As promised, this is our second episode of Onichi Anime Review, with the review of the Death Note anime. The podcast is our supplementary material, and if you can't see the link above, here is the MP3 Link:
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The anime Death Note is originally based on the manga of the same title, written by Ohba Tsugumi and illustrated by Obata Takeshi of Hikaru no GO fame. The show began airing on October 3rd, 2006 and was co-produced by Studio Madhouse, Nippon TV, and VAP. Slated to run for 37 episodes, the latest released was 23.
Warning: The following Review may contain some mild spoilers. Read at your own discretion.
Supplementary Material:
And now for some definitions:
SHINIGAMI: Death God. Demon like characters who reside in the Shinigami world. To increase their lives, they must write names of humans in their Death Note. They cannot be killed by physical methods and must follow strict rules if they want to live without punishment.
DEATH NOTE: The Death Note is a notebook, which every Shinigami (Death God) carries. In this notebook, whose ever name is written will meet their death. There are a number of rules that one must abide by when writing in the notebook, which are revealed in the anime during the eye catches (commercial break teasers). The ways of killing someone can be very specific, or very loose, depending on the writer's intent.
Here are "The Rules of the Death Note".
The Plot
The story of Death Note revolves around a number of central characters, the main one being Yagami Light. He is a 17-year old high school student and is very bored with everyday life, because it is so mundane to him. That is until he finds a notebook in the school courtyard one day. The front cover of the notebook reads: Death Note. The inside cover of the notebook contains the rules that we alluded to previously. This is also when Light finds out about the Shinigami, Ryuk, who happens to be waiting for Light in his room. Ryuk was the Shinigami that dropped his notebook into the Earth World, out of pure boredom.
This is the point at which the story really begins, when Yagami Light decides that he will create a Utopian society and crown himself the God of said state. You could almost say that this goes according to Ryuk's plan, since his only reason for being on Earth was to observe what humans would do with such power. Ryuk finds Light to be quite interesting. Light begins writing the names of many criminals into the Death Note and sees the effects of what he's doing. This comes with positive and negative reaction. Some people are glad to see criminals being judged, while others call it inhumane, and call this Judge a murderer no better than the criminals. The general public starts calling this Judge simply by the name Kira, which is a play on the word "Killer".
Good or bad, the police cannot have this self-proclaimed Judge of good and bad, do as he pleases. They begin an investigation, headed by Yagami Soichiro, who happens to be Light's own father. This investigation is helped by a very peculiar individual, who is called throughout the world, the top rated detective. His name is L. Or at least his alias is L. He never really gives out his real name nor does he really show his face to anyone, until this investigation, when he helps out the investigation team lead by Yagami Soichiro. This begins the cat and mouse mind game between L and Kira, with many surprises along the way.
We are later introduced to yet another key character of the series, Amane Misa, who you will later find out to be the Second Kira. Her Shinigami's name is Rem, who has helped out Amane Misa for personal reasons and developed a certain connection with Misa, for which she is willing to kill those who oppose her. Amane Misa has an extreme crush on Kira because he "punished" the murderer of her family. She becomes very devoted to Yagami Light and claims that she fell in love with him at first sight. Light only sees her as an asset because of a certain ability that she has, which he doesn't. You'll just have to watch the show to find out what that ability is though.
That is all I will have to say plot-wise, because otherwise the show would be ruined for you all.
The Animation
As stated previously, this show was illustrated by Obata Takeshi. If you've seen Hikaru no GO, you can kind of tell what his animation style is like. Though Death Note looks extremely refined compared to his previous works. Much less cartoony and a lot closer to reality. Overall, the animation looks great and is definitely worth a watch.
The Audio
Overall, the background music in this show is very nice to listen to as well. The opening and ending themes are really well done and the songs are something else. Well worth the listen anyway.
Overall Grade
I give this show an "A-" for the grade, because there may be some flaws here and there, since nothing is perfect, though this show is very close to perfection. I'd have to say that this is the best anime of the new season and anyone who enjoys good plot and fantastic mind games, should definitely give this show a view.
Where Can I Get It?
Just recently it was licensed by VIZ in the United States and the DVDs are slated to come out sometime in the 4th Quarter of 2007, but VIZ has promised downloadable episodes sooner than that, though no date has been established for it either. These downloadable episodes are supposedly in Japanese with English subtitles only, which is a great thing for us that love subtitles. The DVDs will of course have both the Dub and the Sub. Meanwhile, these episodes are available for download from a number of bittorent sites, which I will NOT supply links to, but if you are a long time anime fan, you probably know how to use these sites anyway. Up to episode 23 has been released fan subbed.
That concludes our review for the anime Death Note. Next time on the podcast and here, on the site, I plan to take a look at the often overlooked, but very good anime, Rose of Versailles. Meanwhile, you can contact us at OnichiAnimeReview@gmail.com and give us some opinions and suggestions for the podcast or for the site. You may even get your e-mail read on the air! Until next time, this is Gokuu Son signing off. Jya matta minna.
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