Before and after you watch this anime, you must consider what you believe life, death, justice, and evil truly are. As people grow up do they experience events that change their views of the world that we live in? Is this world rotten or pure? What makes a person evil, receiving the power to kill? Or were people just born with hatred? Can't we just live in peace without any crimes...? Is the death penalty a fair form of punishment to those who have committed a crime? What makes a "crime"... a crime? Is it worse to fail at something or never attempt it in the first place? To what extent do you shape your own destiny, and how much is down to fate? Well, Death Note has it's on perspective on all of these questions. The anime starts off with a Death God, Ryuk who is bored of "his world" (Hell? Heaven? Nothingness? We never find out, it's for the viewers to decide where the dead, or death gods live/exist) and purposely drops his Death Notebook into the human world in search of something entertaining (escape from everyday routine, another team). Light Yagami, a genius high school teenager, who views the world as boring, unjust, and filled with corruption/crime conveniently finds the dropped Death Note which can kill anyone whose name is written in the notebook. After confirming the notebook's true power, Light vows to use the death note for "justice" and he sets out to cleanse evil, and create a new world where only "good and pure" people will live in. How will he decide if a person is good and pure? Who knows, those terms are different per everyone's belief, but one thing is certain, Light truly believes that HE is justice. But once the government (police) notice that all the criminals are dying one by one, they catch on that the death's aren't natural and that someone is murdering them. Here comes L, the world's most genius detective, Who claims that HE is justice... And L sets out to catch the murderer and protect the world from "evil". Now, is Light truly an evil person because he's murdering people? Do you think L is a pure person because he's working under the law? The plot is designed to make the viewer decide for himself/herself. And so, the godly "Justice" Vs "Justice" chase begins. Who will win this ingenious death chase... Justice? or.... Justice?
The story relates to many stories from the bible, such as "Adam and Eve" and the story of Judas Iscariot (You don't have to be christian to understand the message behind these stories). Not only is the plot unique and interesting, it's the most deepest story I have ever read (Symbolism, for example the use of the forbidden fruit, representation of the main characters names, and crow feathers on Ryuk, the Death God). Light mostly represents Adam. The Death Note is the forbidden fruit. Ryuk, the Death God is the serpent. When Light wrote in the Death Note, kind of like taking a bite of the apple (shown in intro), his eyes were opened, knowing good and evil, and he was deceived into thinking he could be like God, And just as Ryuk warned, Light would not live a happy live for making that mistake, thus, the fall of man due to sin (Book of Genesis). He also can represent Satan (masqueraded Angel of Light, Father of Lies, etc...) and even Judas to a degree. The color symbolism in the anime was intriguing as well. The way Light's hair and eyes become red, L's hair and eyes become blue, and the black/darkness of Ryuk. The anime is exciting and epic without any actual fighting at all!!! After every episode, the main characters, Light Yagami and L Lawliet leave me dumbfounded. If you actually pay attention to the thought process that goes through their heads, you are in for a roller-coaster ride to GENIUS-Ville. I know a lot of people that have watched Death Note started to dislike the anime after episode 25, but the plot continued to amaze me as Light Yagami continued to fulfill his crazy dream. Sure, it seemed like Light Yagami was now just trying to survive instead of actually eradicate evil from the world and serve justice... But it's in human nature to want to survive before worrying about anything else... Death Note is the only anime that I've found NO plot holes that affected/turned the direction of the plot. Did I mention that the pacing of the story is perfect? There's a nice balanced start, followed quickly by "brain games" which eventually creates a grand climax, and then the "downfall" in the end. All in all, this plot delves into a deep psychological game between 2 geniuses who have the power to change "justice" in the world.
The character development in this anime is so amazing. Not only does the anime delve deeply into each character's mind process, and background, but also each character is a symbolic character that symbolizes a hero/villain (Are they both heroes? Both villains? One-One? That's for the viewer to decide depending on what they viewer believes is "right"). Although Light Yagami and L Lawliet are enemies, facing each other in a legendary psychological battle, we understand the friendship and companionship that develops in the dark between them. Also, the viewer has no choice but to cheer for both sides, because both Light and L want to change the world for what they believe is "better" (neither are trying to ruin the world, and neither are annoying, they are both geniuses). On the other hand, the other main characters Misa Amane, a popular pop-star, and Ryuk the Death God are both important and very symbolic characters that the plot uses in order to show the innocent and disgusting side of human nature. Sure, Misa has an high-pitched squeaky voice and can be annoying a lot of times, but her chemistry with Light Yagami and her importance in the story is just... amazing. Misa is another character who exemplifies the term "human nature" and really the loss of innocence and purity. Ryuk's just as important as Light and L... In fact, Ryuk is really the one dictating the entire plot. Ryuk is the invisible figure that spectates how our human world revolves every day, and we, the audience throughout the anime see through Ryuk's perspective of how interesting, yet repulsive we humans are. Misa and Ryuk have some symbolism going on as well.
Ryuk giving Misa an apple from the Shinigami world, which Ryuk claimed tasted like crap was pretty symbolic. This is referring to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The evil witch tells Snow White that the apple is a magic wishing apple, which can make all of her dreams come true. However, the reality is that the apple is poisonous. Get it? Misa bites the apple by using her own Death Note, and falling in love with Light, but that "apple" (death note) is "poisonous". Hence her fall.
