Anime 1535 Death Note Reviews Filter Check 3

Q: What happens when an unstoppable Mary Sue meets an immovable Mary Sue?
A: Death Note.

The protagonist, and his adversary, are both genius pretty boys (with the odd names of Light and L) who have an incredible amount of achievements and skill for their young age. Light somehow predicts things that he could not possibly have the foresight to predict, because, you know, probability is a thing. Don’t worry though, it’s not like you know that he’ll always win, because L possesses this exact same unexplained and ludicrous ability to predict the future; he just does so without a cheesy “Just as planned!” ... catchphrase that makes me want to shoot myself every-time I hear it. In this way, rather than being a dark and mysterious thriller, Death Note often manages to be an overblown mental mudslinging contest between two impossibly perfect master practitioners of bullshit who are both describable in a single sentence. This is epitomized in an early scene where the two, who both have tennis skills at a professional level, get into a match and engage in a ridiculously drawn-out internal line of logic about how the desire to not lose might relate to the true identity of the other.


Furthermore, what kind of psychological mystery thriller has a plot entirely driven by coincidences, improbabilities, and impossibilities? Again, Death Note. Plot devices like this were used every-time the anime found itself in a narrative corner, and these cop-outs always completely killed the tension that was built up to that point, while simultaneously disengaging the plot from the audience.


The concept was intriguing, and I won’t say it did not entertain me at some parts, but it was ultimately far too flawed in its execution to be called enjoyable or good overall, and it never managed to pull off the promise of its premise. It seemed overdone at times, with eye-roll worthy developments, and lines like “I take a potato chip and eat it!” delivered with the utmost significance and conviction, devoid of any irony or self-awareness. Light’s ability, of writing a name in a notebook as a method of killing, is initially well established and limited, while being relatively creative, although you would think he’d be able to do a bit more with it, but the way the new rules of the note are introduced as the story goes on can get a tad contrived.


Characterization quality is somewhat varied, but I would say that it's generally not all that good. It was bad, really. Light is a bit too perfect, his only flaws being the well-concealed logical results of his perfection, such as his narcissism and overconfidence. It could be argued that this flawlessness was intentionally done in an effort to depict the deconstruction of a seemingly perfect human being, but I think this concept eventually fell flat. It would have been far more interesting to see an average teenager find the note and watch the scope of his ambitions and arrogance develop over time. Light is arrogant, ambitious, and a staunch consequentialist from the very outset; this, logically, kills almost all opportunity for development. As for the rest of the characters, L was far more interesting and entertaining than Light, although he was even more unrealistic, evoking the child prodigy and boy detective clichés among other things; I mostly found myself rooting for him rather than the protagonist. Light's eventual “girlfriend” falls in love with him, to the extent of obsession, right away, as the plot commands it, and this insufficiently-explored obsession with him defines her entire character. There is absolutely nothing to her besides that, despite her eventually becoming one of the most significant characters in the series. In all actuality, the motivations for most characters, besides the protagonist and the Shinigami, are hazy at best and, with the exception of L, none of them are interesting in the slightest.


There are some religious symbolisms and themes, which are underplayed and done well until a forced Christ allegory towards the middle, but this all kind of falls apart in the second half and all of the symbolism disappears. To make matters more dire, the already limited development of the protagonist stagnates and his adversary is quickly replaced by two identical, yet duller and less compelling, copies. At the same time, while the developments and additional rules to Light’s ability in the first half were often a bit contrived, they were usually better than nothing; pretty much all evolution stops in the second half, and it only gets worse. The anime essentially loses everything that it ever had going for it, and it then stays in that inadequate stage for the remainder of the plot, all leading up to an anticlimactic conclusion that the audience knew was coming from the very beginning. The anime would have lost nothing to speak of had that conclusion come at least 10 episodes earlier than it did. Therefore, as the plot progressed, it increasingly lost its higher significance and simultaneously started to wear thin the initial appeal of its premise.


The art is arguably the strongest, or least flawed, aspect of Death Note, the character design being particularly astounding, with the exception of a couple characters introduced in the second half whose designs were either dumb-looking or recycled. The art is generally pretty atmospheric and it never skimps on detail out of convenience, although not much detail is required in the first place. The design of the main antagonist, while understated, is particularly impressive due to the fact that he manages to be very aesthetically appealing, despite the ridiculous heroin chic vibe that the audience gets from him. The animation is nothing special, but it does not really have to be; this is not an action series. I feel like the art for the manga was superior, and it could have been done better in the anime adaptation, but any complaints I have about it are relatively minor.


In the end, what Death Note did accomplish was hackneyed and not all that original; it could not be called “deep” nor was it ever cutting-edge in the grand scheme of things. The coincidences and general improbabilities that drove the plot bar it from being called “realistic,” more than the out-there premise ever could. That said, it should be given some credit for featuring a true antihero, who is still often admired by the audience, and ultimately not being afraid to portray him as pathetic. It also never used the character’s high school age as an excuse to throw light school-life hijinks into the plot. But these positive qualities unfortunately failed to have too much influence in the industry, and they are additionally outweighed by negatives in the universe of the anime itself. Code Geass, a blatant Death Note rip-off, wasted no time at all in taking every single good Death Note did and flipping it all on its head. I might recommend Death Note, if only for the first half, but only with a warning that it fell apart and that even the first half is not as great as it's often made out to be. You honestly might be best off watching the first half and simply skimming the plot summary of the second, because it has nothing of value to offer the viewer beyond that point.

