So I finally sat down to watch the entire Death Note anime… and… well… I really didn’t like it. Don’t get me wrong - I can see how the thematic mood and overall presentation is interesting - but how events played out were kinda over the top to me. More or less, I thought things were complex to the point of absurdity. There were also moments when plot elements only became known because someone (usually Light) would explain it. Had he not explained it, then no one would have know those events took place, because nothing was shown of those events until someone explained it. Light went out like a bitch too: whining, begging, and crying. On the flipside, the Dark Side Eroger in me likes how Light manipulated women: especially Misa. Everything was a tool to him.
I by and large agree, but my criticisms are a bit different. I was also reading the manga, which is of course going to be a bit different. (Haven’t seen the anime, have no plans to.) Light going out like a squealing coward was actually one of the things I really liked; it established a lot about his character, and in any event was pretty good what with how much of a bastard Ryuk was. Of course, he was supposed to be that way all along, but was never exactly shown that way until the very end - especially how he just kind of disappeared for awhile.
My real problem with the series is that it Just Would Not go down that way. Just … no. It would never ever come down to a handful of geniuses against Light. Not once L establishes Light has some sort of unknown magical power to rub people out knowing only a name and a face. Setting aside that – if they were surveilling Light (early on) the police would have no qualms digging thru his trash, and they’d’ve found the little TV (which would have been damning).
But it would have never come to that. You’re the NSA. Your job is to wargame out scenarios of this type. So you’re quickly going to conclude that – whoever this guy is – he could start World War 3, from virtually anywhere in the world. This means you have absolutely no choice but to find Kira at once. And if the entire NSA is looking for you, they WILL find you. (Setting aside MI5. And the CIA. And all the other agencies I’ve never even heard of.) If they have to data mine the entire internet in order to find people who looked up information on all Kira’s victims before they were killed, then that’s what they’ll do.
Personally, given the intricate plans Light comes up with, I’m surprised that he doesn’t off criminals with more artistic flair, given what the Death Note can accomplish. If it were me, I would want to make the death of the criminal always be ironic according to the crime they commit.
Correct me if you have some proof otherwise, but i doubt the NSA would be practing for the eventuality of “Someone who can kill anyone in the world by writing their name in a book as long they know that person’s name and face.” Somehow, at this stage, i don’t believe the NSA is taking it as a credible threat.
Aside from the Shinigami and the Death Note, the world was suppose to be like our earth. Shinigami were seen as mythical icons created by early Japanese and the Death Note, which was associated with them, a mythical tool. Even of those religious fanatics who believed, most would say they would not be able to come to earth and have a human posses a book.
That said, some stuff that did go on was rather not how things would go down, such as the incident in the subway car. If an undercover agent was cornered like that and forced to provide names, I highly doubt they would write the real names.
Well, I was reading the manga. And in the manga, way before the existence of shinigami becomes known to more than a handful of people, Kira is still a big deal. Very early in volume 1, the UN holds a full meeting to discuss what he’s doing, because it’s already become obvious he’s either got one hell of an assassin’s network, or some kind of supernatural force. They take it very seriously.
Then Light is able to prove that Kira has some sort of unspecified ability to kill, knowing only a name and a face. He tricks Kira into making a demonstration on live TV. They have no idea it’s a shinigami, they don’t find that out until much later, but very early on, they know he has some sort of unknown supernatural force.
At that point, I think the NSA is going to say – well, we have the whole thing on film; that’s pretty convincing proof. Once they know he can apparently kill anyone in the world at will, with the only apparent limitation “have to know name and face”, they’re NOT going to eventually lose interest, and only pretend to be looking for him. They’re going to be like “we have to find this guy immediately.”
I was under the assumption that in the Death Note universe, those “super powerful government agencies” are aware of the lingering supernatural nature of their world, although they do not fully comprehend it. The fact that the US government allowed the creation of the SPK, shows that there is acceptance and mechanisms in place for serious consideration of the metaphysical. In real life, you’d be kicked out the door. It also bears mentioning that neither L or Near created this branch: they we’re “hired” by it. While the populace at large are ignorant of the world, I think “ultimate power brokers” like CIA and KGB chairmen have scattered and incomplete evidence about creatures like the Shinigami. Just like in real life, the CIA and KGB have scattered and incomplete evidence about the Vatican’s deepest secrets, what’s really inside the hidden rooms of the Mormon Cathedral in Salt Lake City, and what’s the truth behind Scientology.
I’m pretty sure the US government wanted the Death Note for themselves. Power and all that.
Stopped by the nearest thing (considering how far away it is from where I live, in the closest thing Colorado has to a Koreatown) to a local anime shop on the way back from the dentist today. In the “just in” section, was the first volume of a hardcover collector’s edition of Death Note. Due to this fact, I was surprised that it was only $19.99 USD (without tax). Given that Death Note is one of the two manga series that has been tempting me in to finally starting to buy manga (the other being Inuyasha), I went ahead and bought it. I’ll take some pictures a little later for you guys to see.
The manga handled this way better than the Anime.
What did you expect? He was a narcissist, but more importantly just like Near said, Yagami Light was a crazy murderer. He was so caught up in his own reality that when it was threatened he couldn’t accept it. Also unlike other people he knew for sure that there was no heaven or hell. All his intelligence and power he had when alive would mean nothing when he died.
That’s not true, people were scared of Kira. The governments did not know who or what he was or even how he did what he did. L was their trump-card, and was the worlds best investigator. They believed he would solve the Kira case but once Kira started killing CIA agents they knew for sure that they weren’t safe. If they were more aggressive Kira might start murdering entire cities.
No, it is doubtful Light threw away those small pieces of paper. He most likely ate them or flushed them down the toilet. Once they had set up the cameras, entering Lights room became harder because by then they were severely understaffed.
