Death Note

Review:

Recommended by Boldz, Frost, my coworker, and literally everyone. 

The overwhelming hype and classic nature of this anime drew me to it at the beginning of the creation of this list. Once again, we have another anime that comes strikingly close to Demon Slayer. Assassination Classroom was really good, but wasn't close to Demon Slayer. I definitely overrated it and its ending. 

Death Note has tons of hype behind it for a good reason. The concept alone is a class of its own. I think the best way I can describe Death Note is a supernatural anime version of Breaking Bad. Without spoiling anything, I will say that the ending, the characters, and the overall war between L and Light can be compared to Breaking Bad. 

I think the second half of this show is not as terrible as people make it out to be. I think it was definitely unneccessary, but not garbage. I don't like Near, I don't like Mello, and I don't respect how they presented L's death. It felt rushed, not as glamorous as I wanted it to be, and overall unsatisfying. Near and Mello feel like random characters they threw in to continue the story in a way. You can argue that they were a reincarnation, or cool successor to L, but that wouldn't have been necessary if they formatted the story in a way where L doesn't die so randomly. For a character like L, I think his death should have been so different. So many other characters died in this show in such better and cooler ways. I just personally don't like it, I don't care if that's a petty or stupid opinion to have. 

The ending was very good. They made up for L's death by making Light's death a nice little reference. He laid down, looked up, and closed his eyes. Just like L did. L even showed up when Light died. It was probably the perfect ending. How the show got to that ending is where I have the problem. 

Demon Slayer is not finished, and I genuniely think that Season 1 and 2 alone are not better than Death Note as a whole. However, I have read the Demon Slayer manga, and even disregarding the Swordsmith Village Arc and onwards, I still have a much different perspective of all the characters, plot elements, and aspects of the Demon Slayer universe and series. Demon Slayer as a series will always be number 1 until something like Brotherhood takes over. I can't undo the feelings and care I have for the characters of Demon Slayer, so I can't put Death Note above Demon Slayer. I just want to point out that Death Note is probably objectively better than Demon Slayer S1 and 2. I do think that Season 3 will change that, however. Demon Slayer is a series that gets better as it goes on. 

Anyways, yeah. Death Note has some decent characters, some likable, some not. The story is pretty consistent, with some boring bits and kinda bad pacing. The first 2/3rds are great, the last third is OK but not amazing. The ending is perfect, and I honestly respect it a lot. Not much else to really say. It's crazy how long it took me to get to Death Note. This was supposed to be the next anime after Demon Slayer (funnily enough), but it's taken me 30 more animes in between to get here. Well done Madhouse and the creator of the story. This is a masterpiece. Boiling rice