A Brief Retrospective - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - Death Note in 2022 - Best & Worst Moments

death note a series widely believed to be among the best stories ever told as you know however nothing is truly perfect ever since my first video on death note that was very misunderstood by many i have wanted to return to the series in a more comprehensive manner which is exactly what we'll be doing today so join me in a long overdue brief retrospective where we'll examine the good the bad and the ugly of this wonderful series as usual before i get into the events themselves i think it's worth talking about some interesting meta things surrounding the series first and foremost i want to ask you a question do you think death note is popular obviously the answer is yes but i want to follow up with another question is death notes author popular and this is where things become just as interesting as the story of the death note itself the true identity of the mangaka behind the story is unknown till this very day while it may seem crazy that they wouldn't want the limelight that a series of this magnitude brings there really is nothing known about them the only available bit of information is their pen name tsugumioba aside from the series where they've collaborated with their longtime illustrator takeshi orbata those being death note bakuman platinum end and skip yamada-kun we know nothing of their work for all we know they may go under multiple pen names and maybe have numerous other great achievements in the industry you know the real reason for this right the death note is real okay i'll put aside my tinfoil for now but it is a really interesting detail especially in the context of this particular story and one more interesting thing before we get going the series was almost drastically different due to another plot device connected to the death note a death eraser this was something that appeared in the pilot chapter of the manga though it obviously never made it to the actual story it's kind of what you would expect from this sword thing if you erase the name the person as long as the body hasn't been burned will come back to life i think it's pretty easy to see why it was never written into the final version of the story as it would just make things super convoluted and will create a lot of unnecessary plot holes i feel like it also goes against a lot of what the series was about writing down these names should be a one-way decision that cannot be reversed imagine the type of ideas like could leverage with this sort of power even as crazy as having miso write his name while he's in police custody and then racing it etc etc while i think there are some interesting things that could have come out of it i am very glad it didn't come into fruition we will talk about a few more meta things once we come to them but for now let's jump into the story itself in most cases it is the very first sequence that sets the tone for the rest of the series whether it's the opening narration before the first episode of avatar a mysterious stone mask being found or a massive titan appearing over a wall all of these establish some rules about the world and thematic notes that we can expect going forward and so this is exactly where we will begin with death note as well the series begins with a look into the realm of the shinigami a dark and desolate place where even its gods are bored out of their minds in just a few seconds this establishes two very crucial details number one is pretty obvious ryuk's actions following this scene are motivated by nothing more than entertainment his existence in the shinigami realm is just miserable so everything he will do is purely because he just wants something anything to happen keep in mind that these are gods they've been around for an incredible amount of time which we will talk about a little later in the theory part of this video as well and thus this realm is truly dead in terms of its happenings no pun intended but secondly the sequence sets the tone for the series perfectly the visuals work to show you that these frankly terrifying looking creatures are nothing special here this is and will be a very dark tale this combined with the gospel choir that is usually associated with something very grand be it a church or anything else of that nature work to show you that this will be a dark story of very large proportions one might even say godly and this first look into the shinigami realm ends with a board ryuk transitioning into the just as bored light immediately drawing parallels between these two characters they're both disenchanted with the current state of their world they both believe things have to change and while both are not gods light will of course consider himself as one but more on that later another more story-centric thing that i want to bring up is what happens after light acquires the notebook now with many of us who are re-watching the series for the umpteenth time we are very much out of touch with what these actions actually mean we begin to think about how to use the book in this or that way without remembering what that actually means no matter how you look at it people are dying by light's hand and this is portrayed wonderfully in a few scenes that i think many people overlook when speaking of the series before he even attempts to use the notebook we see him debate about why anyone would bother creating such a fake and his first instinct is to just ignore it that morbid curiosity however takes over and he decides to test it and notice how after this first instance of him using the book his immediate reaction is denial there is a very good reason why it is the first stage of acceptance we are naturally predisposed to want to protect ourselves in this case by denying reality thereby keeping a clear conscience he then heads off to cram school taking the notebook