Product Details

• Format: AC-3, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English (Unknown), Japanese (Unknown)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Viz Pictures
• DVD Release Date: August 24, 2010
• Run Time: 260 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B003M5AXIE
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,657 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

It’s a battle of wits. Law student Light is upset with the justice system and when he finds the Death Note dropped by a death god, he vows to rid the world of evil. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies. As criminals all over the world begin to mysteriously die, a world-renowned detective known only as ‘L’ is put on the case to stop this serial killer that the public calls ‘Kira’. The battle betweenLight and L continues in Death Note II: The Last Name as Light joins theinvestigation team. L suspects Light of being Kira while Light attempts to learn L’s real name. Time becomes even more crucial with the appearance of a second Kira. Whose name will be the last written in the Death Note?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blu-ray: Compelling, dark, twisted and awesome! Both "Death Note" films get the Blu-ray treatment in HD and lossless audio., September 6, 2010

By 

Dennis A. Amith (kndy) (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Death Note Collection (Death Note / Death Note II: The Last Name) [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

Based on the popular manga and anime series that has captured the attention of viewers worldwide and the live action "Death Note" films (including the third, "L" film) have been popular among fans who have enjoyed this film featuring a battle of wits between Light Yagami and L.

With the "Death Note" films previously released on DVD from Viz Pictures in the U.S., many have wondered if there would be a Blu-ray release due to the films being released on BD in Japan.

"Death Note" is an adaption of the popular manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata and stars Tatsuya Fujiwara (known for his work in the popular "Battle Royale" films), directed by Shusuke Kaneko (known for the 2006 hit film "Gamera") and the theme song "Dani California" (for "Death Note") and "Snow (Hey Oh)" (for "Death Note II: The Last Name") by the popular rock band RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS.

The film focuses on Light Yagami (Fujiwara), an intelligent student who wants to work in criminal law and follow his father's footsteps and catch criminals. But one day after hacking into the police department's computer system, Fujiwara is just sickened to know that the police has released criminals who should be incarcerated. One night, Yagami discovers a notebook called "Death Note" that has specific rules:

-The human whose name is written in this note shall die.

-This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their

mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will

not be affected.

-If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person's name,

it will happen.

-If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart

attack.

-After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

-This note shall become the property of the human world, once it touches the

ground of (arrives in) the human world.

-The owner of the note can recognize the image and voice of its original owner,

i.e. a god of death.

-The human who uses this note can neither go to Heaven nor Hell.

Anxious to test this book out, Light writes the name of a criminal, thinking that the book is a joke. That is until the person's name that was written actually dies. Thus Light finds a way to get justice and does what he can to rid the world of all evil and become "the God of the new world".

He also meets the owner of the Death Note, a shinigami (God of Death) named Ryuk, who is fascinated by Light of his ways of killing the criminals but the way his mind works.

Light who uses the name "Kira" starts writing the names of criminals in the Death Note and each die by heart attack and thus causing a frenzy in the media and the police force who now need to go after the person killing the criminals. But Kira is not your average criminal, as he is quickly generating a large fandom of people who support Kira's goal of eliminating criminals.

Of course, the police force led by Light's father, Soichiro Yagami, has no idea of how to go after this criminal but unbeknownst to them is a mysterious person that goes by the name of L. An intelligent detective who has an unorthodox way of catching criminals and so far, has been very succesful with his cases worldwide.

The cat and mouse chase has begun as L goes after Kira and Kira realizes his greatest enemy is L and thus the battle begins.

The film stars an all-star cast with "Battle Royale" actor Tatsuya Fujiwara as Light Yagami, Kenichi Matsuyama who starred in films "Linda Linda Linda" and "NANA" as the mysterious detective L.

Joining the two is one of Japan's most popular actress, Asaka Seto as Naomi Misora, a former FBI agent who's fiance is killed by Kira. Model and actress Yu Kashii as Light's girlfriend Shiori Akino. Shigeki Hosokawa as FBI Agent Raye who is hot on the trail of catching Kira, actress Erika Toda who plays the character of pop star Misa Amane and Takeshi Kaga, best known for the host of the original "Iron Chef", who plays the role as Light's father and head of police, Soichiro Yagami.

In the second film, "Death Note II: The Last Name", we learn that another individual has the "Death Note". Her name is Misa Amane, a pop star and TV talent who has shortened her life span for the eyes of the shinigami. This allows her to see the names of the individuals and thus easy to write them down on the Death Note. She is a follower of Kira and all she wants is to be with him. And thus, she murders innocent people in order to get the attention of Light.

Upon meeting Misa, Light realizes that with her "eyes", he can use her to finally kill his nemesis L. But with L and the police suspecting Light as Kira and Misa as Kira II, Light devises a plan. With Misa Amane captured by the police force, he submits himself to being captured and being held by the police. But he has given Misa's Death Note to another person. A newscaster named Kiyomi Takada who also idolizes Kira and his mission and is willing to further his plan of eliminating criminals.

Now the police force who has both Light and Misa in custody in order to find out if they are both Kira now have a new threat in the outside world. Who can outwit the other and who will become the victor - Kira or L?

The film is 140 minutes long, pacing was indeed well done and overall, despite being different from the manga and anime series, both Shusuke Kaneko and Tetsuya Oishii managed to come up with a thrilling, dark and gripping storyline that remains faithful to the overlying theme of the film.

VIDEO:

"Death Note" and "Death Note II: The Last Name" are presented in 1080p High Definition and everything about these two films on Blu-ray looks much better and more vibrant than its DVD counterpart.