There's something fundamentally contrived about Death Note which takes what would normally be its best quality, the story/plot, and makes it difficult for a viewer to enjoy it once they start questioning the plot points and devices. For different people, these are things that can either be overlooked or overtake the show absolutely, and it really depends on both how critically one wants to watch Death Note and how far they're willing to suspend their disbelief. The major problem Death Note faces is how seriously it takes the threat of a killer notebook being dropped into the world, and how realistic a stance ... it takes on the response by police forces. Since it attempts to be as realistic as possible given a fantastic story, the viewer is forced to start viewing the show critically, and if you're like me, it might ruin the show as your critical viewing and analyzing, since it does have a mystery side, will slowly chip away at how much you're able to overlook plotholes and points that don't make much sense.

But I digress, there isn't much I can say in the way of what exactly makes the plot "fundamentally contrived" without revealing too much and giving away some spoilers, but I'll do my best to give you my position and why I rated the show a four.

Story: 3

The story is the most important part of a show that focuses most of its time developing plot. As far as I'm concerned, the actual story that the show puts together isn't bad, it's the way that it is executed that puts the score so low for me. There's major problems with the way that the drama is created. The main character is essentially given something extremely powerful and, in some ways, overpowered, in order to make it realistic that he would act the way he does in an attempt to establish his own ideals. It would be impossible to justify the main characters actions, especially after making him a genius, if the Death Note wasn't so grandly unfair in its power. Of course, this forces and equally unfair opponent, which is where most of the "contrived" nature of the show comes from. The story focuses on L, a detective, trying to figure out who's killing people. The problem is that since its by a supernatural force, the writers are forced to create situations in which L is able to bypass his ignorance of the presence of supernatural forces and still get closer to the culprit. This culminates in a series of completely contrived assumptions that the detective L must make that are NEVER WRONG. And right there is where my main problem with the show is. Either L needs to know something and the show creates a situation in which he somehow obtains that information, or L makes an assumption and the show arranges itself such that the assumption is true and then provides some reason for why the assumption is logical and not, indeed, an ass-pull, when really every single one is an ass-pull.

A story that relies so heavily on assumption and then does a poor job justifying why those assumptions are being pursued is difficult to watch. It forces the show to create situations that seem too perfect, or plans that have a very slim chance of working, which of course work every time.

Nevertheless, moving away from this aspect, there are yet more problems. The show creates a set of rules early on to establish what's different between the world of Death Note and the regular world. There's a lot of rules and parameters. The show has issues dealing with these conditions later on when it realizes that the parameters that worked in the beginning now make things too difficult to create any sense of drama, since the person with the Death Note should, by any logical reasoning, have the absolute advantage all the time. Once again, the show is forced to create situations that seem unreal, or that seem to artificially enhance the abilities and luck of the opposing characters in order to make it somewhat believable that any conflict would actually occur, and in the process runs into problems with the conditions it sets up in the beginning. Sometimes it will ignore some basic principles it had set up for a scene beforehand, and your left wondering why that information or ability was ignored, or why the character doesn't just _______ or _______. In the end, the story could have been executed much better with simple changes that wouldn't require contrived scenes and turns of events. When the show attempts to artificially inflate one scene with more drama by creating a new aspect to the whole situation, it just makes future scenes more difficult because now it has to deal with what it created beforehand. All of this together makes the story difficult to believe and watch.

Art: 6

It's a not a show you watch for the art. It's got some pretty backgrounds, but you don't watch an animation for still shots of some city backgrounds now do you? The animation isn't anything extraordinary. "Action" usually takes the form of camera pans and people writing in notebooks. Of course, that isn't to say that it isn't pretty or well drawn, but it just isn't anything spectacular.

Sound: 6

Once again, the soundtrack isn't anything to write home about, and some songs get played so often that it's almost comical. They did take some risks with the OPs, making them heavy rock/metal, but once again, nothing too special here. The music suits the setting/scenes well, but that's what you should be expecting from a professionally produced show, right? Standards might be set in different places for some people, but this isn't a soundtrack I'll be listening to after the fact.

Character: 4

There's also some major problems with the characters, not so much as with the story but enough to be of note.

The first problem is with the main character, an antihero named Light. He's introduced as your cliche "tired with the world" guy who's "too smart for this shit" and looks down on others. He has a sense of justice that centers around punishment for all those who "deserve" it, and makes this very clear. Light develops into something like your classic villain who sits in an armchair tapping his fingers together and who cackles and smiles evily every time something goes "exactly as planned". I've never had a problem with plans coming together perfectly, in fact I like it better than the overdone "perfect plan falls apart but the heroes pull through anyway because of some bullshit", but Light's plans... well... the most I'll say is that both you and he should have little reason to believe that they will work, but most of the time they will anyway, regardless of what logic may say. This gets even worse as time goes on and the situation gets even more dramatized and on a larger scale.

Another issue I had was that Light makes some pretty questionable choices even though he's introduced as a genius, and most of those choices seem to be written in specifically for the purpose of giving the opposition a chance.

L is the only other problem character. I've already discussed it, but it's not realistic to believe that he's good enough at detective work to literally defy probability and reason multiple times in a row and be correct. While he's weird and goofy, and sometimes he's actually clever and not just given wisdom from the writing staff, but he's given too much help from the writing staff to be a believable character.

Misa is just sort of annoying, but I have no real complaints about her character other than that. She's your typical head-over-heels MC loving character and pretty much is introduced for the sole purpose of ensuring that neither party, Light or L, gets too much of an upper hand before the show has run long enough to replay the same sequence of events over and over again.

