Death Note is one of the most popular anime ever to air on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block. It is obviously an anime that most otaku and even non-otaku are familiar with, but if you aren't I will give you some examples of the things this show did great and some things it could have improved on.
Warning: minor spoilers. I mention a character dies, but I don't say which one.
Story: 6/10
The story starts out with a very interesting premise about a brilliant student named Light Yagami that one day finds a mysterious book. The book called the Death Note allows you to write the name of any person along with a time and cause of death, and if you know what the person looks like than they will die in exactly this way at that time. This book was dropped by a shinigami, which is a minor god of death in Japanese mythology somewhat like the Western figure of the Grim Reaper. This shinigami named Ryuk, dropped the Death Not simply because he got bored and wanted to see what a human would do with the powers of a God. Unsurprisingly, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Light starts out with an almost admirable goal of cleaning up the world by killing all the "bad people". However, his definition of bad begins to shift towards anyone and everyone that opposes him as God of a new world crafted according to his ideology. In order to keep killing, Light must engage in a cat and mouse game with the brilliant detective L. Lawliet. This starts out somewhat like Crime and Punishment with Raskolnikov's game of cat and mouse game with Porfiry Petrovich following the murder of a "worthless" old woman that Raskolnikov believed he made the world better by murdering. However, this isn't a redemption tale where Light realizes his crimes and attempts to atone. Light is an evil psychopath who abuses power to the fullest and doesn't give a shit who he needs to kill in order to keep that power. Light's personality profile is similar to that of your average egomaniac, paranoid, sociopathic dictator. What bothers me is that it seems a bit of a stretch that Japan's brightest student could think that all problems can be solved by killing "bad people". That is the world view of a naive moron that doesn't understand the complexity of global issues. The problems of overpopulation, pollution, famine, disease, poverty, and most other problems can't be solved by killing a few bad people. Imagine I kill a brutal dictator in Africa like Kabila that rules the Democratic Republic of Congo. Would that make the Congo into a paradise? No! It would create a power vacuum and civil strife that will probably be replaced with another dictator. If I kill the replacement it will rinse and repeat. The Congo has all of the aforementioned structural problems that can't be solved with a simple murder or two. The second problem with Death Note's story is that it goes on for far too long. The manga was only 12 volumes and it really didn't need 37 episodes. This causes it to drag at times and I especially wasn't happy with the 2nd half. My last grudge with Death Note is something that was at least corrected in the movie. If your show or movie is almost entirely dependent on one beloved character to carry it on his back, don't fucking kill off that character half way through! Death Note suffers from the Full Metal Jacket syndrome, where it slides in the 2nd half at least in part because literally everyone's favorite character is dead.
Characters: 6/10
The main lead is Light, who starts out like the Punisher, Dexter, and all those Texan justice characters that kill bad guys and we root for them. I really appreciate that Death Note does not condone this simplistic, apish cultural trend and actually shows Light to be an absolute bastard. Just because a sociopath kills bad guys doesn't mean he is a good guy or that we should root for him! We in the US rooted for Bin Laden and his ilk when he was killing Soviets and called him a freedom fighter and hero of liberty. In fact he was a despicable psychopath who just happened to be killing people we didn't like. This is no guarantee that the sociopathic killer is going to continue killing only bad guys, because you know...they're a fucking sociopath and have no concept of right and wrong. A rabid dog that just happens to maul and kill a rapist is still a rabid dog and should be put down rather than rewarded or praised. What astounds me is that some viewers still root for Light even though the show goes to every length to show that you are not supposed to. They even give him red eyes and a blood curdling evil laugh out of Austin Powers for God's sake! The best character by far is L, who is in the running with Lisbeth Salender as the greatest Asperger's afflicted detective in fiction. L is hysterical and simply adorable. When your main character is Joseph Stalin put in the body of a Japanese pop star, you need someone more amiable to keep people watching. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast kind of sucks and there isn't enough L. Special shout out to Misa, who is the suckiest of sucky. She is the Jar Jar Binks of Death Note. I have the FEVER! and the only cure...is more L Lawliet!
Art: 9/10
The art is really top notch in this series. It had a huge budget and even though it has been a few years since it came out, it still looks just as good today.
Music: 8/10
The soundtrack is quite good. I didn't really care for that death growl opening and thought it was a tad silly, but besides that thumbs up!
Enjoyment: 5/10
I really enjoyed the first part of the series and thought it really had the potential to be great. However, as the series wore on I began to grow tired of it and wanted it to simply end already. I can't really give it high marks for enjoyment when I spend the last 15 or so episodes looking at Light and screaming, "Just fucking DIE already!"
Overall: 6/10
Although I see the appeal and understand why people love this series, it isn't one of my personal favorites. It has a few flaws that made it somewhat lackluster for me personally. That doesn't mean its bad by any means or that you shouldn't watch it! It is in fact quite good and I highly recommend checking it out if you have been living under a rock and haven't seen it yet.
