The Simpsons Meets Death Note? · 1:17am Nov 24th, 2022
And it's... actually good?
Blog Number 208: Light Lisa Simpson Edition
OK, so I was originally thinking about my next Gravity Falls blog post and how to work a discussion of the Simpsons influence into it, which led to me remembering, "Hey, I used to read some blog about Simpsons episode reviews once, I wonder if I can still find it?" So I did.
To recap the recap: The Simpsons can broadly be divided into two main eras. There's Classic Simpsons, the cutoff of which varies depending on who you ask, but I think the consensus average hovers around Season Eight, just before the Mike Scully run. Then there's what's sometimes called Zombie Simpsons, which is basically everything after that (depending on whether or not you include the Movie or treat that as its own thing).
Basically, and without dealing in absolutes, I don't break the mold much in terms of which era I prefer. I dropped out after the Scully era and was used to the assumption, consensus, and occasional unhappy experience that Zombie Simpsons was poor stuff, best avoided.
Anyway, scrolling idly down the page, I happened to spot this arresting image:
And I was like... wha? An anime version of Lisa Simpson, and the freaky cool otherworldly demon creature* looming over her? What's that all about?
* Yes, I'm aware now he's a shinigami and a parody of Ryuk from the original Death Note, but that's a result of an online crash-course research binge. I didn't have a clue at the time.
Which led to me clicking on this episode review article. Now the writer of the blog, Mike Amato, is very firmly a pro-Classic, anti-Zombie fan - somehow finding the wherewithal (or masochism) to review every Simpsons episode regardless - but this turned out to be a rare positive review of a "Zombie Simpsons" episode. That intrigued me even further.
There's some impressive trivia regarding the South Korean animation studio (I think it was originally one of the studios who worked on the Death Note anime?*) and a prior, differently organized parody in the Simpsons comic book of the same show.
* The studio is DR Movie, as far as I can tell from online sources.
But honestly? I've never seen Death Note. I was vaguely aware of its good reputation all these years, and that Pinkie eating an apple in "Green Isn't Your Color" was a reference, and that's about all I could've told you. So you'll have to tell me how close the parody is to the source material, because now I'm super-curious.
Personally, a big part of my sudden interest was the curiosity of seeing this detailed anime aesthetic applied to Simpsons characters. So I googled "Death Thome" (not sure if spelling error or what) as well as "Simpsons" and looked at the images. Pretty stuff!
After all this piling on of curiosity after curiosity, I thought I'd check to see if it was on Disney+, but nope. It's a Season 34 episode, still airing, whereas Season 33 only appeared after several months past its last airdate. So a no-go there.
Nuts to it: I looked it up on YouTube.
And...
...I really, really liked it.
It's only one of three Treehouse of Horror shorts, so it clocks in at about seven minutes. But damn: it does look gorgeous, it does have some funny moments (not at the gut-busting level of Simpsons on a roll, but enough I laughed a few times, especially during some of the sillier deaths and comments from the Ryuk stand-in), for a condensed story I thought it proved surprisingly well-paced, and it's got plenty of details both up-front and in the form of freeze-frame bonuses*.
* Examples: the Bowl-o-rama in the background, and Ned Flanders walking past Lisa in one shot. There are plenty more, trust me.
I like how Springfield is adapted to look more like Tokyo, as well as incorporating some traditional Japanese workplace customs (such as Homer inviting Mr Burns to his home to literally get drunk together). Combined with the copious background references, it's a feast for the eyes.
Hearing the Simpsons voice actors speak out of anime-style versions of their characters was surprisingly easy to adapt to. Yeardley Smith's take on Lisa has always been distinctively cutesy yet matter-of-fact, so it translated well (though occasionally her delivery felt a bit forced for the more emotional moments, or maybe it was just the pacing having to jump from one plot point to the next that forced it to feel a bit rushed?).
Hank Azaria's take on the shinigami worked especially well, I thought. Turns out a Moe-like voice is good for sounding creepy and sinister while adding some straight humour in-between the exposition. Coupled with the totally metal shinigami design, and his character was arguably my favourite.
