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Director of Netflix's Death Note Film Discusses Film's Violence

Death Note still is very adult, and most regular Shonen ALSO have lots of swearing. The nudity is a problem, though. Maybe he's just appealing to the fanservice crowd with that (since he also says here it's like filming an anime).

When Collider asked him how the lack of a rating system on Netflix might affect the violence and gore in the film, Wingard replied by saying that "we can do whatever we want."

I don't understand. Death Note was never about violence...it was more of psychological. This man is setting up this movie to be FAR from the orginal material and all that made Death Note the great series that it is IN MY OPINION. I just feel worried that this will once again put anime in a bad spotlight. Death Note is a unique series and they're just making it into another thriller movie with violence and stuff. I know I should watch before judging but after receiving this much information about the movie I'm starting to lose faith in it.

That "Blair Witch" sequel was absolute crap. Let's hope the director won't taint the "Death Note" legacy for hardcore fans like myself, my friends & others.

With the live action case, people need to know that so far Hollywood has 6 released adaptations:
-Crying Freeman, which is decent
-Two Guyver Movies, one of them with Luke Skywalker but it is bad, but the second somehow is better
-Fist of the North Star, obviously bad
-Dragon Ball Evolution
-Speed Racer, either you appreciate the efforts in CGI and Racing Scenes, or you don´t watch it because obvious reasons
-Kite
-Edge of Tomorrow, based on the light novel All you Need is Kill, the best product so far

But people are still saying that Americans must not touch something as if there are like 50 released products. I just think that we overreact over things

And what do people mean with "they are ruining X source material"? The popularity of Transformers and TMNT, or the writing of some good comics or TV series based on them are never ruined because Michael Bay is handling them. The same with the legacy of The League of Extraordinary Men. So the quality of a good manga is never ruined by a bad adaptation. So WE should get those expressions from our heads and think differently

You can't entirely go by what magazines it was serialized in. Attack on Titan is very violent, but by your reasoning it's also for teens as it ran in a shounen magazine. I'm not too happy though with making Death Note hyper violent. It doesn't need to be, and of course, a lot of deaths are heart attacks in the manga, for plot reasons that completely make sense. If they sacrifice writing for spectacle, I doubt it's going to be very good.

My take on this is that the director is seeing Death Note from the perspective of someone who's consumed a lot of and has been a part of western storytelling. You are used to Japanese storytelling, and you know the manga ran in a magazine aimed at young boys. But entertainment for young boys in the United States is way different, and would never have anything like Death Note in it. My guess is that what stood out to him is the anyone-can-die nature of the series, which is only found in entertainment for adults here in the United States. That is, I'll bet he's seeing Death Note as in the same class as series like Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead.

How does a live action adaptation of a manga put anime in a bad spotlight?

You should've seen how terrified Peanuts fans were up to when The Peanuts Movie came out, especially when Blue Sky's characteristic slapstick wound up in the movie's trailers. Same thing for Marvel fans when the MCU was new (and a few have become increasingly bitter that Marvel movies are doing so well). I'm sure the fans of the Smurfs comics and/or cartoons are still angry at the live-action adaptations.

But Death Note and Attack on Titan is aimed at teens. Yes they are violent and sometimes very violent as many others shonen manga but not as to be considered adult rated. I still remember some parents in my country said that Dragon Ball was too violent for a cartoon when first appear. Now with more anime in TV is not case anymore because they are used to it.
Like always is a difference of what people think is appropriate for certain ages in different cultures.

Trying to reach a mainstream audience as we talked about in another post, what would the mainstream think?

They will know that is based on a anime and they will think that all anime is ultra-violent, gore and full of nudity. It would only be worse if Adam Wingard put a tentacle monster assaulting and killing a teenager girl in one of the death scenes.

If this movie was more like what Death Note is (a psychological thriller) and not some adult horror movie, the mainstream audience maybe will look how intelligent the story is and how good anime can be.

I said that people think that Source Materials are ruined just because of a bad adaptation. TMNT is still going strong with cartoons and comics despite the movies. Same with Batman Comics. People exaggerate to the extreme with things like that when it´s obvious that is not the case

Well good to know things are moving along on this project. Though I don't really remember nudity in the manga or the anime. But if I'm wrong I'll need a refresher.

Back to topic, an inaccurate or bad adaptation may not take away from the original, but it can certainly change the franchise's overall reputation.