Death Note Mini Review (manga/anime/movies/etc.)
March 18th, 2008 by Lianne
PG-16 for violence, mild sexuality, dark themes, etc.; official series website and Death God, which will give you pretty much all the info you need
Death Note is a fantastic manga series, a decent anime series, and a surprisingly good set of movies with unique and intensely clever endings (although don’t watch them until you complete the manga, because they spoil the story up through Volume 12). Death Note has dedicated fans of every age, gender, and culture. Still, I think Death Note is more than good – it’s revolutionary. While trying to explain why, I promise to avoid spoilers.
Death Note is about a brilliant teenage boy named Light who finds a supernatural notebook that gives him the power to kill whomever he wants. He decides to kill all criminals in order to make himself the proper leader of a world without crime – and that, to him, is justice. Then another brilliant boy his age named L is dispatched from Interpol to stop him, because the police, and L, believe that true justice (and the foundation of civilization) is holding everyone to the same rules formed by group consensus (aka laws). Misa, another girl with the power to kill, believes in a very subjective justice that will allow her to punish or reward the people she feels she has the right to judge, aka people directly involved in her life. Then there’s Near, the young detective who believes true justice dictates that one must never compromise even the smallest of morals for the greater good, and Mello, who believes that justice is allowing the personal freedom of any man to chase his ambitions, no matter what rules he might break. There are a number of other characters who have different interpretations of what “justice” is (and some views are repeats or slight modifications), but those are the big ones.
Death Note ran in Shounen Jump alongside series like Yu-Gi-Oh, so it used a traditional shounen formula to gets it point across – a relatively quick premise set-up, a cast of characters with obvious motivations, and then lots and lots of action with lots and lots of explanation; in Death Note, the action is Light trying to out-deduce L, the police, the world, etc. and not get caught while killing off the world’s criminals. However, the only real theme the writer him/herself pushes is the futility of mortality, since the Death Notes originally come from gods of death and humans can only manipulate those greater powers to a certain degree. But the broader theme of Death Note – the definition of true, universal justice for all people – is left entirely to the reader. The intentionally flat (albeit interesting) characters each represent an interpretation of what justice is, and the manga itself doesn’t claim that any character is right or wrong. It’s up to the reader to decide whether or not there IS a universal justice and what that justice might be, after s/he has been exposed to a number of different viewpoints. The reader can also easily come up with his/her OWN viewpoint after digesting all the characters’ views, since most of the characters aren’t even shown in a positive light. Death Note took its young readership by the hand and introduced it to heavy, broad themes about crime & punishment, murder, and the legal system and then forced those readers to think for themselves. Some junior high boy in Japan could turn a page in that magazine about ninjas turning into demons and then face a story that made him decide who in a world of killers was doing the right thing – if anyone was doing the right thing, really.
Death Note obviously has a broader audience than Japanese junior high boys, but the service it did that historic readership is nothing short of revolutionary. I think a lot of the criticisms I hear about Death Note don’t take into account the original intent and/or audience of the manga. Here’s a short list of common Death Note criticisms and my arguments against them:
Death Note is too wordy/rambly. For anyone who’s never read a shounen manga before, weekly deadlines, long serializations, and a younger readership have traditionally encouraged very long, detailed explanations of the action in a series. Besides, in Death Note, most of the main characters are sociopaths, so I think a meticulous unraveling of their thought processes and motivations is justifiable.
The characters are unlikable. The average reader would be lucky to really relate to any of the members of the Death Note cast. Most of the characters are decidedly creepy, and they rarely grow or develop over the series because they’re each representatives of different interpretations of justice. They’re interesting, but symbolic – and definitely not cuddly. Which is why I find plush versions of the characters deeply confusing.
The second half of the series is bad. I think pretty much everyone will agree that the second half is substantially weaker than the first half, but a.) the second half brings up a new collection of interesting developments/insights and thus has a reason for existing and b.) the fact that an insanely popular Shounen Jump series was allowed to end on Volume 12 was nothing short of a miracle. On what planet could a money-maker like Death Note end after seven volumes? We’re lucky it didn’t drag on well beyond 12 and completely sabotage its artistic merit.
Death Note is sexist. I actually think this is the strongest complaint one could make about Death Note, and I think the series barely dodges the misogyny bullet – and possibly by accident. Every super genius in the series is male, the women are all largely if not completely motivated by the men in their lives (while the men are usually broader thinking), and even the male characters with very open minds seem to offhandedly undermine the efforts and successes of the female characters. Misa proving that the patriarchy can be beaten at its own game by using men’s low opinions of her against them just barely saves the series from being definitively sexist. But the fact that the writer him/herself seems to be trying to undermine Death Note’s female characters at every available opportunity – including Misa – makes me think that s/he makes Misa succeed for the sake of the plot and not feminism.
Anyway, despite these or any other complaints that can reasonably be made, I think Death Note’s successes in writing, art, and intent vastly eclipse any flaws the series has. Death Note has a definite, noble purpose, and it nails that purpose while simultaneously being addictive and appealing to an extremely broad audience. I’ll stand by Death Note until the end of time.
Educated impression: I think this is one of the best comics ever put to paper. No series can completely please everyone or change how all of its readers think – but Death Note comes shockingly close. (Lianne)
So you’ve restructured this site as a blog…
You should have a blogroll and put me on it!