with him already being more open to the idea to test it again whether this was intended or not i really like how the small detail portrays how light is already getting desensitized to the idea of the notebook after using it once each one after that means less and less though he is still not over that hump just yet that only happens after his second experiment we get this out of sequence scene about light finally realizing that the notebook is for real and we get to see him going through the emotions very quickly once again starting with denial questioning whether what he just did is horrible and whether he might be caught then switching to the question if he has the right to judge people and then he snaps fully believing that he is the only one capable and rationalizing what he just did saying that he has always thought the world is rotten and the good members of society deserve better and personally i feel like it is at this point where light kind of lost his mind keeping in mind that he's only around 17. you can imagine the type of damage the realization that he has just ended two people would inflict in his case he is of course far removed from the action itself since the notebook is a magical weapon but either way i think it's fair to say that his psyche is a little messed up following this point and i suppose this is also a good time to bring up one of the core philosophical questions of death notes what really is justice from the show's point of view the protagonist is a light we follow him right from the beginning and so despite his actions we are at least in some capacity rooting for him to win from the story's perspective however we should be rooting for l as he is the one trying to stop the criminal without getting too deep down the rabbit hole of trying to argue for each side here it's clear that it's more complex than the usual following the good guy approach as a viewer i want to follow lights but from a more critical standpoint i clearly want to follow l and that's exactly what makes these types of cat and mouse games extremely interesting to watch especially in a story where it's down to the character's wits like it is in death notes similar arguments can be brought up for shows like dexter where we also follow a morally ambiguous character but i think in death note's case it's even more pronounced as we are a layer removed through the use of the notebook many times we hear about the number of names light has written down but rarely do they put a face to it and so we too are desensitized by the reality of the situation because every single one of those names is a person very quickly light reaches the point that he is writing down names without a second thoughts but what if some of them never actually committed the crime he never even stops to question this we should all be in agreement that he should go down yet we still root for him which just goes to show you how well the story is written on a similar note i want to talk about the first meeting between ryuk and light but before we do that i want to bring up another fun fact about the creation of ryuk's character as i mentioned before if we're being honest his appearance is absolutely the stuff of nightmares as it should be but what you might not know is that it wasn't always the case initially takeshi obaza wanted to design him as an attractive rock star one of the main reasons this idea was scrapped was because in his words he was afraid that ryuk would be more attractive than lights which wouldn't work so well yeah i don't know maybe in an alternate universe this is how ryuk looks in the series and no one cares but this just doesn't look like death note to me it carries a much different vibe no matter how messed up you try to portray him no amount of random bones and stitches can make a human look as intimidating as the sheenigami that ended up in the series and speaking a little more broadly i think ryuk is literally the only thing that the netflix movie did right both the visual effects and of course the wonderful performance by william defoe were on point huh there appears to be a weird typo in the script something about a death note movie weird anyway the meeting between them is another wonderfully written interaction that portrays a lot more than you might initially think after light returns home we can see that his first intention is to continue writing names which is when ryuk makes his debut saying that it appears he has taken quite a liking to the notebook as every normal human would light's first reaction is absolute terror and don't try to tell me if this thing appeared behind you one day you wouldn't scream either but what follows is the most interesting part ryuk informs him that he is a shinigami and the notebook is his now we'll pause here for a second because light's response says a lot picture this this creature shows up in your room and tells you that the literal magical notebook of death is his i don't know about you but my first thought would be well i'm dead i think for most people there will be a thought that the use of the notebook is prohibited despite it having rules written down and everything else it's just a supernatural thing that a human should not possess a light on the other hand immediately composes himself and responds that he has been waiting for ryuk he then follows up by saying that he is prepared and asks whether ryuk would take a soul which to be fair is a fairly normal response but light is literally bargaining with a god here he believes that he has been chosen and that he has some sort of power in this relationship by portraying himself as this person who is already prepared and is well aware of the situation he is trying to assert dominance over a creature he himself knows to be a god in shorts light's arrogance general overconfidence and corruption by the power of the notebook is already in full swing here though