
Who wrote the 'Death Note' script? - gwern
http://www.gwern.net/Death%20Note%20script
======
tinco
" the studios initially wanted to give the main character Light Yagami a new
background story to explain his downward spiral as a villain. The new
background would have had a friend of Light murdered when he was young. When
Light obtains the Death Note - a notebook with which he can put people to
death by writing their names - he uses it to seek vengeance"

This really makes me cringe. This is precisely the sort of thinking that gave
us so many mediocre/bad movies. Only someone who has no idea of what the story
is about could suggest such a crude alteration of the story. And for what? Do
they really think the movie would be better because of it? Or at least draw
more audience?

Anyway it's great that the director managed to hold off these changes, I saw
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and it was absolutely great so I'm anxious to see what
he'll make of it :)

~~~
kysol
When I read that I thought of Kevin Smith's conversation regarding Superman
and a Giant Spider - <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgYhLIThTvk#t=8m0s>

My current theory about movies at the moment is that all these crappy movies
get made just to put a trailer to a big "block buster" at the start. After
cost + advertising - box office revenue is taken into account, the end cost is
probably less than it would cost normally to mass market the initial trailer.
-- The reason why bad movies get made :D

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hooande
> _A forger could have randomly changed Charles to "Charley", looked up an
> appropriate address, edited the metadata, come up with all the Hollywood
> touches, wrote the whole damn thing (quite an endeavour since relatively
> little material is borrowed from DN), and put it online._

Most people would have used that pile of circumstantial evidence to close the
case. But you can't fool gwern (or L).

The best thing about this analysis is that it reflects the thinking of the one
of the main characters in the anime. This seems like how the detective L would
solve the same problem. has always been one of my favorite fictional
characters because I greatly admire his (fictional) rigor and inductive
abilities. Leave it to gwern to apply the same level of super detective skills
to answering a question about the movie. It seems like a lot of work for a
small point, but we'd all be better off if more people were this thorough in
eliminating possibilities.

I saw the japanese movie and it was good, but probably best for people who
were already fans of the anime. An americanized version might open up a much
broader audience, though they'd have to put a lot of money behind it.

~~~
DeepDuh
One thing I found strange about his analysis is that he kept on looking for
new approaches after he got an upper boundary of 6.6% for the style result
being random. I'd have introduced a more realistic model and looked at whether
it get's me below 3% and be done with it (probably). He seems to like analysis
just for the analysis sake. Of course it's still refreshing to see after
reading tons of today's superficial blogosphere blabber (Google has ALWAYS
blocked WP!!!11! ... wait no, sry).

~~~
gwern
I don't think you can consider the stylometric result as yielding such an
upper boundary; yes, that's some strong evidence against one possibility and
in favor of another, but we could easily find some more evidence which goes
the other way - and indeed did.

So, it may be an upper bound _ceteris paribus_, but ceteris is not paribus
here.

------
umjames
Hollywood, please don't ever try to make live-action remakes of anime. Why
can't they just show the anime itself? It was already good.

I highly recommend watching Death Note in its original anime form (preferably
in Japanese with English subtitles). It's excellent. A little culture never
hurt anyone. Every story doesn't have to take place in the U.S.

~~~
_delirium
The anime form isn't the "original", but itself an adaptation of the manga. I
don't have a huge problem in principle with media forms being adapted into
other media forms, though, so that isn't really a knock against it. Imo
whether an adaption is _good_ is more interesting than the status as
original/adaptation/remake. Some adaptations and remakes are good!

~~~
gbog
The extreme example is when the translation is actually better than the
original, for a book.

Edgar Alan Poe's tales translated by Baudelaire are said to be one of such
cases.

~~~
lmm
Maybe someone should publish a translation of Baudelaire's translation

------
revelation
Warning: his whole site is an incredibly wonderful _time sink_ :)

I can recommend his extensive research on Nootropics [1] for actionable
advice.

[1]: <http://www.gwern.net/Nootropics>

~~~
jrogers65
A few of these are not nootropics but cognitive enhancers. Difference being
that nootropics are extremely non-toxic or neuroprotective. Another way to put
it is that nootropics are a subset of cognitive enhancers (safe cognitive
enhancers, basically).

The following are not nootropics:

* Modafinil and Armodafinil

* Adderall (Amphetamine)

* Caffeine

* Kratom

* Nicotine (this is a border case, in my opinion)

* Selegiline

Stay away from the above, unless taken very occasionally, if you value your
health. Drugs like these rapidly build tolerance and become a liability in the
long run. If you insist on using stimulants such as amphetamine, learn about
how to reduce tolerance with things such as NMDA antagonists and take things
to prevent neurotoxicity.

He should also get on with trying Noopept - it's one of the best nootropics of
recent times.

From experience, anybody who is a programmer or does similarly demanding
intellectual work will stand to benefit from learning about and using
nootropics. They're not a silver bullet but quite a few of them are most
certainly effective.

