Death Note

Warning: May contain Spoilers.

The Anime | The Manga | The Movies

The Anime

Death Note is a fairly unique Anime, and does not follow the classic genres of fighting, romance etc. Rather it is as the title suggests about death, and works around the premise of a Human obtaining the power to kill people as they please. The Title Death Note comes from what the story is based on the 'Death Note' a booklet that has fallen into the Human World that has the power to kill anybody merely by writing the persons name and having their face in mind at the time of writing. The story follows the main character Light Yagami or Kera as he is later given as a nickname who obtained the 'Death Note' and attempts to use it to cleanse the World of all evil, by killing criminals that the authorities fail to punish. The anime spans 37 episodes where Light trying to 'cleanse' the world, fights against the Police's secret weapon and crime solver 'L', who claims he will stop 'Kera' for Justice, and no Human has the right to decide who lives and dies.

The Main Characters

Light Yagami - Kera
Ryuk
L
Misa Amane
Rem
Near
Mello

The Death Note anime, directed by Tetsuro Araki and animated by Madhouse, began airing in Japan on October 3rd 2006, and finished its run on June 26th 2007, spanning 37 episodes.

The Manga

The Death Note manga series was first serialized in the Japanese manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump published by Shueisha in December 2003. The series has since ended in Japan with a total of 108 chapters. In April from 2005 Death Note was licensed for publication in North America by Viz Media, and the first English-language volume was released on October 10th 2005.

The Manga which was the basis of the Anime follows the same story, but with a few differences throughout, including a slightly different ending.

The Movies

Death Note was adapted into a series of live-action films in 2006. The films were directed by Shusuke Kaneko, produced by Nippon Television, and distributed by Warner Bros. The first film, simply titled Death Note, premiered in Japan on June 17th 2006. The DVD was released on September 16th 2008. The sequel, Death Note: The Last Name, premiered in Japan on November 3rd 2006. A spinoff from the films named L: Change the World was released in Japan on February 9th 2008. It is focused on the final 23 days of L's life, as he solves one final case involving a bio-terrorist group. Two dubbed versions of the film were shown in the United States on April 29th and 30th 2009.

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