Death Note

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: DEATH NOTE

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 12

Chapters: 108

Status: Finished

Published: Dec 1, 2003 to May 15, 2006

Genres: Supernatural, Suspense

Theme: Psychological

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Jump (Weekly)

Authors: Obata, Takeshi (Art), Ohba, Tsugumi (Story)

Statistics

Score: 8.69¹ (scored by 231,557 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #62²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #13

Members: 403,990

Favorites: 32,089

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8.69

Ranked #62Popularity #13Members 403,990

MangaShounen Jump (Weekly)Obata, Takeshi (Art), Ohba, Tsugumi (Story)

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Volumes: /12

Chapters: /108

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Synopsis

Ryuk, a god of death, drops his Death Note into the human world for personal pleasure. In Japan, prodigious high school student Light Yagami stumbles upon it. Inside the notebook, he finds a chilling message: those whose names are written in it shall die. Its nonsensical nature amuses Light; but when he tests its power by writing the name of a criminal in it, they suddenly meet their demise.

Realizing the Death Note's vast potential, Light commences a series of nefarious murders under the pseudonym "Kira," vowing to cleanse the world of corrupt individuals and create a perfect society where crime ceases to exist. However, the police quickly catch on, and they enlist the help of L—a mastermind detective—to uncover the culprit.

Death Note tells the thrilling tale of Light and L as they clash in a great battle-of-minds, one that will determine the future of the world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Death Note ranked second in the 2006 and 2007 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! for the Male Readers division. It was nominated for the 38th Seiun Award in the Best Comic category in 2007. In the same year, it was also nominated for the 11th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. As of April 2015, over 30 million copies of the manga are in circulation.

The manga was published in English by VIZ Media under the Shonen Jump Advanced imprint from October 10, 2005, to July 3, 2007, and again in 2-in-1 omnibus volumes subtitled Black Edition. There have been several more rereleases of the series: a special hardcover edition of the first volume; a complete box set, which included a guidebook titled Death Note 13: How to Read; and a complete omnibus. It was also published in Italian by Panini Comics from October 19, 2006, to September 18, 2008; in Brazilian Portuguese by Editora JBC from June 2007 to June 2008; in German by Tokyopop from September 2006 to March 2009; in French by Kana from January 19, 2007, to October 9, 2008; in Dutch by Kana; in Argentina by LARP Editores from May 20, 2009, to April 2012; and in Spanish by Glénat España from June 30, 2006, to September 30, 2007.

The series was adapted into three live-action films, a TV drama series, and a stage musical. It has also inspired other works and copycat crimes outside Japan, leading to various controversies.

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Related Entries

More characters
Characters

Lawliet, L

Main

Yagami, Light

Main

Ryuk

Main

Amane, Misa

Supporting

River, Nate

Supporting

Keehl, Mihael

Supporting

Matsuda, Touta

Supporting

Jeevas, Mail

Supporting

Mikami, Teru

Supporting

Rem

Supporting

Reviews

Aug 9, 2007

Xinil

Recommended

Alright, first let me say that, the manga is infinitely better than the anime. INFINITELY. But, with that being said, I believe the manga should have ended at chapter 58/59. After that, it's just a crapload of "yeah-right" and "ooookay" and "bullshit". Seriously, I hated the second half of the story. However, the first half was so ridiculously good, that I just couldn't give the manga a bad score.

With that being said, on to the details.

Story
Brilliant. I can't think of anything else that has even come close to something like this. Entertaining, smart, and keeps you on the edge of your seat. You'll want to ...

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Apr 8, 2017

Dietrologia

Mixed Feelings

Each era of anime is marked by its own trends, its own conventions, its own shows that dominate the conversation and shape public perception of the medium among fans and non-fans alike. For the 2000's, Death Note was one of the biggest, and a good argument could be made that it WAS the biggest. It achieved a seemingly omnipresent level of saturation, you could not go to a forum on any given nerd hobby without people filled with avatars and signatures from the series, and its famous lines are parroted even now. Its anime adaptation was immensely popular and reached a level of pop cultural ...

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Jul 28, 2013

Polyphemus

Not Recommended

Q: What happens when an unstoppable Mary Sue meets an immovable Mary Sue?
A: Death Note.

The protagonist, and his adversary, are both genius pretty boys (with the odd names of Light and L) who have an incredible amount of achievements and skill for their young age. Light somehow predicts things that he could not possibly have the foresight to predict, because, you know, probability is a thing. Don’t worry though, it’s not like you know that he’ll always win, because L possesses this exact same unexplained and ludicrous ability to predict the future; he just does so without a cheesy “Just as planned!” catchphrase ... that makes me want to shoot myself every-time it graces my ears. In this way, rather than being a dark and mysterious thriller, Death Note often manages to be an overblown mental mudslinging contest between two impossibly perfect master practitioners of bullshit who are both describable in a single sentence. This is epitomized in an early scene where the two, who both have tennis skills at a professional level, get into a match and engage in a ridiculously drawn-out internal line of logic about how the desire to not lose might relate to the true identity of the other.

