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Death Note
ăăčăăŒă(Death Note) is a Japanese media franchise based on a manga which focuses on a random highschool student, named Light Yagami, who finds a Shinigamiâs notebook, which allows him to kill anyone provided he follows the rules.A)
Death Note is an interesting franchise because the initial story has some pretty incredible elements that are evened out by some of the dumbest things Iâve ever seen in a story.
So, yeah, Iâm not gonna be popular.
Reviews
Anime
The anime is good overall and definitely worth a watch. However, the first 10ish episodes of the anime are the best and, following the death of L the quality declines quite a bit.
Death Note has some issues that are not immediately visible because the series is great at hooking you in. The most egregious problem with Death Note is that Light is a Mary Sue (Gary Stu?) and there are multiple moments in the series where the laws of the universe bend to his will. The obvious examples are: the walk with him and Naomi, detailed below; the bus hijacking and when Light gets the Death Note back and he screams at the top of his lungs. Besides these, another issue is the appearance of Nier as he is quite literally just L again. There are a handful of other issues that I canât remember at this moment.
Something Iâll note is that I dislike the nihilism of Death Note. I donât really know what else I could say in that regard, so Iâm leaving it there.
Japanese Films
Iâve only seen the first two of these and, honestly, theyâre okay. Putting aside their natural weirdness, they compress the story well and give it a better (if less climactic) ending, because L actually beats Light.
Games
Kira Death Game
I spent a little time playing this DS game and, well, Iâll just say that itâs likely to be more fun in multiplayer.
Speculah & Analysis
Death Note's Quality is a Fluke
There are some hints that suggest Death Note is good by accident. This is mainly down to Lightâs status as a Mary Sue and the Sequence Iâll get to below. The Sequence was created in a scramble to avoid derailing the story and it really shows.
While I donât have experience myself, my friendâs girlfriend (yes, really) has read another work by the same author and said it isnât good. Iâm noting that just because itâs relevant to âgood by accidentâ but, well, this is obviously not conclusive evidence.
The Broken Sequence that fixes Death Note
Note that spoilers here are unmarked, be warned!
Here Iâm referring to the sequence where Light and Naomi (FBI chick) are walking from the police stationâŠand then back to the police station.
The interaction between the two of them is pretty bad and causes quite a lot of damage to the series. Let me explain why.
The fundamental problem is that Naomi isnât acting like a normal person and, more egregiously, is not acting in character considering the situation. This isnât the last time something like this happens to a character in Death Note, but this is the most egregious instance.
Letâs look at this from Naomiâs perspective:
- Her fiancé, an FBI agent, was killed by Kira.
- That fiancé was in a highly unusual incident a few days prior.
- That incident involved one of the targets of investigation.
- She figured out that Kira can kill with methods other than heart attacks.
- She needs to relay this information to the Special Investigators.
- Her own life is in danger.
That last point is the most important as she really shouldnât trust anybody she isnât sure is part of the investigation team.
Now, consider the situation she is currently in: she went to police headquarters and found nobody from the Special Investigations team was there. While there, she meets the son of the Police Chief who she talks to and, well, he walks her out of the building.
HoweverâŠthen he starts following her. He follows her for an unusual amount of time until she points it out to him. He gives some excuse and continues following her. Heâs curious as to why sheâs at police headquarters. She intends to circle around hoping someone will be around when she gets back. The guy continues to follow her.
When she finally intends to turn around and go back to the station, he claims that nobody is going to be there (completely new information) and, further, that he is part of the team so she should just relay whatever information she has to him.
Taking all that together, there is no reason she should trust him. The anime even has her glancing back at Light as if to say heâs suspicious
and as if to mock me, directly, for noticing how unusual this all is. While Lightâs questions about why Naomi was there, who she was and such can be easily excused as casual curiosityâŠthe main fact is that heâs following her for no good reason. In a real life situation, that is highly unusual. Anything he says after the fact he keeps following her is obviously a lie or excuse. Sheâs a former FBI investigatorâŠwhy the Hell does she trust him after all that?
