2705 replies to this topic

[Nighteyes]

Αν και διάβασα μόνο τα τελευταία chapter του manga και κάποια σημεία σε άλλα, βρίσκω ότι η μεταφορά του σε anime, είναι πολύ πιο εντυπωσιακή και ενδιαφέρουσα. Κυρίως απ' όσο ξέρω διαφέρει το 2ο μισό του anime, όπου δεν αναπτύχθηκαν τόσο κάποιοι χαρακτήρες και κάποια γεγονότα, που προσωπικά δεν με πείραξε γιατί τις βρήκα απειροελάχιστες όσον αφορά τη πλοκή. Γενικά βέβαια, προτιμώ να δω πρώτα το anime και αν δεν με καλύπτει ή τελειώσει πρόωρα, διαβάζω το manga. Εγώ θα έλεγα να δεις οπωσδήποτε τα πρώτα 20 επεισόδια του anime και μετά διαλέγεις αν θα συνεχίσεις στο anime ή στο manga.

[Franklin]

To anime κρατα τη γραμμη της πλοκης του manga απλως το δευτερο ειναι πολυ πιο μεστο σε διαλογους. Προσωπικα ειδα πρωτα το anime και μετα διαβασα το manga για ''παραπανω''.

[私はLです]

Επειδή δεν έχω τον χρόνο να ψάξω είναι κ τεράστιο αυτό το thread θα μπορούσε να μου πει κάποιος από που μπορώ να κατεβάσω τις 3 ταινείες Death Note που έχουν βγεί;

Ευχαριστώ

Spoiler:

Έχει ενδιαφέρον αν και με ηθοποιούς γιατί απ' ότι 'εχω διαβάσει στις 2 πρώτες δεν πεθαίνει ο L κ η τρίτη που δεν έχει και πολύ καιρό που έχει βγεί πέρσυ νομίζω αρα θα έχει κ subs, εχεί τίτλο που τα λέει όλα L: Change the World

[Zoro]

Death Note Live Action

Death Note:The Last Name

Death Note:L Change the World

Σε .rmvb όλα,εκτός από την 2η,που έχει και σε .avi...οκ ποιότητα,πέραν από την πρώτη,που είναι ψιλοχάλια,αλλά βλέπεται...megaupload για το κατέβασμα,πιάνουν πολύ λίγο χώρο.

Όπως τα λες πάντως,είμαι κι εγώ οπαδός των 2 ταινιών(η 3η ήταν αίσχος) και σου προτείνω να τις δεις,να ξέρεις το έναλλακτικό τέλος,που για μενα ήταν ανώτερο από αυτό του ανιμε.

Οι ερμηνείες μόνο είναι χάλια,κατά τ'άλλα,για τα δεδομένα τους και τον χρόνο που κρατούσαν,έγιναν μια χαρά οι αλλαγές.

Δες τες και πέρνα να αφήσεις την αποψή σου.

Αυτή το μήνυμα έχει επεξεργαστεί από Zoro: 20 Ιανουάριος 2009 - 00:05

[Erebos]

Επειδή δεν έχω τον χρόνο να ψάξω είναι κ τεράστιο αυτό το thread θα μπορούσε να μου πει κάποιος από που μπορώ να κατεβάσω τις 3 ταινείες Death Note που έχουν βγεί;

Ευχαριστώ

Spoiler:

Έχει ενδιαφέρον αν και με ηθοποιούς γιατί απ' ότι 'εχω διαβάσει στις 2 πρώτες δεν πεθαίνει ο L κ η τρίτη που δεν έχει και πολύ καιρό που έχει βγεί πέρσυ νομίζω αρα θα έχει κ subs, εχεί τίτλο που τα λέει όλα L: Change the World

Το καλύτερο release των original Death Note ταινιών από Mishicorp & SARS σε Η.264 (uploaded by me):
[Mishicorp-SARS] Death Note - The Movie [H264] (Complete) @ greek-tracker.com

Το spin-off sequel (L: Change the World) δυστυχώς ήταν τελείως μάπα σαν υπόθεση, αλλά βλέπεται μόνο και μόνο για τον Matsuyama Ken'ichi που ενσαρκώνει τον L.
http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/48658174/l+change+the+world+dvdrip?tab=summary

[Mad_Hatter]

Απο τα πρωτα ανιμε που ειδα,παρα πολυ καλο

Spoiler:

πολυ ωραιο σεναριο

καλο soundtrack

ωραια,σκοτεινη ατμοσφαιρα

καλη σκηνοθεσια, πολυ ωραια δοσμενο το κυνηγη L-Kira

αλλα και μερικα παραπονα

ελλειπης αναπτυξη χαρακτηρων, ιδιαιτερα του L τον οποιο βρηκα κουφιο (ποσα fangirls θα με μισησουν....)

