Death Note: Animated series
Why is Japanese animation so good!? The storytelling is always so amazing. I didn't even want to watch this show, but I did because my kids pushed it and pushed it, and finally I caved. I caved and was sucked into this great show of characters, an amazing show of good vs evil, a show where the lines are blurred, from start to finish your on the edge of your seat.
The show is about a Notebook. Not just any notebook, a magic notebook with evil power to kill anyone thats name is written in it. Once you touch this notebook you can see a God of death, a Shinigami. Shinigami are supernatural spirits that guide people toward death in Japanese culture. The main shinigami is Ryuk who pushes for death but is entertained by everything the owner of the book is doing, which is a boy names Light, who is basically a sociopath.
The greatness in the show is the characters manipulating each other and trying to stay ahead of each other. From the police and other agencies trying to figure out who Kira is, which is the name public name of the God of death, since Light Yagami, the kid has been taking it upon himself to murder every bad person in the world, eventually one of the smartest people who does investigations flawlessly on unsolvable cases secretly gets involved.
L vs Light/Kira is just amazing, because they use manipulative maneuvers to outsmart the other, trying to get the truth from L's side and on Yagami's side he just needs to figure out his opponents name. It's a game of cat and mouse, of one-upmanship, of respect even though they know they're enemies.
Is what Kira does totally evil? Taking down all bad guys trying to make the world a better place for normal good people? You question it as the show goes on but then when Yagami begins killing anyone that gets in his way or people that are trying to stop him. It's crazy on the back and forth battle of wits of not just L and Light, but all the side characters, most especially the task force that ends up trying to stop Kira and find out who they are.
Things are always intense and gets even more so when multiple books are put into play, when multiple people own books each person is different on how they use that power of the book. The rules also come into play, most of which are manipulative towards the user or those trying to figure out the book.
The battle of using your mind against an opponent is heavily used here, trying to outsmart your enemies instead of most shows where fighting is used to win battles, this show is about the people who use their brain power against one another. It's like a big game of chess with people.
The way Light Yagami plays people is masterful, like he's a puppet master playing the strings of all the people of the world. It's truly amazing the way he does it. He's a master tactician that sees all the path ways of every decision he makes. The fact he does most of this all under suspicion and In front of those who are looking for Kira is just a game to Light and its fun to watch how he positions himself into a position to succeed. He gets super over confident and believed his ability to outsmart everyone would always play out in a way to that ended with him winning. Even the ending was intense to the point where you don't know if Kira was gonna get away with it. You have no idea whether his plans Ultimate gives him a victory that ends all those around them trying to catch him to slip up. It's fun and entertaining and keeps you on your toes.
The show gets a 4.5 out of 5 from me, it's a smart intense show with great characters, I highly recommended it.
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