters), and it ends with Light and L confronting each other.
L’s first stanza in the English version adds such a nice, tragic touch to the whole ending, like the rain scene in the anime where it’s clear L knows he’s lost. Just the fact he knows he’s lost but can’t do anything to stop it was such a good touch. And then Light’s lines were really good, and-okay, after the music ends and L has his last line (Japanese 2015 version) it’s so in charcter for him, I loved that.
I think Ryuk ending things, and Light’s final “you can’t kill me, I’m the god of the new world” part was a good ending. It’s one of those “this has been a tragedy, and it’s all pointless and yet not” things, which leaves the audience with a much more satisfying ending then the anime. I also liked how they incorporated Light beging Ryuk not to kill him from the manga.
Agreed re: keeping the manga ending. The anime made Light too sympathetic in the end, as though he was a hero in a Shakespeare tragedy. This ending emphasises what a worm he is, begging Ryuk to show him the mercy he never granted anyone else.
Absolutely one of my the best moments from the musical is the adapted death of the Raye Rember stand-in. Not only was the way that they interpreted the train very visually cool, but the reprise of Light's song when he first gets the death note. The repeated lyrics "I am prepared for sacrifice... it's for that shining world." change meaning so spectacularly. In the first song Light is talking about HIMSELF. He's willing to sacrifice his own heart and sanity as a teenager committing murder, criminal or otherwise. But in the reprise? No, "I am prepared for sacrifice." explicitly means that he is READY and WILLING to sacrifice innocents. It's so good.
About Rem knowing L's real name: She is a Shinigami, therefore she has the shinigami eyes and can see people's real name above their head. Yes, you could argue "How would she know that HE is L?"... L's real name is literally L Lawliet so... yeah she would know...
Granted I agree that they could have explained it better, but it is not really a plothole.
Just wanted to pause to explain a bit. Love the review so far, I will keep watching now! ^^;
Misa was also a J-Pop star in the Live-Action Film in 2006 and the J-Drama in 2015.
Stalemate is my favourite song from the Death Note musical!
When I was in school we did a version of Death Note for our final project(music and arts program) and I played Ryuk. Let me tell you, it is one of the hardest things I have ever done. I was told that it would be easy and to just have fun, but it was not easy at all. Running around being way too energetic, whilst singing. It was still fun though and it will always be my favorite memory from school. It is nice to see a review from a musical actor rather than just a Death Note fan.
Also Honorbound is also my favorite song from the musical. I cry almost everytime I hear it.
Fun fact: In the Korean version of the musical, L was played by Kim Junsu, who is a big kpop star and from one of the biggest groups of the first/second generation kpop(still don´t know which the are under) DB5K. This year is his 18th year as an artist. He is also seen as one of the best vocalist in South Korea. The 2017 Misa Amane is also played by a singer named Ben.
(My user name actually is based on DB5K's(Junsu's group) fandom name Cassiopeia. I've been a fan of his since 2010).
29:59-30:03 That would be a hilarious take on Millennial Light🤣
"Honour bound" is my favourite too, and one of the rare songs on the album that translated well across all 3 language mediums of English, Korean and Japanese.
I would have liked a reprise from Sayu & Soichiro at the end of the musical, instead of Requiem.
Although I liked the Greek chorus tragic element at the end, there was a missed opportunity to showcase Light's family and bring them full circle .
Although if Soichiro reprised Honour bound again, I'd probably start bawling😭
A great review and analysis, as we all (literally) descend into Death Note musical hell👨🎤
Thanks for your comment! A full circle moment with Soichiro and Sayu would be so poignant, but I would probably be bawling too! Glad you enjoyed the video 😊
Really enjoyed this video.
Thanks!
I'm here to feed my obsessive fangirling.
I was so ready to throw hands if the song that officers sang wasn't mentioned 😅
I always get teary on that one
And honour bound lives in my head rent free.
But playing his game? Epiiiic
Agree with all your points.
(Maybe replace Rem's song with a short mortals and fools reprise with changed lyrics)
Also, you're so gorgeous what the hell this is unfair
Haha! Thank you for your comment - I'm glad you approve of the review 😊 Also good shout on a mortals and fools reprise - that could have worked so well in that moment!
As a fellow music major/theater geek, it was really awesome to see someone else talking about this Ill fated musical. So many good points.
