DeathNote - story by Tsugumi Ohba, art by Takeshi Obata - A review by Joe C

When I get stuck into a good manga it’s hard to get me or my thoughts away from it; DeathNote is a perfect example of this, for a series of only 12 volumes it is an epic tale.

A brief synopsis then... Light Yagami is a bored genius who while attending school something out of the ordinary catches his eye, a black notebook falling from the sky outside his classroom window. Curious, Light takes the notebook before anyone else can and reads the two words in white on its cover ‘Death Note’. Inside the notebook are pages instructing the holder on its use, the first, most important rule reading “The human whose name is written in this note shall die.”Light assumes the notebook is an elaborate prank, as most people would, but one night decides to test its supposed powers; he chooses to kill a criminal shown on the news, someone no-one would care about. After forty seconds, like the Death Note’s rules dictated, the man dies of a heart attack and Light realises the power he holds... However, Light is not a normal person, scared neither of the Death Note’s powers nor their consequences, instead he chooses to cleanse the world he believes has rotted, eliminating those that oppose his vision of a perfect society with himself ruling as its god. Needless to say, all these criminals dropping dead of heart attacks attract the attention of the police and soon the world’s greatest detective, L is on the case. These killings also attract the attention of the public, giving Light’s godly persona a name. Kira. So the tale begins...

Very few books are on the side of the story’s villain, with Light we can see his intent as a noble goal yet there is always something wrong about what he does but we cannot help but sympathise with him. Much of DeathNote’s narrative occurs in the characters’ thoughts, most notably the two genii L and Light as they wage a silent war against one another, this makes the book a very interesting read since many of the complex ideas play out so beautifully when explained by these characters.

 Light is observed in his everyday actions by Ryuk, a Shinigami or Death God, in fact the one who dropped the Death Note purely because he was bored and thought a human could provide a little entertainment. Ryuk has a love of apples, apparently having an addiction to them in a similar way to a human with nicotine, the withdrawal symptoms making him perform handstands and curl up like a pretzel (something Light says he never wants to have to see).

Psychologically all the characters are anything but two dimensional, in a psychology based storyline they can’t afford to be, even Misa Amane, the model who appears at the end of the second volume appears to have thoughts beyond the obvious despite her airhead nature.

Admittedly I had guessed at the ending of the series correctly but that made it no less enjoyable to read as the final showdown took place. I will warn you, as the title may suggest, there are a lot of deaths; however the only ones we see tend to be heart attacks, the default mode of killing for the Death Note.

P.S. I have a spare volume 7 of Death Note if anyone wants it at a discount.