Death Note is a 37 episode anime based upon the manga series. The series has since spawned several live-action movies, games and novels. It follows Light Yagami, where he noticed a black notebook fall from the sky while looking out the window bored at school. He picks it up and has the words "Death Note" on the cover. Inside was a list of rules, which are slowly revealed over the course of the series. The special thing about the Death Note is that any name written int he book will die. You can specify various conditions such as time and the cause of death. If only the name is written down, the person will die of a heart attack. Throwing a spanner into the effects of the ownership of a Death Note is that you see the Shinigami (Death God) who owned it. In Light's case, that would be the horrific and nightmare-inducing design of Ryuk.
Ryuk was bored and that was the reason why he allowed the Death Note to fall onto Earth and be claimed by a human. He wanted to see the events arising from this and Light is the perfect person to have picked it up. This is because Light quickly develops the mentality that he can use the Note in his righteous quest to kill all the criminals in the world. Light will be the judge, jury and executioner and eventually become God. You see that Light originally had a righteous ideal but due to events later on, he is twisted into the obsessive maniac that he will eventually become. The best part of Death Note is the cat and mouse chase that is quickly set up by the second episode. The authorities of the world have noticed the coincidental deaths of criminals in quick succession from heart attacks. A task force is formed with the talented and mysterious L as the head.
Through some simple but ingenious maneuvers, L narrows down the suspect to someone in the Kanto region of Japan. Thus it becomes a race between Light and L to see who can uncover the other first: L to capture Light, and Light to kill L by learning his real name. Death Note touches upon some heavy themes. You can easily be swayed by the ideals of Light. Yes, he is committing murder but he is killing convicted criminals that has escaped justice and through the fear of being judged from a divine being, the population is more wary and crime rates has drastically reduced. On the other hand, Light is human and what gives him the right to judge someone? The population of the world is split between those who support Light, nicknamed Kira, and those who do not approve of his actions.
Death Note has excellent pacing and there is nary an episode where the plot isn't moving forward at a brisk pace. Furthermore, the dramatic music and scenes make even the most mundane of events (such as writing a name, or eating a potato chip) exciting. At some point, you will wonder how the story can keep itself going when Kira's methods are undetectable. This is answered when Light likes a challenge, takes risks and deliberately leaves crumbs for L until they clash. Light himself loves to put forward swatches of exposition and Ryuk, as a cheeky bystander yet not completely impartial self, will often reveal something new about the Death Note at the worst possible time to Light. Light will then have to think up of a plan on the fly to accommodate this. The risks escalate ever higher and no party can afford to lose the gamble.
Pretty soon, the clashes between Light and L escalates to the point where it becomes a massive case of "I know that you know that I know..." and each act accordingly. They deduce so many steps ahead it is ridiculous. Before you can even recover though, the plot throws in several new characters that completely change the landscape of things up until that point. It is also interesting to see the "friendly" rivalry between Light and L, something that may order on friendship and respect. It gets to the point that when it gets near the end and either one will have to lose, it feels surreal.
While the love interest introduced is not your standard stereotype, their personality feels contrived. The love interest is so naive and acts like such a child that it is a far cry from the other characters. From this point on, it feels like Light relies too much on luck and things going exactly as planned, when there are way too many variables that you cannot predict. It is unbelievable that anyone could so easily be convinced to give up their life based on someone they don't know.
If it is even possible, Death Note picks up the pacing even more during the middle as Light proceeds to put his biggest and boldest plan to date into motion. It does feel like it takes a different direction and you won't understand why Light is doing it until the very end. Even then, it's kind of forced when so many things could have gone wrong and Light be found out. Death Note takes a risk after two-thirds of the way and seemingly resolves a major conflict point between Light and L. It is a risky move and one where everything that comes after it... doesn't quite work as well as before. Sure it is unexpected but the events that happen after just doesn't feel quite right. The plans from the characters feel very cheap too, as they break the rules or use underhanded tactics. Generally, most of the characters in the final third become either unlikable or cheap knockoffs of earlier ones.
There are some really overly exaggerated scenes involving Light and L, to the point where their reactions are extremely cringe-worthy. You can see Light straying from his ideals from the second half, as he is more willing to kill anyone that gets in his way. He doesn't see himself becoming more and more twisted as he still thinks he is righteous and as the god of the new world, his word is law. This leads to some tragic scenes as Light becomes ruthless and having no morals in who he betrays, kills and take advantage of.
As the final clash between Light and his enemy approaches, both sides are confident that they know the other's plans. It gets really tense and no matter who wins, you know that the other will die as a result and that is painful. You don't know whether to back Light or the people trying to catch Light.
However, the ending is a bit disappointing, especially when the loser becomes pathetic and painful to look at. Furthermore, the way they lost felt a bit cheap since it was from an accident by an underling and not truly outsmarting the other. There were a fair few overlooked areas too with both sides' plans. If they were truly going to cover themselves all the way, then they shouldn't have left so many things that were easy to unravel everything.
Overall, Death Note, no matter what you think of the last third, is still an amazing anime. It has a fantastic story with a cat and mouse game that's unparalleled with anything else out there. The animations can be wonky at times but is still quite decent, the music used was haunting and despite Light being an anti-hero, you can't help but smile when things go according to his plans.
----------------------------------------------
For other anime reviews, have a look at this page.