Death Note

WARNING: Minor spoilers within. TITLE: Death Note MANGA/ANIME: Death Note was originally a manga authored by Tsugumi Ohba and with art done by Takeshi Obata (well-known for his work on the Hikaru no Go manga). It was serialized in Kadokawa's Weekly Shonen Jump from May 2003 until December of 2006, and was licensed Stateside by Viz Media, with all volumes currently available. The anime version of Death Note was produced by Studio Madhouse (well-known for their work on Paranoia Agent and X) and was directed by Tetsuro Araki (Death Note was his first major work). It ran on Japanese TV from October 3rd, 2006 until June 26th, 2007, and was licensed Stateside by, again, Viz Media, and was released in various formats, including Download to Own/Rent and DVDs (with the complete series being available at the time of this writing), along with a run on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim from October 20th, 2007 til July 6th, 2008. STORY: Light Yagami is an incredibly smart high school student who's bored out of his head. One day, he finds a notebook lying on the ground with instructions inside that claim that if the owner writes a name of a person while picturing their face, that person will die. Light is skeptical at first, and tests it out on a few subjects, confirming its powers, along with the previous owner of the notebook, the apple-addicted shinigami Ryuk, appearing to him. Light then decides to use the notebook's powers to rid the world of criminals, which, in turn, attracts the attention of the international police community and a mysterious detective named L. The area where Death Note excels is in its plot, and how it's structured. For essentially being a shonen show, Death Note develops its mind games between Light and those pursuing him, L especially, amazingly well, with each relying on various gambits and bluffs to stay a few steps ahead of the other. And the tension and suspense builds incredibly well throughout the run; in the last few episodes, there were several points at which my heart was actually pounding as I watched what was happening on screen. And the fact that the writers didn't always make Light infallible, that he slips up at times and risks not being able to outbluff his opponents, is a definite plus in the shonen genre. Death Note has two major flaws, however. One is centered in the structure of the series, which I'll discuss later in Length; the other is in character development. Throughout the course of the thirty-nine episodes, none of our three major characters undergoes any sort of character development. L remains eccentric and brillaint, Light remains brilliant and manipulative, except to develop a paranoid messiah complex and turn into even more of a jackass, and Misa remains blindly devotional and makes me want to trade in my uterus. And without any sort of development, it's hard to relate to any of these characters. Some of the more minor characters underwent minor character development, like growing a pair or getting even more crazy than they already were. Additionally, some characters are defined simply by their quirks, which is not characterization at all. In terms of how accurate of an adaptation this is from the manga, I can only speak for the first three volumes or so, and vague knowledge of the rest of the manga. Based on what I know, this is a fairly faithful adaptation, with each episode covering one or two chapters of the manga or so. ART: Madhouse does its normal attention to realism in character designs and background here, which is always good. There's also heavy emphasis on religious symbolism with the main trifecta of characters, and different primary color schemes for each of them when they go into internal monologues, especially in particularly dramatic moments. And this is all fine and well. However, the one part where they lost me was their use of SLOOOOOW MOOOOTIOOON in particularly dramatic moments, which may cause moments of laughter where the director may not have intended. There's one particular moment early on in the series' run that best exemplifies this; Light is under surveillance by L and, in order to keep on killing criminals as Kira, he slips a portable TV and a slip of the Note into the potato chips package, seemingly studying and eating as he is actually killing off criminals. The animation during this sequence goes into incredibly slow motion, with the grease off the potato chips sparkling, and Light seemingly making DRAMATIC EATING MOTIONS. It's fairly ridiculous, and I was laughing out loud; pretty sure this was not what was intended. And this is used fairly often throughout the series, and just pushes things over into ridiculousness. MUSIC: The background music for this is very heavy on the dramatic choral and orchestral arrangements, which kind of helps with pushing some of the more dramatic moments into the series into over-the-top ridiculousness. The first OP and ED are fairly standard J-Rock numbers, don't stand out that much, but pretty good in and of themselves. The second OP and ED are speed metal numbers, and the OP's pretty catchy, good to use as an alarm. Aya Hirano's (Misa's seiyuu) also got an insert song in here as well, not anything particularly big, but decent in and of itself. SEIYUU: Aya Hirano (famous for her role as Haruhi Suzumiya and Konata Izumi in Lucky Star) plays Misa Amane, and Maaya Sakamoto (famous for her roles as Hitmoi in Escaflowne and Aeris in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children) shows up as Takada Kiyomi. Everyone else does a fairly good job in their roles. LENGTH: The biggest issue that I have with the series is in its length, and to go into this requires SPOILERS, so skip to the end of this section if you wish to avoid them. The first twenty-five episodes are all well and good. But after L dies, we essentially get what we saw in the last twenty five episodes recycled and compressed into twelve episodes, with a few new characters taking on the roles that L and Misa did during the first twenty-five episodes. And honestly... it worked the first time around, not so much the second. OVERALL: This is a fairly solid show in the plot department, but it has its share of flaws, mainly with regards to characterization, dramatic moments turning ridiculous, and the plot after the first half of the series pretty much just being a recycling of what we saw before. Definitely worth a watch, but not the ZOMG MASTERPIECE that everyone makes it out to be. STORY: 8/10 ART: 7/10 MUSIC: 7/10 SEIYUU: 8/10 LENGTH: 7/10 OVERALL: 37/50; 74% (C)