(btw–I’m the WH person who went to wesleyan who emailed you a while back!)
The sexism pretty much kills it for me; as a woman, I’m not interested in a series that actively undermines what few female characters it has. That’s not a small flaw, and it drops Death Note from ‘revolutionary’ to just really good. With other manga that manages to be good /and/ woman-friendly, Death Note isn’t exactly at the top of my list.
The sexism pretty much kills it for me; as a woman, I’m not interested in a series that actively undermines what few female characters it has. That’s not a small flaw, and it drops Death Note from ‘revolutionary’ to just really good. With other manga that manages to be good /and/ woman-friendly, Death Note isn’t exactly at the top of my list.
I can understand the sexism turning you off, but again, I think some of the Misa concessions did keep the title from being entirely sexist, along with the fact that women were undermined in the plot but not in the biggest theme; women took part in the universal justice debate, and were both murderers and murdered. The fact that Death Note is a title that revolutionized many things but didn’t get over the pretty traditional sexism typical of shounen/seinen (and even shoujo/josei) makes it, in my opinion, still revolutionary, just not in the realm of feminism. I think the sexism just stood out more than in the usual shounen, since everything else in the series was so broad-minded.
I don’t know many other shounen/seinen titles that are both good AND woman-friendly, unfortunately. At least one of the strongest feminist manga I can think of is One Piece, and that’s a shounen. God bless One Piece.
I think it’s rather unjustified to say that Deathnote is sexist because of how one female character was portrayed. The lack of female characters is not odd due to how most of the series takes place in a police investigation. Studies also go to show that male intellects span across a wider range of IQ than females, which results in there beeing more male geniouses than women but also more males who suffer from beeing slow or a light retardation.
If you wish to find sexism in anime you can find much worse cases in most other series, sexism in Japan is a pretty huge issue afterall. There are a ton of “fanservice” and “harem” animes that objectify women to the extreme and then occasionally boys alike.
Bweh.. I ranted too much…
I think it’s rather unjustified to say that Deathnote is sexist because of how one female character was portrayed.
I agree with you…but that wasn’t what I was saying. Misa was the only specific example I used, but I specifically stated that my issue is with how Death Note handles its female characters. Here, more specifics? The FBI agent in the beginning is motivated by her fiancee, the reporter lady toward the end is motivated by Light, and Light’s mother and sister are bystanders in a game played by Light, his father, and Mello. The men in Death Note are motivated by much broader ideals then “I want to do something for someone of the opposite sex.”
I actually think some of the handling of Misa is the ONLY shade of feminism the manga portrays. And I’ve heard about the IQ spread in men vs. women, but that would only be justification for all the super geniuses being male, not the sex-driven motivation and the general not-taken-seriously-ness of the females. My complaint is with a number of things.
And saying there are more sexist manga out there isn’t justification for Death Note being sexist – that’s like saying one movie having sexism is okay just because another movie is MORE sexist. I will admit that since Death Note is a shounen, I wasn’t expecting it to be particularly feminist (shounen rarely is), but it’s such a broad-minded shounen that leaves behind so many of the weaknesses of the genre that its failure to overcome traditional shounen sexism stands out as being particularly unfortunate. Death Note tries to appeal to themes about humanity, justice, and society – it hurts itself by not taking HALF OF THE HUMAN RACE very seriously.
Heya!
Thank you for a well written and thought through response! I think you’re making the misstake of staring yourself blind at the fact that theese characters are women, instead of simply side-characters (with the exeption of Misa). The FBI agent’s vendetta seems perfectly understandable to me and she acts on her own accord, I don’t see any problem there really. The family’s passive role would’ve been the same if his sister had been a little brother instead, or is there any reason to think otherwise? The thief and reporter’s bodyguard seemed to driven by their own agenda. Hmm, I’ll admit that the reporter’s actions were strange, but I think that her weak character was one of many in the second half of the series. As for Misa she’s just the typical j-idol sterotype in addition to her sociopathic behaviour.
It’s true that other series beeing sexist doesn’t justify Death Note arguably beeing so. However, my point was that there are series far more suited to be brought up for debate. I think that this is a genuine problem, especially as anime has become more widespread. The sexism in anime and other Japanese culture is commonly accepted and may therefore tint the productions of series such as Death Note.
As for Death Note appealing to the subject of justice and ethics I think that’s where a major flaw in Death Note is. It never portrays any of the interesting dilemmas that ‘Kira’ would have been facing. Like where he should draw the line of judgement? Just murder? Can the killing of another person ever be justified & is every conviction that of someone guilty? I’d also like to think that the Media is to blame when they throughtout the series continue to publish photos and names of criminals.
In any case, I can’t see the sexism that you speak of despite a little effort. If it’s there it’s subtle and I don’t think that it hurts the entertainment value. To me Death Note was just a decent detective fiction drama that lost itself somewhere in the end…
- SajT
As for Death Note appealing to the subject of justice and ethics I think that’s where a major flaw in Death Note is. It never portrays any of the interesting dilemmas that ‘Kira’ would have been facing. Like where he should draw the line of judgement? Just murder? Can the killing of another person ever be justified & is every conviction that of someone guilty? I’d also like to think that the Media is to blame when they throughtout the series continue to publish photos and names of criminals.
