My story begins at a movie theater close to Hurst, Texas. I don't remember what movie I saw that, but one moment of that day stood out big time. As I was leaving I noticed a movie poster. On that poster was a young man with black hair, hunched over, and wearing a long-sleeved white shirt. His skin was pale and he had dark bags under his eyes. And he had this look on his face: this serious, intent, deeply-focused look. Almost as if he knew who you were before you could even tell him. It was for a japanese movie called "L Change the World" it was advertised as having a japanese subtitled showing and an english dubbed showing. And down in the bottom of the poster was a website: www.deathnotefilms.com I think it was. From that point on, my life would be changed.
After seeing those words I knew these things: it was based on something called Death Note, i had no idea what that was, and that guy in the poster kinda gave me the creeps. I soon found out that Death Note was actually a Manga/Anime series. And after reading it's basic plot outline about a guy who finds a supernatural notebook that can kill a person (usually with a heart attack) just by thinking of their face and writing thier name down, it got me interested. But I'll admit my taste in anime series is somewhat lacking, up till that point the only animes I ever really watched and loved were Digimon (till season 4 ended), Pokemon (till the episodes based on the Ruby and Shappire games) and Yu-Gi-Oh (till yu-gi-oh gx). And other animes I tried to watch, I just couldn't get into. Their first few episodes just didn't really appeal to me. Still, I figured I would give Death Note a shot. As soon as I finished with that first episode, I was hooked.
The thing about Death Note is, it's so compelling that no matter which episode you see, you just have to continue to the next one. And continue I did. There were 37 episodes in total, and each one was so exciting, thrilling and unexpected. Just when you think you know what's gonna happen, the show sucker punches you and does not do what you thought it would. And the characters were all great too.
The lead character was a high school student named Light Yagami. After he becomes dissatisfied with the current justice system and the over-abundance of crime in the world, he finds the Death Note. Of course, at first Light thinks it's a joke, a well thought out prank. But when he watches a newscast about a man holding daycare kids hostage, he writes the name of the man in the notebook and after 40 seconds nothing happens. But as the kids start to run out of the daycare the reporter is informed that the man is indeed dead after clutching his chest and collapsing to the floor. After one more test, Light is finally convinced that the Death Note is indeed the real deal. He then begins to use the notebook in order to purify the world of all evil by killing criminals and other bad people and to make himself the god of the new world he has created. Light soon becomes known to the world as 'KIRA', in time some citizens come to support him in his actions, but there are just as many who disapprove of him.
The Death Note came to be into the human world by the means of a God of Death (or Shinigami) by the name of Ryuk. At first glance you'd think of him to be this evil and nasty kind of creature, when he turns out to be more like an average person watching the events take place. Basically, he's the comic relief/plot device as are the other Shinigami who come to appear, regardless, Ryuk is my favorite character. He's funny and has some of the best moments in the show.
But of course, if a whole bunch of criminals around the world die at once, someone is bound to notice. That someone turned out to be the very same person I saw on the poster (but in anime form) an extremely intelligent decective known only as "L". L spends most of his time stitting down with his knees up to his chin, eating candy and other sweet stuff and solving the worlds most difficult cases (He could probably host his own cold case file show). He sorta reminds me of Johnny Depp, he can play a strange and creepy but very likable character. Perhaps if he was a little younger he could have played him in a live action Death Note movie.
Other characters include: Misa Amane, a popular teen idol who just happens to come across a Death Note and even gains a Shinigami's ability to see peoples names and lifespans just by looking at them. She's an oke character but can be brutally annoying at times -_-.Soichiro Yagami, Light's father and head of the National Police Agency's task force assigned to capture Kira. Although they don't appear till much later, there are two people who are trained to succeed L, there names are Mello and Near. Mello is cool, although somewhat unable to control his emotions and his methods of getting what he wants are questionable. Near is........Well, L if he was more of a jerk. And plays with childrens toys. (L and almost all of the children being trained to succeed him have some sort of autistic qualities, I outta know.)
One of the more interesting aspects of this show is the music. The opening and ending of the show are rock pieces and would later turn to a very death metal sound. However the actual music in the show is drastically different. In some cases is slow and very melodic. And other times, it's big, powerful and operatic. Making something as simple as writing in a notebook seem epic isn't easy to do, but somehow they pull it off. Add some music and add some sparks to the pen as it writes and you've got AWESOME. And need I even mention: "I'll take a potato chip....and EAT IT!" -sparklechomp-
And the dubbing isn't that bad either, the voices fit the characters very naturally. It's like if you were to see the characters in the real world, thats what they would sound like.
So, if you ask me what my favorite anime is, (for the time being) my answer is Death Note. Great characters, gripping story, unexpected twists and turns makes for greatness.