κατακορυφη πτωση τις σειρας μετα το 25-26 ep

[roriconfan]

Πάνω στα παράπονα του Ριν, συμφωνώ. Είχα βάλει ένα ρίβιου μου σσε κάποια προηγούμενη σελίδα, το οποίο σουλούπωσα κάπως.

Spoiler:

ANIMATION SECTION: 9 [Top notch, realistic and fluid, with amazing camera angles, movement and shadowing effects.]

Most Hollywood movies couldn’t do it better. There is variety in faces, so nobody looks the same and most characters change cloths all the time, so don’t expect the “Naruto effect”. Excellent, as long as you like dark palette colors. Still, there are also too many static frames that ruin a perfect mark.



SOUND SECTION: 10 [Thrash Metal and chorus/opera themes are not for everyone but I personally loved them.]

Opening and ending songs are simply mind numbing. Some music themes repeat too often and may become tiresome after the 100th time you listen to them. But I personally didn’t find that to be a bother. Voice acting had no obvious problems and was fitting with every character.



STORY SECTION: 7 [The God Of The New World!]

The Death Gods in the series are really bored with their existence and from time to time play tricks with mortals, just to kill the boredom with a little laugh. An ingenious and amoral teenager named Yagami Light finds a supernatural notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it. He decides to use this note to kill all the criminals in the world and establish a new world order of peace and justice… with him adored as a God! Although he hides his identity, people worldwide quickly realize his existence and divide into pro and against of his actions.

The theme of the series is morality. Is it moral to kill someone, without giving a chance of redemption for his crimes? Don’t you become a criminal by killing against the law, even with the best of intentions? Does killing all those you consider “evil” can really make the world a better place? How can you be sure if someone deserves to die? What makes your personal judgment criteria better than anyone else’s?

Of course, the protagonist doesn’t really care about morality. In fact, he clings towards the opposite direction. He doesn’t believe in universal morality, God, after-life punishment, or ethics in general. In fact, the main atmosphere of the series promotes such beliefs. God is either uncaring with the world or non-existent and all beings in Creation are left to do as they please, with morality and justice being just human fabrications for maintaining social order. Yagami is beyond such ideals. He believes that the end justifies the means and that brilliant people like him are superior and thus always correct before the opinions of pitiful commoners. If HE gets what HE wants, then nothing else matters. He is willing to do anything it takes to promote his way of thinking, including taking advantage of people’s feelings and good intentions, winning their trust just to abuse them, killing good-willing people who don’t agree with him, killing supporters who don’t follow his commands to the fullest and even killing his zealots when they are no longer useful to him. And all these without even lifting an eyebrow, since what he does is in his mind always correct. He is an extreme form of a Machiavellian character! Or a psyched version of Cao Cao from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The message he promotes is quite amoral: “There is no meaning in life, goodness is for suckers, brains and cunningness are all that matters, live the way you like and screw how others feel about it.”

Yagami’s rival in the story is “L”, another ingenious teenager who believes that upholding the laws is the closest thing people have to justice and morality. Logic and thorough examination are his ultimate weapons. He and his aid are in fact a crazed version of Sherlock Holmes and Watson. The story is mostly about Yagami vs L and his followers, trying to outsmart one another with various, cunning, multi-layered mind tricks. Yagami tries to hide the fact he is Kira, the supernatural killer, and dispose of L & co. without leaving incriminating traces around him (a VERY hard task!). L & co. on the other side tries to smoke him out and arrest him for the murders (also VERY hard!).

The detective-story aspect of the series is exceptional. A crazed Sherlock Holmes taking on a Machiavellian / Cao Cao-like character! Wow! Unpredictable and yet ingeniously planned-out, most of the time. The two of them are next to each other most of the time and yet they can’t do a thing to eradicate one another, just like that. Not without an ingenious planning that doesn’t leave room for openings for the other guy’s ingenious planning! Man! It’s like watching a chess game between two world champions! All the people are just pawns in their hands; manipulated to do their bidding, without even realizing it most of the time.

