Story: First off, I should say that Death Note is extremely wordy. It honestly would've been better off as a light novel from the start. If the author could plot all that is in Death Note, I don't think he would've had a problem describing character emotions and setting the tone for the atmosphere. That being said, this is definitely not a manga that a young, not-as-knowledgeable person should pick up and read. Not for explicit content, but for fear that their little brains would leak out through their ears after trying to read and guess what will happen next in the plot. Plus, y'know, the whole heavy death theme.

However, that's where the beauty of the story of Death Note comes in. There were many twists and turns that keep the reader hooked and guessing, up to a certain point, the story keeps the reader guessing on when it will end. The first half was very creative. Some of the things that Light thought of and {even more impressively} pulled off, had gained him some respect points in my book. I was always curious to see what he would do next, given the situations he was put in.

After the aforementioned point, not much happened story-wise. More lovable characters were introduced, but I think it was a bad move on Ohba's part to move around some of those characters, so he couldn't put them to their potential use to make the second half of the story more interesting. I understand that some significant things happened in the second half, and I probably would've liked them if those significant things were presented in more of a climatic light.

Even if the second half was kind of boring, I recommend sticking with it. The ending sort of washes away the mundane of most of the second half. It's a beautiful display of human emotion and character development. For the close-minded people who couldn't {or refuse to} see the possible other side of the story and think that Kira is invincible, you might be surprised by this ending. While I sort of saw some aspects coming, the ending surprised me as well. It gets the respect it deserves.



Art: I don't even know what to say about the art. Everything was done beautifully. While it was a manga, the art didn't have that manga feel. It seemed more realistic to me, which was a nice change from oversized eyes, appendages, and hair with enough volume to inflate and cause the character to float away when a breeze rolls in. Most of the character designs were simple, but when it came to the shinigami and {at points} Misa, Obata drew them well. And let's not forget the volume covers and chapter pages. It's those specific art pages that we really get to see the nice proportion that the artist used, and the creative ways he makes the characters look good with a nice mix of clothing creases, shading, expressions and positions.



Characters: The characters in this manga were wonderful. The characters were developed well, every character {even supporting characters} had some special trait about them and a specific personality. I absolutely loved how every character was dynamic -- they changed in some way at the end, even if the plot didn't examine how they had changed. They were absolute; you either liked or disliked certain characters, there was no middle ground. There was even contrast to the characters -- Light is a bit mean and introverted, while Misa is quite extroverted, L never sleeps or goes anywhere and always has his eyes open, while Watari has his eyes closed and is L's runner, etc. The characters in Death Note were characters that you wouldn't really find anywhere else because they were all stock characters with a special twist on each of them.



Overall: The Death Note manga is certainly worth a read. Even though it's only 12 actual volumes, all the stuff that's packed in to those volumes make it seem longer. Plus there's anime, live-action movies, video games, and a later light novel prequel. Death Note raises good moral questions and is a good display of human nature. This isn't for someone who doesn't want to THINK about what they're reading while reading it. This IS for someone who wants to see a battle of brains and wits go down instead of fists and swords. A spin on something supernatural that doesn't involve mindless fighting makes for a good manga. Have fun with it.