Enjoyment: 4

It's difficult to enjoy a show that, against your better judgement, you start analyzing. The main problem is that it's difficult NOT to look at the show critically when it's analyzing itself in the first place through detective work and giving you every reason to believe you should be treating the actions occurring as realistic outside of the existence of the Death Note in the real world. The problems with execution are a real shame, because the show could have been very enjoyable if it allowed a viewer enough room to suspend disbelief without crossing the line and forcing the viewer to turn a blind eye if they wished to continue without getting critical of the plot and characters.

Overall: 4

I realize that my opinion is probably unpopular, and I expect that there's going to be some sort of backlash because of how low a score I'm giving to an extremely popular show, but I had real issues with the execution and couldn't look past the problems I saw. The show could have been much better if they had gone about allowing the plot to progress in a more believable manner instead of stuffing it full of drama that forced unbelievable events to occur.

To tell the truth, there are very, very few animes that I really disliked like this one. Actually, dislike is a euphemism. I should say, I loath it. And for good reasons.

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!

Death Note has only one season, but it seems to be split into two different "series". From episode 1 to 25 it is an excellent series, great story, good plot twists, with great characters. Some chapter lowers its level, but it´s good. From episode 26 to 37 it is absolutely the opposite. It costs too much to watch the episodes without wanting to turn off the TV. It no longer contains anything that one had been seeing. Is it one of the best anime? I think no, it is not. Is it a series to recommend? I would not do it.

This review was first written back in 2017. Now in 2021, I think it's time for an update. Way back when, I originally decided to watch this anime because a friend of mine was practically begging me to. I was a high school student at the time who had ambitions on majoring in criminal justice once I entered college (a plan I did start, but have since changed), so I was intrigued upon reading a synopsis that pretty much described a battle between serial killer and police force. It was right up my alley.

When I first watched the anime, I was completely blown away. ... But now after coming back to it four years later, I'm thinking otherwise.


Story | 3/10
Initially, I found the story to be quite unique as it adds a supernatural twist to a seemingly normal human universe. Light Yagami, a high school student who constantly excels in his studies, comes across a mysterious notebook one day, and he soon finds that it has the power to kill anyone so long as he knows their name and face. The story set up was unlike anything I had ever seen before, so I was really excited to see what would happen as the plot unfolded and the police got involved. L's character was especially one that was hyped up by both watchers of the anime, and even other characters within the anime. When it came time for Light and L to go up against each other in a metaphoric "fight to the death", I will admit that I was entertained! Though after a while, the plot fell from thrilling and suspenseful to boring and predictable.

One thing I noticed right away as the story progressed was that the realistic value portrayed in this universe took a drastic decline. Sure, the idea of a notebook that can cause the death of a human being holds little realism in the first place, but it was the character actions and interactions that held that realism together. Specifically, Light, L, and Misa once held some sort of relatability in the beginning, with Light being a high school student trying to get into a good college while also intentionally keeping secrets from his parents about a certain part of his life, L being an investigator just trying to do his job, and Misa being a lovesick naïve girl who's willing to do anything to make her crush like her back. However, with more advancement to the plot, the story kind of tip-toes away from the realistic human side of things where people can make mistakes and only focuses on the intelligence of the two main characters. The situations that they put each other in appear to be carefully thought out with seemingly no possible way for the plan to catch the other to fail. Yet, the audience is quickly and repetitively informed that the defending side in fact DOES have a way out, and that this way out was determined before the character was even put in this difficult situation in the first place. Because of this, not only is the realistic value of human error taken out of the picture, but so is the thrill.

Also, the story told in Death Note is one that is heavily intricate. This isn't an anime that you can just throw on in the background while you do something else. Leave that for an episodic slice of life anime. You have to give your full, undivided attention if you don't want to miss an important detail. I personally don't mind abandoning all responsibility for a little while so I can focus on the screen. The problem I have with the amount of detail in this show, though, is that all the important information seems to come in large chunks that are just thrown in your face with little time to form an understanding before the scene rolls into the next. For example, the time between Light being just an ordinary student to him becoming a mass serial killer who developed a god complex and created a plan to cleanse the world of evil is literally not even the length of a whole episode. Not only that, but the audience is also given an explanation on how the Death Note works, and what a shinigami is. Again, all this happens within like 15 minutes during the FIRST episode. By clumping all this information together and delivering it on a single plate, it becomes overwhelming to the viewer which may cause them to forget a point that will be mentioned later in the story. There were many times when I found myself unable to comprehend what was going on because of the lack of gradual revealing of information.

Light's goal of cleansing the world of evil begins with killing prisoners via heart attack. I'm going to go on a bit of a tangent here. This might be a huge stretch, and I might just be pissed off about this for absolutely no reason, but bear with me. As a former criminal justice major in college and a current avid true crime watcher, the anime completely ignores the fact that it is entirely possible for people to be wrongfully convicted of a crime. Light does absolutely no research on the prisoners he kills. He just sees their names and writes them down. For all we know, a few of those prisoners he sentenced to death could have been innocent people. Obviously, because this fact is never mentioned, it should just be assumed that he IS killing people who actually committed crimes, but that just further proves my point about there being little realism to the anime. It just shows Light's mindset of, "You're wearing the orange jumpsuit? You deserve death," with no rhyme or reason at all, and it also promotes the idea that all prisoners are evil. Seriously, I'm still confused where this plan to kill off all evil even came from in the first place.

