Review for Death Note Relight: L's Successors (Review)
Sunday, 14th March 2010, 17:27

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Introduction
That's it, no more Death Note. With this second Relight movie, we can draw a line under the franchise, as all the variants of anime, the live action movies and the manga have now been released in the UK, and we no longer have to suffer/enjoy/be indifferent to (delete as appropriate) this all conquering franchise that has taken the world by storm in recent years. Of course if at this point someone mentions the prospect of a Blu-ray release, I think I'll scream. The Relight movies follow the trend of most popular anime series, to beget an eventual theatrical feature, or television movie, carefully crafted from re-edited moments of the series, telling the main story in a compact couple of hours, instead of a leisurely ten or more. They aren't always a guarantee of quality, as I found out with the previous Relight Movie, which I thought made a hash of the L arc of the Death Note story. This second movie does the same to the Near and Mello arc, but has some more room to play with, given that it compresses just 12 episodes into 90 minutes, as opposed to the 24 into 2 hours that just didn't go last time.

Actually, L's Successors is even more cutthroat than that, as it ditches the initial segment of the arc, the trip to the US, and Souichiro Yagami's exit from the story, and goes straight for the endgame in Japan, with Light facing off against Near and Mello. Once again, I won't go into details about the plot. You can take a look at my individual reviews, or Stuart McLean's excellent review of the complete series boxset. The difference is that this movie, instead of being book-ended by Ryuk, now gets an introduction and minor commentary from a corpse. Yes, L comes back from the netherworld to remind us of the story, and introduce us to his successors.

I loathed the Near and Mello arc from the anime, I felt it was a sop to popularity, and an unfortunate desire to milk the franchise. I never really got into the final third of the series. With all new animation and dialogue, as well as an altered story, maybe this time it will win me over.

Picture
Death Note Relight gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer that is typical of modern anime. It's clear and sharp enough, with only the barest of NTSC-PAL transfer signs worth mentioning, in this case a slight judder in pans and scrolls. The animation courtesy of Madhouse Studios is top notch. The character and world designs are excellent, and the level of detail and fluidity of motion speaks to a high investment in the animation. The look of the show suits the story well, and as you would expect from a show with such dark themes, there's plenty use of shadows and moody lighting. It makes for a rewarding viewing experience. Compared to the first Relight feature though, it looks as if much of L's Successors has been reworked with new scenes and new animation. Certainly I felt perhaps 70 to 80 percent of the animation was new, although that may have more to do with the lack of attention I gave this arc in the series.

Sound
You have a choice of DD 2.0 English and Japanese, with optional translated subtitles and a signs track. You won't get any complaints from me when it comes to the English dub, which is cast very well. All the voices suit their characters, and the performances live up to the hype surrounding the anime. Of course my preference as always is for the original language track, and there were no problems here either. There is some new music to go with the new edit, and the incidental music is really quite notable, taking a leaf from Danny Elfman when it comes to spooky and quirky, and certainly suits the bizarre Ryuk character down to a T.

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