Death Note

Summary: Dark, atmospheric and complemented by fitting soundtracks, Death note, built upon the dynamics of two polar opposite geniuses playing mind-games as they try to out-maneuver each other at every step, takes the over-the-top nature of anime and combines it with a certain degree of realism, making the perfect formula for a powerful thriller involving tense, complex situations which aren't entirely nonsensical or cheesy. Unfortunately it is good only for the first half of the show which is a completely self-contained story by the way. The second part fails in multiple ways as it tries to imitate the first half but lacking its heart, only ... manages to extend it unnecessarily and taint its reputation.

The shows consists of 37 episodes, 25 of which make the fabulous first half.

Premise: It has unique premise involving a supernatural item called Death note, a notebook which can kill anyone whose name is written on it and whose working is described in a pretty detained manner. It falls into the possession of a genius teenager who wants to use it to 'cleanse the world from criminal filth' by killing them off and becoming a symbol of fear and justice but before that he must deal with a certain 'world's greatest detective' who is set to stop this arrogant abuse of power.


First I'll discuss the first half of the show; how it keeps the viewers interested, what are its good points and what are the aspects that felt underwhelming.

How does it keep the audience from getting bored and how interesting it manages to be?

A large chunk of the show involves:

1. A spirit of rivalry between the main character Light Yagami and the antagonist detective L. Both share moments with each other as suspect and detective. Both are very interesting characters and have some qualities completely opposite to each other, so its interesting to see them juxtaposed. For eg: Light is a liar and a narcissist. He can be charming whenever he wants to be. He deals with problems in a clever but straightforward way. L on the other is honest, doesn't care about how others see him, is quirky and awkward and unorthodox and unpredictable in his way of dealing with things. At the same time both the characters are similar to some extent. Both are very intelligent and are represented as a symbol of justice, when in truth neither care about justice so much as they do about being right and satisfying their ego . L just wants to be right about his conclusions and Light uses his twisted sense of justice to satisfy his God complex.

2. L coming up with clever ways to catch the mysterious, 'supernatural'  killer of criminals, that surprises the audience, a feeling shared by the side characters who work with him as well. I find it somewhat amusing when side characters analyse, appreciate and act surprised at the main characters doing extraordinary stuff because of how over-the-top and overused it is. Since L is dealing with a supernatural enemy he knows nothing about, he looks for patterns and tries to figure out, how the killer works.

3. Light also exploring and experimenting with the working of the death note. The notebook which kills anyone whose name is written on it. What if two or more people share the same name? What will be the cause of their death? Can the cause be altered? To what degree? Its interesting to learn about such an elaborate system.

4. Light coming up with an equally clever way to deal with L's plans. This is the most important aspect of the show. You can even hear Light's monolgues about his thought process which makes everything more intense and interesting to follow. Light finds himself in situations that can ruin everything he has worked for, yet he thinks of something clever and works up to get the desired result which is difficult to achieve. This creates a strong sense of thrill. In the beginning episodes, Light goes to many different places to deal with different kinds of situations on the spot. This kind of traveling, change of environment always feels great. The side character that reacts to Light's plan is a death-reaper, the one who dropped the death-note, who follows him around just for observation because he is bored. So his reactions to his plans aren't as expressive as L's team's to L's plans are.

5. Light showing the kind of person he is. Its interesting because Light is one heck of a character. To the death-reaper who follows him around, or just for the sake of saying it because its an anime afterall or in the form of unsaid monolgues, Light expresses himself a lot. Although usually stoic, nonchalant and reserved, Light is very expressive when it comes to his secret life of 'bringer of justice'. His reactions to whenever he outwit anyone, is a sight to behold. The sly smile followed by crazy maniacal laughter if the place allows it, the desperate obsession to 'defeat' L is really interesting to watch.


The good points:

1. It has one of the most intriguing beginning. It will get you hooked instantly.

2. A very interesting main character. His traits complement each other. These include stoic personality, a detachment from life because its boring, a disgust for filthy criminals, sociopathic personality, narcissism, asexual orientation, high intelligence, ability to socialize and act charmingly whenever required etc. His monolgues and thinking process are interesting to hear, plans are clever and the sheer amount of chaotic aura he emits whenever someone innocent who dared to challenge him falls a victim to his scheming, is beautifully depicted. He is a true villain main character.

3. A perfect antagonist, who as mentioned before shares many similarities and differences with the protagonist. His cleverness combined with quirkiness is charming in its own way.

4. The show doesn't take sides. It doesn't put L on a pedestal and treats Light as a villain destined to lose. You can root for either. One can't predict who will win the battle of wits.

5. Its very thrilling, intense and clever. One genius trying to manipulate the other. One with supernatural aid, other with the aid of the law system and organization. Both finding themselves in tense situations and trying to outwit their rival. The things that lead to the situations and the characters' way of handling it is sufficiently believable. What makes a situation thrilling? There are many factors like the viewers must care about the characters, the stakes must be high, the outcome unpredictable, the actions believable, the directing, silence, music, it can even involve complex situations i.e involving many characters with different or conflicting motivations, their ability to interact with the environment or their options should varied but known to audience or unpredictable but clever etc. Based on these criterias, Death note is indeed a great thriller.