Lastly, after falling on its back during a major event in episode 25, the anime tries to pull itself back to its feet for the remainder of the twelve episodes by introducing new characters, some of which are there to serve as a complete replacement of those who died along the way. This causes the pacing of the last arc of the anime to tremendously slow down and drag on an unnecessary amount, with the only truly important part of it being witnessing as Light loses his sanity more and more. However, if the new characters were just never included in the first place, this same thing could have been accomplished in six or less episodes with better pacing.


Character | 2/10
Both Light and L are advertised throughout the story as exceptionally intelligent individuals on opposing sides. This is why many people may have found it entertaining to watch as they go up against each other for a majority of the plot. My issue with this is that the story takes the idea of "playing with smarts" to an extreme level that, as I've stated previously, completely eradicates any type of chance for a mistake to happen, thus also eliminating the suspense in the process.

Starting with Light, his character was one that high school me used to respect. Of course, I was younger and more easily impressed back then. I only looked at the dude for his intelligence, and didn't really think deeply about what he was actually doing. Looking at it now, I will say without doubt that Light is a terribly written character. I know it was intended for him to take on the anti-hero persona, but part of me just feels like his development from ordinary student to psychotic serial killer was paced way too quickly. I think his character would've been so much better if his reasoning behind using the death note started on a more personal level. For example, have his first kill be someone who once caused him harm, like a bully from secondary school who continued to bother him in high school. That way, it gives him a logical reason to test out the ability of the death note through vengeance instead of him just using it on a random prisoner he saw on TV because he wants to see if it actually works. In my opinion, it would make the feeling of having killed someone more satisfying for him, which then could build a bridge over to him becoming a serial killer. The reason I'm saying all of this is simple: Light has absolutely no motive behind his goal. It feels completely empty, like the only reason he decided to start killing criminals was because he could. Things would make so much more sense if the original intention was to get rid of someone who hurt him in the past, then have him start to believe that, "Well, I was able to kill one bad person, why not kill them all?" as a means of protecting people who also have been hurt like he was. Then from there, have him start to lose his sanity in his newly found god complex.

Then we have L, a weird, independent investigator in the Task Force who comes to work in a crewneck and jeans. I didn't particularly enjoy his quirks. You know, the ones where he for some reason sits with his knees to his chest like a child and only likes to hold things with his pointer finger and thumb? But that's a small annoyance that does not compare to the bigger issue I have with his character. The way L was written completely insults how police investigations actually work. There was no research, no interviews, and no evidence analyzation involved. Almost as soon as L is introduced, he immediately calls Light out for being Kira. How does he know that? Where's the evidence that points in Light's direction? There's literally no explanation behind why Light is L's suspect, and the audience is just supposed to accept that because, well, L is really smart after all. Another problem that I have is that L doesn't share his suspicion of Light with any of the other investigators. He completely disregards that he sits with a whole team of people who want to catch this killer while knowing that they are going in the wrong direction. However, instead of helping or even dropping hints that Light should be looked at more clearly, L makes probably the worst decision by allowing Light to join the Task Force so he can keep a closer eye on him. At this point, since Light knows the names and faces of everyone on the team besides L, getting the rest of the team involved is no longer an option. It makes absolutely zero sense. If L was having trouble waiting for Light to show signs that he was the killer from a distance, why not ask for help? Why bring the suspect INTO the investigation?

When these two characters are pinned together, we are given a never-ending game of tag. Both characters each try to get the other to slip up; L wants Light to reveal he's the killer, and Light wants L to reveal his real name. Yet, these battles are always met with unsatisfying victories for the defending side. Like I said before, as soon as either character is put into a situation where there is seemingly no possible way to avoid the inevitable, we are given their, "I planned for this to happen," speech followed up with what they did beforehand to make it easier to get out of said situation. As these elements begin to repeat themselves, it almost gives the impression that both Light and L can see the future and pinpoint all the loopholes in the other person's plan. This then stirs up predictability, making the interactions between these characters become boring because there's no longer any suspense. We don't get to see the characters freak out because they're put into a difficult place and need to figure out how to escape, or that they made a mistake that they have to try and cover up. It's just the same lazy-way-out excuse every single time.


Art | 5/10
Unlike the story of the anime, I enjoyed the art style. The character designs were more on the average level, though I did like how the characters were drawn to have human-like features rather than the iconic moe eyes and pointed noses that are usually associated with anime. Ryuk and Rem's designs, on the other hand, were probably the best out of all the characters regarding the overall appearance. As for animation, it was clear to see a lot of care was put into making sure movement was delivered smoothly and realistically. That I can appreciate.

Unfortunately, this anime is struck with main character syndrome, meaning that the main characters seem to be the only ones with distinctive characteristics, while everyone else looks almost identical to each other. Now, I know that this anime is supposed to take place in modern Japan where the characters resemble that of actual Japanese citizens instead of taking place in a world like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure where each character is given their own unique design, but when you have a large cast of side characters who all wear suits and have short black hair, there's bound to be some confusion.


Sound | 4/10
The music was okay. I tolerated the first round of theme and ending theme songs and enjoyed the cinematics that went with them, but hated the screamo songs that rolled in during the second half of the anime. Looking at it from a story-telling point of view, I guess the new songs can be compared to Light's growing insanity as the story progresses. But I might just be taking a long shot on that one. Whether that was the reason those songs were chosen or not, the screamo was not the best. And this is coming from a screamo fan.