I still believe that the point of Death Note is to not spell out a clear theme about justice. Light kills people he considers “criminals” and anyone who gets in the way of his “just” cause. L believes in the law deciding who lives and who dies. Misa kills in an attempt to protect and please herself and Light. These are all “Kira” dillemmas that each character faces in a different way. CAN the killing of another person ever be justified? I don’t know. The comic doesn’t know. The manga lets each reader decide for him/herself, and that’s the entire point. Each character justifies murder in his or her own way in order to provide example of how people CAN think about the issue. I think Death Note NOT answering those questions clearly and directly is what makes it so good.
Good point about the media. I forgot to mention that – the media ethics in Death Note are another good brainbuster. At what point are they helping Kira, hurting Kira, fulfilling a duty to the public, hurting the public, etc.? The media has a definitive (and oftentimes shifting) role in the story, and again the reader can decide if and when the media is in the wrong.
Yes, a lot of the male side characters are also treated flippantly in Death Note. But there are multiple strong male characters, whereas Misa is only sometimes a strong female character, and all the other female characters are practically throwaway (the FBI agent less so, maybe, because of the post-series novel that includes her). But a broad-minded character like L commenting on the FBI agent being good at her job “even for a woman”? Light claiming he can manipulate everybody, but then failing with certain male characters while NEVER failing at manipulating every woman in his life? And then Matsuda, who the manga always considered a sort of joke, really coming into his own by the end while a major female character’s fate isn’t even revealed until the post-series informational Volume 13 for no good reason (other than the author not caring)? Sorry, but when you try to write a story about the human condition and then you try and cut out your female characters whenever you can for no good reason (other than their being female, I suppose), your story’s sexist. It’s definitely not the most sexist manga you can read, and I still think Death Note is one of the best comics ever written and everyone should read it, but I still think the sexism in the story is worthy of critique.
I think the sexism answer is a little less complicated than that. Simply, both the writer and the artist are men. It’s easier for them to relate to male characters, not because they have any kind of low opinion of women. I’m a budding writer and I had the same problem for a while.
And the artist in particular actually has difficulty with female characters.
If you want to know why Naomi was killed off so fast, you should go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Death_Note_characters
Scroll down to “Conception and development of Naomi”. That page also has multiple references on Obata(the artist)’s difficulty drawing female characters.
Interesting point about the artist not being able to draw women. But still, that doesn’t excuse the writing-specific undermining of the female characters. A woman doesn’t have to be on-screen to be taken seriously.
I think the sexism answer is a little less complicated than that. Simply, both the writer and the artist are men. It’s easier for them to relate to male characters, not because they have any kind of low opinion of women.
I’ve heard that justification for mild sexism before, and I just don’t buy it. Feminism is the idea that men and women were created equal. No one’s asking a male writer to accurately represent the female experience in order to be a feminist writer – if you write a female character whom the writer and reader can take seriously, you’re good to go. Look at One Piece. Nami and Robin aren’t particularly admirable people, but they’re important members of the team, and other characters and/or the reader would only look down on them for their flaws – Nami’s greed, Robin’s apathy, whatever. Nobody’s looking down on them because they’re the girls, because them being “the girls” isn’t an issue – they’re members of the team. Period.
Bottom line: your female characters have to be human beings with flaws and goals, just like how your male characters are human beings with flaws and goals. If you have trouble writing female characters, either make your story entirely inhabited by men, or develop a male character with all his goals and drives and flaws and then draw boobs on him. If you can only write some sort of sloppy compilation of female stereotypes onto a character who’s only a caricature of a human being, just leave her out – you’re not helping anyone. Oh, and all female characters in a work shouldn’t be inherently driven by, providing, or representations of sex, either, unless there’s a particular reason for that being the case in the work. Are men entirely defined by their sex, even though straight women and gay men are attracted to men? Nope. So women shouldn’t be, either, just because straight men and gay women are attracted to them.
Death note is very good. Is one of my favourite anime.Have you seen how amaizing is Ryuuku drawn? And the phsychological war between L and Light is great. I like it so much because is very differet of what i’ve seen.
Hi, Lianne, long time since I saw you!
I agree with your assessment of this awesome show/manga (the movie opens shortly here). I joke pretty often that it rocks because Madhouse was the studio who animated it, but honestly, the manga is pretty amazing.
The central conflict is easy to grasp; what makes it work plotwise is the cleverness of the rules-lawyering and resource management that Light and L engage in. But what makes it resonate is that horrible yet tantalizing worry that we’d do better…or worse…than Light at carrying that burden. Only the naive believe that they’d never be tempted to use the book. Most of us would hope to use it as carefully as Light does at first, without falling victim to the allure of that power.
I will have to get back into reading your very insightful blog!
I’ve only seen up to episode 20, and I’ve been going back and forth on whether I want to finish the series (I haven’t read the manga.)
I have some issues with the plot that have made my interest lessen (mostly that neither L nor Light seem to act as smart as we the audience are supposed to believe them to be, and some boredom with the business industry group pay-for-murder plot), my main objection with the series, and the reason I’m trying to decide to quit or continue, is the sexism.
I’d like to say that I appreciated your comments in the discussion about about how women are portrayed on the series– I agree with you all your points, and I could see those patterns even though I’ve only seen 20 episodes.
