accessA few weeks ago Liliy sucked me into Death Note. It’s definitely one of the better anime I’ve seen, and now that I’ve finished it I feel compelled to dump my thoughts on it here. Because this post will be loaded with spoilers, I’m hiding the rest of it in a ‘read more’ section. If you plan on watching the series—and I highly recommend you do—skip the rest of this and go watch. If you’ve seen it, don’t plan on watching, or don’t care about spoilers, read on.
The first arc of Death Note (episodes one through seventeen, which I’ll call the L arc) is excellent. Yagami Light discovers the Death Note one day, a notebook which allows the owner to kill anyone by writing their name in it and focusing on the persons face (thus ensuring that the correct person is killed and not someone with the same name). After some initial testing, the shinigami Ryuk shows up and Light reveals his plans: to become the god of a new world where he is Justice, passing judgment on criminals and other wastes to society. Light begins slowly, judging the most obvious criminals, and soon gains a cult following that dubs him Kira. As the body count racks up, though, the World Police Organization realizes that all these deaths can’t be coincidental and brings in L—all of the top three detectives in the world through other aliases—to discover who “Kira” is and shut him down.
First, Yagami Light. Light is an egotistical megalomaniac who, upon finding the Death Note, seeks to change this “rotting world” into something of his own vision where he can reign as god. He’s charismatic in the extreme (and “teh God of Sexiness”, so I’ve been told), uses everyone and everything to his own advantage, and is singularly focused on that one goal: to change the world. And it’s really hard not to like him. I couldn’t help but think how crazy he was for the first couple of episodes, but as time wore on, something about him turned me around. He’s despicable, but you can’t help but cheer for him. He’s killing people, but it’s difficult to hate a guy that, in his own twisted way, is really trying to change the world for the better. He’s a megalomaniac, but his execution is so masterful it’s hard not to think that maybe he has what it takes to accomplish such an insane goal.
Then L shows up. We don’t actually see L until about half-way through the first arc, but he immediately bests Light, discovering Light’s general location and discerning—to a small degree—how Kira is able to kill. L, like Light, sees himself as the embodiment of Justice as he works to find and eliminate Kira. And just like Light, L is masterful at what he does, if not quite so insanely sure of himself. L almost immediately looks to Yagami Light as the possible Kira, but suffers throughout the arc from a lack of evidence (more on this below).
Light eventually gives up his Death Note (and all memories associated with it) and joins L in the hunt for Kira in an attempt to clear his name, beginning the Yotsuba arc and all the awesomeness that this entails. Light and L and the other members of the Kira task force continue their search, eventually narrowing it down to a handful of corporate elites in the Yotsuba corporation. Amane Misa (the second Kira who has also given up her Death Note and lost all memory of it) eventually discovers who the new Kira is. The task force implements a strategy to capture this new Kira, which succeeds without a hitch and plays right into Lights hand: as the Death Note is recovered, Light grabs hold and all of his memories return. Light eventually explains the workings of this ridiculously awesome plan to clear his name and regain possession of the Death Note, even getting Rem (Misa’s shinigami) to kill L, ending the Yotsuba arc and seemingly ensuring Light’s victory.
This arc—as Liliy warned me—is made of awesomeness. The interaction between Light and L is spectacular to watch, especially when they start fighting (physically), and the entire task force is filled with great guys like Matsuda and Aizawa. It becomes painfully obvious in this arc, however, that:
- L knows Light is Kira
- L won’t admit it to himself because he wants Light
This was really annoying. Not L having a crush on Light; it’s never really explicitly stated, but it’s pretty obvious that something going on there. No big deal. By the time you reach the end of the Yotsuba arc, though, it seems obvious that L should have done something about Light. He must have known Light was Kira. There’s no way somebody as smart as L couldn’t have known, and he does nothing. Much as I like L, in the end I still have to side with Light because L had so many opportunities to stop Kira and he never did. Luckily, Light’s awesome plan to regain the Death Note and kill L makes the Yotsuba arc the best part of the entire series.
