Death Note is at its best in about the first half where each episode reveals a new wrinkle. Light discovers a ploy to capture him and then he has to cleverly get himself out of the corner. Light is never more than step or so ahead at a time and seeing the "I think you think" mind games play out was really fun to witness. It helps that both Light and L are textured characters that differ greatly in some ways (one is a sociopath and the other is not) and are very similar in others (both are obsessed and like mental puzzles). To add to the immersion, the Japanese voice actors Mamoru Miyano (Light), Kappei Yamaguchi (L), and Aya Hirano (Amane) all bring their absolute unhinged A-game to the table. The Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada influenced soundtrack as well as the bold sweeping camera successfully wring genuine emotion out of a story that was pretty dry at times in the manga.
Much like the manga, Death Note starts out more compelling and then loses some steam in the middle that it has a difficult time fully recovering from. The amnesia plot stops the organic cat and mouse momentum in its tracks and then replaces it with a fairly dull "who out of these random executives is the new Kira" storyline that has neither Light as the smarmy, love-to-hate protagonist or L having to use his incredible mind to keep the enemy on their toes. The episode surrounding L's death carries incredible symbolic power illustrating how lonely L is and how much he knows he has to sacrifice to defeat evil. The problem is that after L dies the show has nowhere to go except repeat itself with another cat and mouse chase that is neither as suspenseful nor as intimate as the one before it. The ending is another stand out episode bluntly laying bare how immediately powerless and fearful Light becomes at the loss of his power. His death comes soon after as foretold and then the show just ends. It's purposefully anti-climactic because, in the end, Light's whole endeavor to purge the world of evil can't change the fact that he too will die someday.
My other big criticism is that the show rarely goes in to the insane global implications of someone having the Death Note and holding the world hostage. The 70% reduction in crime and the stopping of all wars are facts that are glazed over. We rarely delve deeply in to characters. Light and L are given more in the way of complexity but the show could have grappled more with the compelling themes it lazily brought up in the first place.
Much like the manga, Death Note starts out more compelling and then loses some steam in the middle that it has a difficult time fully recovering from. The amnesia plot stops the organic cat and mouse momentum in its tracks and then replaces it with a fairly dull "who out of these random executives is the new Kira" storyline that has neither Light as the smarmy, love-to-hate protagonist or L having to use his incredible mind to keep the enemy on their toes. The episode surrounding L's death carries incredible symbolic power illustrating how lonely L is and how much he knows he has to sacrifice to defeat evil. The problem is that after L dies the show has nowhere to go except repeat itself with another cat and mouse chase that is neither as suspenseful nor as intimate as the one before it. The ending is another stand out episode bluntly laying bare how immediately powerless and fearful Light becomes at the loss of his power. His death comes soon after as foretold and then the show just ends. It's purposefully anti-climactic because, in the end, Light's whole endeavor to purge the world of evil can't change the fact that he too will die someday.
My other big criticism is that the show rarely goes in to the insane global implications of someone having the Death Note and holding the world hostage. The 70% reduction in crime and the stopping of all wars are facts that are glazed over. We rarely delve deeply in to characters. Light and L are given more in the way of complexity but the show could have grappled more with the compelling themes it lazily brought up in the first place.
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