Death Note Review (2006-2007) – A dark game of cat and mouse that will keep your eyes glued to the screen!

This month in honor of a certain potatoes birthday month we will be reviewing and drinking to Anime! We here love Anime and we have so much fun with it! Just to give our readers a heads up, we will be reviewing Anime that are one season, or possibly two seasons at most. Maybe an Anime film here and there as well. We want to keep it as realistic for us as we possibly can and we also want to give you guys our best!

This week we are reviewing an amazing Amine called Death Note! This is one we consider a CLASSIC and a MUST watch. We love this show, and we had the best time creating a game for it! It has a lot of the typical Anime tropes in it, but it is such a unique, darkly funny, and crazy ride that we feel anyone who watches will find themselves completely immersed within the world Death Note creates. We certainly are every time we watch this one!

We do want to give people a heads up that this show does involve a lot of death, murder, violence and dark themes all around. It may be triggering for some so while we urge you to watch this show, we do not want anyone to do so if it would be too much for them.

We will do everything we can to not give too many spoilers in this review but there are likely to be some, so please take that into consideration and read cautiously.

The show sets the tone quickly, starting with a view into the Shinigami realm (demon realm) where we meet a Death Shinigami named Ryuk (Brian Drummond). The Shinigami world is very gray, gloomy and desolate. We cut from there and meet our main character, Light Yagami (Brad Swaile) in the human world. The human world is bright, and colorful, a rather stark contrast to the Shinigami world.

Light is a high school student in Japan and appears to be a relatively normal kid. That is, until he comes across an odd notebook…called a “Death Note”. He picks it up, opens it and finds some odd rules within the notebook. Starting with, “The human whose name is written in this notebook shall die.”

Taken aback but intrigued Light takes the notebook home to examine it at greater length. At first he does not believe in the notebooks claim, but he decides to test it out by writing a minor criminals name within the notebook.

It appears that the notebook works!

This shocks Light, but it also…causes his intrigue for the notebook to deepen. He is still unsure of the notebook and he spends a day thinking on the notebook. He decides to test the notebook further, where he can witness, in person, the victim die…it works again!

From here we cut back to the Shinigami realm. A dark, barren, and bleak world, where we see Ryuk, the death demon, leaving his world to enter the human world.

Cutting back to Light…he seems a bit different now…a little unhinged. He is feeling thrilled and exhilarated with the Death Note and has already started formulating a plan. While Light is sitting at his desk, obsessing over the notebook, Ryuk appears in his bedroom.

Light was prepared for Ryuk’s arrival, but while Light has fully embraced the Death Note, he does not have all of the information on what the death note is and why it is in the human word in the first place.

Ryuk is all too pleased to explain the nature of the notebook, his presence around the notebook, his boredom when he was in his home world, and much, much more.

Light explains himself to Ryuk as well, and discusses his new found mission to rid the world of all criminals! Light will become justice for the world utilizing the Death Note to accomplish his vision! He even goes so far as to state, “I will become the God of this New World!”

Ryuk is completely fascinated by Light. He has never experienced a human like Light and he is eager to see how Light’s use of the Death Note plays out.

There are so many other important characters within the show, like Light’s nemesis “L” (Kappei Yamaguchi), who spends much of the show trying to hunt the serial killer with an odd sense of justice. It is exciting watching the two of them dance around each other as Light becomes more and more unstable.

This show is so much fun! It is also a profound, incredibly dark cat and mouse thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat! It asks deep questions about justice, human nature and murder.

Light’s mental health seems to get worse and worse the longer he holds onto the Death Note which makes sense. That kind of power is unbalancing and highly corrupting. Could you hold the Death Note and murder no one? Not a single person?

We would like to think that we would reject the power of the Death Note, and we truly think we genuinely would reject it, but it is an interesting question and an interesting look into humanity. Is justice really justice? Does one person really get to be judge, jury and executioner? Is it moral if he is only killing people society deems “bad”? It feels as though the author of the manga really had a lot of fun with these theoretical thought experiments throughout the show all the way up to the end!

The writing, acting, the animation, all of it is phenomenal! This Anime is truly amazing and we cannot sing its praises enough! But we would like to note, that there are some patriarchal undertones to this show that adds a few dashes of sometimes subtle and sometimes not so subtle sexism. Still, we thoroughly enjoy this show!

Are there a lot of anime tropes in it? Yes. Can it be a lot because of the dark nature of the show? Yes. Is it a very dramatic show? Yes. Is it still an amazingly twisted and thrilling ride? YES!

If you are someone who does not mind darker entertainment experiences, loves intrigue, thrillers, and enjoys a good cat and mouse game this is the show for you!

We highly recommend this anime!

We give this anime…5 glasses of hard apple cider out of 5!

Death Note Drinking Game

Take a sip anytime:

1.     Anyone mentions death, dead, dying, killed or murder

2.     A rule is mentioned or we see the rules of the Death Note

3.     Anyone says “Death Note”

4.     Light writes a name in the Death Note

5.     Light sounds unstable

6.     Light lies

7.     Light is blatantly cruel

8.     Light is cocky

9.     Light is creepy or appears creepy

10.  Light talks about creating a new or better world

11.  Anyone says "Shinigami"

12.  Ryuk laughs

13.  There is an apple on screen

14.  Anytime Light talks to Ryuk in public

15.  Anyone says "in other words"

16.  L eats sweets

17.  L sounds interested or intrigued

18.  L sits weirdly

19.  Misa giggles

20.  Misa is an idiot

21.  Mello eats chocolate

22.  Near plays with toys, games, or puzzles

23.  There's a close up of someone's eyes

24.  The police force jump to conclusions

25. The show gets extra dramatic (dramatic music, etc.)

What did you think?? Did you like the Show? Did you hate it!? Do you have suggestions for films we should consider?! Let us know here in the comments and always remember to be safe and drink responsibly!