Despite its flaws, Death Note avoids that catastrophic cycle and is, in its own right, a very good anime.
STORY:
Well, where to begin.
First off, as I said above, many anime in this genre tend to flaunt superior intelligence in the face of their audience, and Death Note is no exception. It is incredibly creative and the gambits created by the characters are truly mesmerizing at times. The problem is that because they are so over-the-top and absurdly scheming, many of them feel somewhat preposterous and a few plot points then become stretches of the imagination. While this isn't an overwhelming problem, as much of the plot is well thought out and planned for, the lack of meticulous care to the plot-line shows up at times and detracts from the story... but just a little bit.
More negative is the lack of logic in the characters. Other than a few (the obvious two, mainly), the majority of the characters are just plain stupid. This becomes overwhelmingly evident when, at times, the villain of the story could have been caught but isn't out of sheer luck.
However, the lack of logic isn't too overbearing, and the plot is mostly clean of any holes, so while it is a problem, it did not cause much of a backbite from my perspective.
On another note, one of the main pluses of Death Note is the suspense and twists/turns that the narrative presents. While the plot twists aren't extremely unexpected or anything of the like, the series does throw some curveballs and the battle between Light and L is such an engrossing cat and mouse chase that it is rather enticing to watch. To this day Death Note is the anime I have watched the fastest because I just couldn't stop reveling in the overall intensity and eccentricities of the story.
While not as heavy as something like Monster, Death Note has its fair share of thematic elements. Some of them are executed well (flaws of justice, legality of capital punishment, not so different heroes/villains) whereas some have some issues (power corrupts). It's unfortunate that the main theme is flawed, but because of the inconsistency and certain issues regarding it, the story comes off as more of a character study of a sociopath than anything else, which is completely fine but veritably inadvertent on the author's part.
CHARACTERS:
The most interesting point of discussion with Death Note, in my humble opinion, relates to the characters.
Let's start with Light Yagami. In order to avoid spoilers, I won't go into detail, but essentially my thoughts are as such: Light Yagami is a very good character, a very likable/detestable character depending on your perspective, and he is written extremely well in the story. However, his character development has an inherent flaw in that it is much too quickly paced. Now, this is unfortunate because it isn't indicative of bad characterization as it is seen that Light has some flaws before a certain event, but the characterization used directly contradicts some of the moral purports that the author wished to establish. In other words, the "power corrupts" theme is nullified by Light's characterization. To truly make Death Note top-notch, I personally believe that Ohba would have had to have made his development more gradual, but alas that did not happen.
Still though, I would like to clarify that, again, I really like Light Yagami and I believe he is written extremely well in the context, but there are some things I personally would have done differently with him.
And... well, that's pretty much it. While there are some other good characters (L, Ryuk, Matsuda) none of them stand out in my opinion as truly brilliant achievements. This is yet another reason why I treat Death Note as more of a character study than anything else, because the development undergone by other characters is next to none for the most part, and while they do have some semblance of depth, their inner workings aren't profound enough to validate themselves as anything special.
ANIMATION:
Death Note is truly a feat in itself when it comes to the quality of the animation. Despite being made some time ago, it still holds up marvelously well, even with the anime that is being made now. The color scheme is very... gray, but it works because of the tone of the series. It just feels ominous and torrid, which is quite fitting. The characters look fantastic, especially in moments of fear or emotion, and their movements are fluid and don't look fake.
SOUND:
Ah, here we go. My favorite OST of all time goes to Death Note. If you want to make something seem epic, go for the choir noises, and it paid off marvelously here. There are a plethora of tracks that are illusive and fantastic for every sort of melancholy, vehemence, excitement, etc. The first opening and ending are also great songs in my opinion, but the second opening is... bad. Somehow a lot of people like it though, so don't take my word for it.
As far as the voice acting goes, I've seen both the dub and the sub, and I personally prefer the dub but neither are bad choices. Brad Swaile does a phenomenal job with Light Yagami and L's voice actor (who escapes me at the moment) does as well, along with Brian Drummond as Ryuk. Besides those three in particular, everyone from Soichiro to Matsuda to Rem are played quite well, although the voice actress playing Misa Amane can be a little... jarring at times. You'll see what I mean.
OVERALL:
Death Note has flaws, as I have stated. However, these flaws are part of what is a high-quality anime to be sure. I recommend it.