6. Elaborated rules about the working of the supernatural elements i.e. death note. As mentioned before, its interesting to learn about along with light. The reason why Death note works as a supernatural show.

7. The last two episodes and the ending is really good.

8. The visuals. Dark, atmospheric, beautiful, unique. Can't be described in just words. There is a strong 2000s feel in the show. There are also elements of old western Christian art i.e. to say it has a gothic feel in 2000s setting. Sometimes everything becomes sepia, while only L and Light's hair remain blue and red colored respectively which looks really cool. The tall glass buildings at night or dusk is something you'll get to see frequently and its beautiful. Visuals also include character designs and they are perfectly fitting to each character. Light's stoicism, charm and villanous aura and L's calmness and quirkiness are perfectly encapsulated by their respective designs. The artstyle is one of the most beautiful in all of fiction. However the animation while good, could've been better or clearer.

9. The music. Again, one of the best ost set in all of fiction. Perfectly fits the visual style and the feeling the anime wants to evoke. The music has a Christian feel to it. Infact, some of the music is inspired from Gregorian chant. It has lots of ominous music that Light would love to hear while celebrating his victory with a smug smile after crushing innocent lives for the 'bigger good'. It also has the music that can be described as the sound of high functioning sociopaths thinking. The intro and outro are also perfect. The second opening in particular which is a metal music evoking the feeling of sheer insanity.


The bad/underwhelming points:

1. Death note isn't exactly rational fiction. The individuals and organizations must act in a believable manner with as little plot convenience as possible. Sometimes the characters may not take the best or safest decision, or may come up with a plan involving too much convenience or luck.

2. Even the first half of the show isn't perfect in terms of enjoyment. There are certain plot points which undermine aspects that made the show good. For example the rivalry between Light and L as well as the villanous nature of Light is temporarily thrown out of the window in the middle of the series for reasons I can't reveal without spoiling. At the beginning of the show, in the first 10 or 11 episodes, Light used to go to different places and deal with various kinds of problems or situations on the spot. This outgoing nature of Light and thus the plot becomes less relevant as the show progresses. As I have already mentioned before countless times, the rivalry between L and Light and the villanous nature of Light drives the show. Without it, there isn't a lot to keep the audience interested. As a result, the quality shakes slightly during the middle of the first part of the show. Anyway the dip in quality isn't too big and the last 2 episodes of the first part and its ending makes up for it.

3. A female character named Misa Amane, a young goth girl with blonde hair plays a very important role in the anime. Unfortunately she is an obsessive simp for Light, who behaves in a dumb manner and is treated as a comic relief. Her character is obviously exaggerated and obsession with the leader or idol of a cult (as Light's action become more and more noticeable, people start supporting the mysterious bringer of justice) isn't entirely impossible but Misa is not a very interesting character and is somewhat incongruous to the tone of the series.

4. Sometimes, the show can become too over the top/silly/animeish/weird etc. For eg: the tennis match scene.


Now coming to the 2nd part of the show. I'll keep it short.

Good points:
The last two episodes and the ending. It was very intense. There were some problems with the ending but it was as good as the ending of the first half of the show if not better, especially in terms of raw emotion.
The animation and music was still good ofcourse.

Bad points:
Everything else. Tries to imitate the first half but lacks everything that made it good. The new characters weren't very interesting. The cleverness of the show was gone. The pacing was too fast and I felt nothing watching it.

Death Note is the most popular anime ever in the West. Over 1.5 million people have seen it on MAL alone, and I'm sure the general public has had many an outdated meme thrown in their faces, whether they watch anime or not. If you hadn't heard of it by 2017, it got a very poorly-received live-action film only on Netflix (thankfully). It was my first anime, too. So, I thought I'd review it, even though no one's going to even see it buried under almost 800 reviews.

Death Note, if you don't know already, is about a bored teenager who finds a notebook and decides ... to kill every criminal in the world with a heart attack by writing their names down. And he wants everyone to know that he's doing it, so they all die abruptly and suspiciously. Each case taken on its own yields nothing but a stroke of bad (or, perhaps, good) luck, but each case taken together spells M-U-R-D-E-R. All caps lock. Light believes that in order for crime to stop, and for the world to be a better place, there has to be a strong enough deterrent for even the most desperate to hesitate about turning to crime. And somebody has to do it, right? Somebody's gotta get their hands dirty.

Death Note is one of those rare stories that follows what many consider to be a villain protagonist. Light's actions seem to come from a good place: stop crime and bring about world peace. But in order to do that, he kills criminals who are serving their time. Not too far in, L, the world's greatest detective, comes in to challenge the unknown phenomenon known only as 'Kira', and he challenges Light with his own brand of justice. And that's where one of the three key aspects of Death Note's formula comes into play: Morality.

The viewer has to decide who to side with: L, or Kira? They're both enigmas who let their work speak for themselves, and they both believe in completely opposed ideas of justice and harmony. Even Light and L's personalities and character are juxtaposed. This directly coincides with the second element: the cat-and-mouse game. Kira doesn't back away from the challenge, and in fact, tries to draw them closer together so that they can decide who's right. It's a constant push and shove of scheming, deceit, destruction and mind games. The series uses its supernatural premise and mystery roots concurrently to generate really clever and entertaining plans either for Light to progress his plans, or for L to trap his prey. It just keeps getting better and better as the series goes on. This brings us to the third and final major element in the Death Note formula: escalation.

