Death Note: Re-Light, Vol. 1 - Visions of a God

...I was quite disappointed w/this DVD.

First, the good stuff: The animation of the new scenes is lovely; the colors & design are brighter and crisper than in the original anime. It's really the only reason I gave it 3 stars instead of 2. The extra scenes are interesting, but don't add that much to the original series.

OK, now the bad stuff: This is basically a clip show, following just over halfway thru the anime (where a particularly lovable character dies). It's framed by Ryuk telling the story to another shinigami. But that's about it.

I'd had high hopes for this DVD (given the description), but, alas, they were dashed [siiiiigh].

I'd recommend this for (a) Death Note completists, or (b) someone who doesn't want to invest the time in watching the entire first half of the original anime.

The "DEATH NOTE" anime series was simply magnificent.

I first caught "DEATH NOTE" the animated series on television. I've heard so many impressive things in regards to the storyline and also saw the series featured on NPR. To get the critical acclaim that it has worldwide, this series must be special.

And special is what "DEATH NOTE" truly is. From beginning to end, this series has just grabbed my attention because of its well-written cat vs. mouse storyline.

"DEATH NOTE" is a 37-episode TV series that was created by Studio Madhouse and featured on Japanese television in 2006-2007 and featured in the US in 2007-2008 (the whole series is available in two box sets from Viz Media/Shonen Jump Home video). The series has spawned a popular manga series, a novel, three live action films and has captured the attention of anime and non-anime fans worldwide.

After the series was completed, a new special (the first of two) was released on television in August 2007 titled "DEATH NOTE: R - Relight: Visions of a God" which features the whole series condensed into a 130 minute episode. But unlike recap specials aired in Japan, this special would be a retelling of the story in the point of view of Ryuk (Light Yagami's Shinigami) who is telling a story of his experience on what happened when he was on Earth and a story he is explaining to another Shinigami who is bored in the underworld.

"DEATH NOTE: R - Relight: Visions of a God" features new scenes and an ending that may or may not shock "DEATH NOTE" fans.

The series focuses on the character of a very smart high school student named Light Yagami. Bored with his life, he comes across the "Death Note" that has special instructions that if one was to write their names on the Death Note, the person would die. They would die of a heart attack if there were no instructions on how the person is to die. Or die the way the person possessing the Death Note wrote down.

The Death Note is from a Shinigami (death god) named Ryuk who seems to be bored in his own world and thus starts to enjoy how a person like Light starts to use the Death Note.

For Light (who goes by the name Kira), starts out using the Death Note by writing the names of criminals. He starts to win supporters due to his ideology of creating a new world without these criminals. But with so many deaths occurring, the police and the International community begin to fear this serial killer. And along the way, Light is suspected by the police as a person of interest (a person who could be "Kira") and then Light starts to use his Death Note on those who are onto him.

Thus a mysterious detective named L is assigned to the case and the series becomes a compelling storyline of will L find a way to catch Light Yagami or will Light Yagami kill L first?

AUDIO & VIDEO:

"Death Note" was a TV series and I found the animation to be quite cool as it showcased a dark, stylish feel to it. The animation for "DEATH NOTE: R - Relight: Visions of a God" is featured in 16×9 Anamorphic Widescreen.

The anime features a good dose of that J-rockish type of style and it's overall presentation was stylish and dark. Studio Madhouse did a wonderful job in this series and bringing out the illustrations of Takeshi Obata and the storyline of Tsugumi Ohba to television. The dark atmosphere really is well displayed in this anime series.

But the most appealing part of this series is the awesome voice acting. Being the Japanese language purist that I am, I watched the series with Japanese voice acting and it was done very well. But I have to admit that I was really impressed by the English dub voice acting.

Brad Swaile as Light Yagami, Battlestar Galactica actor (Felix Gaeta) Alesandro Juliani, Brian Drummond as Ryuk and Shannon Chan-Kent as Misa did a tremendous job. As did the other English voice actors. A job well done!

SPECIAL FEATURES:

"DEATH NOTE: R - Relight: Visions of a God" comes with a few special features. Included are:

* Death Note Rewritten with the Japanese Cast & Crew - (11:09) Interviews with Toshio Nakatani (producer) about how he wanted to do a "DEATH NOTE" episode flashback by focusing on Ryuk's perspective. Interview with Director Tetsuro Araki and his intrigue with the character of Light Yagami. Also, interviews with voice actors Mamoru Miyano (voice of Light Yagami) and Kappei Yamaguchi (L) about having to redo the voices of the characters a year later after they finished the original anime series.
* Original Japanese Promos - (3:40) Three TV promos for "DEATH NOTE: R - Relight: Visions of a God"
* Shonen Jump Manga Trailer
* Shonen Jump Home Video Trailers
* Death Note Movie Trailers

JUDGMENT CALL:

I absolute love the "DEATH NOTE" anime series but I know many of you who enjoyed the series are wondering if this DVD is worth the purchase. Especially since "DEATH NOTE: R - Relight: Visions of a God" is the series condensed into 103 minutes but with new footage.

In Japan, there are many specials , may it be for anime or drama series that are created to bring a viewer up to speed on what has happened on a series to elongating the popularity of the series through new footage. Popular series get a special episode that tend to get a series condensed into a two hour episode. But sometimes there is a few minutes of extra footage that makes a big difference in a series, especially for those who are fans of that series.

"DEATH NOTE: R - Relight: Visions of a God" is one of those specials that within the 103 minutes featured on this DVD, many of those minutes are scenes which fans have seen on the animated TV series. It all comes down to those extra few minutes of footage that are important.