that's not the end of this conversation after ryuk explains that he's not here to do anything to light and that the notebook will stay with him there's this light bulb moment for lights suddenly he has been totally unshackled from any preconceived thoughts of punishment he may have had he is free to carry out whatever type of plan he wishes ryuk then gives some general rules of the notebook but then explains that there is just a single caveat to this whole thing a person who has used the notebook can either go to heaven nor hell and there are two things that make this particular moment incredible as well firstly is the uncomfortable close-ups on ryuk and secondly the very much ambiguous sentence of where exactly light would end up for the rest of eternity then i think the most common theory that i believe in myself as well is that light just becomes a shinigami it makes sense in the lore and would seem like a proper punishment judging by what their realm looked like especially for someone like light who was bored out of his mind even in the human world imagine what would happen there but more on that later i also want to talk about light's first proper use of the death notes we'll talk about it a lot more later with a very particular scene but the show managed to turn mundane things into a very dynamic and dramatic event think about it this way a light is sitting at his desk and writing in a notebook not very thrilling is it but incorporate dozens of sharp twists and turns of the camera cut to a criminal having the heart attack layer over the choir and boom you have a montage that speaks a thousand words showcasing both lights spiral into madness as his casual and calm persona is replaced by the zealous writing as well as showing you the direct consequences of his actions but yeah much more on that later and you know which scene i'm talking about returning to the last moments of ryuk's and light's meeting there's another great cyclic storytelling used here if you recall the first sequence had the transition from ryuk's eye to lights a similar thing happens here once again emphasizing those parallels between the two as light delivers his speech we see him clench his fist which is followed by a close-up on his eyes and we then see ryuk mirror this one for one as he clenches his fists and then we get a close-up on his spooky eyeballs as i usually say with these things it's obviously nothing major but these small details add up and can have a fairly major impact on how we perceive the characters later on and i promise this is the last thing to come from this interaction but we see ryuk say that if light plans to kill all the bad people that would make him the only bad person left and i distinctly remember when i was first watching the series this sentence really caught me off guard as the juxtaposition of the sudden break from light's fantasy was very surprising the interesting detail here is that light of course completely rushes it off not paying it more than a second of thought again it just goes to show how the corruption of power has already gotten its teeth in him and with all of that we have a flawlessly crafted opening episode to the series which is also why i've spent four pages of a script talking about it keeping in mind that we are yet to meet over 90 percent of important characters light's father doesn't even appear in the first episode for instance you have to agree that this episode tells an incredible amount of story taking light from a bored student all the way to a criminal with a god complex all the while explaining the rules of the notebook and establishing principles of the world that the story would take place in i think it's safe to say that the very idea of death notes is also incredibly gripping even without an adversary you want to see what light will do though saying that i feel like it's ultimately the second episode that actually pulls the largest majority of people in throughout much of the first and second episode we see light being completely untouchable he's carrying out his own judgment with absolutely no oversight this would obviously get boring very quickly which is when we see the introduction of l an adversary for light on this note the next thing i want to bring up is a very common problem many shows run into the common adage of show don't tell but not death notes with both light and l we are told that they are incredibly intelligent but that is backed up immediately even more so in elle's case with their actions with lights we see that right after he acquires the notebook he begins to compartmentalize his life so that no other part of it would be affected by his diligent use of the notebook aside from having to hide it that's the only thing he needs to worry about initially and while i think his plan of hiding the notebook was very over the top it did achieve everything he needed quite efficiently with the introduction of val things of course get a lot more complicated but before we get to that i think it's also worth taking a step back for a moment to discuss how he appears in the show in the first place as again we just take his role for granted we see that the police has finally caught on to the fact that these heart attacks might be linked in some manner though they are still not even able to come to agreement that they are finger-pointing begins almost right away but more importantly we are shown that these officers and detectives all think in a very traditional manner they rely on data from autopsies etc as they obviously should in this case however there is clearly a larger force at play yet none of them even race such a possibility and so once they understand that this is way out of their league the first mention of l happens we see complete silence fall over the room as silent chatter begins among each other immediately telling you that this l person has extreme notoriety here