Kira kills people at a certain time, in a certain way, for a certain reason, and L hones in on him further and sets up even greater measures. From tailing him to setting up cameras, and on and on until things can't escalate any more. And then something changes, and the cycle repeats. It's a very effective way of establishing dramatic stakes and ensuring that the story is always progressing. But for the same reason it's so good, it's exactly why the series crashes and smolders in the final act. It just keeps escalating, seemingly without end. Things get completely crazy and out of hand, even for a supernatural story, and the clever schemes become complete ass-pull monstrosities. The suspension of disbelief is hanging by a thread by the last few episodes, which is a damn good thing, because they bring it to a conclusion before it can get any worse.

The last segment, while thematically the most interesting and diverse, is definitely the weakest in terms of dramatic stakes, novelty and plot development. It goes off the rails, so to speak. It's kind of meant to be like that, thematically, but that doesn't make it any more entertaining or interesting. By that point, the whole cat-and-mouse thing is getting played-out and the supernatural elements have all been explained, so viewers are forced to wait for the series to end for an entire 12 episodes. The tonal shift feels pretty bonkers and unbelievable, too, which doesn't help things. But that's not the only lacklustre part of Death Note.

The first act is definitely the most consistent and interesting, purely for the diversity in setup and character. It's very fresh, and rolls all of its myriad elements together into a tense and gripping drama...for the most part. Death Note is rather single-minded in its approach to story-telling. It focuses almost exclusively on Light to the detriment of other characters, which reflects badly on the series later on when it wants us to care about side characters who probably make up about 10-15% of the total screen time altogether. It feels like the first two arcs should be much longer, while the last arc should be much shorter; like an epilogue to a long story. The problem isn't even that the show focuses excessively on Light, as much as it is that it focuses too much on a certain aspect of Light.

There are essentially two versions of Light for us to see: Kira, who spends as much as his time as possible scribbling down names and talking to his Shinigami, Ryuk, to learn more about the supernatural phenomenon. And then there's Fake Light, where he's suave and cool and smart; a normal high schooler with lots of friends and high exam scores. Responsible and hard-working. I really wanted to see more of Light as an actual person, rather than a representation of ideals and as a plot device. We only see normal highschooler Light, as himself, about two times in the entire series. Right at the beginning, and right at the end. Despite being the main character, he really doesn't have much of a character besides: "Stop crime. Kill criminals. Beat L. Become God." And it's kind of annoying when we see that L has some character to him. We get flashbacks, subtle hints and clues about the kind of life L has led and how he has become the man he is today. Of course, we don't get much, but it's substantially more than we get from Light.

I get that Light is meant to kind of be a stand-in for "anyone", but he's also super smart and super cool and super not average. And the show tells us this almost constantly. And trying to set up a moral quandary between L and Light is kind of a raw deal when we don't even get to see much of Light's characters and can only really side with the ideas and his schemes. Death Note is mostly a good drama, but it really does a disservice by its characters. Most of them. Weirdly, some of the minor major characters get a ton of care put into their characters and backstory. Like Misa. And even some of the one-note Shinigami - but Ryuk gets only slightly more than Light. Actually, that's kind of a lie. The show does focus on him to some extent in the final act, but it's mostly pretty stock-standard and written poorly, so I'm going to ignore that.

I can't believe it's taken me this long to even mention the absolutely exemplary Art, Animation and Music. Because it's exemplary. Really good. Without its OST, this show wouldn't be half of what it is. The music is so tense and devilish, and you can almost feel the darkness exuding from it. The OPs are kinda weird and bad, and I have no idea about the EDs, but everything else is great. Oh, and this is one of those rare anime that you should definitely watch in English dub. Light's VA is very good. Also, the art is amazingly good for being 11 years old at the time of writing, and the animation is smooth as silk when it wants to be. I've seen Death Note about 4 times, and I still absolutely love the design of the Shinigami...and also L. L's pretty cool, too. The other minor characters are kinda standard, unfortunately. I think the design was actually at its best in the final act, which was a real waste. But no matter what, Death Note always looks and sounds good.

The one last thing I want to talk about in Death Note is its themes, which it sets up and explains rather admirably. They're simple enough, but debated enough times throughout to give you a clear idea of what the author is trying to say. And if L and Kira's confrontations aren't enough to drill the point in, the last act exists to make it clear to anyone that's still on the fence. I actually really like the final act thematically, because it's the one aspect that remains consistent and coherent throughout, and it never forgets what it's trying to say. It's kind of hard to actually say what the point of Death Note is, because that would spoil a whole lot of it. It's something best experienced first-hand. If I had to say, they'd be something like, "What is justice?", "What is evil?", "How do you create a perfect society?", and "How do you stop crime?" I really wish that they were explored in more depth in the first two acts, but if that would make it anything like the final act, then I'm more than fine with two entertaining and dramatic acts with somewhat unexplored themes.

