Spotlight Anime: Death Note MAL Series Information Page: Death Note MAL Score - 8.92 (by 29,317 users) Ranked - #3 Popularity - #1 For the next week I would like to have a discussion about the series that focuses on the key elements that we here on MAL use to critically rate an anime: Animation, Sound, Characters, Story, and Enjoyment. I would like everyone to approach this thread as if you were going to write a review and structure your initial post like this: Animation - insert rating Sound - insert rating Characters - insert rating Story - insert rating Enjoyment - insert rating Animation - discuss any pros and cons of the animation styling used in the series, try to include some specifics. Sound - describe any of the things you liked or didn't care for in regards to the music and sound effects used in the series etc... If you are having trouble writing up a review or coming up with specific pro's and cons, please don't worry. Just do the best you can with it and if you can only write two or three sentences about any of the 5 elements then that's OK. Not everyone here is currently at a level which will allow them to articulate their thoughts and opinions. After your initial post is made you can feel free to civilly discuss issues of contention. I am sure there will be many opinions expressed here that some of us will disagree upon and criticize and it is for that reason that this entire club exists. So I hope everyone has fun and I am really looking forward to watching this discussion unfold. RESULTS OF THE "YOU DECIDE" POLL 11-24-2008 Death Note did NOT get inducted into the club Anime List: 53 Yes - 63.1% 31 No - 36.9% 22 Haven't Seen - 20.75% Resurrected You Decide results: Death Note (Anime) (27/2/20) - Yes: 22 - No: 34 - Haven't Watched: 7 ~ Abstained: 5 - 39.29% |
HiroM_Mar 17, 2020 11:51 AM
| The usual poll was eliminated? |
nDeshNov 14, 2008 8:10 PM
| Base Score- 10/10 The most addictive series ever produced. I managed to watch 14 episodes in a single day. I realize that's not unusual for many people here, but it's almost impossible for me to watch over 90 minutes, and in this case, I couldn't stop myself from seeing what happened next. Great story about two individuals struggling to get the better of one another. A competition, a game, where the participants are willing to do whatever it takes to win. One thing that really got me about the series was the unbelievable tension throughout. Light is always so close to being caught. He's always being watched like a hawk by his enemy. Numerous courageous and intelligent people are on his trail. His daring plans, often putting himself at great bodily risk, could be foiled at any moment, and frequently are. How does he keep his sanity? How does he not succumb to the pressure? Bonuses and Deductions -1 The second arc was noticeably weaker, although still quite good. +1 Episode 7 is one of the greatest anime episodes ever made. Final Score- 10/10 Decision- Yes. |
| Yeah, one of my all time favorite series. Animation 10/10, it's really fluid, and fits the scenes perfectly, all around successfully done. Character drawings also are top-notch and suit their traits, not much to say, with few flaws, it's rounded to 10. Sound 10/10, Hideki Taniuchi is a genius in terms of creating the best fitting sound for the material given to him and when he and Yoshihisa Hirano collaborate, you can expect nothing but simply awesomeness ^o^ Other than that, seiyuu and OP wise, Death Note is as much great. Characters 9/10, having a special link to L, i can easily say that DN succeeds at presenting unique as much as likeable characters who show progress throughout the story and most of them change in a consistent manner. Even though im not that much of a hater of Raito, after the you-know-what situation, i just couldnt tolerate him anymore ^^ Though it might not seem as a pro, this is not much of a con as well, since if some anime can make you dislike any of its character to the extent of cursing him/her while just hanging around two months after you watched the show, if it's not the success of creating one of the best villains(or god whatever you call, depends on the point of view), or what? Story 9/10... To ep 25, i would give an 11/10, and for the rest an 8/10, so i won't round this one to 10 as the end is always more important than the beginning imo... Enjoyment 10/10. I watched the whole show in less than two days, and enjoyed almost every minute of it, so it's an easy verdict, 10. In general, as i stated before, one of the best series out there, and deserves a 10(not perfect as the score implies though(let's say 9.6^^)) |
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ShaolinRibiero said: +1 Episode 7 is one of the greatest anime episodes ever made. Was that the one with the FBI agent's fiance? If so, I heartily agree. Animation: 9/10 Sound: 7/10 Characters: 7/10 Story: 7/10 Enjoyment: 10/10 Overall: 8/10 Voting Yes. Having a hard time writing comments on these, will come back to it later. Edit: Alright, I still can't get my thoughts straight, but I might as well make an attempt. Animation - it's awesome. Even for Madhouse, this really looks great. Also gotta love the red/blue color schemes for Light and L - added a lot to the mood for me. They do a lot of experimenting with lighting/colors/shapes, and it pays off. Sound - Good stuff (if occasionally overly dramatic). No major complaints, but I rarely listen to anything from Death Note's OST. Characters - Light and L steal the show, no doubt about that. I think I'm also in the small minority who likes Near and Mellow, but it's true that they don't really compare to the two main characters. Though... in an anime