I'm not quite sure of how many exact minutes of extra footage is included in "DEATH NOTE: R - Relight: Visions of a God" but I will say that those extra minutes at the end of this special was quite surprising. And because of that, I do feel that "DEATH NOTE: R - Relight: Visions of a God" is worth having in your collection because those few minutes from the beginning and ending of the special definitely introduces us some interesting situations and a major reveal that may open the doors for possibly a sequel? Maybe?

A few minutes of extra footage is hard to justify for many anime fans, especially if you are on a tight budget. But if you are a dedicated fan to this series and are quite passionate about it as much as I am, then I highly recommend "DEATH NOTE: R - Relight: Visions of a God".

The description of this DVD basically implies the "re-telling" of the Death Note series through the Shinigami's, Ryuk, perspective. In actuality it is nothing more than a "movie version" of the first 20 episodes of this 37 episode anime. There are some brief original footage with Ryuk "conveying" the story to another seemingly disinterested shinigami, but the bulk of the footage comes directly from the episodes.

For people who have already seen this anime or have the full 37 episode anime series this DVD is simply a waste of money. I would only recommned this DVD and it's sequel to those individuals who are interested in this anime, but do not have the time to invest into watching the complete anime series; roughly 13.5 hours.

While the basic premise is provided, a lot of the nuances of the anime have been stripped out of this version, thus rendering the end product to be a sterile rendition of the original. In the end, this is a falsely advertised product since the story is not really retold from Ryuk's perspective (Product description: "See through the eyes of a shinigami...").

Let me start off by saying that I love the Death Note series, and have seen the first 2 seasons.
Having said that, this DVD is nothing but rehashed footage from those first 2 seasons, compacted into a less than 2 hour movie.
If you havn't seen the first couple seasons you may like the movie, but it might not seem to make sense in parts, and even if you have seen the first 2 seasons, the edit job to make both seasons into a "movie" didn't do them justice.

To recap.
Love Death Note,
Don't like this DVD.

I came across this DVD in my search for a volume i did not own. I had heard about this from a friend who had informed me that this would be in the perspective of Ryuk, elated, i quickly purchased the DVD and even considered purchasing the second version, "Death Note: Re-light, Vol 2 - L's Successor", but had a moments hesitation. I decided against it and went on with my purchases. In the Death Note saga there is a time where Ryuk is not present and like most viewers I was curious as to where he went. Purchasing this video under this pretense i was hoping for an answer. Well, i did not receive any such answer. Instead I was sorely disappointed to see that i had in fact only purchased a DVD that condensed the first 10 hours into 2 hours. The only purpose this DVD would serve is to give someone who doesn't have the capacity to hold an attention span a quick in-sight into the series. If you are considering buying this DVD, I strongly discourage your consideration to do so. However, if you are interested in the live action adaptations of the series, i would do so. The story line may not be exact, but they dub in the voices from the animated series into the movie. The actor who portrays L does an amazing job at capturing his awkwardness and mannerisms.

This contains the extra scenes of L's funeral, and a few more interactions between L and Light during the show. There are other, less important scenes that were also added.

Between this and the second condensed release, there is actually a great deal of extra footage added. If you can get this cheap (or free), then it's certainly worth a watch.

That's basically all it is. I read the manga so I knew what I was watching, but I bet to people who have no idea what it's about, it would not make sence. The reason I like it is because of the special features on it! HOORAY!!!!

I was very excited when I noticed that this was coming out- and pre-ordered as soon as that was an option.

Unfortunately, it was not what I was expecting. From the description, it sounds as though it is a retelling of the story from the eyes of Ryuk- that is only partially true.

The short version of my review is this; you are getting the entire first half of the series boiled down to about two hours.

Basically, the first few minutes of the film set up that Ryuk is telling the story of what happened when he had an exciting time on earth. As soon as that short scene is over, we are treated to a retelling of the entire first 15 episodes or so using footage from those episodes. From what I could tell, they had not changed very much either. Only one scene during this part of the movie stood out as something I hadn't seen but I know I'd missed an episode or two so that could have already been included in the original series. Unfortunately, this is not even a very good tool for those interested in learning what happened without needing to watch the 37 episodes- because retelling each 30 minute episode in a 10 minute frame means that you're leaving out much of the development of the story, and had I not seen all the episodes I probably would have been confused.

The ending does not appear to be anything that was included in the series though.

IMPORTANT NOTE--
This DVD is not like many other after-series releases for popular series that have new stories or episodes. I feel bad for people who might have bought it without assuming more, and I openly admit I'd have fallen into that category as well since I bought it basically without thinking first.

That aside, for passers-by and fans of the series--
It's basically a shortened version of the whole plot, and it actually does a fairly impressive job in the amount of time it has. You could call it a movie version of an unaltered plot that's in the animated format. For fans it does offer a few things you haven't seen, so it's better than no content at all. Actually, the disc is a bit of fanservice to followers as it addresses some unresolved questions and viewer complaints about the later third of the original series. I'm not going to spoil any of it, but as a fan I certainly didn't feel cheated for buying it after watching it straight through and seeing what was tweaked and added.

Those not accustomed to the series won't notice those things of course, but will find this to be a good series summary of the more significant points. If you enjoy this you could look into getting the box sets of all the full episodes, or if you have a friend who likes the series this would be a good something for him or her to show you just to get a feel for it. The DVD has a purpose and will appeal to some of the die-hard fans and those who want to see a little, little more... or for generic anime fans who don't want to put in the time investment to watching it all series. Mind you, I encourage you to watch it all, but no other special release I've seen has put the better points of a full series together this well so that you'll get a lot of the experience. It's not a highlight reel, it's story highlights.