Death Note is a long ride, but it's largely an entertaining one with a very addicting pace and more than a few clever tricks up its sleeve. It gets a tad too ambitious toward the end and drags on for far longer than it should have, but in the end, it ties things up neatly, and answers all of the important questions, but leaves some things dangling intentionally. Death Note is unfortunately kind of anemic in the character department. The plot is interesting enough to keep you hooked, and none of the characters are overly annoying (until the last act), but I can't say I really know a lot about any of the characters in Death Note. It's all business, unfortunately. But hey, if nothing else, Death Note is pretty to look at, and the OST is glorious. It's worth the ride, but definitely not as solid, diverse, nuanced or even thematically tight as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Not to poke the tiger or anything.

After watching Code Geass, everyone suggested watching this, so I gave it a go, and was overall disappointed. It was a good anime, but it didn't live up to the anticipation of it.

Story: 7
First story arc (before the events leading up to the introduction of near) was 9/10
It was good, thrilling, interesting and all round amazing. However lost points for how many Marry Sues were in the anime.
Second (after near was introduced) was 5/10
It was ok, but WAY to predictable and I didn't enjoy it for that reason. If you watch it you will know what I mean.
Balanced to 7/10


... Art: 9
Great art, if you have read any of my other reviews you will know by now that I don't like going into detail. So when I say the art is relatively good or great, it is relatively good or great. I mainly rate art based on how good it is compared to other animes of its time. So in this case the art was good, but it was two recent to deserve 10/10

Sound: 6
Not that it mattered much in this kind of anime, but the soundtrack was only ok.

Characters: 3
WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY to many Marry Sues. The characters were either perfect in every way or imperfect in every way.

Enjoyment: 8
First arc 10/10
Second arc 6/10
Balanced to a 8/10
I think I went a little nice on Death Note here, but I give it points for presentation, as it didn't do much else write, but was presented perfectly.

Overall: 6
I'm a tough marker, so 6 still means worth watching, but not the best. If you don't want to waste your time, don't watch it. but honestly, if you enjoyed Code Geass, this is worth a watch.

And to those who haven't watched Code Geass, watch it, its a good anime, unlike this ok anime, and WAY WAY better.

I can't help but think that Death Note's acclaim came too early. Viewers should have waited until the story concluded before bestowing it with accolades, because the second half of the series completely falls apart after a brilliant start. The engine driving the show (Light versus L in a duel of the wits) breaks down, leaving the viewer feeling cheated out of what they were promised at the start. I will do my best to state my complaints without spoiling the progression of events, but it's impossible to discuss without at least alluding to it, so you've been warned.

The first problem I have is ... mainly a matter of taste. The only female character in the series is the single most frustrating character I have ever seen in storytelling of any kind. Film, TV, books, videogames, you fuckin' name it. I have never wanted to put my hands around someone's throat more than Misa's, and I almost quit watching the series because of it. Every appearance she made, I would question myself: Why are you watching this in your valuable spare time? Do you want to spend your weekends and evenings angry? Some could argue that she is an excellent character FOR this reason--that she is written to incite these feelings and so she is a successful character. Frankly, IDGAF. She is hands down the most insulting female character I have ever seen and the strength of the story, in the end, could not make up for sitting through hours of her nonsense.

This brings me to my second major complaint about the story which is impossible to discuss without spoiling things at least a little, so maybe just skip this paragraph if you haven't committed to watching the series yet. My complaint is this: A character dies and the story renders this moment utterly meaningless because the character is immediately replaced with an identical character who behaves the same and fills the same role. A character dies and nothing changes or is achieved by it. That's writing for shock value. That's writing to betray your viewers. That's not writing that gives your story what it needs. After that event, the story starts to crumble because the engine driving it is broken. The new characters serve as carbon-copy replacements, but the viewer receives even less insight into their decision-making processes, and as a result, the mental chess match starts to feel more like a magical telepathic guessing-game. Conclusions are jumped to without being reasoned through, and the believability of the story suffers.

Further, the story rapidly gets out of hand around the middle of the series. Between the number of conditions, rules, and exceptions the viewer is expected to juggle in-mind and the number of times the Death Note changes hands, things get unnecessarily confusing and convoluted. I still swear there's a huge plot hole in there somewhere, but I'm never going to watch it a second time to pick it out. Suffice it to say that I think convoluted story-telling has a time and place (E.g., Baccano!), but that it's in poor taste to deliberately confuse your viewers. Confuse your characters and allow your audience to sort out the story through them as the characters learn what's going on, but don't keep your audience in the dark while all your characters understand what's happening. That's just inconsiderate writing.

A final, surface-level complaint is that while the style of art is well-crafted, the series is visually quite boring. An enormous amount of screentime is spent watching the main characters stare blankly and think about stuff, and there's very little movement and dynamism in the rest of it to make up for this. I feel that this story was probably better-served by the manga than the animation. That said, the voice-acting is ace and the soundtrack is rad as fuck and I'm gonna listen to it more times than I'm gonna watch the actual show.

In sum, Death Note is an excellent premise with emotionally-engaging characters that has a strong first half, but splutters out in its second leg. I recommend watching it once just to know what the phenomenon is about, but spend your re-watches elsewhere.