Then we get to the last arc, which I’ll call the Near arc. We jump a number of years into the future, where Light has joined the police force and is now acting as the new L, continuing the search for Kira while judging criminals as Kira while nobody’s watching. Eventually entire nations start pledging their loyalty to Kira, or at least abandoning any search for Kira, and the world becomes divided. The United States sets up a special task force to hunt for Kira unassociated with L and brings in Near, the true L’s replacement. Mikami shows up, lot’s of things happen, and Light is eventually found out and killed.
As you can probably tell by my complete lack of details, I wasn’t really happy with the Near arc. It’s not that it’s bad; there are a lot of great things that happen, and it’s at least as exciting as the other arcs… right up till the end. The end feels so horribly wrong that it almost ruins the entire series. It just doesn’t make sense. Luckily, you’ll probably be so caught up in things that it won’t hit until after the credits role.
Part of the problem is that Near and Mello (the other L wannabe) aren’t really as interesting as L. They only have half the number of episodes to work with and, apart from an awesome Death Note swipe by Mello, they never really feel like they’re any kind of threat to Light. But they still manage to beat him… somehow. Near explains it, but it just doesn’t make sense. Mikami wouldn’t have gone to the real Death Note and tried to kill Takada like he did. And even if he would have, Light wouldn’t have failed to see the possibility that the real Death Note had been tampered with; he would’ve given Mikami a sheet (or even a scrap) of the real Death Note to kill the task force at the end and avoided any chance of screwing it up. Even Matsuda’s reaction feels wrong. He liked the Chief, sure, but there are a number of scenes where he says that he agrees with Kira’s methods. Why would he suddenly start shooting at Light without any hesitation?
The entire ending feels like it’s there only because Light is the “bad guy” and has to lose. It doesn’t really make any sense, but the good guys had to win in the end and we needed to be reminded that however likable Light is, he’s an egotistical megalomaniac that has committed an untold number of murders in the name of Justice. As things happened, Light should have won, and the ending as-is goes against everything in the 36 episodes that precede it.
Other random thoughts:
- All of the shinigami are hilarious and awesome.
- Aizawa’s comeback at the end of Yotsuba is one of the greatest things ever. I just wish he never had to cut the ‘fro.
- Mogi is the best manager ever.
- Chief Yagami with shinigami eyes is the best Kira ever.
- L want to jump Light… badly
Ah! Ha ha. I told you death note is awesome - and my comments are filled with spoilers should anyone else be reading these. >.> Fair warning.
Ah, Yotsuba. Nothing more needs to be said. “ridiculously awesome plan”
mwa ha ha ha. It was so hard to keep my mouth shut. All I can think of was ‘Damn….he thought all that out ahead? He’s too smart 0.o’
Though, I do have a few comments for the second arc ending - sucky as was: My friend Sean agrees, though has different theories on Mikami - such as he’d NEVER put the real death note away in a bank.
He’s too OCD to keep it away from him. He’d more likely keep it on him and use the fake note or something. He’s almost as smart as Light; it doesnt’ make sense that he’d screw up that badly. Actually, I agree - he probably never would have gone and killed Takada in the first place either; he was told not to do anything by, according to him, GOD. I think he’d behave.
Though, I disagree with the Matsuda thing - that actually made sense (and the only reason I can bare to watch that ending; Matsuda is love.). Matsuda liked Light and his family, a lot. I think the shooting was because he was so pissed/upset. And I only think this because Matsuda was probably the ONLY task member who didn’t think Light was Kira aside from his father.
This is one part where the anime cutting out the Epilogue makes me angry, too - Matsuda’s all awesome in it. 
He’s going on and on about how Near killed Light and Mikami with the death note (speculation, but it make sense to me to explain all that Light and Mikami OOCness) and how he doesn’t trust him. Then Ide asks “You liked, Light, didnt you?” (”You were fond of Light, weren’t you?” other translation) and he gets all depressed. It’s cute.
And to respond to your random thoughts:
-Hell yes.
-Ha ha. Poor Higuchi didn’t stand a chance.
-He is.
-He is too.
-I told you.