This review was first written back in 2017. Now in 2021, I think it's time for an update. Way back when, I originally decided to watch this anime because a friend of mine was practically begging me to. I was a high school student at the time who had ambitions on majoring in criminal justice once I entered college (a plan I did start, but have since changed), so I was intrigued upon reading a synopsis that pretty much described a battle between serial killer and police force. It was right up my alley. When I first watched the anime, I was completely blown away. But now after coming back to it four years later, I'm thinking otherwise. Story | 3/10 Initially, I found the story to be quite unique as it adds a supernatural twist to a seemingly normal human universe. Light Yagami, a high school student who constantly excels in his studies, comes across a mysterious notebook one day, and he soon finds that it has the power to kill anyone so long as he knows their name and face. The story set up was unlike anything I had ever seen before, so I was really excited to see what would happen as the plot unfolded and the police got involved. L's character was especially one that was hyped up by both watchers of the anime, and even other characters within the anime. When it came time for Light and L to go up against each other in a metaphoric "fight to the death", I will admit that I was entertained! Though after a while, the plot fell from thrilling and suspenseful to boring and predictable. One thing I noticed right away as the story progressed was that the realistic value portrayed in this universe took a drastic decline. Sure, the idea of a notebook that can cause the death of a human being holds little realism in the first place, but it was the character actions and interactions that held that realism together. Specifically, Light, L, and Misa once held some sort of relatability in the beginning, with Light being a high school student trying to get into a good college while also intentionally keeping secrets from his parents about a certain part of his life, L being an investigator just trying to do his job, and Misa being a lovesick naïve girl who's willing to do anything to make her crush like her back. However, with more advancement to the plot, the story kind of tip-toes away from the realistic human side of things where people can make mistakes and only focuses on the intelligence of the two main characters. The situations that they put each other in appear to be carefully thought out with seemingly no possible way for the plan to catch the other to fail. Yet, the audience is quickly and repetitively informed that the defending side in fact DOES have a way out, and that this way out was determined before the character was even put in this difficult situation in the first place. Because of this, not only is the realistic value of human error taken out of the picture, but so is the thrill. Also, the story told in Death Note is one that is heavily intricate. This isn't an anime that you can just throw on in the background while you do something else. Leave that for an episodic slice of life anime. You have to give your full, undivided attention if you don't want to miss an important detail. I personally don't mind abandoning all responsibility for a little while so I can focus on the screen. The problem I have with the amount of detail in this show, though, is that all the important information seems to come in large chunks that are just thrown in your face with little time to form an understanding before the scene rolls into the next. For example, the time between Light being just an ordinary student to him becoming a mass serial killer who developed a god complex and created a plan to cleanse the world of evil is literally not even the length of a whole episode. Not only that, but the audience is also given an explanation on how the Death Note works, and what a shinigami is. Again, all this happens within like 15 minutes during the FIRST episode. By clumping all this information together and delivering it on a single plate, it becomes overwhelming to the viewer which may cause them to forget a point that will be mentioned later in the story. There were many times when I found myself unable to comprehend what was going on because of the lack of gradual revealing of information. Light's goal of cleansing the world of evil begins with killing prisoners via heart attack. I'm going to go on a bit of a tangent here. This might be a huge stretch, and I might just be pissed off about this for absolutely no reason, but bear with me. As a former criminal justice major in college and a current avid true crime watcher, the anime completely ignores the fact that it is entirely possible for people to be wrongfully convicted of a crime. Light does absolutely no research on the prisoners he kills. He just sees their names and writes them down. For all we know, a few of those prisoners he sentenced to death could have been innocent people. Obviously, because this fact is never mentioned, it should just be assumed that he IS killing people who actually committed crimes, but that just further proves my point about there being little realism to the anime. It just shows Light's mindset of, "You're wearing the orange jumpsuit? You deserve death," with no rhyme or reason at all, and it also promotes the idea that all prisoners are evil. Seriously, I'm still confused where this plan to kill off all evil even came from in the first place. Lastly, after falling on its back during a major event in episode 25, the anime tries to pull itself back to its feet for the remainder of the twelve episodes by introducing new characters, some of which are there to serve as a complete replacement of those who died along the way. This causes the pacing of the last arc of the anime to tremendously slow down and drag on an unnecessary amount, with the only truly important part of it being witnessing as Light loses his sanity more and more. However, if the new characters were just never included in the first place, this same thing could have been accomplished in six or less episodes with better pacing. Character | 2/10 Both Light and L are advertised throughout the story as exceptionally intelligent individuals on opposing sides. This is why many people may have found it entertaining to watch as they go up against each other for a majority of the plot. My issue with this is that the story takes the idea of "playing with smarts" to an extreme level that, as I've stated previously, completely eradicates any type of chance for a mistake to happen, thus also eliminating the suspense in the process. Starting with Light, his character was one that high school me used to respect. Of course, I was younger and more easily impressed back then. I only looked at the dude for his intelligence, and didn't really think deeply about what he was actually doing. Looking at it now, I will say without doubt that Light is a terribly written character. I know it was intended for him to take on the anti-hero persona, but part of me just feels like his development from ordinary student to psychotic serial killer was paced way too quickly. I think his character would've been so much better if his reasoning behind using the death note started on a more personal level. For example, have his first kill be someone who once caused him harm, like a bully from secondary school who continued to bother him in high school. That way, it gives him a logical reason to test out the ability of the death note through vengeance instead of him just using it on a random prisoner he saw on TV because he wants to see if it actually works. In my opinion, it would make the feeling of having killed someone more satisfying for him, which then could build a bridge over to him becoming a serial killer. The reason I'm saying all of this is simple: Light has absolutely no motive behind his goal. It feels completely empty, like the only r…

Let's be honest: There's a lot of shitty anime out there. Whether it's bland harems, obnoxious ecchi, or vapid dramas, many people have seen what physically and artistically represents the fact that sometimes even inane dimwits can slip through the cracks of entertainment. Thus, it makes sense that when a so-called "smart" anime hits the streets, people would naturally be enticed by the allure of a mature, thoughtful work. A lot of times these fail to impress as the author spends so much time thinking of ways to outsmart the audience that he loses track of the writing and sends it spiraling into stupidity and, quite simply, idiosyncratic nonsense. Despite its flaws, Death Note avoids that catastrophic cycle and is, in its own right, a very good anime. STORY: Well, where to begin. First off, as I said above, many anime in this genre tend to flaunt superior intelligence in the face of their audience, and Death Note is no exception. It is incredibly creative and the gambits created by the characters are truly mesmerizing at times. The problem is that because they are so over-the-top and absurdly scheming, many of them feel somewhat preposterous and a few plot points then become stretches of the imagination. While this isn't an overwhelming problem, as much of the plot is well thought out and planned for, the lack of meticulous care to the plot-line shows up at times and detracts from the story... but just a little bit. More negative is the lack of logic in the characters. Other than a few (the obvious two, mainly), the majority of the characters are just plain stupid. This becomes overwhelmingly evident when, at times, the villain of the story could have been caught but isn't out of sheer luck. However, the lack of logic isn't too overbearing, and the plot is mostly clean of any holes, so while it is a problem, it did not cause much of a backbite from my perspective. On another note, one of the main pluses of Death Note is the suspense and twists/turns that the narrative presents. While the plot twists aren't extremely unexpected or anything of the like, the series does throw some curveballs and the battle between Light and L is such an engrossing cat and mouse chase that it is rather enticing to watch. To this day Death Note is the anime I have watched the fastest because I just couldn't stop reveling in the overall intensity and eccentricities of the story. While not as heavy as something like Monster, Death Note has its fair share of thematic elements. Some of them are executed well (flaws of justice, legality of capital punishment, not so different heroes/villains) whereas some have some issues (power corrupts). It's unfortunate that the main theme is flawed, but because of the inconsistency and certain issues regarding it, the story comes off as more of a character study of a sociopath than anything else, which is completely fine but veritably inadvertent on the author's part. CHARACTERS: The most interesting point of discussion with Death Note, in my humble opinion, relates to the characters. Let's start with Light Yagami. In order to avoid spoilers, I won't go into detail, but essentially my thoughts are as such: Light Yagami is a very good character, a very likable/detestable character depending on your perspective, and he is written extremely well in the story. However, his character development has an inherent flaw in that it is much too quickly paced. Now, this is unfortunate because it isn't indicative of bad characterization as it is seen that Light has some flaws before a certain event, but the characterization used directly contradicts some of the moral purports that the author wished to establish. In other words, the "power corrupts" theme is nullified by Light's characterization. To truly make Death Note top-notch, I personally believe that Ohba would have had to have made his development more gradual, but alas that did not happen. Still though, I would like to clarify that, again, I really like Light Yagami and I believe he is written extremely well in the context, but there are some things I personally would have done differently with him. And... well, that's pretty much it. While there are some other good characters (L, Ryuk, Matsuda) none of them stand out in my opinion as truly brilliant achievements. This is yet another reason why I treat Death Note as more of a character study than anything else, because the development undergone by other characters is next to none for the most part, and while they do have some semblance of depth, their inner workings aren't profound enough to validate themselves as anything special. ANIMATION: Death Note is truly a feat in itself when it comes to the quality of the animation. Despite being made some time ago, it still holds up marvelously well, even with the anime that is being made now. The color scheme is very... gray, but it works because of the tone of the series. It just feels ominous and torrid, which is quite fitting. The characters look fantastic, especially in moments of fear or emotion, and their movements are fluid and don't look fake. SOUND: Ah, here we go. My favorite OST of all time goes to Death Note. If you want to make something seem epic, go for the choir noises, and it paid off marvelously here. There are a plethora of tracks that are illusive and fantastic for every sort of melancholy, vehemence, excitement, etc. The first opening and ending are also great songs in my opinion, but the second opening is... bad. Somehow a lot of people like it though, so don't take my word for it. As far as the voice acting goes, I've seen both the dub and the sub, and I personally prefer the dub but neither are bad choices. Brad Swaile does a phenomenal job with Light Yagami and L's voice actor (who escapes me at the moment) does as well, along with Brian Drummond as Ryuk. Besides those three in particular, everyone from Soichiro to Matsuda to Rem are played quite well, although the voice actress playing Misa Amane can be a little... jarring at times. You'll see what I mean. OVERALL: Death Note has flaws, as I have stated. However, these flaws are part of what is a high-quality anime to be sure. I recommend it.