Julie Kavner's Marge wasn't in it much for me to judge, sadly, though she sounded fine enough (I'd heard her voice had become more gravelly and strained over the years, but I found that hard to spot with the short lines she was given in this one). Dan Castellaneta's Homer voice was classic as ever, but that same voice sounded super-weird coming out of a more grounded character design. Whereas Mr Burns looked great but sounded weirdly off: I wondered if Harry Shearer had lost his touch vocally, but he also plays Kent Brockman and sounds completely fine there.
And Snake. Snake is irreplaceable.
Meanwhile, I can't comment much on the plot without spoilers, though I gather it's a distillation of the Death Note story with some liberties taken re: how the book works. Suffice it to say I thought the way it was adapted around Lisa's "crusader" persona - while poking fun at the whole black-and-white moral insanity thing too - actually worked shockingly well, and taken as a standalone it makes me ache to imagine more. If only we had a whole series like this...
Tell me I should see the original Death Note on Netflix, or wherever it is now. Please, I'm all ears.
Lastly, I must confess I was biased by the Lisa Simpson focus. At least going by the Classic Simpsons era, she was my favourite character (I'm aware she became a lot more self-righteous and obnoxious later on, but let me have this). I liked her love-hate dynamic with Bart - who, by the way, gets a great turn in "Death Tome", but I daren't say more here, though I'd be interested to know how it played out in the comics version.
The manga style of the comic book is pretty clever, too.
I liked how Homer had difficulties relating to her, I liked her intellectual precociousness, I liked her emotional vulnerabilities and childish behaviours mixed in with the attempts at being more philosophical and moral, and inevitably a good chunk of my favourite episodes are Lisa episodes (like "Moaning Lisa", "Lisa's Substitute", "Separate Vocations", "Lisa's First Word", "Lisa on Ice", "Lisa's Wedding", "Lisa the Vegetarian", and "The Old Man and the Lisa").
And yes, allowing for the original's odd art style, she can be simply moe-levels of cute sometimes.
So this was like a heart attack of cuteness.
So yeah, this turned out to be an all-round deeply pleasant surprise, combining nostalgia and novelty in one nice little package. 
That's all for now. Just a spur-of-the-moment pleasant surprise that happened to me today, and I felt impressed enough by the result to want to share it. Have you seen it already? What did you think? 
Until next time! Impossible Numbers, out.
Picture sources:
- https://static1.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/simpsons-death-note-parody-lisa-as-light.jpg
- https://meblogwritegood.files.wordpress.com/2022/10/3406.png?w=1200&h&zoom=2
- https://i1.wp.com/www.piratesandprincesses.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Death-Note-Simpsons.png?resize=696%2C782
- https://en.datosjam.net.pe/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/portada_death-note-16.jpg
- https://consequence.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/the-simpsons-death-tome.jpg?quality=80&resize=1031%2C580&strip
- https://sportshub.cbsistatic.com/i/2022/10/31/818ff9b6-1536-4b31-bdb0-1fd0368882cf/the-simpsons-death-note-kills-treehouse-of-horror-clip.jpg
- https://64.media.tumblr.com/a4ddc0426d8e843ff390226935e407d0/dfa584063824eb9b-0f/s540x810/c37478a036ec66997e6091be9a412c4f5549f933.pnj
- https://i0.wp.com/img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130409192319/playstationallstarsfanfictionroyale/images/b/b3/Light_yagami_and_ryuk.png
- https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/002/467/382/a2a.png
- https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FgW2t3AWQAUpi_D?format=jpg&name=large
Never seen it. I might look into it, but neither the Simpsons nor Death Note really grabbed me.
That said, this anime style looks really cute, so maybe I'll look it up sometime.
I think it was mention that they actually hired the Japanese studio responsible for Death Note to do the animation. Not only that, the episode itself is filled with reference from past Simpson episode; and a more faithful homage to the original Death Note then Netflix own live action attempts, with few reference to the original DN and its fan theories plus the additional rules to keep it original.
