Death Note

Death note is a perfect manga of suspence and thriller. The story line is rich and tasteful and characters really standout from other manga and anime by the fact that they are so different. while reading Death note it will make you think and guess until the end. This manga is has dark themes because the main character basically goes on a killing spree for 6 years to create the perfect world and outsmart this foes. About the story. The main character is Light Yagami who is a bored Highschool student, he soon finds a Death note which has the power to kill people by writingthere name in, he soon finds out about this power and a Death god call Ryku comes to Light. He decides to make the perfect world in which he is God. He starts killing criminals with the death note and soon becomes famous and known as Kira. We then see how the story unfolds and the intelligence of the main characters. Just something I should point out, you will never guess what happens at the end.

There are a limited number of manga series that can be considered worldwide hits. Rather surprisingly, considering the amount of dialogue and seriousness of a story that the author had doubted would be accepted as a Shounen (young boy) Jump title even in Japan, Death Note became one of those titles. When a story about someone in our world finding a killing tool Death Gods use (and killing anyone they view as evil with to create a better world) becomes so successful it's a little special - it isn't every day that a story where words and not fists are used as weapons becomes thispopular. Death Note has become so popular that there have even been stories on the American news about kids at school getting suspended after notebooks were found on them with details of deaths written inside! My first encounter with Death Note was with the anime. I saw discussions about it on a forum I used to visit frequently just after the anime started airing in Japan and what I read interested me, a lover of dark and depressing stories, enough to download the first episode. I was blown away by the quality of the story, the mix of real world and fiction blending superbly. Every episode thrilled me more than the last during the first section of the story, never allowing me to remove myself from the edge of my seat. I watched all 37 episodes weekly and was very rarely disappointed. Fast forwarding to the recent past, I discovered a Death Note manga box set was coming out by chance. Each of the volumes has a different coloured spine, with an image of a different Death God at the top of each of the spines. The covers all have the same theme: a cross, one or two characters shown and faint Death Note rules in the background, with each cover using a different coloured background. The art inside the books is truly wonderful; clearly benefiting from Death Note having had one person work on the story and another on the art. The characters expressions are amazing, with the artist clearly being very good at showing extreme emotions. The only problem with the art I spotted was with the early drawings of the Kira investigation team members being poor, the reason for this being that the artist didn't know during the early stages if they were important characters or not. After only recently reading volume 1-27 of Naruto and seeing the author of that series use the pages in-between the chapters to reveal lots about himself, what disappointed me about the volumes wasn't the covers - it was the lack of extras. The author of Death Note seems to have used a pen name, meaning he or she didn't want to reveal too much, which seems to be the reason behind the author not adding any information about his/her life in-between the chapters. Sure, there are a few Death Note rules in-between the chapters, but most of the rules aren't very interesting...reading about the experiences of the author would've been much better. I can now finally get into what matters: the story. Death Note is, as you can doubt work out from the name alone, one that deals with death on a regular basis. It starts with Light Yagami, a genius student who finds life all too easy, finding a notebook that a Death God dropped into the human world out of boredom. Light's initial reaction was to not take the notebook or the rules written inside it seriously, but he soon came to the horrifying realization that the notebook wasn't a joke when, out of curiosity, he wrote down the name of someone who was holding kids hostages in a school - the person died from a heart-attack 40 seconds after the name had been wrote down, just as the Death Note rules stated. Once Light paid attention to the rules, he understood that he could make anyone have a heart attack if, with their face in mind, he wrote down their name, or he could be more creative and specify exactly how they die. From there, Light quickly overcame his fear and started to think about how he could better the world with this power. He was bored with his life prior to finding the Death Note and was disgusted with a world where criminals escaped punishment time and time again, so the Death Note made him happier than he'd ever been once he got over the fact that he'd actually killed another human. But, as you'd expect, Light wasn't doing this purely out of the goodness of his cold heart: he wants to become the God of the new world he plans to create with the power of the Death Note. As Ryuk (the Death God who dropped the notebook) accurately points out at the start, even if Light manages to accomplish his goal he would have to write his own name in at the end since he would be the last 'evil' person alive. Much to the frustration of Light and the joy of suspense lovers worldwide, an enemy who could stop him was quick to stand in his way, the enemy being someone called L; the greatest detective in the world. Light's arrogance and temper allowed L to stun Light in their very first encounter, and from that point onwards a psychological battle between the two got underway. Light/Kira (what he comes to be known as by the public) wants to discover the name and face of L in order to kill