Death Note: Ah, you know! That anime where apples are a huge theme with a whiny genius who wants to rule the world! Of course. It was good but ended with lack luster. Let's start with the story: I'll try to keep it spoiler free. Story: Light Yagami is a young, Japanese male genius who is bored with life. One day he finds something called a Death Note, a notebook with the ability to kill. He uses this death note to rule down on all he deams unworthy (criminals). He sets off his plan but a group of investigators and one main one set off to find this killer (Light) and that is the premise of the show. It carries through and is quite the thrilling anime with situation after situation stopping Light and him cunningly find a way around it. The series really starts to die down after episode 26 though with most of the corners being cut and everything coming down to "I'll just have to kill you before you kill me!" It still has a spark but it doesn't ignite as well. Next is the art style. Art: The design and art style of this anime is very unique. It takes a modern day gothic style but applies a civil, sharp manner to it. If something looks sharp enough to stab you, that'll say something about that character or object. It keeps it either very dark or very vibrant. It likes to mix the two up to make a beautiful painting that is Death Note. It'll stay unique and you'll remember how it looks. The sound is critical so I'll talk about that. Sound: As previously stated above, the show takes that Gothic theme into mind. Even the first set of opening and endings applies this style to the show. If something needs a dramatic, classical themed background song, it'll use it to it's best. Later on, the show picks ups a more chaotic feeling and even applies that through it's second opening and ending. Though I'm not a big fan of the second opening and ending, it does fit quite well. The characters... Well... Character Development: Personally, I didn't hate any of the characters. They all fit their roles in they were designed but I feel as if their attitudes were all copy paste. Each character looks different but the villains, excluding light, are all just in for the reputation, money, and power. All the detectives behind the Kira/Light case are justified and want to stop everything, though they may actually conflict with each other. Nothing just felt really special about any of the characters besides Light, L, Misa, Ryuk, Light's father, Near, and Mellow. Those were the only characters that stood out to me. Besides that, no one was too special. My overall enjoyment/overall feeling of the show are about the same: It's a great anime that I suggest to everyone because it has it's own unique style and feeling towards it's audience but it really starts to lose what made it so great after episode 26. If you're going to watch it, stop after that episode. Leave everything else up to your imagination. I watched it because I wanted to see what was canon and I don't quite regret it but nothing popped out to me. It's great, exciting, but lack luster in the end.

Death Note is a very good anime and manga, however the phrase "more is not always better" applies quite well here. Progression (10): The planning sequences are done spectacularly and are kind of like the action in this show. If feels very "adrenaline-y". Story (6): I felt that the themes were not well depicted, especially the ones about justice felt even somewhat childish as many characters attempt to prove their justice but never start having a grey morality. They never start questioning themselves and believing that there are no evils involved within this plot, only people who wish to do what they believe in. It even starts to depict some characters as evil which further reinforces the black and white morality in this show. For me, a show that is dark should have a more mature gray morality theme. The story is also relatively simple and even somewhat generic when written so that the main reason why you'll be watching this show is for the brilliantly executed plans that the characters use. Art (10): The artstyle is very dark and very well polished. I felt it fit the atmosphere very well. Sound (10): Though there's no soundtrack I would really prefer listening to by itself, the sound for this show was amazing when played together with the plans so much so that you could feel adrenaline rushing through your veins. Characters (4): There are not really any great characters in Death Note other than L. However, even he is somewhat generic and bland as he and Light make up the "perfect" stereotype often played up in anime. Worse is the fact that there is perhaps no or barely any character development and Misa is a very annoying character who often breaks mood and tension in the show where one should be immersed in the plan. However, this shouldn't really be faulted too much as this show doesn't rely on the characters to keep it moving. It relies on the plans of the characters to keep immersion. Enjoyment (7): This show has some of the best planning scenes I've ever seen within any anime. However, there are a fair number of flaws, not too large, but regardless they are flaws: the characters, the themes, and after episode 25 it felt dragged and boring. However, the reason why you came to watch Death Note was for those action scenes that have adrenaline rush up in your blood as you see Light's plans unfold and as your mind proceeds to be blown away. TLDR? Pros: *Great planning sequences (kind of like the action of the story) *Amazing artwork for its time *Great soundtrack *Very nice mood and atmosphere Cons: *Poor/little character development (though this show does not require much) *The story and themes are relatively simple and seem somewhat childish *Inconsistent pacing; after episode 25 the show gets quite dull and uninteresting. Overall Score: 7.5/10 (Round up to 8/10) ***Please keep in mind that this is just a review and a personal opinion. I am just being entirely honest here about what I thought was good and what I thought was bad. This is not a hate review or a love review, and I try my best to be unbiased and write what I truly thought about the show/manga after watching/reading it. If you enjoy/hate this anime/manga, feel free to accept my thoughts on said anime/manga or discard it.