This was an amazing video and I’m totally here for it
I agree with the points you made about breaking the pace of L’s death with a song. I love “The way it ends” , but it really feels like they just slapped it in there. I personally would have liked if the end of the song was closer to L’s death, or even if it was in it. (The gunshot interrupting the song would have been absolutely great too!)
I can’t believe you didn’t mention Kira’s last moments. Hayato Kakizawa absolutely blew my mind, I could feel his desperation through the screen in a way that was painful to watch, yet I couldn’t look away. (I don’t know if that makes sense lol). Also, when Light has finally descended into Kira, when the ensamble was singing was such a powerful moment, I got the biggest chills.
My favorite part of the musical is definitely Teppei Koike. His L is brilliant. I don’t even have words to describe him, I love him so much. Not to mention, that he sang almost all the way hunched, which is so hard to do.
I can’t help but skip “When love comes” in the production. The song is great but at that point, as you said, I’m more interested in how the story ends with L and Light, knowing the final confrontation is so near. I wish they had worked it in somewhere or somehow else.
So far I’ve only seen the first Japanese production, and heard the English album, but I’ll be sure to check out the Korean version too!
I’m sorry for the long comment , and English isn’t my first language so I hope it’s understandable lol. Again, great video, you’ve earned yourself a new subscriber :D
I agree with you so much! The Japanese actors were amazing, and yes, maybe interrupting “the way it ends” with a gunshot would’ve been better. However, I feel like hearing both L and Light’s perspectives through the song, and then L’s last spoken line has much more of an impact. Also, ending it in the song would’ve cut him off when he had more to do like the anime and it would’ve been too much pain.
Yes, the actors for Light and L were so good! They’re my favorites and I keep coming back to the recorded production to watch them again.
Thank's for your comment! You're right about Lights final moments. It was brilliantly acted and so disturbing yet gripping.
An singing hunched?! I do not envy Teppei Koike having to do that!
I found out about this musical today and I've been trying to consume as much of it as possible! I can't believe I didn't find it sooner when death note was my first anime which I watched back in 2016 and I'm a total musical theatre nerd!! Great video, it helped to quench the thirst for more death note musical
Thanks for your comment, Morgan. Glad my video helped you scratch that Death Note Musical itch! 😊
Wow this was finally recommended to me! I just started the video but before I forgot I wanted to say thank you for this video, Death Note really deserves more attention! I used to be mutuals with people who did a lot of the work recovering the English demo and script, I miss working on it tbh. Now I've moved on to other lost media and musical projects. I'll let you know if I have more comments once I'm done with the vid! :D
I love and agree with all of your points! And I love this video! If anyone's interested into the history of the show or the process of recovering the English version let me know.
On another note, if you're interested in making another video about an obscure lost musical I'd love to talk to you about my current lost media revival project Rag Dolly! It's a musical from the 80's about Raggedy Ann and flopped on Broadway after only FIVE PERFORMANCES due to bad reviews and parents complaining about dark themes. It's got quite the controversy behind it.
Hiya! Thank you so much for your comments (just catching up!). I'm glad you enjoyed the video. How did the process of recovering the English version work? Would love to here more.
Also I've never heard of the musical Rag Dolly! but it sounds interesting. Will have to do some googling...
@@MichaelaBennison For a while there were only five English songs available, I don't know who from. They were likely made public by Ivan Mitchel since he's the one who released the rest later. Almost all of the work contacting Ivan, organizing the versions, and editing the best subtitled video of the show was done by T. F. Allen. They have a doc with extensive documenting of the process (I'm referencing it now) and how they put together the video since there's a lot of inconsistencies between the script Ivan released, the demo, and of course the Japanese.
Back in the day you had to have the link to even listen to the 13 new demo songs, I think I was the first person to put some of them up though halfway through a Frank Wildhorn dedicated channel made some without lyrics. The japanese was available before then but you had to search hard for the lyrics and translations.
Everything was released by Ivan Mitchel over twitter (music and script) and the demo crew seems to support us, even if it's bootlegged. Though I think we've only talked to him and Michel Lanning (Soichiro) I may be wrong. The issues were with the company that recorded the Japanese production, especially the proshot. So T. F. Allen's work got taken down a lot. There's a constant rotation of partial-dubbed & subbed versions online, though there's a decent subbed-only one up now and I can contact Allen for their most recent version!
