Death Note
a review by motordeath
a review by motordeath
Let me start off by saying that I watched this anime for the first time more than a decade ago, and since I just rewatched it a few days ago, I felt inspired to write this as my first review. I will try to keep it as organized as possible. Beware of major spoilers!
I have not finished reading the manga yet, btw. So, I won’t take it into account at all.
Detective and police shows are not my cup of tea since I tend to get bored easily, however, this one manages to make inner monologues and questionings entertaining enough. It kept me wondering what was going to happen next, and how Light was going to get out of the situation every time that he appeared to have been pinned down by the current antagonist. The overuse of the red-herring strategy was kind of annoying, though.
One massive complaint that I have is how Light, L, and Near later on, seem to have the same thinking process. No matter how specific the ideas that one can have, the other two are able reach the same conclusion in the same amount of time using the same thinking path. I know that they are all geniuses, and this is supposed to represent the fact that they are the only match for each other, but it makes the characters unrealistic as it is obvious that they were all written by the same person. They are almost omniscient; they have no individual thoughts or ideas.
For the most part, it gets across the message of questioning the morals of society, as well as the hypocrisy of the people who claim to fight for everyone’s well-being. I liked the implication that the Death Note holders were not inherently bad people, but it was the power to kill others what made them “evil”. Not a super deep conclusion, but good enough.
I don’t think that I dislike a single male character, as they are written beautifully: all of them have their own personality, goals, and convictions, and is easy for the viewer to get attached.
Female characters, on the other hand, are written in a borderline offensive way: it’s as if the author doesn’t know a single woman in real life, but rather has an idea of how women should be and writes them accordingly. This is demonstrated by characters such as Takada Kiyomi and Misora Naomi: highly intelligent women, one who is even an ex-FBI agent and the other who is in the same academic league with Light, both let themselves be driven by feelings and shallow desires and end up being manipulated by Light very easily as they keep their guard down around him. Just annoying.
One problem that characters of both genders have, is their lack of story and depth. The best example of this is Light Yagami: being the main character, you would like to know why he thinks the way he does, where does his idea of justice come from, why is it so important for him to make a better world and become God – but since we know none of this, we can only assume that he had a normal life and childhood and is simply a power-thirsty psychopath, so he comes off as a supremacist. The importance of this can be seen in Teru Mikami, because even though he holds basically the same ideals as Light and has a perfect understanding of Kira’s methods and reasons, he does not come across as a supremacist or sadist at all because we know that his way of thinking is justified by his past.
But other than that, all of them fulfill their purpose in the story, I guess. There is no character that I would say is useless or shouldn’t exist.
My personal favorites in order:
As a woman, it’s impossible for me to not notice how female characters are treated by the author and portrayed towards the audience. While the male characters get to be their own individuals, female characters are treated as no more than a tool to get the plot going and some fanservice source. You can tell that so much time, effort and love was put into creating each one of the male characters and the relationships between them, in contrast with the shallow personalities and relationships that female characters have between them or with male characters. Man to man devotion is pretty prominent in this whole series, not only in-story, but also in the very creation of the show.
You don’t have to over analyze anything to realize the double standard and male worship in the show. The contrast between how Misa was kept under arrest vs. how Light and Souichiro were, the way Light talks about L, the way Mikami talks to and about Light, the foot scene, Light’s hallucination of L at the end, etc. Even the dumbest person would notice.
The first opening and ending are iconic, I just had to become a regular Nightmare listener. They fit the y2k emo vibe of the anime perfectly. The second opening never grew on me though, I feel that it’s too edgy and a complete eyesore... but for ears. The background music though, is used in a very smart way, as it keeps you focused, and it never felt out of place. My favorite tracks from the OST are: L’s theme, Kodoku, Rem, Kyrie, Low of Solipsism, and Light Lights up Light. No particular order.
The voice acting was mostly spot-on, though I have a problem with the high-pitched choice of voice for Amane Misa, as it takes away from her character than adding to it. She ends up coming off as childlike and bimboesque, which doesn’t help the already existing lacks from the author in building her character. Please note that I am criticizing the tone of the voice for this character and not Aya Hirano’s acting, she is magnificent.
My favorite performance was, of course, Mamoru Miyano’s. He fits both Light’s gentle and aggressive sides perfectly, plus the dramaticism of his cries and screams matches very well with the overexaggerated facial expressions of the animation. I specially enjoyed the scenes from Episode 37 when Light gets shot and yells as he begs for help, as well as those scenes along the series when he is either desperate, angry, or panicking. His maniac laughs also deserve recognition, they are music for my ears. Truly astounding to the point that every dub I’ve watched feels lacking.
Personally, I’m very satisfied with the end. It brought a peaceful conclusion to the characters who were victimized and tortured by Kira’s existence, since they didn’t have to kill nor punish anyone.
It was very entertaining to see Light panicking and humiliating himself after he got caught and everything was exposed – the way he cries and begs for the people who he used and betrayed to save him is very fulfilling to watch because you know that no one will come. Even when Mikami stabs himself, I can’t tell if it’s because he is trying to help by drawing attention to himself, or because the shock of seeing his God defeated, crying, and crawling in an attempt to scape, is such a shock that he just couldn’t take it.
For me, it didn’t matter how, they just had to get rid of Kira. That’s why it doesn’t matter if Light suffered at the end or not (though the humiliation at Yellow Box had to be enough suffering for someone as prideful as him), he just had to disappear. And he did.
This anime is a core memory for me and is so dear to my heart, that even after realizing that it’s not so great while I watched it now as an adult, I can’t help but keep considering it one of my favorites. If it was any other show, it’d be an honest 70, but as I’m biased and driven by nostalgia, I’ll give it a good 86 total score.
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