The plot involves Light Turner (Nat Wolff), an angry young nerd who finds a supernatural notebook called the Death Note that—with extensive rules and conditions recorded on the first few pages—allows him to kill anyone by picturing their face and writing their name on its pages.

The premise is simple and and has a strong hook—a supernatural notebook that gives its owner the power to kill anyone whose name they write in its pages—but also comes with a byzantine set of rules and conditions that then pivot into actual plot points, usually revealed when it's time for a dramatic twist.

It feels like whitewashing , even if Death Note makes an effort to keep its supporting players diverse, most notably casting the inscrutable yet consistently entertaining Lakeith Stanfield as the bizarre detective known as L.

"The idea of spirits living in words is an ancient Japanese concept," Kaneko told Wired in 2008, directly referring to the Death Note's power to kill via writing.

The American version of Light is an angry, disillusioned young white guy who might as well be a faceless Redditor who gains the power to kill people via forum posts.