Death Note (English Dub)
Rarely do I find myself compelled by anime. Predictable storylines, cheesy jokes and one dimensional poorly detailed characters tend to commonly pop up. Catching Death Note on Adult Swim every once in awhile gave me the impression that this show would fall into this category, as Adult Swim hasn’t introduced me to something captivating in a while (I’ll credit it for turning me on to certain classic anime like Cowboy Bebop however). I was completely wrong.
Death Note is a story about Light Yagami, a genius highschool student who finds a notebook called the Death Note, which allows him to kill anyone who he knows the name or face of. Yagami uses this book to deliver his own brand of justice, killing criminals in a way that the police notice a pattern and spend the entirety of the series trying to catch him (known as Kira to the general public and police). Shinigami (death gods), expert detectives and shifting senses of right and wrong are only a part of the captivating ongoing plot spanning 37 episodes.
I sat down with Death Note with the intention of only watching it sporadically, mixing it in with my daily routine and eventually finishing it. After a few episodes, I found myself curious to see what was next, and eventually I changed my attitude completely from intrigued to outright obsessed. I sat down and watched the majority of the series in under two days, madly in love with the plot and characters provided. My interest in the series started to wane once one of the major characters died, but I continued my dedication until the very end. The show tells you how it will end in the beginning, and it doesn’t disappoint in the journey to that eventuality.
The animation for this show was absolutely gorgeous. The imagery is very colorful yet very dark when necessary for mood purposes. The soundtrack is overwhelming, offering thundering classical sounding themes when something important happens and not intruding on what’s being discussed when plot is more important than action. The voicework was good, although I found the character Misa Amane’s voice work to be particularly annoying in pitch.
Altogether, Death Note is an anime that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a good, morbid detective story. The plot will keep you glued to whatever form of screen you are using, the violence is a lot tamer than I expected for something called Death Note but still effective in keeping action going, and the humor is unusually dark for anime. If you like anime, don’t miss out on this series.