L mainly represented Jesus. He came, served, cared, and wanted to protect all people, without discrimination. He was odd and unsocial, as opposed to Light, who was beautiful and quite popular. Very few actually trusted him, though it's understandable since he never reveals his true identity to anyone. He even cared about the very people who hated him and betrayed him. I must mention that the church-bells ringing in L's head throughout the anime really beguiled me, it was really symbolic.
"I am Justice! I protect the innocent and those who fear evil. I'm the one that will become the god of a new world that everyone desires!!"
- Light Yagami
Allow me to explain why I find Light Yagami very intriguing: Often in great literature, the main character is an morally ambiguous archetypal "hero" whose failures send a message towards the viewers, which is just what Light Yagami is. Now, I see Light Yagami as 3 things. He is 25% Jesus, 25% The Devil, and 50% So very human. 25% Human inside of him is a naive dreaming teenager who is bored of life, and disgusted with the way human beings are living nowadays and wants to make the world a better place (Same as me). Why is he naive? His dream to kill all vermin (criminals, and people that get in the way of his dream) and become a god is impossible. That's something that cannot happen in reality, but his temptations got the best of him. Why is he disgusted with the way humans live? Have you seen all the murders? Rape? Injustice being served? Crime is flowing along like there's no police anywhere. Following the law? Please, think about it. If justice follows the tight law, how will it ever put an end to evil? Here's where I pity and relate to Light sort of... Well then again, what is evil?... How can we get rid of it? Light will show you in his own way. The other 25% Human is a psychopathic murderer who will kill anyone in his way, why? Because he wants to survive, just like all humans do. He is a psycho, no doubt. But it's human nature to want to live and achieve your dream. He has a dream to change the world and he won't just let anyone interfere. Now, the Jesus figure, he wants to become the God of a New World, pass righteous judgement on people, and make the world a safer, better place to live in. He wants humans to finally evolve into their greatest potential stage. He wants equal freedom, no corruption in politics, a justice system where justice can actually be served (clearly in today's society, justice is not being served well). He wants to be the protector of the world, unfortunately humans are mortals, there is a limit to what we can do. The Devil figure, he was corrupted by power and became evil, there's not much more to say. He was willing to get blood on his hands and kill, yet he was unwilling to sacrifice his own life (unlike Lelouch in Code Geass). All in all, his character really fascinates me, the stories from Adam & Eve, Betrayal of Judas, and all the other deep motif stories included in his life has me memorized.
“The most fatal thing a man can do is try to stand alone.”
- Carson McCullers
The voices for this anime were great. I usually like Sub- Voicing for anime much more than Dubbed, but in Death Note's case, they were both great. Not only was the voice acting great, but the entire soundtrack was GODLY. Go and listen to "Low of Solipsism", and "L/Light's Theme Song" and you'll see what I mean (EPIC). They also fit the dark mood of the anime perfectly. Now, the openings for the anime were certainly strange and unique. Some may dislike them, but I loved them as they were symbolic in their own way. The lyrics in the first opening, were along the lines of "I'll show you a new world", and the second opening, "Is your life boring?!". You'll understand why those lines are symbolic if you watch the anime. The animations in both openings were very symbolic as well. In the 1st opening, there was a picture of Light on top of the world, biting an apple, which later changed into a Death Note (Adam & Eve reference). Not only that but Ryuk had crow feathers that left blood stains (Crows represent bad luck and death) and around Light, there were white roses (represents purity and innocence) that quickly turned into red roses (represents death). Furthermore in the ending, Ryuk was sitting on a tree alongside a thousand crows, and crows wait for a person or animal's time (death) to come, just as Ryuk sits around and waits, during almost the entire story, to see when Light's time of dying will come (Once again the "Light" name symbolism, A Death God is waiting for "Light" to die out). Then in the 2nd opening everyone going crazy and glass breaking (Chaos, Unbalance, Corruption). The soundtrack/openings is arguably the most epic, and well-fitting music in an anime ever... But most importantly, the symbolism in the music/opening was brilliant! The art is old style art, making the entire anime seem even more realistic in a sense. My favorite type of art.
I cannot explain to you in words how much I've enjoyed this anime. After every episode, I was left speechless and dying to see more. When the anime ended, I could not believe it (By the way, the ending is great, and very realistic... Serves a life-lesson about temptation and not being able to go back after getting blood on your hands). Let me just say that no matter what kind of anime you like, you will not dislike this anime, unless you are living proof that a man can live without a brain. And it's pointless for me to write anything else insulting of people who dislike Death Note because it will take haters the rest of the century to figure it out. As you can clearly see from how much I've enjoyed the anime, I can officially say that it's a Must-Watch, once in a generation show. Don't miss out, and I hope you found this review convincing at all, because it'd truly be a shame if you missed out on a masterpiece such as Death Note. Do your life a favor and watch it.
After you watch the anime, make sure to think about all the questions I mentioned at the beginning of the review. and think to yourself what you believe is right/wrong, what the "morale" way to go at things are. No matter what religion you believe in, think about your role in life, and what will happen to you after death. Perhaps Death Note will change your perspective on things like it did for me... Or... I may just be over-thinking things... Anyways, if you haven't seen it, just watch it and judge for yourself..