Ah, it pains me to write this review. Well, to be more precise, this is more of a commemoration of the good parts of Death Note, (a.k.a. The first 20 some episodes), while strenuously acknowledging the steady decline of the series as it progressed.

This anime had great potential, as in, it would've recieved a solid score of 8, if it had ended with a short conclusion after the obvious climax. It possessed a good set up, easily transitioning into the actual plot. The portrayal of our sociopathic protagonist, Light, as an over-achieving student, bored with life, thus stunting his disillusioned path for justice, was ... a very wise decision on the creator's part. The death note in itself was both original, and intensifying.

What really pleased me to see as an avid watcher, was the implementation of a set of rules. In many anime, especially science fiction or fantasy, the characters undergo some sort of invincible transformation, making the story incredibly dull, knowing that whenever the main character comes into conflict, either they would miraculously survive, or obtain some sort of random assistance. The fact that the shinigami in this series were unable to assist their human companions, required Light to fend for himself, thus making for a much stronger character development.

L was a very straight-laced character as well, and I mean this structurally, not character personality wise. The role of a detective couldn't have been enacted better. Once again, we see set limitations that an actual detective may encounter, not some omniscient being who draws evidence from thin air. The relationship between Light and L was one that served as both thrilling, emotional, and at times comical. Despite some minor repetition, and redundant themes, this anime was everything you would expect, and wish to see in this genre.

Now the difficult part.

I don't want to provide any spoilers, but in episode 25, we see the climax of the series. Let's just say after this incident, died the quality, and interest value of the entire anime.

Sure the creators attempted to keep the once vibrant flame burning, but it just became very mediocre, and sullen. I suppose, there was really no reason to care at this point. Some may argue that it was for the purpose of truly bringing justice, but to state it bluntly, after about the 28th episode, it wasn't worth finishing. I, of course finished it, to make sure I wasn't missing any plot twists. Alas, I was left empty handed.

My only advice to the creators, was that they should've quit while they were ahead. It just dragged on, and really wasn't worth the trouble. Expecting an Xbox for Christmas, but receiving socks, is probably the best way to describe this feeling. Just disappointing.

SPOILERS
I'm disappointed in the ridiculous worship this anime series has gotten. The problem is that the story has WAY too many fake contrivances. Moreover, it suffers from perhaps the most common failing when a writer tries to write a story about geniuses... Because the writer himself is not a genius, he will necessarily fail at coming up with believable strokes of genius. Instead you get contrivances.

Would a genius really think the way to make Earth a paradise is to implement the death penalty for all crime? No, a genius, or even any pretty smart person, would realize that crime is ... a symptom more than a problem, and the harm from crime is frankly trivial compared to the harm of unfair allocation of world resources (so that millions starve while others throw away millions of tons of food each year), wars based on misplaced nationalism and prejudices, poor educational systems that spawn societies full of people who do not have the critical thinking skills needed to make democracy work as it was intended, and rampant environmental destruction, to name a few. Seriously, no "genius" is going to come into possession of Death Note and then dedicate himself to wiping out crime.

A number of really serious contrivances have to take place for Light to actually becoming the prime suspect of being Kira. I mean, seriously, he can kill by writing a name down with absolutely no physical evidence linking the death to himself. It is literally the perfect crime. It should have been impossible for him to come under suspicion. Even if the first few deaths led investigators to focus on an area of Japan, that is still thousands (tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Millions?) of people.

Or the contrivance that Light's father happens to wind up working on the international team to stop Kira?

Or the crazy contrivances needed for L to go from viewing Light as the prime suspect, to then suspecting a famous model of being the prime suspect, then deciding neither is Kira, then Light and the model wind up dating... Seriously? Your two prime Kira suspects are a couple, and that does not make you suspicious?

How about the way that, in a world based totally in science like ours, when L and the cops realize there is a magic book that can kill if you write a person's name in it, all they can think about is catching the guy who has the book? Wouldn't this require a HUGE amount of soul-searching, re-thinking everything you thought was real and phony? Is the real mystery here who is using Death Note to commit murder, or HOW THE HELL IS THERE A MAGIC BOOK THAT KILLS IF YOU WRITE A NAME IN IT?!!! Somehow that conversation never comes up.

Oh, and basically every conversation between L and Light, it is as if Light is screaming "I'm Kira!" Seriously, if you ask some one if they are Kira, and they answer, "Well, if I was, I sure wouldn't tell you, right, so I guess the question is kind if pointless..." Uh, yeah, that guys guilty. That's not how innocent people talk. Every conversation, Light says stuff that is absolutely what you would expect him to say if he was Kira toying with Light, not if he was Light who was not Kira.

No one bats an eye that this friggin' HIGH SCHOOL student is suddenly dating a celebrity model?

What are the odds Light and L both are tennis gurus? I mean, there are a lot of sports to excel at.

What the heck is wrong with the model chick that she actually surrenders half her life to find Kira, and when she does she then agrees when he wants her to sacrifice half her remaining life again to further his plans? What are the odds the finder of the second Death Note is going to be so incredibly ripe for jumping into slavish cult-like devotion to the first Death Note holder? I'd imagine that personality time is VERY VERY rare. Yet as it turns out Light basically NEEDED her to be like that to get himself out the ridiculous jam that he became the prime Kira suspect in the first place.