My biggest complaint was the lack of female characters–of female populace– in the “world” that Death Note creates. It seems like there’s just less women present than you would normally see. Especially after L moves into the high-rise building and so many scenes are in a closed setting where the only female character of note is Misa (plus that one thief that gets only a couple lines). And Misa seems like a Bratz doll come to life, though I do appreciate her resourcefulness at least. Even with the idea that there’s less women in the police force, and less women in the business world, there are *some*, and I felt often like the author kept forgetting that women existed, at least in a professional environment. He remembered they existed at Light’s home (because a mother is an accessory to a good little police chief’s household) and they existed in the shape of sexual objects like Misa (who is not only defined by sexual context but epitomizes the “emotional/crazy/irrational” stereotype of feminine behavior), and then every once in a while you get the FBI agent’s fiancee in the beginning, who would have been amazing if she hadn’t been eliminated for reasons directly related to her male counterpart. Even looking past the fact that the ambitions of the women were tied in with the male characters (happens a lot in anime) I felt the general absence of women in the overall cast was disturbing, and much more noteworthy than in other anime series. Instead of being around half of the cast, it seems like in the world of DN there’s only 20% women to 80% men.
Like I said, that was my impression of the first half of the series. I have been told “it only gets worse” by others, though.
-Rashaka
Jim: Always lovely to hear from you, hope you’re doing well.
Rashaka: Amen to pretty much everything you just said about the sexism. It’s subtle and insiduous, which is further reflected by the lack of women in “power” positions for no good reason; granted, the lack of background women can probably be attributed at least somewhat to the fact that the artist doesn’t enjoy drawing women. And yes, the first half of the series of Death Note is the strongest, so plot problems and the sexism will only increase as time goes on. I still recommend following the series through to the end at least once, though. And the manga is the best version (and at $8 a pop, 12 volumes max isn’t much of an investment).
I do, however, think L and Light are believably brilliant. The first time L tricks Light to discover Light’s location in Volume 1 still gives me shivers, it’s so damn clever.
Althought this might not justify all of the ‘sexist’ claims, but writer Tsugumi Ohba and illustrator Takeshi Obata admitted that they weren’t very good with female characters. That alone is the reason why there weren’t many female characters in the series to begin with. The issue around Naomi Misora’s death is quite interesting. Apparently she was orginally planned to be in the series much longer, even possibily within the Near and Mello arc. However, since she was able to learn that Kira could kill victims by means other than heart attacks faster than anyone else, they felt that they had to get rid of her or else face problems with the story line(although they didn’t elaborate what the problems were). Believe it or not, killing her off was a difficult decision for both of them. In Misa’s case, she was merely used to convey Death Note’s Gothic Imagery as well as being the comic relief of an otherwise serious plot; along with Ryuk and Matsuda. If I were with them, I would’ve changed the plotline in such a way that would put Naomi in a near death situation, but still keep her alive; such as Light attempting to kill her in a car accident, but he miscalulates the time and position and she survives the crash. …but what’s done is done. What can I say?
Volumes 1-7 are a masterpiece. The awesomeness weakens after that. But the last few chapters are a knock out of an ending.
The shallow female characters in Death Note and lots of other Shounen titles don’t really bother me, we all know how one-dimensional guys in shoujo manga can get. No manga is obliged to represent human society in its entirety. If the artists behind Death Note wanted to make a manga about guys, good for them! Well, that’s what I think.
My actual problem with this story was that the entire plot was so awkwardly constructed, I started to feel the author was making fun of me. The trick in story-telling is not to let everything about your story seem staged, even if all of it is. Death Note was BAD with his.
I love how you guys neglected to look into Japanese culture over the whole sexism issue. It’s quite simple. To be a successful woman, you must be cute, and at least seemingly inferior to men. It’s encouraged, and accepted by a lot of women. They never had a true feminist revolution so if the manga is taking place in that country even in 2004, it makes sense. A much more blunt look into Japanese culture is Special A. I know it’s retarded, but the blatant sexism in the plot, and it’s wild success despite that says something. The subtle sexism in Death Note is not surprising to me. Naomi Misora rose to prominence in her field in America very quickly. The minute she got engaged to Raye and came back to japan, she hit a glass ceiling, and was killed off for having potential. But think about it, if she had lived, Death Note may have finished in 6 volumes instead, and we might have missed the chance to truly see into Light’s head, as we did in his last monologue. I guess the only plus in seeing the last couple of volumes was watching Light’s previous morals degrade and disappear along with the mental state of the masses into something that was pretty nastily depraved.
On another note, I forgot to mention that the story is usually portrayed from Light’s point of view despite being in a third person style. If you think about it, since he’s got a good job, had good grades, and was very good looking, he could get any girl he wanted by using the very same tricks that a any guy would use a.k.a. the “dropping his voice low and whispering in your ear” kind of stuff. I know a lot of girls go all fangirly when they see a hot guy, and then they have heart attacks when he comes up and actually talks to them. In the end, I think that explains Light’s ability to get any girl he wants. Since he never met a girl it didn’t work on, it increased his arrogance and patronizing look on women. I think it’s like, the smarter and more powerful you are, the more condescending on the opposite sex, and possibly your own sex you can be. So if you take a bunch of male super geniuses who’ve never fallen in love, and raise them in an environment where women are happily subservient to men such as the mafia, or Japan, add an author who isn’t very good at writing competent women, and you have an at least mildly sexist story.