But the supernatural aspect of it is simply bullshit. There is no realism or reasoning with all the weird stuff in the story.

Death Gods that are bored and throw Death Notes at humans for fun? What the hell; boredom as driving force?

Although there are several attempts to explain and reason the powers of the Death Note, there are still no explanations about the general existence of it in the world. A few of the “holes” in the story are the following: Why does the Death Note exist? Who made it? Why do Death Gods exist? Why are they bored with their existence? Did something happen that made them lose their reason-for-being? How correctly does the accent of the name of the one you want to kill must be written? What if the language you are using does not support a proper pronunciation? How well must you imagine someone’s face? What if you remember him as he looked decades ago? Why the pages of the Death Note never end? How does someone forget about its existence without having memory problems with everything else he was doing in the meantime?

So, ok, some can arbitrarily think that God made the Death Note and the Death Gods and then stopped caring about His creations’ actions, thus depriving everything of a reason-for-being. And that the Death Note works with a “Word: Death” spell, which is triggered by translating the victim’s written birth-given name to its True Name via the Death Notes’ metaphysical energy. But these are just unsupported viewers’ opinions and thus not really canonized as true.

How can Yagami’s depiction of an ideal world work in practice? A world of total justice and peace, based on the fear of death? That would only be a world of terror and hopelessness. Also, in theory every human being loses his/her temper and does something really stupid at least once in his/her lifetime. There wouldn’t be anyone left alive in Yagami’s ideal world! Maybe Yagami is a delusional, insane and megalomaniac person, self-convinced he is always right. Or maybe he became insane because the Death Note offered him the power to kill without being punished for it. Whatever the reason, throughout human history, people with total control over the lives of others don’t become more just and caring, as time goes by. They become crueler and more uncaring, thus slowly bringing the fall of their own creation.

As you can tell, the ending is not a cheery one. And it will feel really dry with what you were promised with all the presentation so far. I must say that it is different than in the manga, because the scriptwriters wanted a more dramatic and moral ending. Censorship is the root of all “adaptation decay” and so, it is worse than the manga version.

I have noticed great similarities between the scenarios of Death Note and Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion . Both stories involve an ingenious youth who gains a supernatural ability and plans to change the world from the shadows. Yet Code Geass is a lot richer in terms of emotions and motives, and thus it is superior to Death Note. But then again, it is far less serious with all that lukewarm humor and fan service moments that it simply loses credit. Still, if you like one of these, you will definitely like the other as well.

A minus in the story is the deterioration of its seriousness towards the end. Yagami starts making terrible mistakes and L’s side reaches to unsupported verdicts, without actual facts. Which means, Yagami gets stupid and his rivals know the truth with Deus ex Machina revelations. Either the facts were not presented properly or the scriptwriter simply reached to a story dead-end and made a poor attempt to wrap the story as he could. Whatever the reason, the perfect image of the event storyboard is ruined in the last episodes and spoils your great impression of the series, like a tower of deck cards that crumbles because of a badly placed card on the top.

But don’t get bogged down with all this criticism. The story is indeed great but because of its story holes and lack of supported facts in the end, it looses some points. It is still worth watching.



CHARACTERS SECTION: 7 [Black and white, flickering their tones.]

Yagami/Kira and L are the only characters that really matter, thanks to their non-stop mind-trap competition. All the rest are just supporting cast that exist just to criticize or promote the actions of those two. You cannot really connect with any supporting character. Why?

Problem no.1: All characters have the same demeanor. From the top criminals and detectives, down to the normal every-day people, they are all serious/cynical and with almost no grimaces. I don’t say I support cartoon-like, extreme grimaces all the time, but a few wouldn’t hurt anyone. How can you like characters that behave almost like robots of the same assembly line? Especially in a setting that has no excused global depression in it. It is supposed to be like the “real” world, where people have the freedom of emotional variety and personal individuality. Sure, there are times where characters do silly/funny things but even those are just there to ease the grim atmosphere, not break a smile on someone’s mouth. They may not look the same but really feel the same, no matter where you look.

