Thoughts On Death Note....

Well...I just finished watching Death Note.

Overall, I thought the series was...umm....interesting, I suppose.

Netflix has the series listed as having only one season with 37 episodes. However, as characters and motives change due to the progression of the story line, I think that it's acceptable to view the entire series as having two definitive parts....

Okay. If you haven't watched the show yet and think that you might like to watch it at some point...you should stop reading this post now...some of the things I'm about to say about the show are going to be MAJOR SPOILERS...now that the disclaimer is out of the way, I'll continue...

L

Those who are familiar with the anime or manga know that this odd looking character is L. [L is the brains behind the operation that is trying to capture Kira] He is odd and quirky but he is undeniably a genius...[this is proven several times during the anime]

Bahahaha!

At first, I found his character to be off-putting and rather annoying...but as the story progressed, he quickly became my favorite character. I mean, what's not to like? He's brilliant, self-assured, and delivers some of the funniest lines in the anime...the little comic strip to the right? That's an actual scene from the show...hilarious!

Anyway...somewhere around the halfway mark of the series, L dies. Guys...L dying, to me, was a slightly less scarring version of Harry Potter's Snape dying. [Yes, yes...the death of Snape was much more gut wrenching...but this character death is definitely up there...]

I can understand why L's character had to die for the sake of the story...well, kind of...but this was a pivotal point for me. I found the series to be far less interesting once L was no longer a key player. The absence of his character changed the show to the point that I almost stopped watching it...obviously I continued on to finish the series...but, honestly? I didn't really want to.

Light Yagami

This handsome looking fellow to the left is Light Yagami, pretty sure that it's alright to say that he's the main character of the story.

As the story begins, Light is introduced as a very intelligent high school senior [he boasts the best test scores in Japan] who has the brightest of futures ahead of him. His father is Chief of the Japanese Police Force, a detail that Light eventually uses to his advantage.

Light is the first human that encounters the Death Note dropped by the shinigami Ryuk [I mentioned Ryuk in my previous post on Death Note] and he ultimately becomes the mastermind behind all the Kira killings and the fallout that follows.

Light's character development is...well...it's crazy! He begins with intentions that are, for the most part, 'good.' He aims to rid the world of evil doers and criminals, and he's found ways to do so utilizing the Death Note...but it doesn't take long at all before his intentions become warped into something much, much more sinister.

Truer words have never been
meme'd...

Before you know it, Light has become determined to become the new 'god' of his idea of a Utopian world...one that has been shaped and groomed by himself acting as Kira. It becomes clear that Light intends on achieving this goal through pretty much whatever means are necessary...Light goes so far as to using deaths of his family members to insure his coming out on top...which is just plain dirty.

The depth and detail that Light puts into his plans are remarkable. He is able to correctly anticipate people's actions even months in advance...so, in that aspect, he's quite impressive. There's one twist that occurs shortly before L's death that definitely had me giving him mental applause...but his thought processes are just too insidious to overlook and, in my opinion, render him unlikable. At the end of the story, Light had zero redeeming qualities. None. And that's a lot coming from a girl who typically sympathizes with the bad guy!

Though, I definitely give the writers credit...the progression of Light from innocent high school senior to world dominating sociopath is extremely well-done. By the end of the series, Light becomes a character that is truly unsettling...watch the last episode...tell me that his laughter isn't that of a maniacal villain!!

The 'Post-L' portion of the show focused heavily on Light's interactions with Misa as he manipulates her to fit into his Kira plans.

Misa's the blonde...not the
shinigami behind her...

I really, really dislike Misa's character. Really dislike her.

She's the second human that encounters a Death Note...she becomes the first 'Second Kira' in the story...and she goes to outrageous lengths to meet up with Kira/Light. The story says that she's infatuated with Kira due to him killing the murderer of her parents, but then she meets Light and 'falls in love' with him and the fact that he's Kira.

I was very disappointed that her character never developed any real depth...throughout the whole series, she's just this gullible, stereo-typically dumb 'pretty girl' who will do literally anything Light asks her to just because she fell in love with him at first sight.

I mean...seriously.

Misa goes along with whatever Light says [she even goes so far as to sacrifice half of her remaining life span, twice!] in hopes of being useful to him so that he might love her back. It's pathetic.

But...the introduction of Misa and therefore the second Death Note does create more complexity for the story...and it gets interesting at times to see how Light manages to juggle not just one, but two Death Notes. [But I still don't like Misa. Nope.]

What else....

Oh, yes. Near.

Near

Near steps in and fills the role as L's true successor [After L's death, Light fills in as the replacement L for the media and what not...but Light isn't actually going to pursue Kira now, is he?]. The story reveals that L and two younger potential successors grew up together in the same orphanage. The two younger ones, Near and Mellow, seems to be at odds over who will be L's true successor...L didn't have the chance to pick one of them before he died. Mellow, the older of the two, gets frustrated at this and relinquishes the role to Near [though, as I'm sure you'd predict, Mellow leaves to pursue Kira on his own].

As a stand alone character, Near is very likable...but as a successor to L? Meh...not so much.

Oddly enough, I can't really pinpoint a reason why I didn't like Near...I think it's because I liked L as much as I did.

In the end, Near is able to out-smart the officially-lost-his-fruit-loops Light, prove that Light is Kira, and expose the second Kira [X-Kira, at this point] all in one fell swoop. Everything goes down inside of an abandoned warehouse...and the scene begins with Near wearing an L mask. That was creepy...

Wait...what?!?

