Death Note

The Plot: The series focuses on Light Yagami; a 17-year old intelligence student, bored with his life and disgusted at the state of the world around him. One day his eyes fall over a notebook laying on the ground outside of his school. Reading the English cover, "Death Note," and noticing that the writing inside is also in English, Light decides to take it home to read it. Within the next 5 days, Light has killed hundreds of people by just by watching and recording names of criminals from the news. The Death Note enables him to kill anyone whose face and real name is known. To know more about the rules of the notebook read the terms of the Death Note.

Later a Shinigami (God of Death) named Ryuk approaches Light and tells him that the note book in his possession in fact belong to him. Ryuk tells Light that only the owner of the Death Note can see him and that he, Light, is now the owner of it and may use it as he chooses. Light tells Ryuk that he plans on using the Notebook to kill criminals and clear the world of crime. Within the first chapter alone, he kills over 250 criminals.

Eventually, the number of inexplicable deaths of reported criminals catches the attention of the International Police Organization (ICPO) and a strange detective known only as "L" gets involved. L already knows that the serial killer, dubbed by the public as Kira, is located in Japan. L has also deducted that Kira can kill people without laying a finger on them. Light realises that a detective is following him, and knows that L will be his greatest nemesis. A game of psychological "cat and mouse" between the two characters begins. Light is constantly trying to evade suspicion by the detective L while maintaining his identity as Kira.

Written rules: The Death Note comes with its own set of rules, the main rules are as follows:

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

Reception: To date the manga has sold over 6 million copies all over the world. In 2007 Play magazine named it as the best anime in the Anime Year in Review. It has been rumored that the author and artist of the manga; Ohba and Obata had been persuaded to lengthen the storyline when its popularity increased. Originally, they has only intended to make it half as long. To date there are over 100 Death Note fan websites, and thousands of fan fiction and fan art entries over the web, such as the Death Note Wiki, which currently has over 130,000 members and the Death Note Fan Site, which has over 1 million users. Over the course of 2009, a Hollywood movie was announced, drawing further fans into the series and sparking new debate over who should play various roles.

Personal Review: Death Note draws in the crowds because it is unique. The anime has a simple story line, with a complicated overall plot that had to be followed with real thought. The animation is one of the best, with excellent shading and detailed character drawings, with realistic expressions. The music was brilliantly created and matched the story exactly, some fans believe the epic music is what makes the series so watchable. Intelligent, witty and emotion, Death Note truly draws in viewers an is really one of those series that you can't stop watching. Intense animation with likable characters and a brilliant plot-line. I give the animation 10/10 - the perfect animation which could not have possible been any better!