You can see the detail for example on the wooden grain of Light's bedroom doorway, the metallic finish of his cell phone to the pixels of the screen on his cell phone and the strands of Light's hair much clearly.

The film features a fine layer of grain, Colors pop out much more especially during the day light sequences, blacks are nice and deep and I don't recall seeing any major compression artifacts or DNR.

Probably only one scene where I felt there was a bit of low-light noise seen on the blacks and reds (a scene before the ending credits of "Death Note II") but for the most part, the picture quality for both films are very good.

My main interest was to see how the CGI would be for the shinagami Ryuk and Rem. And how that would translate on film and the two shinigami look exactly like it does in the anime and manga series but Rem seems to look more less detailed than Ryuk. But overall, the CG works with the film. It's important to note that the CG was created in 2005-2006, so one should not compare this to 2009 "Avatar" or Pixar-based animation with heavy detail.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

"Death Note" and "Death Note II: The Last Name" are presented in Japanese and English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. As for the lossless audio, this is another highlight of the Blu-ray version as I found the dialogue and musical soundtrack to be crisp and clear through the front and center channels.

The gunshots and crowd and overall ambiance (doors latching, stairs being climbed, etc.) is well-featured throughout the film through the surround channels. I was pretty impressed of how much the audio stood out through the surround channels versus when I watched both films originally on DVD. Ryuk and Rem's voice echoes through the surround channels, certain movements can be heard through the surround channels and also certain parts of the musical score are played through the surround channels as well.

I found that "Death Note II: The Last Name" had a bit more surround sound usage with vehicles crashing, thunder, gun shots and a bit more destruction utilized in the sequel.

As for LFE, I didn't really catch any major booms through my subwoofer during the more action-based scenes but mainly during the bass sequences of the music-filled sequences or during a sequence when Light had touched a Death Note.

I typically dislike English dubbing of Asian language films but what brought a smile to my face was that VIZ used the original voice actors of the anime series (which had great English dub work) on this series.

So, for those who are fond of Brandon Swaile's Light, Alessandro Juliani's L, Brian Drummond's Ryuk, Shannon Chan-Kent as Misa and the other English dub voice actors will be happy to know that they did the English dub for the live film.That surprised me and definitely major kudo points for Viz Media for keeping things consistent in the voice acting

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The "Death Note Collection" comes with the following special features:

* Making of Death Note - (50:00) Featuring the making of "Death Note" and interviews with the director, talent and behind-the-scenes of the making of various scenes from the original film. A weekly video journal of various scenes and how they were shot.

* Making of Death Note II: The Last Name - (50:00) Featuring the making of "Death Note II: The Last Name" and interviews with the director, talent and behind-the-scenes of the making of various scenes from the sequel. A weekly video journal of various scenes and how they were shot.

* Viz Pictures Presents - Featuring trailers for upcoming and currently released Viz Picture films.

JUDGMENT CALL:

First, let me say how happy I was to find out that both "Death Note" films... Read more ›

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "Death Note" films on blu-ray!!!, August 28, 2010

By 

Asian Mack "Art" (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Death Note Collection (Death Note / Death Note II: The Last Name) [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

Shusuke Kaneko's "Death Note" films are awesome. I bought Viz Pictures' dvd versions of "Death Note", "Death Note: The Last Name" and Hideo Nakata's "L: Change The World" and I was really impressed with them. When I put in the blu-rays of both "Death Note" films, I was blown away. They look phenomenal in 1080p and they definitely have that HD pop to them with many elements looking 3-dimensional. I have already imported the blu-rays of the "20th Century Boys" trilogy, "Kaiji: Gambling Apocalypse" and "Ultra Galaxy: Mega Monster Battle: The Movie". I was patiently waiting for the "Death Note" films to be released on blu-ray in the good ole United States. It was well worth the wait. HANDS DOWN MUST-BUY!!! This release gets a 10/10. If you even remotely enjoy foreign films or even just outstanding thriller mysteries with a touch of horror and a test of wits, do not hesitate to buy this collection. You will not be disappointed. Watch them in the original Japanese language with English subtitles.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good live action adaptation, September 25, 2010

By 

Peter A. Cohen "flargh" (Mashpee, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Death Note Collection (Death Note / Death Note II: The Last Name) [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

It would have been impossible to condense all of the rich detail and psychological drama from the manga and anime versions of Death Note into these two live-action films, so this is an adaptation rather than a remake. But given the constraints of the medium, the filmmakers did a great job, making an entertaining pair of bookends that tells the story of the Death Note - an object that provides its user with the power to kill with the stroke of a pen - and the fall from grace of Light Yagami, an earnest and dedicated student and son who develops megalomaniacal tendencies as soon as the book falls into his possession.

This Blu-Ray transfer is good; the movies have already been released on DVD, but obviously if you want top quality, this is the way to go. Audio transfer is excellent, and Japanese and dubbed English dialogue soundtracks are included. The voice acting for the English dub is much better than average; the producers used the same voice actors who dubbed the anime, so they're intimately familiar with the stories and characters.

The production quality itself was quite good too. The actors who portray Light and his nemesis, the quirky detective known as L, are astonishingly close to their anime/manga counterparts, and it's a special treat to see Takeshi Kaga (best known to Japanophile Americans as "Chairman Kaga" in the original "Iron Chef" show) as Light's father. The CGI used to create Ryuk and Rem, the two shinigami - death gods who are so central to the storyline - is effective although perhaps a bit lacking the sort of polish you'd expect from an high-budget Hollywood production.

Special features document the making of the two movies.