User reviews

I will be short, the series is a gem: character buildup, screenwriting, tension, drama, art, cinematography, everything. Truly captivating story...

...until (without spoiling it) the main story arc ends quite anticlimactically and new subplot begins with new characters in the primal focus. The latter half takes away a hint of brilliance from rest of the story.

Still I would recommend it!

This is anime at its best. 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. Whereas a lot of anime strategically relies on action packed battles and fights, Death Note is a refreshing change of pace. It's slick, clever, and witty with the eccentric "L" heading the investigation. It's a constant game of cat and mouse as the lead investigator and the suspected "Kira" or "Killer" always seem to be one step ahead of one another. The two brilliant minds constantly outwit each other. The plot is complex but easily laid out for you and the story is remarkably intelligent and inventive. All the while you're watching you think, "Wow, this can't possibly get any deeper," but each new episode proves you 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 excited shock.

This is great stuff and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who might be looking for a change of pace in anime. It's not for everyone, of course since it's more of an intellectual thriller and not so much an action fantasy, but anyone who can appreciate the mental challenge of following along with this suspenseful battle of wits will be in heaven with Death Note.

After watching the first six episodes, I find that the story line is very well though out. Unlike many series, Death Note has a way of keeping ahead of the watcher, and one can never predict what is about to happen.

The series is obviously dark. One of the things that I find interesting about Death Note that the protagonist isn't the good guy, like that of the stereotypical protagonist. The fact that this series goes morally were few others will go is definitely one of the reasons I find this series to be so enticing.

I'm definitely hooked!

The first 25 episodes of Death Note are simply insane. The mental fight between L and Yagame Light is something I've never seen before in that intensity. They are both such great characters so if either of them wins you will be sad for the other one. The last 12 episodes were still pretty good but just not at the same level as before. But the ending was really great again and a worthy one.

This is good. I don't watch anime. I watched all of this. It is very good.

From the pages of the manga to the silver screen and then to the small screen. Manga = breathtaking, Film = groundbreaking, Anime = phenomenal.

Death Note the anime is one of the best animes to come out for a very long time. The storyline is amazing but not complicated or cliché. Like the film and manga, it depicts the cat and mouse hunt between L and Light on who will uncover one another's identity.

Death Note is a cake; everything good about a cake; and therefore people should see this landmark. Overall, Death Note will remain a classic forever... if the Americans don't remake and ruin it!!!

10/10

This show just keeps getting better and better! Every episode has a new twist, and is never the same as the last! It will keep you on the edge of your seat, and you will watch it again and again! The story is centered around a young man, Yagami Raito/Light who finds a "Death Note". I won't tell you anymore about this "Death Note" (as that would spoil it). With this "Death Note" he sets about ridding the world of evil and creating a "Utopia", with himself as the new god. Filled with interesting characters, lots of intelligent dialouge and exiting plot twists, this show is definitely on my top 10! I would Highly recommend it to anyone, those who enjoy crime/psychological/dark themes.

Death Note was a stellar TV Show and on its way to being one of my favorite animated TV Shows. With its incredible concept, interesting villainous protagonists and an antithesis to the protagonist that complimented his genius perfectly. The formula was great with the exception of episodes 18-22 which features our protagonists cunning on a boring way that leads to a lackluster payoff. After this however. Episodes 23, 24 and 25 are phenomenal works of art. This is where the series goes from Incredible to incredibly mediocre. With the exception of the last 3 episodes of the show, there is no right for any of the episodes after episode 25 to exist. The show went from having me completely invested to it feeling like a chore to finish, which is a shame because of how great the last 3 episodes actually were. They introduce new antagonists that are literally the exact same thing as the last one we had, except much worse and no fun at all to watch. I was frustrated with these new characters and their placement in the show. In my opinion Death Note should have ended at episode 25 then it would have been a nearly perfect anime.

This manga is exceptional: smart, captivating and suspenseful. The script is up to the drawings: astonishing and entertaining. I loved it!

I am glad to see that despite the average of 9.0 from numerous voters... there are still many people here who can look at this anime series from an objective point of view and openly state its flaws.

No need for me to go into details or spoilers at all. I've seen about every Death Note there is to see (aside from the 2017 American series which I refuse to watch just on principle). Like many here I understand the Death Note concept and found the original move to be a masterpiece.

But this anime... it was like packing a 2 hour movie into a 14 hour slow-motion treadmill. As pointed out by several others-- plot concepts were repeated, concepts thrown in and then ignored, and by the 20th episode I was feeling like Ryuk... bored bored bored. Although well-presented, this felt like nothing more than someone trying to drag out the original story lines to as many episodes as they could possibly milk. But the cow ran dry long before the series ended.

