A Look at Death Note - Ep. 1 - 8

As Death Note is one of the best rated animes in Japan, I decided to give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised. Here is a rundown of it:

Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects, who’s bored out of his mind. One day he finds the “Death Note”: a notebook from the realm of the Death Gods, with the power to kill people in any way he desires. With the Death Note in hand, Light decides to create his perfect world, without crime or criminals. However, when criminals start dropping dead one by one, the authorites send the legendary detective L to track down the killer, and a battle of wits, deception and logic ensues…

It’s pretty interesting, and I’ve been enjoying how it has developed over the course of the anime. The anime is more of a talking one than an action one, but that’s not to say that action doesn’t happen. The main character picks up a Death Note, meaning that he can control the time, and how, people die. This was dropped by a ‘Death God’, who comes down with him to earth and basically follows him about and gives him tips. He then has the police on his tail, and a detective named ‘L’, who all look into his case and try to track him down. It then turns into L and Light (the main character) dodging each other and outplaying their tricks, which is surprisingly entertaining. He essentially plays God, and wants to create a perfect world without criminals that he rules.

The episodes I have watched so far have been very well put together. It’s interesting to see what tricks the two will come up with in order to dodge each other.

In addition, watching a normal, bored student slowly and subtly turn into a sociopath is interesting, and Death Note does it in a way that is subtle and not too obvious. Many viewers like that Light isn’t the typical protagonist, and I also found this a refreshing change from the majority of animes that focuses on the ‘good guy’.

The writers have done a good job of making Light a character that you can dislike, but still making you want him to stay, and not loose to the protagonist, L. This is really well done, and whilst I found that I disagreed with much of what Light did, I also didn’t want him to die or get defeated.