Death Note: A Retrospective

Commenter: Oh hey, did you know you spelled "Keikaku wrong?" You did that like four times. Do you even bother to spell check your own titles or what?

Me (A Mastermind): THAT'S WHAT YOU THINK. OH HO! I of course did not spell it wrong by accident! It was all a ploy to see who both bothered to pay attention, and who also will check comments for this exact post! ALL ACCORDING TO KEIKAKU!

Commenter: You really don't believe people are gonna buy that right? You have a history of misspellings. Just because you made a comment doesn't change the fact....

Me (Not desperate at all): ALL ACCORDING TO KEKAKU!

Death Note was the first manga I read. My high school had a few series in the library.

I actually really like Light. Hey is there's anything wrong with finding the bad guy 'cool'? Besides, it's my 1st time experiencing a story where the protag is "evil." He's skilled enough to face & take on difficulties on his own. He was bold enuf to make himself look suspicious so that he could get closer to the task force & thereby L. He's often seen as & called a villain by the viewers, but anti-hero is probably a better term to describe him as. His voice actors in both English & Japanese have nailed just how psychotic his laugh can sound, while the animators have drawn him with some real maniacal expressions. The overall presentation of DN makes it so hard to dislike any character from it except for Near & Mellow I guess. Tho I don't advocate his acts of killing the innocents just cuz they oppose him by calling him "evil" for example. & I enjoy innocent Light too.

Crazy to think that so much loss of life occurred because 2 people just happened to be particularly bored one day.

It's should end when L dead.

Death note has one major flaw in my opinion: you can like ot only if you are young(that's why it was on shonen jump). The whole "let's see whose justice is better" is flawed because kira kills what he thinks to be a cop in chapter 2 when he kills the fake L so you immediately understand that Light is evil (and even if he didn't do that come on guys a justice system that has only one punishment, one jury and one executioner doesn't sound like fascism?). Most of the "twists" are asspulls and you can really start noticing the cracks in the narrative when you read/watch more.

I honestly really like the Japanese live actions ending. It keeps the battle between just the two. And It wraps up nicely while still being bittersweet.

how does the creator of Death Note get paid?

Its should have ended at L's death.

Oof I watched it weekly as it came out and had to wait for a janky website to add subs.

I'd rewatch or read Death Note but despite loving Bakuman, I've grown sour on the misogeny in all three of their big manga.

L basically got the worlds grand master chess player down to a single remaining pawn, without realizing he was even playing chess, nor did he know the rules of the game.

It’s Willem not William. Pronounced like Will-Lum

Another note about why the potato chip scene is great - Light appeared innocent but only got two minor criminals which he normally wouldn't kill.
It was a way to bait L and draw him in further while appearing innocent to everyone else. Great scene.

Can you do anime reviews again? Like single anime reviews? All your new content is just a jumble of what was good this month, the is year, etc. I want a review on a single anime like you used to. Please 😊

In your ending I believe that the change of structures of power would be more beneficial under Kira vs the current infrastructure, given how crime had decreased by 70% and wars become non existent.

Yes Kira is not a just person, but the current system is even worse by a large margin and feel Kira overall would be a net positive as history has shown that human beings cannot be trusted with their own liberties and thus divine intervention would be a better outcome than the hands of man.

The thing about popularity being the determining factor of where in the magazine manga is placed is false. It’s the chief editor that decides where manga are placed.

Not William lol

I mean why wouldn’t the police just stop releasing the names of criminals?

I'm just starting the video but Lelouch is voiced by Jun Fukuyama... not Mamoru Miyano 🫣 I'll continue...

"the human whose name is written in this note shall die."

Death Note The Musical also had a successful 2023 run in London! New music in English. Some of the songs legitimately slapped

Happy 20 years of Death Note too!!!

I've barely started and you already have no clue what you're talking about. He wasn't a bullied kid, he was super popular and intelligent, but just... bored. And with an ego and the simplistic moral code of an adolescent. And he never uses his Note to kill bullies, only murderers and criminals

Man, so many analysis video-essays are just plot summaries, this however is a real retrospective. Well done, Arkada. Your work have been of a sustained quality for so long.

Just realized a plot hole. Rem should have turned to dust after killing W. She never should have been able to kill L. She should have dusted before that.

name of the song in the intro/beginning?

Man I need to watch this again.

Thanks so much! Great video!

I love death note and i fucking despise the anime adaptation, they had it in the first half but dropped the ball HARD on the second half.
Literally removing entire scenes and 90% of Near's inner monologues so people who only watched the anime think he is just plot convinience encarnate












I still love the first half and that makes the second half that more dissapointing :(

ur collar and tie are so wrong

Read the manga

20 years 🫣🎉Congratulations death note

The time skip is actually 5 years, not 3

You know whats stupid with the anime`s ending? Light would have definetly been paranoid and told Mikami to write his name down but not think of his face, that way hes not suspicious if it fails but if it doesnt fail he still wins, a win-win situation.

Weasley vibes (in the best way)

respect for introducing Netflix's Light and then immediately calling him by his last name only. Canon Light isn't the genius he thinks he is, but Netflix Light isnt even close to his level.

I wish that the mistake that ended Kira was one he made himself

"L, as usual, is not an idiot" hehe yes

Light was a pathetic person, it just wouldn’t be right if his end wasn’t also pathetic.

Hey, I opened this in December of 2023. Happy 20 years of Death Note

Dude, Colombo is OP. He's right up there with Hercules Poirot

hey its December 2023

typical L fanboy

I've seen an internet meme graph floating around with the graph axis being "Could solve the Kira case" and "Could figure out how the death note works". And Columbo is basically the one who is ranked highest in both of those - he'd solve the case, figuring out that Light was Kira . . . AND he'd be able to figure out the Death Note rules. Because you don't HAVE to know how the Death Note works to figure out who is killing all these people.

It would have been amazing to watch Kira react to one simple question
"What happens if you pass judgement on someone who is proven innocent after you kill them?"

Or
"You can kill. Great. Anyone can kill. Create something instead."

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely" is a phrase I've always had a problem with.
I get the idea. But the problem is, every example given tends to be of people doing corrupt things in order to hold onto their power. Real absolute power wouldn't actually require that you do anything in order to maintain it.

It's probably a pedantic point since actual omnipotence isn't an option in the real world. But the premise of the phrase implies that anyone given that kind of power would become corrupt, when in truth, you have to be corrupt to get that power in the first place. I think it kind of lets the powerful off the hook to say they were corrupted by the power itself. I've always had a suspicion that an "uncorrupted" person, that really was given that kind of power could actually do some good. I just can't imagine any way that could happen.

I love the third section controversial opinion

Okay, Willam Dafoe is the ONLY reason to watch the Netflix one lmao

I just don’t like the ending cause there’s no way that guy broke into a bank, stole a notebook, and perfectly forged every individual name in both native and foreign languages to himself, without any mistakes, put it back in the bank, all in the same day without getting caught.

That’s just bullsh*t. And we know it was a single day, or night, single time cycle!, cause Near outright said so.

Honestly if they’d found a way to spread the process out several days or even weeks; I’d have no problem buying the switch. Cause this is a world who’s only truly fantastical elements are the Death Note and things related to it. Humans still have realistic limitations in this world! So, yeah. Bullsh*t!