Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Death Note Vol. 1 Review

Release Date: October 10, 2005
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Age Group: 16+
Pages: 200 (Paperback)

Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects - and bored out of his mind! But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, and notebook dropped by a rogue shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal... or his life?

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This book was...intriguing. It wasn't what I expected, really.

The plot immediately jumped out at me and said "READ ME OR DIE." Unfortunately I don't think I would've died without reading it. There wasn't anything wrong with the plot- like I said, it was intriguing, it just didn't hold my attention for as long as I would've liked it to. It a seemed to drag a little for me, but the ending was pretty cool.

Light was annoying. It wasn't necessarily the killing people with the Death Note thing, he just seemed very arrogant and obnoxious. Ryub was...OK, I guess. He never really showed any personality, and barely even talked until the end. He definitely was a needed character, but not a very active character.

The animation was good. No complaints there. And the storyline was pretty good. The dialogue...eh. It was OK, nothing great. Maybe I had problems with it because usually it was Light talking....

Overall, an interesting premise with a good plot and a bad main character. I'm on the fence about reading the rest of the series, but I may read at least the next one or two because I've heard nothing but praise about the series and am curious to see where it will go. I would recommend the first volume of Death Note to any manga fans looking for a new, edgy take on death.

9 comments:

  1. Jessica, that is like the coolest cover ever! I love anime art but it's not always the best writing, of couse. Some are great. Not all. Manga, I mean.

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  2. It is a really cool cover! Yeah, manga writing definitely lacks....This one was OK. Not on my favorite manga list (which is topped by Megatokyo, which is actually a graphic novel I think).

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  3. I wanna to know how had design this cover. He/she had done a very good job. I wanna to say thanks to designer for this and to you for sharing it.

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  4. I agree about Death Note. It dragged. So many people rave about it and I found it pretentious. Have you read Bleach? Now that is an awesome manga with a great plot and writing.

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  5. I haven't read the book but we did love the movie. Check it out if you haven't seen it. It even did a one-tour in theaters - we have it on DVD. I'd be interested to see if you like the movie since the book dragged for you.

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  6. Dani: I read the first 2 Bleach's, I think and also saw the first few episodes of the anime. Both were pretty good. I think I liked it better than this one.

    Gregory: I wanna watch it too! My friends have a giant collection of anime so maybe I can borrow it....If I do I'll review it.

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  7. Cool cover! Too bad the story drags. I hope your next read is going a little better.

    Oh, and maybe I'll try the movie, too. :)

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  8. Everyone's have own opinion.
    I didn't read Death Note Manga, but I saw anime and first movie.
    It didn't very interesting at all(

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