Customer Reviews
Brilliant! - By: V, 11 Nov 2008 
Very smart & sophisticated detective/fantasy. You will never guess what happens next.
The animation is not terribly flashy or bright, but good quality & realistic. If you like thinking films - you'll love this one.
Even non-anime fans should enjoy this - By: 3inarow, 16 Oct 2008 I haven't seen many anime series but was intrigued by the storyline for this series & was not disappointed. The animation is quite simple but very effective & you do end up seeing these characters as real people. The writing is very strong & before I realised it, I found that I was rooting for someone who could only be regarded as a mass murderer! Within the overall storyline, there are also a number of moral & philosophical questions raised e.g. can the deaths of criminals be justified if it leads to a safer society. It also shows that power can corupt very quickly & easily as Light moves from killing criminals to those on the side of justice to protect his identity. Some of the killings are also pretty brutal & callous.
It will be interesting to see how the story developsin future volumes.
Anime at its very best? Hell, any sort of TV at its very best! - By: Jorge Anderson, 22 Sep 2008 It's difficult to know where to start on a review for Death Note - there are just so many great things to write about!
For starters, the animation is very fluid, & also includes some very impressive camera work; additionally, the characters are all detailed & well drawn. There are also some really nice cinematic touches (in the closing credits for example, it's drawn like an old film roll), & the whole thing is a pleasure to watch.
As the other reviews here state, the story is uniformly brilliant. Without giving too much away, high school student Light Yagami picks up a book (the Death Note) dropped by a bored death god, and, having discovered its powers, decides to rid the world of criminals by killing them all. His actions do not go unnoticed however, & detective 'L' vows to catch the person behind the criminals' murders. The story briefly touches on the morality of what Light is doing, but the main attraction here is the cat & mouse game between Light & the L, with each trying to outwit the other. It's well paced & well written, & crucially has the 'I'll just one more episode...' feelingin abundance. Gripping stuff.
The opening & closing themes were written by J-rockers Nightmare & put the music of most western bands to shame; the incidental music throughout really gives each scene bucketloads of creepy, uncertain atmosphere.
As far as languages are concerned, you have the choice of English, Japanese, or Japanese with English subtitles. As per usual, the Japanese with subtitles is superior to the English dub; however, the English is not as bad asin most anime. The subs are always readable against the backgrounds, & are a fairly accurate translation of the Japanese. The English dub however seems to have been rewritten quite a lot from the original (but not so that it changes the story).
As far as the packaging is concerned, it'sin a single DVD box with two discs, each containing four episodes. A nice touch is that it comes with a mini leaflet describing the rules of the Death Note & short plot synopses for each episode. There are some extras, such as the usual clean opening/ending & a behind the scenes feature, & they run for about 40 minutes - a nice addition to an already fantastic package.
Lastly, a couple of notes about the rest of the series. Currently, only the first two volumes are available, with the third being released soon - together, these three comprise episodes 1 to 24. I believe this is different to the American release, where each volume contains only four episodes (hooray for European justice!). The complete series is made up of 37 episodes, so presumably there will be two more volumes released within the next year or so. Since the whole series hasn't been released yet, there's no legal boxset availablein any part of the world (including Japan).
Final word? Even if you're not a fan of anime, it's highly recommendable, & I can't wait for the next set of episodes! Amazon cunningly priced the first series at about £8 to lure youin (the next two volumes are around £11), but the series is so good that it's worth any amount of money!
simply the best - By: Cs Ives, 02 Aug 2008 not gonna bore ya or tell u the plot. Deathnote is without doubt one of the finest anime series around..buy it buy it buy it.
The best anime release this year? - By: J. Snook, 01 Jun 2008 Death Note is the Japanese supernatural thriller that has taken the world by storm, & rightly so, as this is one of the most engrossing & captivating television shows I have ever seen. It is adapted from the immensly popular manga by Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata.
The protagonist of this anime, Light Yagami happens to come across the death note which was dropped by a bored Shinigami or death God. He soon discovers that the note has the power to kill any personin the world if their name is writtenin it; so long as the victims face isin mind at the time. On top of that the death note allows the user to determine the cause of death & many other things. If the cause of death is not stated, the victim will just die of a heart attack. Light is accompanied by he creepy & mysterious Ryuk; the shinigami who dropped the death note. Only Light can see & hear Ryuk. He acts as a spectator to Lights' use of the death note
Light, embracing the Death notes power, decides to use it to cleanse the world of all criminalsin order to create a utopia that he himself will be God of. However, the morality of Lights' actions is a major theme for this anime. Astonished by the bizarre murders, the Japanese police aquire the help of the mysterious agent known as L (who has never failed to solve a case)in order to catch & bring Light to justice. What ensues is an epic thriller, full of unbelievable twists & turns, with L & Light lockedin a deadly game of 'cat & mouse'. This is very enjoyable to watch as you are constantly guessing about who will win. These episodes seem timeless. I found myself watching all 8 episodesin a night because it was just so addictive to watch.
This anime is also very interesting as a poses many questions about human morality & makes you wonder what you would do if you had a death note.
The artworkin this anime is absolutely gorgeous. The characters & especially the backgrounds are all drawn with such attention to detail, serving us a very high quality anime. The music is pretty goodin this anime too. I particularly love the opening & ending theme songs. They are from a Japenese band called 'nightmare'. The style & the feel of the music really compliments this anime well, & I've found myself humming these tunes many times.I only watch the English dub of animes & I must say that it is incredible. Brad Swaile, a veteran to voice acting, does the voice of Light brilliantly. You may recognise his voice from another Manga title Tokyo Underground,in which he plays the hero Rumina Asagi. Sci Fi fans may recognise the voice of L as Battlestar Gallactica's Allessandro Juliani
I really like the fact that Manga Entertainment are releasing Death Notein 2 volume sets. This is one of the main reasons I bought this DVD. It is really annoying having to wait months for single volume releases of other animes. So I appreciate Manga doing this, & it probably works out cheaper too. Furthermore manga have put some nice special featuresin this set. The best ones being interviews with the voice actors for Light & L.
If you enjoy this first helping of Death Note then you should check out the rest of the series, as well as the mangas & the motion pictures. There is also a Nintendo DS game, but it is only outin Japan. Death note absolutely rocks. If you have not seen Death note & you are looking for something new, check this out. It's really easy to get into & it is totally addictive. I can't wait for the next DVD releases now.