What if one person was given the power to kill anyone they wanted, whenever they wanted, simply by writing their name in a notebook? If you’re screaming at me about spoilers, you must not have realized what the title of this anime implies. This question is the basic theme throughout the entire show. While it sounds very strange, I can almost promise you that you have never seen anything like it before. This anime is easily one of my favorites, and I’ll show you why. I’ll also show you why this anime has a few commonly overlooked shortcomings. I apologize in advance for the length, but this anime requires a lot of analysis to do it justice. So here’s the breakdown: Story (8/10) – It’s going to seem like I’m contradicting myself here. You see, the story of Death Note is simply outstanding. I was completely blown away by it, and nearly everyone I know feels the same way! Now, if I say that, why is the score only an 8/10? Well, the reason I only scored it an 8 was because of how it felt like the show drug a bit at points. Let me try to clear this up for you a bit. Okay, so the show opens in modern-day Japan. The story closely follows a teenager named “Yagami Light” (a bit of an odd name, but more on the characters later). Light isn’t exactly what I’d call average. He’s a mostly unremarkable character at the beginning of the show, except that he’s extremely intelligent. He’s the top of his class, and is preparing to enter into a prestigious university. Well, Light’s comfortable world suddenly has a very large loop thrown into it when he discovers a “Death Note”. Now don’t freak out on me for spoilers; all of this is explained in the very first episode. Light discovers that the “Death Note” was dropped by a “Shinigami” (commonly translated as “Death God”, or also “Soul Reaper”, if you’ve watched Bleach). This Shinigami explains to Light how the Death Note works. As you may have guessed, the Death Note has supernatural power, granting Light the ability to kill anyone he desires. All he has to do is know their name, and be able to picture their face when he writes in the Death Note. Naturally, Light tests this power to see if it’s for real, and is surprised to discover that the Shinigami was telling the truth. Light holds the power to kill nearly anyone in his hands. Now, as you can imagine, this has some VERY interesting implications for the plot of the show. I won’t get into any further detail, in the interest of avoiding spoilers, but the outset of this show is simply brilliant. Light goes through some downright incredible twists to try and hide what he’s been doing, and to keep his precious Death Note a secret. The first ten or twelve episodes of this show are very addicting. You won’t want to stop watching, as you’ll never know what’s coming next. Light has to kill off several people in an attempt to hide his tracks, and as the show wears on, you’ll begin to wonder if any of the original cast will make it to the finale. Now, for the reasons why I only gave it an 8/10. While the first twelve or so episodes had me completely hooked, the initial shock and uniqueness of the opening wears off after a bit. Around episode 18 to about 25, the show slows down for a bit. Now, this is a chance for some very interesting things to happen with the characters, but once again, more on that later. It felt like the show sacrificed plot for character development here, which wasn’t entirely bad, but it did make things a little slow. Things pick up again around 26 and don’t really slow down until the end. Even though things got more exciting, it never really lived up to the first twelve or so episodes of the show. The ending wasn’t necessarily predictable, but you will come to realize that there’s only one way for the show to end if there’s going to be a complete resolution. The way they arrive at the ending may surprise you, but you’ll likely see it coming. All in all, I felt like the show was just a few episodes too long. If they had, perhaps, cut it down to 30 episodes instead of 37, it may have helped things to move a little faster. You’ll likely enjoy all of the episodes, and none of them had that “filler” feel that a show can sometimes give you when it’s trying to avoid moving too fast. In any case, excellent story, just told over a few too many episodes. Art (10/10) – After writing rather more than I intended on the last section, I’ll try to be more succinct here. I find the art in this show excellent! The character designs aren’t as creative as you might normally find, but this is supposed to be the real world, not some fantasy, where girls have pink hair and cat ears. Even so, some of the Shinigami are pretty interesting, and no two of them look even remotely similar (except for looking like reapers of death of course). There weren’t any especially eye-popping effects to gaze at, but then again, this show is a psychological thriller, not an action or shonen, thus, it contains a rather sparse peppering of explosions, so there really wasn’t a need. The animators occasionally chose to animate things like cars with computer animation, but I found that this added, rather than detracted from the overall art design. The art is all based on a rather dark color palette, but I feel that this fits with the dark and ominous themes of the show. I really have nothing to complain about here. This show is superbly animated! Sound (8/10) – The music in this show certainly fits the mood, but it rarely stood out to me as being excellent. It’s not the sort of stuff you’ll find yourself whistling as you wash the car, so some of it is quite forgettable. There are, however, some moments where the music will give you chills! The operatic, haunting music when people are being killed off by the Death Note is astoundingly powerful! The music in moments like these really helps to capture the mood. I had to knock down a point for the second opening though. I’m really not a fan of death metal to begin with, but the singer screaming “human f***er!” was just a little too much for me (why are they screaming English curse-words, anyway?). While this probably fit the mood and themes of the show, it made me feel gross, and I skipped it every time after I’d heard it once. The first opening is much better though, and is usually worth listening to. The voice acting, however, is top notch. The voices are very believable, and stay away from what I often find can be very whiny, irritating voices when a character is emotional. The lone exception being “Misa”, who’s shrill voice did bother me from time to time. On the other hand, the actors for Light and L were outstanding! The voice actors had to pull of some very strange dialogue at times, yet still managed it in a completely believable way. Excellently done. Characters (10/10) – Ah, the characters! Here’s where this show truly shines! I have never seen an anime that so brilliantly depicts the nature of humans who are given too much power. It takes Light a grand total of about one episode to develop something of a “god complex”. Light believes that he should create his own rules with the new power he’s been given. While I find the name “Light” to be rather strange, I got over it when I saw what a compelling character he truly is. I can’t go into much detail without spoilers, but the course of events that follows Light as he uses his power is easily believable. The power that Light has discovered changes people into cold-hearted maniacs, and causes them to show their true colors. “L” (yet another odd name) is an equally compelling character, and his skills with deductive reasoning and logic are astounding at times. I cannot say much more about him, but L’s attempts to catch the mysterious killer cause he and Light to work against each other. Light and L get into a number of battles involving mostly their minds, and while the logic used isn’t always flawless, it will still impress you, and leave you eager to find out what happens next. The …

Prior to Death Note I stuck to watching anime that had some form of romance in it, but when I saw how great the animation in Death Note was I jut had to check it out. It completely changed the way I felt about supernatural/psychologial anime. It made me realize how enjoyabl other genres could be. Story: Death Note has such a great and unique story to it. With the arrival of a death note that came from the Shinigami. The person with the death note can kill anyone just by writting down their name in an otherwise seemingly normal notebook. It falls into the hands of Light who plans to kill off all te criminals in the world and anyone who tries to get in his way. Art: The animation in this series is superb. The character designs are flawless. The Shinigami's look creepy and it's nice to see how differently each one looks. Light's character looks like any ordinary teenage boy. He doesn't look like the type that would kill by any means. Bringing to mind that the worst people in society are the ones that blend in perfectly. Sound: There were plenty of dramatic scenes in this anime and the voice actors managed to pull each one off. Light's voice actor did great job. He could sound dark and evil in one sentence and normal and innocent the next. Both ending and openings go swell with the theme of the show. Character: The characters just like the rest of the show are unique in their own right. Light's character is the supreme anti-hero, but he's written so well that regardless of what's happening you're compared to cheer for him because athough he's evil, he's an evil genius. Even the unimportant characters are well written and develope nicely throughout the show. Enjoyment: VERY enjoyable. At the end of each episode, I desperately anticapated the next. The pyschological aspect of the show draws you in and refuses to let you go until the ongoing war has reached it's ending mark. Overall, I would recommend this to most people. The pyschological points in the series can be quite complicated at times so it's probably best to watch it when you're at your best at using your brain.

Its quite psychological. What was keeping this series from being a 10? If you can answer this question, I'll boost it up to a 10. So, the "name" part required to use the death note, Is it like your legal birth name or a the name it says on your citizenship record? What if your parents died and didn't give you a name? Will you then be immune to the death note? The ending felt kinda rushed. Story- (10/10) Book that kills people if the person's name is written in it. Pretty damn simple, unique and minimal. It questions your sense of judgement and what you would do if you had that power. Characters -(10/10) Light, some kid sends criminals to their death and calls it justice. L, some other kid thinks that killing criminals is not justice and is just murder with the illusion of creating a perfect world. Both characters are unique. Sound- (10/10) I don't rate sound, though L's theme was lit. Art- (10/10) I don't rate sound, As long as its watchable, its good enough for me. Enjoyment-(10/10) -The suspense of the characters clashing in a battle of wits was great. One miss step could mean defeat. -Both sides have manipulative pawns, and sends them off to get information on the enemy. -Had me thinking what I would do if I was Light or L. Overall-(9/10) -Ending felt kinda rushed. + [SPOILER AHEAD] DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVENT FINISHED -Both sides lose showing more sense of realism that there is no right or wrong answer to the question "Should we kill off criminals?" Because we are humans and we all make mistakes on the road down to life. But then again, those who make huge mistakes and commit mass murder, should we just send them to hell? Even though the lives of animals are slaughtered countlessly per millisecond, do we really have the right to judge mass murder crimes?

Death Note was one of the first anime series I've ever watched before and is the one that got me into anime, and making it my favorite anime ever. The story is great, Light Yagami,is a teenager that wants to change the world through a notebook by eradicating the world of crime, has a god complex and is an absolute justice type of character, (Like Akainu from One Piece) and is known to the world as Kira. L, a detective considered to be the world's greatest tries to prevent him from killing anymore criminals since it is still murder. It's L vs Kira, who will win? Most of the time, it's just a cat and mouse game, you never know who will win and it seems at times in the show that Light is so close to getting rid of L and L is close to revealing the identity of Kira. The first opening and ending are some of my favorite in anime and they have great music that goes along with the story. One flaw with Death Note is that there is enough character development except for L and Light. There's average development for Misa and others, but nothing great. There was never a dull moment in Death Note, and all 37 episodes were great. Overall, I give Death Note a perfect 10 out of 10, and highly recommend it. But if it were me, I would have ended it at Episode 25, because the second season killed it.

If you like psychological thrillers then i suggest you go watch a James Patterson movie. Death Note did not cut it for me, the endless (and sometimes random) mind fight between L and Light gets tedious a few episodes in which slows down the plot considerably. The Sherlock Holmes logic of the characters reduced to intricate details like the colour of a chair (or something) which leads to a massive, yet not massive, clue to the identity of L or Light repeats itself several times always ending in a stalemate and some cliffhangers which i said to myself "Here we go again". The character designs are good however and the soundtrack does create a supernatural environment in which to enjoy the mind games between the two characters. Overall, not the best anime series in my opinion for thrills, kills, and spills.

