This article analyzes the characteristics of the fantasy genre and explores how Death Note combines elements of fantasy, mystery, and thriller to create a unique narrative. It examines the film’s genre characteristics, focusing on elements such as wonder and fantasy, reality reconfiguration, cerebral battles, and suspense.
Characteristics of the fantasy genre
When you hear the word “fantasy,” it’s easy to think of movies like The Chronicles of Narnia or The Lord of the Rings that feature new worlds, fairies, races, and more. However, the genre isn’t limited to these elements. Furthermore, many modern fantasy books and movies only scratch the surface of the broader field of fantasy.
Rosemary Jackson approached fantasy as a concept of “illusion.” She categorized fantasy into the phenomenal, the mimetic, and the fantastic. The phenomenal has a different time and space from the real world, and presents a new worldview inhabited by fairies and hobbits, like in The Lord of the Rings. The reader or audience sees, believes, and identifies with the narrator in this worldview, which means that they must recognize and follow the worldview created by the author. On the other hand, the fantastic, unlike wonder, is described as ‘hesitant’. It is a state of ambiguity where it is difficult to accept the content as reality, but it is also difficult to categorize it as an unreal phenomenon. Whereas the marvelous presents an alternative world, a new world, the fantastic blurs the line between reality and unreality. This ambiguity in the fantastic indicates that a part of reality is included in the worldview, and it also represents an outlet for the repressed.
Fantasy has several key characteristics. First, there is a difference in worldview. Whether it’s a new worldview or a worldview that is somewhat altered from reality, it always comes as a surprise to the reader or audience. It presents something new and brings a sense of pleasure and wonder. Second, there is a trigger at the beginning of the story. The story is set in motion by a chance entry into a new world or an encounter with a new object. Even if the beginning is accidental, these encounters form the core of the story. Third, modern fantasy is inevitably fantastical. It is essential to present a new worldview, and CG is often used to depict it more effectively. Finally, fantasy is a critique of reality. This critique is more evident in fantastical worlds that are connected to reality than in phenomenal worlds. By showing events through an altered reality, it highlights the problems of the real world and makes us rethink it.
Mysteries and thrillers
Mysteries and thrillers are often compared. The difference between the two genres starts with the progression of events. Mystery movies often feature a detective as the main character, while thrillers focus on a specific character, such as an innocent citizen. Mystery movies focus on why things happen and how they are solved, while thrillers focus on how the main character survives. Second, mysteries focus on the interpretation of the resolution of the case, while thrillers create nightmarish suspense. Mystery movies make the audience guess at the clues in the case, while thrillers focus on surprising the audience. Third, there’s the difference in information disclosure. Mysteries focus on suspense and deduction, so they hide much of the information. Thrillers, on the other hand, reveal information to build suspense.
In modern times, however, the distinction between these two genres has become increasingly blurred. While it’s still theoretically possible to tell the difference, the lines have become blurred in modern cinema. Thrillers often contain mystery elements, and mysteries often contain thriller elements. However, in the past, thrillers were more often associated with suspense than mystery. For example, if four people enter a room to play poker and die when a time bomb goes off, it’s a simple surprise. On the other hand, if the audience is told in advance that there is a time bomb in the room, and then we show the four playing poker, the audience is kept in constant suspense, wondering what will happen. This is suspense. Mysteries and thrillers have their differences, but unlike horror movies, they have something in common: they create sustained suspense rather than temporary surprises, and they make you think about what’s going to happen next.
The fantastical nature of Death Note
The beginning of Death Note is accidental. The main character, Raito, was an ordinary student. He was ranked first in the country and dreamed of becoming a police officer while living with his father, mother, and younger brother, all of whom were police officers. One day, he accidentally picked up a Death Note on the side of the road. At first, he doesn’t believe the story, but when the criminal whose name is written on it dies, he realizes it’s true. He then dreams of killing criminals with his own hands and becoming the god of a crime-free society. The story begins quite serendipitously, as the Death Note falls on the side of the road and is picked up by a boy with a sense of justice.
Death Note has an altered worldview. The temporal and spatial situation is the same as the society we live in today. However, in this world, there are elements that are different from reality. There is a new realm, the Reaper, which is separate from the human realm and manages human death and life. However, it is difficult to say that this is a completely new worldview or an alternative worldview. For example, in The Lord of the Rings, not only the main characters, but everyone who lives in that world recognizes and lives within the new worldview. In Death Note, on the other hand, no one but the main characters knows that the Grim Reaper exists. They just assume that there is something that punishes criminals. In other words, they live in the same reality as we do now. In this sense, the movie Death Note is more of a fantasy worldview than a phenomenal worldview.
In Death Note, there is a reaper. They don’t exist in the real world, and to make the audience aware of this, the movie uses CG to represent the reapers, Ryuk and Ram. This use of CG aids in the interactivity that allows the audience to recognize this new worldview.
