For my
first review on this blog, I will be talking about Death Note. It is a
psychological mystery thriller with supernatural developed by MadHouse.
Death Note is, I believe, one of the most popular anime series ever, and
when it came out, it got a huge hype. But the question is: did it deserve it?
Hell yes! Even now, this show is considered as one of the very best, and I can
see why. Everything in this show is done extremely well in a great and realistic
way. It is a 37 episode anime with great psychological taste to it, revolving
around what is good or evil, what is true or false, based on dreams and ideals,
and how the people would react if the world was about to change completely.
Story
Death Note resolves around a brilliant 3rd-year high school student,
named Light Yagami, who is extremely bored with his life and sees the current
world as trash. One day, while he's in class, he sees from the window a
notebook falling from the sky and landing on the shool yard. After class,
he goes to pick it up. The notebook is titled "Death Note" and is
blank, except from some "rules" written on the back of the cover. The
first and most important one says: "When you write someone's name if this
notebook, while having his/her face in mind, that person will die." At
first, he doesn't believe it, but still takes it. Once home, he hears the news
on TV and sees the picture of a man who took young kids in a kindergarten as
hostages. What best time to see if the Death Note is the real thing. And it is.
The man dies, at the surprise of Light. After trying it a second time, it is
now clear that this notebook is no joke... Ultimately, the owner of the
"Death Note" - a Shinigami (God of Death) - appears before him and
explains to him basic things about it, while saying that it now belongs to him.
From that moment, Light will start eradicating evil people, like thieves,
serial killers, robbers, kidnappers etc., while playing the role of "God
of Justice", which is exactly what he wants to become: the god of the new
world he will create, by keeping only the good people alive. As time goes on,
everyone becomes aware of the non-stop mysterious deaths on criminals. Everyone
calls the one behind this, "Kira". The police has absolutely no clue
at all on how to stop that. That's when it is decided to get the help of the
mysterious best detective in the world, codenamed as L, who has already
succeeded in difficult past investigations, but has never appeared in public.
However, L's methods are not agreed by most and in the end, only very few
members of the police remain to help him... And the huge confrontattion betweem
Light and L begins. The one tries to over-smart the other at every moment, and
it is done perfectly.
Then, around half-way of the show, a small twist happens, with the
DeathNote falling into someone else's hands, with both Light and L trying to
stop him.
And then... and then... comes a moment. A certain moment. A certain
moment that made many fans rage like crazy, and calling this show stupid and
shit... Something I certainly do not agree with.
After 2/3 of the show, new characters appear, and even though they were
great too, because of that moment just before, many didn't like them... A
stupid reason. -_-
Overall, the story is amazing, executed perfectly with great evolution
and realism, that keep us eager to see more.
Characters
As for the characters, there are quite some, and everyone of them has a
role in the story. But from the bunch, only 6 are amazingly important: Light Yagami,
L, Ryuk - the Shinigami of Light; Near - who appears in the last 1/3 of the
show; Misa; and Rem - the Shinigami of Misa Amane.
Light Yagami is the first protagonist of the show. He is a prodigeous
high school student with a strong sense of justice. He is extremely smart and
mostly predicts what is going to happen. He is in constant battle with L, who
gave him trouble more times than he can count. Originally, even if he is very
dissatisfied with the justice system, he does have feelings, yet not very deep.
However, through the use of the Death Note, we gradually see him becoming
tainted, malevolent and heartless, without mercy or compassion. He is
charismatic with great social skills, and through that, he uses others as tools
to achieve his goals. However, his deep sociopathic interior, overestimation
and thought that he is never in the wrong become important faults
later on.
L is the second protagonist. He is very intelligent, though his desheveled and languid appearance masks his amazing powers of deduction and many question his abilities upon listening or seeing him. He has almost zero social skills and only communicates with the world through his assistant, Watari. His intelligence rivalises with Light's - and in my opinion, L is smarter than Light - and he quickly becomes suspicious of Light. He is ready to use extreme measures to succeed in his investigations, which is not always approved by the police.