I must say that honestly I believe Death Note is the greatest anime of all time. It is the COMPLETE package. It is the only anime I ever watched that I could not stop watching. It really makes you think and it has soooo many good twists throughout the entire series. You never really know what's going to happen next. Story: I mean, it's so unique. What other series have you heard of with Shinigamis and notebooks that can kill people? And it really appeals to a lot of different tastes. It is suspenseful without being scary. And it is funny without just being a comedy. Art: Death Note's art is pretty amazing, but sometimes it seemed like the artist randomly changed. In a few episodes the drawings were semi freakish, such as the very last two episodes. But all-in-all, I must say that there is amazing artwork. Sound: Okay, by far, the best OP themes and ED themes every made in any anime. Maximum the Hormone has become my favorite band since I heard the Death Note OP and ED. No lie. Also, I really like the church music they play while Light kills people. It really adds to the mood of the show nicely. Character: FOR SURE a 10 when it comes to characters. At least in my opinion. Light has that sly characteristic where he is very good at hiding things and keeping secrets. Misa may be slightly annoying at times, but every show needs a relief character that you can just laugh at. L was that complete package character. He was cute and funny AND smart. And I loved how they said that Near and Mello together was like the complete L. That was a very good way to describe those two characters. And Matsuda has to be my favorite character. He is that guy that makes you laugh throughout the whole show and even if he doesn't have a MAJOR part, he was still important in the story. Enjoyment: I have never enjoyed any anime more than this one. I was sitting on the edge of my seat the whole time I watched it. I laughed a lot in the beginning of the series and cried a couple of times by the end of the series. The only thing I must say negatively about Death Note is that the manga was better. But still, best anime ever.

(contains spoilers, read at your own risk. YOU have been warned) This review is strictly reserved for the critique of the second half of the show. Most of us will agree the first half is basically flawless, so why concentrate your time dissecting something perfect? Especially since you can write a lot more based on the unbalanced second half. I do admit that the second half isn't nearly as well done as the first half, mostly because they obviously shoe horned a convenient plot twist so that Kira would lose after all. And in a way, i could see how that pissed people off, me included. I agree with that sentiment; albeit, I don't think we should write off Near and his minions off just yet. They are done very well with a very emotional and interesting past to them, enough so to keep them relevant and wanting to find out more, and you have to give it to them - the back story to L's and Near life make the second half worth it. Another part that was very well done was the death of Kiras' dad. Why is the second half panned so much? To me it really feels like Near didn't live up to the expectation of L and that Kira was beaten so lightly, when he had to go around hoops against L. Either way, I feel the second half could of been approached better or maybe at least reserved for an OVA or something later, but it definitely doesn't warrant the notoriety it gets. I guess my only major gripe about the second half is they got ride of the bad-ass opener for something not as bad-ass, but some b.s. emo-fashioned esque opener that was just straight up lame.

Death Note is a Japanese manga series created by writer Tsugumi Ohba and manga artist Takeshi Obata which was adapted into an anime and directed by Araki, Tetsurou and produced by Maruyama, Masao. It centers on Light Yagami, a high school student who discovers a supernatural notebook, the titular "Death Note" or “Desu Noto”. This notebook grants the ability to kill anyone whose name is written. The series follows Light's subsequent efforts to create a criminal-free world using this extra ordinary notebook, and the efforts of a detective known as L or (Lawliet L.) to stop him. Death Note was first serialized in 108 chapters by Shueisha in the Japanese manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 2003 to May 2006. The anime series aired October 3, 2006, to June 26, 2007. Consist of 37 episodes. Death Note brings you to the mood of critical thinking and intelligence, which will make you think over and over again. It has a great plot that insures you to get your characters from Point-A to Point-Z. Creating a new world with your own hands isn't fair enough, bringing up the fact that no one has the right to judge anyone and that what is Desu Noto is all about. Story relation with its own viewer is really epic; it permits you to solve the puzzle first before it reveals what really happens in the series. This is a good example of what is psycho thriller was all about. Exceptional art for Death Note was implemented resulting into a masterpiece series when it comes to anime & character illustration. Supposed to be that the anime story is in a classic theme still the latest art was implemented in a really nice way, also I love the art for some scenes when Yagami Light is talking to himself where he turns to be a red colour Yagami. Not only that, Lawliet L was the highlight for this series (for me) when it comes to the art section. Sound, there’s nothing really special here as usual hardcore music are being implemented when it comes to psycho and supernatural series. The one that caught my attention here are the voice actors/actresses they did a great job to personalize and to illustrates the visualization for each character. Lawliet L. was the most impressive here when it comes to voice acting. Performed by (Japanese) voice actor Yamaguchi Kappei. About the character well, I've already said it earlier that characters are impressive either personalization & visualization. Each of them has a unique characteristic. Let say for example, Lawliet L. the way he moves is really strange and very intriguing, answering the phone and reading something in an unusual way spiced up the whole series. This also applies to “Near” as well which are very entertaining. Well I really enjoyed this one, the fact that you are also involved with the story spice you up on what is going to happen next. You might get to the point that you want to play it in a fast forward mode. So overall I gave it a mark of 9/10, which means it is almost perfect to me, because I've never scored 10/10 as many of us would not agree since we have our own preferences. Want to improve my review? Please comment your feedback on how to improve my review methods as I am reviewing this one based on my opinions only. JA! Domo!

Death Note, what a ride. This series is one that after watching i would most definitely recommend to anyone, the suspense and heart-stopping thrills that this program provides is unrivaled by most any other anime and leads the viewers to construct active thought processes on what they support and believe in when developing this stand-off between two different ideals on the state of the world and the lengths to which it is ok to truly think that you are making the world a better place. A real thought-provoker which maintains the attention of viewers and keeps them enthralled on the edge of their seats. Story (10) The way the story is developed in this anime is one of those elements which really makes it what it is, outstanding. Death Note is one of those anime where you really feel like you have to be paying full attention at all times so as not to miss anything which is going on. As previously mentioned, the story really engages the audience in such a way that they find themselves re-thinking the way they view the world and the associated belief systems that they have in place. I would agree with all those who say that that the first half of the show is the most exciting half, but this doesn't mean that the other half is automatically bad, in fact, it still has that same compelling style of story-telling and continues a well executed story all the way to the final episode. Art(8) The art in Death Note is not a pushover, while at first upon viewing the first couple episodes i was rather critical of the art, i came to see the art design brought into this anime as one which is extremely effective, and the use of a dark colour pallet helped to re-reinforce the "dark","evil" plot and story and allow the viewers to immerse themselves in the life of Yagami Light and his interactions with the World around him. Sound (7) So i am giving the sound in the anime 7/10 and this is even with me being someone who doesn't really understand the appeal of heavy metal or music where people just vent their rage. The first opening and ending audio tracks worked very well for me, (well at least the opening) but then the other tracks i found myself having to skip through them each episode because i couldn't stand them, but even so, if you are like me and can't stand that variation of music, don't worry! The rest of the anime is amazing Character (10) The characters, along with the story, are just sensationally put together in a way that brings the audience into the story and allows them to see the views and ideals of different sets of people and their justifications, it is perfect. What i love so much about these characters, is that not only are they perfectly voiced by the voice-actors (especially Mamoru Miyano voicing Yagami Light), but trust me as someone who has watched this anime, you will come to both love and despise some of these characters, and even better, it leads to different viewers having alternate thoughts on who they support. The characters are all unique, interesting and original (like the battle between L and Light, showing two separate kinds of character) and further enhances the reason why the characters make this anime so thrilling to watch Overall My final score for Death Note is 9 out of 10, an amazing anime defined by it's unique characters and immersive story, if you are reading this review and haven't yet decided/started to watch it, please, just go do it. You won't regret it :D