Really cool to hear your review - i'm a huge fan of the anime and musical, but know nothing about music/music theory/principles of writing theater, so I loved hearing your thoughts on the music/lyrics. It would be so cool to have Rem & Ryuk's songs musically differentiated more, and to have the English lyrics be more character-driven. There are some instances when the English lyrics hit me hard ("I don't care who gets hurt now, as long as I get one more shot") but that could have happened MUCH more frequently
the answer is yes in fact it is better than the anime
I wouldn’t say better since it couldn’t have the same suspense and time to develop in the medium of stage
Just watched the Korean production live last weekend. So fun!
Lucky!! Do you live in Korea or did you travel there to watch it? Either way I wish I could watch it too argggh
The way it ends borrow time, and when love comes, are my favorite songs in the musical
The songs that I thought were so intelligent with their lyricism would probably be The Game Begins which both adds in L's and Light's theme in the beginning while adding in L's thoughts on the kira investigation (how he thought it was a game), Mortals and Fools which works out Rem's love without taking out her whole inner personality, and They're Only Human was the best thing ever with Rem and Ryuk in english ahfkshvdok but like the way they put in their personalities while also putting them together was so amazing and they way they compare and contrast is both morbid and beautiful, it's so underrated in my opinion and nobody talks about it enough.
Thank for your comment. I'd agree "They're Only Human" is underrated. Since filming this video, that's one of the songs that has still stuck with me.
I love with your 3rd idea for the change with The Way It Ends. I personally wouldn't cut the song because I find the first part (L's verse) CHILLING. I love him realizing his actions aren't fully his own but having no choice to do them, which I don't think you could keep even if you kept the song but didn't know about L's death. But having the gunshot in the middle? That would be SO good. Personally, I wouldn't put it directly in the middle, maybe right after L's verse ends before Light starts his monolog? I think that would make Lights part feel more earned and bring back the tension for the rest of the scene.
Plus it would make the first "is this the way it ends now?" in L's section more of a point of intrigue because with the gunshot in the middle we wouldn't KNOW. The musical already changed the ending, so who's to say it WONT end with L having just enough control to kill Light, showing them more as equals, right before L's killed by the death note? It would be so intriguing. Then, when the real ending occurs, I think that the gunshot being planned by Light would feel more like an actual reveal, one final moment of hope for L immediately wiped out by despair, instead of being as straightforward as in the real musical
This is my favorite musical. They did a production in Moscow, and I’m not 100% sure but I believe casting wise, they alter the line about broadcasting in Japan, to Russia, and therefore can more easily cast.
Noooo I love The Way It Ends. I don’t think it’s unnecessary at all, it starts with L singing instead of Light which I like because the former is the one who’s gonna die so it’s cool to hear his thoughts on what’s happening to him before his enemy’s. Also the fact that he’s being manipulated by the notebook, drawn to this warehouse to which he doesn’t want to go and has no idea how to stop it is really messed up. So for that reason I don’t think the song is unnecessary!
But, maybe it’s just the L/Light duet lover in me 😜
However I do agree that the plan for L’s death should have been revealed at the end! They should have played it out like how Light killed Shiori (his dead gf) in the 2006 movie. We didn’t know she was gonna die but when the whole plan was revealed I remember being quite shocked.
Hi. I never felt that Misa is pouring the "ashes" of Rem at the end. It is more like a metaphorical figure showing that Misa lives out her remaining half "sand of time". Depicting that the other half was sacrificed totally in vain, as she was unable to save Light with this sacrifice. And for me, this is the toughest part, because she gives it up without hesitation, still it has no use at all, it does not matter. Also in the anime, she halves her lifespan twice unknowingly, which is much more horrific.
Otherwise, you have some good points to think about. The pace, the dramaturgical arc, they make sense. Thank you.
20:00 I disagree that the song is unnecessary. I do completely agree that L's death would've been more impactful if it came as a surprise, yes. I think they should've had that sneak up on us and L's opening lines in the song be more about how he feels like he's close to catching Kira, but that something feels off. But I think the adding of a song there, and specifically the contents of The Way It Ends is soo good! It's such a tragic song and as it goes on you can hear L losing hope and accepting that he's about to die before he finally does. And I think that if we hadn't known he was going to die before that song, it would've been a major tear-jerker (even more than it already is lmao)
Conclusion: Yes it is, the music is interesting and describes the characters perfectly in the plot. The way the story is told may be a little too forced, but they had to cram a 39 episode anime into 2 and a half hours, but I think it's totally worth it, specially if you like the anime.
