Death Note: Graded

Death Note. Many claim it the best Anime of all Time. Others, if not there than it's in the top 10. While Dash doesn't fully agree with that, I do. Death Note has great characters, great openings, great philosophy, and the story is on point.

I will admit I have not seen every single anime, I have seen the most out of Broad Culture seeing around 30-40 anime since I bother to keep track. And Death Note was the first Anime (Beside Pokemon) that I watched fully. That said here is my review on Death Note.

Characters:
In term of characters I won't bring up characters like Light's Mom and Sister, But I will look at Light, Ryuk, L, Misa, and Near.

Light Yagami:
Light is an amazing character, we see his journey into insanity. As he is corrupted by the Death Note. He develops a God Complex as he manipulates loved ones, and goes head to head in a battle of the minds agianst L, trying his best to become the God of the New World.

In the first half of the series he plays this cat and mouse game, and he shows off his intellect against the World's Greatest Detective. His best scene of this is The Potato Chip Scene and the bit that leads up to it. Being the paranoid teen he is after getting the death note leaves a trap of sorts to catch if someone been in his room, than tricks the God of Death, Ryuk, to search for a blind spot. When he finds out that there isn't one, he gets a bag of chips and eats it in his room, while he studied. He hid a Mini TV in the bag of chips, so he can continue killing while L and the rest of Kira Task Force don't expect a thing.

In the second half of the series, after the death of L, he is cocky, he makes mistakes, he includes more people than he should in his fight against Mello and Near. These flaws are what lead to his death. That said, this is where Dash would say he acts uncharacteristically, but I believe that he is acting in character, because he won, he was "The God of The New World" he says it himself, that Near and Mello aren't worthy successors of L, which him underestimating them is his Fatal Flaw. His God Complex, blinded his judgement, blinded his thoughts.

In my opinion, his character was done right, and I enjoyed whenever he was on screen. As a wrestler in training, the gimmick I want to portray is a God Complex Character, but not straight off the bat. I will slowly believes I am, and develops the God Complex similar to how Light grew into a God Complex. Than like Light fall from Grace.

Light is amazing, and I could go on, but there are so many more characters I want to talk about.

Ryuk:
The primary Shinigami, Ryuk, was board of the Shinigami realm, decided to come to the Human World and have some fun. Ryuk is the comedic relief in the anime he is one of if not the best part (Character Wise that said) of the show.

I can relate to Ryuk's boredness with the world that he lives in, I to have felt that way, In high school and middle school I saw the world as bland, and couldn't find anything interesting in the world. Anyways time to continue.

L:
This guy right here. He is smart, he is the Greatest Detective, get Batman out of the debate, L is the best. He narrowed the Kira killing from the ENTIRE WORLD to just a single town in Japan.

L is believe to have a form of Autism. And some of the things he does and ways he acts are similar. I love the way he is a sugar addict. The way he sits, how awkward he is in public. Surprises us with his skills at Tennis.

I feel like L's character had one moment where he broke character. When he freaked the fuck out over the phrase Shinigami being said. However when he touches the Death Note and sees Rem he doesn't freak out he acts calm. That's my only real problem with L character.

Misa:
Misa character is very simplistic to much, she is a sub loyal to Kira, cause He killed her parent killer. She is a teen model, which causes Light to be more catious.

While most that she is just a sub. I believe that she is justified for it. I mean her mindset is that the law failed her in punishing her parents killer but Kira fix the wrong.

So yeah, I think her character is done well. I mean when Light Dies, SPOILER BY THE WAY,  she looks like she is about to die herself. Because she truly loved Light, and I think that tells alot about her character.

NEAR:
And finally Near. Near gets a lot of heat for people saying he is a knock off L. And that's the same thing that Light thinks that leads to his downfall. And it is that, that makes me think that he is a good character.

We are meant to think he is a weaker L, they put us in Lights shoes, making us see Near the way he does. When in reality he is smarter than L. He is into planning things out, he not letting his initial judgement be swayed.

In my opinion he is a good character. I will do more articles on particular characters. But until that times that's all for the characters. Overall I would give the Death Note Characters an A...

Openings:
Death Note has 3 openings, and yes an opening doesn't have to be great to make an anime or a show great, but when it is great it can enhance the show a little more.

Opening 1:
This was a nice little OP. Will admit first watching threw it didn't care much for the song. But it has grown on me. Now the important thing here is all the Christian Religious symbolism. It adds to Lights character. It also a great ending image of Light in front of Lucifer, foreshadowing his descent from Grace.

Opening 2:
The second OP, was alot different from the first. For the first one sound was a rock pop vibe, this was pure death metal. Japanese death metal which admittedly wasn't the best in terms of songs, but it does show have far Light has gone from the first Episode, he is fully corrupted. There is alot of trippy imagery.

Opening 3:
The third OP was only for the final few episodes and it was a recap of everything that has happened in the story so far. It was a nice beat. That about all I can say.

So in terms of Opening this is we're Death Note falls flat for me. The first OP was amazeballs, the second was better interns of visuals, and the third was blah. So I would give Death Note's Openings a C...

Philosophy:
There is one major philosophical battle going on here. What is Justice?

Light/Kira Justice is that if you are a killer, rapist, or a assaultor, you should die, because you are the ones keeping society back. And if he kills the big criminals, than the rest would be fearful and stay away from crime. He believes fate chose him to do this. To become the God of the New World.

L does agree that these people that Kira kills are criminals, but he believes no one should have all the power, he believes people lives should be put on trial. And let them argue their reasons why they are innocent. Because he believes Justice is in the hands on the majority, while Kira believes that the majority aren't delivering on their part, and takes Justice into his own hands.

This is why I love Death Note. This philosophical battle between Light and L. That's Why I give this a A+...

Story:
If you are reading this than you should already know the story of Death Note. Ryuk drops a Death Note to Earth so he can have some fun. Light finds it and starts killing off criminals. (And yes since this is from Light's perspective he is the protagonist, even in terms of right and wrong, it his story from his view, he is the Hero of his own story.) L arrives and narrows it down from the entire world to a town in Japan. They have a cat n mouse battle of the minds, out smarting each other as much as they can. Until Light gets Misa's Shinigami Rem to kill L, killing her in the process. Than come L's successors Mello and Near, and because Light underestimate them cause he believes he is superior to them, causes his death, and the end of the show.

The story is fucking fantastic. And while it does slow down in the second half, the first half makes up for it. So I give the story an A+...


Overall, I still believe Death Note is one of if not the best Anime I have ever seen. The Opening doe fall flat a bit tho, and L character does break twice. I still find it completely enjoyable, so I give Death Note Overall the highest score I can. An A+...

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