Nukid101's Death Note Anime Review

Hoo boy. Here we go.

After reviewing two mildly popular anime, it’s time to tackle a big one. One of the most well known and divisive anime in existence. I still remember when Death Note was a big thing; I remember the explosion of popularity the anime brought, the inevitable backlash, and of course I remember the fanfiction. One never forgets the fanfiction.

It’s a pattern you’re just seeing constantly now. In anime alone we’ve seen it with Death Note, Code Geass, Gurren Lagann, Puella Magi Madoka Magica</i>, Sword Art Online, Attack On Titan just to name a few. It almost feels ages since Death Note was a big thing, so it’ll be interesting to see how people will react to my review.

Suffices to say, I have quite a few things to say about Death Note.

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Death Note Anime Review
Studio: Madhouse
October 3, 2006 – June 26, 2007

Light Yagami is a bored young genius who resents all things evil. His life undergoes a drastic change when he discovers the "Death Note", a notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it. After experimenting with the notebook, Light confirms its authenticity and is joined by an unexpected house guest - the notebook's previous owner, a shinigami called Ryuk. Light tells Ryuk of his plan to exterminate all the criminals in the world, until only people whom he has judged to be honest and kind remain. Once he finishes creating this utopia, he means to rule over it as what he calls "the god of the new world".

Soon, the inexplicable deaths of criminals catch the attention of Interpol and the world-famous detective, "L". L stages a fake public appearance and quickly deduces that the serial killer, publicly known as "Kira", is located in a single Japanese prefecture and can kill people by supernatural means. Light realizes that L will be his greatest hindrance, and begins a cat and mouse game with him.

So Death Note is known for many things; its constant battles of wit, its many, many inner monologues, its gothic style, its insanely handsome main characters, the potato chip, etc. Another thing it is known for is that the show can essentially be split into two parts, and that second part is regarded by many to be drastically inferior to the first part. People say that the writing takes a nose dive, Lights nemesis are a downgrade and it’s all just an inferior version of the story till the admittedly excellent finale.

These are very valid complaints and I won’t dispute them…I will however argue that they don’t harm the overall experience as much as some people would claim, because even at its peak Death Note’s writing isn’t always top notch. Death Note is often touted for its clever mind games and the battle of wit between Light and his enemies, and this is several times true, but even in the first part I found the show had to pull things out of its ass to move the plot along, or have Light or L figure something out that no one realistically would be able to figure out.

That’s not a criticism. This is a show about Shinigami and books that kill people; I’m not the slightest bit bothered that characters like Light and L pretty much have super human intelligence. ‘Realism’ isn’t an issue here, and in fact it all adds towards Death Note’s greatest strength; Death Note is so. Goddamn. Fun</i>.

Death Note is pure sadistic pleasure. It is one of the most entertaining anime out there and that is such an incredible feat when you consider that so much of it is just characters talking to each other or monologuing. Through a combination of perfectly chosen music, colour palettes during certain scenes and tension filled voice acting Death Note makes the simple act of thinking a moment an edge of your seat romp. Indeed Death Notes’ greatest achievement is just how it can turn even the seemingly smallest of actions into the most epic and important thing in existence.



It’s for these reasons that make the anime the ideal way to experience Death Note. The original manga does a good job on its own conveying the weight behind every moment, but the near perfect production values Madhouse churned out for this anime make it the far superior experience. Again, the animation perfectly captures the gothic style of the manga and it is incredibly consistent throughout, but better yet the show enhances the previously mentioned great aspect of Death Note. When Light or L is planning something in their head, often the screen would go blank save for the character, and often said character would be drawn in a single shade. It’s so simple yet it works perfectly because it puts your entire focus on the one most important thing in that scene, and the use of different colours for characters often felt fitting for the character in question.

The music is equally effective, being low key when need be but when needed to go all out becomes a heavy orchestral that sounds like you’re on a trip to Hell itself. Again, it’s used perfectly because it enhances the experience and helps make seemingly mundane actions like writing in a book or eating a potato chip the most exciting thing in existence. One need only watch the first episode – with Light going on one of his first killing sprees – to see my point. As for the dub I consider it to be absolutely spot on as well with nary a complaint, which is excellent since this is the kind of show that NEEDED a strong dub. Special mention definitely goes to Alessandro Juliani as beloved favourite L, who in my opinion may be one of the best dubbed character of all time.

Getting back to what I said earlier, Death Note is pure sadistic fun, and that might sound strange to some of you. My reason for describing the show as sadistic ultimately comes down to the shows general outlook on life and people, and I’m not gonna lie…this is one of the most nihilistic pieces of fiction I have ever seen in my life.



Seriously, this show seems to have almost nothing but contempt for people in general. Our main character Light is a sociopathic serial killer with a god complex, his adversaries L, Mello & Near range from morally questionable to downright psychotic themselves, the plucky female lead of the series Misa Amane is devoted to Light to the point that she’ll casually kill people too, and the gods of this world by vast majority don’t give two shits about humans and – in the case of Ryuk – put them through hell for his own amusement. There are of course decent people such as the Police Officers and Lights family, but the former ranges from competent but largely incapable of handling Kira, or just outright incompetent, while the latter is ultimately left broken and shattered inadvertently by Lights actions.

...To think these guys would go on to make Bakuman of all things.

