Book Review: L: Change the World
L: Change the World
by M
I was at the book store a couple of weeks ago and-being the overly obsessed L Lawliet fan that I am- squealed with joy when my brother found the most recent book from the Death Note franchise, L: Change the World. It’s based on the live action film, bearing the same title. That being said, this is probably going to end up being a book and movie review in one.
I have to admit that when I saw the movie, I wasn’t really impressed with the way it was written. The plot really didn’t appeal to me aside from the fact that it involved L. I had read from another LJ user (I can’t remember for the life of me who it was) that the book was very different, so I developed a new hope for the whole idea.
My new hope was not left unfulfilled. I really enjoyed this book and I wish the guy who wrote it - known only as M- would have had a hand in writing the original screenplay. Alas, the movie was made before the book. The novel just flowed so much better than the movie did!
The story is told a lot differently here than in the movie. That within itself took care of the original stories biggest flaw. The little boy from the movie is not present, but Near (the version we see in the manga and anime) makes a brief appearance or two within the pages. We also see cameo appearances from Misa Amane and Matsuda with scenes that didn’t take place in the movie.
The best thing about this book was its portrayal of L himself. I’m not saying that Matsuyama didn’t do a good job acting the part of L in the movie (he makes a great L); I’m saying that the script itself was so focused in trying to show the innocence and human side of L, that his brilliance and talents were pretty much completely ignored.
In the movie, we never see L really do anything that justifies the greatness of his abilities- at least not in my opinion. The novel, on the other hand, puts L in numerous situations where we see his true abilities shine! I don’t really want to give away too many examples because I don’t want to spoil the book. L actually fights in the novel and uses his quick wit to escape several spur of the moment situations. The best thing is even though it displays L’s childlike qualities and his total lack of people skills, it also still shows us that he’s a grown man and not a nine year old who’s stuck in a man’s body.
One of the highlights for me was the disguises that L wore. We see him in a bear suit and we see him in drag. He always acted in character to what he was wearing too. LOL! Something else that I liked was the scene where L’s frustration and despair actually get the better of him and he has an emotional scene of personal anguish. Something else that I found cute was L’s obvious infatuation with Misa Amane.
A couple of things I didn’t like: L’s sorrow over Light’s death- he wears the guys watch!!! I’m not one of the many people that saw L and Light’s friendship as authentic and sincere. The creator of Death Note doesn’t see it like that either. Another thing I didn’t like was the fact that L didn’t learn capoeira in this story until after the Kira case, which means by the end of his life he was still at novice level. I got around that by viewing the book as just another fan fic- which is really all it is. There's nothing wrong with that though. I had the same mind frame when I read Another Note. It didn't really take away from my overall enjoyment.
As usual, when I came to the part of his death, I became teary eyed. Any L story is always a sad ending it seems. At any rate, the book was a great read, despite the fact that it was extremely short and there were a few mistakes that the editors missed. I give it 4 out of five stars.