Death Note (film series)

The run opened in 2006 with a matched pair, the original Death Note and its follow-up The Last Name, both helmed by Shusuke Kaneko, backed by Nippon Television, and handled in theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures Japan. These first installments tracked the manga's central duel between university student Light Yagami and the detective L, anchored by the supernatural notebook that kills anyone whose name fills its pages. Hideo Nakata then directed a 2008 offshoot, L: Change the WorLd, while a brief Matsuda-centered short circulated on television and later as a disc extra. Nearly a decade on, a three-part prequel called New Generation streamed on Hulu Japan ahead of the fourth feature, and a recap broadcast, Genius of the Counterattack, compressed the original duo the night before the new film opened.

In the founding story, Light Yagami, a To-Oh University student sickened by rampant crime, stumbles on the notebook and tests its lethal claim on two criminals before accepting that it works. Guided by the shinigami Ryuk, its former owner, he resolves to reign as a god over a cleansed world. The killings of jailed offenders draw the International Police Organization and the masked sleuth L, who pins the culprit, nicknamed Kira, to Japan and recognizes that the murderer can strike without contact. The two minds lock into a contest of wits.

The spin-off follows L during his final days as he chases a lethal virus loose in a Thai village, racing to expose its makers before it spreads worldwide. New Generation fills the ten-year gap with three episodes introducing Tsukuru Mishima, Ryuzaki, and Yuki Shien. The 2016 feature, Light Up the NEW World, then reopens the conflict: shinigami scatter fresh notebooks, Mishima inherits Soichiro Yagami's task force, Ryuzaki carries on as L's heir, and the cyber-terrorist Shien backs Kira, setting three factions against one another over the books.

The first feature debuted in Japanese theaters on June 17, 2006, ruled the box office for a fortnight, and shoved The Da Vinci Code out of the top spot. Its follow-up arrived that November, held the top spot for four consecutive weeks, and pulled in 5.5 billion yen to rank among the year's biggest domestic earners. A press release claimed strong audience satisfaction, and the opening film took in roughly 41 million dollars at home plus smaller sums across Hong Kong and Taiwan. The property later expanded abroad through a separate Netflix production in 2017, while overseas releases, English-subtitled discs, and soundtrack and novelization tie-ins broadened its reach.