Overall, the cat-mouse game between L and Light was not "genius," it insults your intelligence because is so fake and contrived.

Oh, and am I the only one bothered by Light's total lack of libido? He's a teenager. A top model is worshiping him, and all he can think about is his Death Note plans? There is no explanation given for his total lack of libido or passion.

Lastly, if you watch, you'll notice that L and Light basically talk the same, in the same kind of faux-smart-person way. The writer could not even come up with two distinct voices for them.


This anime had a couple things going for it: I very interesting, original and edgy premise; a high amount of wish-fulfillment (gee, main character is smartest kid in Japan? check Adored by model? check Had special powers? check... And add to that a very slick production. Oh, and it 's quite short.

When an anime series has only 37 episodes and people admit it really starts to drag somewhere in the 20's... Well, that basically confirms that this is not a deep anime, nor one that can stand the test of time. It is a flash in the pan. Now, when an Anime goes hundreds of episodes and is getting better, and fans are crushed when it ends....that can be called a great Anime.

Death Note is crap, and if you like it, you probably have not seen much anime at all.

Death Note was a really good anime.... at first. The first half of the anime was a fantastic battle of wits and it kept you in suspense wondering who would come out on top. However, after a certain part (don't want to spoil it) the main character became VERY annoying VERY quickly and it got to the point where it was painful to watch. I will give credit to the fact that the music and the art style of the anime was very well done. However, the show started with a high quality story and ended up being very disappointing. Its worth watching for ... a little while, but don't go into the show with super high expectations.

Death Note... ah yeah... Death Note didn't really go down so well.

The simplest way to put it is that it's about two high school then college kids who attempt to outwit each other in games of strategic internet keyboarding.

Right! Sounds like MAL eh BA DUM TISHHHHHHH

Ok sorry.

Anyway, the biggest thing to note about Death Note is that like everything happens in the first few episodes. In that span we go from someone who has the power of life and death over all kinds of people and what that might entail to a cat and mouse game between an ace detective and ... a clever high school student.

The problem though is that it became kinda hard care about either one of them after a certain point, they admit at certain times simply to being bored, self-possessed, hating to lose, and otherwise go to great lengths to hurt and destroy the other (even if it means sacrificing other people in the process)

In other words, it's hard to take the messages about justice and light and L very seriously once they've killed so many people.. textboxes and internet messages being their weapons of choice.

It seems Death Note was animated by the notion that society is too permissive of crimes in general and indecisveness, but that's pretty backwards! No Death Note that's not right! It's often far too harsh. It seems to me even Light realized that, hence the severe interruption and transformation of his goals into one of simply evading capture.

Light wanted to show that he wasn't afraid to take a stand, but I get the sense he also kind of realized he was going too far at times.... or maybe he just wanted to show he was capable of these acts and it would take someone like L to stop him.

One way or another, Death Note just wasn't very enjoyable, it had the back and forth of something like Dragon Ball Z but without any of that extra-intensity solar flare chaos that DBZ can summon out of nowhere, no Kamehyahya, just, texts and emails.

The fact is, Death Note really amounted to initially a kind of extreme moral system, if you are guilty of a crime, and in a justice system of some kind, anywhere around the world basically, you deserve to die. If you aren't, you don't, it's a strange concept really, I don't know if that's what they were saying.. but that's what it seemed like.

Really,though, instead of Death Note, you could just watch a good Batman movie or something and watch the villains go at it because that's more or less what DN is all about.

But I'm not going to pass judgment so harshly in this form of live or die in the way of Light and L, right? RIGHT.

In fact, Death Note was kind of fun at times! I think once it moved away from Light and L and big struggle it was just about like sillier stuff like L's addiction to candy (something I can definitely relate to mwaha. er ^_^)

That would be simply taking Death Note's messages a bit too seriously, the rather frequently false idea that everything rises and falls on that brilliant chess play, instead I would say it wasn't super exciting, but not the least fun, just, a 5.

I started the series quite enthusiastically having received great reviews, but I was not mesmerized or hypnotized by the series at all. I mostly crawled my way through most of it. The little battle between L and Light was definitely something and Light's genius cannot be ignored but major portions were a drag. and some of the scenes were overly dramatic. I would definitely not count it as one of the best anime, it was average, yes but not great.

First I think I should say that I LOVE Deathnote .It’s really amazing in almost every way but I think anime ruined it. I bought Deathnote box set with all 13 manga (yes 13! The thirteenth one was detail review of all characters story and tons of cool stuff like how to draw characters and extra chapters from other characters life's). Manga is really much better! If you like Deathnote and haven't read it then you must (and if you can BUY IT. Believe me it’s much better to have it around and much more enjoyable to read than on pc)! Anime skips some small ... parts from story and just feels unfinished. It looks like people who made anime were not concerned to make high quality one and you can feel it. It’s not enjoyable : / I read whole manga about 4 or 5 times and couldn’t finish anime (even 10 episodes). So if I would give manga 12/10 than anime deserves 6.5/10. Sorry all anime fans but that’s just my opinion. (Also sorry for my bad English :D I’m trying my best!)