Psychological thrillers are easy to write, but not as easy to like. A lot of what makes psychological thrillers work is making the characters act in a very believable and human fashion, which we don't normally see because the writers make the themes normally control the story and characters in psychological thrillers. This tends to ruin immersion a lot, especially when the purpose of such a story is to discuss the humanity behind their actions or lack thereof. The trick behind psychological thrillers is to also avoid making the story as dark as possible simply for the purpose of being, well, as dark as possible. It's very easy for them to slide into being too edgy for their own good, which not only ruins immersion by the viewers but also ends up contradicting the themes of the show. Death Note is a case where this is avoided...and played straight. The storyline is undeniably tightly written and many of the tricks and red herrings are carefully played out over the course of the show, especially in the first two thirds. This works thanks to the fascinating perspectives on justice, morality and even religion present over the course of the show, which is brilliantly handled when focusing on the society at large and many of the various side characters. The show doesn't work as well, however, when focusing these themes on the main characters. It feels like the show dumbed down a lot of character depth simply to make the pacing as addictive and fast as possible, which works if you look at what this show does on a basic level (as far as storytelling is concerned, it definitely knows how to hook the viewer) but it's hard not to feel like layers of depth were cut out simply to make the show as, well, thrilling as possible. Speaking of the main characters, it's impossible to bring up the main characters without focusing on the fantastic rivalry between Light and L, which is very well explored and grows fantastically throughout the show. This does bring us to another important point that ends up being what prevents this show from being a masterpiece; the moral ambiguity that works so damn well on everything else fails when focusing on Light and L, and that is because the show avoids making you root for Light by making him as much of a megalomaniac as possible. Light is simply a tool to advance the themes, and while this isn't particularly bizarre for a psychological thriller it fails in a show so rooted in morality such as this one. Light is a prime example of a great idea for a character gone terribly wrong, and while he is certainly a great deal of entertainment to watch over the course of the show, there is no conflict he holds within himself despite that being, well, the nature of the show. This leads to a lot of inconsistent characterization, especially in the final third of the show where the show just wants him to be painted as the most evil person possible. Sure, watching him slowly but surely slide into madness was a lot of fun but I couldn't help but feel that it could have been handled a lot better. The artwork is very distinct and pleasant to look at, with character designs being very distinct and the backgrounds looking great. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous over the course of the show, and the visuals look even smoother in the more tense moment of the series. Animation quality is solid and consistent and does a fantastic job bringing out the tension over the course of the show (despite the fact that you, the viewer, know all the information before the characters do). This show is filled with adrenaline and it knows it, and it works very well. The soundtrack is pretty rad as well, with some absolutely chilling choirs being played over the course of the show. The sound effects never feel out of place, and constantly and consistently fit the mood. The voice acting in both Japanese and English is top notch and it's hard to recommend one over the other, though I personally think the dub sounds better (simply because L sounds more like an introvert and Light doesn't sound as much like an adult). Overall, Death Note is a highly enjoyable anime that unfortunately suffers from being very inconsistent in its presentation, doesn't succeed at being morally ambiguous when it matters most as much as it should have and has a considerably weaker final third than the first two thirds of the show. It is nonetheless a show I can recommend as among the best entries in the mystery genre as far as anime is concerned, and if not for anything else it certainly leaves a lot of food for thought. I recommend it, but please be aware that contrary to what you may hear, it's not everyone's cup of tea (I swear I'm not making a reference to anything in the show) and a lot of the themes may offend some people, especially as far as religion in particular is concerned. Those who can look past all that will find a flawed but adrenaline pumping show rich in themes and symbolism and mixed in its execution.

"Death Note" is one of those anime that achieved huge amount of fame as a manga, so its incredible success as an anime always had a feeling of inevitability about it. I first heard about it a couple of years prior to its release, when a few of my friends were reading the manga. Unfortunately for me, a couple of them discussing the "Death Note" manga right in front of me gave away a big plot point that occurs mid series. At the time I didn't mind, as I don't really read manga, but I was a bit peeved when I learnt about the anime adaptation. The information I had been made aware of is arguably the biggest turning point in the entire story, and I also remember my friends saying that they'd lost all interest in it right after that development. At the time, I was skeptical that one event could have such a big impact on the series, but now that I've watched the anime, I found that my friends were right all along. "Death Note" is an anime of two halves. Though saying that is a bit misleading since the two "halves" are unequal in size. The really good part of Death Note probably only extends as far as the first third of the series... and it's all downhill from then on. But, man, WHAT a good part it is! That section by itself is probably more than a match for the best parts of any anime I've ever watched, and is enough to catapult the anime into my personal A-list... and most other people's too, judging from its reception. The opening episode wastes little time in setting up the scene, and though the premises may be a little gimmicky, and the dramatising occasionally over zealous (the main character Light writes with so much aggression and vigour, you'd half expect him to leave blazing trails of fire behind his pen), the intrigue and potential are there in buckets, and I was hooked straight way. This probably isn't the first anime to ask controversial questions of justice and morality, of whether it's right for a person to take the law into his own hands and pass judgement onto others, but "Death Note" takes this concept and puts a fresh twist on it, and this twist comes in the form of the Light. Light is the protagonist of the show, but here's the catch - he's not the hero, he's the villain. He's a villain that unhesitatingly abuses that power that comes into his hands, and goes on a ruthless killing spree, all in the name of justice. And does the world become a better place as a result of his actions? It's a point that can be fiercely debated, but I actually think it does, and I think with some subtle changes Light can easily be portrayed as an anti-hero instead. Initially, he doesn't appear to be a completely bad guy, but power corrupts, and he seems to become less and less human as the series progressed, with his actions becoming more and more extreme. I think the series did a most excellent job at portraying his moral deterioration. Light's popularity amongst the rabid fan community is only matched (and perhaps even exceeded) by his opposite number L, the autistic detective prodigy, who is put in charge of the investigation to find the person who's been killing off all the criminals (don't worry, this isn't really a spoiler - this all gets set up within like the first 2 episodes). A fascinating character in his own right, L glows with a strange kind of magnetism despite being, put it bluntly, a bit of a weirdo. I get the feeling that L is more concerned with solving the puzzle and winning the battle of wits rather than bringing a criminal to justice. On the surface, Light and L are very different, however, underneath there are striking similarities between their personalities. Perhaps counter intuitively, they're on opposite sides of this battle *because of* rather than despite of their similarities - add their stubborn competitiveness to their similarities and you naturally get the effects of mixing two volatile chemicals together. In the interest of the anime, the two are like a pairing made in heaven. Sparks begins to fly immediately - even before the two meets face to face - and the series explodes forth at a demonic pace. About 8 episodes in, I was thinking to myself "this is unbelievable... it's actually still getting better with each episode". My friends shared the same sentiment - at the rate it was going, it was heading towards being the best anime ever by miles... surely something had to give. And unfortunately it did. Unable to sustain the astronomical increase in suspense and excitement, the anime soon peaked, and actually started going into decline before the Event-That-Was-Spoilt-For-Me... it's just that the drop was even steeper after that aforementioned event. Looking back on it, I guess it was inevitable, given that a lot of the fun parts came about because of the bizarre way the Death Note (the object, not the anime) operates, making Light fiendishly hard to catch. Once that trick is revealed, the anime was always gonna struggle to prevent the remaining story from becoming less interesting, even without taking into account the difficulty of matching the dizzying heights of the earlier episodes. Having said that, the revelation concerning the Death Note is not the culprit behind the anime's first sign of decline. The first decline was brought about by a development in the storyline that broke up the psychological cat-and-mouse game played between Light and L, a routine that had served the series so well up to that point. Instead, they went off to chase after some random villain that no one really cares about (this is also known as the Yotsuba arc). The whole mood of the anime changes for the worst from that point on. Not only had the tension almost completely broken, the anime also started fancying itself as some kind of cheap comedy, throwing in more and more "comic" moments, mostly involving that hugely irritating walking-fanservice-doll Misa Misa and that good-for-nothing Matsuda. Whilst previously, the occasional comic moments involving L seemed appropriate to his character and did not detract from the suspense, the new wave of comedy greatly grated on my nerves. The somewhat dull Yotsuba arc eventually ended, and was soon followed by the Event-That-Was-Spoilt-For-Me (not that I'm bitter or anything), and though the incident itself was executed extremely well (with the exception of the foot massage scene aimed to provoke high pitched screaming from the fangirls), the series really takes a nose dive after that. What exactly went wrong in the final arc? Well, it's hard to know where to start - "Death Note" pretty much deteriorated in all aspects: First thing to note is that both the opening and ending theme turns into screaming rage metal (or whatever pretentiously named genre that brand of "music" is classed as) songs (and I use that word loosely) that are painful to the ears. No doubt it's an attempt to make the anime seem more "edgy". What a disaster that is - it certainly made me more edgy, frequently putting me in foul mood even before the episodes properly started. After that, there's the story that becomes totally unbelievable. Granted, even in the beginning, there were occasions in the storyline that bordered on the ridiculous (the whole farce involving Light and his packet of potato chips for example), but in the final part the it becomes so "out there" that the whole series starts to feel little surreal - that monkey business involving a stealth missile that's untrackable by satellite and launches from some secret underground base is just... I'm actually at a loss for words that can describe how ludicrous that is. Then there's that set of oh-so-original new characters that gets introduced. Mellow and Near are just poor copies of L. What's with the "eccentric habits" that all these "genius kids" seem to have? With L, it all seems quite natural and original, but Mellow and L has to come along and spoil it all. Mellow's habit of munching chocolate is like a big sign saying "hey look! Obsessively eating chocolate is my …

