Death Note

So Death Note a series where you ask yourself what left is there to say about it apart from the obvious? Well maybe a couple things to be sure because the thing about Death Note for me is that it's such a heavy handed series that I can really only afford to revisit it every so often to avoid suffering my emotions getting scrambled but after having recently rewatched it after FINALLY buying it on DVD/Blu-Ray I figured it was about time I let out my thoughts so lets just dive right in

The story is something everyone is familiar with so I won't spend too much time rehashing it but basically it follows academic genius Light Yagami who finds a notebook called a Death Note and after discovering it's power to kill people by writing their name on it's pages vows to use it to rid the world of all criminals and become the new god of the world while being aided by the Shinigami Ryuk.

Now the thing about a story like this is that it's bare bones level it sounds pretty standard and while it is in places the series still does an amazing job at balancing and exploring this very grey area about justice and how there really is no clear answer to what's the morally right thing to do I mean yes we can perceive Light's actions as evil and immoral all we want but at the same time there is an aspect to what he's doing that we also kind of sympathize with but never enough to where we are fully on his side either allowing us to just as much get behind the detectives and authorities trying to catch him

Now the one problem people constantly bring up about the story is that the second half after L dies does dip a bit in terms of pacing and overall storytelling and while I do have that exact same issue I'd argue the second half isn't the only one with this problem, true the slower pacing is more prominent in the second half but having re-watched the series I've noticed there were the occasional moments that did drag the overall pacing down just ever so slightly. Anyway going back to the second half it's like I said I do recognize the issue but I only have a 50-50 issue with it as I believe the mangaka duo behind the series Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata did say they wrote themselves into a corner after L died so that kinda validates the second half a little more to me

Now if I did have a genuine criticism of the second half I will say that I am a bit more of a fan of how the Manga ended compared to the anime and it really does come down to a personal preference as the manga's ending did feel like Light's influence as Kira had a long lasting effect whereas the ending to the anime just gave off the vibe as if life moved on without him. For those who don't know then SPOILERS: In the manga's ending we see countless numbers of hooded Kira worshippers marching through Japan ready to care out his will whereas the anime just sees Ryuk returning to the Shinigami Realm. On one hand I do understand why the anime went a different route: to avoid encouraging cult-like behaviour but on the other hand I do feel the manga did better at showing just how many people actually agree with Kira's ideals long after his death

8/10

So this one is probably gonna be one of the shorter sections as my favourites are all your favourites I love Light, Ryuk, L, Every character on the Task Force, nearly all the characters on the show are just so fleshed out with a likeable personality and each one has a viewpoint on Kira I can get behind in one way or another. The one character I will say that I think most people are gonna disagree with me on in this review is Misa, now on one hand when I first watched the series I was like everyone else and I did think she was a rather annoying character like everyone else but after revisiting the series I actually felt quite a bit more sympathetic towards her because she actually was a rather tragic case: She gave up everything to support Light but in return all Light really did was manipulate and abuse her in order to achieve his own personal gain. In that sense it really is a very unfortunate tale of love that was not meant to be

And going off what I said about the Task Force and L being this contrasting entity that opposes Light/Kira I really like how the characters are what drives the story as each one has not only a distinct personality but also a different viewpoint that drives what they believe to be their own sense of justice and each character has a viewpoint that you can agree with which helps reinforce the middle ground and grey area tone that the series balances throughout. Hell I'd even argue Near and Mello for as forced into the plot as they felt were still very interesting characters

If I did have one criticism about the characters in the show however is that outside of the main cast there are a lot of secondary characters that don't really feel like they serve much purpose other than show they exist or at the very least serve their purpose in the plot like for instance outside of Light's father Soichiro Yagami, Light's mother and sister Sayu didn't really serve much of a purpose to the overall story. I mean I guess you could argue they kept Light grounded from losing his humanity completely to the Death Note but that quickly got thrown out the window in the second half but honestly this is just a minor nitpick as the rest of the cast are very likeable especially everyone's favourite Shinigami Ryuk

8.5/10

So I thought I'd combine these two together a. Because I'm lazy and b. They really compliment each other in a lot of cases especially since the series has to balance it's dark gothic style with it's heavy religious symbolism and you'd think trying to capture both through music and visuals would turn out distracting but in a lot of ways it works for me personally however it really works it's best when it's trying to capture a certain mood or atmosphere as those are the point where they use outstanding scores of choir music that just make us feel the weight of the scene that accompanies it like that scene with Light on the skyscraper after killing L as he begins killing criminals again, the entire scene plays out like he's orchestrating an opera and the music just booms with the sound of a church choir as people are killed

Also on the visual angle one thing I really liked is how the anime accented the character appearances with contrasting colours every time they would go into an internal monologue allowing us to hear their thoughts but also giving us a little more glimpse as to their thought process of how they were planning to counter each other accompanied by some very tense music and it plays out like a mental chess game throughout the series. Even the scenes that aren't like that still are great at showing what each character is thinking through their expressions alone

Now if I did ever have a problem on the visual aspect and luckily it's not all the time is that there are RARE and I mean VERY RARE occasions where every once inn a while the visuals can look a little...Derpy to say the least and what's meant to be serious can come across as a little funny but like I said that happens very little

On the audio aspect of problems for me the only thing I really have a problem with there is that the Second Opening lacks both the visual and musically emotional feel that the first opening had, it's almost like MADHOUSE decided to drop all the religious and emotional symbolism about the show and wanted to go straight for a heavy metal cover which can be a little bit of a turn off in a series like this. Also the visuals in Opening 2 are definitely a little weird in places

So ya overall the Visuals and Music are slightly more divisive for me but majority of what they do definitely gets it's intended reaction out of me, as I said the strongest part of both lie in the actual show itself and less in the openings with the exception obviously being Opening 1.

Visuals: 7.5/10
Audio: 8.5/10

So taking everything I've said I can't recommend Death Note more than enough to people but as I said in the beginning it is in fact a very heavy handed anime and one I wouldn't recommend watching on a constant basis otherwise you might find yourself an emotional wreck but make no mistake it is a very entertaining and thought provoking anime, it's one of those series that really shuts down the argument that anime isn't just for kids as it provides an interesting look into the psychology of Justice and that the world isn't so black and white as we think it to be