* This review does not include any spoilers *

Story:

The story followes a college-student, Light Yagami who suddenly finds a Death Note. The Note was originally from Ryuk, a Shinigami, however, he was clumsy and the Note Book fell without him noticing. When a full name is written in this Note Book, that person shall die. Light plans to become a God and he murders every single criminal. L, a very smart man tries to capture 'Kira' and he will have a mind-battle with Light. I was always thinking: How does someone come up with such a great story? Unfortunately, this amazing build-up falls ... apart in the second half of the series.

Characters:

The characters all have their own personalities. They have their own characteristics, what I like. You will probably root for the villain to win for one of the first times. The character designs are simple, but they're well-done. In the second-half I didn't like the characters at all, however, there are a lot of people who did, but it isn't my cup of tea.

Animation and sound:

So, the animation of the show is done by Madhouse, probably my favorite studio. What I like is that they don't overcomplicate the animatinan and they also focus on every little detail and scene. The soundtracks are nice, they fit well with the series and again, they have a variety of instruments. The first opening song was amazing. It has to be in the top 3 if not the top of my favorite openings. They start the opening really well and when I first heard it, I thought: It will probably lose it's pacing just like any other opening, but surprisingly enough it didn't.

Enjoyment:

I was watching Death Note in excitement, however when I started watching the second part, it was really getting boring, because of the new characters.

Overall:

I will give the first part a 10, but the second part a 2, because I just don't want to give it 1/10. So that will be a 6/10 for Death Note.

If you like some good mind-battles and drama anime, then this is something for you! Let me know if this review helped you out and have fun watching Death Note, if you haven't done that yet!

- Migeo

Death Note, to me, is a wonderful example at just how interesting and enthralling an anime, or indeed any story can be. Great story, great art, wonderful characters, but only a 6/10?

Yes.

While Death Note is a perfect example of an enthralling story with wonderful characters, it's also a good example on how the removal of some characters, especially anticlimactically can easily break a story experience.

While the first half was a wonderful masterpiece, I struggled to watch the remainder of the show, not *just* because they got rid of some characters I like, but because of the *way* it was done. I recommend this anime even ... to, or maybe especially to people who don't consider themselves anime fans, and i'd recommend this to anime fans as well, even if the events can be disappointing.

I understand that Death Note has a very large following.
People enjoy its dark and complex story line. The concept of the death note, in which people die if their names are written in it, is quite interesting. This simple concept is the fuel for a greater story that is this show.

Unfortunately, the show crashes really hard at a certain point.
It reaches a really high point and you expect some great weaving of plots and actions taken by characters. The story then spirals down and down as the author struggled to figure out where the story is being taken. Very expected outcomes occur or certain ... impossible or confusing situations occur that are clearly thrown in to fill up holes in the plot or as explanations to things.

It's not a bad show, but it's really not as great as people make it out to be.

The true biggest betrayal in anime history is when people compare Lelouch from Code Geass to Light. It is one of the worst comparisons I have seen as of yet, its pretty much like comparing Thanos to Voldemort... they have nothing in common besides being villains. One character is given no development, has infinite plot devices/holes, and has a shitty motive. The other is the great Lelouch.

Death Note has no clear stand out trait that makes you say "man that part of the show was far and beyond better than what most anime offer". The character list is generic, the pacing is too slow. The ... best thing going for the show is the dark and unique overarching plot of the notebook and its power it has in the hands of humans. The death note(book) continued to expand as the story progressed, but sadly the story went nowhere at the same time. The first part/season/arc of Death Note is a giant mind game played by Light and L, two characters who are given infinite plot convenience while opening a million plot holes. At times the characters look brilliant, and at times its just like "ok how did they know this besides to just keep the story going". Other than these two characters, the rest just suck. The show should have concluded with L's death... because the next part/season/arc felt pointless. The new characters introduced were downgrades... and the plot went even more in circles doing nothing. Light is foolish in the entire 2nd part and the ending to the story just felt unsatisfying (compared to the beautiful ending Lelouch got in CG).

I have always been able to see an anime that I did not necessarily enjoy from different perspectives to see why it is so highly rated. For Death Note, seeing this get an overwhelming score of "great" just boggles my mind. Is it like SAO where its cult is just that big? Is it the emo group? And how on earth can so many people give the show a 10 when they also acknowledge how average the 2nd part of the show is??!?!? Who knows... this show would never make it if it came out in the current time with updated art animation. It is sloppy and 37 episodes makes you just beg for it to be over once you reach past episode 25.

Needed more Shinigami, less Mello.

Death Note is one of the most popular animes around, with both avid anime fans, and general public enjoying thestory.

Death Note is different, and definetley worth a watch, the story is clever, surprising you with the twists and turns, in both plot and in characters. The first 20 episodes had me hooked.

But after a while, Death Note lost my interest my appeal was lost on the story.
I found Light to be more annoying than clever, and his gradual psycological change became inane and almost unbareble. Killings became more and more lost of reason, with murders committed just for the sake of them. The twists became ... predicatable, and I only finished the series to see how it ended.

But with the bad comes the good,
The art is very well done, with a more realistic take on the traditional anime style.
The overall background of the characters was well built up, and the story didn't have many holes, which one finds with this type of anime in particular, and the supernatural concept of shinigami in the real world seemed plausible.