So, even the top two characters are essentially the two sides of the same coin : It’s a “Do what you want to change the world” vs “Follow the rules and let the world learn from that” battle that spreads to the entire cast. Of course, this is a hard thing to notice as all characters dress differently (Misa with Goth lolita style, Ryuk with punk style), and have quirks and personal tastes (L loves sweets) that cloaks the truth and fools most of us to think that they are different. It would have worked if ANOTHER problem were not so obvious.

Problem no.2: There is NO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! How could the scriptwriters miss that? Absolutely no one changes beyond a figment of an OBVIOUS FROM THE START way, during a series that is supposed to be deep, philosophical, and spanning several years in duration. This is so stupid, it deserves a punishment.

Also, I must point out the fact that many characters are really stereotypes and not even their quirks make them different. The following characters were easy for me to predict their role in the story from the first episode they appeared. Misa is your typical lolita pop-idol that exists solely for fan service. Yagami’s sweet sister exists just to be kidnapped and used against him. Matsuda is the silly police officer nobody takes seriously that will stand up to his beliefs in the time of need and save the day.

So, the characters are great to watch but lose appeal when seen as what they really are: Stale and homogenous variations of the same, central personality. Still, their cool demeanor is so imposing that really saves them from becoming shallow and uninteresting.



VALUE SECTION [Valuable lessons on what NOT TO DO IF YOU GET OMNIPOTENT.]

Historical Value 3/3: It is simply the best detective/thriller/fantasy series ever made into Anime. What else can you give it?

Rewatchability 2/3: Mystery series tend to have little replay value, as the story is not that thrilling the second time you watch them. But it still has enough elements and perplex story that may spur you to watch it again, just to grasp any details you missed.

Memorability 4/4: Totally! If you love the first time and it sticks with you, who cares about the value of rewatching it?

Total for Value: 9/10



ENJOYMENT SECTION: 8 [Note to self: Never write my name in a notebook!]

-On going scenario without fillers is always a sign of enjoyment.
-The whole “God is Absent, Ambition over Goodness, Truth gets you nowhere” atmosphere may discourage most people who are accustomed to more cheery stories.
-The whole idea of a book that can kill you by writing your name in it is hard to swallow at first.
-The series tends to be less “smart” after the time skip, as Yagami gets stupid afterwards. His plans are easily falling through thereafter and his enemies know the truth from the “scriptwriter’s mouth”.
-It was a lot more interesting than the similar other famous series I have seen so far, which were great but also quite boring most of the time.
-Anyone who has been fed up with kids’ shows will find it at least interesting.



VERDICT [My Dear Diary … today the following people were really nice to me … Oh, shit, wrong book!]

The accused is found … NOT GUILTY! … He is amoral, illogical, snobbish and doesn’t want to mature. But he does all that in a pretty cool way.



SUGGESTION (DEATH) LIST

This series is better than:
Boogie Pop Phantom, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Jigoku Shoujo. All these are supernatural/mystery thrillers but have really slow and tiresome plot.

This series is better than:
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. It is sci-fi instead of thriller, but the story follows the same path. Too bad it goes haywire in the second season.

This series is equal to:
Monster. Also a supernatural/mystery thriller with a really slow and tiresome plot, but has an awesome story.



P.S.: Do you remember that Christmas song about “Santa Claus knowing if you were good or bad, making a list and coming to town?” … BE A GOOD BOY!

[The Tragic Prince]

Δεν ειναι τυχαιο, αν εβλεπες το L Change the World, θα ξερες οτι υπαρχουν ντεντεκτιβ για ολα τα γραμματα του αλφαβητου!

Spoiler:

Δουλεμα κανω...
Χαζομαρα του σεναριογραφου αυτο με τα γραμματα...
Μαλλον θελει να δείξει οτι υπαρχει συνεχεια αναμεσα στον L και τους αλλους 2...

Κι ομως ετσι είναι... οποιος έχει διαβάσει το novel μαθαίνει οτι όντως ισχύει αυτό που λες

[Maya-chan]

Κι ομως ετσι είναι... οποιος έχει διαβάσει το novel μαθαίνει οτι όντως ισχύει αυτό που λες

Ναι, μόνο που το novel είναι από άλλο συγγραφέα επομένως ούτε αυτό είναι canon.

