Death Note is, without a doubt, one of the best anime ever created. It tells a unique and enjoyable story, to the likes of which I have not seen with any other anime of the same genre. I feel I can confidently say that it is one of the best anime out there, if not, then without a doubt one of the best I have ever seen.
Story:
The concept of the story is rather simple, a notebook falls from the sky with the power to kill whosever name is written in it (there are some rules but the anime tells you about those). Yagami Light, who gets this unearthly power to kill, hopes to use the notebook to rid the world of evil and create a Utopia on earth with himself being God. In this Utopia there would be no evil, only good, but can we say that this is right? Should people who have wronged be allowed to live? Or can they be reformed? Death Note gets the viewers to think about questions just like this, which, in turn, makes us challenge our morals.
However the main focus of the anime isn’t to judge our own morals. The way that the story is told and the pure genius of the plot always keep you on the edge of your seat, the strong game of cat and mouse that Light Yagami must play with the greatest detective in the world, L. Due to both of them being geniuses, it isn’t an easy task for one another to persecute each other, and due to their characters you will want to cheer for one or the other.
The brilliance of the story declines once we reach the second arc of the anime, which although also in the manga, seemed like a way of dragging the story out more than it might have needed, but I can’t complain too much as it was nice to get away from the stalemate between Light and L.
Characters:
Light and L are by far the most interesting in the anime, they are both geniuses and have certain characteristics that make you like one more than the other. Light is very charismatic he is able to execute his plans with much confidence and determination without over reacting too much if something were to go wrong. L on the other hand is… strange and despite looking rather unintelligent, he is quite the opposite.
Art/Animation:
Well, what can I say? Madhouse people, Madhouse. But in all seriousness the art is brilliant; it’s gives off dark vibes which really go with the concept of the story. The animation is also very well done, despite there not being all that much to animate, I would imagine the most animated scene was a car chase, this isn’t a bad thing, just the anime does consist off plans on trying to outsmart each other so there isn’t much to animate. By far my favourite scene was… THE POTATO CHIP SCENE. That was perfect.
Sound:
The sound was amazingly done as well, having opera which fitted perfectly with Light’s ambition to become the new God of Utopia. With L having music which I can only describe and being “policey” I don’t know it just sounded like something you’d hear on a police show or something. I can defiantly say that without the music I don’t think that I would have given this a 10/10 I’d possibly give it an 8 or 9.
Overall:
Overall this is one of the first anime I ever watched, outside of Naruto, and it was one of the anime that really got me to watch more anime. I loved the story, always keeping you thinking and on your toes, the characters were brilliant, personally I preferred L, I think that Light’s character changed in a way that I didn’t like as much by the end. However I highly recommend this anime to anyone of pretty much any age, although it can get quite confusing in places. You also don’t have to worry about it only being in Japanese this anime has been dubbed in pretty much every language… So go watch it!
I give this anime 10/10