Also, L. Just . . . L.
Death Note is a fascinating game of high-stakes, high IQ cat-and-mouse... that also happens to involve the main character trying to create a new world order through mass murder. I can't say for certain if you'll enjoy it, especially since I only read the manga, but it is a very engaging story.
Death Note was great, and I highly recommend it. Also, if you're into Death Note parodies/crossovers despite not even reading/watching the original, then you'd probably also like Death Note: Equestria (and be equally disappointed as I am that it was cancelled).
Due to growing up with much of pre-HD Zombie Simpsons, I do at times have a nostalgic spot for chunks of it (enough that I split the show into 3 eras, though I think there's enough of a stylistic change beyond the art with the HD era to justify the extra divide in 2009), even though I am in full agreement about the Classic Era up to Season 8 being where it's at. I can't remember what year I stopped watching the show regularly (2012 seems likely), but certainly I have paid almost no attention to newer episodes for many years now. Occasionally if I hear about an interesting one I'll give it a look, but that's it.
However, like for many, the Death Note parody caught my eye once it started popping up on social media. I too have never watched the show or read the manga, but of course I've heard much about it. And hey, like yourself, upon watching the segment, I liked it. Certainly feels like I'd have liked it a bit more with a longer runtime, but there's lot of grace notes in it that actually worked, it does compress very well within that runtime, and the application of Simpsons characters into this kind of story and character mentality here proved pretty seamless.
More than anything, it felt fresh and energetic from the makers, something that wasn't a guarantee even with the various "guest animator" bits that pop up intermittently in the HD era. The style really did sing, and I most liked how gradually yet visceral Lisa's facial expressions got more maniacal and crazed over the runtime. Hey, I'm the same guy who's artistic sense zeroes in on the proportion difference between Unicorn and Alicorn Twilight (and notices how Barbara in DC Super Hero Girls is made to seem smaller and more dimuantive relative to her in Batgirl costume despite being the same body shape) – noticing very small proportion/dacial details is kind of my thing.
And hm, that Simpsons episode review blog, interesting find…
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We get a dose of both in the ending: firstly, Lisa kills the shinigami with the book, which is apparently impossible in the original Death Note; and secondly, Lisa turns into a shinigami herself, which was a fan theory for the original Light Yagami's fate.
Myself, I thought it was a pretty cool level of detail. Honouring the original without just copying it.
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Although I make it a point not to read unfinished works (normally), I'm taking the Death Note recommendation, no trouble!
Just got to find the bugger first. It's not on Netflix. ðŸ˜
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Rest assured: with the Simpsons eras, I am entirely vulnerable to the charge of oversimplifying. The Scully era alone was distinct enough that I'd happily separate it from the subsequent Al Jean era. To say nothing of such changes of direction as were evident during the early seasons within the Classic era.
Funnily enough, most of my earliest memories of The Simpsons involved Scully era episodes like the Vegas one and the one where Homer becomes a bodyguard while Mark Hamill tells him to use the f... the forks. (When I was younger, my cousin used to bring round VHS tapes of the Simpsons, and they were invariably biased in favour of the Scully era episodes).
That's what I like about it. It comes across as a glimpse into a parallel universe where The Simpsons was a popular anime show, and it's kinda awesome.
Normally, I'd miss that sort of detail and be impressed that you spotted it ahead of me, but this time I can say I remember that level of detail too! The vocal evolution matches too, as Lisa's voice gets more snarly and vicious over time, culminating in her shinigami form's guttural growl.
Actually, I quite like his (mostly) positive reviews of the first few seasons, plus some of his more interesting takes on the Scully era episodes. Reading that blog post was (I think) the first time I really noticed in hindsight how much Jerkass Homer came to dominate the scene and make episodes needlessly darker than they probably should have been. When I eventually got around to rewatching Season Nine after a long hiatus, having read the reviews meant I saw plenty of episodes in a new (and not always welcome) light.