about psychological battles, why were all the women so obviously flawed? I hate to bring up misogyny again so soon after Sanctuary, but honestly, there's no excuse for why there couldn't be at least one female character who wasn't a complete tool. The best we got was Naomi Misora, for all of 2 episodes at the beginning of the show. Story - Very fun to think about, but not particularly deep. I had a hard time translating the themes of the anime to real life. It's a good philosophical exercise with extremely limited practical applicability. Enjoyment - It's a blast to watch. Even though I had already read the manga and knew what was going to happen, the wait between episodes was agonizing. The story is so intense that it completely draws you in, even the second time. Easily one of the most enjoyable anime around. So yeah... Characters and Story are a bit lacking for induction, but I'd say there are enough good points to make up for it. Voting Yes. |
naikouNov 20, 2008 2:30 AM
| Animation: 9/10 -Art: 10/10 -Animation: 8/10 Sound: 9/10 -OST: 9/10 -Seiyuus: 10/10 -Op/Ed 8/10 History: 9.5/10 -Eps. 1/26: 11/10 -Eps. 27/37: 8/10 Characters: 9/10 Enjoyment: 10/10 Overall: 9.5/10 --> 10/10 Decision: Yes naikou said: Having a hard time writing comments on these, will come back to it later. |
| If it were only 26 episodes, I would have voted a "very yes".... but the another 13 episodes drags the rating quite down, therefore "no" |
| mflatischler.tk - My Manga translations and transcriptions Anime in Blu-ray あなたの人種、年齢、宗教は問いません |
| -2 should have ended at episode 26 (killed my enjoyment) +1 the yummy fanservice (Light/L^_^Light/Mikami) +1 evil protagonist (really, anime needs more of this...) -1 the degradation of women (it may have been on purpose to make a point, but this still pissed me off) 8/10 i haven't decided yet |
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| For the first 26 episodes, this was the best anime ever. Then it became an 8/10. That's still better than 99,9% of the anime out there and not a reason for me to vote it down. A&A - 9 Sound - 9 Characters - 9 Story - 9 Enjoyment - ~10 Verdict: Yes. |
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| Animation: 10/10 Sound: 8/10 Characters: 9,5/10 Story: 9,5/10 Enjoyment: 10/10 Overall: 10/10 Voting Yes. Even better than the manga (especially the ending), thank you Araki and Madhouse ;) I don't agree with you guys with the last part being less interesting than the first, it's good to see the demise of Light, and it's perfectly logical. On top of that, the anime developped everything right and avoided the plot holes of the manga, so it's seriously a good second part. |
 In every age, in every place, the deeds of men remain the same. |
| Animation: 9 - lovely animation, awesome effects, fit the tone perfectly) Story: 10+ - that's just pure genius, from start to end. Light's slow revelation of his true psychopath self was really good) Character: 9 - L and Light was one of the best pairs (non-romantic, of course) I've had the pleasure of watching. Light was too little human though. But then again, he was a psychopath; he had always been) Sound: 9 - Great music, fit the series. Good opening and ending themes. Though the second ones was crap, they fit Light's situation perfectly. A definite yes! |
| Art: 9 The joy of this series is that it didn't call for extravagant animation, which meant that when they wanted visual impact with a scene, they could go for it and not affect the quality of everything else. Death Note's style, likewise, is razor-sharp and slick, making great usage of lighting and design. There's nary a flaw to be had here, but it doesn't have that something special to push it into 10 territory. Sound: 8 It was good, but it felt too much at times, especially the Latin-esque chanting. The OPs and EDs, while good, never really set the mood of the series. They were just cool in their own right. The voice acting however is beyond top notch. Every character was played to excellence; a rare treat. Story: 8 For the first 13 or so episodes of DN, the series paints a tantalizing game of cat-and-mouse on a backdrop of skewed morality. The mind games and the tactics are all perfect, but by the time Misa came along, it was becoming obvious that Light and L had to confuse each other more, and unfortunately at the audience's expense. Things just became too bizarre. By the end of the first part of the story, the show had drifted back to where it belonged, and that's when it fell off the cliff for the last 12 episodes, until the final episode where it gave one of the most satisfying conclusions imaginable. In short, the plot's a mixed back of hits and misses. In it's defense though, when it hits, it hits dead center. Characters: 7 You know, I'm all for uniqueness but this was too much. Light and L are both heavily overrated characters; the former being an solid archetype without development, the latter being less of a character and more of an amalgamation of quirky traits. The supporting characters hit and miss. The biggest hit arguably being Light's father, who may be the only true moral guidepost in this whole series, and the biggest miss, without a doubt, being Misa whose only use is to provide the intended male audience with titilation while hindering Light and L's battle of wits so the series can go on longer. The biggest problem is character development. It only occurs consistently in two characters, L and Aizawa. Note I said "consistently" for anyone who wants to pull Ep. 37 on me. Everyone else through is remarkably and unfortunately the same person throughout. Enjoyment: 8 Death Note was a breath of fresh air for me. I enjoyed the mind games and the play on morality, but what started as an enticing and thrilling tale of suspense quickly devolved thanks to uninteresting new characters spliced throughout and given more attention than they deserved, as well as the mind games becoming more and more confusing until they were near incomprehensible. It still had fantastic moments, but it was nothing that pleased me the whole way through. Overall, Death Note gets an 8 out of 10. Great series, but nothing I'd call one of the best. It will get a no from me. |