The only reason why I kept reading past volume seven was because I wanted to quit being spoiled so damn much, and I needed to finish it, or else I wouldn’t be able to finish the anime. I guess that in the end, it was worthwhile to see Near pull that stunt in Manhattan with all that money. Even more than that, it was worth reading the final chapters to see how far from ideal Light had fallen, and what his perfect world was like from the moments when he was active to right after.
jezz, if you hate sexism so much don’t watch japanime! Simple. I’m a female but I don’t see any problem with their portrayal of female characters. If anything, their depiction of the male characters is far more “outrageous”. They appear mostly as emotionless, power hungry and immature (L confesses this to Light’s father). Additionally, once you add too many female characters it becomes a romance and the composers of death note obviously didn’t want this. Listen to the few smart people above in this blog who said: this anime is characteristic for its appreciation of issues such as justice etc not for telling us about the importance of males and females in society and their roles. If you want to get all crazy about some slight unintentional sexism in this anime then don’t watch it and while your at it don’t turn on the TV because the ratio of man to women ads may insult you and don’t go outside or you may throw up when you see the revealing clothes that demean half the teenager girls out there. I could go on about for ages about this but unlike you obsessive-feminists I have a life and a boy friend- something that as feminists you will never experience. I suggest you go get laid. Or write you own damn anime and stop attacking something you don’t even understand. Anyways I bet you eat meat you hypocritical bastards.
You know, “girl,” I don’t usually take trolls seriously, but your line about how feminists would calm down if they got sex really pissed me off, and I shudder to think of the idiots who would agree with you. Let me clarify something for you: wanted to be treated seriously regardless of what set of genitals you were born with has nothing to do with your sex life. Feminism has nothing to do with liking or hating men – it’s about fighting descrimination. Does a racism activist “need to get laid” because she takes it personally when someone gets crapped on for having different skin color? Grow up. Some people probably saw my original response before I cleaned this up.
Additionally, once you add too many female characters it becomes a romance and the composers of death note obviously didn’t want this.
“Adding females” isn’t the same thing as “adding romance” unless you’re narrow-minded. A sexist work (or one purposely focusing on the world/perspective of men) would assume a female character couldn’t stand on her own except as a love interest. That implies that women are only good for sex. They are people, they are characters, and they shouldn’t simply represent what the boy wants to sleep with unless the work is intentionally showing a limited perspective. Also, if you were right, yaoi wouldn’t exist.
…this anime is characteristic for its appreciation of issues such as justice etc not for telling us about the importance of males and females in society and their roles.
Your statement would only be true if the work DIDN’T undermine its female characters. By not taking its female characters seriously, Death Note implies that women aren’t as important/smart/whatever as men. That’s a statement, even if it’s implicit rather than explicit.
Anyways I bet you eat meat you hypocritical bastards.
I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, but you had better not be comparing the treatment of women to the treatment of non-humans.
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, but you had better not be comparing the treatment of women to the treatment of non-humans.”
Why not? it seems that you too are a narrow minded individual. I have little care of the treatment of women, as you seem to have of the treatment of animals.
The world is filled with angry people. You are one of them and so am I. I do not like people who corrupt my anime with over over-the-top feminist complaints and so I try to piss them off in retaliation. Child like, yes. Necessary, perhaps.
Now why don’t you go write my name in your own little pink death note or something and then your world will be a better place.
Have a nice day.
hey whats wrong with trolls Lianne? lol jks.. anyways ppl i think you shuld all just take a chill pill n stuff cause its only a show right? But ‘girl’ ya shouldnt say things like that cause its meannnnn! and anyways i lived in a place wher dis kid was murdered and his killer was pretending to be kira… so ya shouldnt wish things like that!
anyways peace- DN rocks (even if its a bit sexist..)
DN rocks (even if its a bit sexist..)
Thank you. That’s what I’ve been saying from the start. Apparently that’s too critical for some people.
I agree with most of what is said in this review, and although Death Note has its flaws (as does EVERY story EVER) I think Death Note has done a lot for the anime/manga community’s reputation. People who once looked down on us as geeks and losers obsessed with foreign art and lame magical stories have read this incredible series and realized that there is something cool about this, after all.
I’m surprised to see all the sexism-based criticism. I’d never thought of Death Note having any sexism, but I guess it’s somewhat true. Naomi, Misa, and Takada are all primarily motivated by the men in their lives.
I think Naomi’s abrupt death had its own intresting aspects, in that it added more suspense by saying “anyone can die.” However, I think the movie, while a bit shoddily made, handled her character in a more creative and climactic way.
Anyhow, I thought that overall, it was a fantastic series. I’ve only seen the anime–not the manga–so I don’t know what the manga may have done better. I’ll try to avoid spoilers, but a person shouldn’t be reading this conversation without having read/seen Death Note.
The second “half” (last 11 episodes of the anime), as you said, is justified in its existence. It makes sense that more people would eventually get in on the attempts to catch Kira. The second half is distinguished by how Light’s victory is nearly complete–almost the whole world loves him. There are multiple investigation teams, and they all have a lot more information about Kira than in the early episodes. Light is forced to take some drastic measures that I found interesting. The first 4-5 episodes still had creativity. However, there are aspects that I dislike, which seem to indicate the writer was running out of ideas.