For me, the reason why they cut a lot of scenes from the anime is because:
1. There might be some minors watching the musical.
2. It's musical. So there are many songs included which would take a lot of time.
3. There are some parts (I guess) that was taken from the movie and live actions wherein the plots are a little bit different from the anime.
4. I guess in the Musical they just really introduced the characters though.
Also they can’t tell the whole story of the anime in 2 hours or else it would be too rushed
While I do love the soundtrack, I do see the issues you pointed out. I find myself listening to sounds like I'm Ready, Mortals and Fools, Hurricane, and Stalemate as just separate songs with out any context. Frank Whildhorn has a tendency to write beautiful music, but his musicals don't always feel like their own unique sound. For instance, I love Jekyll and Hyde which is probably his most popular musical. However, he doesn't seem to give a musical theme for anyone. I feel like distinguishing the sound between Jekyll and Hyde would help sell the idea that these are two separate entities with very different interests. Same goes for L and Light. He seemed to try and give L a more piano based sound, and Light a bit heavier rock theme. Yet, it's not a consistent enough sound for the two, to really distinguish their personalities. As far as the climax, I've only heard the soundtrack to the musical, and I never finished the anime, so I can't say too much about it. However, I didn't love how L just dies 2/3rds of the way through the anime since it feels like it should stay a battle between him and Light. Once they introduced the new characters, I lost all interest and couldn't bring myself to finish it. So, I do prefer how the musical cuts that section from the anime, but I also feel they didn't really know how to end where Light is defeated in a satisfying way. All in all, I think it needs some reworking to really make the show better, but I still love the music
It's interesting to see the English Lyrics from a theatrical point of view. Death Note was my first theater musical ever, so I'm not well versed in how it usually done. I listen to the English Lyric as a standalone song (as in not part of a story) compared to the Japanese lyric. To be fair, I can't read nor understand Japanese well. What I noticed is the English Lyrics is more focused on making the song more rhyming and poetic. I love some amazing choice of words bit such as "pawn upon a board" and "bends as Light refracts" (the last one is from Honorbound, which I agree is a very amazing and touching piece).
To me it seems like the English lyrics is trying not to 'dictate' the story and simply tries to give an 'illustration' of the events. I'm not sure what the situation on the US production when the concept album was made. But, I was under the impression that the song is created first before the script was done. If that's true, then it quite make sense why the lyric sounds broader since it would means that it still not really clear where the song will be inserted into the script.
Of course that's just a speculation. And I agree, after this review, that the Japanese version is more personal than the English version. Also, Kakizawa Hayato KILLS as Light (pun obviously intended). His acting really amazing, especially his descent into madness.
Really love your review. It's rare to see a review from a person in the industry. So it open my views.
Thank you for your comment. Glad you enjoyed my review!
It is true that there is some lovely imagery in the English lyric (I love the line "bends as light refracts" too!). Though there may be some in the Japanese and Korean lyrics as well, that's been lost in translation (I don't speak either language, so I don't know). And as stand alone songs, they are great. But as a performer who works in musical theatre, I think specificity in lyrics makes for better storytelling, both in giving the actor something to play and giving the song a dramatic purpose.
Last time I checked you can also find a Korean stage recording of the musical on youtube. So far I’ve watched it three times or something. I love the Death Note musical so much, it brought me into the anime.
Thanks for your comment - I need to see if I can find it! It's great that the musical is bringing the original story to a wider audience 😊
@@MichaelaBennison The UA-cam one got removed unfortunately :( But the translator and uploader was kind enough to provide a download link for the full video: drive.google.com/file/d/1N7u1DIHSyFW48OMb-b-9_G7nXL3t2hAm/view?usp=sharing
Apparently this is also an edited of two different videos to get all the best angles and lighting quality. Enjoy!
same here! I got the books and watched the show because of the musical
I found a pro-shot of the 2017 production of the Death Note musical and while it is the same show, there are some differences in the lighting, cinematography, and music arrangements that make me prefer that production over the 2015 production.
There are also a couple of slightly different scenes. Most notably, the dialogue interlude in "Hurricane" is revised to show the police discussing the news of the Amane family murderer's death, and Soichiro identifies that as the latest in a trend of criminal heart attacks.
Interesting. I always find it interesting when shows are allowed to change and evolve between productions.
