I don't even know where to begin with this masterpiece... I guess I'll start by proclaiming Death Note as my favorite story ever. Almost everything about Death Note is perfect. The plot is enjoyable, creative, and deep. The characters are well-developed, interesting, and symbolic. The art is fantastic, fitting, and realistic. My enjoyment and fascination aspect for this manga is beyond description. If you haven't read this manga, or watched the anime (which by the way is a great adaptation of the manga) then I suggest you drop whatever you're doing right now, and go read/watch Death Note as soon as possible. I can promise you that you will not regret. But remember, when you read or watch Death Note, turn your thinking caps on and pay attention to the details in art, you'll realize all the symbolism going on, references to the bible, and other religious aspects.

Now, in Death Note, there are lots of philosophical questions about our reality, that the readers must consider before reading, while reading, and after reading. (I'm going to write a whole load of questions, since I thought about so many things while reading Death Note.) Are all human lives equal? What truly is life? What are people's role in life? To what extent can people shape their own destiny, and how much is down to fate? What truly is death, and where do we go after death? Is the world we're living in pure, or rotten? What's making the world pure/rot? What's human nature, and how can people overcome the disgusting side/temptations inside of them? How can we tell apart "right" from "wrong", "good" from "evil"? Human beings created the ambiguous terms, "right, wrong, good, evil" and everyone interprets these terms according to their own philosophies, so there's no "correct" definition; then how can people truly consider themselves more "right" and "good" over others? What makes a crime, a crime? What is justice, and what is "fair" justice? Who should be able to decide the fate of criminals? Is the death penalty truly a humane, and fair punishment method? Is murder always wrong? Religion, which belief is truly correct in reality? Lots of philosophical questions right? That's just scratching the surface of all the psychological concepts the anime delves into.

Death Note is actually (sort of) told from the view point of a Shinigami (Death God), named Ryuk. Ryuk's world, the Shinigami realm is just a rotting world with the repetition of everyday life. Seeking an adventure, a way out of boredom, Ryuk purposely drops his Death Notebook into the human realm, Earth. What is the Death Note? The Death Note is the deadliest mass-murder weapon in human history; any person's name that's written in the notebook (writer has to have the face of the person he/she's writing down) shall die within 40 seconds of their name being written in the Death Note. Our main character, Light Yagami, a genius high school student happens to stumble upon the Death Note one day after school. At first, he didn't believe that the Death Note's power was real, but out of boredom, he tested it out by writing the name of a criminal who was being shown on TV in the Notebook. 40 seconds later, the criminal is announced to have died. Knowing of this ultimate power that he's obtained, Light Yagami vows to use the Notebook for justice. Light Yagami's dream is to kill all the criminals in the world, and create a utopia in which mankind will be able to live in peace and harmony, while Light himself rules as "God" of the new world. But the question of arises, "Is what Light Yagami doing, righteous, or evil?" Certainly Light believes that his dream is righteous, because he's ridding the world of "evil" and making the world a safer place for the "good". In public, people begin to take notice of all these mysterious criminal murders, and they give this unknown murderer the name, "Kira" (this would be Light) derived from the English world, Killer. But the world's greatest detective, L Lawliet doesn't seem to be very fond of Light Yagami's ideals. L Lawliet believes that murdering any other human being (even criminals are people) is an act of evil and that Kira is nothing more than a psychopathic murderer. And so, the entire premise of Death Note is a ingenious cat - and - mouse game between Light Yagami and L Lawliet, with Ryuk spectating our human world. Who will win, "Justice"? Or "Justice"?

Is the plot original? Yup. Is the plot enjoyable? Yup. Yup. Is the plot well-written with little to almost no plot-holes? Yup. Is the plot tragic? Yes. Is there a deeper meaning behind the story, with lots of symbolism? Yup. Is the story ambiguous in order to let the reader decide for themselves what they believe the answers to those philosophical questions are? Yup. Does the end of the manga end in a cliffhanger? Yes and No. Is it honestly all that great? Yup, Greatest manga ever. The plot-holes were kept to a minimum and they never affected the overall plot; I can't really think of any plot-holes actually, everything was important and well-developed/explained. The pacing of the manga was perfect, the attention-grasping beginning, to the subtle deeper theme/developing plot alongside great plot-twists, that eventually help create the ideal climax of the story, and then the very tragic downfall and ending that made me cry. What made the manga so enjoyable was not only the well-written, suspenseful, exciting criminal-detective chasing thriller aspect, but also the addition of lots of genius literature symbols and narrations to help solidify the deeper symbols/meanings of the entire plot.

The biggest question in the anime really is: "Is what Light doing good/righteous/moralistic?"

