Death Note

This week's post will be about the anime show and manga series Death Note.



My favorite anime show and manga series has changed countless times over the years I've spent looking at all the available material, and even though my favorite anime series is Mushi-shi, and my favorite manga series is Bleach, Death Note vol. 1 is the best manga book I have ever read.




Death Note has one of the coolest background and set up ever, but the way in which the author decides to proceed with the story gets a little odd after a few volumes/episodes.In the world of Death Note, there are immortal beings called shinigami, or death gods (grim reapers).The key to a shinigami's immortality is their death note(books).There are many rules and limits to what a death note can do, but basically the bearer of the death note (shinigami or human) writes the name of another person (can't be a shinigami) in the notebook and that person dies within forty seconds of a heart attack if there is no description put in to the notebook as to how the person will die.Shinigami have an added bonus when they use the death note; whoever they kill with their notebook, the shinigami gain that many years the human would have lived added to their own life span.



Here's where the fun starts to begin.If a death note of a shinigami is lost and picked up by a human, the shinigami is required to meet up with the human who has gained possession of their death note and stay with them until their death.Now, the story of Death Note starts with a unique shinigami named Ryuk

who is tired of staying idle in the shinigami world where all shinigami there ever do is meaningless gambling. What Ryuk does is purposefully drops his death note where it is picked up by an ultra star student in Japan named Light Yagami.He, too, is bored of his easy life down on Earth, but when he picks up the death note and reads the terms and conditions of it, which Ryuk so kindly articulated for any human who would pick it up, he tests the note book's power on a gang member named Shibutaku who attempts to abduct (and most likely abuse) a young woman off the streets right in front of him.The results are much to his satisfaction as he specified for Shibutaku to die in a car accident within forty seconds (since he did not bother to specify what time) and a shuttle bus rams into Shibutaku.



Now with his new found power and shinigami who helps him understand the death note better, Light Yagami is determined to rid the world of evil and be known throughout the world as Kira, which comes from the word killer.

Light begins writing down the names of all of the worst criminals in Japan in the death note, and instantly the police have what appears to be a serial killer in their hands.As the police are getting nowhere in their investigation, having hardly any evidence to work off of whatsoever, the police force turns their case over to a renowned private consultant named L, no one knows his real name.From then on the story takes on a detective theme where the head of the Japanese National Police Agency (ironically Light's father) and L try and track down Kira with little to no success.



And once that's begun, the author decides to add something I don't agree with.He added yet another human with a death note.I thought it was cool, Light being a special case, one of the few humans in history to have acquired a death note.Also, Light and L eventually meet up and become what you could consider as buddies, L not knowing that Light is actually Kira, and there's this whole new element of somewhat perverted humor which didn't sit well with me.I was enjoying the seriousness of Kira trying to rid the world of evil and the manhunt that ensued as a result.But then the author tries to make light of the situation.



Ah well, you can't ever ask for too much.I've decided to leave a clip for every show I do a review on so here's a Death Note clip: .This is the only funny scene in Death Note I actually appreciate because it's just so odd.I should also note that before you watch the clip, be aware that only the human who comes into possession of a shinigami's death note can see and hear that shinigami.Also, L has a sneaking suspicion that whoever Kira is is operating inside the police force so the force has set up cameras in all the rooms of all the houses owned by members of the police force.
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