Death Note: Season One- Review

It's been an incredibly long time since I last posted, so apologies! I'm back and have prepared a few new reviews that will be posted over the coming days. I wanted to step aside from some other series reviews I've been doing and reintroduce myself to anime. When I was 14 you absolutely could not tear me away from an anime or manga series, it took up all of my free time. I've actually missed it in some ways, so here's my review of Death Note to get the ball rolling again.

Death Note follows the story of a bright, yet habitually bored Japanese high schooler named Light Yagami. Breaking up his day to day routine, he stumbles across a notebook entitled 'Death Note' in which gives the owner the power to kill. Bound by particular rules inside of this note as written by a Shinigami, the series examines Light's possession of the notebook and erupts a great darkness inside of his subconscious. Taking note from what the writer, Tsugumi Ohba said, the Death Note is a reminder of mortality and that everyone will eventually die, regardless of time and day. Though, someone playing God may alter the natural course of mortality.

The characters were exceptionally well written. Using a character such as Light Yagami was crucial for this series to take off. He's cynical, egocentric and apathetic. A token character that makes him easily relatable and identifiable to audiences of high school age. There's also L, who bears a similar, if not higher IQ than Light and works externally on particular cases with the Japanese police. Light and L's intelligence allows for the plot to thicken and twist. Both characters balanced each other too in the way they carry their morals.

I also liked the idea of the Shinigami. From what I've noticed in many other manga and anime series', the Japanese are quite spiritual and have a love for otherworldly creatures who represent reincarnation or a higher place than Earth. The use of spirits was an incredibly entertaining and interesting aspect of this series and provided a viewpoint of how humans could possibly look to others.

There were elements I liked better from the first half, perhaps finding Light relatable more as a teenager and understanding his egocentrism, reasons for picking up the notebook and initial use of it. The second half still carried on strong, contained more violence and darker themes and provided twists to this warped tale.

The series did however, have a significant difference to the 2006 movies (Death Note and Death Note 2: The Last Name). I watched the movies a few years ago before starting the manga comics. So the first half of the series carries most of the same information from the movies, whereas the second half did not. This came as a surprise to me because I was almost certain of what I was in for, but rather saw a whole new story.

Death Note brings a whole different contribution to Shonen Jump Anime/ Manga. It isn't a gothic action or even really that comparable to other Shonen Jump in the sense that it just offers so much more beyond the surface. It is bingeworthy and guaranteed after just five episodes you'll be hooked- even if you don't like anime. It is always twisty and always engaging.

Score: 9/10.