Death Note: Light Up The New World is the fourth film in the Death note live action series inspired by the manga series created by Ohba Tsugumi. This installment was directed by Sato Shinsuke and casted a trio of bright upcoming actors, Higashide Masahiro(Blue Spring Ride), Ikematsu Sosuke(Mozu), and, Suda Masaki(Shinigami-Kun). Erika Toda and Toyama Sota also reprise their roles from the original Death Note films. Light Up The New world was a smash hit in Japan becoming the tenth best film for 2016. A television drama titled Death Note: New Generation was also made to give background on the three main characters of the film. With each character's introduction taking one episode each.
Six death notes fall from the realm of the death to the human world. Different people from all around the world soon get their hands on these deadly notebooks creating a six man version of Kira: A serial killer from ten years before. The war between world renowned detective L and Kira seems to be far from over.
Light Up The New World takes place ten years after films Death Note: The last Name and literally right after the drama, New Generation. What I absolutely loved about the plot is that it took the time connecting the dots to the original films and the manga. The script brings back characters from the original series and even makes several references to the series original main characters: Light and L. These fans favorites help progress the plot too. Even though the two main characters of the original Death Note are dead…. I do apologize if that was a major spoiler for the people who have never read the manga or watched the anime. Please do still check out the series. Anyway, The new generation of Death Note users make for an interesting experience. They are like killers who act like they drank a whole case of Red bull on a bad day. There's not much thought put into who they kill. They just kill a whole bunch of people because they think that will make them better than the original Kira. If you read the original series, The characters on the side of Kira didn't just kill loads and loads of people- Criminals yes but not random people on the street. The overwhelming idea that so many Death Notes exist in the world at one time also gets you interested in how everything will turn out. I do feel like that while the film overall is a good mystery thriller, its progression in the story does began to tire itself out at around the middle point. Its loss of energy was very noticeable to me because the characters began to run in circles until the final confrontation. The intriguing world that's given life in this film is interesting enough to keep you watching till the end though. You asked what was going on with the ending? Well, I know what happened but it was hard to pen point if the character himself wanted what happened to actually happen or if it was truly something out of his control. Make sure that you guys watch the credits all the way to the end in order to find one kind of answer.
This Death Note installment brings a more various look at the different types of Shinigami. They look amazing this time around. The other Death Note films did the best with what they had with CGI effects back then which didn't look bad at all. However, Light The New World has the death gods looking like you can reach out your hand to touch them. I loved that certain traits that fans love about the Shinigami such as their love for fruits was used in this film too. Ryuk or the main death god in the series makes a few appearances but is overshadowed by the new cast. He also doesn't have the same chemistry with the new Kira that he had with Light. There's acceptable reasons why in the film. Masahiro plays an detective on the new Kira case. This case was created to find all six of the Death Notes so they can be destroyed. He's an actor that can play a detective just based on looks. He has the height and the face to fit the part perfectly. I've seen him do different types of roles and was very happy when I saw he got the lead role in Light Up The New World. Masahiro was known before this film and now he is even more known. Sosuke stood out to me greatly when I was watching the J drama Mozu. He was a character that only cared about killing. His role as the new L really shows that he has skill to take on new roles different from the one's he has done. New L acts the same as the old one only without the sugar addiction. Sosuke brings a strange and cool confidence to the character. I think he gave the best performance out of the other two actors. L is a character that can't be played by an actor with mediocre talent. You got to act the hell out of the character to get his particular being right. All the actors that came before Sosuke had the chops to do this and he gave the character no less than his best as well. Masaki Suda has acted in a wide range of supporting roles in dramas and films. From funny characters to insane maniacs, Suda has done it all in his career. His character in Light Up The New World reminds me of his character from the drama Shinigami Kun since that character was a death god. Both characters have the power to take away life. Only difference is that his character is a human that worships Kira's accomplishments in Light Up The New World. His character is trying to get all the Death Notes before the police and he will kill anyone who tries to stop him. He thinks that he can meet the original Kira when he collects all six notebooks. Remember I said that Kira was dead? So who is Kira now?
I was a little conflicted with the ending of Light Up The New World for my own reasons but the casting and plot take the upmost care in making this film apart of the series without messing up what was great about the other films. This new Death Note film is another building block upon a great series.
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