Max – Supplemental Post 2

Nothing major to report here but I’ve been watching Death Note on Netflix. I’m enjoying it. It looks like there’s been an attempt at a live action adaptation which is fascinating as well, as the show seems to be thriving in its own very particular fantasy mode wherein the animation does heavy lifting. That’s probably the case with a lot of animations with fantasy dimensions. What is the drive to adapt successful animations into live action? And how does this differ across industrial contexts? 

I suppose the logic is that the live action Death Note will reach different audiences than the animated Death Note? In that sense it just reflects a difference in the way viewers self identify; there are presumably some viewers who are eager to consume anime and others for whom it’s a hang up, and the latter can be reached with a live action adaptation– the assumption being that a certain audience’s hangup is purely formal; that is, they would love the story of Death Note if only it were not animated. I wonder if we could also see the industrial practice (and its underlying assumptions, logics) as producing this audience division?

I’m also wondering how industrial assumptions about age track between, say, the US and Japan. For instance, I think the conventional logic regarding the Disney live action adaptations is that they’re caching in on the nostalgia aging viewers have for these narratives (having been exposed to them in childhood). 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Death_Note_episodes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Note_(2015_TV_series)