already the discussion continues as we are shown some details about elle most importantly revealing that he is a mysterious person that they don't even know how to contact and again the chatter is cut through by watery as silence once again falls over the room reinforcing that idea of a status among these detectives it is at this point where we will go from being told of l's achievements to being shown them he is leaps and bounds ahead of the force immediately landing on several ideas number one that there must be an individual or a group behind it and two noticing the pattern of criminals dying in japan and unlike the police force l is open to all possibilities even something as crazy as only needing a name and a face so we see him immediately line up his plan he preps a broadcast that will be aired region by region until he gets a response purposely testing his theory of having both a name and a face visible as well as baiting out lights through the condemnation of his view of justice in turn he gets a rough location confirms at least a part of his theory of needing a face and a name as well as confirms a rough identity of the person with a single move light is put on the defensive if that doesn't demonstrate the ingenuity and out of the box thinking of l then i really don't know what will and yeah judging by the amount of views it has i assume many of you will have seen my first video on this scene and it appeared like a lot of people missed most of what i actually said it was a thought experiment obviously if light weren't to respond he'd be in a much better place but everything that we've been shown so far clearly sets up why he would fall for that bait he tried to assert dominance over a literal god he feels untouchable especially with such a powerful weapon as the death note so he does fall for it and i still stand by what i said in the first video light is extremely smart but his actions weren't exactly wise because of his emotions to elaborate on this further i want to show you something now you didn't expect to get away from mystery shack video without getting a recommendation did you there is this brilliant podcast called the world's greatest con which i will link below i won't get into the details of it but it really is as interesting as it sounds and it goes into construction of a massive world war ii mission where an entirely fake person was made up as a deception tool but that's beside the point i just want to recite you a single phrase cons don't fool us because we're stupid they fool us because we're human this single sentence describes this situation perfectly light did not have to do anything but he did but more importantly for this story we believe he would despite his intelligence we've already seen and just like that everything about the story we've thought changes the untouchable god with a supernatural weapon was just challenged by an equally powerful force and the game of cat and mouse begins i don't know about you but after this episode i was glued and in my experience this is what has happened to most people i know the premiere presents an extremely strong introduction but it's episode 2 that's the proper hook that sets the story in full motion but taking another step back for a moment and speaking more broadly i genuinely believe death note is an almost universal recommendation that a vast majority of people will enjoy especially once they watch the second episode and the reasoning for this is actually threefold firstly the narrative in the premise is extremely relatable don't try to tell me you immediately did not try to find solutions to either catching light or using the notebook or outsmarting l etc etc since the story is set in the same world we inhabit there is no need to do extensive world building or anything of that nature we can almost exclusively focus on the characters and the challenges they face which is obviously this show's strong point secondly on a similar note the characters in the subject matter is very believable as i mentioned before we clearly see that light is more than capable of thinking multiple steps in advance like he demonstrated with his hiding spot of the notebook yet when he gets caught out by elle we believe it he's just an emotional kid after all and we've already seen that he does have a god complex furthermore the subject matter is also one that immediately sparks discussion i mean one of our professors genuinely used the plot of the death note as a discussion topic in class a few years ago who truly has the power to decide who lives and dies is light's mission in some capacity pure or is he really just a serial killer what about the people who agree with kira would you agree with someone like that if you knew that you had never done anything bad there are just so many things to discuss and it's no wonder that the series is still being brought up today and in terms of characters seeing these two genius minds try to one-up each other is a plot point as old as time starting with sherlock holmes and professor moriarty and ending with batman and joker and lastly this is more of a meta thing that i just feel like i have to bring up since we are talking about anime the dub is perfect i know someone will leave a comment claiming otherwise but i'm sorry i hard disagree i would go as far as to say that the dub is even better than the original starting with ryuk's voice and ending with some of the original dialogue being quite wordy at times i know i'm putting out a hot take here but let's not derail the entire discussion as this isn't entirely relevant for this video no matter on which side of the coin you fall i think we can agree that if you're recommending the show to someone who isn't really into anime it is a very good option moving on another thing that i've mentioned but would like to expand on is the music as i said at the top of the video the choir in crucial