~~~
jey

      If you insist on using stimulants such as amphetamine,
      learn about how to reduce tolerance with things such as
      NMDA antagonists and take things to prevent neurotoxicity.
    
      He should also get on with trying Noopept - it's one of 
      the best nootropics of recent times.
    

Care to expound on those points?

~~~
rms
Magnesium and blueberries seem to be the easily within reach stack to take
with amphetamine.

Noopept is quite good. I stopped taking it because for me it seemed acutely
enough anxiolytic to cause rebound anxiety.

~~~
jrogers65
Combine with L-Theanine (increases GABA activity), Lemon Balm (slows down GABA
breakdown) and L-Tryptophan (good for social anxiety).

~~~
khafra
If Noopept causes rebound anxiety, isn't that a sign that it could build up
resistance/dependence over time?

------
TallboyOne
Funny thing about Death Note. My friend who is big into anime recommended this
as my 'first time' anime I should watch. To make a long story (very short), I
gave him shit about anime for a good 2 years if not longer. It was all light-
hearted but eventually he snapped, he just couldn't take it anymore.

"FINE!!! F&#$&$ YOU. DONT WATCH IT. SEE IF I CARE". I can see 2 years of
pushing his buttons and joking finally caught up with him.

I watched it, turns out I loved it more than I could have imagined. We tease
each other about that to this day.

------
w1ntermute
Ah, _Death Note_ , one of my favorite manga. I read it in the original
Japanese and it was very thrilling. Unfortunately, the anime adaptation was
rather poorly done. The second half, IIRC, really went off the rails.

Edit: the author of the linked post also has an analysis of Death Note
Endings[0], which talks about some of the reasons for the manga and anime
endings and the incentives for why they ended the ways they did.

0: <http://www.gwern.net/Death%20Note%20Ending>

~~~
trinovantes
I enjoyed the original Japanese films more than the manga. Despite the
mediocre acting, the movie was much better than the anime.

~~~
neltnerb
Agreed. The films ended far more sensibly, and the plot was better thought
out.

~~~
Rovanion
But keep Death Note III away yourself. It's just bad, like really bad.

~~~
neltnerb
I will pretend that I never saw someone mention this. I had never heard of
this movie, and still haven't.

------
adam-f
A Death Note fan _would_ write an analysis this detailed.

~~~
tinco
In a barefooted couch hanging sugar rush no doubt!

~~~
gwern
While fixing up the final errors the other night, I consumed a bag of Gummi
Bears.

And half a box of chocolate.

------
jacquesm
\- Rob Malda joines HN... Check.

\- anti-ms league attempts to rewrite history... Check.

\- Anime on the front page of HN... Check.

Fears of HN becoming reddit are overrated, but the chance of becoming slashdot
instead looks to be > 0.

------
mcherm
A detailed, exacting analysis, worthy of L himself.

------
nos4A2
Awesome Article (and site)! Just one correction, look like you used the word
memsahib in correctly (I think its a respectable salutation for a woman)..

------
askimto
Looks like an analysis someone from the Singularity Institute would write...

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JosephRedfern
That's an impressive analysis - very interesting!

------
tinco
I get the strong feeling I've read this article before, but I can't find a
strong indicator this is an old article. Did someone else write about the
leaked script?

~~~
nialo
This particular post is a new version of an older article, not a completely
new article, so it seems mostly likely that you read the old version already.

~~~
tinco
Ah ok that makes sense then :)

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TommyDANGerous
I've seen the Death Note anime twice and it is one of the best Animes, with
probably only Code Geass above it. I would love a real-life make of it but I
believe that is impossible because everything about Death Note can only be
captured in a lengthy series. In order to feel Death Note and truly understand
the genius behind it, you must submerge yourself into its world for an
extended period of time.

------
marshray
"probability a fake script will have copies taken down = 5%+5% = 0.10"

So the probability that the automaton who combs file sharing sites for "Warner
Bros" and spams DMCA requests would both: A. be in a position to know whether
or not the script was real, and B. would refrain from issuing a takedown if it
were not is 90%?

This does not seem to fit historical evidence.

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waterlesscloud
"how many unproduced screenplays get leaked?"

Pretty much all of them, to a greater or lesser extent.

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alan_cx
Just an observation:

Political threads usually get several comments about being off topic for HN,
some times quite strong. However, not one descenting comment for this, which
to me seems equally, if not more, off topic.

I personally really don't mind either subject, but how is this considered more
relevant to HN than politics? Seems people are just as interested.

I don't think this is a problem with this topic, even as a non fan its an
interesting discussion. Its more interesting to me that the group reaction is
different.

~~~
mikedmiked
Even if the topic is not something you care about the techniques and methods
gwern uses are not often talked about here and useful for a variety of text
processing tasks.

His methodical analysis and scientific rigor is always what I wish other posts
could have. If nothing this is a post which will motivate others to write
better.

The cluster analysis is cool - not seen that before. Wonder what the results
of Latent Dirichlet Allocation might have gotten...

------
brennenHN
This is the most intense fan fiction.

