Movies

The opening chapter of the live-action Death Note films, directed by Shusuke Kaneko and released in Japan in 2006. It adapts the early manga, following Light Yagami's discovery of the killer notebook and the detective L's pursuit, and sets up the concluding film The Last Name.

Death Note is an American film adaptation that began streaming on Netflix on August 25, 2017, relocating the supernatural notebook story to Seattle. Directed by Adam Wingard and fronted by Nat Wolff, with Margaret Qualley and Keith Stanfield in support, it diverged sharply from its manga roots and drew heavy criticism.

Death Note is a Japanese live-action franchise rooted in the manga that Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata created, spanning two flagship features, a detective-focused spin-off, a short, a streaming prequel, and a 2016 continuation. The opening pair faithfully reworked the original showdown before later entries pushed into wholly new territory.

Death Note: Genius of the Counterattack is a television recap film that distills the first two live-action Death Note features into a single broadcast. Aired on Nihon TV the evening before the 2016 sequel opened, it bridges old and new with framing scenes tied to the latest entry.

Death Note: Light Up the NEW World, the fourth Japanese live-action feature in the series, opened in Japanese theaters on October 29, 2016. Set a decade after the L and Light era, it hands the story to three new leads while bringing back several familiar faces, and topped the domestic box office on release.

Death Note: New Generation is a three-part web miniseries that streamed on Hulu Japan in September 2016, filling the decade-long gap ahead of Light Up the NEW World. Each installment hands the spotlight to one of the film's three incoming leads, sketching the histories behind them.

A condensed, non-canon retelling of the early Death Note anime, Relight 1 repackages the show's opening arc into a single feature-length broadcast. Billed as a director's cut, it premiered on Japanese television in 2007 and later reached DVD, with Viz Media handling its overseas release.

Death Note Relight 2: L's Successors serves as the companion special to the first Relight feature, condensing the series' Mello and Near arc into a single non-canon broadcast. It leans far more on freshly drawn footage than its predecessor and premiered on Japanese television in August 2008.

Death Note: The Last Name, the second live-action feature in the Japanese series, reached Japan on November 3, 2006. Continuing straight from the first film with no time gap, it carries the duel between Light Yagami and L to its end, reworking the manga's later arc while reaching a comparable finish.

L: Change the WorLd is the third live-action Death Note feature, a standalone spin-off that follows the detective L through his final weeks. Released in Japan on February 9, 2008, and directed by Hideo Nakata, it sets the notebook saga aside for a race against a deadly engineered virus.

Matsuda Spinoff is a brief Death Note live-action short built around Touta Matsuda as he wrestles with the closing of the Kira case and L's looming death. Assembled from footage cut out of L: Change the WorLd plus new material, it ran on television and later appeared as a disc extra.

Mishima's Chapter: Rebirth opens the Death Note: New Generation miniseries, set nine years after the spin-off L: Change the WorLd. This chapter follows Tsukuru Mishima as he joins the task force still hunting for notebook-related deaths, and it marks the moment a new Kira begins to stir.

Ryuzaki's Chapter: Dying Wish is the second installment of the Death Note: New Generation miniseries, tracing how L's successor Ryuzaki is drawn into the renewed Kira case. Its title nods to a parting request the original L left him a decade earlier.

Shien's Chapter: Fanaticism closes the three-part web miniseries Death Note: New Generation within the live-action film continuity. It centers on Yuki Shien, tracing the childhood tragedy and simmering rage that push a young cyber terrorist to seize a notebook and crown himself the new Kira.