About

Death Note (Japanese: デスノート) is a manga and anime series created by writer Tsugumi Ohba and artist Takeshi Obata. It follows Light Yagami, a high school student who discovers the Death Note, a supernatural notebook that grants its user the ability to kill anyone whose name and face they know.

Premise

The series centers around Light Yagami's attempt to create a perfect world, one free of evil which he will rule as a God. He attemps to do this by using the power of Death Note, which grants him the ability to kill anyone who's name and face he knows by writing their name in the Death Note. The story also follows L, a detective who is attempting to stop Light by any means necessary, along with a small task force. Later on in the story various other persons and groups join either Light or Kira to help them in their goal.

History

Death Note was first serialized in 108 chapters in the Japanese manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 2003 to May 2006. The series was also published in tankōbon format in Japan starting in May 2004 and ending in October 2006 with a total of twelve volumes.

Anime Series

The Death Note anime aired aired in Japan from October 3, 2006, to June 26, 2007. It was composed of 37 episodes. The anime was developed by Madhouse and directed by Tetsuro Araki. The episodes from the anime first appeared in North America as downloadable by IGN. Viz later licensed the anime series and it aired on Bionix from October 21, 2007, and ended on July 4, 2008.

Films

Death Note also got a series of two live-action Japanese films^[1][10] based on the Death Note manga and anime series. The first one was released on June 17, 2006 in Japan and May 20, 2008 in the U.S, followed by a sequel on November 3, 2006, in Japan and October 15, 2008 in the U.S. The two films were directed by Shūsuke Kaneko, produced by Nippon Television, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures Japan. A spin-off film directed by Hideo Nakata, titled L: Change the World, was released on February 9, 2008 in Japan and April 29, 2009 in the U.S.

American Live-Action Film

On August 25th, 2017, an American live-action adapation of the series was released on Netflix, starring Nat Wolff, Lakeith Stanfield, Margaret Qualley, Shea Whigham, Paul Nakauchi, Jason Liles and Willem Dafoe.

The film was criticized by many online for casting White actors, while others objected to plot elements missing from the adaptation.^[3][4]

Online Presence

On March 21st, 2017, the official Death Note Facebook^[5] page was created, garnering more than 427,000 likes over the next five months. As of August 2017, the official Death Note website is hosted by the Japanese-American entertainment company Viz.^[9]

Fandom

On July 31st, 2007, the Death Note Wiki^[7] was created. Within 10 years, the database accumulated upwards of 520 pages. On February 18th, 2010, the /r/DeathNote^[6] subreddit was launched for discussions about the franchise, gathering over 11,700 subscribers within eight years. On January 3rd, 2012, a page for Death Note was created on TV Tropes.^[8]

Related Memes

Death Note Syndrome

The Death Note Syndrome^[2] is a non-realistic syndrome that can occur when watching a film or series. The person watching the show may get mixed ideas on who to cheer for. Reason for this is that the ideals of the bad guy may line up with their own, even though they might of a radical level. This lets people to sometimes switch to the good guy or stay neutral, uncertain what they should do. This originates from Light's radical ways of cleansing the world of evil, simply killing everyone who seems like a threat to a perfect world.

Search Interest

External References