[Mad_Hatter]

Δε ξερω αν θα συμφωνησει κανεις μαζι μου, αλλα πιστευω οτι το deathnote ειναι το πιο overated anime ever.Δε λεω οτι δεν ειναι καλο, καθε αλλο, αλλα παντου ακουω διθυραμβικα σχολια, του στυλ "deathnote, best anime ever, κορυφαιο ανιμε κλπ" και σχεδον καθε φιλος που εχω εχει το dn πρωτο στη λιστα του.Οπως ειπα καλο ανιμε, αλλα δεν ειναι κατι το τοσο ξεχωριστο , ενα αριστουργημα (οπως το nge για μενα).

[Radagast]

Δε ξερω αν θα συμφωνησει κανεις μαζι μου, αλλα πιστευω οτι το deathnote ειναι το πιο overated anime ever.Δε λεω οτι δεν ειναι καλο, καθε αλλο, αλλα παντου ακουω διθυραμβικα σχολια, του στυλ "deathnote, best anime ever, κορυφαιο ανιμε κλπ" και σχεδον καθε φιλος που εχω εχει το dn πρωτο στη λιστα του.Οπως ειπα καλο ανιμε, αλλα δεν ειναι κατι το τοσο ξεχωριστο , ενα αριστουργημα (οπως το nge για μενα).

To πιο overrated anime ever δεν είναι με τπτ. Συμφωνώ όμως πως είναι overrated.

Λες πως ακούς συνέχεια διθυραμβικές γνώμες. Αναρωτήθηκες πόσα anime έχουν δει αυτοί που τις κάνουν αυτές τις κριτικές;; Μήπως έχουν δεν έχουν δει 10-20anime? Γιατί ξέρω άπειρο κόσμο που έβλεπε μόνο endless shounen πχ και ξαφνικά βλέπει death note. Σου φαίνεται παράλογο που του φάνηκε αριστούργημα;; Μπορώ να σκεφτώ ένα σωρό άλλους τίτλους anyway που είναι ακόμη πιο overrated (σαν Haruhi,elfen lied,fma κτλπ) απ'την άποψη πως δεν αξίζουν με τπτ το hype τους, άλλα όπως σου είπα μην πιστεύεις τους πάντες γιατί πολύ απλά οι περισσότεροι δεν θα έχουν δει όσα εσύ, οπότε μόνο αντικειμενική άποψη δεν θα έχουν, σε τελική είναι και θέμα γούστου ποιος σου είπε πως όλοι έχουν ίδιο γούστο με σένα;; )

Π.χ. εγώ θεωρώ και το nge overrated, που για πολλούς είναι αριστούργημα. Δεν σημαίνει πως δεν το θεωρώ καλό, απλά δεν μου έμοιασε να αξίζει το hype του αν και ήταν πολύ καλή ιδέα για την εποχή του. Γούστα. Ο καθένας βλέπει κάτι "άλλο" με το μάτι του και την καρδιά του, σε κάθετί που βλέπει.

Anyway καθαρά υποκειμενικά, το θεωρώ πολύ καλό anime (τόσο το DN όσο και το NGE) αλλά soz στο τοπ10 μου δεν μπαίνουν με τπτ. Υπάρχουν ένα σωρό άλλοι τίτλοι, που θεωρώ καλύτερους σαν σύνολο και σαν τι είχαν να μου προσφέρουν.

[kelborn3]

Και εγω 8α συμφωνησω με τουσ 2 προλαλησαντες.Οταν βγηκε το deathnote εφερε κατι το διαφορετικο στο κοσμο των ανιμε.Κακα το ψεμματα το σεναριο του ηταν πολυ πρωτοτυπο και ο τροπος οργανωσης του σαν γενικοτερο ανιμε ηταν πολυ καλος οποτε λογικο ηταν να εχει μεγλαη απηχηση και να εδραιω8ει μεσα σε αυτον.Οπως ειπε και ο ριν εκανε το μπαμ σαν 1 νεο eva.Τωρα το ζητημα αν ειναι κορυφαιο-προσωπικα για μενα δεν ειναι-ειναι μια εξαιρετικη δουλεια σιγουρα απο τισ τοπ των τελευαταιων ετων αλλα οχι και η κορυφαια.Μπορει να ακουω συνεχως δι8θραμβικες κριτικες απο φιλους και γωνστους μου πανω σε αυτο-αλλα ολοι συμφωνουμε σε κατι σιγουρα δνε ειναι το καλυτερο.Τα κριτηρια που εχουμε ομως ολοι ειναι κα8αρα υποκειμενικα οποτε δε μπορεις σε καποιον που το 8εωρει κορυφαιο να μην το 8εωρει και ομοιως αναποδα-σε τελικη ειναι το τι σου αρεσει σαν απλος otaku:tensai:

[SakuraBiyori]

Ειναι ισως το καλυτερο ανιμε που εχω δει μεχρι τωρα.