him, while L wants to find out who Kira is and capture him. Both hide behind masks and, with Light able to kill anyone he knows the name and face of, the battle between the two is not without many twists and turns as the two geniuses try to outwit the other. Death Note is mostly very well written and thrilling to read. The first 34-36(ish) chapters are all brilliant, the best manga I've read. The quality does then drop during the Yotsuba section for a fair few chapters, with comedy and needless chatter taking away from the seriousness and slowing down the story, but the story returns to being epic before too long and then hits its highest point with the tear-inducing finale to the first half of the story. Then, once the second half of the story gets going, it starts out exciting but the quality quickly deteriorates and the pacing becomes very poor, with far too much needless chatter taking up space. And, after a lengthy period of boring chapters, the story resumes being thrilling near chapter 80 and this time it doesn't stop until the very end - the author seemed to rediscover the magic that made the first section of the story so amazing. I suppose it's fair to call Death Note a bit of a mixed bag due to how the quality shifts from stunning to average from time to time, but the best parts of the story more than make up for the less interesting parts. I don't even think the areas I've described as average were that bad, they just don't have the wow factor the best sections of the story have. What makes Death Note stand out in my mind is how well the author depicts our world. The Death Note world is bleak, depressing and full of people who don't deserve to live - just like our world. Whilst reading, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if a Death Note appeared in our world: would people still say killing is wrong or, as the world changed as more and more criminals died and crime reduced dramatically, would Kira become a God in the eyes of people? It's a question we'll never know the answer to but it's pretty interesting thinking material for a Shonen Jump title to provide readers. The author has made a lot of surprising comments in interviews, the two most attention grabbing being that he/she supposedly only had up to chapter 3 planned when he/she started and that he/she didn't intend to send out a message with the story. It's fascinating that someone could write such an intelligent story with so little forward planning and create so many in-depth discussions about topics such as good and evil when the author only intended to create an entertaining story. Using myself as an example of someone who reads more into Death Note than the author intended, I've always thought the message Death Note sends out is clear: it's not possible for a human to reach the realm of God, no matter how perfect the person who tries may be. With the story parts done and dusted, there is one more important area I need to talk about: the characters. Death Note has a cast of characters that start out complete, which is highly unusual. Everything you need to know about Light is revealed in the first chapter (he's intelligent, selfish and has a God complex), L is an eccentric genius with no social skills (no development needed), Misa is a simple woman who is obsessed with Kira due to her past and everything you need to know about the important members of the Kira investigation team is clear from their personalities. It would've been nice if, for example, a few flashbacks to L's past had been included, but it wasn't necessary for either the plot or his character, and the same can be said about the others. I mean, did we need to see a flashback of Light's past that tried to make him into a more sympathetic character? It would've ruined his character; he's supposed to be a character that cares only about himself, not one who started hating others because of a tragic event or something. There is one fairly big character negative that needs to be mentioned and, due to the risk of spoilers, I'm going to have to be vague. A character who enters the story in the second half starts out by doing everything he can in order to be the best, even going as far as using and killing others to reach his goal. But, near the end, he does something illogical that goes against his character, and that illogical action resulted in the story ending how it does. So, at the expense of the character, the author used him in order to reach the conclusion he/she she wanted. Even though I love the ending, it's bad writing for a character to do something out of character for the sake of the story. ...Anyway, since this review has gone on for far longer than I intended already, I'm going to attempt to end this after I touch on one more issue: The anime. In my eyes, the anime is the best manga adaptation in existence - it's near enough perfect in my eyes. Madhouse (the studio behind the anime) made the experience far better with the perfect choice of colour, great 'camera angles', small additions that made certain scenes far more dramatic (such as a certain evil grin in episode 25) and a FAR better second half of the story. Madhouse did the best thing they could've done when they removed all the boring chatter out of the second half of the story - they turned what was slow-paced and boring into something fast-paced and exciting. The ONLY thing they did wrong was changing the ending slightly. Also, I have to mention that Death Note has the best soundtrack I've ever heard (I still listen to it even now) and the best Japanese voice acting performance I've heard. To sum it all up, Death Note is brilliant and no-one should miss out on reading/seeing it. If you're the sort of person who likes to see a review end with a rating, 8/10 is the rating I give it. I think it's fair that the (in my opinion) inferior manga receives a slightly lower rating than the anime. Although I want to go into more detail, the review has gone on for longer than I intended already and time is getting on, so I'm going to stop here. I hope whoever reads this finds it at least a little bit helpful!