Death Note reconstructs reality, which means that it makes us rethink reality. It asks questions such as: is it justifiable to kill a murderer, can an individual be the standard for judging a crime, and can life be controlled by humans? The movie entertainingly shows the dangers of individual judgment of crime and why killing is never justified.
How Death Note is a mystery and thriller
Death Note has elements of both a mystery and a thriller. The movie tells the story of the confrontation between Raito and Detective L, who tracks him down. The main character is Raito, the owner of the Death Note, but Detective L plays a very important role. While L isn’t the main character, he’s just as important as Raito and takes up a large part of the story.
From Raito’s perspective, the movie becomes a thriller. Much of the movie is revealed through his point of view, as he shows us how he manages to carry out his actions without being detected. The process of killing the FBI, how to kill the perpetrators, etc. is information that only he knows. Therefore, when the movie is centered on Leito’s case, it becomes a thriller because it focuses on how he evades detection.
From L’s perspective, on the other hand, the movie becomes a mystery. L suspects that Kira might be Raito, but he doesn’t know a lot of the information that Raito knows. He focuses on narrowing down Kira, gathering information, and making deductions to solve the case. If you watch the movie from L’s point of view, you can see it as a mystery movie because a lot of information is withheld and the focus is on the process of solving the case.
Death Note has suspense. The movie doesn’t try to surprise the audience with the sudden appearance of the Grim Reaper or the sudden death of the main characters. Instead, the movie centers around the idea that writing down a name will kill the person who wrote it. Raito needs to know L’s real name to eliminate him, but L can’t because he’s using a pseudonym. L thinks Raito is a prime suspect, but can’t catch him because he doesn’t know how to kill him, which is the only way to prove it. This confrontation between the two creates a sense of instability and tension, and suspense is the main focus of the movie.
See the genre through the eyes of Death Note characters
Raito is a unique character. The fact that he is ranked number one in the country gives the movie a lot of legitimacy as a cerebral battle. He is portrayed as a man who is quick to improvise and has excellent reasoning and judgment. As the son of a police commissioner, he is in a position to easily sidestep the police department’s investigative process. He wants to become a police officer, but is skeptical of the idea of punishing criminals with existing laws. This is when a death note is given to him, in which he kills a criminal in order to establish an order of justice. This setting reinforces the coincidence of the Death Note being given to Leito, and increases the plausibility of the events.
L is a unique character who is hard to find in real life. From the beginning, he is described by the way he sits, the way he answers the phone, and his unusual habit of eating only sweets. The dark circles around his eyes are his signature image. Little is known about L, other than the fact that he is a detective who is good at deduction. L’s existence shows the boundary between reality and unreality. Although he is a realistic figure as a detective, his abnormal behavior and background give him a fanciful feel. This presence sets up a battle of wits with Leito, pitting the fantastical figure against the fanciful one with the fanciful death note, emphasizing the fantasy element.
Raito and L lead the thriller and mystery genres. They are both fantasy characters, but they also have brains and personalities that drive their cases. One being too weak or too strong would take away from the suspense of the brain battle, but these two are equally skilled. At the end of the movie, they both die, which shows the equal skill of the two characters. Their superior brains add to the tension, and their emotional reactions make the event more urgent and provide suspense.
Analyzing genre through movie scenes
Let’s look at the last part of Death Note: The Last Name. In order to kill L, Raito puts the Reaper Ram’s favorite meal, Mass, at risk of being caught by L. The Reaper can only use a human’s life for certain causes, and Raito takes advantage of this. To save Misa, Ram writes L’s name in a death note and disappears. L appears to die, but he doesn’t because he has already written his name on another Death Note. This leads to the capture of Raito, which ultimately leads to Raito’s death. L also dies because he wrote his name on the Death Note.
Fantasy, thriller, and mystery elements are all present in this scene. The fantastical element of the death note creates a new worldview, and the absoluteness of the death note shows that if your name is written, you die. The Reapers, Luke and Ram, who intervene in the case, are also fantastical beings that don’t exist in reality, adding to the fantasy element. Within this fantasy framework, a thriller and mystery unfolds. In this scene, there is a twist. There is a strong thriller element as L dies and comes back to life. However, the twist is also mysterious in that information has been withheld from the audience. This combination of thriller and mystery elements keeps the movie suspenseful until the end. In this sense, Death Note can be considered a fantasy mystery thriller.
Concluding Movie Genre Analysis
You may have heard the old superstition that if you write your name in red, you will die. Of course, this is not true, but many people associate the color red with negativity and avoid it. You may have heard this story as a child and even tried it yourself. Deathnote is a childish idea. Death Note centers around the absurd story of a child who dies when his name is written on a note, but it’s enough to pique our curiosity. It’s a fantastical take on something we’ve all thought about as children, and it plays out as a thriller and mystery. In this way, the movie makes us reflect on reality and entertains us in a unique way.
