Out of the many things currently surfacing in social media, one of the most controversial topics is about the Netflix movie adaption of the very popular anime, Death Note.

   Death Note is one of the most popular anime series watched in the United States. The story stars a genius high schooler named Light who discovers a book called a death note that is able to kill someone simply by writing down their name. Along with Light’s death note comes the Shinigami (god of death), Ryuk. He encourages Light to become a power-hungry serial killer who murders hundreds of criminals based on his own judgments. The citizens become concerned about the sudden unexplainable deaths of the numerous criminals, and this catches the attention of a world-renowned detective known only as L. The series features a very intense game of cat-and-mouse as L is constantly on the verge of finding out the identity of the killer-of-killers.

   But the Netflix version altered the story slightly, and fans were not happy about it. The main change was the physical appearance and personalities of many of the characters. The main story plot was also altered.

   On August 25, 2017, Netflix released its adaption of Death Note, and before it was even out to the public, hate comments began to roll in.

   Fans had a bad feeling about the movie before it was even released, so the moment Netflix released the movie to the public, comments saying that the film was “boring,” “awkward,” and “corny” immediately began popping up.

   How could a movie about a book that can kill a person simply by having a name written in it possibly be considered “boring” or “corny”?

   Opinions on the film seem to be unevenly split. The popular opinion arising throughout social media is that the movie was horrible because the acting was bad, the story was uninteresting, and the overall film was cringe-worthy.

   There are, however, those glorious few who gave the movie a chance and actually enjoyed it for what it is: a unique and entertaining adaption of an already popular show.

   The main problem seems to be that everyone is comparing it to the anime. If the fact that the anime exists is ignored, people will begin to watch the film and realize that it really is a great movie despite what social media has to say about it.

    If the haters and common everyday Internet trolls would stop for one second and actually attempt to find something good in the Death Note movie, they would end up being pleasantly surprised.

        The film was filled with many wonderful features, like the animation quality for Ryuk was very well done, and, seriously, Willem Dafoe (a famous actor) was the perfect choice as voice actor for the character. His gritty voice suited the character’s physical appearance very well.

        Another character who was accurately portrayed was the main character, Light. Even though he probably would not be everyone’s first choice as Light’s live action actor due to the physical differences between him and the anime character, Nat Wolff  (another famous actor) still played his part well and brought the character’s psychotic mindset to life.

        Luke Lansciardi, whom many could refer to as a “Death Note guru,” shared his opinions on the Death Note movie. He believes that the movie was about 50% accurate to the anime, but even though the movie did not follow the plot of the original anime does not mean that the movie was automatically awful.

    Lansciardi stated that Light was the most accurately represented character because of how well his personality and intelligence were represented in the movie.

    He agrees that if the anime is ignored, the Death Note movie was pretty great.

    Sakura Kirby, a PVHS Junior, agrees with Lansciardi that Death Note is given less credit than it deserves.

   Even though he is her favorite character in the anime, Kirby stated that L was her least favorite character in the movie due to his inaccurate representation in the film. His mindset and actions did not match the attributes of the original character. He “lost his cool” way too easily, which is something the character would never do.

   Despite the few inaccuracies in the film, both Kirby and Lansciardi recommend the movie to anyone willing to watch it because it truly is very entertaining.