I do find this show overrated, but there are many strong elements to take away from it. I can certainly understand why people are passionate about this show, but I was left disappointed that it could not maintain its excellence throughout its run. It had a lot of potential to be great, exceeding expectations on a seemingly mundane premise early on but then falling back on several mind-numbing tropes by the end of it and becoming what I had expected it to be first going into it. It didn't fail to impress, but it didn't fail to disappoint either.
In the series, there are shinigami, which are gods of death, and each has a notebook which could be used to kill people. The story kicks off when one of these notebooks ends up in the hands of a human named Light.
The series starts off very strong, with a strong focus on the battle of wits between Light and L. The series does not drag out its introduction, and then offers a unique and interesting dilemma with each of its early episodes. Though often small in scale, tensions are high in these early episodes as Light struggles to keep his secret hidden, merely getting by on a combination of flawless strategy and a significant amount of luck. The main opposing forces Light and L are by far the most entertaining aspect of this show, and both are interesting and well developed, but their interactions seem to lose creativity as the series goes on.
Light is an incredibly intelligent person with a passion for creating a better world, however he is a bit of a psychopath, not hesitating to eliminate those who stand in his way or using acquaintances only for his personal gain. Light is a despicable person, though one can easily understand his moral reasoning. To him, the ends justify the means, and anyone who stands in his way is just as bad as those he deems criminals unworthy to live. He makes his mysterious murders known, causing a following to form for Kira, which then becomes the alias for those who kill using Death Notes in the series. Light has a god complex and prides himself in the following he has gained. It's also quite interesting that the weapon in this case is a very passive one, and our main protagonist utilizing it is one of ill intent. A hero often has to play an active role in doing the right thing, however we follow a murderer killing people in a very cowardly way. As the series goes on, Light descends further and further into madness, getting more and more carried away with his murderous intentions to the point of insanity. At the start, Light wants to cleanse the world of the worst criminals, and by the end he wants to eliminate all criminals and create a tyrannical society in which just about nobody would be worthy of living for even the slightest of crimes. I feel the depiction of psychopathy is spot on, as Light fights to the bitter end and never has remorse for his wrongdoings upon others, only simply feeling sorry for himself by the end.
L is comparably intelligent, though is a polar opposite of Light. He's an eccentric person with a passion for law and justice, to which he bases his morality. L is a perfect rival to Light, being one of the only heroes who isn't a mere pushover to Light's manipulative ways. Sometimes, however, it seems L's intuition and deductive reasoning border on being a superhuman trait, as he always seems to be on Light's case even though Light hardly ever even makes the slightest mistakes and gives himself bulletproof alibis throughout the series. Most of the time, however, L's moves and deductions are very entertaining and interesting, like an intense chess match, both players thinking several moves ahead. L makes some decisions early on that are so insane they're brilliant, initially seeming to be high risk, but ultimately being the best strategic decision given his goal of finding the truth of Light being Kira. There are moments as well to which L has to consider allowing innocent people to die in order to accrue evidence to capture Kira, making his morality questionable at times. Not only this, his methods of testing Light are rather extreme at times, such as arranging a fake execution of him by his own father. However, if L were a goody two shoes, he would be no match for Light, and as such he comes off as wise.
Unfortunately, there are a few points later on where the series dips drastically.
At episode 11, the series introduces a new character, Misa, who has her own Death Note, and unlike Light she is quite foolish and unintelligent. The big problem with this is it's frustrating to experience and is dull in comparison to the early episodes. There is a lot of focus on this character and her equally dull shinigami. In episode 17, Light gives up the Death Note and then helps L hunt down the new owner, which is quite a drawn out arc involving boring businessmen and a now oblivious Light, as well as what I can only describe as out-of-character moments, such as the physical fighting between Light and L. Light from this point also seems thoroughly out of character compared to the beginning of the series, as he now seems like a generic hero character from a cliche anime. The most interesting episodes from here on is episode 25 in which L is killed, and then the finale in which Light finally gets his much needed comeuppance. Between these two points are simply the worst episodes the series has to offer, as they scrounge up a replacement L quite literally and Light is now in the original L's place just meandering as he's slowly cornered.
The series simply gets stupid by the end of it, and though some of it can be explained by Light's descent into madness and L's successor's (Near) inexperience and seeming impulsiveness, it really just reeks of plot convenience. The last bit of the story should have been wrapped up much sooner as to not bog the series' quality as a whole so much, and there surely would have been a more logical way to do so to make reaching the end result more believable. Near's suspicion guides him far too much at the end, which simply does not line up with L's train of thought. There needed to be more for Near to grasp at, and it needed to be subtle if it wanted to hold up with the earlier bit of the series, but it simply failed to accomplish that. The rivalry between Near and the runner-up for his title, Mello, begs the question "who cares?" and concludes with an arc in which they learn to set aside their differences and work together, which is as basic as moral lessons get.
Another gripe I have with the series is the shinigami themselves. While they are visually interesting and offer a bit of contrast to play off of the main characters, they feel like an attachment rather than an integral part of the story. Ultimately, there's not a lot of focus on the shinigami, and it's implied that there shouldn't be, as Ryuk's stated driving force is boredom. Their realm is dying, there are fewer and fewer of them left as time goes by, and he came to the human world just because whatever I guess. There doesn't seem to be a lot going on there, and I have to assume it just to be lazy writing. There was a lot of potential here, but it's not fleshed out to any significant degree. They seem to serve as a distraction to the main story, and Ryuk in particular offers little beyond comic relief. For a god of death, he sure is a goof. There's also some thick foreshadowing that left me simply just waiting fifty one episodes to get the ending I'd known was coming from episode one. The only question I had was why would the shinigami act in a way that benefits them less? They could get anything they need at a whim, however they somehow lie in ruin throughout the series. I suppose boredom is really the result of them writing themselves into a corner with a simple line of dialogue.
While I can appreciate what they were going with intertwining the supernatural into a world grounded in reality, I feel the result has pros and cons. It is quite entertaining to see Light and L, two very rational thinking characters, grasping around the fact that supernatural elements exist. Strange it would seem at first, though coincidence is quickly ruled out and the supernatural is accepted. There are clearly rules to everything in the series, however explanations of such rules and elements are simply not there. For such an otherwise realistic and sensible and fleshed out series, the surreal aspect sure doesn't have the same finesse to it.
However while how I feel about the dips in the series still stands, I quite enjoy the ending and I am grateful it ended in a very conclusive way. There are too many anime series that go on indefinitely, and this one thankfully tells a complete story from start to finish, though I feel there's a bit of padding towards the end of the series that brings the overall experience down significantly. I can definitely recommend this series as a whole, however it dives from excellence to mediocrity, the mediocrity is still important to the story as a whole. It's just not done as well as it should have been.
