MINDSET:
It is more cool that it is dark and moralistic with its themes.
REVIEW:
To me, I view Death Note as a show whose emphasis is not towards realism, but in the more rule of cool aspects since this is a Shonen Jump show where talking about. It has some aspects of it, but for the most part, You are really just looking at how two sides of the argument with near grey morality have an eipc battle with the power of their wits and cunning. And this is how most people tend to misunderstand Death Note, it is more of a show that focuses on how L v.s Light Yagami duking it out for everyone to awe at its rather corny epicness, rather than a more realistic style of writing fleshing out its cast and dark themes giving some sort of message. Sure it may be cool to think outside the box at times like what if the Death Note was real, but there never seemed to be a moment when I really felt that harsh philosophy.
You still see a sense of how the whole thriller and mystery aspect blends in rather nicely with the whole Shonen like feel. Like how Light feels the need to eradicate the world from all sinners and he has to hide he's real identity from the public, yet he's still a teenager with very vague motives behind he's actions, with a sense that it seems natural that he can pull of crazy stunts and it felt more like he did it because he was following the path of coolness rather than the path of realism and depth.
Side characters do have a sense of depth and development, and they do have a motive for their actions. Like Lights Dad whose head of the police force, wants to hunt down Kira because he belives that Kiras actions are wrong, and he even allowed some of he's staff to join him as an option, because he does'nt want to risk lives. Though most of the cast may not be as well fleshed out, and some of the characters like misa was just a result of bad writing, really? The reason why she was obsessed with Kira was because he unintentionally did her revenge mission for him...
Kira and L to me, were great when their together, You always feel a jump of excitement and tension when the two are suspiciously trying to catch one one and other. Chemistry between the two always felt more like a constant mind game between two uber smarty pants finding the smartest tactics to beat each other. Though, I do see some complexity within L, and that he does develop and he felt like the more complex character. Though I do personally prefer L as the better character since he's just following the rule of cool in a dark, yet still laughably aweable manner.
The thing that I just adored about Death Note was the battle of the two cunning geniuses alone, the two are constantly at their wits, You see how intellectual both characters are from the first few episodes, and the epic arch when the two end up together in the skyscraper to do nothing but to simply out smart the enemy was absolutly awesome, and intense stiff bro. There does feel like a use of a plot device that may seem BS, but it does seem to fit with the whole coolness factor in the show. Overall, the battles make the show feel quite clever at times, at how they excecute all of these things at once.
Speaking of tension, the battle between Kira and L were never hugely intense, but there was always a feeling of intensity and grip to be constantly excited on how this battle of the worlds smartest mass murderer, verses the worlds finest detective. For the most part, the show always leaves an awesome cliffhanger to pull You in for more upcoming episodes just to see how each one plays out.
I would say it is 20% more intense but 80% more exciting, since the show of course mostly disregards its darker themes and make it more like a game of some really cool chess, You don't feel like Your in some sort of fear, or crazy adrenaline gushing to get You hyped but You get hyped by simply going awe at how crazy the situations can get and leaves You curious instead. The show still remains its Shonen-like feel, and if it was more realistic, then thats some intense sh*t, but this is a point when I can't amplify it to an 8, since it does not go any deeper than just a straight up thriller and mystery show.
The whole Shimigami aspect was just more or less an excuse to simply own a Death Note, while it did had some use of speaking through dark themes at the shows “Climactic” Season 2 ending with the Shimigami, I always felt like they were just a bunch of over powered death gods who are just bored. They didn't carry in a real meaning, but are mostly just there to make the Death Note exist without being too cheesy.
YES. Season 2 was clearly unnecessary, and the show just lost all of the intensity, the tension and its overall cast. Heck, Kira started to act like an absolute prick in the end, and all what I'm seeing was just him getting beat up. The show could've been fine if they left the first season as it is. And why should any of us care that this part of the show even exists?
Madhouse, when Your trying to look all hip and cool rather than making kiddie material, You really are hip and cool. Sure the signiture Madhouse style was to always create emphasis on darker and more grim tones of grey with a blended feel of CGI colour schemes but there doesn’t seem to be signs of pure CGI. I'm talking to You Aldnoah! Anyway's, the lighting and shading and mechanical lighting, the use of colours in the OP are all real great to simply look at. You sense a good deal of effort was put into this garnishing, and it stays very consistent without ever dropping the budget. Character desgins are overall great, and sure, not all blend in well and L's design really does stands out from the more realistic portrayal of adults and middle-aged crime solvers.
The music feels really impressive, it has chamber choirs that blows Your flipping mind, (my favourite theme in the OST was Ryuks theme btw) You are constantly being immersed in the situations, You truly feel impact, intensity, tension, awe, calmness, calamity, this is easily one of the best soundtracks that I've heard, like ever. There’s a well fine mix of Guitars, Pianos, Drums, Techno Beats, Violins, Trumpets and even a song that only consisted of just f**king mind blowing Choir just going ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh here me ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, and holy sh*t that’s awesome! There is a true feeling of Cliffhanger, fear, coolness and it just jam f*cks every awe inspired emotion into one of the more grim yet quite corny, but totally flipping amazing OST's ever. The OP however, its really just some J-Rock I've heard a million times, it gets You hyped, but there's really nothing too amazing after that, colours are cool though. The ED is skip worthy since I get too hyped for everything else! However, they changed the OP to just J-Death Metal, not saying that there’s something completely bad about that, but it was just a weird change of pace that I personally am neutral whether on liking it, or hating it...
LEGACY:
Its edgy, but not moralistic, its cool, yet it makes it depth shallow, its a thriller, but it feels more like an exaggeration of one. Its surely not deep, but hey, its well memorised by the Anime community for being one of the better mystery thrillers that existed in previous years...
SCORES:
7/10 – Well rounded cast with Light following the rule of cool
7/10 – Exciting thriller stuff bro, and overall great Shonen Jump Story
7/10 – Mad House visuals are always great when its not for kids.
8.5/10 – Damn awesome OST.
FINALE: 7/10 So it may not be deep, but its still awesome.
