Netflix's 'Death Note' Should Be Returned To Sender
Based on a hugely popular Japanese manga (and anime, and live-action film series), this rushed and sloppy U.S. production Anglicizes the faces, but not the names.
Scrawl this one in your magic killer notebook if you've heard it before: A popular, beloved Japanese manga and anime catches the attention of an American studio desperate for that sweet trans-global box office. The American studio then opts to Anglicize the property, casting largely white actors and leaving intact only the exotic qualities of a vaguely Asian aesthetic. "The name is an intentional misdirection," some astute viewer might observe. "He wants us to believe he's Japanese."
Friends, such a sentiment was a studio note for this spring's , but rather a line of dialogue inas self-incriminating a thing for an investigator character to say as ever there was.
