Death Note
a review by AshVolcano
a review by AshVolcano
Plot Synopsis: Those are the rules of the Death Note, the magical notebook that grants the user infinite power over death. Well what happens with the Death Note throughout the story? Let me explain. At the start of the series we meet the Shinigami Ryuk, who spends his daily life gambling and pretty much nothing else in the magical realm called the Shinigami realm, one day after facing extreme boredom he drops the book into the human world where a teenager named Light Yagami picks it up. He tests out the note book and finds out that the power this book contains is real. Soon he gets visited by the Shinigami Ryuk who is just there to spectate Light's mischief. We then soon meet L, the world's best detective. L is assigned to find and defeat Kira (Light's anonymous name given to him by the people), which he eventually (sort of) does. However with Light's clever schemes, and the forceful help of Misa Misa's Shinigami Rem, we see him defeat L and soon face off against Near, L's successor, after a time skip. Near eventually uses his deductive skills to bring down Light once and for all with the help of his team and his friend Mello.
Review of Story:
Death Note’s story feels concise and everything feels as if it happened for a reason. The story begins because a literal God of Death was BORED. Quote from Ryuk: "You've eased my boredom for quite a while, haven't you?". Ryuk’s boredom caused this whole story to occur and no one who soon died from the Death Note, would have to die. L could've lived for decades longer as the world's best detective, Near and Mello could've lived normal lives and not have had to take up L's position, and Light could've lived as one of Japan's brightest. However, due to one god's boredom, the course of history changed. Light could've seen the Death Note but just brushed it off as a silly prank, but his curiosity got the best of him. Although it makes sense as he is a very cautious and crafty person. Characters like Rem die because of Light but not undeservingly. Everything happens due to an action and that is the charm of Death Note. Justice is also a massive theme in Death Note. Light’s moral compass is all over the place and his sense of justice wouldn’t be viewed as “righteous” to the majority of people. Nonetheless, he believes in his actions and takes charge with his sense of justice, killing bad people and sparing good people who don’t come after him. L on the other hand (and even Near to a certain extent) has a very different sense of justice, wanting to catch evil doers and nothing more. Just protect the people. The show leaves us with the question as to who's sense of justice do we align more with, we have to pick a side, and this… this is the dilemma... of Death Note.
Cons: No “Pros” section because pretty much everything is a pro except this next section I’m going to be talking about.
Post-timeskip. Post-timeskip Death Note is generally received worse than regular Death Note. I understand that and quite frankly agree, Near felt like he got lucky multiple times and the plot was WAYYYY too inconsistent at times (such as Sayu getting kidnapped and side plot involving a nuke... what?). But overall it still felt coherent with the overall story and the Death Note itself. That’s really my only complaint about this show.
L: The perfect opponent for Light to face, his deductive skills brings him to Light time after time yet doesn't QUITE get Light convicted. His death was a tearjerker and seeing him use his skills to the absolute fullest was a joy to watch, such as when he deduced that Light was a student because of the times of the killings AND when he realized the student had access to police information when the killing times changed. L truly is remarkable.
Ryuk: BIG LAD RYUK
(Actual Ryuk analysis: Ryuk is a spectator and never TRULY chooses sides. He watches, looms over everyone, and doesn't get in the way of anything anyone does UNLESS it's for his own personal gain, such as helping Light find locations of the cameras so that Ryuk can eat his oh so precious apples again. And when he is the one to kill Light at the end of the story by writing Light's name in the Death Note, the amount of emotion and payoff in the scene was ecstatic. Especially after Ryuk said to Light at the start of the series that once Light's time has come, his name will be written in the notebook by Ryuk.)
Near: L's successor didn't charm me in the same way L did, but he was certainly an interesting character to see, it was fun trying to figure out what he'd do next to try and finish off Light. He did feel like he got extremely lucky/cheated sometimes though. Teru Mikami was shown on TV for 1 interview and Near suddenly figures out Teru is in cahoots with Light? Seems kinda weird. Still enjoyed him quite a bit though.
Misa Misa: She was annoying at first but later on became integral to the plot, her Shinigami and her charms made her delightful to watch. Seeing her being used as Light's pawn was terrifying and made you feel bad for her, such as when she was obviously going to be caught by L unless Rem killed herself for Misa's sake. And especially when Light passes away and she commits suicide, after losing all her memories from the Death Note…. oh boy was that a kicker.
Mello: Eh, I liked the way he ate chocolate.
The Kira Task Force: As a whole they were a great squad, particularly Aizawa and Matsuda. They were shown helping and eventually turning on Light, and seeing Matsuda realize Light was Kira all along and delivering the final blow was heart wrenching, as he was the only one who never thought Light was guilty.
OP1: OP 1, "The WORLD" by Nightmare is a fantastic opening song that helps bring Light (no pun intended) to what the story is about. I won't go into detail as there are plenty of articles and videos online breaking down this OP but here are my thoughts. The OP has a punchy feel to it and slows down every once in a while to showcase the slow paced parts of the story but also the fast paced parts. 9/10 OP
OP2: OP 2 "What's up, people?!" isn't as good as OP 1 in my opinion, especially the song, but the visuals are definitely still great. We see L and Light's final stand off before the time skip, where we see Near, Mello, and all the other important post time skip characters. The vibrant colors help us see what's going on and we see how the story moves forward as Light faces off against his final foe, Near. 7/10 OP
EDs 1-2: Now these I don't have much to say about other than, they're cool, the first ED is a pretty chill song and is overall just kinda soothing. 7.5/10 EDs
ED 3: The final ED, "Coda ~ Death Note", is a somber track, it plays when Light is shot and killed, halfway above the stairs, representing how he can neither go to heaven nor hell for eternity after he passes. Its soothing, showing us Light's final moments in the human world before getting killed by Ryuk writing his name in the Death Note, closing off the story in a delightful way. 9.5/10 ED
Soundtrack: 11/10, do I really need to say more? L's and Near's themes are my personal favorite themes, they have this ominous vibe that gets interrupted by guitar (being Light) in their plans, and of course every other theme is amazing but I can't stay here all day explaining so please just have a listen for yourself, it's godlike.
Amazing, both in Sub and Dub every character has amazing voice acting. I personally prefer the dub for this series and my favorite character's voice is probably Light. Ryuk and L are my other 2 favorites as well as everyone else. You can tell that the VAs had lots of fun performing and played their parts with all their hearts. The lip-syncing was pretty solid as well.
Favorite Character: L
Favorite OST: L's Theme
Favorite Quote: “Learn to treasure your life because unfortunately, it can be taken away from you anytime.” – L
(Yes, I know all 3 of my favorite's are L related things, now shut up)
Final Score: 94/100
Recommendation Level: 5/5
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Thanks for reading my first review, I know its a bit sloppy and I'll probably redo this one in the future when I grow as a reviewer but please leave any feedback or criticisms on my profile, have a nice day!
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