I know there have already been a million Death Note adaptations but there needs to be at least one more, and that one needs to do Mello justice.
he needs to be GAYER and he needs to be SMARTER
like, no more of this “he looks too girly so we need to give him a comically deep and aggressive voice” shit. let him have a normal voice, let him flirt with mob guys to make them uncomfortable, let him dramatically lounge over every piece of furniture. up the drama everywhere. bring back the crucifixes and skulls. you know! gay stuff!
also! include his full arc, gdi! including the first unsuccessful attack on the mob’s hideout, the manipulation of the president of the gd United States, and his direct rivalry with the SPK! all the adaptations I’ve seen have been super vague about what Mello’s goal is, and have made him sort of just an agent of chaos, and tbf, in the manga, Near and Light don’t foresee his endgame–but the reader is given several scenes of Mello trying to dig up information that make it clear that taking possession of the Death Note wasn’t his sole purpose. he continues to ask Soichiro about the task force and the notebook, and keeps track of SPK’s movements, and is very much still interested in the whole Kira investigation.
ffs, in How to Read Ohba even said that at one point they were like “oh shit! Mello is going to figure this out way too soon!” and had to throw in a plot twist to slow him down. and in fact, at one point Mello WAS going to be the “winner,” to contrast with Near being better in school and Mello in the world… except again, he started winning TOO FAST and that needed to be changed.
I think he’s often portrayed as 1) emotional to the detriment of his logical ability, 2) impulsive, and 3) less connected to L, which is not super fair because 1) he’s RIGHT BEHIND Near in most intellectual/deductive tests shown or described in the manga, 2) he gets there specifically because he’s shown to be a hard worker, and does in fact come up with some super elaborate plans (even Near admits that there is no way anyone could have stopped Mello from getting the notebook given the level of detail in the kidnapping plot), and 3) is shown to have a more emotional reaction to L’s death in the first place. it’s true he doesn’t seem to refer to himself as a successor to L once he leaves Wammy’s, but that makes sense given his new role–just because he’s not the same type of detective as L doesn’t make him any less invested in the Kira case.
and I realize most of this is probably not new to tumblr. and ftr I do love him and Near as two sides of the same coin, so this isn’t a Near-sucks-Mello-is-great thing.
but I rewatched all of the anime recently and started watching the live series and had to stop during episode 10 because… gosh. wow. no.