Meet the new Misa… same as the old Misa? Turns out that this year’s live-action Death Note film has recast Erika Toda as Misa Amane. Toda played Misa in 2006’s Death Note and its second part Death Note: The Last Name , as well as in the spin-off film L change the WorLd .
Toda’s return as Misa brings a welcome bit of continuity to the latest incarnation of the deathless Death Note saga, which is otherwise rather different from what Death Note fans might suspect. The original plot of the 2003-2006 manga centers around a teenager named Light, who finds a notebook that kills those whose names are written in it. Naturally, Light takes it upon himself to clean up the world, opposed by the authorities and genius weirdo detective L.
The new film’s story is quite different. Global cyber-terrorism goes wild in the 2016 of the new Death Note film, and new personalities who have inherited the DNA of crusader Light and detective L emerge. The heirs of these detectives must wage a war over the six Death Notes on Earth.
Of note: the new Death Note will incorporate a “Six-Note Rule,” something familiar to readers of the original manga, but not a plot element that carried over to previous franchise adaptations. Only six Death Notes are allowed to exist at a time in the human world, and the Shinigami (gods of death) are limited to the number of Death Notes, meaning that only six of the Shinigami may exist in the human world.
So far, the Death Note casts includes:
Sousuke Ikematsu (Higen from The Last Samurai ) as Ryuzaki, a successor to L
Masahiro Higashide (Hideo Shamada from live-action Parasyte ) as Tsukuru Mishima, an investigator looking into the Death Botes
Masaki Suda (live-action Assassination Classroom ’s Karma Akabane) as Yugi Shion, a cyber terrorist who adulates Kira
Rina Kaewei (stage play Azumi: Bakumatsu-hen ) as Sakura Aoi, an indiscriminate murderer who uses her Death Note in a manner completely opposite to Light
Mina Fujii as Sho Nanase, an investigator on the Death Note task force
Warner Bros will be distributing the film, considered a “ forbidden sequel ” to the two earlier live-action Death Note films. The new film opens in Japan on Oct. 29.
