Death Note: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.0

Death Note: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

The Tibetans aren't the only ones with a Book of the Dead.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 13, 2016

If you had (or were offered) the power to kill people from a distance, with no ostensible link back to you, would you use it? Some might think that that’s an “easy” question to answer, for many of us give at least passing energy to thoughts of death for those who haven’t treated us particularly kindly. And if one had that power and was confronted with a truly bad person (as opposed to someone who had, for example, simply cut us off in traffic), that kind of power might be seen as a positive blessing. However, some wag once said something along the lines of “absolute power corrupts absolutely,” and there is probably no more absolute power than having the control of someone else’s existence in one’s hands. That’s the issue that confronts high school student Light Yagami, who either has the good fortune or bad luck to discover an odd book on the grounds of his school one day. The book contains “instructions” detailing how, if one writes a name in the book while envisioning the appropriate face (to keep “mistakes” revolving around similarly named folks from happening), that person will die within just a few seconds. If no reason for death is posited in the notebook, the victim will simply expire from a heart attack. Light, like any good jaded high school student, initially thinks the whole thing is bunk, but upon further review, decides he might as well keep the book. And that’s where his opportunities and problems begin.

Light begins “experimenting” with the book and is stunned when some villains quickly expire when he writes their names in it. He’s even more stunned when a shinigami (a Japanese spirit who is kind of like the Western scythe wielding Death figure) shows up in his bedroom and introduces himself as Ryuk, the previous “owner” of the book who inadvertently (maybe) dropped it in the human realm. Because Light picked up the book, he has a magical connection to Ryuk now and can see and hear the weird (and kind of funny) spectral entity. Ryuk also announces that there’s kind of a karmic bond between the two now as well, and that when the time comes, it will be Ryuk who writes Light’s name in the “book of the dead”.

When master criminals start dropping like flies, Interpol gets involved (you’d think they’d be happy, but no!). They recruit a mysterious investigator known only as L who doesn’t reveal his “real” identity, but who pledges to bring what he claims is a serial killer to justice. That sets up a rather neat little predicament where Light, already showing signs of a kind of megalomania which will ultimately claim the character, knows he’s being chased and also knows he has the ability to “kill” his pursuer—if only he knew his name and what he looks like. The moral ambiguities begin accruing rather rapidly in Death Note, for it’s probably inarguable that Light is doing some good by ridding the world of villains, but it’s also clear early on that the “at what cost?” question is becoming more and more salient, especially as Light’s own character starts to become, well, darker.

Death Note is a hugely enjoyable anime, one which benefits from an immediately arresting premise, sharply articulated characters and a kind of intriguing overall ambience that segues from natural phenomena like life and death to an obvious and overt reference to the supernatural, especially with regard to Ryuk. The anime may suffer a bit when it tends to veer off track to provide back stories, and it becomes increasingly arcane as it goes along, leading to perhaps a few too many putative twists as things move toward their endgame. The anime is interesting in that some fans may actually end up rooting more for Ryuk, a patently demonic character who could hardly be thought of as heroic, than for Light, the character whose very Nietzschean tendencies make him heroic only in his own mind.

Death Note: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Death Note is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Viz Media with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Though I haven't found anything on Viz's own site "officially" mentioning this, it's been widely reported that this is an upscale, and how viewers react to it will probably be based at least somewhat on how many other upscales of anime they've seen. Having sat through a number of less than stellar such efforts (Shakugan no Shana: Season 1, anyone?), I was actually kind of pleasantly surprised at the overall quality of this release, especially if I didn't have my nose pressed up the screen looking for anomalies like stair stepping or line roll (both of which are evident if you're looking for them). There's decent sharpness and clarity throughout this presentation, with an understanding that the series is intentionally "distressed" looking quite a bit of the time. Oddly, I found some of the more noticeable issues during the split screen moments—see, for example, the clear stair stepping on the ideographs and especially the lined paper in the lower right element in screenshot 7). There's also some noticeable image instability during lateral pans, where the image can become jittery. The palette is quite interesting in this series, especially with regard to the Shinigami realm, where things are often almost monochromatic with just little bursts of color here and there. While not traditionally "vivid" as some contemporary anime tend to be, the range of hues is well rendered, with some decent nuance in grayscale. My colleague Ken Brown was pretty vocal about how shoddy he thought Viz treated an iconic property like Sailor Moon: Season 1, Part 1 on Blu-ray, and I'm sure many fans will approach Death Note with a perhaps understandable amount of caution. I personally didn't see Sailor Moon and so therefore can't offer a "comparison" opinion, but I will say that with appropriate expectations and an understanding that this is an upscale, the quality here is acceptable if not optimal.

Death Note: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Death Note defaults to the English dub delivered via DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, but "purists" will note that the Japanese track is also available in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (along with several other languages, in fact). The mix here is quite appealing, no matter what language is chosen, with excellent clarity in the kind of bombastic music that is utilized in the series, along with good rendering of dialogue and some nice effects. Fidelity is fine throughout the presentation, and dynamic range is also relatively wide.