@@MichaelaBennison it’s what I love about theater in general: there is never one definitive version of a show. There is always a new cast and crew to bring their own visions of a show to life and it is always a treat to see another vision of the same show.
you made so many good points!!! i totally agree with you on the music. the music's good, but it didn't really stand out much, especially when you compare it to the soundtracks in the anime which are super memorable and distinct, like L's theme for instance, but nonetheless i really enjoyed the musical. and this video!!! :o)
I would love for you to read the manga! Based of how passionate you are for the other versions I think you would like it
this video is so well done!!! love this!!! agree SO HARD about how amazing the hurricane reprise is, it gives me chills everytime
I understand your point and i kind of agree with the last scene between L and Light, but i liked the songs. Actually i feel it has more build up to bring back the song of their confrontation at the end like that, than if there were no songs at all. I watched the musical multiple times because i'm obssessed with it 😅 and i think the reason they went with that ending is that L is not exactlly portrayed as a good person either... The chief sings multiple times about how he thinks that L is kind of like kira, which in that way could make sense that they did what they did... But the thing that nobody talked about but that i really liked is the scene between Light and Ryuk at the end. I think it is really cool to see Light so panicking and begging like that, because he went from confident god to just being a ridiculuous and vulnerable human... As for the pacing and the time they take between some scenes... i kind of agree but i think that it is the japanese way of doing things. If you've watched anime movies like a silent voice, colorfull and that kind of things you can really feel that the pacing of those movies are much slower than what the western audience is used to. So maybe it's that. Overall, i think they did a pretty good job in adapting the manga into a musical, i love the songs, the actors, their voices and i prefer the setting of the stage of the japanese version to the english version the're doing right now in london. But that's just my preference.
Great review! Made me rethink about some of those songs. Also would you be willing to do SpongeBob the musical? Please.
Thanks for your comment! I haven't checked out any of the Spongebob Musical yet, so it could be a fun video idea. Thanks for the recommendation 😊
PLEASE
This is an excellent review and video. Now that I’ve found you I’ll be looking forward to new vids. I agree with practically everything you said in your review, except maybe for When Love Comes. Also the director of the revival of the musical in Tokyo on 2017 (with the OC) agreed with you about the silly jokes about not seeing Shinigami but yet ignoring blatant things they were doing like moving Soichiro. All those instances were removed in the redo. Also stay away from the 2020 version. They decided to try it with a new cast and they we’re definitely amateur hour compared to the OC. Dreadful in my opinion. Mercifully the run was cut short by covid. Again, thank you for your your review. As a lover of everything DN (not Netflix) I appreciated you taking to time to do it.
Thank you so much - I'm glad you enjoyed the review! I've heard that the 2017 version had some changes. A shame about the 2020 production not being up to the same standard...
I think the sand thing is similar to how Misa remembers she is in love with Light even though she lost her memories of him being Kira...'cause her feelings are there even when her memories are gone. and/or a piece of symbolism, yes.
You should definitely check out the Korean version! The actors/singers are soooo good (much better than the Japanese version imo 🙈)!
i so agree with what u said about the depth of the english versions of the songs! also, as much as i love the actors chosen for the english concept album, i felt like the choices for misa and sayu were weird? the japanese versions of their songs are immensely better just in terms of tone
I definitely agree with what you said about the musical’s ending being both sensible and flawed at the same time. Imo, the 2006 movie has the best ending. Not only is it sensible and flawless but it’s also satisfying to watch. More satisfying than the anime I would say. Everybody is split on the anime ending because half of us wanted Light to win and the other half wanted the Wammy boys to win, but the movie ending is the best because if there’s anyone that everybody would have wanted to win it’s L. And he wins in the movie that’s why that ending is the best and most satisfying one, even if they both have to die in the end.
DEATH NOTE...
Manga, Anime, Live action series, Movies, Musical.
I’m actually so happy how many media we have of this series it’s all a fan could ever want
When i first heard Mortals and Fools I thought it was Rem trying to warn Mikasa to be wary of the love she feels for Kira/Light.
Hi there. I know this is an old video, but I've only watched a cut of the pro shop musical last night. It had been edited so that the English concept album cast was basically pasted over a lot of the Japanese singing, which for this blind girl saved my life. I could actually take a slight break in straining my eyes over the subtitles as I watched it. I have been curious about death note for years, especially once I discovered its existence partly through the Netflix movie which I haven't watched because I know it's s***. I haven't been able to sit through even the first episode of the anime, but I thought if I could get myself to sit through the musical maybe that would give me a small leg up into understanding the anime better no matter how different it was.