Often in great literature, the main character is some sort of ambiguous character (hero more often than not), that has an unachievable dream and gets lost along the way of achieving the dream due to multiple problems: harshness of reality, greed, temptation (usually a woman, but can be any thing else: serpent) and ends up becoming a tragic figure that's meant to send the readers a deep message. Such was the case of Death Note's main character, Light Yagami. Light Yagami was a teenage boy who had everything. His family was financially stable, he had a loving family, he had the good-looks, he had the popularity, he had the brains, and he had a bright future ahead of him (#1 student in all of Japan). But there was something missing to Light Yagami's life, and that was a sense of personal happiness and acceptance of reality. Light Yagami viewed our reality as repetitive, rotten, and repulsive. Everyday life of going to school, going home, hanging out with friends on permanent repeat, but not only that, on T.V, the same news on permanent repeat: War tensions between countries, crimes happening all over the place, disgusting people always joking about disgusting things. What does the justice system do? Nothing, there's no stop to these violent, inhumane acts. Light Yagami wanted to change our reality into a better place, and be "justice" itself. But obviously he didn't have the power to do achieve his dreams.. Until he found the Death Note. The Death Note is the forbidden apple, the temptation in Light's case. It's human nature to not be able to overcome temptation/desires, and so Light uses the Death Note to kill the "vermin" (people that he judges to be "evil") from the world. But what makes a person truly evil, isn't that different per everyone's belief? Light taking the bite out of the forbidden apple (use of Death Note) opened Light's eyes, deceiving him into thinking that he could become a God that could determine good apart from evil (Ryuk is the temptation serpent). And just as Ryuk warned, Light would not live a happy live for making that mistake (of giving into temptation), thus, the fall of man due to sin (Book of Genesis). Light's once pure dream of making the world a better place became corrupt along the way due to the overwhelming power of the Death Note, the magnitude of his dreams, and his greed for survival ---> becoming a God. Light Yagami is not merely an ambiguous figure, but he's a religious and even deeper character than most people realize. Light's name is "Light" for a reason. He is that one "light" that Ryuk is waiting for, to die out. Ryuk's body is that of a crow, with crow feathers flying all over the place; this symbolizes what crows to before eating their prey, they wait until the prey dies out. "Light" on Earth becoming corrupt and eventually dying out is one important theme to look out for. Light represents a Godlike-Angel, The Devil, and a mere human being. Light wanted to protect the innocent people, create a utopia and become a father figure for the world (Jesus), but unfortunately in his attempt to achieve his naive dream, he became the Devil (Masqueraded Angel of Light, Father of Lies) and killed innocents, contradicting his original pure goal. But Light in the end, is still a human. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." This was the very case for Light. It's in human nature to want to seek adventure, to survive, be tempted to try something, be greedy for more, and achieve your dreams no matter what it takes. That's all I'll say about Light. (SO MUCH MORE TO SAY!)
L Lawliet, the other main character has the word, "Law" in his name, because he believes that following the "law" that human beings created is the righteous way to approach criminal acts in the world. But is that truly effective? L and Light are the ultimate foils for each other; while Light had everything he could have wanted in life, L had absolutely nothing. L had no family (therefore obviously a financially unstable, and harsh childhood), L had no good-looks, L had no friends, and L had no trust/love from anyone. L wanted to protect the people of the world by following the laws set by the people, even the people that didn't trust/like L. He came, served, cared, protected and ______ (Jesus). The plot may have been focused upon the cat - mouse chase, but due to some astonishing plot-twists, L and Light end up teaming up together to catch Kira (^o^ confused?). Despite their complete opposite philosophies, and distrust for one another, there's always a sense of growing bondship/friendship/brotherhood between these 2, which really adds a lot to the overall plot.
Ryuk and Misa Amane, are two characters whose importance to the entire manga are often overlooked. Misa Amane in Death Note was quite the interesting character, because unlike almost all, if not all great literature, she (the female) was subject to temptation of love (of Light, the male). Misa Amane lost everything in her life, her happiness and in the end, ____ because of her unrequited love for Light Yagami, who really was also the serpent in a way. Ryuk giving Misa Amane a rotten apple telling Misa that it would grant her a wish (and she taking a bite out of it), was very symbolic. It symbolized the poisonous apple from Sleeping Beauty; the apple does not actually grant any happiness/wishes, it's in reality poison. Ryuk is the crow-like devil waiting for "light" to die out in the human world, and for corruption and darkness to take over.
Melo and Near, L's students receive a lot of hate from readers because of their inability to be as great as L, and because of what they do to Light Yagami. I will not get into detail about these 2, because of what they did to Light Yagami, my hero.

The art in Death Note was nothing short of amazing. The minor details that went into each scene mood-fitting wise, and symbolically were amazing. The portrayal of each character, Light = handsome, seems like a perfect boy, L = irregular, ostracized boy, Misa = Beautiful girl whose dumb enough to give into temptation of Light's Love, Ryuk = a crow-like devil, and Melo-Near = Each have a resemblance to L in both looks and behavior; they both take after their sensei. The hints of religious symbolism with the cross glowing behind him, the heavenly light shining upon him, and the stairs (that usually represent ascent and descent, often times from one to another) that symbolize descent from innocence romanticized dreams to knowing the horrors of reality/realistic dreams, when ____ dies was a marvelous artistic touch that added all sorts of deep concepts/hidden messages to the manga.

The ending of each chapter will definitely have you wanting to write your name in a Death Note for more. The conceptual questions I mentioned in the earlier part of this review are definitely some questions you have to keep in mind and watch for what the writer/creator, Tsugumi Ohba has to say about each. This may be a bit far-fetched, but do you think that Shinigami and Shinigami world really existed? I felt like the Shinigami's boredom, thirst for adventure and change was a reflection of Light Yagami's thoughts (no one that doesn't know Light's thoughts sees Ryuk), and the Shinigami realm was a reflection of the human world; repetition of everyday and slowly rotting away. Ultimately, the nativity of Light's romanticized dreams are not possible in reality, and while showing the concept of romanticized Vs Realistic, the anime delves into Life/Justice/Evil/Right/Wrong/Death/Religious concepts; truly a genius piece of writing that EVERYONE should read. A perfect 10/10, and still this rating doesn't do this manga justice. I also recommend watching the anime adaptation of Death Note, very well-done.