YMMV / Death Note: Light Up the New World

• Alas, Poor Scrappy: Misa's death. She writes her own name in the Death Note, saying "dies in Light Yagami's arms" - but as this is, of course, an impossibility, she simply collapses and dies of a heart attack. It's hard to not feel at least some sympathy for her, particularly since she had matured by this point and even helped Shien when he needed it.
• Contested Sequel: The film has been met with mixed reviews from Death Note fans. Some consider the film an interesting take on the franchise with new faces, while others find it a predictable film that didn't live up to its potential.
• Crazy Is Cool:
  • Ryuzaki. He's L's successor, after all.
  • Mishima, the new Kira. He pulls pretty much the same trick that Light did by erasing his memories.
• Ending Fatigue: Ryuzaki and Misa die, but Shien is caught by Mishima. The End? Nope, Ryuzaki faked his death, Mishima is the true successor to Kira and the government is trying to kill both of them and Shien so they can take their Death Notes, which involves a very lengthy chase scene. Then Mishima is arrested, but Ryuzaki pardons him and passes the L mantle onto Mishima.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Shien dresses like a dandy, but his emo-hair looks about 10 years out of date.
• Just Here for Godzilla: The new Shinigami characters seem to be considered the movie's main highlight.
• Most Wonderful Sound: "Just as I planned."
• Nightmare Fuel: A new ability of the 'Death Note' was introduced: sudden death. It's exactly what you expect.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Misa has become a stronger character in the 10-year gap. While she's still devoted to Light, she isn't as fanatical and makes it clear to Shien that she's not his pawn. She even kills herself with grace and maturity!
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Quite a few examples.
  • Bepo could have been an informant to the Task Force, but is shafted and never acknowledged after a single scene.
  • Teru Mikami, Adapted Out of the first two films, finally makes it into the film canon...except he's already dead by the story's beginning, much to the annoyance of many fans.
  • Some fans are disappointed with only getting two new Shinigami, especially ones that are expies of ones from the original manga, rather than the real thing.
  • Sakura Aoi as well, she's a heavily Advertised Extra, hyped as the "most dangerous Death Note user yet," but dies shortly into the movie without any backstory or development.
  • Hell, with the story beginning with six 'Death Notes' being dropped into the human world, it's a disappointment to find that three of its users had a focus (Ryuzaki, Shien and Mishima). And the other three were sidelined, including Sakura Aoi. There was a doctor who ended the suffering of a sickly man with his 'Death Note', eventually deciding to kill anyone with at least one suicidal thought. And a Supreme Court Judge also used the 'Death Note' to kill Kira supporters, as he had a hatred of them. These two could have made a better story than that of the same police investigation story.
  • The novelization includes appearances by Sidoh/Shidoh (as the real thing) and two other Shinigami, one of whom is completely unnamed and the other is, in true Death Note fashion, referred to simply as "Ibu" with no spelling information.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Many believed the plot of this 135-minute long movie was too grand, shortchanging interesting ideas:
  • Despite being a movie about L's and Kira's successors, there's noticeably less battle of wits and mind games involved, instead being a more standard spy thriller action movie.
  • None of Light's family appears or is even mentioned in the film. The video of Light revealing himself to be Kira being spread worldwide would've made for a good sidestory about Soichiro coming clean to his wife and daughter and them dealing with the fact he lied to them. Early Japanese promotional blurbs stated that Soichiro had died by the time of the story, but this issue is never addressed in the movie itself, even in the novelization.
  • The movie also mentions that Light had a child, who Mikami had been looking after before dying, but we never do find out their current status, nor their backstory. Particularly egregious in that who the child's mother was remains unanswered.
  • The promotional mini-series not only has Near make a cameo, but Mello is given a mention as "his problem." The whole plot of the movie could have been an adaptation of the Mello and Near Arc, with Yuki filling Light's role.
  • How did Ryuzaki get his Death Note? Was it given to him specifically because he was L's successor, or did he hunt down and catch another Death Note user off screen and claim their notebook? the film doesn't explain at all.

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