Spoiler:

καλο σεναριο,φοβεροι χαρακτηρες,φανταστικη ατμοσφαιρα,ο συνδιασμος L και Light ηταν φοβερος.Κριμα μονο που τελειωνει τοσο ασχημα.Ημουνα με το μερος του Light.Δακρισα στο τελευταιο επισοδιο,πραγματικα στεναχωριθηκα με τον θανατο του.

Spoiler:

Ακουσα οτι θα βγει Death Note 2.Αλλα δεν το πιστευω και πολυ.

[Seirios]

Πάνω στα παράπονα του Ριν, συμφωνώ. Είχα βάλει ένα ρίβιου μου σσε κάποια προηγούμενη σελίδα, το οποίο σουλούπωσα κάπως.

Spoiler:

ANIMATION SECTION: 9 [Top notch, realistic and fluid, with amazing camera angles, movement and shadowing effects.]

Most Hollywood movies couldn’t do it better. There is variety in faces, so nobody looks the same and most characters change cloths all the time, so don’t expect the “Naruto effect”. Excellent, as long as you like dark palette colors. Still, there are also too many static frames that ruin a perfect mark.



SOUND SECTION: 10 [Thrash Metal and chorus/opera themes are not for everyone but I personally loved them.]

Opening and ending songs are simply mind numbing. Some music themes repeat too often and may become tiresome after the 100th time you listen to them. But I personally didn’t find that to be a bother. Voice acting had no obvious problems and was fitting with every character.



STORY SECTION: 7 [The God Of The New World!]

The Death Gods in the series are really bored with their existence and from time to time play tricks with mortals, just to kill the boredom with a little laugh. An ingenious and amoral teenager named Yagami Light finds a supernatural notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it. He decides to use this note to kill all the criminals in the world and establish a new world order of peace and justice… with him adored as a God! Although he hides his identity, people worldwide quickly realize his existence and divide into pro and against of his actions.

The theme of the series is morality. Is it moral to kill someone, without giving a chance of redemption for his crimes? Don’t you become a criminal by killing against the law, even with the best of intentions? Does killing all those you consider “evil” can really make the world a better place? How can you be sure if someone deserves to die? What makes your personal judgment criteria better than anyone else’s?

Of course, the protagonist doesn’t really care about morality. In fact, he clings towards the opposite direction. He doesn’t believe in universal morality, God, after-life punishment, or ethics in general. In fact, the main atmosphere of the series promotes such beliefs. God is either uncaring with the world or non-existent and all beings in Creation are left to do as they please, with morality and justice being just human fabrications for maintaining social order. Yagami is beyond such ideals. He believes that the end justifies the means and that brilliant people like him are superior and thus always correct before the opinions of pitiful commoners. If HE gets what HE wants, then nothing else matters. He is willing to do anything it takes to promote his way of thinking, including taking advantage of people’s feelings and good intentions, winning their trust just to abuse them, killing good-willing people who don’t agree with him, killing supporters who don’t follow his commands to the fullest and even killing his zealots when they are no longer useful to him. And all these without even lifting an eyebrow, since what he does is in his mind always correct. He is an extreme form of a Machiavellian character! Or a psyched version of Cao Cao from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The message he promotes is quite amoral: “There is no meaning in life, goodness is for suckers, brains and cunningness are all that matters, live the way you like and screw how others feel about it.”

Yagami’s rival in the story is “L”, another ingenious teenager who believes that upholding the laws is the closest thing people have to justice and morality. Logic and thorough examination are his ultimate weapons. He and his aid are in fact a crazed version of Sherlock Holmes and Watson. The story is mostly about Yagami vs L and his followers, trying to outsmart one another with various, cunning, multi-layered mind tricks. Yagami tries to hide the fact he is Kira, the supernatural killer, and dispose of L & co. without leaving incriminating traces around him (a VERY hard task!). L & co. on the other side tries to smoke him out and arrest him for the murders (also VERY hard!).

