The lives of humans that die before their time are controlled by a race of shinigami. In order to sustain their own existence, each shinigami is given a book called a Death Note, in which they write the names and means of death of humans in order to kill them and add the years of their natural life to their own. However, aside form this, there’s not much for a shinigami to do. In a fit of boredom, one shinigami named Ryuk, who has a second Death Note that he acquired through trickery, heads to the human world with it to leave it for a human to find.
The unsuspecting protagonist of our story is Light Yagami, an exceptional but otherwise relatively normal Japanese high school student that finds Ryuk’s Death Note. Upon reading the rules of the Death Note inscribed inside, Light tests the Death Note on a criminal holding hostages on television, and has finds that he suddenly has the power to kill anyone he wants, as long as he knows their name and face. Within a few days, he meets with the shinigami Ryuk, and learns that only those that have touched the Death Note can see the shinigami it belongs to, and Light also learns that he will have the Death Note until he fills it or relinquishes control of it. However, if he ever does that, he’ll lose all memories of the Death Note. Warped by the new power he has and his own sense of justice, Light sets out on a crusade to create a perfect world free of criminals as the mysterious killer “Kira,” with himself on top of this new world as its god.
After becoming aware of the situation with the constant deaths of criminals worldwide, world police organizations meet together and attempt to find out what’s causing all the deaths of criminals. They turn to the greatest detective in the world, codenamed L, a young genius who has never failed to track down his target. L is so shrouded in mystery that no one knows his name or even what he looks like, but through a few deductions and carefully laid traps, he is able to quickly isolate Kira’s location, but not his identity. Light becomes aware of L after falling into one of his traps, and becomes determined to stop anyone that will stand in his vision of a perfect world. As soon as one knows the true identity of the other, the winner will be decided, and so begins the cat and mouse game that drives the story of Death Note…
Death Note has been gaining a lot of popularity recently and now that the manga has come stateside, that popularity is sure to increase. Part of what makes Death Note so compelling is the sheer amount of originality that goes into it as a shonen manga, it’s next to impossible to find another shonen manga similar to it. Written by Tsugumi Ohba and drawn by famed Hikaru no Go and Ayatsuri Sakon artist Takeshi Obata, Death Note takes a lot of conventions that people have about shonen manga and flips them on their head.
The plot is one of the major draws of the series, and the twists and turns will keep most readers guessing as to what will happen next, quickly building up the suspense so that the reader barely gets a chance to recover from the last major plot twist. Since death can come at any moment for almost any character, and because the reader is left wanting to know the next detail or revelation to the detective work of L or grand scheme of Light. At the same time the manga also touches on some moral and philosophical issues involving the power to kill, the nature versus nuture argument, and the clash of personal and social justice. As such, there is a lot of dialogue and internal monologue, so be prepared to do a lot of reading when you pick up Death Note. It’s definitely not light reading.
The characters are very compelling, although the manga only tends to focus on a handful throughout the whole story. Many of the side characters are important with their own stories, although this manga might not be the best for people that get too attached to characters, since death is often right around the corner and usually comes out of nowhere for many characters. Death Note is also very unique in that it’s a shonen title where the protagonist is not really the “good guy,” he’s almost a complete bastard with delusions of godhood, and many readers read in hopes that he’ll finally get his comeuppance. In short, he’s a character many grow to truly love to hate. (Although this doesn’t stop a lot of people from liking him anyway.) The other main characters are all very interesting and have interesting quirks, which keeps the story realistic and helps relieve some of the constant tension going on in the series because of the investigation.
Takeshi Obata’s art is extremely detailed and pleasing to the eye. Fans of Hikaru no Go should be pleased since it’s the same artist, although Death Note has a distinctively more mature look to the characters than Hikaru no Go did to match the darker tone of the series. While the art is very detailed, and the usage of space within pictures is well done, the layouts tend to be relatively bland, with almost all panels being laid out in a standard box by box format. However, it seems to work for Death Note considering the amount of dialogue and internal monologue that one has to read, and since action is few and far between the layout is forgivable.
If you’re looking for some shonen manga to read about shinigami and Bleach is a little too “shonen” for you, or if you’re just looking for good writing with lots of of suspense, I highly recommend checking out Death Note. Since it’s a relatively new manga and has only had 8 tankouban published so far, it could be few more years until the story reaches its conclusion, but so far the ride has been quite a rush. Death Note is one of those examples that just how different shonen can be when it strays from some of the standard conventions of the genre.