Title: Death Note
Author: Tsugumi Ohba (writer) & Takeshi Obata (artist)
Genre: Manga
Publisher: Dark Kana (2007 translation, original 2003)
Pages: 12 parts, about 200 pages each
Language: Dutch (original Japanese)
Rating: 7/10
Summary: University student Light Yagami finds a supernatural notebook dropped on Earth by a shinigami - a death god. Light discovers the book is a Death Note; when someone's name is written in the book, that person will die. He decides to use the book to cleanse the world of evil and starts to kill off criminals. This does not go unnoticed and the public nicknames the anonymous vigilante Kira ("killer" in Japanese english). A detective known only by the initial L. is put on the case to find out who's taking the law in his own hands.Spoilerfree reviewMy first manga! I noticed part 1 because it looked cool; it had a black cover with Light holding a scythe and behind him the shinigami on a mountain of skulls. I like skulls. I leafed through the book and liked the drawings, so I decided to give it a try.
I wasn't dissapointed; the story was intriguing and the characters were complicated enough to entertain. I ordered the bookstore to save me a copy every month. (The shopgirl was excited to meet a fellow fan; she gave me a big promotional banner and additional goodies.)
The plot offers a good subject for discussion; can you make the world a better place by eliminating the apparent bad people? Light doesn't seem to have a conscious and doesn't feel guilty about killing people, but he creates a society where suspicion and paranoia rule; Kira decides whether people deserve to live or die. Curious detective L. represents reason -even though he himself is a little detached from the real world-, but he realizes soon enough Kira leaves no room for negotiation; the power of the Death Note makes Light feel like a god.
Unfortunately after book 7 the story kind of drags on; I had the feeling Tsugumi Ohba never meant the story to go beyond a showdown between Light and L. I was very dissapointed it continued after that. In the first half of the series every possible outcome is already handled and apart from the addition of new characters the second half simply feels like a repeat of the original plot.
That gave me the opportunity to find more flaws in the story; such as the horribly shallow depiction of women, who act like puppets as soon as they meet a man. What's also annoying is how the rules of the DeathNote keep piling up to a point where no-one even knows what the book does anymore.
The series is turned into animes and a couple of actual movies. I'm only interested in the first ones, since I understand they are about the initital cat and mouse play between Light and L. That was definitely a good story. Too bad it didn't end there.
Unless I find a manga with strong women and a completed plot, I'm very hesitant to give the genre another go.
Labels: book, review
