Mantis

I'll keep this short and simple. If you've seen Death Note already, you should know what to expect. This is essentially the first 2/3 of the series. You should read the other reviews and the Death Note reviews if you don't know a lot about Death Note. I rated this more highly than Death Note because the first 2/3 are all that Death Note should have been. It's a highly entertaining anime series, but after this point things get rather dull.

I do have a couple of gripes though. I watched this in 720p, but it was very obvious that it had been upscaled and looked no better than the original Death Note. Obviously they had to trim parts from the original to keep it in within a suitable film length. This is good in a sense, but I feel a few key scenes were also removed in the process.

I'll finally add that I'm not as impressed with the soundtrack. This is mostly because they replaced one of my favourite tracks from the series called "Hatred"—which really fit its part in the series—with an inappropriate vocal track. I have no idea why.

In conclusion, this is a short review just to point out some differences. I recommend this if you're going to introduce some friends to Death Note and you want something that can be watched together in one sitting. Don't show them the sequel. Death Note should have ended here. ;)