Enjoyment | 2/10
Overall, I'd say this anime is a hit or a miss with its watchers. As someone who now has some experience with the criminal justice system, it's clear to see that the anime is all over the place and the least bit realistic. From the overly-smart characters to the dumb choices made to the repeating storyline, Death Note has become an anime that I no longer enjoy, and will leave to rest here with my review.

Even so, I will give the anime credit for at least being better than the absolute train wreck of a live action adaptation that Netflix pushed out.

Death Note is a prime example how to start a show in a great way and drive it to the deepest abyss of the green hell. Anime viewers must be way too forgiving - Death Note indeed has a fantastic setup, but quickly declines and people tend to overlook the major flaws this show has.

The cat and mouse game of Light and L works pretty well and is very entertaining, but the author reached the peak just way too fast. Instaead making the show 12 episodes, it is 37 episodes long. He solves this problem by various "Deus ex machina" moments, where something or ... someone appears completely out of nothing to enhance the story or to make a dramatic plot twist. As a viewer, I just feel cheated. This is poor storytelling. It's outright offensive at times. Considering this happens for a majority of the show, this is a big problem.

The highly praised of the show really is on a pretty low level. It's a very simple question in ethics and isn't even handled all too well. It takes an kinda interesting phenomenon but does not explore it. This is especially shown in poor characterization of the whole cast, which may appear cool in the beginning, but does not have a lot of depth in general.

Animation and soundtrack though are on a very high level. That may take a fun shonen show to an enjoyable level, but Death Note takes itself extremely seriously, therefore the focus lays on story and characters.

Overall it's a poorly written show which is extremely pretentious and is lucky to have a big fan base which protects it with all its heart.

To starting off this show is mediocre as a whole. We start with a simple but a very good idea that follows the show till the end. A notebook that kills people. The magic starts with how the characters use this piece of holy-weapon against the others, and it turns out that the author is magnificent on it. Until he decides to kill one of the greatests characters of the show, L. I don't know what he was thinking when he did this, wrote did or whatever, but a little spoiler here, Kira doesn't win. It turns out this was only a bad-written plot. Kills ... one of his main characters to create others that aren't on the same level of charisma and even the way of thinking, looks like everything here is really recycled. Not only decreased the quality but kills the show itself. Kira doesn't think anymore and when he does, the script always get a way to the good guys intercept him. Some way or the other. Everything Kira did till here seems to be useless against these guys. They already know everything about it, there's not emotion anymore. Just excuses. These two guys here are way smarter than L and you have to swallow, that's it. In the start Kira plans looks like unbeatable, unpredictable and everything but L keeps on tracking and finds out one by one of his plans. Like a progress that goes step by step till the outcome. That's satisfying to read/watch. In one side we have a guy that makes creative plans and the other a dude that solves everything with a way even more creatively. That's good, they've personality, they are not empty. They've ways of thinking, of do things that seems more "alive". And in the end we have two guys that nobody cares, that comes out of nowhere just to fill L's place. With that we got here, a lousy defeat just because.

This would be an interesting concept if the writing was not so bad.

The series portrays both main characters...
Scratch that, the series shoves down our throats how much geniuses the driving forces of the plot are which can be unpleasant by itself. But all the nonsensical decisions they take that are portrayed as mastermind moves. Every possible plot twist is in universe received with a "HA! I know it would happen cause I already read the script!" used non-sarcastically in character.

All this make it an insulting story to everyone that watched it.

I am unsure how much more MAL want to go into detail on how BAD ... this anime is, or that it deems it worthy of sparing any more energy to write and data to transmit and store for that purpose.
I'm never getting back the brain cells I expended to dedicate to preview it and those 9 hours of my life I spend watching this overrated trash.

Well, here it is, the all-famed Death Note. I have to say, I figured since so many people love it, it can't be bad. Boy, was I wrong. Death Note has an incredibly mediocre plot for what it set out to do. The story, as we all know, is about the discovery of the Death Note that can kill those whose names are written in it. Original? Somewhat. Well-executed? Hardly. The art and the sound were really good, which is a shame that they seemed to make it pretty and ran out of focus and funding for a good story and characters. Don't even get ... me started on the characters. L was the cute, quirky villain(original right? Oh wait, that's been beaten to death) and Light was your typical emotastic sqeenix type character with a vendetta against society. I've seen much better crime drama anime like Boogiepop Phantom and Paranoia Agent, which is a shame because this piece of crap ended up being one of, if not the most popular, crime anime. Oh well, you guys can have your Death Note, I'm just saying it's an all-around bad anime that really doesn't deserve all the hype it gets.

I know this is one of the anime “greats” but I’m giving it a low score because the writing of the female characters is just… so, so bad. The show runners generally are obviously wildly misogynist, which shows up most clearly in all the close-ups of cleavage and ass-cracks, but in what is easily the laziest writing I’ve seen in any "well-regarded" anime, every single female character of note is given the sole motivation of attachment to a man. Misa, Kiyomi, Naomi… the entire reason they exist in the show is because they happen to be in love with important male characters.

Light and L are ... allowed to have these high-flown motivations sounding in justice and truth, they can spend hours talking about philosophy and playing intricate games of mental chess, but Misa changes significant allegiances at the drop of a hat because… Light told her to. I wouldn’t mind this so much if Misa had legitimate, valid reasons for 24/7 worship of Light (which I guess him killing her parents’ murderer provides SOME flimsy cover for - but even then, it’s bizarre to me to support a mass murdering psychopath just because they happened to do one positive thing for you - and that’s assuming you believe in the correctness of extrajudicial murder anyway, but I digress), but she’s like this even when she loses all memories of Kira. That behavior just does not make any sense to me, and I say that as someone who’s been in love with my fair share of male “genius" assholes. I would not follow them into serial killer-dom.

