Death Note -- Review ★★★★☆

Everyone's seen Death Note, right? This series jumped the pond proper hardcore back when that was still possible, before anime became re-stigmatized for being weird loli stuff. And those of you that aren't into weird loli stuff will be glad to hear that this is pretty much the only real "Type A" shounen series, post-Dragon-Ball, that I'm a fan of, so settle in while I talk about why Death Note succeeds where all other mainstream shounen shows fail.

Everyone knows this story, but as a brief overview: genius kid Light gets a death note from death god Ryuk and thus has the power to kill anyone by simply writing down their name. Drama ensues! So what sets Death Note apart from other shounen? Well, it's actually mature, dark, and (mostly) well written. It could have easily taken the cheap route and been yet another generic preteen action series, but instead they put in the effort to make something pretty deep and engaging with tons of tension and mystery. As a result, it almost feels like a police procedural, which I guess it technically is, but of course it also has this supernatural story built into it. That's the key thing. Death Note is strongly designed around magical realism, so it has a much more mature feel than typical action series. It's also just a very smartly written show, which is impressive and also necessary, since the focus of the series is the conflict between academic prodigy Light and secretive super-detective L. They could have totally dropped the ball making these characters believable, but somehow they succeeded in making every plan and plot twist work out perfectly, as Light and L each have to stay one step ahead of the other in this battle of wits.

I also find the moral dilemma of Death Note a perpetually interesting topic. Light's newly acquired power of the Death Note is inherently destructive, and yet he chooses to use it to enforce his own sense of justice, generally killing only criminals who have committed heinous crimes, intentionally drawing media attention in order to deter would-be criminals from carrying out murder, rape, etc. in the future. But of course this is its own form of mass murder, and so L and the police force have to hunt down this unknown supernatural assassin in order to carry out true, legal justice. So is Light an anti-hero or an outright villian? I think that's the fundamental question of this series, and the grey morality of Death Note is part of what makes it so captivating. Light clearly has good intentions, but he's also selfish and cocky, and he gradually becomes more maniacal as the series progresses; meanwhile, his schemes also become more elaborate, but he ALWAYS has a plan ("Just according to keikaku!"). These plans are what make the plot of Death Note so enjoyable and suspenseful, which is why I praise the writing so highly, but even the writing in general succeeds because of how well the fundamental elements of the series are constructed, such as the very rules of the death note itself, which the show makes a big deal out of up front, to the point that the eyecatches/bumpers of every episode highlight the various rules laid out in the death note. Light's plans are almost always based on the convoluted implications of these rules, such as how shinigami can only be seen by those who have touched the note, the hubbub around shinigami eyes, the rules for ownership and relinquishing ownership of the note, rules for how and when the deaths occur and the limitations on customized methods of death, etc.

Unfortunately, Death Note has one fatal flaw. Only 2/3 of the series maintains this level of adrenaline-fueled drama. Because of the various changes that occur in the third season (or should I use the term "cours" here?), including the primary plot developments as well as changes in the writing style itself, much of the energy is sapped right out of the series. I mean, on its own the third season might pass as a halfway decent shounen series, but as the continuation of the excellent first two seasons, it just doesn't stand up nearly as well. It's kind of hard to pin down just what makes the back end of this series so lackluster, but anyone who has watched it likely knows what I'm talking about. And yet, there are still plenty of good ideas here, it just lacks the dynamic nature of the earlier seasons. This doesn't really affect my recommendation of the series though. It's still head and shoulders above the majority of mainstream anime plots, and is easily a must-watch by just about anyone's standards. It just sucks that it loses steam toward the end, and that's what costs it a 5-star rating here.

So yeah, I'm sure everyone who is into anime has already seen this series by now, but on the off chance you missed it for whatever reason, you need to watch it just to be on the same page as everyone else. Death Note is simultaneously one of the most interesting, engaging anime and one of the most confusingly disappointing. However, I like to just look at the first two seasons as the "core" experience, and the third season is more like an extended epilogue. If you view the series this way, then it's still an extremely satisfying and entertaining show, and it's no surprise that Death Note has had such tremendous international success.

--The Anime Hipster