Death Note — "The Anime Cinematic Masterpiece."

  Author: Oluwagbenga Michael Adeyeye (Alias: ATOM G)

Note: Beware of spoilers and a darn good read!!

In the Otaku (lovers of all things Japanese anime) realm, it is believed that the top three anime series are; Naruto, One Piece and Dragon Ball.

Many lovers of anime have, however, expressed their discomfort with the placement of these three series on top of the list. Some would rather have a series like Bleach or Hunter x Hunter at the top of the list, but if you ask me, I'll say I stan Death Note most of all.

In my opinion, Death Note should occupy the No. 1 spot on top of the all best anime's list.

I know that this choice could very much cause a civil war amongst my fellow anime-watching couch potatoes, but I’ll only retract my statement when the ‘One Piece’ series is completed (and we all know that’ll take a lifetime).

While I stubbornly refuse to eat my words, before you readily bite my head off, hear me out on why Death Note deserves the spot 1 on that list:

Death Note is the complete package; an ideal mystery series:

● It had the right amount of intensity; there was some hardcore action and criminal investigation; and we had the craziest experience with Yagami and his ideology for maintaining balance in the world— I can already see my AoT fellow fans nodding their heads.

Death Note is one of the very few anime series that defied the laws of ‘superhero-ing’—assuming that was act as a gerund, lol 😂— where we’d have the good guy working alongside certain like minds who commit to his mission.

You know, fight the bad guys, try to change them or simply bring them to book—at least that’s what the protagonists in animés like ‘My Hero Academia’ did throughout the series—till it ended up seeming monotonous. 🫠🥲

But in the Death Note, when protagonist, Yagami, got hold of the tool of justice (a Shinigami’s notebook which granted him the ability to kill anyone whose name was written in its pages), we witnessed a psychotic attempt at restoring world order and erasing all traces of evil in the world— more like the fire-brigade approach. And that, that is what keeps your blood pressure levels at the peak; first, out of fear over what has become of the gentle and ambitious protagonist that was introduced at the opening of the movie and second, of an inexplicable euphoria in anticipation of the next episode and what happens there.

I wonder if this isn't the embodiment of mystery itself.

Unlike many heroes who had that kind of power at their disposal, he didn’t really care about striking a balance between good and evil—he didn’t subscribe to all that “Yin and Yang” crap that Master Oogway kept talking about in Kung Fu Panda—this guy was set out to obliterate all possible evil.

He literally had no measure for the punishments he dished out. Every criminal who is capable of being named was simply, and pleasurably, snuffed out of existence.

Another interesting thing about Death Note was the intellectual rivalry between Yagami and L (whose real name was Lawliet).

Even without the Death Note, Yagami Light showed that he was indeed a force to be reckoned with as he is what can be readily referred to as an outlier. His mindset was just exceptional.

He had barely gotten into college when he was going against a master detective after he had already begun creating his perfect world under the alias of Kira. He was indeed a diabolical foe and it was even crazier because he managed to justify his methods, so much so that I, being more of a pacifist than a revolutionist, was also convinced that he was in the right.

To reach the peak, Light sacrificed everything; his social life, family, dream to become a cop like his dad, all measures of morality and even his own life.

He was a conman and master manipulator, strategist, detective and a truly disturbed young man with a insane dream of singlehandedly establishing and maintaining law and order.

Yagami Light’s reign of blissful terror was brought to an end as a result of his self-absorption, ever-growing god complex and underestimation of his foe’s successors; Near and Mello.

Some of the saddest parts of the series was when L was killed, where Captain Yagami died and the end; where Yagami died.

Ultimately, the series wasn’t as hardcore and as shonen like Naruto and Bleach but it’s a top-tier mystery/psychological thriller. Trust me, the characters will definitely leave a dent in your mind.

Till today, I totally support Light’s approach. And oh please, don’t judge me; especially AoTs fans—we all know that you still support Eren Jaeger after he proved that he’s capable of genocide, and not even as clean as Yagami’s methods.

I can only look forward to any other series that'll blow my mind away like this one did, but in the interim, I'll bask in my daydreaming about the fantastic scenes in Death Note.

Arigato Gozaimasu.🤪🙏