Furthermore, what kind of psychological mystery thriller has a plot entirely driven by coincidences, improbabilities, and impossibilities? Again, Death Note. Plot devices like this were used every-time the manga found itself in a narrative corner, and these cop-outs always completely killed the tension that was built up to that point, while simultaneously disengaging the plot from the audience.

The concept was intriguing, and I won’t say it did not entertain me at some parts, but it was ultimately far too flawed in its execution to be called enjoyable or good overall, and it never managed to pull off the promise of its premise. It seemed overdone at times, with eye-roll worthy developments, and lines like “I take a potato chip and eat it!” delivered with the utmost significance and conviction, devoid of any irony or self-awareness. Light’s ability, of writing a name in a notebook as a method of killing, is initially well established and limited, while being relatively creative, although you would think he’d be able to do a bit more with it, but the way the new rules of the note are introduced as the story goes on can get a tad contrived.

Characterization quality is somewhat varied, but I would say that it's generally not all that good. It was bad, really. Light is a bit too perfect, his only flaws being the well-concealed logical results of his perfection, such as his narcissism and overconfidence. It could be argued that this flawlessness was intentionally done in an effort to depict the deconstruction of a seemingly perfect human being, but I think this concept eventually fell flat. It would have been far more interesting to see an average teenager find the note and watch the scope of his ambitions and arrogance develop over time. Light is arrogant, ambitious, and a staunch consequentialist from the very outset; this, logically, kills almost all opportunity for development. As for the rest of the characters, L was far more interesting and entertaining than Light, although he was even more unrealistic, evoking the child prodigy and boy detective clichés among other things; I mostly found myself rooting for him rather than the protagonist. Light's eventual “girlfriend” falls in love with him, to the extent of obsession, right away, as the plot commands it, and this insufficiently-explored obsession with him defines her entire character. There is absolutely nothing to her besides that, despite her eventually becoming one of the most significant characters in the series. In all actuality, the motivations for most characters, besides the protagonist and the Shinigami, are hazy at best and, with the exception of L, none of them are interesting in the slightest.

Death Note has some religious symbolisms and themes, which are underplayed and done well until a forced Christ allegory towards the middle, but this all kind of falls apart in the second half and all of the symbolism quickly vanishes into thin air. To make matters more dire, the already limited development of the protagonist stagnates and his adversary is quickly replaced by two identical, yet duller and less compelling, copies. At the same time, while the developments and additional rules to Light’s ability in the first half were often a bit contrived, they were usually better than nothing; pretty much all evolution stops in the second half, and it only gets worse. The manga essentially loses everything that it ever had going for it, and it then lies fallow in that inadequate stage for the remainder of the plot, all leading up to an anticlimactic conclusion that the audience knew was coming from the very beginning. The manga would have lost nothing to speak of had that conclusion come around 4 volumes earlier than it did. Therefore, as the plot progressed, it increasingly lost its higher significance and simultaneously started to wear thin the initial appeal of its premise.

The art is arguably the strongest, or least flawed, aspect of Death Note, the character design being particularly astounding, with the exception of a couple characters introduced in the second half whose designs were either dumb-looking or recycled. The art is generally pretty atmospheric and it never skimps on detail out of convenience, although not much detail is required in the first place. The design of the main antagonist, while understated, is particularly impressive due to the fact that he manages to be very aesthetically appealing, despite the ridiculous heroin chic vibe that the audience gets from him. It is usually pretty stellar, although side characters aren't all that detailed.

In the end, what Death Note did accomplish was hackneyed and not all that original; it could not be called “deep” nor was it ever cutting-edge in the grand scheme of things. The coincidences and general improbabilities that drove the plot bar it from being called “realistic,” more than the out-there premise ever could. That said, it should be given some credit for featuring a true antihero, who is still often admired by the audience, and ultimately not being afraid to portray him as pathetic. It also never used the character’s high school age as an excuse to throw light school-life hijinks into the plot. But these positive qualities unfortunately failed to have too much influence in the industry, and they are additionally outweighed by negatives in the universe of the manga itself. Code Geass, a blatant Death Note rip-off, wasted no time at all in taking every single good Death Note did and flipping it all on its head. I might recommend Death Note, if only for the first half, but only with a warning that it fell apart and that even the first half is not as great as it's often made out to be. You honestly might be best off watching the first half and simply skimming the plot summary of the second, because it has nothing of value to offer the reader beyond that point.

Note: This is mostly a modified version of my review for the anime. They follow the same storyline and suffer from the same fundamental issues.

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Poll: Death Note Chapter 80 Discussion brucescrews - Sep 21, 2012	5 replies	by MiamoreCash »» Oct 8, 12:59 PM
Poll: Death Note Chapter 58 Discussion adamantine - Jun 17, 2009	14 replies	by MiamoreCash »» Oct 6, 2:14 PM
Poll: Death Note Chapter 108 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Xinil - Jul 9, 2007	57 replies	by Sky_Chicken »» Oct 6, 11:26 AM
Poll: Death Note Chapter 103 Discussion alpir - Oct 5, 2012	4 replies	by Sky_Chicken »» Oct 6, 11:16 AM
Poll: Death Note Chapter 7 Discussion brucescrews - Mar 28, 2012	10 replies	by Sky_Chicken »» Oct 5, 8:00 AM

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