Death Note: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Note: All of the supplements are ostensibly in 1080p or 1080i but show signs of having been upscaled.

Disc One

• Behind the Scenes - Light (English Dialogue) (1080p; 12:21) has some fun footage of recording session with Brad Swaile, who voices Light, along with interviews.


• Behind the Scenes - L (English Dialogue) (1080p; 9:16) has some good interviews with Alessandro Juliani, who voices L.


• Japanese Animation Director and Character Designer Interview (1080p; 12:03) features Tetsuro Araki and Masaro Kitao.


• Production Art (1080p)


• Episode 1 - Director's Commentary features English director Karl Willems.


• Episode 7 - Director's Commentary actually features Jiro Okada, Associate Producer, and Tabitha St. Germain (Naomi Misora).


• Clean Opening and Clean Closing #1 (1080p; 2:32)

Disc Two

• Behind the Scenes - Ryuk (English Dialogue) (1080p; 10:01) features Brian Drummond, who voices Ryuk.


• Behind the Scenes - Misa (English Dialogue) (1080p; 8:27) features Shannon Chan-Kent, who voices Misa.


• Production Art (1080p)


• Episode 11 - Director's Commentary features Karl Willems, and Stephen Hedley, ADR Writer.


• Episode 14 - Director's Commentary features Jiro Okada, Associate Producer, and Shannon Chan-Kent (Misa).

Disc Three

• Behind the Scenes - Soichiro Yagami, Matsuda and Aizawa (English Dialogue) (1080p; 10:58) features Chris Britton, Vincent Tong and Trevor Devall.


• Behind the Scenes - Rem and Higuchi (English Dialogue) (1080p; 8:18) features Colleen Wheeler and Andrew Kavatis.


• Production Art (1080p)


• Episode 17 - Director's Commentary Karl Willems and Chris Britton (Soichiro Yagami).


• Episode 23 - Director's Commentary features Karl Willems and Andrew Kavatis (Higuchi).


• Clean Opening and Clean Closing #2 (1080p; 2:32)

Disc Four

• Behind the Scenes - L and Watari (English Dialogue) (1080p; 10:47) features Alessandro Juliani and French Tickner.


• Behind the Scenes - Near, Mello and Matsuda (English Dialogue) (1080p; 10:57) features Cathy Weseluck, David Hurwitz and Vincent Tong.


• Production Art (1080p)


• Episode 25 - Director's Commentary features Karl Willems along with Alessandro Juliani (L) and Colleen Wheeler (Rem).


• Episode 30 - Director's Commentary features Karl Willems and Cathy Weseluck (Near).

Disc Five

• Behind the Scenes - Light, Kiyomi and Mikami (English Dialogue) (1080p; 15:25) features Brad Swaile, Heather Doerksen and Kirby Morrow.


• Production Art (1080p)


• Episode 37 - Director's Commentary features Karl Willems, Brad Swaile (L) and Brian Drummond (Ryuk).


• Behind the Scenes - Japanese Voice Cast (1080p; 23:26)


• Original Japanese Death Note Interstitials (1080i; 25:04) feature various cast members.


• Japanese Animation Director and Character Designer Interview #2 (1080p; 7:49) features Tetsuro Araki and Masaro Kitao.


• Conversation with Original Japanese Cast and Crew (1080p; 17:10)

Disc Six

Note: This disc contains the two so-called Death Note films (not to be confused with Death Note Collection), Death Note Relight 1: Visions of a God (1080p; 2:10:07) and Death Note Relight 2: L's Successors (1080p; 1:33:34) (timings are approximate as both films are authored as one unit on the disc), along with the following supplemental material.

• Death Note Rewritten with the Japanese Cast and Crew (1080i; 11:09) features thoughts on how the creative team approached the films and didn't want them to only be re-edits of the series.


• Original Japanese Promos (1080i; 3:39)


• Production Art: Characters (1080p)


• Production Art: Props (1080p)


• Production Art: Sets (1080p)


• Credits - Relight 2: L's Successors (1080i; 1:21)

Additionally, this Omega Edition comes housed in a sturdy slipcase which also includes a beautifully illustrated booklet reproducing the "pilot" (in manga form), along with credits for both the Japanese and English language versions of the anime.

Death Note: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A new if maybe or maybe not "improved" live action English language Death Note is slated for next year, and it will be interesting to, um, note what that version does with the source material. But the original anime can hardly be topped for its stylish aesthetic and riveting story. Things get a little over convoluted and there are arguably a few too many detours along the way, but watching Light go over to his dark side remains one of the more satisfying journeys in contemporary anime. The upscaled video has some transitory issues, but audio sounds great and the supplementary package is outstanding. Recommended.