Why You Should Listen to the Death Note Musical

Yep, you read that right. Death Note, one of the most well-known and popular anime/manga series worldwide, has a musical. And it’s arguably at least as good as the manga.

Death Note, which came out in the U.S. in 2005, was created by Tsugumi Ohba and artist Takeshi Obata. Despite only being one season, it has been a fan favorite in multiple countries since it was released. It’s spawned several spinoff dramas in Japanese and Korean, as well as video games, audio dramas, one-shots (by Ohba and Obata), a novella, and a *gag* movie on Netflix (I haven’t seen it, but it has a reputation).

In 2014, someone with musical composition talent decided, “You know what else this franchise needs? A musical.” Enter Frank Wildhorn, known for his work on Jekyll & Hyde and several other musicals and, according to his Wikipedia page, “widely recognized for his ability to release a score before the show opens and have it sell really well.” Working with songwriter Jack Murphy, he followed the plot and portrayals of the characters in Death Note (*cough cough* Netflix), plus he did cool stuff like using the instruments from the characters’ theme music from the anime in their respective songs. The plot mostly follows the first arc of the anime/manga, though the ending combines the end of that arc and the end of the show (no spoilers). And it’s not solely focused on L and Light either: Misa gets a couple of songs, Rem and Ryuk both experience the limelight, Soichiro has a duet with Light and a solo, and even Sayu gets to sing.

Wildhorn got an impressive cast, too, including Broadway stars Jeremy Jordan (Jack Kelly from Newsies) and Laura Osnes, as well as Jarrod Spector and Adrienne Warren. I don’t care who you are, but you need to hear Jeremy Jordan as Light singing Hurricane. You just do. Trust me.

Unfortunately, Wildhorn’s superiors didn’t think the show would do well in the U.S., so it never actually became a stage play in English. However, the song demos are up on YouTube on a playlist here, and they were also translated and produced in Japanese, Korean and Russian. Japan and South Korea have done this with some of Wildhorn’s other musicals as well, like Cyrano de Bergerac (premiered in Japan) and Tears of Heaven (premiered in South Korea).

So even though we were robbed of a U.S. stage play, you can still enjoy all of Wildhorn’s amazing music being sung by super talented people with really hot voices. And maybe subsequently become obsessed with Death Note and get all of the songs stuck in your head 24/7. Ahem. Anyway. Go listen to it! Even if you have no knowledge of Death Note beyond “there is a book where if you write someone’s name down they die,” you can still appreciate it for the music and the story—or at the very least appreciate the incredible voices.

Now some of you may be thinking: “But Alicia, surely it can’t be as perfect as you’ve described it!” Fair enough; I’ll give the other side. Here’s a couple criticisms listed on Wikipedia:

First: “trying to fit a 12-volume manga series into a two-and-a-half-hour musical.” False, the musical only covers about three-fifths, maybe two-thirds at most of the storyline of the manga and makes no attempt to reference the rest, because it only focuses on the first arc. I’m sure Wildhorn knew it would be impossible to fit everything in, which I respect and appreciate despite that meaning that one of my favorite characters is not present. There are a few things cut out that would have enhanced the story, but adding much more would have dragged it out too long and potentially confused audience members who weren’t familiar with the plot.

Second: “simplistic staging lacking in visual spectacle.” Alright, that’s a fair point for certain scenes, but the manga relies a lot on close-ups and it’s kinda hard to do that on a stage, plus there are so many different settings that having a complex set would be more trouble than it’s worth.

So it’s true, it isn’t perfect. But for fans of Death Note, it’s a faithful adaptation to the spirit of the series with a bunch of bops. For musical fans, it’s compelling songwriting and plot with talented voices. And for me, it was the sole thing that convinced me to check out the series, even with no context. So I think that speaks to its greatness.

Anyway, what are you still doing here? Go watch or listen to it!

(This is the full Japanese production from 2015, with the English versions of the songs dubbed in.)