Death Note ★★★

L, Light, and Ryuk

Ryuk eating an apple

Death Note starts off with Yagami Light, a genius leading a relatively boring life, until he finds a Death Note dropped by a rogue shinigami (death god) by the name of Ryuk. Any name entered in the Death Note dies within 40 seconds of a heart attack unless specified by the writer. 

Light takes up the name Kira (meaning Killer) and decides to become the new God of the world. As Kira kills criminals he gathers a following who support his work because he has delivered justice, or so they believe. 

L eating cake

The government gets involved and hires a detective going by the name L. L is quiet and a genius with a major sweet tooth (seriously, he's always eating cake or some sort of sugary treat).  

From the beginning L has his suspicions about Light but has to prove that he is Kira. Light's father is part of the investigation team and thus Light is able to track L's moves and plans.

N playing with dominoes

The entire anime is about L trying to prove that Light is Kira and Light trying to become the world's new God. However about halfway through the anime, L is killed off. L is replaced by N who looks and acts like a young child and is addicted to toys (everyone's addicted to something in this anime).

Misa

Light enlists the help of several people, such as Misa, who is rather annoying and clings to Light as if he is a God. Misa is famous singer, model, and actress who also happens to have a Death Note as well as the Shinigami eyes which allow her to see everyone's name floating above the person. Since it cuts your life span in half however, Light decides not to get them and uses Misa as his eyes instead.

Mello eating chocolate

There are some other characters that don't play as big as a role but are still important to the story such as Mello (addicted to chocolate), Ryuk (addicted to apples), and Matt (addicted to video games).

The anime started off well but after L got killed off it went downhill. N is a sad replacement for L, and the plot has too many twists and turns that gets confusing very quickly.

The ending was also a bit of a disappointment. Light goes through all this trouble to keep himself from being exposed and when he finally is, he just seems to go insane and one of the investigators shoots him to death.

The idea was intriguing and I mostly wanted to see how it played out. The different traps made by L and N and plans to elude the traps made my Light were definitely elaborate and interesting. There were some redeeming qualities and it was a pretty good anime, but I'm not a huge fan of it and I also probably wouldn't watch it again.