WATCH IT NOW: Death Note || Review

Death Note: The Perfect Getaway Anime 

Bored during lock-down? Don't worry we have the perfect thing to binge-watch this week

Death Note Title

Death note is the kind of show where you start watching one episode but end up losing an entire weekend to its intense cat and mouse chase. It's an intelligently written, smartly paced, and consistently engrossing series. Even if you are skeptical about watching an Anime, take my word, you won't regret watching this one. I'm fairly new to the world of anime, but I have to say from what I've seen that Death Note goes above and beyond your typical run-of-the-mill action-based anime. Just watch the first 15-minutes of the first episode and your opinion will shift drastically.

The series follows high school student Light Yagami, a teenager of remarkable intelligence and equally vast boredom. Just as he wishes for something more exciting than tests and textbooks, fate hands him a gift: a Death Note, a black notebook, and the tool of Shinigami (Japanese gods of death). The instructions within the Death Note declare that if the owner writes someone's name down on its pages, that person will die. After testing out the Death Note and confirming its power, Light quickly assigns himself the task of ridding the world of whomever he considers evil or unworthy. But the pattern of Light's actions soon catches the attention of a reclusive detective who calls himself "L," a young man of equal intelligence and obsession. Both men go head-to-head to stop each other from accomplishing their goals.

Light Yagami sees Shinigami Ryuk for the first time.

Is it right to kill individuals who have done wrong, and will do wrong again? Can they be reformed? Death Note presents the viewers with questions such as these, questions which cannot be easily answered. This series challenges the viewer's morals and for that, it deserves highly.

But this debatable topic is not the only strong point of Death Note. The story is 10 on10 for me, because of the way plot unravels. Light is forced to play a chair gripping game of cat and mouse with those who try to detain him. And the way L persecutes Light is something that I have never seen in any Anime.

I thought I have watched too many thrillers and now no twist can surprise me. But Death Note proves me wrong, it is truly Twist X 100. The show's manipulative ability is something else. It makes you like it's main character Light Yagami, but as the story unfolds he transforms him into a Villan-Protagonist. From there on it is all on the viewer's moral values to make him a hero or villain. 

Light Yagami and L in Death Note 

Both the characters Light and L are equally intelligent, it's just the matter of who can act fast. At each point when I felt like, "Oh! Now it'll end" the show threw a plot twist in my face. I have watched most of the show sitting at the edge of my seat. The plot is complex but easily laid out and the story is remarkably intelligent and inventive. All the while I was watching I thought, "Wow, this can't possibly get any deeper," but each new episode proved me wrong. What I like the most is that this is very, very complex material but it's flawlessly and easily presented so each new development in the case comes as an exciting shock.

Aside from its near-mastery of pacing, one of my favorite things about Death Note is its somewhat manipulative ability to make me want the bad guy to succeed - something I haven’t felt quite so passionately since I first watched it, except perhaps in Breaking Bad. The slow, subtle character progression keeps you addicted to the chaos, as you watch the series’ main character evolve alongside it. Watching a simple, bored student (or, in Breaking Bad’s case, a teacher) slowly transform into a sociopath is a terrifying delight, and that journey becomes just as much of a plot point as each of the intricate twists are. If you liked Breaking Bad for similar reasons, chances are you’ll like Death Note, despite their enormous differences.

I think by the end of the series I was truly opposed to Light Yagami. His every decision was against my morals, but I didn't want him to fail. I struggle to even tell you why I feel like that. The writers made him such a delight to watch, he is like a fire that will consume you but you don't want to move away from its warmth. Light Yagami is no doubt one of the most popular characters among the Anime fans. According to IGN, "Light Yagami is the force that drives Death Note and has made it a phenomenon." This beloved character's descent into being a sociopath is subtle and only becomes prominent when the show tells us, but there are hints in the story from the being that tells you, "Light is not someone to look up to." 

Ryuk, the Shinigami eating apple.

The two characters L and Light are geniuses who are fighting against each other most of the series. in any other Anime, they both would be completely unstoppable. But in Death Note, the unstoppable is stopped. Unstoppable is challenged, and bent, and surprised, every step of the way. One step ahead is sometimes actually less than an inch, and there’s careful effort to avoid telling you too much about what tricks either side has up their sleeve. You feel like you’re guessing just as much as the protagonists are, and every triumph is fleeting. Those moments, and the cliffhangers that follow, are hopelessly addictive.

If you’re still doubting it, just know that it’s incredibly smart, but not so much that it’s hard to follow or pretentious, and very fast, but not so much that it feels rushed. Also, apparently, Gods of Death really like apples, so there’s that little gem of wisdom for you to learn all about, too.

The series is available on Netflix. Do watch it and tell us your experience in the comment section. If you have already watched the whole series then share what you think of it in the comment section. 

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