Meanwhile, Kiyomi’s interest in Kira just goes… unexplained. We’re supposed to believe she agrees with everything he says because… ?? Writing like this would make sense with a new character who is properly introduced as prone to Kira-like leanings. The show did this well with Mikami - probably because it recognized that his motivations needed to be meaningfully fleshed out for his worship of Kira to be believable. With Kiyomi the writers apparently felt they could rely on the tried-and-true “woman who just wants a man” trope to explain everything she does. AND for some reason I’m supposed to believe she’s smarter than Misa, when both women's behavior and motivations are exactly the same - they're just packaged into different male gaze fantasies (Misa as the cute fun bimbo, Kiyomi as the hot sophisticated socialite).

There’s also a massive difference in the treatment of Light’s parents. Dad is allowed to explore the pain and heartbreak associated with the (almost) realization that your kid is a mass-murdering psychopath. We also easily see how Yagami-san figures into Light’s understandings of the world and of morality and justice. His mom though? Mariah_Carey_I_don’t_Know_Her.gif. If the show purports to be a real exploration of how someone with strong ideals about justice morphs into a homicidal maniac with grandiose delusions, how can it devote multiple episodes to one parent while fully ignoring the other one, and especially when that parent is also 100% present in said maniac’s life throughout the entirety of the show?? Make it make sense (you can’t, without misogyny).

There are good things about the show - I did watch the whole thing (but honestly towards the end I was just hate-watching it). There are more than enough positive reviews about Death Note out there though - I don’t really feel the need to write anything nice about it lmao. This is just a TLDR; to say that it’s a deeply misogynist show.

Death Note has a unique storyline to it. I have to agree and its a very insteresting anime indeed. But I have to say that I really didnt like the characters too much. Light has no sense of human morality and is not very complex in his emotions. The main character wants to "take over the world" and cares nothing for anything other than his goal. Which makes me feel as though I cant follow with the characters perspective. Light is unrelateable.
Misa is ,put simply, annoying. Her lack of knowledge bothers me and to top it off shes plays an important role. Which means ... I had to see even more. The sound wasnt too appealing either.
To sum it up, the protagonist, was almost the only character that had any depth.

~*Death Note: How to Make "Smart" Characters*~

The dynamic of Death Note is simple:

-Protagonist (whichever one you thought it was in this show) comes up with a plan A.
-Antagonist (whichever one you thought it was) has already anticipated plan A and has come up with plan B in order to thwart plan B.
-Protagonist, as it turns out, has anticipated this anticipation, and so has devised plan C to counter plan B.
-Antagonist, as it turns out, has anticipated this anticipation, and so has devised plan D to counter plan C
-Protagonist, as it turns out, has anticipated this anticipation, and so has devised plan E to counter plan ... D
-Antagonist, as it turns out, has anticipated this anticipation, and so has devised plan F to counter plan E
-Protagonist, as it turns out, has anticipated this anticipation, and so has devised plan G to counter plan F
-Antagonist, as it turns out, has anticipated this anticipation, and so has devised plan H to counter plan G
-Protagonist, as it turns out, has anticipated this anticipation, and so has devised plan I to counter plan H

....

Continue until author gets tired and one pre-anticipation is either incorrect or not made.

This is how "smart" characters are made. There is no actual discussion of likely contingencies, it's just literal mystic intelligence. They know exactly what the other one is going to do at least 40 steps ahead.

It's kind of stupid.

Also, L was a crappy character.

Also, Light was a crappy character too, and dumb to boot. He tested out the Death Note by only killing people in a prison in his prefecture or something. When the broadcast went out he should have immediately deduced that it was a sting by dint of having only killed criminals in that region, or should have been more skeptical about whether there is even such a thing as a worldwide broadcast.

Also, once this actually happened they discuss explicitly how it could basically only be Light Yagami because he had to have had access to police records and was killing people on a schedule that was consistent with a student. The only thing preventing the police from convicting him was cowardice.

3/10 lol.

This anime was decent the first time I watched it. The first half was alright, but once they replaced one of the main characters, the anime went from a 4 to a solid 1. I only say that because unfortunately My Anime List doesn't have any ratings below a 1.

The characters lack reason for their actions, and there is no character development at all. Death Note was such a cool idea, but it was so poorly implemented that I sincerely believe this is the worst anime that I have ever seen.

Death Note is cool to watch for the first half, but only once. ... The second time you watch it, if you are anything like me, you will begin questioning the motives for every character, except you'll quickly learn, there is no motive for any character.

The basic mindset of the characters can be described as this:

- Haha my name is Light. I got book that kills people. Haha I killed one guy. Haha now I'm a psychopath even though I used to be a genius haha.

- Haha my name is Misa. The thought of death makes me wet. I love Light so I'm gonna kill who he tells me to. Haha

- Haha my name L. It's a single letter haha. I chew my nails and am an overly edgy kid who never sees the sun ahah

An incredibly average anime that is also outdated. Better experienced in manga form.

When I say that, I mean it. Every bit of the magic in this anime comes directly from the manga's story, and the parts it had to fill in for itself - animation, music, and pacing - fall apart in every way.