I don't even know where to begin with this masterpiece... I guess I'll start by proclaiming Death Note as my favorite story ever. Almost everything about Death Note is perfect. The plot is enjoyable, creative, and deep. The characters are well-developed, interesting, and symbolic. The art is fantastic, fitting, and realistic. My enjoyment and fascination aspect for this manga is beyond description. If you haven't read this manga, or watched the anime (which by the way is a great adaptation of the manga) then I suggest you drop whatever you're doing right now, and go read/watch Death Note as soon as possible. I can promiseyou that you will not regret. But remember, when you read or watch Death Note, turn your thinking caps on and pay attention to the details in art, you'll realize all the symbolism going on, references to the bible, and other religious aspects. Now, in Death Note, there are lots of philosophical questions about our reality, that the readers must consider before reading, while reading, and after reading. (I'm going to write a whole load of questions, since I thought about so many things while reading Death Note.) Are all human lives equal? What truly is life? What are people's role in life? To what extent can people shape their own destiny, and how much is down to fate? What truly is death, and where do we go after death? Is the world we're living in pure, or rotten? What's making the world pure/rot? What's human nature, and how can people overcome the disgusting side/temptations inside of them? How can we tell apart "right" from "wrong", "good" from "evil"? Human beings created the ambiguous terms, "right, wrong, good, evil" and everyone interprets these terms according to their own philosophies, so there's no "correct" definition; then how can people truly consider themselves more "right" and "good" over others? What makes a crime, a crime? What is justice, and what is "fair" justice? Who should be able to decide the fate of criminals? Is the death penalty truly a humane, and fair punishment method? Is murder always wrong? Religion, which belief is truly correct in reality? Lots of philosophical questions right? That's just scratching the surface of all the psychological concepts the anime delves into. Death Note is actually (sort of) told from the view point of a Shinigami (Death God), named Ryuk. Ryuk's world, the Shinigami realm is just a rotting world with the repetition of everyday life. Seeking an adventure, a way out of boredom, Ryuk purposely drops his Death Notebook into the human realm, Earth. What is the Death Note? The Death Note is the deadliest mass-murder weapon in human history; any person's name that's written in the notebook (writer has to have the face of the person he/she's writing down) shall die within 40 seconds of their name being written in the Death Note. Our main character, Light Yagami, a genius high school student happens to stumble upon the Death Note one day after school. At first, he didn't believe that the Death Note's power was real, but out of boredom, he tested it out by writing the name of a criminal who was being shown on TV in the Notebook. 40 seconds later, the criminal is announced to have died. Knowing of this ultimate power that he's obtained, Light Yagami vows to use the Notebook for justice. Light Yagami's dream is to kill all the criminals in the world, and create a utopia in which mankind will be able to live in peace and harmony, while Light himself rules as "God" of the new world. But the question of arises, "Is what Light Yagami doing, righteous, or evil?" Certainly Light believes that his dream is righteous, because he's ridding the world of "evil" and making the world a safer place for the "good". In public, people begin to take notice of all these mysterious criminal murders, and they give this unknown murderer the name, "Kira" (this would be Light) derived from the English world, Killer. But the world's greatest detective, L Lawliet doesn't seem to be very fond of Light Yagami's ideals. L Lawliet believes that murdering any other human being (even criminals are people) is an act of evil and that Kira is nothing more than a psychopathic murderer. And so, the entire premise of Death Note is a ingenious cat - and - mouse game between Light Yagami and L Lawliet, with Ryuk spectating our human world. Who will win, "Justice"? Or "Justice"? Is the plot original? Yup. Is the plot enjoyable? Yup. Yup. Is the plot well-written with little