Death Note Relight 1: Visions of a God

Directed by Tetsuro Araki, the special squeezes the show's earlier half into one broadcast and leaves the rest to its follow-up, Relight 2: L's Successors. Japan labeled it with the word rewrite, while the Viz Media-licensed North American release switched that to relight. Built almost entirely from existing episode footage, it trims and reorders events to fit a movie length rather than offering new canon. It reached Japanese television on August 31, 2007, with a DVD following the next spring and American discs in mid-2009.

A wraparound tale opens in the realm of the death gods, where a bored Shinigami seeks out Ryuk and trades an apple for an interesting story. What Ryuk relates is the anime's first arc, Light Yagami's rise and his battle of wits with L. New beats are woven into the reused footage: L privately screens the Second Kira tape for Light, recast as their first in-person meeting, and Light later gloats at L's grave. The Yotsuba men die in gruesome mishaps rather than heart attacks. Ryuk closes by noting that Light was not yet a god and wondering whether some remarkable person will find a dropped notebook.

Marketing pitched the film as the anime's definitive ending, yet cast commentary on the DVD conceded that its finale is only an alternate one, set apart from the manga, the live-action films, and the series itself. The bookend device also bred a lasting fan theory: because the nameless death god resembles Light so closely, many viewers take him for a reincarnation of the character. Resting largely on recycled animation lifted from the broadcast, the work stands as a supplement to it rather than a fresh entry.