Even if you are not a huge anime fan (and I am NOT), you'll enjoy it if you are willing to give it a try with an open mind.Īfter bored Shinigami (god of death) Ryuk drops his Death Note into the human world it is found by an equally bored school boy named Light Yagami.
I advise you to give the series a try or watch the first movie (which is even better). As is typical of any anime, the original manga is slightly different and the live-action movie is even more different yet. The anime really has a lot to say about the notion of power corrupting, though I would sure be willing to use a death notebook to see if I would be corrupted (look out DMV workers with an attitude and trial lawyers, here I come!). However, the writing is brilliant, as Light slowly transforms from a well-meaning young man to someone with a god complex-and a person willing to kill ANYONE-whether they deserve it or not. At this point, most viewers will likely side with Light and the story isn't all that compelling. Eventually, the police decide that murdering these scum is bad and try to put a stop to it (why, I don't know-he is performing a community service). A brilliant high school student, Light, finds it and soon realizes that if he writes a person's name in it and concentrates on the face of that person, then they will die! At first, Light uses this notebook to kill off the evil scum of the world and he becomes a pop hero-though no one knows who is doing these murders or how they are done. This is because the plot is so totally bizarre and complex, but I'll take a stab at it: I death god ("Ryuk") is bored, so he drops a death notebook randomly to see what occurs when a mortal finds it. This is a super-difficult anime series to describe-especially to those who are not anime lovers.