The detective-story aspect of the series is exceptional. A crazed Sherlock Holmes taking on a Machiavellian / Cao Cao-like character! Wow! Unpredictable and yet ingeniously planned-out, most of the time. The two of them are next to each other most of the time and yet they can’t do a thing to eradicate one another, just like that. Not without an ingenious planning that doesn’t leave room for openings for the other guy’s ingenious planning! Man! It’s like watching a chess game between two world champions! All the people are just pawns in their hands; manipulated to do their bidding, without even realizing it most of the time.

But the supernatural aspect of it is simply bullshit. There is no realism or reasoning with all the weird stuff in the story.

Death Gods that are bored and throw Death Notes at humans for fun? What the hell; boredom as driving force?

Although there are several attempts to explain and reason the powers of the Death Note, there are still no explanations about the general existence of it in the world. A few of the “holes” in the story are the following: Why does the Death Note exist? Who made it? Why do Death Gods exist? Why are they bored with their existence? Did something happen that made them lose their reason-for-being? How correctly does the accent of the name of the one you want to kill must be written? What if the language you are using does not support a proper pronunciation? How well must you imagine someone’s face? What if you remember him as he looked decades ago? Why the pages of the Death Note never end? How does someone forget about its existence without having memory problems with everything else he was doing in the meantime?

So, ok, some can arbitrarily think that God made the Death Note and the Death Gods and then stopped caring about His creations’ actions, thus depriving everything of a reason-for-being. And that the Death Note works with a “Word: Death” spell, which is triggered by translating the victim’s written birth-given name to its True Name via the Death Notes’ metaphysical energy. But these are just unsupported viewers’ opinions and thus not really canonized as true.

How can Yagami’s depiction of an ideal world work in practice? A world of total justice and peace, based on the fear of death? That would only be a world of terror and hopelessness. Also, in theory every human being loses his/her temper and does something really stupid at least once in his/her lifetime. There wouldn’t be anyone left alive in Yagami’s ideal world! Maybe Yagami is a delusional, insane and megalomaniac person, self-convinced he is always right. Or maybe he became insane because the Death Note offered him the power to kill without being punished for it. Whatever the reason, throughout human history, people with total control over the lives of others don’t become more just and caring, as time goes by. They become crueler and more uncaring, thus slowly bringing the fall of their own creation.

As you can tell, the ending is not a cheery one. And it will feel really dry with what you were promised with all the presentation so far. I must say that it is different than in the manga, because the scriptwriters wanted a more dramatic and moral ending. Censorship is the root of all “adaptation decay” and so, it is worse than the manga version.

I have noticed great similarities between the scenarios of Death Note and Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion . Both stories involve an ingenious youth who gains a supernatural ability and plans to change the world from the shadows. Yet Code Geass is a lot richer in terms of emotions and motives, and thus it is superior to Death Note. But then again, it is far less serious with all that lukewarm humor and fan service moments that it simply loses credit. Still, if you like one of these, you will definitely like the other as well.

A minus in the story is the deterioration of its seriousness towards the end. Yagami starts making terrible mistakes and L’s side reaches to unsupported verdicts, without actual facts. Which means, Yagami gets stupid and his rivals know the truth with Deus ex Machina revelations. Either the facts were not presented properly or the scriptwriter simply reached to a story dead-end and made a poor attempt to wrap the story as he could. Whatever the reason, the perfect image of the event storyboard is ruined in the last episodes and spoils your great impression of the series, like a tower of deck cards that crumbles because of a badly placed card on the top.

But don’t get bogged down with all this criticism. The story is indeed great but because of its story holes and lack of supported facts in the end, it looses some points. It is still worth watching.



CHARACTERS SECTION: 7 [Black and white, flickering their tones.]

Yagami/Kira and L are the only characters that really matter, thanks to their non-stop mind-trap competition. All the rest are just supporting cast that exist just to criticize or promote the actions of those two. You cannot really connect with any supporting character. Why?

Problem no.1: All characters have the same demeanor. From the top criminals and detectives, down to the normal every-day people, they are all serious/cynical and with almost no grimaces. I don’t say I support cartoon-like, extreme grimaces all the time, but a few wouldn’t hurt anyone. How can you like characters that behave almost like robots of the same assembly line? Especially in a setting that has no excused global depression in it. It is supposed to be like the “real” world, where people have the freedom of emotional variety and personal individuality. Sure, there are times where characters do silly/funny things but even those are just there to ease the grim atmosphere, not break a smile on someone’s mouth. They may not look the same but really feel the same, no matter where you look.

