Death Note has no clear stand out trait that makes you say "man that part of the show was far and beyond better than what most anime offer". The character list is generic, the pacing is too slow. The best thing going for the show is the dark and unique overarching plot of the notebook and its power it has in the hands of humans. The death note(book) continued to expand as the story progressed, but sadly the story went nowhere at the same time. The first part/season/arc of Death Note is a giant mind game played by Light and L, two characters who are given infinite plot convenience while opening a million plot holes. At times the characters look brilliant, and at times its just like "ok how did they know this besides to just keep the story going". Other than these two characters, the rest just suck. The show should have concluded with L's death... because the next part/season/arc felt pointless. The new characters introduced were downgrades... and the plot went even more in circles doing nothing. Light is foolish in the entire 2nd part and the ending to the story just felt unsatisfying (compared to the beautiful ending Lelouch got in CG).
I have always been able to see an anime that I did not necessarily enjoy from different perspectives to see why it is so highly rated. For Death Note, seeing this get an overwhelming score of "great" just boggles my mind. Is it like SAO where its cult is just that big? Is it the emo group? And how on earth can so many people give the show a 10 when they also acknowledge how average the 2nd part of the show is??!?!? Who knows... this show would never make it if it came out in the current time with updated art animation. It is sloppy and 37 episodes makes you just beg for it to be over once you reach past episode 25.
Needed more Shinigami, less Mello.