to almost no plot-holes? Yup. Is the plot tragic? Yes. Is there a deeper meaning behind the story, with lots of symbolism? Yup. Is the story ambiguous in order to let the reader decide for themselves what they believe the answers to those philosophical questions are? Yup. Does the end of the manga end in a cliffhanger? Yes and No. Is it honestly all that great? Yup, Greatest manga ever. The plot-holes were kept to a minimum and they never affected the overall plot; I can't really think of any plot-holes actually, everything was important and well-developed/explained. The pacing of the manga was perfect, the attention-grasping beginning, to the subtle deeper theme/developing plot alongside great plot-twists, that eventually help create the ideal climax of the story, and then the very tragic downfall and ending that made me cry. What made the manga so enjoyable was not only the well-written, suspenseful, exciting criminal-detective chasing thriller aspect, but also the addition of lots of genius literature symbols and narrations to help solidify the deeper symbols/meanings of the entire plot. The biggest question in the anime really is: "Is what Light doing good/righteous/moralistic?" Often in great literature, the main character is some sort of ambiguous character (hero more often than not), that has an unachievable dream and gets lost along the way of achieving the dream due to multiple problems: harshness of reality, greed, temptation (usually a woman, but can be any thing else: serpent) and ends up becoming a tragic figure that's meant to send the readers a deep message. Such was the case of Death Note's main character, Light Yagami. Light Yagami was a teenage boy who had everything. His family was financially stable, he had a loving family, he had the good-looks, he had the popularity, he had the brains, and he had a bright future ahead of him (#1 student in all of Japan). But there was something missing to Light Yagami's life, and that was a sense of personal happiness and acceptance of reality. Light Yagami viewed our reality as repetitive, rotten, and repulsive. Everyday life of going to school, going home, hanging out with friends on permanent repeat, but not only that, on T.V, the same news on permanent repeat: War tensions between countries, crimes happening all over the place, disgusting people always joking about disgusting things. What does the justice system do? Nothing, there's no stop to these violent, inhumane acts. Light Yagami wanted to change our reality into a better place, and be "justice" itself. But obviously he didn't have the power to do achieve his dreams.. Until he found the Death Note. The Death Note is the forbidden apple, the temptation in Light's case. It's human nature to not be able to overcome temptation/desires, and so Light uses the Death Note to kill the "vermin" (people that he judges to be "evil") from the world. But what makes a person truly evil, isn't that different per everyone's belief? Light taking the bite out of the forbidden apple (use of Death Note) opened Light's eyes, deceiving him into thinking that he could become a God that could determine good apart from evil (Ryuk is the temptation serpent). And just as Ryuk warned, Light would not live a happy live for making that mistake (of giving into temptation), thus, the fall of man due to sin (Book of Genesis). Light's once pure dream of making the world a better place became corrupt along the way due to the overwhelming power of the Death Note, the magnitude of his dreams, and his greed for survival ---> becoming a God. Light Yagami is not merely an ambiguous figure, but he's a religious and even deeper character than most people realize. Light's name is "Light" for a reason. He is that one "light" that Ryuk is waiting for, to die out. Ryuk's body is that of a crow, with crow feathers flying all over the place; this symbolizes what crows to before eating their prey, they wait until the prey dies out. "Light" on Earth becoming corrupt and eventually dying out is one important theme to look out for. Light represents a Godlike-Angel, The Devil, and a mere human being. Light wanted to protect the innocent people, create a utopia and become a father figure for the world (Jesus), but unfortunately in his attempt to achieve his naive dream, he became the Devil (Masqueraded Angel of Light, Father of Lies) and killed innocents, contradicting his original pure goal. But Light in the end, is still a human. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." This was the very case for Light. It's in human nature to want to seek adventure, to survive, be tempted to try something, be greedy for more, and achieve your dreams no matter what it takes. That's all I'll say about Light. (SO MUCH MORE TO SAY!) L Lawliet, the other main character has the word, "Law" in his name, because he believes that following the "law" that human beings created is the righteous way to approach criminal acts in the world. But is that truly effective? L and Light are the ultimate foils for each other; while Light had everything he could have wanted in life, L had absolutely nothing. L had no family (therefore obviously a financially unstable, and harsh childhood), L had no good-looks, L had no friends, and L had no trust/love from anyone. L wanted to protect the people of the world by following the laws set by the people, even the people that didn't trust/like L. He came, served, cared, protected and ______ (Jesus). The plot may have been focused upon the cat - mouse chase, but due to some astonishing plot-twists, L and Light end up teaming up together to catch Kira (^o^ confused?). Despite their complete opposite philosophies, and distrust for one another, there's always a sense of growing bondship/friendship/brotherhood between these 2, which really adds a lot to the overall plot. Ryuk and Misa Amane, are two characters whose importance to the entire manga are often overlooked. Misa Amane in Death Note was quite the interesting character, because unlike almost all, if not all great literature, she (the female) was subject to temptation of love (of Light, the male). Misa Amane lost everything in her life, her happiness and in the end, ____ because of her unrequited love for Light Yagami, who really was also the serpent in a way. Ryuk giving Misa Amane a rotten apple telling Misa that it would grant her a wish (and she taking a bite out of it), was very symbolic. It symbolized the poisonous apple from Sleeping Beauty; the apple does not actually grant any happiness/wishes, it's in reality poison. Ryuk is the crow-like devil waiting for "light" to die out in the human world, and for corruption and darkness to take over. Melo and Near, L's students receive a lot of hate from readers because of their inability to be as great as L, and because of what they do to Light Yagami. I will not get into detail about these 2, because of what they did to Light Yagami, my hero. The art in Death Note was nothing short of amazing. The minor details that went into each scene mood-fitting wise, and symbolically were amazing. The portrayal of each character, Light = handsome, seems like a perfect boy, L = irregular, ostracized boy, Misa = Beautiful girl whose dumb enough to give into temptation of Light's Love, Ryuk = a crow-like devil, and Melo-Near = Each have a resemblance to L in both looks and behavior; they both take after their sensei. The hints of religious symbolism with the cross glowing behind him, the heavenly light shining upon him, and the stairs (that usually represent ascent and descent, often times from one to another) that symbolize descent from innocence romanticized dreams to knowing the horrors of reality/realistic dreams, when ____ dies was a marvelous artistic touch that added all sorts of deep concepts/hidden messages to the manga. The ending of each chapter will definitely have you wanting to write your name in a Death Note for more. The conceptual questions I mentioned in the earlier part of this review are definitely some questions you have to keep in mind and watch for what the writer/creator, Tsugumi Ohba has to say about each. This may be a bit far-fetched, but do you think that Shinigami and Shinigami world really existed? I felt like the Shinigami's boredom, thirst for adventure and change was a reflection of Light Yagami's thoughts (no one that doesn't know Light's thoughts sees Ryuk), and the Shinigami realm was a reflection of the human world; repetition of everyday and slowly rotting away. Ultimately, the nativity of Light's romanticized dreams are not possible in reality, and while showing the concept of romanticized Vs Realistic, the anime delves into Life/Justice/Evil/Right/Wrong/Death/Religious concepts; truly a genius piece of writing that EVERYONE should read. A perfect 10/10, and still this rating doesn't do this manga justice. I also recommend watching the anime adaptation of Death Note, very well-done.