So, even the top two characters are essentially the two sides of the same coin : It’s a “Do what you want to change the world” vs “Follow the rules and let the world learn from that” battle that spreads to the entire cast. Of course, this is a hard thing to notice as all characters dress differently (Misa with Goth lolita style, Ryuk with punk style), and have quirks and personal tastes (L loves sweets) that cloaks the truth and fools most of us to think that they are different. It would have worked if ANOTHER problem were not so obvious.

Problem no.2: There is NO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! How could the scriptwriters miss that? Absolutely no one changes beyond a figment of an OBVIOUS FROM THE START way, during a series that is supposed to be deep, philosophical, and spanning several years in duration. This is so stupid, it deserves a punishment.

Also, I must point out the fact that many characters are really stereotypes and not even their quirks make them different. The following characters were easy for me to predict their role in the story from the first episode they appeared. Misa is your typical lolita pop-idol that exists solely for fan service. Yagami’s sweet sister exists just to be kidnapped and used against him. Matsuda is the silly police officer nobody takes seriously that will stand up to his beliefs in the time of need and save the day.

So, the characters are great to watch but lose appeal when seen as what they really are: Stale and homogenous variations of the same, central personality. Still, their cool demeanor is so imposing that really saves them from becoming shallow and uninteresting.



VALUE SECTION [Valuable lessons on what NOT TO DO IF YOU GET OMNIPOTENT.]

Historical Value 3/3: It is simply the best detective/thriller/fantasy series ever made into Anime. What else can you give it?

Rewatchability 2/3: Mystery series tend to have little replay value, as the story is not that thrilling the second time you watch them. But it still has enough elements and perplex story that may spur you to watch it again, just to grasp any details you missed.

Memorability 4/4: Totally! If you love the first time and it sticks with you, who cares about the value of rewatching it?

Total for Value: 9/10



ENJOYMENT SECTION: 8 [Note to self: Never write my name in a notebook!]

-On going scenario without fillers is always a sign of enjoyment.
-The whole “God is Absent, Ambition over Goodness, Truth gets you nowhere” atmosphere may discourage most people who are accustomed to more cheery stories.
-The whole idea of a book that can kill you by writing your name in it is hard to swallow at first.
-The series tends to be less “smart” after the time skip, as Yagami gets stupid afterwards. His plans are easily falling through thereafter and his enemies know the truth from the “scriptwriter’s mouth”.
-It was a lot more interesting than the similar other famous series I have seen so far, which were great but also quite boring most of the time.
-Anyone who has been fed up with kids’ shows will find it at least interesting.



VERDICT [My Dear Diary … today the following people were really nice to me … Oh, shit, wrong book!]

The accused is found … NOT GUILTY! … He is amoral, illogical, snobbish and doesn’t want to mature. But he does all that in a pretty cool way.



SUGGESTION (DEATH) LIST

This series is better than:
Boogie Pop Phantom, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Jigoku Shoujo. All these are supernatural/mystery thrillers but have really slow and tiresome plot.

This series is better than:
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. It is sci-fi instead of thriller, but the story follows the same path. Too bad it goes haywire in the second season.

This series is equal to:
Monster. Also a supernatural/mystery thriller with a really slow and tiresome plot, but has an awesome story.



P.S.: Do you remember that Christmas song about “Santa Claus knowing if you were good or bad, making a list and coming to town?” … BE A GOOD BOY!

Κοίτα ρε συ ρόρι,με συγχωρείς κιόλας....ποσταρεισ ριβιου σε ένα θρεντ που όλοι έχουν δει το άνιμε...πόσταρετο στα anime rec....για να οθήσεις κανέναν να το δει ή όχι...αλλά εδώ πιο το νόημα πες μου...να δούμε ότι έκανε ριβιου και πόσο καλός είσαι?? έχω καλύτερη ιδέα...στείλε pm σε κάθε μέλος ξεχωριστά,γιατί μερικοί μπορεί να μην δούνε την δουλειά σου....

[AnastasiaChan]

Το Death Note είναι ίσως το αγαπημένο μου anime αν και με πόνο καρδιάς αδικώ κάποια άλλα..Ευχαριστήθηκα το τέλος,το ομολογώ..Ποτέ μου δεν συμπάθησα τον Light..