Platinum End is a supernatural thriller series from the same creators as Death Note. As expected, the two series share some themes, such as the quest for Godhood and the desire to remake the world in one's own image. The Biblical themes are clear, but the angels who drive these stories forward differ greatly.
The angels of Platinum End have more diverse personalities and more sharply defined character arcs than Death Note's Shinigami, but another key difference lies in their appearance. Initially, Ryuk was intended to look more like Nasse or Revel, but that wouldn't have been such a good idea. Here's why the attractive humanoid look works better for Platinum End's angels.
The Rock Star Shinigami Of Death Note
When Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata began developing Death Note, they needed a design for Ryuk, Light Yagami's Shinigami companion. An early draft of Ryuk depicted him as an attractive male humanoid, or a "rock star" in the creators' own terms. This means he would have mirrored Light in his appearance, even if they were different species and had different goals, and a more attractive Ryuk would have subverted readers' expectations of what a death god would look like. It would've been nothing like a monster or the skeletal Grim Reaper, but this idea was soon scrapped for good reason.
The creators realized that if Light and Ryuk both looked like attractive young men, then readers might get confused about which of them is actually the protagonist. In movies, TV shows and graphic novels, a scene should tell the story wordlessly and convey its ideas without dialogue, and Ryuk's final appearance did just that.
Even without dialogue, any scene in Death Note could show a well-groomed young man and a creepy monster next to him, making it clear that Light is the hero and Ryuk is the supernatural creature enabling Light's dark quest for godhood as Kira. At a glance, their respective natures and roles in the story are evident, and if they look very different from one another, they make for a charmingly odd couple too. This helps give them visual chemistry as well as personal chemistry, which in turn helps make Death Note so iconic.
How Platinum End's Angels Became The New Shinigami
Platinum End borrows some themes and storytelling beats from Death Note, including the battle of wits taking place in recent episodes. It also borrows some of Death Note's ideas and takes creative liberties on them, such as the angels' design. Nasse is to Kakehashi Mirai what Ryuk was to Light, but in different ways, from her cheerful personality to her overall appearance. Once again, the supernatural creatures match what viewers would expect them to look like, with no need to subvert anything. These angels fit the general pop-culture depiction of angels, being attractive humanoids with feathery wings and halos on their heads. This is a convenient and easy way to recycle Death Note's abandoned rock star Shinigami idea.
An attractive Ryuk would have done more than subvert expectations -- it would be confusing and downright sabotage Death Note's tone and themes. By contrast, attractive angels such as Nasse, Revel and Baret reinforce the hopeful themes of Platinum End, such as Mirai's quest for true happiness and peace in his life. Ryuk enabled Light to become a legendary antihero and serial killer, while Nasse's angelic gifts to Mirai empowered him to rekindle his hope and save everyone's lives.
At last, Death Note's creators managed to design attractive creatures to aid their human protagonists, and in an intuitive way. Nasse is trying to stay neutral in all this, but her gifts are easily used for good as well as bad, and her nature as an angel has serious implications in the mind of a human like Mirai. How could he use angelic gifts for evil? Metropoliman did that, but he was twisted to begin with. Instead, Nasse's pleasant appearance reflects her positive role in Mirai's life, and she became an unwitting mascot of hope and heroism in the story of Platinum End.