The main force behind the story is the mindgaming between Light and L. It is clever and thought-out, but nowhere near perfect. For one, the story attempts to scratch at, but never actually achieves, true genius - the logic of the two detectives are much too inconsistent throughout. It becomes especially ... doomed in the last arc, when both parties begin skipping to conclusions over and over. In fact, the story could have done without the last arc entirely; it feels like an unnecessary drag, if not a total mistake, to continue without the most likable character in the story. Overall, the story is just generally slow and butchers the manga's more sensible pacing.

Let's return to the two MCs. In exchange for the constant mindgames between the two, the story sacrifices any attempt at developing them. Moreover, when the layers of meaningless rock-paper-scissors are discarded, every character in the series is INCREDIBLY one-dimensional. At some point in the long 37-episode marathon, it becomes a chore to have to feel sympathy for these characters, especially the unlikable bunch: Misa, Near, and maybe even Light.

Turning to the technical side of things, the art is to be expected from a 2006 anime - while understandable for its age, it simply doesn't hold up to modern standards. There are a few very creative shots that do get my attention (Naomi Misora, L with his coffee, Near's scissors vs Mello's chocolate), but just as many overused visual gimmicks which are tiring and uninspired (L's feet, Near's toys, Mello's chocolate). In conclusion: meh.

The music in this anime actively takes away from many of the scenes, especially with the band that plays on the first half or so of the anime. It takes a turn for the better once the film scorer is brought on with an actual orchestra, but it does not fix the director's inability to insert music at fitting points in the film. While the soundtrack tries to be different with its James Bond-inspired themes and heavy metal openings, it is ultimately nothing but abrasive to the ear.

I couldn't honestly recommend this anime to anyone - it simply seems to be too outdated. It is a slow 37 episodes populated by disagreeable characters, old ideas (did I mention the blatant misogyny?) and an overall subpar audiovisual show. Go watch anything else that's airing nowadays, for your own sake and time.

MAJOR AND MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD





This is one of those animes where I watched them as a kid despite not actually being an anime fan. I thought it was one of those cartoons with people fighting monsters but it's not like that. This anime is in a way kind of unique in how the method of battle is. Battle of Wits and using the Death Note. The story was decent but it got worse after the second half not saying the first half was any better though. This anime had character that I actually DID enjoy but near the end it got worse and worse which ... is the primary reason I have rated it a 4 out of 10 score. The enjoyment however is more than most of the other animes ive watched because of it's unusual plot twists and Light's clever thinking of how to get out of tribulation and difficult situations

Conclusion: I rate it a 4/10 it's only way to get a higher score is if the only good characters in the series didn't actually die

I’m sure this may trigger a lot of people and perhaps set some ablaze when I tell them that Death Note is one of the most boring anime series I have watched. Now, before you light me on fire and write my name in the death note you own, hear me out.

I originally posted a review on this on 23 May 2021 and left it a bit too short for people to understand why I don’t like this anime. I meant to come back to it within the same month but I got caught up with life so now that I have time again to ... waste; here I am, with an edited/improved version of the review.

~~ premise ~~

The show introduces us to the world of the Shinigami (Death Gods) presiding in a realm where they watch over humans until it is time to pass judgment on whose life will be taken out next. Judgment is done via a Death Note. The origins of how the death note came to be and how it fell upon the death gods are unknown and not put in focus throughout the show. The only focus they give to the death note is its use and the rules you must follow for it to be executed successfully:

1. The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
2. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.
3. If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen.
4. If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.
5. After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

It is important to note at this time that only Shinigamis are allowed to possess Death Notes for the obvious reason being that if it falls into some other person’s hands chaos can occur. This happens when Ryukk, a shinigami, drops a death note in the human realm and descends into the mortal realm in search of it. He comes across Yagami Light, a japanese honours student and an exemplar model citizen, who now has the death note in his possession and has tested the capabilities of the death note.

Drunk on the power of the Death Note, Light then uses the book to purge the world of criminals. While his intention and dedication to the cause is admirable, the number of deaths in the modern sense has brought alarm to the Japanese police and thus a search begins on who is behind all the murders where the only similarity between them are heart attacks. They mark the murderer’s name as Kira and label him as a terrorist later on in the show with a bit of help Light enlists (*cough* blackmails *cough*) through some acquaintances.

Enter L, a world-renowned detective who takes on the challenge of finding Kira. Like Light, L is highly intelligent however his disheveled appearance totally masks his great powers of deduction. He’s very meticulous, analytical and, at times, condescending, L serves as a perfect foil character that combat Light.

A good amount of the show is how these two read and outsmart one another.

~~ end of premise ~~

Now, this sounds amazing and you can see why anyone would like to pick this show up. There’s a lot of deceit and manipulation which is what makes this show really intriguing. However, there is such a thing as too much and it goes to show what obsession can do to you.

The plot of this show moved incredibly slowly to the point I had to stop watching the show and start it again after five years (I started when I was 16, finished when I was 21). While I find both foil characters interesting to observe, they were both incredibly overwhelming to be around. There were various times throughout the show where I had the same feelings as the Japanese police each time these two wanted to do something bold just to see if the other’s resolve would falter slightly and that was, “is this all really necessary?” and then becoming impressed with the results.

There were other times where I was just concerned and felt extreme pathos for some of the characters. As we progress through the show, the obsession and paranoia to beat L at his own game drove Light to become concerningly toxic for me (I mean the death note also did this to him as well but it takes more than one thing to make a person tragically fall). Multiple innocent people die as a result of their mental war and goes against Light’s original goal of using the death note in which only innocent people are worthy enough to live.

