Story (9). Right off the bat i'm going to say i think the story was the show's strongest asset. The whole tone in general is very grey and morbid, and I liked that. The tone collaborates with the whole idea of the story very well without it being depressing or feeling dull. The story itself picked up very quickly, pretty much getting to the point in the first episode with little exposition or build up. This is done to make you actually want to watch the show and (plot twist) it works! The story evolves well and there are very high points which happen to be very suspenseful and actually at times made me nervous to see what was going to happen. There are alot of unexpected turns in the story, part of this is due to the very well executed character interplay particularly between Light (the main character) and L. I will say though, a few episodes felt a bit slow and i was slightly uninterested at times, however high points in the story made up for that indeed. Whenever i thought the show was losing me, it griped me right back in again. There were no real plot holes at all and rarely times when you could guess what was going to happen next, which is good and allows you to watch and enjoy with little thinking. There were some emotional moments as well as some dark moments, but the times where there was alot of build up and suspense were the the best aspect. The ending didn't set well with me, mainly because i wanted to see a different ending but even so i'm not criticizing the show at all for it because the ending was well executed and gave good subtle closure.
Art (8). The animation is dated of course so i can't complain about lack of quality or anything. The characters looked good and real while being unique at the same time. The environments looked grey which set well with the story and tone. The show's aesthetic was actually really nice and i liked it. Death Note has a very nice feel to it where characters and objects have a omniscient glow and light reflect them which looks pretty. Tense moments are animated very well, even when all that's happening is a character writing down a name it looks just very good and fluent. Effects like Rain and dark clouds help to flesh out the dark overall mood.
Sound (8) The soundtrack fit very well with the series, having a classic horror/mystery/thriller style to it. During intense moments the music was beautiful. during dialogue scenes or build up scenes the music is added in well, not eclipsing what's going on in the story but at the same time making you enjoy listening to it. The first intro song is in my opinion the best, it suited the show rather perfectly and set the tone well. The second is a complete change to a heavy metal style song. This does work but it isn't one of my favorites. The ending tracks are a bit forgettable, the second one worked well but I honestly don't remember the first. The voice acting of the characters is spot on, all of them are portrayed well and the general sounds are crisp and clean.
Characters (7) The characters are my least favorite feature of the show in my opinion. This isn't a bad thing and doesn't mean i didn't like them it's just that i couldn't connect with them that much and some are a bit forgettable. I will say as the series went on some of the weaker links are fleshed out more and that was a good touch. All the main characters worked and played their roles well, Light, Misa, Ryuke, and L were all solid interesting characters. Light's intensions are made clear from the start and you see how his character changes especially at the very end. Ryuke is personally my favorite, showing he has no intrest in taking sides in the dilemma of the story is funny to see considering he watches these sometimes terrible things happen without a care. His constant giggling was funny to me, and he's just a likable presence despite being a god of death and all. Misa did he job well, she was another likable presence and she had her moments. I can't say i truly understand her goals but I didn't have problems with her at all. L is another of my most liked characters. His interplay and chemistry with Light is the best part of the majority of the show. The whole dynamic between them is very interesting to watch, and L himself is very weird. I guess weird is interesting to me, nevertheless i really liked him. A few of the characters introduced later in the series were my least favorite, to me they were just kind of annoying and I didn't care about them at all. In all honesty i hated them but it's not because of bad writing I just simply hated who they were if that makes sense. The side characters like I said are the weak link. Side characters usually end up being my favorite but in this case they were a bit forgettable. Matsura had his moments and i did like him but the rest were nothing special but were functional for the most part and weren't useless.
Enjoyment (7) my gripes with the show are simple and not much...The characters could've been a bit better, and the story went slow to me 1 or 2 times. Overall though, i did enjoy it. I liked seeing the story progress and build up over and over and I liked seeing the match of wits between Light and L. The chemistry there between those two was spot on. The story developed for the most part perfectly and had a proper ending. Despite the fact i said it didn't set well with me, i'm over it and realized it was a suitable ending. Overall all the way through i rarely found myself bored and was most of the time invested in the story.
So in all this was a great anime and i'd recommend it to ANY Anime fans. Other people in general as well. I plan on re watching this again and for 37 episodes it's more than worth the time.
Hope this helped, if you somewhat agreed with this give it a thumbs up (:
