"The human whose name is written in this note shall die."
The very first and the most influential rule of this anime. Yes, it is unbelievable, but that person shall truly die (well, in the show, of course).
'Death Note'. Hmm, what is 'Death Note'? It's anime about Light Yagami, a high school honor student with good looks and charm, who picks up a notebook that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Yup, you guessed it, it's the Death Note. The Death Note has the ability to kill a person any way you want, as long as you know the name and face. There are always a few rules and exceptions though. But wait, the notebook can't appear out of nowhere, can't it? It actually came from the Shinigami (god of death) Realm. One Shinigami got "bored" and decided to drop his notebook to the human world so that a human could pick it up and ease up his "boredom", and that Shinigami's name is Ryuk. The two meet, but weird enough, Light seems casual about meeting a Shinigami and doesn't even fret. Light tests the notebook and is astounded by its effect, and continues using it... but only on criminals. Society notices this after a while and government officials start finding a way to fix it, and they dub Light with the name 'Kira'. After the government loses hope of finding 'Kira', they hire 'L', a professional detective who has solved every case he has worked on, to find 'Kira'. Thus, the battle of logic begins as Light and L fight for justice and for what is right.
The story keeps you preoccupied pretty well. One minute you may know what's going on, the next, you don't know what the hell is happening. It's pretty Grant Morrison-ish, if you ask me. The thing that kept me going on in this anime, is the strategies that both Light and L use. It's like both of them are one step ahead of each other, which is practically impossible. The twists were a bit predictable, in my opinion of course. Maybe it's just due to all the stories that I've heard and read. Ever since Light met L, his main goal was practically kill L and all those who support him. Light's obsessed with this, and he would do anything just to get him out of the way. I remember in the penultimate episode, my heart was beating really fast due to the suspense. Yeah, that's how the story grabs people in. It really captures anyone's interest. There will be constant addition of characters, but all will be vital to the storyline, as lots of people hate addition of characters. Pretty much, the story's excellent.
The art is in the simple ways of anime style. It is drawn traditionally. It still has impossible hair-styled guys, with the over-reacted expressions of some characters, so on and so forth. One example would be that you can sometimes see Light completely insane with red eyes and a very eerie smile. It only lacks those "chibi" styled characters, but it's only natural since this is a very serious show. I'm short for words on this one since I'm not much of an "art" guy, for as long as the story's good, I can overlook the art easily.
Now, the soundtrack. WOW. I completely fell in love with it. It is extremely beautiful, and I'm not being biased or even lying about it. Notable ones would be "L's Theme" and "Light's Theme". Most of them brings about a mysterious aura around it. It is creepy and baffling at the same time. Seeming to fit the mood every time. It has the same effect when you're having an adrenaline rush and listening to 'Eye of the Tiger'. The show also has two opening themes and two closing themes, which changes right around the middle of the show's run. The first closing theme seems to be everyone's ringtone in the show, is named 'Alumina'. When the second opening and closing comes to the show, it changes from emo-ish/mysterious to heavy/angry. It stresses you out, but in an appropriate way. It usually uses a choir and stringed instruments, such as violins. When it comes to certain situations, you can hear electric guitars switching from clean to distortion, and acoustic guitars serving as the momentum; building up the intensity of the electric guitars. I am completely amazed by the soundtrack, and is one the best that I have heard.
'Death Note'. I heard of this about 5 years ago, if I remember correctly. I was astounded by it, but I never had the chance back then to watch it or even read the manga. But recently, I had, and I'm grateful that I was given a chance. I have never seen characters so well-made as this one. To be honest, me and Kira have the same ideals, so I guess that's one of the factors that has drawn me to this show. If I was given a chance, I would watch it all over again without knowing what would happen. I'm just sad that this show is a bit underrated and hasn't reached many people that much.
Always remember, 'Death Note' is just an ideal to show the world what we are today, and what we need. It is the never-ending battle between Justified Crime and Moral Justice.
-Mikey McMike
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