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If you like to stay up-to-date with your Netflix Originals or your anime adaptations, there’s a very good chance you spent the weekend checking out Adam Wingard’s Death Note. Based on the manga and anime of the same now, the Netflix movie follows what happens when one teenager gains the ability to kill anyone he wants and the battle with the law that follows. In any iteration, Death Note is a thrilling game of ethical and intellectual cat and mouse, and Wingard puts his own hyper-stylized stamp on the franchise.
However, if you went into Wingard’s Death Note blind, you probably have a lot of questions about that ending. After an hour and 40 minutes of rules, elaborate deaths, and even more insane detective work, Death Note abruptly ends with L (Lakeith Stanfield) maniacally laughing at a picture and Light (Nat Wolff) free as a bird. Why did the movie end that way? Is that how the anime ended? And is there any possibility for a sequel? Here’s everything you need to know about that crazy conclusion. Spoilers ahead.
How did Netflix’s Death Note end?
Throughout the movie, Mia (Margaret Qualley) becomes increasingly tired with her boyfriend’s newfound sense of morality. Though Light (Nat Wolff) was happy to kill petty criminals, drug lords, and his high school bully with the Death Note, he stops short of killing the officers assigned to the Kira case, including his own father. That’s an ethical point for Light, but Mia is having none of that. Unbeknownst to Light, she steals a page of the Death Note and writes the names of the entire police team that was stalking Light as a murderous warning to the authorities.
As is often the case, Light is too distracted by trying to kill L to notice what Mia’s up to. That really bites him in the butt when Mia adds one more name to the list — Light’s. If Light doesn’t give the Death Note to Mia by midnight, he will die. However, Light/Kira is never one to go down without a fight. While at the school, he writes an elaborate set of instructions that involve killing two low-level criminals, hiding the Death Note, burning the page of the Death Note that has his name written on it, killing his girlfriend, and landing him in the hospital. It’s intense, and one of the few moments of the movie that show off how disarmingly smart Light really is.
Now in the hospital and reunited with his precious Death Note, Light’s father confronts him, finally realizing that he is in fact Kira. Light reveals the existence of the Death Note and explains his elaborate plan. As he’s in murderous heaven, L (Keith Stanfield) finds the page of the Death Note Mia hid in a Calculus book. L finally figures out how Light/Kira has been killing everyone, and for one moment, we see the ever-moralistic L hesitate, almost willing to murder Light himself. The movie ends on two shots of laughter — one from a version of L who has lost everything because of Light and one from the ever-amused Ryuk (Willem Dafoe).
Is that how the manga and anime ended?
Sort of, but not quite. For this explanation, I’m going to draw from the 2003 anime more than any other adaptation as that’s the version fans are most familiar with. Big Warning: Spoilers ahead.
Though Death Note ran for 37 episodes, only 25 of those episodes followed L. Why? Because L dies at Light/Kira’s hand in another elaborate plot. This one involves Light’s girlfriend Misa, Light’s shinigami Ryuk, and Misa’s shinigami Rem. Yes, in the manga and anime there is more than one Death Note. Light discovers L’s real name and kills him, then lies low for a while. The remainder of the series takes place five years after L’s death and follows his successors, Mello and Near.
After several more elaborate plots, near death experiences, and instances of people hiding pages of the Death Note, L finally gets the justice he deserves. Misa survives, Light joyfully admits that he was Kira the whole time, and an amused Ryuk writes Light’s name in the Death Note.
Is there a plot in the manga or anime similar to the one that happened in the movie?
Yep. If Wingard is following the typical Death Note story arc (which he largely seems to be) the 2017 Death Note ends about halfway through the Light and L story. If a sequel were to happen, it would likely focus more on Light and L, with L discovering the existence of shinigamis (Death Gods) and Light coming up with more and more escape plans. Hopefully if there’s a second movie, Wingard will work in some sweet potato chip action.
However, there are some key plot differences in this Netflix adaptation. For one, Light — who seems to love to tell people about the Death Note as Marty Byrd loves to tell everyone in Ozark about money laundering — has already told his police officer father about all the crimes he’s committed. That’s not a good look unless Light wants to add his dad to his long list of kills. In the anime, Light’s father, Soichiro Yagumi, does eventually learn about Light’s murder-spree and the Death Note, but it takes a lot longer. Also, there are two deaths that are exclusive to this adaptation’s timeline — the deaths of Mia and Watari (Paul Nakauchi). In the anime, Mia’s clone Misa never dies, and Watari dies alongside L. I don’t know what Wingard plans on doing movie forward, but now he has an antihero with few if no emotional attachments and a detective who’s out for revenge.
Is there a possibility there will be a Death Note sequel?
At this point, it’s basically up to you. According to Wingard, Netflix is open to making a second movie if enough people watch. Based on the show’s current Google Trends, a sequel looks possible. But if you’re going off reviews, Death Note‘s future may be in the hands of a shinigami.