One part of Takada’s role was very redundant, and adds to the sexism criticism. She and Mikami were introduced too abruptly, and should have been better established earlier. Some of the more interesting still-living characters have severely reduced roles. Mello becomes a minor character for a while. The last few episodes mainly felt like buildup to the climax. The climax itself involved too many dull technicalities, and didn’t have the creativity of the earlier episodes. Great dramatic presentation, though. Some very exciting scenes.
The early episodes were wonderful. They were onstantly creative, with lots of fun Xanatos gambits by Light and L trying to outsmart each other. A great detective story, and an interesting morality story. Nearly every episode of the first arc explored new and interesting possibilities. I thought Light was alarmingly charismatic, and L was very amusing. The Yotsuba arc was rather over-long, but that was part of what made it interesting. I didn’t expect it to last long. The story changing its own premise a few times was part of what made it interesting. It really went to interesting places with the very simple plot device of the notebook.
I love Deathnote. I am currently staring at a painting of L on the wall over my desk, and I have a deathnote (bought at Sac-con last year) sitting in the drawer of said desk. (I joke to my friends that if they don’t open the drawer the right way, it will burst into flames) My friends call me ‘the smarter half of Misa.’ I spend hours at a time re-reading and analyzing each bit of the plot, simply because I love it so much, and it’s a good thought-provoking story. Deathnote has earned it’s popularity with it’s intelligence and just plain epic-ness. Maybe it can be a little sexist, but that can be ignored once you get into the story. If you want a really funny portrayal of the sexism of Deathnote (and a lot of other funny Deathnote-related fan comics) go find silentreaper on Deviantart. She is pure Deathnote brilliance. Find Matsuda’s Rant. I think there are 3 parts, all focusing on and laughing at Deathnote’s little flaws. To a serious fan, this can either be taken as offensive or really funny. I choose the latter, because I know that Deathnote is an amazing series. Also, if you haven’t read it, you should go check out the Deathnote spin-off novel, ‘Deathnote: Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases.’ It tells the story of one of L’s cases before Kira. I also greatly enjoyed all three of the live-action movies, even if they weren’t true to the manga in any way shape or form, and were overly dramatic at times. Kenichi Matsuyama is the perfect actor for L.
Oh My …. i read this article… and i DIED!!
FIRST OF ALL!!!
NOBODY disses the Note!
NO
BODY
if you’re going to be a pessimist about all the mangas and animes you review, do it somewhere else!
i am greatly insulted.
oh and Misa-Misa
I LOVE YOU!!!
Wonderful review. I’d be less inclined to forgive the series for some of the flaws you pointed out, but it was interesting to read some of the reasons for them. (I don’t usually care if there’s a good reason for the flaw to exist – at most, that gives me cause to forgive the author, but not the story itself.)
I definitely agree that the series’ successes eclipse the flaws, anyway, and it’s nice to see someone else who can appreciate the final arc. I think one of the reasons I like it is that the author didn’t attempt to recreate the feel of the Light/L cat-and-mouse game, and opted for a different dynamic, allowing the last arc to be its own animal rather than a cheap copy of the L stuff. I also loved the whole id/superego thing Near and Mello had going on.
I’m ashamed to say that I don’t really have the awareness to have noticed the sexism, but you’re quite right that the series’ treatment of women is pretty appalling. It’s a shame that people are so quick to brush the issue aside for such silly reasons (seriously, how hard would it be to have just made L or some other prominent character female?)
Anyway, excellent review! : D
DEATH NOTE IS FOR THE WIN!!!!!
I love death note; I think the art is great, the characters are phenomenal, and the plot is interesting.
On the sexism thing – while I wont try to justify the treatment of female characters in the series, there is one thing I find interesting; yes, characters like Misa and Takada are motivated only by the men in their life, and there are very few – if any – girls in the death note world who aren’t. However, the writers don’t portray such relationships as healthy; in fact, Misa and Takada **SPOILER CUT BY MOD** as a direct result of their obsession with Light.
Thanks for the interesting article!
**comment cut for spoilers and general incoherence**
Death Note is awesome! I’m a girl and I don’t mind the sexism one bit. Why? Because I rather look at the drop-dead sexy boys than the girls who are all pawns anyway. I don’t think it’s just me, but all the time I hear girls wanting “a man/boy who could understand them and be on the same intellectual level as them.” Well, here you are: 5-7 brilliant boys on a silver platter. They fit into a lot of major types. Lighto: for those who like sexy but poisonous. L: for those who don’t care about looks and love his querks. Near: for those who like egotistic, but at the same time, irressistably adorable brats. Mello: for those who like sexy but the most badass thing you ever saw. Not to mention Matt who could be whoever you want him to be. Along side are the not as brilliant but just as likable Ryuk and Matsuda. I’ve named 7 really awesome boys/men now. Exactly what part of the characters is unlikable? This is just the show for girls to find a new character to fangirl over. This series is only sexist if look at all the tecnicallities. Also each character needed to be it’s corresponding gender. For example, if Light was a girl, he’d be less aggressive, less competative, and less ambicious. Really, the series would turn into a girl killing her ex-boyfriend because he dumped her. This show is simply looking at male-female relations rationally, not sexist. Besides, I heard Ohba-sensei is a girl; how can she be sexist?