In general, the characters were great, with intense interactions, as we see their decisions and actions, their result and the reasoning behind them. It's not just: "I do this, because I can"; and that's a huge good point for it. Everything has a reason, everything is thought thoroughly, with an impact on the current and/or future situations. Instead of strength and super powers with explosions and shit, this anime has intelligence, predictions, analysis and brain war, which are equally good, or even better than super powers, in certain cases.
My favourite characters were Nate River ( a.k.a. Near or N) and Ryuk. Ryuk is such a creepy, yet extremely funny character, who plays a pretty important role, that isn't always noticed. As for Nate, he is considered the second L, and is very intelligent as well. He may not have a huge female fanbase, but he's pretty great. I like how he is amazingly smart and leads a whole anti-Kira organization, while having a childish attitude and playing with toys all the time. Interestingly enough, Nate's beliefs were rooted in Tsugumi Obha's beliefs (the writer of the Death Note manga). [...] I personally don't hate or dislike Misa. She was annoying, true, but I liked her most of the time; and even if she just a blond chick who isn't the smartest person out there, she still contributed a lot to the story.
Sound
I really liked the music of DeathNote; it has some of the most amazing soundtracks. It was intense and was corresponding the situations perfectly. Each character had a appropriate soundtrack that made me feel even closer to the characters to them, while liking them more and more. It was deep and had an important role in the enjoyment of the show. The voice acting was also great. Every voice was matching the characters very well and made them very realistic, enjoyable and memorable.
Animation
The animation for the show was well done, too, without being extraordinary. It is definitely not the best, but its dark colors suited the atmosphere of the series greatly and helped it becoming more intense when it had to. I especially liked the scenes where the 2 protagonists were alone, Light is red and L is blue, confronting each other as hard as they can with everything they have; it was really bringing something enriching to it.
In general, the characters were great, with intense interactions, as we see their decisions and actions, their result and the reasoning behind them. It's not just: "I do this, because I can"; and that's a huge good point for it. Everything has a reason, everything is thought thoroughly, with an impact on the current and/or future situations. Instead of strength and super powers with explosions and shit, this anime has intelligence, predictions, analysis and brain war, which are equally good, or even better than super powers, in certain cases.
My favourite characters were Nate River ( a.k.a. Near or N) and Ryuk. Ryuk is such a creepy, yet extremely funny character, who plays a pretty important role, that isn't always noticed. As for Nate, he is considered the second L, and is very intelligent as well. He may not have a huge female fanbase, but he's pretty great. I like how he is amazingly smart and leads a whole anti-Kira organization, while having a childish attitude and playing with toys all the time. Interestingly enough, Nate's beliefs were rooted in Tsugumi Obha's beliefs (the writer of the Death Note manga). [...] I personally don't hate or dislike Misa. She was annoying, true, but I liked her most of the time; and even if she just a blond chick who isn't the smartest person out there, she still contributed a lot to the story.
Sound
I really liked the music of DeathNote; it has some of the most amazing soundtracks. It was intense and was corresponding the situations perfectly. Each character had a appropriate soundtrack that made me feel even closer to the characters to them, while liking them more and more. It was deep and had an important role in the enjoyment of the show. The voice acting was also great. Every voice was matching the characters very well and made them very realistic, enjoyable and memorable.
Animation
The animation for the show was well done, too, without being extraordinary. It is definitely not the best, but its dark colors suited the atmosphere of the series greatly and helped it becoming more intense when it had to. I especially liked the scenes where the 2 protagonists were alone, Light is red and L is blue, confronting each other as hard as they can with everything they have; it was really bringing something enriching to it.
Final Verdict
Story: 9.8
Characters: 9.0
Music: 8.6
Animation: 7.7
Enjoyment: 9.8
Total: 8.98
This show is a great masterpiece for me. It is even more important since it is one of the two anime that made me an anime fan, and is 9th in my favs. It is amazing and very well-made. It is a must watch for every anime fan out there.
This ends my first anime review. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to comment, if you want to express your opinions. Thank you for reading.
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