| My first novel, Kardia has been published! Click here to read! |
| undecided, series is good - ONCE. I actually never finished the anime because having read the manga made it predictable and predictability makes the story almost completely fucking uninteresting. |
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| animation - 8/10 Pretty good. There was little that needed a lot of effort to animate. It could have used better details in the basic stuff like snow, rain, ect... Sound - 9/10 Loved the music, but the script and voices were not all great... but most were Characters - 9/10 Loved most of the characters. Could onnect to a lot of them, except for near and mello.... if they didn't even exist... I'd be okay with it Story - 7/10 - As other people have said, first arc was great.... second, not so much Enjoyment - 7.5/10 - Again... First Arc with L was amazing.... got bored with second arc Overall 8/10 - Even though Death Note was good, I think there are more deserving anime, BUT... since I haven't seen many of them up here yet..... I'll vote yes |
| I think DN was an outstanding series. But it should have ended after 26 episodes. I mean it was still worth following, but without L the show simply lacked that brilliant counterpart to Light. And the conclusion to his downfall seemed a little disappointing. Combine forces to overcome the evil and all that sappy crap wasn't befitting of this show :) |
rkrempel said: Even though I agree with Splitter almost word-for word, I'm still gonna vote "yes". Splitter and rkempel summed up everything quite well. I consider Light to be a plot device rather tha a character, and the series does have numerous flaws, but it was original, well animated, well scripted (up to a point), and had great sound. I'll probably go with yes as well. |
| What a day! What a lovely Day! |
| Too popular so no. |
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| Far too much discussion all over the world already for me to say anything about it that was not already said. Two things: 1. IMO, Near and Mello are actually a bigger challange to Light than L ever was. 2. The story couldn't have ended with Light alive and winning. It would have been anticlimatic, in a sense. And oh yeah, 10/10, plus 1 extra point for making writing look epic. Absolutely, positively, yes! |
Dozer said: Far too much discussion all over the world already for me to say anything about it that was not already said. Two things: 1. IMO, Near and Mello are actually a bigger challange to Light than L ever was. 2. The story couldn't have ended with Light alive and winning. It would have been anticlimatic, in a sense. And oh yeah, 10/10, plus 1 extra point for making writing look epic. Absolutely, positively, yes! Could you elaborate on both points please? Those are some rather grand arguments you're making. |
| My first novel, Kardia has been published! Click here to read! |
| 1. I always saw that Light had less options against Near than against L. 2. I just couldn't imagine the story ending with Light winning when I first read it. I thought, if it would end like that, how would Ohba and Obata be able to portray Light's world? And more importantly, how would I feel reading/watching it? Imagine the story ending with Light living happily ever after, governing his crime-free world. No, I have a better one. Imagine Romeo and Juliet living happily ever after. Not only would it not have an emotional punch, but, even tough I support Light all the way, I have to say that this world has jaded me so much that an ending like that wouldn't feel right to me. And, probably, anyone else. The fact of the matter is, this rotten world has had it's effect on me, and most other people for so long, that an ending in which all is well would be less enjoyable than one in which things return to normal, sadly. Now I know what you're saying, but in other storys, in which the hero(es) succed(s), the world of the story becomes similar to our current one. We are prone to think that our world is the best possible world. In Death Note, Light winnig would bring a world lot's better then our current one. And Ohba and Obata knew that would be alien to the readers/viewers/mankind in general nowadays. This kind of story either ends with the hero's demise, or the story loses value. Ohba and Obata chose to make a memorable story, so they went with the logical conclusion. We all think it could have been pulled off with Light winning, but that's just because we watched/read the swimming lessons over and over, and we are now contempt with it being canon. We couldn't have stomacked it if Light had succeeded. It's sad, but that's life, circa twenty-first century. |
| Near win because Light made 2 fatal mistakes???? Really? :/ Lazy Writing.... The 2 ep japan live movie adaptation was sooo much better, and this is sad. :( :( EDIT: MAL Score - 8.92 ->8.63 (by 29,317 users -> 1,315,902 users) Ranked - #3 -> #59 Popularity - #1 -> #1 The MAL grow so much and still this is the number one popularity anime.... I see why, but still NO for me. |
viharphoenixFeb 28, 2020 3:34 PM
| Good Luck ; Have Fun |
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