For this, I will be dividing the review into episodes since the two of them are different not only but also in quality. Major spoilers of added scenes.
Starts in the Shinigami realm with a new Shinigami character asking Ryuk about his experience with humans on Earth in exchange of an apple. Then, it covers episodes 1 – 25. It ends with the same scenario of Ryuk, but the other Shinigami has left him talking alone.
It includes a few new scenes like Light and L’s first meeting (which is completely different to how it occurs in the anime, as the whole time of L moving to Light’s university and Yagami Souichiro falling ill is erased), and L’s funeral.
Some things were changed in favor of saving time, like in the scene of L, Light and Misa’s meeting at the campus, the dialogues are slightly different, and L doesn’t steal Misa’s phone. When she gets arrested and Light volunteers to be arrested too, he does so to clear up suspicions, without all the blabber about being Kira unconsciously and stuff.
Two things I liked were:
I don’t think this is a good summary of the first part of the series if you haven’t watched it before nor if you watched it a long time ago. It can be difficult to follow if you don’t already know what’s supposed to be going on, and it leaves out some iconic scenes like Light vs. L tennis match and the foot scene.
It starts and stays boring. Doesn’t justify being over 2 hours long with how little new content there is.
It starts with a quite entertaining introduction from L narrating the previous episodes from his perspective, as he is assisted by Watari. Pretty much the whole first part is new, including some scenes of Near, Mello and the kids at Wammy’s House. The kids’ videocall with L is really cute. Then, it covers episodes 26 – 37 with barely any changes.
Some scenes, like Yagami Sayu’s kidnapping in exchange for the Death Note, are completely removed. Matt’s existence is also erased, which I do not appreciate because he is a cool dude.
As one can expect from a recap, some crucial scenes like Light’s defeat and death are cut short, making the ending feel anticlimactic.
This is a better summary, as it’s easier to follow and understand what’s going on. It’s also much shorter, around 1 hour and 30 minutes long.
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