I know lots of people think Death Note is one of the masterpiece of the anime-manga industry and that is also why I forced myself to watch it till the last minute. But as I was going through this anime, disliking it more with every episode, I really thought that it was probably me not grasping the full subtlety of the story. But by the last episode, I could honestly say, that this was simply a smartly presented empty shell. Maybe the manga is better than that, I wouldn't know, as I haven't read it. And to be honest, I don't feel like to.
The whole story starts on quite an interesting premise, with a complete psychopathic anti-hero as the lead character and quite twisted protagonists as his main opponents. This could have made for a really thrilling and profound scenario about such issues as the causes for the existence of evil, the meaning of good and evil, the moral contradictions when dealing with it, especially when in possession of a great power, the balancing between good and evil, etc, which are all essential philosophic and moral issues that humans have been dealing with for as long as they started asking questions about the reason for their presence on earth. It could have been interesting to see what a teenage, bored by a too easy life, could have done with it.
Instead, we end up stuck for 37 episodes with a completely immature, if not outright retarded, and self-righteous block who can't even realize the quite obvious and naked contradiction at the heart of his actions, despite being described by his surrounding as a brilliant and precocious genius! In his rage to exterminate bad people from earth, he almost never pause to pounder his own resorting to criminal means to achieve his aim. If he had been as smart as said, it shouldn't have taken him more than a minute to realize that his acceptance of criminal means to accomplish a "good" cause means that good and bad aren't completely distinguishable and that they are more often than not simply the two sides of the same coin. This should have led him quickly to the conclusion that no one is completely evil or saintly, but a mix of both good and bad. And to throw away that stupid "Death book" even before starting using it. But no, instead he simply sinks always lower into his frantic childish Manichean mindset to reach the final conclusion that he is the only decent person deserving to live! The last episode is so pathetic that I almost threw up! I couldn't believe I had mustered the courage to watch the whole thing to reach such a dumb end!
My overall feeling was that of an absolute hoax and huge waste of time. Honestly, don't get fooled around by the apparent complexity of the plot itself, in which two parties are seemingly engaged in a chess-like life-size game. They are not. The fact is, Light is so simple-minded that L is always hundred moves ahead of him and this clearly shows in the last episode when Light realizes, FINALLY, that he has made a complete fool of himself from the very beginning!