Of course, the themes that run through this anime are sensational. It poses a lot of moral dilemmas in which a lot of situations allow us to play the God role in a sense where we have to pass judgement on things that have cause and effect in life. There’s also the added theme of how there is no true evil or true good and how ultimately it’s about what you believe at the end of the day. There’s always a justification for everyone’s actions and it is your decision on which side you will be on. Finally, it shows you just how much you can tolerate before anything becomes too much and when is a good time to put things to an end.

Now, if you’re reading this and you haven’t seen the anime, you’re probably thinking wow this sounds great. And yes, I will agree that it is but that’s only because I took the time to think about it. Nobody thinks about these things while they’re in the moment, which is probably another thing we can appreciate the show for (that thing being how we should be cognisant of our thoughts as such). Death Note is probably one of those anime series you have to watch to the end to realise what the value is in it (AND YOU HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT TO APPRECIATE IT). I’ve met very few people in life that liked the anime but didn’t think much of it.

Now, some tips and tricks while watching this so you don’t end up taking a five-year hiatus like I did to finish this show:

1. I hate to say this but watch it in the english dub. The English VA for Light brings out the dynamics of how crazy he is and it sounds a lot more realistic than the original dub where it was all monotone. No one is that calm when they’re about to foil their arch nemesis’ plans.
2. Don’t force yourself to finish it despite me just saying that you have to finish it to appreciate it. If you’re not liking what you’re seeing, then don’t waste any more of your time on it.
3. Pause when you need to. If you’re like a third into the episode and you need a break. Take it. I guarantee you nothing notable will happen other than the point system game L and Light play which isn’t that notable. They tell you their plan, it’s executed and then they react to how it went and then the cycle repeats.

Do I recommend this anime? No I do not unfortunately and I feel bad for not liking it as much as the rest of the anime community but it just wasn’t my thing. I would probably only recommend this anime if someone is trying to get into anime and wants a starter pack.

—

if you’d like to see the unedited one, check the details of death note under my profile.

Note: I dropped Death Note

This show is kinda bad (if you like it, cool, but it's a no thanks for me). I'm not hating on it because it's popular (and hence has become annoying to see like Dragon Ball/Bleach/Naruto), I tried giving it a real chance because of Misa. I adore female yanderes and have heard/read numerous times she's legendary. I couldn't make it past 5 mins of the 7th episode. There's so much wrong with this show. Light is 100% insufferable, a total edgelord, and not well written for a protag. When your whole schtik is, "Me smart, I don't like crime so I ... commit crime" and NOTHING else to support this flaw it's...yuck. We have Light, L, and that FBI guy's girlfriend, the only three characters so far that have an IQ high enough to do anything beyond sustaining basic life functions. I'm supposed to care about any of these other characters? Then we get to the "smart talk" that is nonsense. It's all pseudo-intellectual drivel spoken fast so it sounds smarter, a trick from CW shows from the late 90's / mid 00's (See: Gilmore Girls). To top it off the police department allows an inexperienced TEEN to help with investigations because he's....smart? I can go on and on but I think these are the main few reasons I dropped...sorry Misa.

Death Note.

This is the best anime i've seen, Untill they destroyed it. I enjoyed every minute of the anime, for story, and what made me like it is that most people would act like Light if they had the guts.

However the series is unbearable after 15 episodes, and there is where they destroyed this anime. They had the option of making the worlds most watchable anime or they had the option of creating a sucking cloaka that wouldn't even be touched by roaches. Seriously I were angry and screaming and felt hate inside my brain. If I had a Death Note the whole production crew ... would die within five minutes.

They just couldn't resist making a bad anime. It was like they had a gun and was pointing it towards a person and actually pulled the trigger.

The first part of the anime is 10+ straight trough. the second part is 0- yea, it have good parts like when Light devices the plot to get back his memory. But that not the point. They should have stopped in the begging.

The art was exeptional, the sound was exeptional, Carachter was great. Enjoyment was great, overall great.

I choose to belive that the later plot line never happened. There were 16 episodes in this anime. And Light were busted after that and learned his lesson or something like that. and everything went well.

despite an initial pitch that i loved, along with a few redeeming characters thrown in the mix for good measure (looking at you aizawa & mellow); i found death note to be an absolute failure of a show in execution. nor was it a really ambitious failure you could get behind ~ it just kind of pissed away 37 episodes filled with lackluster intellectual pandering and poor characterization. i know that this puts me in the minority of takes regarding the series, but having high standards isn't a crime, and shows can just do better, point blank. even in regards to the reading of death ... note as a satire on typical shonen tropes, i found it took itself far too seriously and played too much of it's cliché's sincerely for that take to hold any water in my book.

I'm not going to bother writing a long explanation as to why I didn't enjoy Death Note. Before this I thought Akira was the most overrated thing I've ever watched. But no, this show baffles me at how popular it is.

Everything from the main character becoming evil over the course of what, 3 episodes? To having episode after episode of "HE KNEW I WAS GOING TO DRINK THE COFFEE, SO I REPLACED THE COFFEE WITH WATER AND PROCEEDED TO DRINK. I KNEW AT THAT MOMENT HE WOULD BE WATCHING SO I MADE SURE TO-" to having two of the most uninteresting main characters I've ... ever had to watch. They're both completely lifeless, monotone, and dreadfully unrealistic. The show dragged on really hard but managed to keep my interest till my first box set was finished. I never went on to watch the second one I own. It lost my interest and definitely wasn't for me.