The series has one of the most 'wtf' endings that I've seen to date.

Light has a clear mental breakdown, X-Kira dies with an actual geyser of blood spurting from his chest, and Ryuk has a few words to say before he writes Light's name in his Death Note...

 I grabbed a screenshot from a YouTube video of the blood geyser scene...I'm not going to post the actual video [you're more than welcome to look it up, if you'd like...the character's name is Mikami...] but that should give you a good idea of how crazy Death Note's ending is...

I've read that there have been a few post-production thing released that kind of elaborate on the story's ending and some of the events that happened afterwards...but I'm really not interested in watching them. [That is, with the exception of the one showing Ryuk's thoughts on the whole thing...that, I'd watch...]

Overall...I think Death Note is a good anime, and I suppose that I would recommend it. But once you reach the point that L dies, feel free to skip to the last two episodes or so...but beware of the L-masked Near...there are something that you can't un-see!!

Hey There Mister Creepy Eyes...

Hey, hey, hey!

Hope this Tuesday evening finds you doing well...

Not much for me to complain about at the moment aside from the nagging headache that I'm currently hosting...I'm thinking I can thank the ever-lovely Alabama weather for the headache. Crazy swings in temperatures are pretty normal for good ole Bama...but they're still a huge pain. Average temperatures dropped a good 20-30 degrees [brr!] and we're looking at temps climbing back another 20 degrees or so by this weekend...crazy stuff, I tell ya! I really don't mind the cold, [I'm one of the few Bama residents that actually likes the cold...] but I need some semblance of consistency!

Death Note

Still working my way through Death Note...

It's a pretty short series...there are only 37 episodes available on Netflix. [Madoka had 12 episodes and Ouran had 26...] I'm thinking I could probably finish the series in about a week, maybe two, unless I pick up watching Supernatural again....

One of the main reasons that I've waited so long to start watching Death Note is the sheer creepiness of the guy with the crazy eyes in the background of this picture...[I've since learned that his name is Ryuk. He's a shinigami {literally meaning 'death god'} that's gotten bored and decided to toy around with humans for a bit]

Turns out that I rather like Ryuk. He's much funnier than I'd anticipated...not funny enough to completely override the fact that he doesn't have eyelids [which is always creepy. Always.].

I'm trying really hard not to accidentally spoil anything about this series...I spend so much time mindlessly scrolling through Pinterest for anime stuff, that I'll stumble on some of the bigger twists for different series without even meaning to...[it happened when I was looking through some Madoka pins...I managed to accidentally learn about the 'big twist' of episode 3 before getting to watch it...it definitely took some of the 'oomph' out of it]

More anime/life posts soon!

Need A Distraction? Try Anime!

Nothing really noteworthy to recap from this past weekend...nothing I feel like disclosing anyway...nothing like a weekend full of parenting woes to truly bring a smile to your face! [That last bit is written with so much sarcasm, even Chandler Bing would flinch...]

Chandler Bing...a character that
I might have more in common with
than I originally thought...

Nostalgia for fantastic 90's sitcoms aside, parenting can suck. Single parenting can suck twice as much. But, this is not new news to anyone, myself included....so I'm just going to gloss over all of the painful, wince-inducing details and skip on over to better, more entertaining things...such as anime! [Yeah, yeah...roll your eyes if you must, but sometimes getting lost in a good story is the best way to cope with all the suckage that life brings!]

Sadly, I finished up Ouran High School Host Club on Friday. I enjoyed the series much more than I'd anticipated...I don't think I've ever watched a comedy sort of anime, I usually watch ones that are more action-based and have an element of comedy as an added bonus. It was definitely an enjoyable change of pace. 

Over the weekend, I watched the Madoka Magica series. [Puella Magi Madoka Magica, to be exact...thank goodness Netflix has the show listed under the shorter, more manageable title...]

Madoka appeared on several 'anime recommendation' lists that I'd checked out. What piqued my interest was the repeated mentioning of a dark twist that carried through the series despite the outward appearance of a saccharin sweet 'magic girl' anime. Even Netflix got in on the action...the little tagline under the title said "look no further than this series if you're looking to get your dark fix!" Come on...who can resist something like that!

I wanted to like this series...I really, really wanted to like this series...but I'm afraid I found it rather disappointing. 

I think that a big portion of my disappointment can be attributed to having read anything about the series before watching it. I started the series with the expectation of a huge, blind-siding plot twist...and wound up feeling like the 'big twist' was rather...meh.

Though, if I were to be honest, the 'shocking turning point' of the story occurs rather early in the series, in episode 3. That particular point is a bit jarring and can very easily catch you off-guard...but it's nowhere near 'genre-bending,' especially if you know that it's coming.

This is Kyubey...he is terrible!

There are some aspects of the series that I did like...I really liked that there are multiple animation techniques that are used, the style changes as the characters enter into different scenarios. I thought this was a clever method of bringing attention to the stark differences between the good and evil elements of the story. 

I also think that the series did a decent job of trying to portray a different side to the typical 'ruffles and glitter' presentation of the 'magical girl' anime genre...but.../sigh I just didn't love the series. 

Oh well...I would still recommend the show to anyone who has even the tiniest bit of interest...just because I didn't love the series doesn't mean that you won't. 

I started watching Deathnote last night. I'm about 3 episodes in and it seems promising so far...I'll be sure and let you guys know what I think of the series when I finish it...

And I swear that one of these days I'll finally get caught up on Supernatural...don't think I've forgotten about my Winchester boys!