Light Yagami is at the head of his class, and he is bored with nothing to do. However, that all changes when he finds the Death Note notebook, that allows him to control the rogue Death God Ryuk; simply by writing down the name of the person he wants dead. Light can kill anyone with the swift movement of a pen, and without getting caught. He starts his killing spree by killing off all the world’s most dangerous criminals. However the police do not take kindly to this, after all, murder is murder, and try to hunt him out. When detective ‘L’ goes after Light, the result is a battle of wits!
Death note is possibly the most interesting and intriguing manga’s that I have read in recent years. Death Note is a surprisingly gripping and original tale that brings around a philosophical view about morality. Is it still classed as evil to kill, if those you are killing are dangerous criminals.
Death Note’s first volume sets up the complicated storyline with ease and immediately gets to work developing the lead character, Light. Light’s character is clearly developed to be the general ‘average above-average’ Japanese student; listless, bored, cynical and smug, which are hardly the qualities of a hero, and I suppose to call him a ‘hero’ would be disingenuous.
Light’s immediate goal is to use the Death Note to kill the world’s most violent criminals. This series of events triggers a massive police investigation and a global fascination with who’s killing the criminals, as it is deemed impossible for over 50 criminals to simply keel over and die from a heart attack. Being an egotistical kid already, it’s not long before all the mentions in the new go straight to Light’s head and he starts talking about building a world where everyone lives in peace, away from the dangers of criminal behaviour. While almost anyone would at least think to use the Death Note in the same way as Light, the thing is that Light do not take a sympathetic approach to his new found power, in fact, it could be said that the notebook instantly corrupts his ideals. However, such behaviour is also very believable. It’s this kind of realistic character development that’s a big part of what makes the manga, Death Note, so compelling.
Death Note’s biggest draw are the morality questions it raises about what “murder” actually is. If you’re given the power to kill anyone, anywhere, anytime and nobody would know that it was you, who would you take down? Would you be able to kill anyone in the first place? What if you’re killing criminals, is it still murder? Whose life is worth saving, and whose isn’t? While it doesn’t answer any of these questions, the fact that it raises them at all is fairly uncommon for a Shonen Jump manga and should fascinate anyone looking for something a little deeper than the average young adult title.
The only problem that I feel that this series may face is that it doesn’t seem like they can really stretch this story out forever. By the end of the first volume it’s become a deadly game of cat-and-mouse between Light and mysterious super-detective L who’s hot on his trail, and the two spend most of the last half of the volume second-guessing and outsmarting one another. If this pattern continues, it’s easy to see how the entire premise would get tiresome pretty quick. For now, though, Death Note remains a solid, gripping and extremely likable title.
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I have uploaded the second issue in the first volume of the awesome manga, Death Note. I hope you enjoy it. I certainly am enjoying re-reading these manga’s.
After a little bit of site maintenance which required me to take down my manga uploads, they have no been re-uploaded, and are bigger and better than ever before.