Although it’s true that Death Note is rambly and you’ll get very little if you expect physical fights with swords. But the good side is that, in the anime, you hear fantastic character themes. It makes listening to them much more enjoyable.
OH! By the way, L is 25 years old. Seven years ahead of Light. Although he does look only a few years older, doesn’t he? Girls everywhere would kill to know his secret XD Also, because I’m obsessed with him so much, I made it my personal goal to think the way he does and to come to a conclusion or deduction before him (kind of like B in Death Note: Another Note). Needless to say all I accomplished was a way to feel stupid. And I don’t feel stupid very often XD
But even so I didn’t take it in a sexist way. I look at the Death Note world in terms of average humans, extraordinary humans, and shinigami. So when Light controls a random girl and uses her as a pawn. I see it as an exraordinary human controlling an average one. Sure it’s unfortunate for the average human, but that’s just the way life works. Misa was a girl, but she was extraordinary. The only thing keeping Light from fearing for his life, seeing she’s technically more powerful than him, is that she fell in love with him.
Another thing I want to point out is that Light looks really really girly. He’s a prodigy in Japan, but they don’t have femenist movements in Japan. If we have to look at sexism we have to look at this from a more western point of view. So here, wherever you are west of Japan, Light is basically a very girly male. So technically, what we could conclude is that a man needs to be really feminin to accomplish as much or at least make as much of a difference as Light did. After all, the man practically started a new religion! So if you look at it from this point of view, Death Note is a little bit sexist, this time it’s conveying the messege that girls are indeed better than guys. Or at the very least guys who look like girls are better than guys who don’t. Just throwing a relevent thought out there.
E,
. . . Ohba-san is indeed male. I thought I should mention that.
Anyway, I don’t agree with what you said about Deathnote hardly being sexist at all depending on how you look at it. I also don’t totally understand your ‘Light as a girl’ theory; what ex-boyfriend are we talking about here? And your theory about Light looking feminine and therefore making the series sexist towards males feels like it’s stretching it a bit.
However, I completely agree with your ‘smart sexy boys’ theory. L is my husband forever. ? I also make a point to be like the Deathnote characters. (hence my name) The detectives (except Mello; he annoys me with his violent tendencies, lack of morals, and general impulsiveness) are admirable.
Your ideas about the women Light manipulates being average citizens, and about Misa being extraordinary but in love make sense to me. It would be nice if the authors had decided to have Light manipulate a few average men here and there, but I have to admit you have a point. Light, being your average straight (if not slightly feminine-looking) guy with lots of charm and charisma and an Abercrombie-model-ish body, naturally gravitates towards taking advantage of the opposite gender because a) his super-high self esteem lets him know how “irresistible” he is, b) he happens to know a lot of women from college and stuff and c) unfortunately, it’s easier to get them wrapped around his finger (this is where the sexism comes in a little)
E,
. . . Ohba-san is indeed male. I thought I should mention that.
Anyway, I don’t agree with what you said about Deathnote hardly being sexist at all depending on how you look at it. I also don’t totally understand your ‘Light as a girl’ theory; what ex-boyfriend are we talking about here? And your theory about Light looking feminine and therefore making the series sexist towards males feels like it’s stretching it a bit.
However, I completely agree with your ‘smart sexy boys’ theory. L is my husband forever. I also make a point to be like the Deathnote characters. (hence my name) The detectives (except Mello; he annoys me with his violent tendencies, lack of morals, and general impulsiveness) are admirable.
Your ideas about the women Light manipulates being average citizens, and about Misa being extraordinary but in love make sense to me. It would be nice if the authors had decided to have Light manipulate a few average men here and there, but I have to admit you have a point. Light, being your average straight (if not slightly feminine-looking) guy with lots of charm and charisma and an Abercrombie-model-ish body, naturally gravitates towards taking advantage of the opposite gender because a) his super-high self esteem lets him know how “irresistible” he is, b) he happens to know a lot of women from college and stuff and c) unfortunately, it’s easier to get them wrapped around his finger (this is where the sexism comes in a little)
E,
(sorry about posting twice – I didn’t mean to do that)
Also, I would like to apologize for a tiny error I made. After some online reading, I found out that Ohba-san’s actual gender is unknown. So s/he could still be female, like you said.
I was really into this manga until Vol 11, and vol 12 was disappointing garbage that can only be called a lame, rushed attempt to finish the story.
For those who actually want to finish this series, I won’t point out teh specifics, but the plot holes on Vol 12 are large enough to fly a 747 through.
Near develops magical powers (I say that sarcastically) that let him figure out who Mikami wqas in Vol 11, tied with his ability to magically access hidden things destroys the story that up until Vol 11 was quite good.
The real tragedy here is that Tsugumi Ohba could have given an ending WORTHY of a detective story. Insterad, it failed to deliver.
Vol 1-10 I will give a 9 out of 10. Vol 11, I will give a 5 out 10. Vol 12, I give a 0 out of 10. I regrett buying teh whole series after it was concluded in such a lame way.