scenes is brilliant and captures the tone of the show very well but the character themes are equally great you'll have to bear with me here as this may be one of my reading about 10 layers to deep intuit instances but hear me out [Music] i'll go over this fairly briefly but i will try to explain it as best i can as i can actually play the theme without getting this video blocked take elle's signature piano theme it begins very calmly and only has a single instrument a piano i believe this largely symbolizes elle himself a loner who approaches all of his problems in a very cold and calculated manner that is until the drum and guitar part starts to join in i believe this is meant to be light as the track goes on it gets more and more complex with the guitar and drums slowly drowning out the piano which led the track in the beginning just like how light does in the show furthermore if you listen to light's theme what is it yup a guitar with drums that gets more and more intense over time with a few piano notes or l meddling in his plans appearing throughout the track yeah i think i am overthinking it a little too much either way you have to agree that the death note soundtrack is absolutely stellar another thing that i absolutely love about the series is that it subverts expectations extremely well in most situations as soon as episode 5 light straight up reveals that he is kira in person to ray pember obviously we find out that it was part of the plan all along but we as the viewer are never let in on it we only fully find out what the plan was about after it happened a plan which included multiple people other moving parts as well as creating a cover for himself by duping the message he required to each of the fbi detectives these scenes do pretty much give you everything to piece the plan together yourself but in most cases we get the key to make everything work after the plan it's just a great way of storytelling that keeps you engaged all the way through and this is even more pronounced when light enters custody himself but we'll get to that in due time there are a few more things i want to talk about in the earlier episodes of the series to be more specific i want to bring up the plot of episode 6. the one directly following the one where light eliminated all the fbi agents this one is particularly interesting as is the first time we see light being 100 percent on the defensive while elle's first deduction and the fbi agents dealt a blow to light in this episode he would have actually gotten caught if it wasn't for the single lucky visit the whole episode essentially revolves around a single person that light has to get rid of compared to the thousands he already has it seems easy right but that's the thing the notebook does have its weaknesses and so we see light grapple with how to lure out the real identity of this woman unlike light's meticulous plans we've seen so far this one was entirely made up on the spots which just makes the episode feel that much more tense and while we're talking about this particular problem that being death knows biggest weakness of needing a name and a face we learn from ryuk that if you want the shinigami eyes you have to give up half of your remaining lifespan but you will be able to see everybody's names above their heads light being light obviously turns this offer down he views himself as a god after all why would he give up half of his life for something he does not need right though what if we pause on this and theorize for a little while we of course know that light ends up dying a few short years later but what if he took the eyes he would technically have to die sooner right this is one of those things that i've always thought about and personally i feel like the most realistic explanation for this is that light would have simply gotten extremely overconfident if he did have the eyes and would have simply gotten caught out even sooner look at the type of place he pulls without them getting close to ray pember and l himself barely dealing with naomi and so on imagine the type of plans he tried to do if he did have them obviously i'm just thinking out loud here and this may not even be something worth latching onto but i think that is a fairly reasonable assumption alright now for something i know you totally expected already especially with what i mentioned about making the mundane extremely intense the potato chip scene this is the perfect example of what i meant by that though in order to appreciate the scene fully i feel like it's worth going over the context of it once more after realizing that he is being watched instead of just waiting it out light once again being very confident in his abilities actively tries to one-up hell by showing everyone that his deduction had been wrong but back to the scene it starts off calm with light having his inner monologue but then there's the snap as he challenges l directly what follows is a moment of complete silence the calm before the storm if you will with the only noise being a light's laughter and ryuk's apple withdrawal panting in the background as the music sharply fades in and thus we spiral out of control into this chaotic scene of light laughing and cackling as ryuk is experiencing his withdrawal symptoms with everything getting more and more intense as time goes on the juxtaposition here should be fairly easy to spot the seemingly calm action of just studying which is juxtaposed by the absolute craziness that is happening with ryuk and inside light's mind the camera movements continue to get crazier and crazier as we suddenly cut back to l watching the footage and the tone is once again flipped on its head as he sees light calmly studying in his room this sequence flawlessly demonstrates all three of the personalities that are at play here the perfect student lights the cold and meticulous detective l and finally the one leading