This series is overrated.
'Overrated' does not mean 'bad', it means 'overrated', as in 'not the amazing masterpiece a lot of people make it out to be'. Now, before you all start throwing hissy-fits and accuse me of not understanding or whatever, just bear with me for a bit and let me explain my position, because I can give plenty of good reasons as to why I feel the way I do. It's a very good series- I don't mind admitting that- but it has a lot of glaring flaws that people tend to overlook in favour of its unique premise.
Story (7.5/10):
The story is centred around Light Yagami, a bored young genius who resents all things evil. During any old day at school, he finds a mysterious notebook called a Death Note, which apparently has the ability to kill anyone whose name is written in its pages. Although understandably sceptical about its powers, Light decides to take the notebook home to experiment with. He soon discovers that the Death Note is real. Before long, he is completely corrupted by a desire to rid the world of all those he disapproves of, after which he will take over the new world as its god.
Of course, mass murder does not go unnoticed and so it's not long before Light gains an opponent, and that opponent is the world's greatest detective, known only as L. At this point, the person behind the murders (namely Light) has been dubbed by the police as 'Kira', the Japanese word for 'killer'. The result is an insane game of cat-and-mouse where Kira and L have to hunt down each other without knowing their name or face, and the first one whose identity is revealed loses. It's not a bad story and Light's a great villain to make it happen but while it starts off brilliant, it slowly starts to fall apart towards the end because of its unrelenting arrogance.
The biggest problem with the story is that it seems to believe it can get away with just about anything, and ultimately ends up biting off far more than it can chew. It seems to be a common belief in the anime community that very specific things, such as 'anyone can die', automatically mean 'good story' and can't be overdone. Well, in my opinion, anything can be overdone. A story isn't automatically brilliant because it isn't afraid to kill off a main character, because later it might realise that it can't continue without that character. Anyway, without giving too much away, the final third of the series comes off as really rushed when compared to the rest of it and while the ending is fitting and symbolic, to get to it we have to have one of the biggest ass pulls I've seen in anything, let alone anime. The end result is a very intelligent, deep story that takes far too many risks and ultimately gets crushed under the weight of its own ambition.
Art & Animation (8.5/10):
"Death Note"'s animation is at its best in darkened scenes. In lightened scenes, however, it doesn't look nearly as good. In darkened scenes, the art looks fantastic, but in lightened scenes it looks quite average. A lot of the animations can be quite cheesy as well, with seriously melodramatic bits that nearly ruined some otherwise really good scenes. That may come across as nitpicking for some people, but if there's one anime cliché I cannot stand, it's melodrama. Overall, however, the series does look really good.
Sound & Dialogue (8/10):
"Death Note"'s soundtrack is good, but not what I'd call memorable. Overtime, it just uses the same tracks over and over again to the point that they just blend into the background. The opening and ending themes are quite forgettable and I skipped them every time. The voice acting and dialogue is mostly really good, although some of it, Light's in particular, can be pretty heavy-handed at times. Don't get me wrong, Brad Swaile does play the role well, but there are times when he sounds so full-of-himself and is essentially saying to L and the others 'You can't do anything to me.' when they absolutely can. It's like he's announcing that he's Kira. If I were to pick a standout performance, it would have to be Alessandro Juliani as L. He has a very droll voice which is very fitting of the character.
Characters (6.5/10):
I'll start with the two leads: Light and L. The rivalry between the two of them is definitely interesting, as they both contrast each other in many ways. For example, Light is highly charismatic and wins over allies easily without really doing anything. L, on the other hand, has to work hard to win the trust of the Japanese Task Force, due to essentially being an anomaly and having a lot of strange habits. In other words, Light is very normal while L is very strange. Light is definitely a good character as he's essentially a spin on the typical shonen protagonist (high school student with a mysterious supernatural weapon, except that he's a villain) and his intelligence makes him formidable. Ultimately, however, I found L to be much smarter than Light as even though he knows nothing about the supernatural elements of the series, he still manages to keep up with Light nearly every step of the way. There are times when he even manages to be ahead of him. The intense battle between these two is very interesting and one of the reasons I was able to enjoy the series.
Besides Light and L, we also have the members of the Japanese Task Force, who are good characters in their own rights, most notably Shuichi Aizawa and Touta Matsuda. Matsuda is the youngest and most inexperienced member of the team, and is frequently considered an idiot by the others, but he's also the best shot in the force and he absolutely gets a chance to prove it. Aizawa has a very short temper but in spite of this, or sometimes even because of it, he serves as the voice of reason and is usually the one to call out L when he believes he's going too far. In fact, judging by the characters introduced in the first episodes, the cast of characters is very good.
Unfortunately, in episode 11, Misa Amane gets introduced and that is where the characters take a turn for the worst. Misa is an absolutely perfect example of what not to do with a Yandere character. Imagine taking Yuno Gasai, the queen of them all, and stripping away everything that made that character so compelling and sympathetic (the cuteness, cunning, deep insecurities etc.). Then imagine portraying her obsession with Yu-excuse me, Light- as comic relief rather than dark mystery and sticking on the 'overgrown spoiled child' stereotype that female characters are infamous for, and you have Misa- a one-dimensional caricature of a crazy stalker as opposed to a complex, fleshed-out character. And while she is given a tragic backstory, I couldn't relate to or sympathise with her at all, as Light is such a despicable person that it's simply impossible to understand what she sees in him. The characters introduced afterwards pretty much follow suit. Most of them are either brought in solely for comic relief, disappear as quickly as they were introduced or are just poor replacements for old characters, with two particularly infamous examples of the latter. It's like Tsugumi Ohba ran out of ideas very early and just started jotting down any idea that popped into his head, which practically serves as a foreshadowing of the show's decline. As a result, this is easily the low point of the series.
Enjoyment (7/10):
The first two thirds of the series are highly suspenseful, as Light does everything to figure out L's real name and L tries to prove Light's guilt. Unfortunately, the final third is very boring by comparison, to the point that I almost thought I was watching a completely different show, which is jarring to say the least. I pretty much struggled to watch the entire series to the end, though I will admit the ending did redeem things a little.
Overall:
Long story short, "Death Note" is probably the most overrated anime I have seen. It starts off very good but completely falls apart in the last arc and it seems that people simply love it so much for its ambition. Truth is, ambition isn't always a good thing. Often, it gets in the way and makes you believe you can do much more than you really can, and "Death Note" proves that. Of course, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't worth a look. It's just that if someone tells you it's a masterpiece, I'd think twice before believing them.
Score:
7.5+8.5+8+6.5+7=37.5/50=7.5/10