I did not get one bit of the whole sexism. I have finshed Death Note and from what I can remember I didn’t have one thought of sexism. So (no offense I skipped all the reviews that started with sexism and that was pretty much all of them. I bet you all have good points and all.) Well i guess I wasn’t looking close enough. I loved Death Note. I loved everything(from what I can remember) EXCEPT the ending. This is my only complaint: how the ussaly calm main character, Light, turned all (best word I can descirbe with) is crazy. When he got caught. I was very unhappy and disappointed. Like Disappointed I hated how “it was concluded in such a lame way” But I didn’t regret reading it. It was very entertaining. The author was amazing, how he wrote the story, and did the problem and solution. It was well thought out, and genius.
I was really attached with Light even when he did “bad” things and I guess thats the reason why the main character that could be idlized turned lame in the ending. It was truly sad in my eyes, someone you thought so high of turning out to be so..low. It was truly amazing, and I would say a work of art.
Emily,
Personally, I think that one of the most brilliant things in the series was the fact that Light’s abuse of ultimate power finally caught up with him. Realistically, when you give a person that much power, even if they start out with good intentions, the power takes over their brain and they do stuff that they never thought they would do. For example: Light originally only wanted to kill criminals; he eventually ended up murdering innocent people to get what he wanted. He went from wanting peace to wanting to be a god. His overconfidence and inflated ego were his downfall. He believed that he could get out of any problem with his sheer wit and charisma, when that was not in fact the case – at the end, he was in denial, thinking that no, it couldn’t be over, even though it was. Ryuk even realized that his entertainment was coming to a close. It would have been unrealistic to have Light retain all his dignity and sanity with circumstances like that, so there was no way the series could have ended any other way. Unless Light had made fewer mistakes, and Near was worse at guessing . . . then maybe the game would have gone on for a little longer. But do you really think the world would rest until Kira was caught, especially since he wasn’t just killing the bad guys?
Oh yeah, and don’t get me wrong – I almost cried when he died in the anime. I just think the series ended in a logical way.
[quote]Death Note is sexist.[/quote]
Wait till you read “Bakuman,” the new series by the same mangaka team.
Death Note is sexist. Plain and simple. It’s really sad to see all the fans who try to deny it and make excuses it for it when it’s so glaringly obvious. I hate the excuse that because there are other series/mangas with MORE sexism, it somehow negates the issues Death Note has. Yeah, right.
Misa, who is basically the only prominent female character is treated like crap, and was characterized poorly from start to finish. I kept waiting and waiting for her to rebel, for her to change, for her to grow as a character and it never happened. She was exactly the same in her first appearance as she was at the very end. I liked her though, if only because she provided comic relief. I also think she was treated much worse in the anime than in the manga.
I really loved the series, it was one of the most brilliant and captivating things I had read in a long time. But I’ll never engage in a discussion about it ever without mentioning its huge gender problem.
REASONS WHY I FEEL DEATH NOTE IS *NOT* SEXIST:
~
Order:
# TYPICAL ARGUMENT FOR (SEXISM)
-abc- my argument against (sexist claims)
~
1) THE LACK OF PROMINENT FEMALE CHARACTERS.
-a- the main cast consists of police officers and fbi agents. there are very, very few women in these fields in Japan.
-b- yes, there’s a lack of female geniuses, but that still doesn’t make the series, or the author, misogynistic. two of my closest friends are currently drawing a manga with a predominantly female cast, and i doubt there’s anyone who’d call either of them sexist or misogynistic because of it. sometimes these things just happen. on that note, there have been very intelligent females portrayed in the series, such as kiyomi, halle, wedy, and naomi. even misa, though at most times portrayed to be an air head, has moments where’s she’s seen as driven, bright, and crafty.
2) LIGHT’S DISREGARD FOR WOWEN.
-a- yes, light looks down on women, but then he looks down on everyone so i don’t think it’s right to call him a misogynist. to light, everyone who’s not as smart as him is beneath him. he treats human beings in general like they’re tools to be used and discarded on whim. he’s sexist, sure, but he’s literally demeaning to everyone, man and woman alike. if death note were slashier, i’m sure he would have slept with mikami if it meant furthering his goals, too.
3) STEREOTYPICAL FEMALE ROLES.
-a- let’s be real. Japan is a sexist nation, no ifs or buts about it. death note, despite its supernatural themes, is set in a very realistically modern Japan. The lack of women in law enforcement/high on the hierarchy? very real. the abundance of women playing stereotypical roles (house wives, male dependent, etc?) very real. that is the reality of Japan, folks. there are molds for each gender and a good portion of the populace is content to conform to those roles. Don’t hate the author, or accuse him of being sexist, for portraying a realistic setting.
4) IT ENDORSES SEXISM.
-a- we’re going to have to agree to disagree on this because i feel that the series *portrays* realistic sexism rather than endorses it.
:IN CONCLUSION:
-a- sure, I would have liked to have seen some more kickass female characters, but the lack of that in a series does not make the series, or the author, in any way misogynistic or sexist. not to say that it’s not possible (because it very much is), but that i simply didn’t find it applicable to this particular series.
-b- light’s a bit sexist, sure, but he’s also a misanthropic, manipulative mass murderer (alliteration!), and i love him anyway.
-c- light/l, ya’ll, is complete and total love.
*please excuse typos in the above entry, such as:
1b- misogynistic = misandrystic
etc.