Filled with gaping plot holes, lack of logic, areas of ridiculous complexity and jump-the-shark "logic"... this felt like an old Charlie Chan movie mystery where one person says "I have won because" and the other person says "Except I foresaw that and" and then the first person says "But I knew you foresaw it so I" and then the second person... well, you get the idea. Savvy viewers can only handle so much of that stuff before they start thinking "seriously?".

The gore in the very final episode was unprecedented in the series, gratuitous and totally unnecessary to ending the story. There was a strong feeling of anti-climax pretty much through the entire last half of the series (if not before). I started questioning where they were going somewhere after the 10th episode. At the 20th episode I was asking "how long are they going to drag this on?". By the time we got to episode 30 I had given up all hope and watched the rest on sheer "closure" factor-- let's get this watched and over with.

One major mistake in production which I don't understand (probably had something to do with legal rights) was the change in the theme song about halfway through. They went from a barely-tolerable beginning and end song to a total-trash, super-heavy-metal theme song that sounded like it came out of some stoner's garage band. If the purpose of that "music" was to convince us there are insane people in the world... it was a total success. I like just about all kinds of music, but that second theme song was a loser in both concept and performance and did nothing to support the series. It turned Death Note into Dead Note and was a terrible choice for theme music.

One scene especially (no spoilers) where someone was going to murder two people in cold blood to eliminate Kira-- all I can say is the writers must have been smoking weed when they came up with that lame concept. That didn't make any sense from any viewpoint, and certainly was not Death Note. They had a shark jump the shark on that one.

In the end the series was way too long, too contrived in plot, and had too many unbelievable points and logic flaws to stand up to examination. No matter how much someone may have enjoyed the original Death Note movie, if viewed honestly this anime just doesn't stand up to the standards of good anime or the Death Note concept either one. I'm a great fan of the original 2006 movie... but I was yawning 2/3 of the way through this series. The story line was forced and mediocre at best. As I've stated with a couple of other Death Note wannabe's... we don't need yet another Death Note; the original was just fine.

No spoilers... This show has a great starting foothold. The mixing between mythical fantasy world of god of death and police detective story line is brilliant, just works brilliantly. But as the story grows the details on how things work out gets blurry and un logical character decision making happens more and more often But overall very enjoyable despite the weak finish, and oddly i am hoping there is a death note 2

I have seen many anime but few compare to Death Note. It provides it's viewers with incredible characters, a deep storyline, and view of how power can corrupt. The focus of the story is on Yagami Light, a college student who is feed-up with what he considers a rotting world. He soon finds a notebook named "Death Note." The instructions state that any human whose name is written in the Death Note will die as long as the person who writes the victim's name has the victim's face in mind at that time. While Light considers it to be a foolish prank, his curiosity gets the best of him. Upon learning that the Death Note is real, Light realizes he has the chance to rid the world of crime and create a new world over which he reigns supreme. The story of Death Note follows Light as he tries to create his new world, and the forces that try to stop him. Perhaps one of the most interesting elements of the series is that the main character is neither a hero or an anti-hero but instead an anti-villain. This an excellent series that is guaranteed to leave viewers in awe.

I have to say two things turned me off. First is the idiot reviewer on the front page who feels the need to use 70% of his review(even titled it "Eat Your Heart Out Naruto"-really subtle) to bash Naruto like some insecure 12 year old spoiled brat fan boy. Pathetic. The second was that it sounded like some Gothic action anime from others. However when I finally saw it I thought, meh, okay. However as it went on I got more and more drawn in.

The plot is simple enough to start:successful and brilliant student Light stumbles upon the Death Note, which will kill anyone who's name he writes down provided it's their real name and he knows his face. He experiments with it and sees that it's real. He plays with the other rules all the while killing other criminals and meeting up with the shinigami who wrote the death note. The deaths of these criminals does not go unnoticed as the renound and mysterious detective El is trying to discover who Light, under the name Kira, is. Whoever finds the other's identity first will win in this power struggle.

Like I said, the first episode is interesting enough. The story however develops and becomes better and more complex as it goes on. The moral ambiguity of the anime gives it a unique feel among others of it's kind. I was shocked to see a show like this under Shounen jump which usually host anime that combine strong actions scenes with a complex plot and character development. What we have here instead is an anime that dosen't have adrenaline pumping action scenes advancing the plot(not that there's anything wrong with that, in fact I enjoy that as well) but the proverbial chess game between Light and the police as Light becomes well aware the police are after him as he does everything possible to hide himself all the while continuing to do away with criminals at his whim.

