Anime Review: Death Note

Whenever I think of an iconic anime from the 2000s I always think of Death Note. Death Note first aired in 2006 and ultimately became one of the best selling mangas of its time. Death Note is about a high school student named Light Yagami who casually finds a notebook that, when you write someone’s name on it kills that person. This anime centers around Light and how he manages to hide the fact that he’s the owner of the Death Note. 

At the beginning of the anime, we immediately see that Light is a very smart student, even though he’s just a teenager he manages to make creative ways to hide his identity. we’re also introduced to other important characters like L, also known as Ryusaki, a private detective who takes on the Kira case aka trying to get to the bottom of who is causing these mass murders on criminals. We also get introduced to Ryuk, a shinigami or in other words a god of death, only the people who have touched the death note can see him, he’s also the reason why the death note happened to get in Light’s hands as he was the one who dropped it in the human realm simply because “he was bored”. He is not an ally to Light nor L, he’s just there for the ride. Throughout the anime there are different twists and turns, one second they suspect Light of being “Kira” next they don’t, it goes a lot of ways and it’s better visually explained. 

I think what makes this anime so likable by many different people is not only the characters but also certain scenes in the anime like the iconic potato chip scene. This scene is known to even people who don’t watch Death Note or any anime. In this scene Light Yagami is being watched and listened to by cameras and bugging devices, however, he has mastered a plan that will allow him to write names down in the notebook while on the cameras by making it appear that he’s studying. He uses a potato chip bag with a page of the death note and a mini tv device to hide the fact that he is writing criminals’ names inside of it. It’s one of the smartest things Light did in the anime as it appeared like he was just studying and doing what any other normal high school student would be doing when in reality he was killing people with the death note at the same time. Another amazing thing about this anime is that it’s enjoyable both in Japanese and English. I think the English dubbed version of this anime is more enjoyable than in Japanese but it can be enjoyed both ways. It’s cool that this anime can be entertaining no matter if you watch it in English or Japanese since a lot of anime, especially more recent ones tend to have bad English dubbing but Death Note does not have that problem. Death note characters like Misa Amane and Mello are very popular since they both have a very interesting fashion sense and appear to wear more of a “goth” style which appeals a lot to the audience of the anime. These characters also change up their outfits almost every episode which isn’t very common with anime as most anime characters wear one outfit throughout the shows and stick with it. The anime also has very suspenseful episodes, with each passing episode we see Light gets more creative with ways he hides who he really is, and L is also very impressively smart and every episode he gets closer and closer to catching Light. 

This is definitely in my top five list of favorite animes; it’s amazing from start to finish, all of the characters have great writing and are interesting in their own ways. I’ve never seen any other anime quite like this one, the tension and pacing in this anime are amazing and it never gets boring. Seeing how Light Yagami’s character is motivated by justice at the beginning of the show but as the show goes on his perspective on everything starts changing is very suspenseful. Both Light and L are very clever characters and it was fun to see Light Yagami, a high school student constantly get away with everything he does. I highly recommend it to anyone who isn’t familiar with anime. It’s a great watch and a classic.