My criticisms are that Frank wildhorn's pension for major sweeping pop ballads altered itself just enough to be obviously more poppy, but it's still a show overlaiden with ballads. That's not necessarily a bad thing because I absolutely worship Jekyll & Hyde which is 2/3 pop ballads lol. But I felt it more in this show. I felt like Light's... Corruption? ... Was a bit too fast. It gave me whiplash. Especially when it felt like L the really f****** creepy detective was right on course with the exact same frame of mind. Seriously, L felt like every Japanese villain I've seen in any anime or manga. Not that I've seen a lot I really really haven't. But he felt like the creepiest creeper to me.
Other than that I wasn't terribly impressed by the show, but I'm sure it had a lot to do with the format in which I watched it. It was enjoyable, I will probably go back to it or listen to the English demo. And my favorite song was the one that Misa wrote for Kira.
My only “big” problem with this musical was that how the hell does Misa get to have 3 FLIPPIN SOLOS where as my boy L only gets 2???? And only one of those two songs have an English cast recording?? Like bruh?? I’m Ready, I’ll Only Love You More and Borrowed Time all have English recordings but out of The Game Begins and The Way Things Are only the former has an English version.
That’s where I agree with you that Borrowed Time and When Love Comes should have been one song. Yes, Misa is a pop singer which is why it makes sense to give her more solos but then again her “singer song” that we know she releases as part of her discography is I’ll Only Love You More. Which is why that song should be her solo. But Borrowed Time and When Love Comes should have been a duet somehow.
Did you ever check out the London production?
I was away in rehearsals so I wasn't able to unfortunately. I was so gutted!
Deathnote has finally come to London stage theatre. Are you going to be watching, or has your interest in the story waned over the past couple of years?
What’s your fave song I live secret and the lies
I thought the sand was just a symbol of the rest of her lifespan sort of fading away because Light has died so for her life dosen't matter that much anymore, lets it fall like sand. I can see now what you mean and how that would then not make sense.
I was a fan of the anime and the manga when I saw the musical and I also love it! I enjoyed all the songs and I love how they changed some stuff because I actually prefer the musical's ending over the original ending. It's also really fun to see the different lyrical interpretations between the japanese, korean, and english versions.
Hi Eliza, thanks for your comment! It is really interesting see the differences between lyrics in the other languages. And I do think the musical ending is good - I think I just saw the musical and the anime too close together! 😊
@@MichaelaBennison honestly, I think the reason I prefer the musical's ending more is probably because I mostly lost interest in the manga when Near was introduced. I don't hate him like most do but I don't like him very much either so it was refreshing to see the musical take the shorter turn and just have Light die after he defeats L. Although, if it was up to me, I'd have preferred it if Light didn't die immediately and we instead get to see a world where Kira truly reigns with no one to challenge him. (Would it be the utopia that Light envisioned or the complete opposite?)
@@elizaelise5192 That’s pretty much why I liked the musical ending more too. And the different lyric changes were quite interesting to see as well
I still thinks Matsuda should've gotten a song
Playing his game is THE best song in the musical .
I’m sorry… what?? I was with you for a while on this but your commentary on the music totally threw me off… what do you mean no difference between the humans and the shinigami?? What do you mean nothing unique or special or specific?? There are so many Easter eggs and references not only to the anime but to the personalities of the characters. The music in this anime is so extremely detailed and well thought out; I can’t believe you said that
I don’t mean to seem harsh or mean but seriously you missed a lot in the music
Its because the japanese lyricists are better than Jack Murphy. Frank Wilshorn tends to work with some atrocious lyricists.
Just watched the entire review after UA-cam recommended it, since I've been listening to the musical for over a week now after seeing the uploaded version. I really enjoyed hearing your opinions on it, you have actual knowledge, your ideas are well organized and the editing is really good, I'm past surprised that you only have a couple hundred suscribers.
If you upload more reviews I'd probably watch them. In The Heights was released recently, or Hamilton last year on Disney+. If you don't mind a tiny bit of unsolicited advice (or constructive criticism), I'd say you should put a square in one of the upper corners of the video where you could put images, examples or short looped scenes (to avoid dmca) of what you're talking about. It makes watching the video as entertaining as listening to it is. If you know the Overly Sarcastic Productions channel, you know what I'm talking about.
Anyway, great video, it really shows you enjoyed the play even despite all that nitpicking.