Movie review
August 25, 2017 · 101 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Death Note.
Woke representation / casting
Lead roles use a white actor as Light and a Black actor as L after moving the story to Seattle, creating clear racial diversity visible to viewers who know the Japanese original.
Woke political dialogue
No lines or scenes push activist causes, identity politics, or social-justice talking points.
Identity-driven story themes
The plot stays on personal power, justice, and consequences without race, gender, or group-identity angles.
Western institutional / cultural critique
The story shows police and courts struggling against Kira, but this is a classic vigilante dilemma, not framed as modern systemic oppression or identity critique.
Review
Death Note (2017) is a Netflix live-action film about high school student Light Turner who finds a notebook that kills anyone whose name he writes in it. He teams up with a classmate and draws the attention of a brilliant detective called L and a death god named Ryuk. The story moves the action from Japan to Seattle, uses a mostly non-Asian cast for the leads, and adds teen romance, but keeps the focus on power, morality, and vigilante killing with no activist lectures or identity messaging.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
A handful of online posts questioned specific casting choices, but the heavy public reaction centered on whitewashing and bad storytelling, not accusations of woke messaging.
Creator track record context
Jeremy Slater, Dan Lin, and Masi Oka have records or comments favoring diversity in media, while the director and original manga creators do not.
Production