this entire play kira and despite it being extremely over the top when you think about it it still conveys light slow spiral down into madness very well moving on i want to discuss another absolute high point of the series the point of time where light gives up the notebook i've watched my fair bit of scripted content of all forms but this strategy still stands out as one of the most unexpected twists i've ever seen in any form of media i've seen a few people say that the whole i know myself so well that i know i would try to catch kira feels like it's crowbared in but i'd have to disagree we still see light question whether kira's actions are justifiable just like he thought about similar things before he himself got the book but his overall thought process is still one of a detective just like he helped his father with cases before he got the notebook and i think this is down to what i mentioned before i largely view light and kira as two separate entities one is a cold and meticulous planner while the other is a much more emotional being as shown in the potato chip scene and is due to this that i think it makes perfect sense that light would bank on this assumption which of course proved to be right and since we're talking about this part i also want to bring up the climax of this mini arc the chase sequence and lights reacquiring the notebook throughout the series we've gotten extremely used to the payoff moments being for lack of a better word very intellectual rather than full-on action there are of course a few instances of it being more boots on the ground but this chase scene is obviously the biggest example of that and oh boy do i remember how pumped i was all those years back when i first washed it through and the genius aspect of this whole thing is that there are multiple payoffs all bundled into one we want to see this death note user go down we want to see light being fully cleared since the notebook would be found but we also want to see lights reacquire the notebook and thus the whole sequence is extremely intense with the payoff being just shifts keys and if this whole madness thing had not been hammered home enough it is portrayed even more so through the changed opening once we enter the final phase of light's plan we switch from the somewhat tame intro of light standing against l to this absolutely nuts opening where light is truly unshackled as his plan comes to fruition i mean one of the opening shots is literally tens of light laughing faces and the whole abstract nature of it just speaks to light's degrading state of mind ryuk frantically dancing with flashing lights continuously changing colors the abstract imagery all of it shows just how down the spiral light has already gone the money shots of course being the glass shattering over the close-up of light's face and then a lone light standing in the shinigami realm following this we enter the final act lights true end game and there's a ton to unpack here so there's no way i can go into all the details but we'll talk about some of the biggest points first and foremost it's another detail that i feel like many people overlook light outsmarted and ended a literal god not directly of course but the net effect is the same i think this is one of those points that calls back to those very first parallels with ryuk as with this play he even surpassed them essentially forcing rem into a corner with no other way out but to play according to his plan and the whole sequence here is once again done wonderfully as the realization falls over the task force as to what is going on the calm atmosphere is overtaken by the choir that symbolizes a light's grand plan being set into motion then silence as elle himself falls over with his dying eyes seeing the smirk on kira's face again shiv's keys and the final thing i want to bring up in this section of the video is the time skip i like how it showed us just how powerful light had become now that he was completely unshackled and free to move however he wishes he still has everyone in the police force playing by his rules and he's still in control of the notebook he has for all intents and purposes one at this point though we all know that is not where the story ends don't we yes i know what you're thinking this video is already 37 minutes long and only now is there a short ugly and bad section well kind of because the way i see it a lot of the things that i will bring up now are not really bad per se they're just flawed in some manner or don't reach their full potential in one way or another firstly it's a bit more minor and a bit of a side issue i had we don't really hear what is happening outside of japan until the latter parts of the show we hear that kira has supporters worldwide but i would have loved to see a little more about how different governments are responding to these events for example maybe some cities would completely fold and embrace kira somewhat revolt and so on though at the same time i can see why things like that were not included they could just bloat the primary plot a little too much and as i mentioned before death note strong point is very much the character dynamics so focusing on this outward approach may have also heard it in the long run the second thing however is a lot more precise the other kiras in the show broadly speaking we see four primary death note users light misa kioske and mikami and honestly i think the only one obviously aside from light that was interesting to see was kyousuke misa started off very intriguing as there are now two autonomous death note users out there but when light began to essentially dictate her every action i couldn't help but think that the primary reason she was introduced in the first place was just so there would be two notebooks for the story to get more complex while that is not necessarily a bad thing i feel like she could have been given a