Ah yes, Death Note. One of the few anime that I could understand that hyped. The popularity of this anime is not surprising, although I consider it's quality below that of the manga, which in many respects is better then the anime. What does surprise my about the popularity of this anime is the willingness and the amount of people that throw themselves over it, and the readiness to call this the best anime ever made. I'll agree that this is one of the better anime of recent years, and it's obvious that it's quite good, it even spawned a couple of similar anime (Code Geass comes to mind). However that's not to say that it's without faults, and the same goes for the manga, which has pretty much those same faults. One of the problems with the story is that the writer wanted to make it complex, and I do like what he did with it. It included some nice ideas like "Doublethink" (Read 1984 by George Orwell for what that means, and I really recommend that book. It's even clear to me that Tsugumi Ohba took some inspiration from 1984 and Brave New World) and had some good amount of plots within plots. However the story severely suffers when the complexity increases, even to the point that it becomes confusing of what happened with the story because of the overcomplexity of the story telling and all the plots going on. That doesn't quite happen with Death Note but it gets close to that at times. Another problem lies with the characters. Several of the main characters are given a beyond human intelligence, this causes several problems. One is that most of them appear as smug, arrogant, self-centred twats, which makes it hard to identify with the characters and at times completely propels the viewer out of the story. A second problem is that at times the characters seem to posses information and knowledge that they couldn't and shouldn't know or have obtained. A good couple of actions couldn't have been taken unless the character taking them knew what another character is doing at that time or will do sometime in the future. Of course you can predict that someone could take that action but that takes an extreme amount of knowledge about that character and the circumstances that take place at that time. It's practically impossible to do that unless you can see the future or have read the script. This again caused me to fail to identify with the main characters. Alright, let's get down to my scores. Story: 8 The story is well written and well presented, it has a lot of depth and many unique items that have rarely been explored in anime, like the moral problem of having a villain type character as the main character. It however suffers from the afore mentioned problems of going the route of over-complexity and illogical actions of the characters that they couldn't have taken without knowledge of future events. However, all in all the story is very good and the issues presented in it are quite gripping. Art: 9 The artwork is of a very high standard, very fitting with the anime and the type of story. There is hardly anything that I can comment on it. Sound: 8 Fitting with the moods, clear and good choice of voice-actors. Characters: 5 As said earlier, the super-human intelligence of the main characters are a major drawback on the whole experience. Another point is that the supporting cast is almost completely 2 dimensional, they have hardly any character development and can at most times be interchangeable, they just needed a character to take a certain action at a certain time and at most times it doesn't really matter which character takes that action. This causes the supporting casts to completely lack any depth since they are mostly there as puppets used for story progression. Misa is especially annoying and useless. Enjoyment: 9 Even with all the above problems the anime is highly enjoyable and can easily draw in most viewers, even though it sometimes catapults them out of the story by inexplicable actions of the characters or downright stupidity. Overall: 8 I'd have to say that even with the problems it's still is a very good anime, and among my favourites of recent years. A well presented story that has a good pace and hardly any fillers. Nice take on morality and a good psychological detective story. It's quite good, even though it has some faults, but then again, hardly anything is perfect. If you didn't think my review was helpful, please leave a message on my profile and explain why you thought my review wasn't helpful. That way I can improve my reviews to make them better in the future. Thank you in advance.

I've delayed this review for a long, long time. Such a long time, I dropped it off my favourites and the grade dropped from 10 to 9. Maybe it will drop from 9 to 5. You ask why, and I answer-hands down, the ending was terrible. Unsuprisingly, looking up my favourite characters shouldn't suprise you. Yet I thought Air had a great ending. That ending made me love the show even more, same goes for School Days. This? When I first heard of Death Note, I couldn't give a rat's ass about it. The common syndrome of not trying what is popular, and I thought it's some sort of a "deep" anime, for the elitists. You know, like those losers in their Led Zeppelin shirt. Funny stuff. Then my friend recommended it to me, and I said, "what the hell" and gave it a shot, because I have to get rid of my "anti-mainstream" attitude. To my suprise, it was fire. Since the first episode, it already boomed. Just like how Holden starts "Catcher In The Rye". But, guys, why compare the two? The ending of Death Note got me saying "what the fuck". I should seperate the concept from the story. The concept was pretty good. I don't know why, but I can't call it "genius" right now, but it was great. So was the story. It definitely got me questioning my morals and crap like that. The pace was also perfect. It definitely had some moments where I wanted to go sleep. Some parts were really slow, but it had enough great climaxes that were a wake up call. It's also not as pretentious as I thought it would be. I expected some pretentious drivel passed off as "intelligence", but what I got is something both deep and entertaining. How I love that cliche. The characters aren't very far from the quality for the story. Here some bias shall be reveled. Light has to be one of the best male characters out there. Damn it, I enjoyed his character all the way through. Ryuk? Damn it guys, he was so needed in the show. His comic relief was really on-point, and helped the series not become pretentious drivel. However, I can't join the crowd and idolize L. Before watching Death Note, his design already pissed me off a bit. Luckily his character wasn't, but I never felt he was so unique, nor deep. L always looked like it came out of "Conjuring Up Weirdos 101". I find typical black sheeps to be much more interesting. There were also many characters who came and go. They all were able to milk their personality, and pop off beautifully. Yeah, it invoked the sadist in me. Another refreshing change is that the characters don't rely on attractive design. I'm a big fan of attractive characters, but this wasn't the right place. Thank god the creators had enough brain cells to know that. Animation and sound is... Eh.. Sound is great. I didn't bother watching the OP/EP, because I'm too damn impatient. But the background music was brilliant. Damn it, I never thought BGM could help so much. I mean, yeah it helped that part in Transporter 2, but I thought it was a one-time thing. My favourite was that creepy bassline. The animation could've been better, but it's still good. Not really average, not anything really impressive like School Days or something. I already mentioned the characters weren't really attractive in design, but they all had unique looks to them, and the Shinigamis actually looked really cool. Shido was cute, Rem was creepy, and Ryuk was somewhere in between. I must say I expected better animation actually, because the popularity made the whole thing feel like some big-budget stuff, guess not. Not everything is peaches and cream in the world of Death Note. Not after 36 goddamn episodes. I don't know why the creators decided to end the series like that, and frankly, I don't wanna know. Keep that crap behind closed doors. What's important is that the whole series got flushed down the toilet. I was so damn close to giving this a 10, claiming this is the best thing since Air, and jumping on the bandwagon. I did, but after some time I stopped. The volcano did a really nice eruption, but nothing was left. Not even those cool black rocks. I can't even find ways to describe how much I hated it. There's no way beer goggles will make it look better. If you were able to keep reading 'till here, then kudos to you. As you can see, I loved the series until the ending. It never let up. Even the slow moments were redeemed by climaxes, yet the ending was the antichrist of the climax, the christ of the anticlimax. Yes, I know I'm harsh, but it's fun stuff. I can't say the anime is bad, it just doesn't make sense to me. But I definitely don't know how I can recommend an anime that had to kill itself in such a humiliating manner.

