Death Note Review

Death note. Where to begin with death note? Just a quick note, this anime contains scenes some viewers may find disturbing.

Synopsis

Death Note begins by following the story of Light Yagami, genius high schooler who is fed up of his melancholy existence. During a particularly boring lesson, Light observes from the window of his classroom, a book fall onto the grounds of the school. When Light goes out to investigate, he discovers the notebook has the words "death note," inscribed on the cover; the rules within the book state that whomsoever's name he writes within the book shall surely die of a heart attack in 40 seconds unless stated otherwise within the pages of the book. Light, rightly so, believes that there is no way such a book could exist and thinks it a prank, not knowing he has stumbled across the greatest weapon in all of history, Later, Light observes a man harassing a woman in a sexual nature, the man, for some unknown reason, screams his name for Light to hear. Light, thinking he has nothing to lose, writes the mans name down in the notebook and, to his great surprise, the man dies after precisely 40 seconds from the time his name was written down. As Light watches onward, he has an epiphany, a profound of such great magnitude that he rushes home straight away to put his newfound plan into action; Light was going to rid the world of criminals using this notebook and he shall sit atop as their new God. After killing a few dozen criminals by way of heart attack, he starts to gain some notoriety on the internet, who have lovingly dubbed him "Kira,"and some small worshipping sites start to pop up online, Light starts to gain confidence.

Things aren't so smooth sailing however, when interpol calls upon "L," the worlds greatest detective, to get on the case. L has never lost a case in his life and if he sets his mind to something, he will find the truth. L's intellect, so far, has been unmatched and no man or indeed, woman, has bested him in a battle of wits. He has taken great care in hiding his identity due to the fact that L alone has the combined power of three of the top government surveillance but, unbeknown, to L, this very precaution is what will protect him from Kira.

The review

Death note is simply a masterpiece. The plot, you can tell, has been carefully analysed by the writer, Tsugumi Ohba, has put great care into making sure that there are no holes in the plot and that no decision from either Light or L is unexplained, every action has it's purpose and contributes to the overarching plot. Even a simple game of tennis is illustrated as an epic mind game between two geniuses.

The characters are well written and interesting, each of them having their own unique motivations driving them throughout the series and even the purest of intentions can be shown to have selfish motivations lying beneath them. In a show where there is so much going on in the way of character development and plotline, the structure remains balanced and relatively easy to follow which is hard to pull off with so many layers to it.

The most important thing about the plot to me though is the message that it tries to convey to the audience, which is everyone dies eventually. There is no doubt that the plot is not a fun one, it is not meant to have a happy ending and there is no sweet release and happy equilibrium that is achieved, the whole show is meant to show that life is fleeting and we can only do our best in the short time we have on this mortal coil and that, to me, is beautiful.