Death Note

Brutal murders, petty thefts, and senseless violence pollute the human world. In contrast, the realm of death gods is a humdrum, unchanging gambling den. The ingenious 17-year-old Japanese student Light Yagami and sadistic god of death Ryuk share one belief: their worlds are rotten.

For his own amusement, Ryuk drops his Death Note into the human world. Light stumbles upon it, deeming the first of its rules ridiculous: the human whose name is written in this note shall die. However, the temptation is too great, and Light experiments by writing a felon's name, which disturbingly enacts his first murder.

Aware of the terrifying godlike power that has fallen into his hands, Light—under the alias Kira—follows his wicked sense of justice with the ultimate goal of cleansing the world of all evil-doers. The meticulous mastermind detective L is already on his trail, but as Light's brilliance rivals L's, the grand chase for Kira turns into an intense battle of wits that can only end when one of them is dead.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Lawliet, L Main

Yamaguchi, Kappei Japanese

Yagami, Light Main

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Ryuk Main

Nakamura, Shidou Japanese

Amane, Misa Supporting

Hirano, Aya Japanese

River, Nate Supporting

Hidaka, Noriko Japanese

Keehl, Mihael Supporting

Sasaki, Nozomu Japanese

Matsuda, Touta Supporting

Naitou, Ryou Japanese

Mikami, Teru Supporting

Matsukaze, Masaya Japanese

Jeevas, Mail Supporting

Nishimura, Tomohiro Japanese

Rem Supporting

Saitou, Kimiko Japanese

Maruyama, Masao Producer

Tamura, Manabu Producer

Nakatani, Toshio Producer

Hashimoto, Kentarou Producer

Reviews

Dec 23, 2025

ActionFiend8864

Recommended

Hey spoiler free review here for a classic. Death Note is a phenomenal anime with a fantastic and gripping plot. The constant non-predictable plot twists and a fantastically written main character.

Characters 9/10:

The man characters Light progression throughout the anime as well as the contrast between himself and everyone else is phenomenal. We see the dark side of humanity and how our own selfish desires corrupt our hearts. In addition the side characters help create conflicting moral situations.

Plot 10/10:

The plot is impossible to predict and creates great twists and turns beginning to end.

... Art 9/10:

The dark aesthetic for the show pairs various wit the dark commentary on human nature and the moral debate of killing for the greater good. There are beautiful backgrounds and clean character design.

Overall 9/10:

There are a couple low points due to an anticlimactic character in the latter half but it does little to take away from the excitement of the plot. A great story with good meaning behind its intensity.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Dec 20, 2025

jlzap

Mixed Feelings

This anime is SO good, unfortunately, the ending falls off HARD. I do recommend you watch it though.

Throughout the entire series you're left truly not knowing what will happen next. It has a great unpredictable story that keeps you on your toes, except for the ending. My only true complaint lies with the ending. There's no other way to put it but that it's a huge let down. There were so many different things that could have happened, but it just dragged on for very long in the last couple episodes with little to no progress only for the most ... predictable thing of the series to happen. Predicting what would happen next throughout the show was hard, they did so well at keeping you on your toes, but to fail at that for the ENDING, it is SUCH a letdown when the rest of the show was SO GOOD.

The parts the women had in the show were also kind of meh. At one point we are introduced to a new character, and it seemed like an exciting arc waiting to happen, only for it to be over very shortly in a very anticlimactic way. They just didn't care for this character to be a real challenge but whatever. Also, Misa started off fine but then just became.. eh?

I trashed this a lot throughout my review, but my rating is still an 8. I had a couple questions leftover which made it drop from a 10 to a 9 (I'm strict on my 10s), and the bad ending made it from a 9 to an 8. I'm glad I watched this and I do recommend you do too, it's truly an INCREDIBLE piece of media. The ending isn't up to par with being "incredible" but it's still "good." And I know some people who disagree with me and really liked the ending, so there's the chance you might as well. It's definitely worth the watch, but if you would really HATE the fall off at the end, maybe don't.

More detailed review *with spoilers* on why I dislike the ending: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?goto=post&topicid=2330&id=73623049

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Aug 9, 2023

juanlqr

Not Recommended

Funny

Death Note has only one season, but it seems to be split into two different "series". From episode 1 to 25 it is an excellent series, great story, good plot twists, with great characters. Some chapter lowers its level, but it´s good. From episode 26 to 37 it is absolutely the opposite. It costs too much to watch the episodes without wanting to turn off the TV. It no longer contains anything that one had been seeing. Is it one of the best anime? I think no, it is not. Is it a series to recommend? I would not do it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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