Ryuk, the shinigami who follows Light, actually provies some of the comic relief of the show believe it or not. He's not over the top goofy by any means however if there's any laughs to be derived, it's usually from him.

Even if you're not a fan of Shounen Jump anime, you should give Death Note a try. It easily rivals the majority of thriller films. It is well worth your time.

I watched one episode and thought the first episode wasn't pretty good, but when i started too watch(watching episode 11 now) i started too love it, its genius and the guy who made this movie got too be one of the smartest filmmaker ever, The animation is one of the best, the story is smart, deep and exemplary written , the characters are interesting, i can gladly say i haven't found one error in this series, so even if you don't watch much anime i just recommend you too watch this and i can swear that you will like it, i think this is as good as elfen lied(or even better). The story is about a guy named light who is top-student and smartest guy in school(without being a geek), one day some kind of diary named ''death note'' falls down from the sky and he picks it up, and then the story begins.. a must see for everyone!!!

10/10

In the first episode, you can already see the amazing animation, the well-chosen voices, the immediate gripping of fear over the future in your chest. Death Note is a must-see for those who love to have a good 5 minutes of thinking because Death Note beautifully weaves suspense and unexpected turn of events that leaves the audience stunned and fascinated.

You'll notice the good production, but to truly decide whether it's worth watching you will have to watch to the 2nd (and for those who are stubborn, the 3rd) episode. If you are planning to watch this for a limited of time, you're in luck because the series is only 37 episodes long since the manga already ended.

While the IQ of the two main characters is straight-out impossible, you still cannot feel but admire just how logical their reasons for making possibilities and theories are (what makes it even scarier is that most of the theories that L or Light, the two protagonists, are true). If you are one who watches things from a personal view, you would have a hard time deciding whether the things they are doing are right and if they are, in reality, insane.

There is slight humor that adds faint scratches on the anime, but it is soon covered up in the next minute with what a character has done or said. There was not a moment where I wasn't sitting at the edge of my seat, my eyes literally sticking to the screen. Every minute is worth watching, even the sinister theme songs played by Nightmare.

What makes this anime/manga unique is that it's a mystery thriller where you hardly question the origins of something. You rarely ask yourself unanswerable questions (not even in the back of your mind) and without realizing, you're only focused on the present events.

I promise, no matter what kind of audience you are, you will be gripped by this chilling life and death chain of events of a bored genius who kills criminals mercilessly with the mysterious Death Note.

Despite the fact that I haven't read the manga, I can say that Death Note is one of the best anime I've ever seen. The story & characters amazing and complex. It's a classic cat & mouse game between the hero and the villain on who try to find out about the others' identity. The animation is amazing, which is that you can always expect from japan. Overall, Death Note is a classic anime that is beloved by many and will continue to remain beloved for many years to come.

The series starts off great. There are around 5 excellently developed characters; there's a great premise; the plot develops logically and compellingly; the pacing of building tension then action is spot on. You've got a unique feel, and some moral dilemma action thought-provoking action. Everything has a balanced and cohesive feel - pretty much everything you'd expect when you see a series rated 8.9.

*I have to warn a very slight plot spoil, but I won't give anything remotely specific.*

Then about halfway through the series, to solve some stagnation they throw in a good dose of anticlimax. Now the majority of the interesting characters stop getting any screen time for various reasons and follow up by introducing and then disposing of characters you never have any reason to care about. The very ending was well done. (Pity it wouldn't make sense if you just skipped the 15 episodes preceding it!)

Maybe the manga developed all of the lame characters in the second half and had I first read all of them I would have enjoyed it all, but still... I just can't justify how sloppy everything got. Compare with either of the Fullmetal Alchemist adaptations, or Code Geass if you can tolerate mecha action, and you'll see where I'm coming from.

It either needed to be around 20-25 episodes and finish off strong without all of the later stuff, of have been extended to at least 50 so that they could have developed the last half into something workable.

I just watched all the 37 episodes after some friends recommended the series. I am not sure why I watched them all, to be honest. Really unlikable characters, same things happening over and over again, with some rare twists that are not even that brilliant. I am completely ignorant of the anime world, and this might be considered good. But it never happened to me to be so utterly indifferent about the main characters (especially after the time jump). So watch it if you really don't have anything better to do, or if you really like egocentric and self-loving, arrogant, overbearing, presumptuous characters who try to defeat "mistrerious" and brooding ones by "manipulating" an army of weak and stupid (by the main character's own definition) ones.

Honestly, I'm not a regular anime viewer but I rather consider this show as live action due to its realistic nature and I really love it from core of my heart. Just♥ it