The main flaw here â that Naomi isnât thinking â stems from the seriesâ central flaw: Light is a Mary Sue.B) The reason Naomi doesnât find this suspicious is, quite simply, because Light needs her to not find him suspicious.
I think this whole sequence is a microcosm of the issues that plague the entire seriesâŠjust that theyâre exasperated here because it was rushed. Rushed? Why, yes.
The author found that Naomi was way too good for the plan that he had set out for the seriesâŠI mean, just look at the beginning of that situation: Light loses the second she reports her findings. So the author decided to quickly get rid of her to keep his original story plan in place. Thatâs why this is the broken sequence that fixes Death Note
.
This is definitely the reason why the issues are so visible here while theyâre generally unnoticeable in the rest of the series.
Despite it âfixingâ Death Note, I think the far better option would have been to put the series on hiatus while the author re-planned somethingâŠbecause he clearly is not good at the whole âimprovisationâ thing.
Light is Stupid (and Lucky)
This is something I wonât elaborate on for a while, but the series has a quirky issue where it presents Light as highly intelligent while his actual actions suggest he really isnât.
Seriously, pay attention to what he doesâŠitâs honestly amazing that L didnât beat Light near the start of the seriesâŠas he actually is intelligent.
Itâs a little disturbing that I havenât noticed anyone else notice this about Light.
The Bus Hijacking
I checked this article and realized that the bus hijacking is actually another great example of Lightâs nature as a Mary Sue. Itâs also, ironically, what almost gets him got.
What do I mean? WellâŠ
The rules of the Death Note mean that you cannot have a criminal do something they wouldnât be able to do.C) Basically, you can only tell the criminal to do something âin characterâ: hence why a criminal who doesnât speak French canât write a message in French, or why a criminal locked up canât die in another location. In the event any part of that is impossible, it just defaults to a heart attack.D)
That would mean that this entire bus hijacking is not possibleâŠand Light would just be sitting around, awkwardly, while on a date.
The plan hinges on three things which I donât think can be possible in combination.
First, Light specifies that the hijacker will walk over and pick up a note that he dropped. Light isnât currently in the bus and thereâs no guarantee that he will be thereâŠso I suspect he wouldnât be âcountedâ by the Death Note. Though Iâll admit this is my weakest argument, because itâs really ambiguous as to whether Light acting consciously (or not) should be factored in. Iâm leaning very hard towards no,E) because Light could have gotten sick, tripped, gotten mugged on the way or just decided not toâŠor forgotten the plan. All of those would render the entire plan gone. Though I must also admit that I donât remember exactly whether that was specified in the Death Note, but it is definitely the case that the entire plan hinges on it.
Second, Light specifies that the hijacker will see a âdemonâ and then start to panic. This eventually leads the hijacker to stop the bus to get away. This is the part that is definitely impossible because, while heâs an addict, you canât just assume heâs going to randomly hallucinate during a bus hijacking, Light. In fact, thatâs not what happens, because Light has to consciously intervene with the note above (the demon in question being Ryuk). I think this is the most blatant example of the series ignoring the rules of the Death Note for Lightâs benefit.
Third, the death itself relies on a random vehicle appearing after the bus stops, to kill the hijacker. This one is the most ambiguous, I feel, because the deaths are reliant upon something being able to plausibly happen. So someone dying in a car accident is more likely to happen if theyâre currently driving versus them not having a driverâs license. Considering that, as far as we see it, the road is completely empty besides the busâŠI find it unlikely that he should have died by car.
Actually, I change my mind, this is probably the weakest argument I have. Though if the likelihood of him dying by getting hit by a car is too low, it would still render the entire situation impossible, meaning he dies by a heart attack and Light has to unfortunately go on a date with a hot girl.