Hugely Overrated

SPOILERS (as you might expect)...

It was definately harder to get invested in the story once L died - and the new characters were not around long enough, nor were they different enough, to justify the decision. (It's a testament to how good the show is at sucking you in that I kept watching.) But that may have been because I was rooting for Light. I didn't like him, or agree with his "sense of justice" at all - which I found to be at odds with his explicitly psychopathic behaviour - but for whatever reason I still wanted him to win. Perhaps it's the fantasy of the powerless becoming a god, or perhaps just the fact I got to know him first.

You could see the writers trying to salvage the manga's bad idea of killing off L..."it's really just a showdown between me and him" Light says towards the end, to make it seems as if the story were still heading towards a big confrontation, all plot arcs converging...except it isn't really, and we know it. They dropped the ball and we just can't care the way we used to.

There is also that BS about Near and Mello "surpassing" L because they "chose to work together" but that was a lazy and hand-wavey kind of explanation. It was cheesy, not played up as a big moral decision - and so (in my opinion) was less meaningful - and doesn't even make any sense since L was never introduced as a foil to them in this way.

Ryuk, yeah, they couldn't figure out what to do with him. So likeable (oddly) and interesting a character but when his original purpose had worn out they couldn't find any new directions to take him in.

Another thing...Misa would never have agreed to give up the death note a second time. She might not have been the most intelligent character but was very sincere in her mission and would certainly never have wanted to sit back and become an "ordinary woman" or whatever the words said were. The only reason she ever did so the first time was to save her own life and Light's. (Also the way Light suggests that he be taken into custody, halfway through the story, was not that convincing to me, though that may have been the fault of the translators).

But honestly, the cat and mouse game between L and Light, even if it feels a bit artificial at times (the writers, of course, had the luxury of knowing what the other was going to do next) was so entertaining I kept watching anyway. L's death dissapointed me, especially since they didn't take the show in a very different direction, but I was helped by the fact I knew it was going to happen, and even the lesser third act and the character of Light were entertaining enough to keep me invested till the end. The ending itself I didn't mind; I found it satisfying because it was so understated, that after world-spanning and supernatural intrigue the culprit would be taken down by a simple detective's trick (Light himself would never have made that mistake, but it was not him who did so after all). Still, the fact that L wasn't there to do it himself made it much, much less satisfying...

The show is brilliantly paced and famously addictive - I know many people both personally and online who watched it as a marathon, and against my expectations I was one of them. (It normally takes me a long time to get throuh books and series.) I think a person would be right to be dissapointed by the opportunities it missed, but there is still a lot of great stuff in it. By itself it is a good, even a very good anime, but (in my opinion) just not a great one.

EDIT: Also there was that odd translation in the English dubbing where the Japanese word for "eliminate" becomes "delete", making the character who uses it as a mantra (I found him a bit too heavy handed a satire of black-and white thinking to begin with) look even more absurd. I mean, I get it, "his mind's like a computer; he thinks in black and white", it's just a bit too over the tob and the tone doesn't match the rest of the series.

Man I agree. I can't get passed 10 episodes. Boring for real and bad character development and stupid characters and a stupid plot.

Anyone who thinks this is overrated is an idiot. Sorry guys.

CG GORE IS THE WORST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO THE HORROR GENRE!

If they had shortened the series, I think it would have been so much better. They convoluted the plot too many times; they made a huge mistake by having L killed off (the show definitely got worse after that); and they added in so many unnecessary characters and plot points. The first part of the show was excellent and if the writers had sharpened their focus, they probably could have had an amazing series that wrapped in about 20 episodes rather than 37.

7.5/10 is about the score I would give it, too.

--
'Save me, Barry!'

9/10 is kinda high I think, I gave it 7/10 only cause the ending was really epic in my opinion however some episodes I would give 5/10 just cause they were long winded lol