Been a while but I thought I'd finally get round to reviewing an anime that I have had for years and is so iconic that I would have had to review it at some point; Death Note. Now if you are wondering why it says Kira Arc next to the title that is because I am splitting my Death Note Reviews in to three parts; The Kira Arc, The Yotsuba Arc and The Near and Mello Arc. The reasons I am doing this because each of these Arc are quite different from each other so I think it is only fair to split up the anime and give them individual scores, plus I can focus more on each one. The Kira Arc is the first part of the anime which consists of episodes 1 - 17, also I do own the entire manga series of Death Note so I can make comparisons to it. Spoilers because I will go in to detail about the plot and characters because like most of my reviews this is for people who have watched it already.
Death Note is about a young adult named Light Yagami a senior in high school about to go to college who is also a genius and excels in everything. However he is extremely bored and resents that the world is full of evil like murder, rape, war and crime in general. Someone who also shares is boredom is a Shinigami named Ryuk who lives in the decaying Shinigami Realm, to rid himself of his boredom he decides to drop a Death Note in the Human World. A Death Note is a tool of a Shinigami that allows them to kill a Human as long as they know their name and face but it can be used by a Human and who just happens to pick it up but Light. Light decides to use the Death Note to rid the world of everyone who commits evil and takes the name Kira so that everyone will know that someone is in judgement of them. Unfortunately for Light the police will not accept Kira and have even brought in the world's greatest detective L to hunt him down.
The Death Note manga was written by Tsugumi Ohba who has only done Death Note and another manga I don't know however the anime was developed by Madhouse and I know quite a bit about their work. I know that Madhouse is really good at adapting serious manga in to anime with two of their most notable work in my opinion being Black Lagoon and Monster. It was also directed by Tetsuro Araki who directed Black Lagoon and would go on to direct two of my favourite anime High School of the Dead and Attack on Titan.
The series is a Detective/Psychological thriller with elementals of the supernatural because of the existence of Shinigami and a note book that can kill people. This first part of the anime mainly focuses on the mind games between L and Kira and seeing which one can outsmart the other and ultimately prevail. For a detective/crime story there are no big action sequences or shootouts because those aren't the type of people L and Kira are instead each one will make these elaborate plan to try and reveal each one's identity. This is the biggest draw of the series because when I first watched this it literally had me on the edge of my seat because L and Kira are such genius that you want to see who will make the mistake first because it will result in death for either one of them.
As for the characters Light is a really interesting protagonist since because of his genius level intelligence and the fact he possesses the Death Note he develops a God complex and feels that he is the only one who can lead the world on the right path. You do want to side with him because he is trying to make the world better however because of his God complex he has no qualms killing anyone who is after him or in his way be them L, the police just doing their jobs, anyone who finds out his identity or Death Note and he even considers kills his family several times. What I don't like about Light is his high level of arrogance and believing that he can never be wrong and I think that is intentional on Ohba's part because maybe he wanted to make some traits the audience won't like (after all he is the villain).
Now for Light opposite and you could say the real protagonist of the series because he is obviously the good guy; L or Ryuzaki as he likes to be called by others. L is one of my favourite characters because of his unique design, personality traits and intellect. He is like some mad, modern day Sherlock Holmes and just like him he can make accurate assumptions out of the littlest information. For example Light of cause is extremely careful in hiding the fact that he is Kira and to any normal detective there is no cause for suspicion but to L he nit picks so much of how Light acts and his personality that he believes that Light fits as Kira. L also provides a lot of light hearted and comedic moments which is what the series needs like the way he sits or his obsession with sweets.
As for the others characters Misa is really good as the Second Kira and the main reason she is designed was because Ohba wanted a cute girl character to work along side Light and for the most part he succeeded but she can be so over the top and stupid sometimes to the point of annoying. I do like her character but she sometimes seems more of a inconvenience created for Light's plan more than anything else. We also have the Shingami Ryuk and he is one of my favs because it is interesting having a none Human observing Light and making his own side comments. He also provides a lot of fun comedic moments because of his obsession with apples and that he knows less about the Death Note than Light. Finally we have the members of the Japanese Police Department who work along side L and while they are filled with likeable characters like Light's father and Matsuda but I feel there not as important as L and Light in the case. I understand why they are there however because you can't just have two super genius playing a cat and mouse game with each other, you need some more normal characters on the investigation and they do contribute because of L reluctance to show his face.
As for some notable parts in the first 17 episodes we have Light's dilemma in accepting Shinigami Eyes for half his life span which will allow him to see a person's name and life span. There are several moments when Light could really use those eyes but considers it out of the question because of the he does he create such ingenuous plans to get what he wants. Examples of this is the plan to get the names of 12 FBI agents for the real name of one of the FBI agent's wife. We also have the introduction of the Second Kira and a new Shinigami because its interesting to see someone with a completely different personality than Light possess a Death Note. Also there is Light's plan to free Misa from custody and I admit I wasn't sure how he was going to pull that one off and the plan continues in to the Yotsuba Arc.
Finally quickly mention the animation and soundtrack which are two of the best I have ever seen. Probably because of the lack of fast paced action scenes I quality of the animation for character designs, movement and overall look perfect such as Light's evil expressions and I really like how when a character is deep in thought the whole scene slows down and is in a shade of colour; Red for Light, Blue for L. For the soundtrack most of it is orchestral such as Kira's theme music which suits because of how Kira becomes a God - Like figure however my favourite one is L's theme. Also the voice acting is some of the best I have heard especially Alessandro Juliani as L.
Overall the first part of Death Note was a great start to the series and does a good job of establishing the characters and building them up. I recommend this anime but it might not be for everyone because you really have to be highly invested in each episode and you really have to pay attention to what is going on. Misa does let it down slightly because I find her a bit too much sometimes but that is just one small thing and she still is a good character.
SCORE: 8/10
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