Death Note

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Alternative Titles

English: Death Note

Synonyms: DN

Japanese: デスノート

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 37

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Oct 4, 2006 to Jun 27, 2007

Premiered: Fall 2006

Broadcast: Wednesdays at 00:56 (JST)

Producers: VAP, Konami, Ashi Production, Nippon Television Network, Shueisha

Licensors: VIZ Media

Studios: Madhouse

Source: Manga

Genres: Mystery, Supernatural, Suspense

Themes: Police, Psychological

Demographic: Shounen

Duration: 23 min. per ep.

Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity)

Statistics

Score: 8.63¹ (scored by 2,159,771 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #63²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1

Members: 3,134,599

Favorites: 143,036

External Links

Official Site, AnimeDB, AnimeNewsNetwork, Wikipedia

8.63

Ranked #63Popularity #1Members 3,134,599

Fall 2006TVMadhouse

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Episodes: /37

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Synopsis

A shinigami, as a god of death, can kill any person—provided they see their victim's face and write their victim's name in a notebook called a Death Note. One day, Ryuk, bored by the shinigami lifestyle and interested in seeing how a human would use a Death Note, drops one into the human realm.

High school student and prodigy Light Yagami stumbles upon the Death Note and—since he deplores the state of the world—tests the deadly notebook by writing a criminal's name in it. When the criminal dies immediately following his experiment with the Death Note, Light is greatly surprised and quickly recognizes how devastating the power that has fallen into his hands could be.

With this divine capability, Light decides to extinguish all criminals in order to build a new world where crime does not exist and people worship him as a god. Police, however, quickly discover that a serial killer is targeting criminals and, consequently, try to apprehend the culprit. To do this, the Japanese investigators count on the assistance of the best detective in the world: a young and eccentric man known only by the name of L.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Death Note has been adapted into live action films, TV dramas, video games, light novels and a musical composed by a Broadway composer. It is licensed in North America by Viz Media.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Death Note
Summary:	Death Note: Rewrite

Matsukaze, Masaya
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Maruyama, Masao

Producer

Tamura, Manabu

Producer

Araki, Tetsurou

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Theme Song Lyrics

Yamada, Chiaki

Sound Director

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Opening Theme

	1: "the WORLD" by Nightmare (eps 1-19)
	2: "What's up, people?!" by Maximum the Hormone (eps 30-37)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Alumina" by Nightmare (eps 1-19)
	2: "Zetsubō Billy" by Maximum the Hormone (eps 20-36)
	3: "Coda ~ Death Note" by Yoshihisa Hirano (eps 37)

More reviews

Reviews

Oct 1, 2007

37 of 37 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 10

Xyik (All reviews)

2373 people found this review helpful

Death Note is definitely one of the best anime series of all time, for it presents a deeply unique and compelling story rivaled by few. I can truly say it is one of the best, if not the best anime I've watched.

Story: The story is unique. A notebook falls from the sky, and the human who writes a name in it is capable of killing the individual pictured in his mind (I left out the details that you don't care about). This presents the viewers with a highly debatable theme based on morals and justice. Yagami Light, who obtains this power to kill, utilizes it in hopes of creating a utopia in which he is god. Criminals, and only criminals, are to be punished in hopes of a perfect society. Is this however, right? Is it right to kill individuals who have done wrong, and will do wrong again? Can they be reformed? Death Note presents the viewers with questions such as these, questions which cannot be easily answers. This series challenges the viewers morals and for that, it deserves highly.

But this debatable topic isn't the series strong point. Death Note gets a 10 in the story department, because of the way the plot unravels. With great and power and ambition, Yagami Light is forced to play a chair gripping game of cat and mouse with those who seek to detain him. The way L attempts to persecute Light is something I have never witnessed in an anime. The first 15 episodes will magically draw you closer and closer to the scene as suspense hangs over their individual methods for identifying the other. You will not be disappointed.

