Reviews Death Note (Manga Review)

Title Name: Death Note (Manga)

Author's Name: Tsugumi Ooba
Artist’s Name: Takeshi Obata

Status: Not complete.
Licensed: Viz Communications (8 volumes will be available in November 2006)

No. Of Volumes: Over 10 and counting

Genre: Drama, Mystery, police, Psychological, Shounen, Supernatural
Target Audience: Teenagers (May contain bloody violence, bad language, nudity)

Plot Summary: A notebook gets accidentally dropped into the human world by the Shinigami (death god) Ryuku. The notebook is called “Death Note.” A Death Note is used as a killing device for humans.

The Death Note that was dropped into the human world gets picked up by a high school honor student Raito Yagami (Light Yagami in English Manga). Light is considered an ace student with great potential but he is bored out of his mind.

Light thought that the Death Note was a hoax. But inside the Death Note there are directions on how to use it:

•The human whose name is written in this notebook shall die.
•This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person’s face in their mind, when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will note be affected.
•If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person’s name it will happen.
•If the cause of death is not specified the person will simply die of a heart attack.
•After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

Light decided to test the Death Note and finds out that it isn’t a hoax. He now has the power to discreetly kill people. With his new found ability Light decides to use it to shape the world into his ideal world by killing off all the criminals.

Eventually the World’s governments start to notice the unusual deaths. They figure out something has to be behind it. This is where the master detective of the world L comes in. His job is to find out whom or what are behind all those criminals deaths. They dub the killer Kira.

Unfortunately for Light, L is a worthy foe who is either at Lights level or above. Through careful deduction and Kira’s mistakes L is able to determine that Kira resides in Tokyo. With L closing in on him, Light decides that he must find out L’s true identity and write it in the Death Note. But L is again a step a head of him. L has never been seen and never used his real name. Time is running out for Light and the police are closing in on him.

Conclusion: I must say the Death Note is a wonderful read. It is definitely one of the few I would recommend. Plus I doubt anyone could guess what would happen next. Light is just too crafty for that. And L doesn’t skip a beat behind him.

Death Note is definitely a very Psychological Manga. There are times when I personally think that Light is completely insane. But could an insane man really make the whole world change so much? To make it worse it has changed for the better. Crime rates have slowed and almost stopped due to criminals not wanting to face the wrath of Kira. World’s governments start to bend in the direction in which Kira is taking them.

I must be frank. It is hard to choose a side between L and Light. They definitely are a pair. L clearly sees Lights side as evil. But Light makes you wonder if that is at all true considering the out come.

Lights sets up such an entangled plot that just weaves together beautifully. He doesn’t leave out any possible outcome. He even makes L doubt what he first believed to be going on.

I must say there was a time when I was a little miffed at what happened to the point where I didn’t want to read anymore. The story wasn’t bad I just hated what happened. But I will stick with it and have hope for a better outcome.

Spoiler: Another reason

Considering another detective is hot on Light’s trail and he dubbed himself N.

Death Note definitely has an edge on both the Mangas Gantz and Monster.

It is definitely a Manga with action. It is also a page turner. I doubt it will leave you unsatisfied so go out and get it.

There will be a live action anime/movie adaptation to this. Actually two parts with the first airing in June 2006.

Author's other Works: Unfortunately DN is the only work Tsugumi Ooba has done.
Artist’s other Works: Takeshi Obata has done artwork in Hikaru no Go, Ayatsuri Sakon, and Cyborg G-chan to name a few

Final Scoring:
Storyline: 22/10.0 Its just to complex.
Rereading Value:10.0/10.0 There are parts you miss and need to read again to get the full outcome.

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