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While I was in basic training for the US Air Force I met a guy who was just as big of an anime geek as I was. It was really fun to just talk to him on and on about anime whenever we had a chance. Near the end of our six and a half weeks of training he recommended the Death Note manga series to me. From our talks I trusted his judgment and picked up all of the volumes that had come out so far. I began reading it and thought it was pretty interesting. It wasn’t something that just made me go “Holy shit this is awesome!” while reading it, but it kept me entertained and I was always wondering what would happen next. As the series went on it had its ups and downs with me. There were some interesting twists but I also began to dislike Light more and more as it went on. He went from being a pretty smart and somewhat demented kid with an interesting goal to being a complete asshole. And it didn’t help that I didn’t really like any of the other main characters. L was amusing at times, but he didn’t really have much character. Near and Mello were even worse. I actually had some hope for Misa, that maybe she wouldn’t be as stupidly naive as she seemed, but that hope was finally crushed in the epilogue chapter of the manga. And the shinigami are just silly and/or weird. You know who the only character was that I actually liked? Matsuda. And no, it wasn’t just because he finally put some wonderful holes in that punk Light at the end (although that was very awesome). He was just the only one I felt had any actual character. Everyone else was either a bland boring cookie cutter cop or a total lame ass somehow obsessed with Kira (be it to capture or worship him or some crap) or obsessed with some other ambition. But all in all, in the end, I thought the manga as a whole was a good read. I was able to over look most of the issues with the crappy characters for the sake of seeing the story unfold and finish.

Then came the anime version. Oh god, this is the primary subject of my whole dumb little rant here. I end up watching the series fansubbed as it came out with a coworker during our lunch break. Since I already knew the story from the manga, this is when all of my problems with the series came to light (no pun intended). Since I wasn’t concentrating on the story as much as the first time through, all of the problems with the characters that I stated above were right out in the open. The cast just sucks! Matsuda really in the only guy worth a damn in this series. I really don’t see how Light and L have as many fans as they do. And just as much, I don’t understand why so many people love this series so much. Maybe it’s the fact that I like having interesting and amusing characters in my stories, but after one time through, Death Note is just finished for me. It has zero replay value. And the story is interesting the first time through but it is just so simple that it is a complete bore to go through a second time. Oh, and the whole overdramatic thing with the anime doesn’t really help either. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to say Death Note is some horrid travesty of a series. I gave the manga a 7 score (which is a half-way decent score from me) and the anime a 6 (which is actually pretty low for me with anime, but still not in the bad range). If I hear some people say they enjoy Death Note, cool. If I hear someone say Death Note is their favorite series, sure, who am I to judge. But the thing that really just has me baffled is the sheer number of people who just love the crap out of this series, one that I just consider “alright” at best. Here are the numbers from MAL:

Death Note Anime:
Ranked #10 by its score
#1 most popular series with 76,856 having it on their lists
#1 Top Favorited anime with 10798 votes.

Now the fact that this is the most favorited anime here is what really gets me. 10798 people (at the time of this post) have Death Note listed as one of their five favorites. That’s over 2000 more people than the next closest competitor, Bleach. I just don’t understand. Then to make matters worse, L is ranked as the #2 most favorited character on MAL with 8084 votes and Light is #4 with 5511. The only characters to beat them are Lelouch at #1 with 8250 and Haruhi at #3 with 5594 (just barely in front of Light). People actually love L and Light?? It’s just so hard for me to wrap my mind around that concept! Enjoying the whole cat and mouse detective story is somewhat understandable, but to actually enjoy these characters? What is at all appealing about them? That they’re smart? Yay, they’re geniuses. Anything else? They’re good looking guys who have darkness or mystery or some crap about them? Really, I’m trying to think REALLY hard to think about anything about these guys that can be appealing. I like how L has those dark circles under his eyes? I like how Light is a overconfident bastard who thinks he can change the world in his image while getting away with being a serial murderer? Seriously, maybe with L some people just find his weirdness and crap likeable, but Light? Why? Seriously. Let’s take the number one favorite character on the list, Lelouch. You could draw a lot of similarities between him and Light with their goals and the underhanded manipulative ways they try to achieve them. But there is one major difference between the two: Lelouch actually cared about people! Lelouch had real friends. Sure he used people a lot and was a complete asshole most of the time, but he truly believed in what he was doing, truly cared for other people, felt remorse and anger for the sake of other people, and he had redemption in the end. Light is a total punk compared to him, a selfish little bastard only in it for himself. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not some raging Code Geass fanboy. I’m actually a raging Haruhi fanboy. Lelouch is just a better character to compare here. Haruhi is just an all around fun character that should be loved by all.

But I’m getting off topic here. I just don’t understand the immensely large popularity Death Note has. More than anything I just don’t see where the real mass appeal of the series comes from. With series that have a similar level of popularity like Naruto and Bleach I can understand were the large fan base comes from. They’re just good mindless fun action series. Personally I prefer Bleach because I find the characters to be much more enjoyable, but even though neither Naruto nor Bleach are anywhere near my top 20, I can still understand their popularity. With Death Note I just don’t see where it’s all coming from. Do a lot of the fans have some kind of sick wish that they could have a Death Note and kill as many people as they want and get away with it? Seriously, I don’t get it.

Now I understand that people have different tastes. I’m sure there are some Death Note fans out there who feel like the mass popularity of the Suzumiya Haruhi series is just as confusing to them as I find Death Note’s popularity. It’d be nice if I could find one of these people and trade notes about why we love our respective favorite series. That is of course as long as they can actually give a good and complete explanation for it. I know I could for Haruhi. But until then I guess I’m going to continue to be confused about this.