Overall I give this series a 6.
It's worth a watch, and judge it for yourself.

Like Berserk, Sunabozu and a slew of others Death Note features a protagonist who is, not to mince words, a complete cunt. In fact nearly all of the characters in Death Note are unlike able cunts (apart from one, the only character I liked and she gets shit on repeatedly), but luckily they are quite entertaining and engaging cunts. Death Note is in many ways a spin on the classical murder mystery tarted up with some odd supernatural trappings. However it is the unfolding of the investigation which is the main thrust of the series and forms the basis of the narrative for nearly its ... entire length. I did feel that the latter part of the series flagged a little, especially the stuff following the L story arc. While it did pick up towards the end I thought the actual ending itself was crap and quite out of keeping with the general feel and direction of the story. I thought it sold out the theme and pathos which had been built up to that point and seemed almost as if the story "chickened out" and chose to resolve itself in a tiredly formulaic manner.

Still probably worth a watch, it’s pretty engaging and the animation is top notch. The second opening is also the only anime opening I can think of the top of my head that a) sounds like (well actually is) japanese heavy metal and b) uses the word fucker.

Gah, the ending of it is still pissing me off. If your going watch it I suggest you stop reading now as I am about to unleash some SPOILER fury.

***SPOILERS***

Even though I disliked him, why the fuck couldn’t they have just let Light "win"? It would have made more sense, as opposed to letting that little cockend Near outsmart him. It also would have fit much better with the rest of the series and served as an enjoyable "cap" for the generally perverse nature of the narrative. Fuck, even if Light had been done in by a betrayed Misa I would have preferred it. Even better would have been a flash forward a decade or two in the future where you see an older, victorious Light surveying his "perfect world" and Ryuk smirking in the background as he writes Lights name in his book. Agh stupid ending, perhaps I shouldn’t write about things directly after I see them, perhaps I need some "distance".

***SPOILERS END***

Man its far too fucking hot. I would also suggest not trying to watch this "marathon" fashion as the denseness of the story can lead to burnout. Probably better to "digest" it in 5 episode servings.

First season was great, no questions. Reliable 8/10.
In some moments anime should've be more daring, deep and tough, but considering the plot main motion (confrontation of 2 minds), it was amazing recreational performance and the most realistic anime I've ever seen so far. Ending of the first season could've been a perfect finish for this story, but creators decided to extend the show, and it was a terrible nightmare.

Second season is a disgusting abomination. 0/10.
Tottally ruined incredible dark realistic atmosphere by implantation new features (special agents, explosions, ridiculous parkour jumping and so on). Plot has sucked from the finger and become a stinging ... mocking at previous events. Kid with white hair is probably the most repulsive thing i've ever seen in my life. A very interesting and important for the story character by the name of Misa literally turned into something that would be worse in its characteristics than the goddamn Jar Jar Binks. And this, believe me, is not a complete list of all the horrors of the second season. If you have this opportunity, just do not watch the second season. I warned you.

I hope u got my vision, and it's not too hard to understand. I prefer to think, that second season just wasn't exist, but it's not. Anyway, I will rate categories of the first season and just ignore the second one.

Although I am reserved in raising doctrinal issues such as the angel of death and things related to God, but the work was presented rather well, the anime gave me madness and dark, bloody feelings... I liked both characters, Kira and L, even Nir but I prefer L to him.. I love how everyone looks at what they do.

The ending I don't know what to say about it, the anime as a whole is good and I have no problem with the end and I see it as good, but I have a feeling that they can put a better ending.

To be honest, I loved the show in the beginning. I was so hooked on the battle between L and Light. However, when Misa arrived my enjoyment went downhill. That isn't to say Misa is a bad character. I actually did really like her. The problem was what her character brought plot wise. There will be some spoilers. When Misa gets caught by the police that causes Light to give up his Death Note and hers to lose his memory. This caused an arc that was so unbelievably boring that I dropped the show. I also already knew L dies because everyone loves to spoil ... that part. The main thing that made me fall in love with the show is L and Light trying to outsmart each other. When L dies there's 12 episodes left of an empty shell of a show. I believe this shouldn't have been a 37 episode anime. Ryuk was also a character I enjoyed and they don't have much of a presence in the later half of the show which is disappointing. I did love the art and music of the anime.

Everything that i'm goint to write may be (it certainly is) subject to personal opinion and bias.

To me the show felt lackluster as a whole, be it because of the linear nature of the characters or the unexciting art style.

The premise of the whole story is an interesting one and it's exploited in a smart way ( the never ending back and forth between light and whoever it's trying to catch him is developed in a charmingly convoluted way), but the watcher never feels threatened by the possible outcome of it since there's not much room to get attached to any character: they are ... very dull and feel like one trick ponies, not even mentioning how superficial their analysis is compared to the development of the plot.

The art direction definitely isn't enlightened either since, except for a pair of original moments (chips), nothing truly leaves astonished or utterly speechless. As the plot unravels this becomes a bigger and bigger problem because of how quickly the watcher gets accustomed to the initially interesting scenes in which names are written down on the note. 1st Op, ost and sound design are pretty cool though.

Overall, definitely not a masterpiece and hyped to the point of setting the watcher's bar higher than the show can reach.