So the shows outlook is pretty bleak and cynical, that’s not inherently a problem. I don’t need all stories to be positive and idealistic and I’m perfectly willing to accept a dark, bleak story, but I do feel that often if you are gonna have your story like this that’s filled with such dismal themes and such morally disgusting characters there should be a point behind it. Gone Girl had a cast of several horrible people because it was making statements about the fallacies of Marriage and the aggressive, lynch-mob like methods of modern media. I’m not saying this is a necessity but I do feel it’s important that there’s a point behind it, and this leads me onto to what I think is Death Note’s single biggest flaw.

Death Note has little to no depth to it. No emotional depth, no philosophical depth , no thematic depth, nothing.



Here’s the thing; Light and L are often praised for their unique personalities and ideals and their hyper-intelligence, and this is fair praise…but they are also both very shallow, 2 dimensional characters. The same can be said for characters like Mello and Near, and to a lesser extent characters like Misa and Mikami. In my opinion the show does a very poor job helping us understand how these people came to be. We learn so little about the pasts of L, Near and Mello. We never get a completely satisfactory look at why Misa became for devoted to Light, and neither Mikami and especially Light are given much explanation for their obsession with eradicating evil.

I would like to focus on Light specifically because he above all else is the worst in this regard. To help understand my point I want to compare Light to Walter White from Breaking Bad. In Breaking Bad we see Walter go from nervous chemistry teacher to feared Meth Dealer, and what is so fantastic about he show is that we see the journey to villain perfectly. We see that initially he wanted to just get enough money for his family for when he dies of cancer, but we later see how repressed anger at failed chances of success fuels his desire for money and success in the Meth business, and we see how the criminal world changes him, makes the worst come out of him and makes him lose sight of what he originally wanted. At no point are we made to side with his choices and support him, but we are made to understand just how Walter become the way he did.

And there’s Light, whose story shares similarities to Walter in that his initial desire for peace and justice are soon warped for his own personal lust for power and reverence, but to go back to the beginning…what sets Light on this path in the first place? Because he ‘hates evil and injustice?’ So does every rational thinking person on the planet, but I strongly doubt that given the chance every single person will go on murder sprees like Light did so earnestly, so why does Light so willingly become Kira?

The series ultimately never gives you one. Light becomes Kira and slaughters thousands with no second thoughts because…well, the best I can get from the show is that it’s saying ‘because OF COURSE he would’.

Frankly this just isn’t good enough. It’s like the ‘descent into villainy’ story is done in the first episode and we’re left with the god complex Light right from the get go, but again the series does little to help us understand why he came to these decisions, and it’s so bloody infuriating because the show could’ve EASILY dodged this. It would’ve been so easy right at the start to have seen something happen in Light’s past to make him have such extreme views. Perhaps he could’ve had a best friend that was murdered and the murderer got away with it? It wouldn’t have Made Light choices any less wrong, but it would’ve explained why Light became the way he did and it would’ve helped us understand what started him on this path of villainy.



Light suffers the worst with this, but similar things can be said about other characters too. L, Near and Mello’s pasts are barely scratched upon and their only really defining character traits is just their intelligence and their bizarreness. They’re certainly interesting characters to watch but only L comes close to having moments of characterisation outside of those two points, and even then it’s not much. It’s true that Misa and Mikami do have some of their pasts revealed but they were still so brief and shallow that I never felt like I really understood these characters and what made them the frankly awful people they were in the show.

In fairness however this isn’t true for all of the characters. Lights father Soichiro Yagami and Shuichi Aizawa were by the end the two most likeable and human characters of the show. They’re not just Detectives looking for Kira, they’re family men whose live with them is intruded upon by the case. Soichiro is forced to investigate the possibility that his beloved son is Kira, and the turmoil he goes through destroys him and his family. Aizawa is also forced away from his family due to the case and it puts a strain on his relationship with them, and at one point he is forced to leave just so he can provide for them. You see? There, bam, strong characterisation. I understand what drives these two and what they’re truly going through here. It’s just a shame the rest of the cast isn’t this good.

So, does this rather weak overall characterisation and lack of any real depth to the narrative truly hurt the anime? Well going back to the early parts of the review, it doesn’t stop the anime from being an absolute blast to watch and one that will forcefully have your undivided attention. The show is entertaining and memorable from start to finish and it has the animation and sound to back it up. Unfortunately for all its talk about ‘justice’ and what’s right and wrong the show has absolutely nothing substantial to say, and any themes that may have been intended ultimately feel botched up. Certainly if Lights story was to be about how power can corrupt people even with the noblest of intentions it completely fails because we never get a chance to understand what drove Light to this path in the first place. Granted, Light being hyper intelligent AND being related to a high ranking Detective already messed up a potential ‘good guy goes evil’ theme.





Rest assured however that Death Note is good. Again, it’s sadistic fun watching a cast filled with unpleasant people trying to outsmart and harm each other while preaching about justice, and at times the show can be legitimately clever with its twists and the machinations of the various characters. In many respects – and despite being very dark and cynical – Death Note is pure Shonen in how over the top and incredibly entertaining it can be.

For those reasons Death Note gets a recommendation for me. I feel confident saying that you’ll likely have a blast watching Death Note. It’s fun, over the top and at times genuinely clever…it’s just not particularly deep, whether that be in characterisation or themes, and behind all the pretty visuals, mind games and apples…Death Note doesn’t have anything particularly profound to say.