I watched the first disc of Death Note this weekend. So delicious. I had not watched it to this point because of the anime's style. The shinigami (death god) is drawn in an alarming fashion. Of course, that makes sense for a death god. You wouldn't expect and death god to be all warm and fuzzy. That might be an interesting choice as well, but contrary to this anime’s point.
Basically, the death god is bored. He's stuck in death god world with nothing to do, everyone is bored and spends eternity playing dice. He doesn’t want to anymore, so he takes his death note and drops it in the human world. Once it is dropped and picked up by a human, he is bound to the human until he loses the book, or until he dies. He thinks humans are fascinating.
The book is found by an extremely intelligent high school student named Light. He reads the instructions, and believes the book is a prank. As a test, however, he writes the name of a criminal into the book, and the criminal dies. He dismisses that as a fluke, a coincidence. He tests it again on another criminal, and this criminal dies. He decides the book is real, and sets out to systematically rid the world of all evil people. Noble, right? In the first episode he reveals to the death god that his dream is to create a utopia and rule over it as a god.
It was shocking and disturbing. Instead of taking the traditional superhero approach, the hero is an incredibly complicated and flawed individual who may or may not have pure motives, or who may or may not be doing a good thing. His feverish commitment to the destruction and resurrection of the current reality is fascinating. And once you get used to the animation style, the animation is really quite stunning. The characters are beautifully drawn, the death god is striking in his otherness, and certain elements integral to the story or as symbols are highlighted through the use of gorgeous color. I can’t wait for more.
(It was an anime weekend, with Death Note, Bleach vol. 3, and reading Fruits Basket vol. 17)
Basically, the death god is bored. He's stuck in death god world with nothing to do, everyone is bored and spends eternity playing dice. He doesn’t want to anymore, so he takes his death note and drops it in the human world. Once it is dropped and picked up by a human, he is bound to the human until he loses the book, or until he dies. He thinks humans are fascinating.
The book is found by an extremely intelligent high school student named Light. He reads the instructions, and believes the book is a prank. As a test, however, he writes the name of a criminal into the book, and the criminal dies. He dismisses that as a fluke, a coincidence. He tests it again on another criminal, and this criminal dies. He decides the book is real, and sets out to systematically rid the world of all evil people. Noble, right? In the first episode he reveals to the death god that his dream is to create a utopia and rule over it as a god.
It was shocking and disturbing. Instead of taking the traditional superhero approach, the hero is an incredibly complicated and flawed individual who may or may not have pure motives, or who may or may not be doing a good thing. His feverish commitment to the destruction and resurrection of the current reality is fascinating. And once you get used to the animation style, the animation is really quite stunning. The characters are beautifully drawn, the death god is striking in his otherness, and certain elements integral to the story or as symbols are highlighted through the use of gorgeous color. I can’t wait for more.
(It was an anime weekend, with Death Note, Bleach vol. 3, and reading Fruits Basket vol. 17)
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