Death Note (2015 TV drama)

Death Note (デスノート, Desu Nōto) is a live action television drama that began airing in July 2015 on NTV. It's based on the Death Note manga series, but with many notable changes. The series was announced in April 2015. Masataka Kubota stars as Light Yagami and Kento Yamazaki as L.

Plot
Light Yagami was a normal college student living with his father and sister. And yet, he lived in a society with an imperfect justice system. One night, after encountering a school bully, he finds a strange black notebook, which allows the user to kill a person.

Notable Changes
There are several major changes from the manga the series is based on:
 * Light's mother, Sachiko Yagami, is killed prior to the series.
 * Light is an average college student with little ambition, working a part-time job at a pub.
 * Light likes Misa Amane, regularly attends her concerts, and intentionally looks up the name of her parents' murderer to kill him.
 * Light does not want to become a police officer. As a child, he shared his canon counterpart's dream, but his father's absence after his mother's death changed this.
 * Misa sings in the popular girl group Ichigo Berry. She realizes Light is Kira when she spots him at one of her concerts after she gets the Shinigami Eyes.
 * Unlike in the manga where the lifespan isn't understood by humans, Misa can read a person's lifespan and knows when they're going to die.
 * Misa's Death Note is red instead of black.
 * Ryuk chooses to give the notebook directly to Light, rather than just dropping it for anyone to find. He actively encourages Light to use it, and even brings it back to him after Light throws it off the roof of a building to discard it.
 * Near is introduced early and is in regular contact with L. The depiction of Mello suggests that Near might have Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder), although it's not explicitly stated.
 * Mello is introduced early and is a puppet that Near carries around. He is given a personality and voice by Near. L treats Mello as separate from Near, and shouts at him directly when he starts giving Near problems while they're on the phone.
 * Teru Mikami is introduced early as the prosecutor handling Misa's case.
 * Raye Penber's fiance is Cathy Campbell, but she doesn't take the role of Naomi Misora, who isn't in the series.
 * L wears shoes and sprawls in his chairs. Instead of always eating sweets, he's constantly drinking energy juice packs.