little more screen time and agency and not just be light's puppets to be fair that is of course why she seeked out light in the first place but i think conflicting interests would have been even more interesting as for mikami it's essentially the same thing he's an extremely one-dimensional character and again while i think that was the intention i think the story suffered as a result what's more is that when you introduce such a meticulous character i feel like you set yourself up for failure light always had a spare piece of the notebook on him so why didn't meek me they also knew parts of the notebook could be messed with just like light did with by writing down the extra rules so why didn't they have backups ready to double check if this is the real notebook the easy answer for this is of course light's arrogance but again realistically i think they would have been more cautious based on what we've seen so far speaking of which a lot of people claim that the reason why light ultimately lost was also largely down to mikami but again i have to raise that point of no not really as light was the one who was ultimately in control of the situation sure making me messed up but he's not the only player in the game after all and even with light being on the back foot he had other ways of communicating with mikami either way you look at it i don't think he was a particularly exciting character and i guess since we've started talking about light's ultimate downfall why don't we talk about the two other adversaries light faced near and mel and before i get into specifics if l was followed by m and n does that mean there's a whole alphabets of mastermind detectives okay never mind anyway let's start with nier or n honestly i think he was just a budget version of l i never found him particularly likeable and the time he spent on screen was just meh his quirks felt like they were put in just to go hey look remember l he sat weird and ate a lot of sweets see n is also very quirky so he's just as cool as l right some of his deductions also seemed like they came completely out of the blue unlike l who slowly narrowed his scope in on light and just called out mikami as kira on the other hand i enjoyed seeing em a lot more but also largely due to him just being something different thing is i never really got the vibe that his detective abilities are anywhere near the level of l or n so while he pulled off some stunts of his own and caused plenty of ruckus for light i never really viewed him as a huge threat i would have also liked to see a lot more of the rivalry between m l as i felt it was quite underutilized and on the same note light's sister being kidnapped earlier in the second arc i think this was the perfect example of that rivalry suddenly we saw both n and lights be on the defensive as they were now both being targeted by m it just added on another layer that did not exist in the first arc but sadly they largely dropped this idea fairly quickly and if you'll indulge me in some armchair writing for a second i know this will sound very morbid but judging by the theme of the last arc in the show i honestly think light's sister's death would have hurt even more than his father's it would be the perfect example of how innocent people got caught in the crossfire which would have fit nicely with the degradation of light's mental states but again this is more so of an example of me enjoying the subplot so much that i just wish it were longer not it actually being bad and i feel like this is a theme for much of the n arc i get that we had been building up to this for the entire first part of the show but i felt that things were quite rushed near the end which i think contributes to people's dislike of end and finally let us talk about the conclusion to this masterpiece of a show the final showdown i mentioned this briefly earlier with mikami's severe misplay but there's a lot more to talk about here firstly i know this is supposed to be the bad part but the way they build tension is just brilliant the sequence begins with a rainy day one of the signature methods of foreshadowing just like we saw with l as well that sense of foreboding however is juxtaposed with very cheery music that almost feels out of place in death notes and light's inner monologue who already considers himself as the winner the cheery song starts to slowly get more and more twisted and by the end the only sounds that are left are dissonance then silence the only noises being the rainfall and the fans spinning in the wind as always the atmosphere and general feeling of the events are just perfect from mikami's frantic realization light is the god he had been hearing from to the scramble between the police units themselves but again this is supposed to be the bad part so let us get to the controversial discussion i've heard many many people say that they don't particularly enjoy the finale of the series because a they don't think near should have won b because it was mikamiku failed or c they just did not want to see light die and if i am honest i really don't agree with any of those beliefs i feel like the only logical conclusion to the story absolutely had to be light's downfall otherwise the moral is what power hungry arrogant people with a god complex win in the end that does not sound particularly thrilling let alone an ending as for mikami's part just like i mentioned before while i'm not a fan of his character i don't see the reason for blaming mikami alone again there are plenty of ways both light and mikami could have still ended up winning here but that's beside the point the only one i can at least somewhat agree with is the near winning part not because i did not want to see him win it was obvious he would but because i didn't want to see him in particular win i would have honestly much preferred mel or even the task force themselves finally figure out that