Death Note Review

I must admit, I finished Death Note's 37 episodes complete in a top speed. It's THAT good. This masterpiece is really as good as the others have told me. And my anime instincts are correct after all. I know, I should've watch this last year. But well if you know me well enough, I always save those nice stuffs till the end. LOL. This is a truly anime addict must-watch. If you're doubting, let this review convince you to watch this spectacular piece.

First of all, the artwork of this anime is utterly finger-licking good. The anime did a very good impression from the first episode. Realistic, detailed and dark, this anime cuts off all kinds of fantasy-oriented style of artwork. Plus, if you notice carefully, you will not find any chibi-style or fun-style artwork in this anime. This is something to be praised because most of the anime out there must have these two styles to attract audience. And the setting in this anime is to be applauded - realistic and honest. But although the artwork is good, the shinigamis are real grotesque lol. So if you want to avoid having nightmares you might not want to watch this anime.

The storyline of this anime is utterly superb. Twist and turns everywhere, not to mention miniature climax in every episode. If you're a person who enjoys intellectual competition and challenges, this couldn't be a more prefect anime for you. Ingenious but yet down-to-earth solutions for every conflict that occurred, the creator must have squeezed a lot of brain juice for this. And I appreciate it a lot because I can't find any other anime like this, awesomely unique and original. To tell the truth, Death Note never failed to excite me in every episode, the plotting is just too good, too delicious.

This anime can be separated into two parts, first part is the battle between Raito and L, the second being the battle between Near+Mello versus Raito. Of course, the battle between Raito and L is much more exciting than Near+Mello because somehow the stakes are higher in the first battle. I love the relationship of Raito and L a lot, enemy and best friend at the same time. But at last the devil power of Death Note won, causing the death of L (spoilers! XD) eventually. In addition, the way authors kept adding new characters into the game such as professional Liars and Thief is a good tactic to keep us the audience interested.

Besides, I totally *heart* the episode in which L dies. That episode, in my opinion, is the most special of all. It has this personal touch to it, mainly focusing on Raito and L's unique relationship. The way L kept hearing those bell ringing sound audible only to him, the way L cared about Raito, the way Raito treated L as a buddy, this particular episode made my tears fell down unconsciously. Especially when L fell from the chair and Raito caught him without much thinking. And by the way, I totally love how L and Raito fights LOL. I really can't imagine these two highly-intellect characters actually fighting physically (Raito with his fist and L with his feet XD) before I really saw it with my own eyes. Seriously, these two are so cute. And OMG what is Raito and L doing in episode 25 after the rain??? It's kind of misleading in my opinion (yes my brain is shouting "yaoi!" when I saw it) but I don't think the creator meant it that way. Oh well.

As for the characters...Hmm...

Let's start off with Raito. This total hottie is tall, handsome, intelligent, and all the other nice features you can find in a guy. And by the way Raito's voice is the sexiest of all, well, it's Miyano Mamoru after all, so I can say it's totally expected XD. Too bad he got controlled by the dark powers of Death Note, which drives him to the brink of total craziness. What a waste. But still he's hot. And I have to say, Miyano Mamoru is one heck of a good seiyuu. Raito's character is played perfectly by him, bravo, Miyano-san! But one thing I don't understand is, how come Raito didn't kill Mello personally when he first knew his name through Yagami Ichiro? Is it possible that the creator overlook something?

Next, L aka Ryuzaki. Weirdo, but superb logic and reasoning skills. And one thing is I love the way he reasons everything, he never goes back in his reasoning process, although the facts he gathered might not be confirmed or certified. And this is one of the reason he managed to guess Raito is Kira (I never like this calling). Plus, L's confident but sometimes the solutions he took to solve problems can be considered as dramatic and unstable. And you know what?? The seiyuu for L in this anime is Kappei Yamaguchi!! One of my favourite seiyuu!!! *Heart*~~ Ahh~~ Kudo Shinichi~ I miss you~ (Sorry for the slight runaway, *ahem* let's get back to the main topic). To tell the truth, throughout this whole anime, L is the one who managed who made me ROFL everytime, let me tell you the points where I go ROFL:

1. After L pick pocketed Misa's handphone, Raito called Misa. L picked up the phone with a "もしもし？" in this cute curious tone which drives Raito crazy and barks at L "何がもしもし??" in this =___= way.
   
2. As L's being watched by the security camera (which in turn the feed is watched by Matsuda) he said "Matsuda's being a baka as usual" XD. To which Matsuda replied "I can hear that you know =__=..." LOL.
   
3. Misa's commercial effect on L XD.
   
4. L's love for sweet snacks.
   
5. L's seem-to-be-innocent sarcasm to Misa "even if you eat a lot of sweet stuff, if you keep using your brain, you wouldn't become fat".
   
6. L asked one of the officers to keep things confidential by "Here, I give you this strawberry, and you in turn keep this a secret for me" XD.
   
7. L is forced to act along in the Matsuda episode.
   

So now, for the second part of Death Note. Actually, the combination of Near+Mello is not so bad after all. And you know what? I actually enjoyed looking at Near's kind-of-horrible facial expression when she discovered a crucial point. Seriously. But Mello's too violent for my flavour. LOL. But actually I'm sort of looking forward to see Mello's true potential. So far I've already seen Raito, L, and Near's brilliant performance, but not Mello's. How unfair. But without Mello's sacrifice, Near would never be able to beat Raito. Mello, the hero! The key sacrifice to end the further corrosion of the sekai. Hats down to you, Mello.

The end of the anime is a well orchestrated one. Nothing spectacular to mention, but it was smooth and appropriate overall. But one thing I have to say is that the way Mikami Teru spurts out the blood is way funny. I mean, I know the place where a knife stuck in involves a lot of high-pressured blood vessels, but I don't think blood will spurts out like some kind of fountain out of that wound for like, 20 seconds or so in the anime. So I can't help but laugh all the way when I was watching that. But how Raito can see an illusion/ghost of L when he was closing his eyes is a nice touch for the end.

The soundtrack for this anime is very good. Matching and up-beat. L's theme B is my personal favourite. As for the theme songs, the first opening and ending theme song are done well by Nightmare (J-Rock Visual Kei band). If you don't already know, I'm a J-Rock fan and am totally thrilled+pleased to have J-Rock songs as theme songs for the anime. As for the rest of the theme song...sweat. The others are just basically shouting, not nice at all. So overall, I'd give a rating of 8.0 out of 10 for the soundtracks and theme songs of the anime.

As for the rating of this anime, my final verdict would be a rating of 9.2 out of 10. It's pretty perfect overall, just a little bit of imperfections. Ah well, not everything is perfect isn't it? So far, if I'm not mistaken this is the highest marks I've given to an anime in a review? Good job, Desu Noto.

The next anime would be Gakuen Heaven. A short, 13 episoded anime.

Yvonne..