Are you serious? They can’t even find Bin Laden. How can you be so sure they would find a guy that they didn’t even know the identity of.
That’s easier said than done. Even if they could data mine the Internet, once Kira became known on the Internet and even before that,
there was and always would be tens and thousand of people that would look up such information themselves.
Light even explained this to Ryuuk. For one thing the Death Note didn’t work that way. If a death described was impossible to happen to a person due to their location and whatnot, that person would have a heart attack no matter what. And Kira wanted people to realize that somebody was killing all the murderers. No matter how many people he killed with the Death Note he could never have achieved his “paradise”. If they knew that they could/would die if they committed a crime – then they would stop committing crimes.
That depends on what kind of a person they were. First of all this agent had already demonstrated that he wasn’t and all that bright to begin with. Kira had already demonstrated that he could kill pretty much anyone anywhere as long as he knew their name. The Agent knew this and Kira threatened to murder his entire family as well as fiancÈe if the agent didn’t help him. No matter if he died himself or betrayed the CIA, the agent cared more about his family then people he had never even met.
Yeah this pretty much summed up what I thought about it, except when it started it off wasn't too bad, but as aforementioned it did go a little over the top and as a result I liked the beginning of the series better than the ending.
I also agree with Daiji I liked the manga a lot more than the series~I still think that with a bit of creativity, you could let the world know you exist while killing criminals in a poetic manner. For instance, having murderers be murdered by other murderers, and having the murdered murderer always have some symbol carved in them, or some note on them proclaiming your existence, etc.
Actually…the anime and manga are supringly similar…word for word, scene for scene. There are some variations, but only to the point that would be deemed absoltely necessary for changes to a animated media presentation rather than manga presentation. It is possibly one of the best examples of how a show can be popular without significantly altering the subject to be on television.
That said, the 2nd arc was clearly inferior to the 1st arc. It seemed like the author tried to start out with something, they just gave up midway.
I believe that is making a massive leap of faith for early in the series. Given that Japan set up the task force under L, it would have almost certainly given information of what to look for and since L himself did not consider this, it is highly doubtful that anyone other than some nutters believed in such existences until later in the series.
Nope sorry, that’s was impossible to do with the Death Note. You couldn’t make somebody murder another person and then commit suicide afterwards or die. If you wrote two names like that it would just make both people die from heart attacks. This was explained in the manga. If you started trying to make people die in a specific elaborate way it would be harder for it to happen and would most likely just have a heart-attack. But even if this didn’t happen, coming up with elaborate ways of killing people would just make it easier for authorities to make a profile of you. Also, remember that Kira didn’t want people to know he could kil them in other ways than just heart attacks. He always tried to have an ace in the hole.
I haven’t read the manga yet, though I do have the first volume of a collector’s edition that recently started. From what I saw in the anime though, I don’t see how it couldn’t be possible. The combination of the whole bus incident and the prisoner escaping to a prison employee bathroom (or something similar if I recall correctly) when Light was testing how much the Death Note could bend reality to the written word within lead me to thinking this.
To be honest, I tried to read the manga but gave up after the first few because I couldn’t stand the hypocrisy of Light. Really, I have rarely hated someone more than him… if ever.
Light is a great villain. It’s just that he’s the villain of the story in addition to being the main character. But yes, ultimately, I found Death Note wanting, but for other reasons. Light being an evil bastard I could deal with. It was the sheer ridiculousness that was going on later on – they were engaging in plans so overly complex, and so brittle, that it would have fallen apart long before it actually does. (Not least of which being, it would NOT have boiled down to a single detective struggling against the evil genius. No way, no how.)
Yeah up until near the end of the first season was about when it wore a little thin for me, but I still stuck it out and took it for what it was and enjoyed it, but i think it was a little over-hyped by a lot of people, but everyone has different tastes I suppose. But more specifically After L died the story started to go downhill for me
It did have some good concepts though.
Light was NOT a great villian. Hell, he wasn’t even a good villian. He was an absolute moron who had a good memory and a pretty face that the girls liked, and nothing more.
L was a more interesting character, but only due to his neurosis.
I’m surprised people like Death Note. It’s long, boring, extremely unlikely, inconsistant, and contrived— in its OWN universe and setting. I suspect if Misa wasn’t a significant character in it, it would never have anything more then a tiny fan base due to its potentional.
I don’t think Misa was why people watched, considering how many times I’ve heard people spout out about how they hate her and that she’s annoying and so on.
Agreed, it’s like Light suddenly became pedestrian and lost his edge after this - I was left shaking my head at some of the obvious mistakes he made.
I’m not sure where you’re getting this. He created some very intricate plans, devised creative ways to overcome obstacles, and almost kept up with L in his ability to reason his way through things and make incredible but accurate leaps of logic. They were the modern, teen aged, Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty of Japan. Sure you have to suspend your disbelief about some story elements … but considering you’re talking about a world in which one can kill a person by writing their name in a book I think making a few story concessions is not that big a deal. And, yes, there were any number of ways plans could have fallen apart if things didn’t work out just so, and the like, but the fact that everything went as - or nearly as - the major players foresaw despite all the things that could have gone wrong is supposed to highlight the brilliance of the characters. The fact that the story was written in order to make them right doesn’t mean a thing, since stories are always written in order to showcase events in a predetermined fashion. (as a storyteller I can tell you, making people brilliant isn’t always easy but controlling the setting gives you a necessary edge)
And I liked Misa - sure she wasn’t terribly bright, but she was cute, devoted, and very attractive. It never hurts to have a little, bubbly, eye candy to spruce up a series.
Wow, way to bring a thread back from the dead. Back to the matter at hand, I didn’t mind Misa actually. I even found here somewhat attractive at times. However, her personality was quite grating to me.