by Ellen Donahue and Lane Bennett
Around the globe, Japanese cartoon books, or manga, are becoming increasingly popular. One of the most popular series of manga is unarguably Tsugumi Ohba’s Death Note, which has sold over an astonishing 20 million copies in Japan alone.
The series starts off with the brilliant honors student Light Yagami stumbling upon a mysterious black note book with the words “Death Note” written across the front. Curiosity gets the best of him, and he takes it home to read. In the front, there are a set of rules, the first one being “the human whose name is written in this note shall die.” Light is skeptical of this, as would any normal person be, but decides to give it a chance anyway just for some laughs and giggles.
However, once he realizes that the “Death Note” is actually effective he decides that he must use it to cleanse the world of evil by murdering criminals using the notebook. He’s given the name “Kira” by the general public, which is a play on how the Japanese have a tendency to pronounce Ls are Rs, therefore “killer” would be pronounced as “kira.”
Before long, the police start to notice a trend in the sudden deaths of so many wanted criminals. However, they’re unable to figure out how any such phenomenon could occur. After some length of time, they decide to bring in L, the world’s greatest detective.
The series unfolds, telling of the battle of wits between two of the greatest minds in the world. It turns into a psychological thriller with more twists in the plot than twists in a roller coaster. Should you miss one chapter, you’d be completely behind.
Even though it’s essentially a comic book, the characters of Death Note are all incredibly well drawn out, both figuratively and literally. The characters all have a tremendous amount of depth to them, and are illustrated beautifully by Takeshi Obata.
Not only does the series provide for an enjoyable reading experience, but it provides the experience in a way that is rarely seen. Most detective stories are told through the detective’s point of view, with the detective being righteous and the murderer being evil. However, Death Note is from the perspective of the murderer, Light Yagami, and the detective coming after him, L, is the anti-hero. Because of this point of view, these murders that most people would normally write off as being “evil” are almost justified. But ultimately, the books leave the reader to decide whether they’re on Light’s side or L’s side for themselves.
