Section12

The danger of playing God today is that you don’t realise what’s happened to you when you end up being the Devil tomorrow.

Light Yagami is a brilliant student who fights boredom on a daily basis. All seems rather humdrum when he suddenly comes across a notebook, labeled “Death Note”.

Taking the instructions within the cover to be a joke, Light writes the name of a criminal in its pages. If the instructions are correct, then whoever has his name written in this book will die.

Furthermore, you can make the death appear in any scenario. From heart attack to suicide to accident. Any death can be made to fit anything.

Expecting nothing, Light is shocked into realising the “Death Note” is indeed real. And he has just been given this power of Death by a Shinigami, a Death God who is also bored and dropped his Death Note in the human world to see what happens.

Shinigamis kill people to extend their own lives, however if one kills one to save someone, that Shinigami disintegrates away. This is almost unheard of, but it has happened, and will happen again.

Enter “Kira” (from Killa) so dubbed by the public. The new celebrity and future God that Light has become. In charge of purifying the world of all evil.

What follows is a cat and mouse game when Light tries to create the perfect world by killing criminals and the super detective known as “L” who tries to stop him. To add to this, Light’s father is the chief detective of the police.

When Light tries to carefully sculpt the world in his image, another human turned Death God appears who turns out to be someone completely unexpected. But it’s someone who Light can exploit for his own gains.

The second half of the series becomes a bit chaotic at times, but this can be overlooked for the most part. It’s not that the story is less interesting, but it’s when Light finally begins to believe his own delusions. His actions become even more cruel.

Death Note is a series that is supremely self-indulgent at times. The nail-biting suspense swims past the rocky shores of contempt one might be tempted to feel for Light Yagami. But this can be forgiven somewhat as the story is extremely well laid out with cutting suspense and strong emotional drive.

The series will give you no shortage of questions to ponder. What really is right and wrong? Who gives you the power to decide life over death? And if you have this power, would you use it to better the world? Or will you become a depraved, self-serving, egoist? You might be surprised by the answer.

The anime certainly gives far more detail on those being “punished” than the manga on which the series was based.

While some might be turned off by the callousness of Light’s actions, Death Note gives all of us a lot of food for thought. You don’t come across this much action without action. Yes, the “fights” are psychological.

Viewer beware: You may love Light at the beginning of the series, only to hate him toward the end. But it’s well worth it to sit through.