light is kira like i mentioned before end just felt like l got another life but was downgraded 10 levels and lost most of his likable traits though there is one theory that completely 180s my opinion on that the idea that the only reason nier won was because he cheated the theory goes that just like we talked about before it doesn't make a lot of sense that the insanely meticulous mikami never noticed his notebook being replaced thus the only logical conclusion is that he never checked it again that doesn't make sense so there must be something at play that would have made him not do it and where might we find something like that hence the conclusion nier got the notebook wrote down mikami's name and detailed his actions before his death most importantly not checking the notebook mikami then acts out the orders goes to the meeting place the standoff happens and finally mikami dies on the spot as well how convenient isn't it if this were to be true it completely negates a lot of what i said about the comparisons to l as nier would have truly surpassed l l knew pretty much right away that light was kira right yet he never fully acted on it because he wanted to prove it properly with traditional police methods nier however would have taken all the information available and delivered judgment by any means necessary in this case with the use of the notebook and mikami as a pawn personally this is one of my favorite explanations of the final standoff that does explain a lot of the weird issues that crop up with both mikami's mistakes as well as lights since it's not confirmed as canon however i still have mixed feelings on the standoff overall as it could just be us wanting to rewrite the story to avoid plot holes do with that which you will and finally another thing that i am sort of mixed on where does light end up in one of the movies there is the scene of a mysterious shinigami showing up to meet ryuk and asking him to tell a story of the human world he even brings him an apple my head cannon would dictate that this is absolutely light but by becoming a sheenigami he lost all of his memories of being human yet he still has those same characteristics that he had before with the shinigami saying that he is bored of this place and is looking for a change just like human lights was back then also if you look at the way he carries himself he slouches his shoulders while walking almost as if they had just been injured i.e liked being shot before his demise this is however just a theory a game theory alright jokes aside i think leaving a little bit of mystery behind was also a great decision evidently so as i am still thinking about it to this day and ultimately it's up to you whether to even consider the movies as canon and at the end of the day it does not really matter where light ends up does it and in conclusion as you can see most of the things are not really bad they are just all aspects that i'm either unsure of or would have liked to see altered or something like that also if you compare the length of the good parts and the bad parts it's obvious that this series has much more of the former and very little to critique overall to this day death note is still one of my favorite series of all time there are very few series that can tell such a thrilling tale of two genius minds clashing against each other let alone include a whole supernatural element that instead of ruining the whole plot due to some weird fantasy shenanigans just make it that much more interesting and the very last thing i wish to bring up is how has this not gotten a proper adaption yet the japanese one is pretty good but how has no one done just a one-to-one live-action version and who in their right mind tried to adapt the story into a movie instead of a series why would you cram a meticulously crafted story where every single episode has a crucial message into barely two hours i know i've went on about this in previous videos as well but i genuinely do not understand some of these decisions that these license holders make and instead of scrapping the project and doing it properly netflix green lit a sequel to a movie with a critic score of 38 percent and an audience of 24 percent alright ran over at the end of the day we always have the original and nothing can change that and despite the mixed feeling some people including me have about the latter half of the series i think we can all agree that overall it is truly a one of a kind story well i guess i should stop saying it at this point but we've come to an end of another very very long video if you've made it this far why don't we try something new leave a comment whatever it may be and include the word red as in the color we'll see how many of you are true death note fans and stayed until the very end as per usual if you enjoyed the video i'd really appreciate it if you did all the youtube things to let the algorithm overlords know and if you wish to support the channel even further consider joining the patreon and helping fund my coffee problem all of my socials with sources for this video are in the description but other than that i want to say thank you very much for watching this insanely long video i hope you have a great day and hopefully i'll see you in the next one bye bye

Channel: Korotos Mystery Shack

Views: 630,163

Keywords: Koroto's, Mystery, Shack, Korotos, Koroto, Death Note, Retrospective, Theory, Analysis, Breakdown, Explained, Best and worst, video essay, Light vs L, Anime, Ryuk, critique, Death Note Analysis, Death Note Opening, Best Moments of Death Note, Deathnote, Deathnote analysis, in 2021, 2022 Retrospective, A Brief Retrospective, Death eraser death note, Deathnote Theory, did near cheat, Deathnote Retrospective, Death note retrospective, death note anime, death note review

Id: R3SpLo88qCQ

Length: 51min 1sec (3061 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 09 2021