When I first watched Death Note, I was like "OMG! This is the best anime ever!" and I still think it is. But every anime has its downfall. In case of Death Note, it's the second half of the story.The first half was so ridiculously good, that I just couldn't give the show a bad score. But, the second is becoming nonsense and not really brilliant anymore. ~~~~ Story The story is very well thought. I mean, it's very smart, entertaining and it makes you addicted to Death Note at first view. The second half of the story ruined it a bit. ~~~~ Art I think it looks good, well drawn and all that. ~~~~ Character The characters are all really smart in the anime, you can really understand them as if you read a book. None of them showed stupidity like in other anime except for minor criminals of course, but they're not important. Everyone seems...how can I say this? Real? Yeah, they seems like real people, they act how we should more or less. ~~~~ Enjoyment Enjoy the first half ofthe story and say farewell the second half if you don't want to be deceived. ~~~~ Overall Well, a must-watch anime. Watch it, enjoy it, and stop before the second half of the story starts.

Better make sure you're wearing a seat belt, because this piece of knowledge may rock your world: I've never actually watched the Death Note anime all the way through before. I know, how dare I! It's still the most popular anime on MAL, remains one of the most popular anime in today's culture, and is continuing to get more interpretations than the Bible - which is kind of fitting given how many people today still worship the notebook's rules. Hell, I even championed it as one of those anime every newcomer to this medium should watch in order to get a feel for it - although I should point out that I also recommend Aria as well and I still have no interest in watching that show myself. The point is, Death Note has been one of those immortal anime every person should at least get an opinion on from the very moment it finished. You don't have to like it, but saying you never saw it is like saying you've never seen Evangelion at this point in time. Now there are a couple of reasons why I never got far into the anime. One was that I religiously read the manga as it was getting released in the States and ended up not enjoying it after Volume 3 or 4, yet finished it anyways. Two was I checked out the Adult Swim dub and thought it was so good that I didn't want to watch the show in its original language, but that was back in 2009-10 when Netflix only had the Japanese version and English dub files were hard to find because every streaming site (especially Youtube) that used it was getting sued for all they were worth. By the time Death Note's dub hit the platform containing the world's best TV, I wasn't really interested in seeing it anymore, especially since the anime is for the most part faithful to what I've already read. However, with the show getting taken off at the end of this month and the nagging feeling that there was a noticeable hole in my fandom resume, I burned through the thing with more desperation than Bruce Willis in every Die Hard movie ever. Now normally I'd describe the plot to you guys, but I think at this point that's like explaining to people that Lord of the Rings is about a bunch of travellers walking to a volcano in order to destroy a ring belonging to the evil Sauron, so I'm just going to focus on what still matters about the show by current-day standards. Fans who have not seen Death Note in a while will be pleased to hear that the visuals are still good, although the style definitely shows its age at times, especially when you compare it to Araki's more recent anime like Guilty Crown or Attack on Titan. The English dub is still as awesome as it ever was, with Brad Swaille making the "potato chip" line sound epic whilst still being stupid. And yes, L is still as sexy as you remember him, fangirls. Even when he ends up a corpse, you'll still find reasons to swoon all over him. It's worth remembering before I go on that Death Note is a Shonen Jump anime and like all things from Shonen Jump, it starts off mildly intriguing. The concept of a notebook that can kill by following specific rules that are almost untraceable by the police is something that'll appeal to most teenage boys, and Light himself is the opposite of most Shonen Jump protagonists like Naruto or Luffy in that he's a smart dude who has no qualms with killing if it means achieving his dream. He started doing this shit not because of some complicated backstory that can take up more than half a standard manga volume, but because he found his life as an overachieving Asian dull (which is a real thing that happens, as shown in a few studies you can find somewhere out there as well as Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow). It quickly becomes clear you're not supposed to sympathize with Light when he starts killing off cops and soon-to-be-married couples just because they get in the way of his "criminal sentencing", but he was still interesting in a "becoming the kind of person he kills everyday" sort of way, especially when paired off against L, an obsessive weirdo who pursues justice relentelessly even if his means are a little questionable but never to the level that Light's are. The problem with Shonen Jump stuff though, even in something as relatively short as Death Note, is that there's only so long they can coast on the goodwill brought about by their interesting starts before they have to start introducing something new to keep things from getting stale. And unfortunately, they seem to be under the illusion that more characters, more concepts, and more energy equals more story, when in reality it's just piling in more plot than the story can contain. You see, I know a lot of people say Death Note became shit after L died (and it did fall apart faster than any form of apology that comes out of Donald Trump's fucking mouth, don't get me wrong), but I got tired of the series way before that point back when I was in highschool, and that was during a time when I genuinely looked forward to the newest episode of Hayate the Combat Butler. More specifically around the time, Misa appeared. Yeah yeah, I know. Death Note is sexist. The author sucks at writing women. That really smart female detective was killed off really stupidly, and that's not even getting into what happens with Light's "girlfriends". Yadda yadda yadda. But more than that, what I didn't like about the manga (and the show) after her appearance was how unnecessarily convoluted the mind games between Light and L became. It felt like the writers were just coming up with more and more absurd scenarios just to get a decent length out of the thing, and the appeal of the Death Note lessened when they started making it more available to the cast. You know how Dragonball Z draws out its fight scenes so that a character only throws a punch about three times per episode (at max)? Death Note's mind games are basically a non-violent (sort of) version of that, and as much as I like Araki, I've mentioned before in regards to Planetarian that energy without momentum isn't going to keep my attention for more than five seconds. On top of that, I found Light's treatment of Misa to be too unlikable to find him interesting anymore. It really became clear at that point that he was just a serial killer and whilst that might have been fine if the series wrapped up one or two episodes later after that turning point, it went on for another twenty-four. Twenty-four episodes I was struggling to pay attention to because all I was seeing was empty energy the likes of which people complained about in Kill la Kill's last arc, so I ended up leaving the show on and reading One Piece manga all the way through the memory loss arc and anything involving Near & Mello, only to pay attention again at the final episode, which I'll admit was an improvement on the manga's finale in that it ended right when the show was at its strongest, and I liked the religious bent given to Light's eventual fate. However, I still stand by my opinion that Death Note remains as one of the essential anime every newcomer to this medium should watch, even through my tedious grind. It's one of the best entries into Shonen Jump stuff you'll ever see (apart from Fist of the North Star) as well as an over-the-top anime that'll appeal to Western sensibilities the most so as to ease you into what the East considers entertaining, along with just, y'know, looking good. And for better or worse, this is likely the best adaptation of the manga you're ever going to get given how godawful the movies, TV drama, and inevitably the American Netflix adaptation are. Not sure where you're going to watch it now that it's getting taken off of the legal streaming circuit, but that's your guys' problem. All I can do is continue to keep this franchise alive by talking about it for better or worse.