Death Note (Jdrama) - First Impression

I'm back from my vacation. And, guess where I went... Japan! I mostly went there to visit my relatives. In between, we did some shopping and ate authentic Japanese food which I haven't had in a long time. I had an incredible time and I hope that I get to go to Japan again someday. Anyway, I did manage to watch the first episode of the Death Note drama while I was there. It felt great watching it on an actual TV. 

The main story is about Light Yagami (Masataka Kubota) who is an ordinary university student. He receives a death note in which you can write a person's name on it and that person will die. The notebook comes with a death god named Ryuk. He chose Light to have the notebook is to watch someone use it for his own entertainment. Light slowly changes his perspective of what justice is as he cleanses the world from evil. But L (Kento Yamazaki) and N/Near (Mio Yuki), two genius detectives, gets in his way and tries to find.

They've made some changes from the original story. Like, Light is supposed to be a genius, but here, he is a average, single, and a Misa Misa (Minako Sano) fan. It was funny seeing him take out his English dictionary to help him translate the Death Note's rules. Of course, the genius Light wouldn't do that. Also, they made a minor change to his family backstory. Like, his mother passed away when he and his sister were a child. I think he still holds animosity towards his father because he places his job first before his family.

 

When Light learns that L is onto him, the real battle begins. He quickly shows his dark ego, believing that what he is doing in the right thing. His father is a cop and working on the Kira case. He uses this advantage to get insights about L. He learns that L already knows that Kira is a student. So, Light writes down on the Death Note different time schedules for each of the criminal's deaths during his school hours to confuse L.

They also made some changes to L. He's lays off the sweets, he has a collection of the same white clothes and he wears shoes. This L has style and he's arrogant. But he is cunning. He's able to trick Kira (a.k.a Light) into revealing his location by broadcasting a live TV program, only in the Kanto region, and luring him to kill his stand in. He deduces that Kira only kills when he sees a person's face and knows their name. He suspects that someone from the police force has leaked information about what L knows. So, he sends American FBI agents to spy on their families, including Light's.
 

First Impressions

When I first heard about the changes, I cringed, thinking that something is going to go wrong. But after watching the episode, it's really not as bad as I thought it would be. The only pet peeve that I have is that I still don't understand why Near is a female cross dressing as a male. Unless, they want to balance out the number of female and male characters in the show.

Right now, I feel mutual about the show. It's still too early to judge it and I just have to wait and see how it develops later on. The first episode went by very quickly and there's not enough time to let the excitement and the tension to sink in. But I do hope that later on it gets better.
  

As for the actors, I don't mind Kubota as Light. I've seen him in N no Tame ni and Algernon. He's a good actor and I have faith in him as Light. But for the other cast, I'm not familiar with any of them. But so far they seem good. I'm looking forward to see what new developments they'll bring to the characters.

But as a big fan of Death Note, I'm curious to know how the drama will play out and what changes they'll make, so I will keep watching it. Even if it turns to be good or bad, I'll watch it till the end. On a side note, if you haven't seen the live-action movie adaptation, I would recommend to also check that out because I think it's the best adaptation for this series.