The flaws begin once it is apparent that there will be a second arc. This to me, seemed like an unnecessary way of drawing out the anime, although arguably a change in situation was required to break the dead lock between Light and L. Anyhow, the series being to lose some of its luster at this point, and if I were to rate both arcs separately, the first would receive a 15/10 and the second a 9/10. Anyhow, this intelligent story deserves an overall 10/10 in my books.

Characters: Light and L are the most interesting and intellectual characters I've ever seen in an anime. Although both are geniuses, they each possesses that certain something that will make you root for one of them to win the game. Light's charismatic, yet extremely demented character gives you reason to watch his conquests and failures. L's quirky, yet highly intelligent qualities does the same for him. They are both unique and likable in their own ways. Character development is also seen, particularly with Light as you witness his calm, calculating figure being to crack into a maddening and reckless mess. Obsessed and overtaken by his dream of conquest with the Death Note, he changes greatly from the beginning of the series. This change can be seen in various other characters as well, although not as notable. Anyhow, the characters are definitely interesting enough to give this a: 9/10

Sound: Yet another brilliant aspect of Death Note. I truly believe that if not for the soundtrack, the anime would not be where it is. All of those quick decisive moments with lives on the line are made intense, and the calm calculating ones even more so as the characters attempt to read each other. The opera, holy-like music also adds greatly to Light's character and goal of becoming God in his new world. The only flaw here resides in the second opening which at first, may seem disgusting to you. But as you continue to watch the series you will notice just how well it fits Light's demented mind and how everything he has achieved beings to shatter around his feet. 9.5/10 (rounded to 10)

Art/Animation: And again, amazingly done. The dark colors suit the anime perfectly, and the characters and scenery are all done amazingly well. I mean, the anime made writing with a pen look cool. The way they made it zoom across that piece of paper ... In terms of animation, the pen wins. It truly does. But seriously, there isn't much action going on here, so there wasn't much to animate. Most of the scenes consisted of the characters talking or thinking, but the scenes there were filled with action (car chase and such) was done very well. A 10/10

Overall: I was watching the series since it first started coming out, and those weeks of waiting killed me. That was how good this anime was. The suspense was amazing, and it got me thinking. Anyone who finishes this anime will be forced to wonder about what they would have done with a Death Note. Many of them will question and argue about the actions of Light. It is this talkable and complexity that makes the anime shine, in addition to its ability to carve suspense and anticipation into its viewers. I have never seen an anime as good as Death Note, and I highly recommend this anime to be watched. You may hate it (although very few seem to), but it is definitely an anime you must TRY. 10/10

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Sep 13, 2010

37 of 37 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

hontobaka (All reviews)

746 people found this review helpful

Death Note. Another famous anime. But this time there is one reason for it. In fact, there are lots of good reasons but they can be summed up in one thing: this anime is amazing. Want to know why? Then just keep on reading.

Story (8): The first half of this anime is a masterpiece. The concept itself - the Shinigami's notebook which grants the person who has it the power to kill anyone by simply writing the person's name while picturing the face in his mind - is already brilliant to begin with as it presents the viewer questions like "What would I do if read more

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Jan 12, 2014

37 of 37 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 10

Zeomne (All reviews)

608 people found this review helpful

Allow me to explain my love of "the pay off" in entertainment:

I hate when I watch something, and it doesn't really matter if I'm following it or not because nothing pays off. So many times I the credits of a movie roll and I'm left stupified thinking to myself "That's it? What about the ___ and the ___? What was the point of me paying attention to the first hour and 20 minutes of this film?"

Some shows or movies set little subconscious mental snares, so that when something happens later on-it pays off. Your friend walks in the room and sees a read more

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Apr 29, 2015

37 of 37 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

Revolution666 (All reviews)

555 people found this review helpful

May contain light spoilers...

Death Note is a solid series with some brilliant moments in it, but some equally ridiculous ones too. Most of it is pretty much the same thing: a long-ass cat-and-mouse game that keeps taking turns going for and against the two lead foes. Early on it's rather boring as you watching everything take it's time to pick up, and there's even an episode that consists almost entirely of two characters wandering around aimlessly that get real boring real fast. Once the big twists start happening they're mostly impressive, but you almost get kind of sick of them after they keep coming over read more

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