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Death Note is fuckin awesome and I'll break down everything so you can go in blind and hopefully enjoy it as much as I have
Note* I have watched death Note in the past and am on a rewatch as of writing this review so some things might not be totally clear at this current moment

We'll start with what is probably the weakest area about death Note and that is it's visuals that being the character background and set design, visual style, animation quality etc. And while none of these are bad in any regard some of the character and set design are decidedly ... uninspired with most of the show taking place in a few relatively mundane locations which while well lit and memorable I'm unsure if that is because of the quality of the sets or just me getting stockholm syndrome from watching Light monologue about how smart he is for the 15th time regardless the sets while grounded and realistic are decidedly pretty boring and the same is true with the character design which while characters central to the main story have some attention put in L, Chief Yagami and Misa come to mind characters not immediately associated with the plot and surprisingly Light have pretty drab outfits and don't draw much attention that being said the Shinigami in the show are very memorable and look great so while not the strongest I've seen it's decidedly not bad at all either. In terms of style the show is pretty basic it kind of fits the mold of the standard of anime which isn't bad it's just basic

The writing is probably the shows strong point although the ending does leave much to be desired but I don't think anyone who's heard of death Note will have not heard about the quality of the ending the character and moment to moment writing especially between Light and L is fantastic and the 2 play off each other beautifully as they both attempt to out smart one another it's truly a master class in a foil and character dialogue the show never comes off as too smart for you either and when twists come around they make sure to give you the information that lets you think about it before it happens characters have believable goals and intentions and the show isn't afraid to drop portions of the cast when they are no longer relevant to the immediate story. Once the situation escalates members of the police force leave to be with their families etc. I can't really think of a particular weak point in the writing as a whole aside from the obvious I suppose that some people might find Light an irritating protagonist but that's the point you're not supposed to like Light Yagami he is literally a merciless murderer but there is no way to learn about Shinigami and the Death Note without Light as the main character he is a bit of a douche but that's the point is what im saying

Lastly is the music and general sound design

The soundtrack slaps and is filled with amazing mood setting tracks. The show isn't a shonen it doesn't have awesome bangers but it does have really strong tone setting music and the intro song is pretty good if a little weird imo but thats besides the point my only real complaint is that the dub is pretty mediocre at times some characters sound kinda weird and not very convincing but if you watch sub like I did the first time I watched the show it's nbd there is also this one sound effect they use on the title card and it's wayyyy overused as like the violin sound effect in gordan ramsey shows if u know, u know.

Overall probably a strong 8 to a light 9 I'd give it an 8.5 of I could very strong writing which is what I value most in an anime as I'm sure most do most of the rest of the components of the show are pretty mediocre overall but it's not distracting by any means and it's a show I'd 100% recommend to someone starting out to anime. Maybe not their first show but maybe their 5th or 6th very strong fundamentals etc.

(SPOILERS AHEAD BE AWARE)

Devilman Crybaby is a disappointment at almost everything it tries even though it tries at a lot of things, this show constantly wants to make itself seem a lot smarter than it actually is making establishing shots that don't make much sense and are drenched in symbolism that kind of falls flat for me, mostly suffering from coming off either really heavy handed trying to make me feel more than I actually do or coming off as extremely cringe as the writers jack off to how smart they are especially with the final twist reveal at the end of the season (people ... who have watched it will know) but to be honest the reveal falls flat once you notice that it's completely obvious in episode like 3

the show is pretty fucking ugly though to be honest the art style isn't really at fault because during certain shots and angles the show legitimately does look very nice at times however the shows art style gets bogged down by some terrible frames that have been very clearly thrown in without much care put into them shots tend to be pretty static mostly shifting from static frame to static frame and while amazing cinematography isn't necessary to tell a good story it would certainly help spice up the pretty static show overall

The Story is pretty hit or miss during certain sections and while the show never made me cry I did feel bad when bad things happened although I mostly attribute this to the score rather than the storytelling itself which at times goes too quickly making for an almost incomprehensible sequence of events all at once or spending time around doing nothing but looking at the B-Plot over 4 episodes just for the characters to die just before the ending to make you feel sad for characters you had no reason to care for up until then

things go generally unexplained in the moment leading to a lot of confusion when especially in the first and second episode when demons suddenly start appearing out of no where and start killing things and then the main characters a demon but not really he's special cause he has humanity and some demons do and some don't but there's not really a distinction between the 2 some just are and aren't and only really the main character and 1 side character know when someone is or isn't capable of such things they just kind of know

generally the soundtrack is the best part of the show and it's not really that close although I don't really have an attachment to it by any means, but as with all music it's pretty subjective but it generally fit the tone of the scene in question the opening and endings are bangers but I don't really find myself humming melody's or feeling like i came away with anything other than music for the moment I was sitting in my chair watching the scene where the music came in if that makes sense

while Devilman Crybaby is very ambitious in it's themes, art style, and story telling it generally falls flat in most places and if you're not a very critical viewer you'll find enjoyment in the show if you can get past the art style however for me personally there are too many issues in the story telling and general direction with the show and it's generally pretty poorly written although the conversational dialogue is fine, most of the overarching plot is weak at best with confusing portions only able to be explained with research which no viewer not invested wants to do.

4/10 try harder next time, see me after class, I'm not mad just disappointed, Netflix makes the worst anime.

Generally boring and uninteresting show that is very ugly and drags on for far longer than it needs to many of the characters have boring character designs that scream a Japanese persons interpretation of an American and many shots shot from afar of the characters look terrible. story is generally very generic for a mafia drama many scenes are very forced and contrived a lot of scenes have terrible choreography in fight scenes music is fine and is generally inoffensive and is the best part of the show but its not going to keep you watching by any means

To start from the top of ... the paragraph the story itself which for many people is the driving force behind a persons motivation to watch the show and to put it lightly the show has many many issues with contrived and baseless actions that don't make much sense from a logical perspective at least for me personally the characters are generally unlikable especially the main character who is easily one of my most hated Main protagonists that I've ever met he is an asshole to everyone around him even when he doesn't have a good reason to. to make it short the show is Yaoi bait and it knows it
side note theres nothing wrong with yaoi bait in a show but everyone in the show seems to want to fuck the main character even when they seem straight for the rest of the show the show doesn't care if the characters have spent the last 3 days escaping from a fight and the military all it cares about is establishing a scene where the main character can seduce his way out of a sticky situation for the 8th time

the show is very ugly the characters have extremely small faces for their heads and shots from afar are straight up unfinished obviously I don't expect masterpieces out of every frame but people especially shot from afar don't even have eyes in scenes where the focal point is a conversation between the people in the scene

the Music and sound design is the best part of the show by a pretty wide margin and its not anything special to be completely honest things make the sounds their supposed to and the music is generally enjoyable however many pieces of music are overplayed and in inappropriate places specifically the outro song plays too often for my taste but thats a personal issue tbh and if you disagree its understandable its just overall very unremarkable compared to some anime which can be carried by a good sountrack

Overall just unappealing in most aspects show. 2/10 tbh and I'm feeling generous