Death Note Episode 1 - A Review/Interpretation

For quite a while now, I've been told to look at an anime series called "Death Note". I'm not one to watch much anime since I'm simply not a fan of it but having liked another show called "Neon Genesis Evangelion" or "Evangelion" for short, I thought I would have a butchers at this show.

*** Arrr, thar be spoilers ahead me hearties... ***

I found the first episode and started watching it, and within 5 minutes I was hit with a very dark and desolate view of a world where the crimes and evil of modern society reigns supreme, with seemingly no sight of anything good or morally just.
In terms of theme and tone, I found it was quite similar to Gotham City from the Batman comics and film universe, however this time there is no dark knight around to bring fear into the hearts of the wicked and hope to the innocent.
This is a world which has given up all hope, a world which knows that fighting back is pointless. And in this world inhabits the main character, a young but brilliant college student simply named Light.
While in class one day, Light happens to look out of an adjacent window and notices that a little black notebook is falling out of the sky and onto the grass below. Come the end of lesson, Light goes outside to discover that what he's found and is now holding is a book titled "Death Note", a morbid notepad that will cause anyone who's name is written inside to suddenly die of a heart attack regardless of their health.

The book essentially makes the owner God. He alone chooses who lives and who dies but it does not come without rules, which are as follows:

1. Whoever's name is written in this book shall die.

2. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.

3. If the cause of death is specified within 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen.

4. If the cause of death is not specified within 40 seconds of writing the person's name, the person will simply die of a heart attack.

5. After writing, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

Of course, this new found power has all kinds of effects on Light, as he discovers throughout the episode. Just because he has this ability to kill whoever he doesn't like, does it mean he should? Towards the end of the episode, we see Light becoming obsessed with the Death Note, being drawn into its power much like Gollum from Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings, and using it to end the lives of those who would make the world a misery for others.
He first uses it on a man holding women and children hostage. Light then uses it on the ring leader of a biker gang who is about to rape a woman, and later countless names have been scribbled into the Death Note as Light becomes corrupted by this book, and so catches the attention of the Shinigami (God) of Death, Ryuk who just so happens to be the previous owner of the Death Note, and was the one who dropped it into the mortal realm.
Ryuk tracks down Light, and tells him that the Death Note is now his to keep, and that while there is no price to pay for using the Note as a shinigami, the ultimate price is the morality and guilt of your actions and your soul being damned to neither Heaven nor Hell, but rather a purgatory-like state which will last for eternity. Nice.

In case you hadn't already guessed, Death Note is NOT for kids. It's not the sort of cartoon you'd expect to see on a Saturday morning. It's very adult in both content and theme, which is the sort of thing I like. In case the previous reference to Batman didn't totally give it away, I am a huge fan of the character and the symbolism he represents, and Death Note is, again, similar in style.

So that was just episode 1 of this anime, I'm not entirely sure how long it goes on for having only been told that its a little bit shorter than Evangelion, but I thought this episode was a very, very good start to what's becoming an increasingly popular anime show. It certainly got me hooked, and I will be looking forward to watching the second episode!

So basically, I would completely recommend this show, just from episode 1. It had a great start and I am excited to see how things develop further along the line.